I Quit My Job and Run a Café - Chapter 228



Only Krnovel

Episode 228

Why is Sia suddenly giving me a gift?

“It’s a holiday gift.”

“Ah. But why?”

“Why? I’m saying thank you for eating the food you made. Don’t you know that?”

“… … If that’s the case, I should give you a gift too?”

“Hehehe… … I don’t have money.”

This guy, he got away like this.

Since Soo-ah lived with Soo-ho, she had no intention of receiving a gift anyway, but she felt bad for making a little kid worry about it for no reason.

“Then just get good grades. Right after the midterms, right?”

“oh!”

So I joked around and changed the subject.

Su-ah seemed taken aback for a moment, but soon fought back.

“The nagging came with an allowance. Since I nagged at my grades, you’re giving me some Chuseok money too, right?”

“Where is such a law?”

“These days, we have everything. Look at this.”

“… … You made it with great care.”

No, actually, someone even created a table and posted it.

Among the items, one of the most expensive per unit price was nagging about love and marriage, and nagging about when to have children was at the top.

The nagging about grades was upper-middle class… … .

“It’s in the middle, so why is the unit price like this? And per 10 minutes?”

“Yes. It’s the unit price per 10 minutes of nagging. Since you just accumulated 10 minutes, the minimum amount is this much.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at Su-ah’s words.

Who knew this kid was so smart.

Should I say it’s fortunate that they’re doing this so well?

“Then I’ll just give you this much and keep nagging you.”

“oh!?”

But you didn’t know this?

I’ll show you what adults like to do with money.

At the taste of spicy capitalism… … Su-ah smiled brightly.

“yes!”

“I don’t want to do it anymore.”

“why!?”

“And it’s not even Chuseok yet.”

“Oh, really?”

Now that school has started, there is still time until midterms and Chuseok.

It was a grace period until then.

“Hehehe! But what is that?”

“This? A Chuseok gift. Want to try it?”

“yes!”

I gave a sweet apple pie to the curious Suah.

And naturally, I made a mint chocolate drink.

Then, Su-ah sat down and started talking passionately again.

“You know that hardware store guy who grabbed the criminal who was trying to run away?”

“Really? Where did you hear that?”

“Of course I asked the police officer.”

“Tell me that?”

“I ask questions while taking in the atmosphere. And if I ask like this, you will tell me if possible.”

I shook my head at the sight of Suah looking up with the expression of a cat in boots.

If I had seen that look for the first time, I would have definitely fallen for it. It was a genuine expression of curiosity.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that Su-ah’s feelings were not pure.

I’m not saying I’m going to do anything with that information, I’m just genuinely curious.

Oh, so if you leave out the facial expressions, it’s okay to just ask really honestly?

Anyway, I thought I’d let you know too, if it didn’t bother me while I was working.

“Did you hear why the arson was committed?”

“They say he did it because he was jealous of the village chief’s field. He’s from a neighboring village, and he said the crop there failed this year.”

“Huh? Are you jealous? But what does the village chief have to do with the fact that your farm was ruined?”

“That’s what I’m saying! What’s even more ridiculous is that you set fire to the mountain behind the village so that you wouldn’t get caught by the village chief, right?”

It was really bad.

Unlike his own failure in farming, the village chief’s field was doing well, so he set it on fire… … In fact, it was not even worth getting more angry that he set the fire to avoid the village chief.

He must have done that because he’s that kind of person.

‘Somehow the aura was dark.’

Now it seemed that the dull aura of a person in a bad mood and the dark aura of a person with a bad mind were distinct.

First of all, the feeling it gave off was different.

The former made me feel sad at first, while the latter made me frown as soon as I saw it.

“Ugh! That kind of person doesn’t even deserve rice and beans. You should only feed them beans. Only beans.”

“Not just rice?”

“The food is delicious.”

I tried to convince Su-ah.

Because delicious food makes me feel good.

It seemed like he meant no.

The look on Sua’s face as she ate the apple pie made me understand.

Because I don’t want to see a bad person eating something delicious and looking so happy.

Anyway, whatever it was, I’m glad the culprit was caught.

I felt relieved because there was no need to be anxious.

And naturally, I started to focus on the present.

“Is that tasty?”

“Yes! Absolutely! I gave some of the stuff you made to my friends and they loved it. This is really delicious!”

“Abu. Can I have some?”

“Hehehe! I’ll only give this to Sia.”

Perhaps because he thought it would be burdensome to share the night rice cakes or night manju with many friends, he only gave the pie to Sia.

Actually, I wanted to tell him that it was okay, but I couldn’t keep giving it away for free for no reason, so I told him to do the same.

I wouldn’t mind if Sia had a relationship with me and wanted to give me a Chuseok gift, but I couldn’t take care of all the children I didn’t know.

“You eat a lot too. This is an apple and this is a persimmon.”

“A persimmon? Can a persimmon be made into a pie?”

“Try it.”

“yes!”

Suah ate persimmon pie.

And of course, he nodded and gave a thumbs up!

“it is delicious!”

“It’ll go into the gift set. Is that okay?”

“Huh? Really? I think it’ll be great!”

“Do you have a place to give a gift? If so, I can make it for you.”

“ah.”

Su-ah’s face, which had been bright just a moment ago, darkened for a moment. But it quickly returned to its original appearance.

“Hehe. I don’t think there are any… … Ah! I do want to give some to Sia!”

“Is that okay?”

“yes!”

“Then, can you ask Suho later? He said he can make a few, even if it’s not a lot.”

I looked at Sua’s nodding head and sneakily brought her another pie.

It was nice to look at since I ate well.

“How is it going to school after a long time?”

“It’s totally fun.”

“Is it fun? You said you didn’t want to go.”

“It’s actually fun once you get there. Hehe!”

No matter where you go, you won’t need to adapt.

Suah told me about what happened at school.

Well, nothing much.

Where did someone go to play during summer vacation, and what did someone do?

They said that since it was the first day of school, everyone had a lot to say.

Of course, I couldn’t leave out Su-ah among them.

“Only Sia and I had the experience of being idol trainees. So the kids were really jealous!”

“Are you even showing off your autograph?”

“No.”

Su-ah waves her finger with an arrogant expression as if to say that it’s not true.

If that’s the guy’s personality, he’d be more than happy to brag about it, so why?

“I certified it with a stargram. The autograph is just for my collection.”

“… … Is there a difference?”

“sure!”

I don’t know.

If that makes a difference, then so be it, and if it doesn’t, then so be it, but why is Su-ah making such an arrogant expression?

If I do that, will I be in personal contact with Go Na-eun?

I tried to hold back because saying things like that would make me childishly on the same level as Su-ah.

Anyway, I finished today’s business while chatting with Su-ah.

After that, no more customers came. After Su-ah left, I cleaned up the cafe and returned home.

“The fire is out, but the smell of smoke still lingers.”

Perhaps because the mountain was right nearby, traces of the fire that had swept through remained, even though the fire had been put out.

Maybe that’s where the smell came from.

‘Once it passes, there’s no turning back.’

It was the same with fire and time.

This was a thought that suddenly occurred to me today while I was thinking about my grandfather.

I should have done better when I had the chance.

Of course, even if I went back to that time, I would probably only think about doing a good job, but there was a high chance that I wouldn’t be able to do it.

I think like this because the environment for that is now.

So… … I decided not to regret it. My grandfather wouldn’t have wanted that either.

“Wait a minute, I’ll bring you a pie my grandson made. It’ll be more delicious than your grandfather’s.”

I sat in the living room, blankly staring at the sky and muttering.

But am I also riding the fall? I rode the mountain, but I don’t know why I feel this way.

I didn’t notice it when I was with Su-ah, but I always felt a little gloomy.

Pat pat!

─It’s okay! The land will come back to life!

“Huh? What?”

─Turju! Weren’t you worried about the land?

“Uh… … Did I do that?”

At that moment, Soo-Jung flew in and patted my shoulder to comfort me.

I didn’t really think about it that way… … but after hearing Soo-jung’s words, I really thought that was why.

I turned off the lights, looked for the culprit again, and was so busy wrapping seeds and gifts in the cafe that I didn’t notice.

Maybe I was secretly worried all along.

The fire has gone out, the burned-out land is forgotten.

‘I should go there sometime tomorrow.’

I tried to check again later when I went to pick up the night, but it didn’t work.

Now that I think about it, I think I should go there sometime.

It wasn’t a difficult task, so I just took a look while taking a morning walk.

“I feel a little more at ease now.”

I contacted the village chief right away.

I also asked about rags for packing, just in case.

─If it’s a rag, there’s a field where you did that before, right? There’ll be a lot of them there.

“Ah, I see. The rice has all been harvested?”

─No. I stopped. The old man was having a hard time so he couldn’t finish it all, so the children came and did it. They should know how to do it. When I went there today, he was cutting with a sickle, I don’t know where he got it.

“… … That wide space?”

─That’s right. Hehe! Well, the old man told me to let the child do whatever he wanted, so I just left him alone.

“It seems like the old man is trying to make his children suffer.”

─That’s right. Where do you say things like, “Sell the rice field, don’t work, do it?” The old man is still here, obviously. Tsk! Anyway, don’t go to the rice field. Go to the old man’s house and talk to him, and he’ll give it to you.

“Yes, thank you.”

─What about gratitude? Thanks to you, we were able to avoid a big problem.

“yes?”

─I mean, that montage. If it weren’t for that, I would’ve missed the culprit!

Oh, that’s your story. The village chief knows about it too.

Well, you might know since you are the actual victim.

“That’s right. But that’s fortunate. I heard the oak tree wasn’t hurt?”

─That’s true. Instead, the tea tree is all burnt. I paid a lot of money for it, but it was left to sit around anyway.

“… … A tea tree? That’s where the tea tree used to be?”

─Yeah. Didn’t I tell you before? I was going to try tea too.

I think I’ve heard it.

Well, if that’s where the tea tree used to be… … are the seeds also from the tea tree?

I had a feeling that might be the case.

After asking the village chief for permission to go quickly, I hung up the phone.

“Tea tree… … .”

If that were true, tea trees would grow in the garden too… … That would be really nice.

These days, the weather is getting colder and colder, so more and more people are looking for warm drinks.

So I ended the day with a new fact.

* * *

The next day, I woke up early and climbed the mountain behind the village chief’s house.

The smell of carbonation had subsided somewhat, but it still remained.

‘Fire is indeed scary.’

I left in a hurry so I didn’t see the back of it, but it was really all burned up.

It was truly amazing to be confronted with the power of nature.

It would be nice if only good things could happen to humans.

Of course, before that, people must love nature first.

“I can’t tell if it’s a tea tree or what.”

Everything burned down, leaving only ashes.

But they said that Soo-Jung didn’t die in this place.

Will it sprout? I don’t think it will for a while.

“huh?”

At that moment, I felt something strange from somewhere.

I followed that feeling… … .

[Essence of Greed]

The essence of the aura was visible, rising above the ground.

The culprit was caught yesterday, but I was wondering why there was no other reward, and it seems he was here.

But I feel a bit awkward writing about the essence of greed… … .

‘Huh? Then maybe?’

Just don’t use it on me.