Chapter 24
Little Ladies? (2)
“How do you make this?”
“That’s a secret.”
“Ah…”
The girls were captivated by the sweet, rich aroma of coffee — completely different from their usual bland instant mix.
“Can’t you tell us?”
“Nope.”
“It smells like something that would sell really well.”
“Then how about this — hire me for the day. I’ve got nothing better to do anyway. Thirty thousand won.”
“Thirty thousand… hmm…”
It was pricey. But the coffee really did seem like something that could sell if word got out.
“Okay, deal.”
“Good. Contract confirmed.”
‘Heh, it’s been a while since I’ve had something nice to look at.’
He’d only ever seen his older college classmates — plain, unstyled, often skipping showers because they were buried in studies. But today, the middle school girls were dressed up prettily for the event, and suddenly, he didn’t feel like going anywhere else. Not that there was anywhere to go except the PC bang, anyway.
“So, shall we get started?”
First, Hyung-jin asked a student with good handwriting to make an attractive menu board to display at the café entrance. Since these were unique, unheard-of coffee drinks, the idea was to spark curiosity. Sure enough, intrigued by the unfamiliar names, women began to come in one by one — and once they tasted the coffee, sweet and fragrant instead of bitter or overly sugary like before, they were hooked.
“Wow!”
The once-empty café quickly filled up — so much that soon there was even a waiting line.
“Two iced café mochas, please.”
With customers lining up and takeout orders pouring in, the place was packed. Even though it was exhausting, Hyung-jin couldn’t help thinking the view was worth it — the café was full of pretty girls.
By the end of the day, everyone looked satisfied.
“Thanks. I didn’t think business would go this well.”
“Don’t mention it. I made some pocket money too.”
After pocketing his 30,000 won, Hyung-jin smiled contentedly.
‘Guess it’s true what they say — men only work hard when there are women around.’
Having peers his own age around gave him a surprising burst of motivation.
“So what now?”
“Time to pay the balance.”
“Balance?”
“The rest of the money we owe.”
“Oh…”
Hyung-jin nodded. Of course — no one pays everything upfront when renting a space. But then he noticed the girls who were doing the accounting turn pale.
“What’s wrong?”
“We’re… short on money.”
“Short? Did someone steal it?”
That didn’t make sense. The money box was in plain sight, and they’d all taken turns watching it.
“N-no, it’s not that. It’s just… we don’t have enough to pay the rental fee for the café.”
“Not enough? That can’t be right.”
Coffee shops don’t usually do great business — but today was a huge success. There should have been plenty.
“How much are you short?”
“Five hundred thousand won.”
“What?”
It felt like a blow to the back of his head. Five hundred thousand won?
“How much did you rent this place for?”
“One hundred fifty thousand won.”
“One hundred fifty?!”
That didn’t make sense. Judging from the café’s condition, it couldn’t make even 300,000 a day — let alone justify a 150,000 rental fee.
“Let me see the ledger.”
After checking the records, Hyung-jin saw the problem: they’d sold around 500 cups of coffee at 3,000 won each — exactly 1.5 million won. But after subtracting the cost of ingredients, they were short about 500,000.
“What do we do? What do we do?”
“Anyone got spare cash?”
“Who’d have 500,000 won lying around?”
The girls looked like they were about to cry — and just then, the café owner walked in.
“How’d business go?”
“Ah… sir…”
“What’s wrong?”
“We don’t have enough money.”
“Not enough?”
“Yes…”
The man’s face twisted in anger.
“Are you kidding me?”
“No, it’s just…”
“If you promised to pay, then pay up, you little brats!”
Cursing at middle schoolers, the man made them huddle together in fear. Then, as if on cue, two more men entered through the door.
“What’s going on?”
“These punks are saying they don’t have the money.”
“What? These damn kids…”
“Got some nerve, don’t they?”
“The total… it only comes to about a million won…”
One of the girls stammered tearfully. For a moment, the man looked curious — then his expression hardened again.
“So you’re short by half a million? Not a few thousand — half a million?! You little shits.”
“S-sir…”
“You’ve got guts, huh?”
“This is annoying. Let’s just call the cops.”
“Yeah, maybe a night in jail will teach you something.”
“Mister, please, we’re sorry!”
“Then hand over the money!”
“But… we don’t have it…”
“Isn’t that the money right there? Looks like 1.5 million to me!”
“But we had expenses—”
“Damn it! If you’re gonna run a business, you should’ve been ready for that!”
The three men began threatening the girls, who started to cry. Watching it unfold, Hyung-jin clenched his teeth.
‘They’ve been scammed.’
Given the café’s shabby state, even 300,000 a day would’ve been lucky — but the owner had charged 1.5 million.
‘They tricked them.’
He must’ve baited these clueless middle schoolers into signing the deal, making them think they’d earn easy money. Without Hyung-jin’s help, they wouldn’t even have made a third of that.
‘Everything — timing, setup — it was planned.’
The men arriving just as the event ended, the practiced intimidation — it was obvious they’d set the trap.
‘Man, I shouldn’t have come. This eye candy’s turning out to be expensive.’
But he couldn’t just walk away and leave the crying girls behind.
“How about we sell one of them to pay it off?”
“Yeah, just one girl would cover it. Who wants to go first?”
The three men sneered. Hyung-jin stepped between them and the girls.
“That’s enough. That’s called intimidation.”
“What the hell are you?”
“Me? Just a part-time worker.”
“Oh, so one of you’s got a boyfriend, huh? Which one’s your girl? For your bravery, I’ll spare her.”
Hyung-jin sighed. They weren’t gangsters — just thugs playing tough. Probably spoiled sons of rich parents who’d opened a café for them to kill time.
“I don’t have a girlfriend. Like I said, I’m just part-time.”
“Then I guess we can sell whoever we want.”
“Kyaa!”
The girls shrank back in terror as the men moved closer. Hyung-jin raised both hands to block them.
“Oh? You think you’re some kind of man?”
“I’m saying this is intimidation.”
“Hah! Listen to this punk.”
One man raised his fist. Hyung-jin didn’t move.
“Penal Code Article 284 — if a person commits a threat with multiple people or while carrying a weapon, it’s considered special intimidation, punishable by up to seven years in prison or a fine of up to ten million won.”
The men froze.
“There are three of you, so that qualifies as ‘multiple persons.’”
“You little punk…”
The unexpected mention of a legal statute made them hesitate.
“Plus, there are fifteen victims here — middle school girls and me.”
“You’re asking for it—”
“Go ahead, hit me. Then it becomes assault, and with all these witnesses, good luck explaining that to the cops.”
The men instinctively backed away. Just small-time thugs after all.
“Look, the girls made a mistake, but that’s no reason to threaten them.”
“You bastard—”
“Or you can press charges if you want.”
“Damn it, just give us the money!”
Since intimidation didn’t work, they tried to turn it into a money issue — but Hyung-jin wasn’t about to back down.
“You’ll get what was agreed. But let’s see the contract first.”
“The contract?”
“Yes. You made one, didn’t you?”
The man smirked — assuming they’d try to deny it.
“Here it is. Says 1.5 million right there.”
“Right. But where’s the consent form?”
“Consent form?”
“You don’t know? The oldest of these girls is sixteen — all legal minors. A contract like this needs parental consent to be valid. Without it, it can be nullified.”
“W-what?”
They didn’t seem to understand, of course. Kids born rich never had to think about legal details.
“In short — no parental permission, no contract. They don’t owe you a cent.”
“That’s bullshit!”
“Nope. That’s the law.”
“You brats—”
“Hit me and it’s assault again. Come on, you should know better.”
The men froze, completely thrown off balance.
‘Called it.’
Anyone who scams kids like this was never that bright to begin with.
“Give us at least a million then!”
They snarled but had no choice but to back off. Hyung-jin wasn’t done.
“Before that, let’s check the sales record.”
“Sales record?”
“Yes — the café’s normal daily revenue.”
“What for?”
“Even if this was a special event, you clearly knew the usual income. Demanding an impossible rent of 1.5 million despite knowing that — that’s fraud.”
“Fraud?”
“Yes.”
“How’s that fraud?!”
“When you hide or lie about key information that affects a financial contract, that’s fraud. So — show us your daily sales slips.”
“…”
They were speechless.
“Can’t show them?”
“Well, that’s fine too.”
As they relaxed slightly, Hyung-jin took out his phone.
“I’ll just report you for intimidation and fraud. The police will investigate — and if your numbers don’t add up, the tax office will get involved too.”
The three men froze, stunned.
“Thank you!”
“Don’t mention it.”
“If it weren’t for you, we’d have been in real trouble.”
“People need to be careful, that’s all.”
In the end, they had no choice but to show the sales record — which revealed the café only made about 200,000 won a day. After Hyung-jin’s negotiation, the final amount was reduced to 300,000 — with a small bonus thrown in for the extra profit.
“But we still ended up in the red.”
They had 700,000 won left total — not much once split among fifteen people.
“It’s fine. It was for the memory anyway.”
‘Though it almost became a terrible memory.’
Hyung-jin had seen it many times — adults tricking kids for profit. And yet those same adults complain that “kids these days have no manners.” What nonsense.
“By the way, what school do you go to? I never asked.”
“I don’t.”
“What? But you’re so smart!”
“Just because I don’t go to school doesn’t mean I don’t study. I passed the GED and I’m preparing for college.”
The girls stared in awe.
“You’re really smart.”
“Well, I try.”
“Let’s do this again sometime.”
“Next time, let’s avoid creeps like that.”
“Can you help us again?”
“Sometimes, sure.”
He figured spending a day with kids his age wasn’t a bad way to clear his head.
“If you ever need help, call me.”
He had no idea those words would lead to something far bigger than he imagined.
“Hey, Casanova.”
“I told you, I’m not.”
“Oh please. Who else gets fifteen girls’ phone numbers in one day? Even Casanova would be jealous.”
Hyung-jin had no idea how relentless middle school girls’ texting could be — his phone was buzzing nonstop.
“I’d better watch out. You’re not trying to hit on me too, are you?”
“Hyolin noona!”
“Oh, that charisma — I might just fall for you.”
“Oh, come on.”
He shook his head. She reminded him so much of his actual sister, Hyun-ah — same teasing attitude and all.
“Anyway, you’re still managing to study, right?”
“I am, I am. Don’t worry.”
Even with the texts coming in, he still focused on his classes. Most of the messages weren’t urgent anyway.
“Phew.”
Back in his dorm, he finally started replying to the backlog of messages. He went through them one by one — until he stopped at the last one.
Hyung-jin, please help me. I’m in trouble. Call me as soon as you get this.
The urgency in her tone was clear. More messages and calls followed, frantic and nonstop.
“This sounds like trouble…”
Clicking his tongue, he picked up his phone.
“Hey, it’s me. What happened?”
