Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Episode 1: A Small Detour

-Screech.

“Caught again.”

Not once had I ever gotten a green light right away at this intersection that I passed through every morning and evening on my commute.

It was an intersection on a quiet country road on the outskirts of Namyangju, where there was no real need for the signal to be this long.

And so I would end up spending time here, half against my will.

Fate, Murphy’s law, or perhaps some peculiar traffic-light system I knew nothing about.

Even so, it was only about two minutes a day. And there was a sight I always encountered during those moments.

【Dangsan-ri Coffeehouse】

That was what was written on the old two-story brick building. No, perhaps “what seemed to have been written” would be more accurate.

The letters on the sign, which had stood there for so many years that I could not even guess how long, had already completely worn away.

It was merely a name I had guessed from the faint stains that showed in the morning sunlight on my way to work.

A coffeehouse, in this day and age?

On top of that, this road had narrowly escaped new-city development, and saw more tractors and cultivators than cars. Presumably, its only customers were local old-timers who happened to drop by now and then.

And yet this old coffeehouse, whose sign had long since lost all its lettering, was still always open for business with its doors thrown wide.

Earlier even than me, standing at the traffic light at the crack of dawn to avoid rush hour.

During those brief moments while waiting for the signal, I quite liked looking at this coffeehouse.

Because when the morning sun burned away the hazy fog and illuminated the old coffeehouse, it made me feel as though I were looking at a photograph from some wistful memory. Even though I had never once been inside a coffeehouse.

But today, something distinctly different about that familiar scenery caught my eye.

『For Sale or Lease Inquiries』

Huh? Did they finally put it on the market?

That was definitely what it said.

A phrase that looked as though it had been written by hand in practiced Gungseo script on a sheet of A4 paper.

Perhaps the nosy concern I had felt every morning as I passed this place had not been unfounded after all.

Right, there was no way business could have been good.

Even in a MeTube video I had seen once, cafés were said to be the kind of business where you barely covered labor costs even if customers lined up to buy.

Then how much worse would a coffeehouse in a backwater like this be?

Wait, if that was the case, today might be the last day...

I did not deliberate for long. I quickly opened my phone and pressed the call button.

“Good morning, Department Head. This is Assistant Manager Kim Jinseong.”

(Oh, Assistant Manager Kim. What is it this early in the morning?)

“Would it be all right if I took the morning off today? There’s a café I’ve been wanting to visit, and it looks like today might be its last day in business.”

(You really are strange. You could just say you got a flat tire or something, but you always have to confess everything honestly.)

“It’s better than getting awkwardly caught later.”

(Right, that’s what I like about you, Assistant Manager Kim. You’re always straightforward. Go ahead. The project wrapped up the other day too, didn’t it? You’ve been working late pretty hard these past few days, so you should rest when you can! Have lunch and come in leisurely around one or two. I’m hanging up.)

“Yes, take care.”

Just as the call ended, the traffic light conveniently turned green as well.

Now that slacking off had officially been approved, there was no reason to hesitate any longer.

I cranked the steering wheel, left my usual route, and parked in the empty lot behind the coffeehouse.

Then, worried that it might not actually be open, I offered a slightly awkward greeting from the entrance.

“Hello? Anyone here?”

“Huh? What brings you here?”

It was an atmosphere in which it was strangely difficult to say the perfectly obvious thing that I had come to a coffeehouse to drink coffee.

That was because I could not think of any particular explanation to give the middle-aged man who was looking at me in confusion and instead asking why I had come.

After we stood there silently staring at each other for a while,

-Snap.

The man snapped his fingers as though he had finally understood.

“You came to see the property! Wow, young people these days really are quick to hear the news. How did you come all the way here to look at a listing I haven’t even put on the app yet? Come in!”

As the man gestured for me to come inside, the thick gold bracelet on his wrist flashed brightly enough to make me frown.

The little detour for which I had been prepared to take half a day off had, in the end, come to nothing.

It seemed I had been one step too late.

I had assumed that, as was often the case with country shops like this, they would continue doing business until the property actually sold even after putting up a for-sale-or-lease notice.

“Ah, are you going to get a proper look standing over there? I said come inside.”

“Then, excuse me.”

It certainly was not for the reason that real estate agent was imagining, but I felt I might never get another chance to go inside, so I quickly stepped into the coffeehouse.

“Take your time looking around. I’ve got a call for a moment. Hello? Ah, President Baek. Why is it so hard to get ahold of you? Don’t you know that in this business, missing one phone call can ruin an entire day’s work? Huh? No, no. You know that factory site in Hopyeong-dong from last time? Well, about that place...”

But the real estate agent, apparently glad to receive a call he had been waiting for, answered the phone and went back outside.

If anything, that was better.

If he had stuck to me like a tout and started explaining this and that, my guilt over having no intention of buying the place would only have grown.

And so I was able to leisurely wander alone through the ownerless coffeehouse.

An old fabric sofa with excessively flashy wave patterns, glossy antique tables polished to a shine, mysterious ornaments that seemed mandatory in a place like this, and even a yellowed framed portrait of Bodhidharma.

It was a space that had preserved intact a distant history that might have been older than I was.

Among them, I found the most secluded seat by the window and sat down.

“I’m finally sitting here.”

In fact, sitting in this spot had been one of the little things on my bucket list.

Sitting leisurely at this sunlit window seat, visible whenever I stopped my car at the intersection, and simply killing time.

The wish to sit here, order a couple cups of coffee, and spend the whole day leisurely reading web novels or webtoons would, cruelly enough, always hit me hardest while I was stuck at the traffic light on my way to work.

Of course, I could have simply made time to come on a weekend, but it was not a wish desperate enough to go that far for, so I had only now finally gotten around to fulfilling it. Though the coffeehouse coffee loaded with creamer was missing.

Unfortunately, however, the leisure I could enjoy in this unfamiliar seat was as brief as those moments spent waiting for the traffic light.

“Oh, I’m sorry. It was an urgent call. So, did you get a chance to look around? This place is a little remote, sure, but you won’t find many places better for living. The second floor is the owner’s residence, and on the first floor, if you just put up a wall outside this window here, it becomes an ordinary living room and kitchen. Since it’s an old house, changing the designated use is easy too.”

The excessive amount of gold he wore spoke for how seasoned a real estate agent he was, so I did not pay much attention to the pitch that flowed effortlessly from his mouth.

More than anything else, there was something else I wanted to know.

“Where did the owner go? It seemed like the place was still open for business until yesterday, but suddenly they’re nowhere to be seen.”

“Huh? Ah, the old lady’s back has gotten bad, so she went to her daughter’s house last night. This building should’ve been put on the market ages ago, but she said it’d sell right away and told me to put up the flyer today. Honestly, that stubborn old lady.”

Fortunately, it was not the kind of accident I had been worried about.

Then again, there could hardly be a colder, more heartless listing than a house put up for sale the day after its owner died.

“Oh, right, did you look around the second floor? The second floor here has been completely renovated, and it’s incredible. There’s a terrace, so it doesn’t have as much floor space as the first floor, but it still comes out to over seventeen pyeong. You hardly see layouts like this in old houses these days. Young people like doing things up on rooftops, don’t they? That staring-at-the-fire thing? You can do all that stuff too.”

The seasoned real estate agent gave me no chance to answer that I had seen enough and was fine now.

Talking without pause, the man strode toward the stairs behind the counter and once again waved vigorously for me to come up.

“They moved everything out of the second floor ages ago, and I don’t know why they remodeled it on top of that. Here, here, look. The air conditioner and boiler were installed about two weeks ago, and the plastic wrap hasn’t even been taken off yet. To put it bluntly, this is a house you can just move your body into and live in. Huh? Am I wrong?”

It seemed he had a habit of slipping halfway into informal speech whenever he got excited.

Of course, this was a house worth getting excited about while explaining it.

Even I, who had bounced from one rental room to another through years of living alone, had rarely seen a property this good unless it was in a newly constructed building.

If the first floor had preserved the traces of passing years intact, then it would not have been an exaggeration to call the residential space on the second floor a neat, fully furnished two-bedroom apartment.

“How much did you say it was?”

“Oh dear, look at me. I forgot to mention the most important thing, the price. Sale price: one hundred forty million won! No bargaining! That’s the exact asking price.”

One hundred forty million won.

I had only asked because I did not want to look too much like some random passerby, but an unexpectedly low figure came back.

The remodeling alone looked like it must have cost over thirty million won, yet the whole place was only one hundred forty million?

There was even a spacious vegetable garden in the area where I had parked.

“What do you think? You seem like a sharp fellow, so I’ll tell you this. The property is so good that I was planning to hold onto it and raise the price to three hundred fifty million won, haha. But right now all my money is tied up in that redevelopment land over there, so I’m selling this with tears in my eyes.”

Everything after that was supplementary explanation not worth listening to.

There were few words emptier than a merchant’s fuss about selling at a loss.

Of course, putting that fuss aside, it was undeniably an appealing house.

Even to me, someone practically ignorant about real estate, it seemed excessively cheap.

But that was the problem.

There was no way a capable real estate agent, successful enough to drape himself in that much gold, would show such a good property under such favorable terms to a complete stranger like me for no reason.

I did not particularly have any hobbies that cost money, so if I made up my mind, I could transfer the money right away, but it was not an amount I could spend on the attitude of having nothing to lose.

“I’ll think about it a little and come back.”

“Huh? You’re just leaving? No, young man! Sir! Just in case, at least give me your business card! I’ll let you know if the terms change again.”

_____________

After Jinseong left, the real estate agent waited only until he confirmed that Jinseong’s car had disappeared into the distance before quickly calling someone.

“Ma’am, it’s me.”

Answering the phone with the utmost politeness, the man scratched his cheek with a troubled expression and continued.

“Well, the young man did come by, but I don’t know whether he’s going to buy it or not.”

($^@^^%%@#)

“Ah, come on.”

A loud voice suddenly erupted from the other end of the phone, causing the man to quickly pull it away from his ear and urgently wave his hand at the unseen person.

“No, no. He didn’t just leave. He said he was going to think about it, but usually when people say that, they don’t come back. Ah, I did my best! I made up every story I could think of and showed him around! That’s why I said I’d just buy it myself. What? Lower it to one hundred million won? What do you mean... Hello? Hello?”

Staring blankly at the phone, which had long since disconnected and was now showing the home screen, the man finally muttered the true feelings he had been unable to say aloud.

“Good grief. In all my years, this is the first time I’ve seen a seller pick the buyer herself and knock forty million off the price. If you’re going to practically give it away for one hundred million, you should just sell it to me. Tsk.”

-Tap. Tap. Tap.

With fingers as thick as pot lids, the man clumsily typed out a text message, then stared endlessly down the road Jinseong had taken, waiting for a reply that might never come.

And how much time had passed?

-Ding.

『I’ll buy it.』

“Got him! No, wait. Am I supposed to be happy about this? If it doesn’t sell, it becomes mine. Damn it!”