Chapter 90.1

"Let me introduce you. This is Kang So-ra, the owner of a shopping mall. And this is Kim Bit-na, a model and friend that works with her. This person here is younger than me, but Lee Hyun-woo is someone who I treat as my older brother (hyung)."

"Hello."

Following the introduction of streamer Jihyeok, he made eye contact with the girls and greeted them.

He thought they were pretty even when he had seen them from afar, but they were even prettier when he got up close to them.

Probably because it was to enjoy their Friday night, they looked prettier than normal as they had dolled up with makeup and good clothes.

Kang So-ra, who was introduced as the owner of a shopping mall, had a chic older sister style.

The model, Kim Bit-na, was a cutie who seemed to have eaten the cutie cutie devil fruit.

However, her figure was definitely not 'cute' at all.

"Yes. Hello. But what do you mean when you say you treat him as an elder brother even though he is younger than you?"

"Oh, is that confusing? Well, if someone has a lot of money, wouldn't they be your hyung? This man has wealth that only Hyunwoo Hyung-nim knows."

"Ahahaha. What the hell?"

Was it because of his handsome face?

Or was he just really good at talking?

Jihyeok didn't even have to say a few words, but Kim Bitna giggled.

Kang So-ra, who greeted him with an elegant nod, seemed to have her eyes shine for some reason.

"Hyung-nim. Please make a statement here. Will we be getting the full rounds today?"

"If you want I guess. How much even is it? Don't worry about the money."

"Oh oh oh, wow. My hyung is so cool. When can I ever say something like that? Don't worry about money. Ah, everyone. You know that I'm a streamer on Korea TV, right? Hyunwoo hyung-nim is a very big shot there. He is the kind of hyung who offhandedly shoots 200,000 or 300,000 coins a day. You understand how big he is, right?"

Jihyeok started to flatter Lee Hyunwoo in earnest.

It was an embarrassing situation to openly be praised while still around.

His soft speech and sincere admiration for his gifting skill didn't really offend Lee Hyunwoo though.

"What...? 2-300,000... Isn't that 20-30 million won? Whoa, great!"

"30 million a day...!"

Kim Bit-na and Kang So-ra's eyes sparkled even more.

Their eyebrows would be furrowed if it was him who had been bragging about himself without any filter.

But they were less repulsed because a handsome face had been the one to say it all, making the actual news stand out less.

"Boss. I think he spends more money per day than what our monthly income is. *Shudder*"

"Ah, that might be right. We don't need to talk about our profits here though."

"Ah, sorry. Ehehe."

The shopping mall run by Kang So-ra was a small business with monthly sales between 50 and 100 million.

100 million in monthly sales, put simply, seemed like a large sum.

However, when one broke it down properly, there wasn't much left over at the end.

There were monthly advertising fees, labour costs such as hiring part-time jobs, models, cameramen, buying inventory, taxes and so on.

After all the expenses were taken away, what remained was in the ballpark of between 8 million won and 10 million won.

Even that amount was in the process of being cut with the trend of rising prices these days.

However, it was not like 8 to 10 million won came in like passive income if she didn't work hard for it.

Shopping malls for clothes were a declining industry, and buying and selling products made by others was a very difficult task in and of itself.

Not only did the supply and demand of goods go unchecked, but when compared to other commercial businesses, one had to always manage and update goods.

It consumed both physical and mental power, yet the income was still too small.

It was such an unrelenting business.

That was why shopping malls with sales of 10 billion would still be closed.

If it was a small shopping mall with monthly sales of 100 million won, there was no need to think about the option of closing down.

It wasn't wrong for her to worry about it closing down though.

After shutting down, there was nothing left for her to do.

Kang So-ra had not learned anything growing up.

What were her specialties?

Just dancing and singing?

She was a former idol.

No, she was a former 'ruined' idol.

She was a teenager who hadn't bothered to study.

She had spent all her youth practising dancing and singing.

By the time she barely made her debut, at the ripe age of 20, she found herself running around local events, with a growing feeling of burnout.

And thanks to the company not paying the bills and then being shipped overseas, she ended up not receiving a single penny and her idol life came to an abrupt end.

She was twenty-six at the time.

Her situation seemed hopeless.

This had been the result of her working so hard.

Although she was struggling with managing all the events, she had not given up the hope that she would one day be able to rise into a popular idol.

There were a few fans who supported her right to the end.

And it wasn't like there weren't any idols who suddenly gained fame

'E.X.I.T' had risen as a trending idol with a single fan meet, and 'Breter Girls' rose to fame thanks to a video on New Tube.

So she couldn't lose hope just yet.

Yet, it was all in vain.

After 7 years, and at the end of her contract, she couldn't get out of doing small-time events.

The agency that ran the events went out of business without any notice and the boss had taken the money and bounced abroad.

There was nothing left.

She didn't get a single penny.

The members scattered.

Kang So-ra worked like crazy from then on.

She thought she had done exhausted all possibilities already except for business.

Fortunately, while she was just an unemployed high school graduate, finding work was easy.

It was thanks to her outstanding appearance that she had become an idol in the first place.

For 5 years afterwards, she worked hard to earn money and opened a shopping mall.

At first, it was all going just fine, because she finally had her own business under her own name.

However, as each day passed, her worries grew bigger because sales did not come in as she expected.

Once again, clothing shopping malls had been an on-demand industry.

Where things went well, they would go insanely well.

But small businesses went out of business in the dozens each day.

And Kang So-ra's shopping mall was that kind of small business.

It felt like her blood was drying up when she saw the sales decreasing little by little.

She was under too much stress because she was doing worse year after year.

To relieve that stress even a little bit, she decided to go out on a Friday night.

She came out with model Kim Bit-na, who she was like an older sister to, and a handsome man approached them to chat.

She listened to what he had to say and he mentioned that he was a streamer.

Although she didn't watch streamers, she knew what Korea TV was.

She did not really care whether he was a streamer or not.

However, when she saw the gaze Kim Bit-na sent Ji-hyeok's way, she allowed them to sit together.

She did not find herself in the circumstances to be getting into a relationship, but wasn't Kim Bit-na still in the midst of finding her love?

Though, finding love at this sort of establishment was usually quite hard.

And Kang Sora didn't know if she would ever feel the sweetness of love.

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