Chapter 71: Beyond the Writer

As soon as “Living on Rent at the Chairman’s House” aired its first episode, it astonishingly set a record with a 20% viewership rating.

I checked the ratings over and over again as I read the online articles.

Every time I saw those numbers, my heart thumped, swelling with pride.

Bzzzt!

Just as I was struggling to calm my pounding heart in front of the screen, my phone buzzed.

[Author-nim, you really never contact me unless I reach out first, do you?]

When I looked at the screen, it was a message from Chae-rin noona, the drama’s female lead.

Her typically playful tone in the text made me chuckle.

[Congratulations on the successful ratings.]

“Honestly, she’s just too cute.”

I smiled and sent her a reply.

[Wow?! That’s it??]

[What else do you need? Isn’t it enough that I congratulated you?]

[Author-nim, aren’t you being a bit much? We even did a radio show together, and I’m the female lead in your drama?!]

A moment later, a new message from Chae-rin noona arrived.

I tried to stifle another laugh as I read what she sent.

“She’s exactly like her image on TV.”

Thinking of how Chae-rin looked on screen, I sent my reply.

[I’m just joking. You really worked hard. The drama succeeded because of you. I look forward to working with you from now on, too.]

Bzzzt!

[Hehe, that’s more like it.]

Finally, she sent a message that showed she was satisfied.

[Let’s end the congratulations here. Didn’t you say you wanted to try living at a chaebol’s house? I think I can make that happen. What do you say?]

Just then, a message with a mysterious meaning caught my eye.

“Come to think of it, I did mention that during the radio show. A chaebol, huh?”

My mind drifted back to the first radio broadcast.

Back then, I’d mentioned to Chae-rin that it would be a great experience to live with a chaebol, and I’d love to try it.

Chae-rin had replied that she might be able to grant that wish.

[What do you mean?]

I sent a reply, recalling that moment.

[I know a fourth-generation chaebol, and he’s preparing a special party for me, to celebrate the drama’s success. I think I can get you an invitation to the party. He’s curious about you too. Since you said you wanted to go, I wanted to recommend you. What do you think?]

The long messages came in rapid succession.

I closed my mouth and read through them carefully.

As a writer, seeing the glamorous lifestyle of a chaebol and being close to those people would be a fascinating experience.

I took a moment to think it over.

“I never expected things to circle back like this.”

Back then, it was half a joke, but I didn’t expect Chae-rin to remember it or care enough to make it happen.

I’d thought it was just another loose connection, but now that it was actually happening, it felt strangely exciting.

“Alright, let’s do it. My next work is also about chaebols anyway. It’ll definitely help.”

After thinking it over, I made my decision.

[Thank you, noona. This is going to be a really interesting experience.]

[Of course, I knew you’d accept. lol. I’ll send you the invitation once I get it.]

She seemed genuinely pleased with my answer.

[Okay, I’ll be waiting^^]

I put down my phone and took a short, deep breath.

“This is making me excited for no reason.”

Imagining how this chance to meet a chaebol might unfold into a new story in my life made my heart flutter.

With that anticipation, I placed my hands on the keyboard, waiting for that day to come.

The protagonist, Ryu Kang-jun, was born an illegitimate child of a chaebol family in his previous life, never recognized and ultimately abandoned, murdered by his own siblings.

After returning to life, he decided that in this lifetime, he would live firmly in a position of power.

“The owner who got consulting from Ryu Kang-jun had their kimbap business boom, and other shop owners, seeing the success, gathered with envious faces to ask how it happened.”

[“I threw out all the old ingredients, started making and selling only freshly prepared food every day, and the customers who had stopped coming started to return.”]

The Happy Kimbap owner revealed part of the secret as if they’d turned over a new leaf and adopted a new attitude.

“If you do that, won’t your profits drop? You said so yourself before. And when you actually tried, you barely broke even. It took a lot more work, too.”

The self-employed owners looked at the Happy Kimbap owner with puzzled faces, unable to understand words that, until recently, they would have said themselves.

“Try lowering your profit margin and increasing your labor. Then customers will fill in the gap with volume.”

This, too, was something Ryu Kang-jun had told the kimbap owner.

But the kimbap owner repeated it back to the others with a relaxed, unaffected expression.

[The self-employed say it’s tough, but that’s not really true. It’s tough because you’ve lost your edge in the industry. People just don’t want to admit it.”]

Whatever the industry, losing your competitiveness makes running a business incredibly tough.

People blame the market for hard times, but places that were always crowded never cared about the economic climate.

There’s only one reason.

Because they always maintained the basics required for their line of work.

For restaurants, that meant flavor and service were reliable.

In successful manufacturing, each worker was highly skilled, and the boss took care of them, preventing resignations and protecting their know-how.

Those in business always need to ask themselves the same question:

Why isn’t my business working out like others?

Blaming the market is just an excuse to hide your own lack of skill; instead, you need to acknowledge what you’re lacking and find it.

“The other self-employed owners began to doubt the Happy Kimbap owner, whose story didn’t quite add up, and started to investigate why the failing business had suddenly begun to thrive. And then, they discovered the truth.”

[“Of course. That person couldn’t have done it all on their own.”]

There’s a saying: A good part-timer can save a business.

The self-employed owners realized that the reason Happy Kimbap was doing so well was because of a part-timer.

[“We need to get that person to work at our place.”]

After meeting Ryu Kang-jun, the self-employed owners began plotting to hire him as their own employee.

“I’ll pay double the hourly wage. I’ll even cover your lunch.”

“Kang-jun, come work at our place.”

They secretly approached Ryu Kang-jun, avoiding the Happy Kimbap owner’s eyes.

“The reason businesses fail is because owners are too proud to change,” Kang-jun told the owners clinging to him, leaving them with a strong message.

Most of them, upon hearing this, cursed Kang-jun for being “insolent” and stormed off.

“But not everyone left after cursing Kang-jun. One female owner, whose business had already hit rock bottom, clung to him as if grabbing at a lifeline, begging him to save her shop, promising to do whatever he said.”

[He looked coldly at the owners leaving, pride wounded by his words, then turned his gaze to the woman who still hadn’t left, bowing her head as she pleaded with him.

“It’s better than people with no skills acting proud. You’re going to go far, ma’am. Alright, I’ll help you. But you have to promise not to question anything I tell you. That’s my only condition.”]

Ryu Kang-jun accepted the woman’s request and decided to save her failing business.

“The female owner’s cooking was excellent, and her restaurant was impeccably clean. But the reason she couldn’t attract customers was her lack of marketing skills. Ryu Kang-jun realized this and started focusing on marketing.”

[“Kids come here more than older people. There’s not much difference from other places. We need to stand out.”]

“Using his experience, Ryu Kang-jun started marketing to revive the restaurant.”

He focused the menu on pork cutlets, a favorite among students.

He decorated the shop like a café and kept the door open so the scent of pork cutlet would waft outside and draw people in.

“This was when Ryu Kang-jun really began to make a name for himself in the industry.”

That’s it for today’s content.

I took my hands off the keyboard.

“What should I do with this work?”

I’d finished all twenty-five chapters.

I was debating how to publish it.

I’d been using Hitel like Runpia all this time, but now I wanted to try something different.

Should I publish it directly, or post it on a blog?

“Wait, huh?! Runpia?! Blog?!”

Come to think of it, why hadn’t I thought of making my own platform?

“All this time, I never stepped out of the writer’s mindset, and I always thought of platforms like Runpia as separate from myself. There was no real reason I couldn’t make one myself.”

How foolishly I’d thought until now.

“Yeah, there’s nothing stopping me from making one. Runpia started as a community too.”

This September, Runpia is operating a site called Komurim, focused on martial arts novel authors.

“Then I’ll make a novel site for fantasy, romance, contemporary fiction, and the like. I’ll leave the operations to an expert and focus on investing……”

Running a site wasn’t a difficult option after all.

“Alright, I’ve made up my mind. Let’s do this.”

Unlike Komurim, which focuses on martial arts, I’d make a site that covers all other genres.

I already had a publisher to use and enough money to avoid any major problems, so I figured I could quickly establish myself in the market.

I opened a new Hangul document and put my hands on the keyboard.

This time, instead of writing a novel, I drafted a business plan for how to grow a novel community.

Bzzzt.

[Chae-rin.]

I got a message from Chae-rin two hours later.