Chapter 9
“Hello.”
I opened the tightly closed door with a bright smile.
A woman immediately stood from her seat and approached me.
“Yes, hello.”
She looked like the owner of this place.
She blinked and asked.
“Are you here to look at a property?”
“No. I actually came to ask you something...”
Before I could finish...
She tried to hide her obvious disappointment behind a smile.
Donggil-ro 100.
The address where I suspected the new food-supply mart would be built.
I had looked around the area, but there was almost nothing nearby.
The only busy location was the construction site at Donggil-ro 100.
There was only one thing I could do next.
Visit this place.
[Donggil Realty]
If the largest food-supply mart in Honam really was going to open there, just as the future message had shown me...
And if I was the first person to discover it...
Then as a food-company salesperson, this was an enormous opportunity.
A once-in-a-lifetime chance.
I could approach the largest food-supply mart in Gwangju and the entire Honam region before anyone else.
But first, I needed to confirm whether a food-supply mart was actually going to open there.
The woman running the real-estate office had clearly been disappointed when I told her I was not there to look at property.
I handed her the box of vitamin drinks I had brought.
“I wanted to ask something about a nearby building. This isn’t much, but I brought it for you.”
“Oh my. You didn’t need to bring something like this.”
Her expression softened slightly.
Still, she continued watching me cautiously.
“So what did you want to ask?”
“The place under construction out front.”
“Ah... the place across the road?”
She placed the box of drinks on the floor and looked through the window.
“Yes. I was wondering what’s being built there.”
“...”
She immediately became cautious again.
She probably found it strange that I had come all this way just to ask about the purpose of that building.
And I had even brought drinks.
Of course I looked suspicious.
I quickly smiled again.
“I should have introduced myself first. I’m Assistant Manager Choi Inwoo from WG Food in Gwangju.”
She quickly looked me up and down before accepting my business card.
“So that’s why you’re dressed in a suit?”
“Yes. I work in sales.”
When I answered with a smile, her own expression softened.
“You look about the same age as my nephew. Late twenties?”
“Haha. That’s right. I’m twenty-nine.”
“Oh my. You’re still at a great age.”
The cold look she had initially given a stranger disappeared.
She pointed toward the sofa in the office.
“You came all this way because you wanted to ask something. Sit down first.”
“Thank you.”
Then she looked at me.
“What did a food company hear that brought you here?”
That short question told me something immediately.
Whatever was being built across the road...
It was related to food.
“The place at Donggil-ro 100. A food-supply mart is opening there, right? That’s why I came.”
In truth, I had entered the real-estate office because I wanted to ask whether a food-supply mart was being built there.
And if it was, I wanted to know when it would open.
But the moment I saw how cautiously she was behaving, I changed my approach.
There was a huge difference between asking...
[What kind of building is going there?]
And saying...
[I wanted to ask about the food-supply mart that’s going there.]
Even if the meaning was similar, the second question made the listener feel that I already knew the basic facts.
That would make it easier to receive a deeper answer.
“Oh my. How did you know about that?”
Just as I expected.
“Ah, I work in this industry, so I hear information from different places.”
She tilted her head.
But then she nodded.
“So why did you come?”
“I’d like to contact the owner of the food-supply mart, but I don’t know how to reach them.”
“Ah...”
She hesitated.
“I work for a food company, so there’s something I’d like to discuss with the owner.”
“Hmm... I understand what you mean, but their phone number is personal information. I don’t think I can give it to you.”
“Then could you please give the owner the number on my business card?”
“Yes, I can do that.”
Her answer sounded uninterested.
She might pass along the card.
But if I left things like this, the chances of the food-supply mart owner actually calling me were extremely low.
I needed something more.
“I came because I’d really like to make them a good proposal. I’d appreciate it if you could please let them know.”
“A good proposal... Is that what I should tell them?”
Just adding those few words changed her response.
She nodded.
“Yes. Also, does the owner of the food-supply mart visit the construction site often?”
I needed a backup plan in case no call came.
“Hmm... not often. But they do stop by from time to time to check progress.”
“I see. Thank you. Please make sure to tell them.”
“All right. I’ll mention it.”
I stood and bowed deeply.
“Yes. Thank you very much!”
A food-supply mart really was being built at Donggil-ro 100.
That fact alone was enough to send chills through me.
I still had no way of proving that it would become the largest food-supply mart in Honam.
But I felt certain.
The size of the construction site.
And more importantly...
That single message I had received.
Those were enough for me to believe it would become the largest food-supply mart in Honam.
“Then it really is certain that messages from the future are coming to me.”
I stared at my phone even though nothing unusual was displayed.
“It really... wasn’t a mirage.”
Now I could finally believe in the existence of these future messages.
But I still did not know why they were coming.
When I first saw the article about the fire at Shinwoo Department Store...
I thought something supernatural had happened only because Grandma loved me so much.
As though she wanted to delay my death just a little longer.
As though she wanted to save me.
But then I received an advertisement for a food-supply mart.
That made me reconsider everything.
Maybe Grandma had not merely extended my life.
Maybe she had given me a special ability.
I looked away from my phone and up at the star-filled sky.
“Grandma... this is a gift so your grandson can succeed, right?”
A gift she had given me.
“Yeah. Ever since I was little, you always wanted to give me everything. Even now, your grandson keeps receiving things from you...”
My chest grew heavy.
But soon, I smiled brightly.
“For you, Grandma, who’s watching me... I’ll work twice as hard. No, many times harder.”
I tilted my head all the way back and stared at the sky.
Somewhere up there, I felt as though Grandma was watching me with a proud smile.
Something hot stirred deep inside my chest.
“I’ll succeed so clearly that no one can deny it. And someday, when I meet you again... I’ll come to you as an even more successful grandson you can be proud of.”
I tightly gripped the phone in my hand.
The same kind of phone Grandma had handed me in my dream.
“Watch me, Grandma...”
Several days passed after I gave my business card to the real-estate agent.
But no one contacted me.
Not the owner of the food-supply mart.
Not even the real-estate office.
“She did pass along my card, right?”
Since I had no way of finding the owner’s phone number, my only option had been the real-estate office.
But I could not keep calling and pressuring them.
Even a good story became annoying if you heard it over and over again.
And if I repeatedly asked them for a favor that had nothing to do with their own business...
They would be even less willing to help.
“Whew... Should I wait a few more days?”
I stared at my silent phone.
Then I shook my head.
“No. I can’t just sit around waiting. I should go to the construction site.”
I checked the time.
Then...
“Assistant Manager Choi.”
Someone called me.
I immediately shot to my feet.
“Yes?”
I had assumed it would be one of my senior employees.
Instead, Im Sanghyeon was standing there laughing at my reaction.
“What are you thinking about so seriously that you get that startled just because I called you? Haha.”
I shook my head at his playful expression.
“You bastard... What do you want?”
“I came back a little while ago and saw you sitting there looking like you had something serious on your mind.”
“So you called me just because of that?”
“No. I wanted to ask if you wanted coffee.”
He lifted his chin toward the break room.
Im Sanghyeon was my closest friend at the company.
When he invited me to get coffee like this...
It usually did not mean he simply wanted coffee.
He had something he wanted to discuss privately.
I raised my eyebrows and followed him toward the break room.
Once we entered, he looked around and firmly closed the door.
“Hey, Inwoo.”
After checking that no one else was inside, Im Sanghyeon addressed me casually.
“What now?”
He glanced through the small window in the break-room door.
“Lee Sejun.”
“What about Assistant Manager Lee Sejun?”
“You know how he normally only starts working near the end of a quarter, right?”
I nodded as though that were obvious.
Lee Sejun’s sales pattern was always the same.
Actually, it was not really a sales method.
It was simply how he built revenue numbers.
I would spend the entire quarter working hard.
Then he would check my final sales figures near the end.
Afterward, he would raise his own numbers just enough to pass mine.
That was why Lee Sejun was usually sitting in the office wasting time.
Or he left the office claiming he was doing sales and spent time somewhere else.
How did we know he was not actually visiting clients?
Because many employees, not just me, had seen him sitting in cafes talking with friends or spending time in places completely unrelated to sales.
So when Im Sanghyeon brought up Lee Sejun’s work habits, I responded casually.
“That’s obvious.”
But Im Sanghyeon suddenly looked very serious.
“But lately, I think he’s actually going around doing sales.”
“Assistant Manager Lee Sejun?”
Im Sanghyeon nodded aggressively.
“Yeah. I’m sure. Yesterday, he even took a huge pile of catalogs with him when he left.”
“He suddenly started working seriously?”
“Yeah. At first I thought maybe he was only taking them out to make it look like he was working.”
Im Sanghyeon lowered his voice.
“But I think he actually landed a contract.”
“...No way.”
“I’m serious. I overheard him talking with Manager Jang Woojin.”
“Well, technically, that’s what he’s supposed to be doing. He just usually never works and still gets results, so seeing him actually do his job feels strange.”
Im Sanghyeon laughed quietly.
“He must be bothered and nervous because you landed Shinwoo Department Store.”
“That could be it. Shinwoo Department Store is a major account, so the sales there should become pretty large.”
Hearing that Lee Sejun had actually started moving because he was wary of me made the corner of my mouth rise.
Lee Sejun...
I’ll raise my results so high that even if you start moving now, you won’t be able to do anything about it.
Just then, Lee Sejun returned to the office.
The moment he entered, he seemed to start searching for me.
Then he approached the area around my desk.
