I Regressed and Became Too Good at Brewing - Chapter 25

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 25. A Guest Beneath the Pine Tree (1)
“Boss! I’m here!”
“Welcome…”
“Ye Hyeon, Ye Eun. Come on in.”
As the liquor lineup expanded, two new employees were hired.
Twins, at that.
They didn’t need specialized expertise—it just happened that way when he selected people who genuinely loved alcohol and enjoyed the craft of making it.
Besides, they could learn on the job.
“What should we do today?”
“Um…”
“Could you help Se Jun over there for now? I’ll tag along.”
“Understood!”
“Yes…”
So the pair was currently learning brewery work from the ground up under Se Jun.
They’d slipped out of the employee dormitory, dressed quickly, and hurried toward where Se Jun was waiting.

“From what I can see, yes.”

Just as Song Ha said, Songhadan had undergone major changes.
First, there was now a proper employee dormitory.
A residence far more impressive than the makeshift quarters they’d inhabited in a converted shipping container.
“With five of us now, we couldn’t keep using the container.”

“There’s so much demand.”
Thanks to solid distribution channels through Juuju Daily, more alcohol needed to be aged.
So while they were boldly building the employee dormitory, they also expanded the Aging Storage.
Now able to age far more liquor, Mok Tong had been grinning from ear to ear for weeks.
“Though we did spend quite a bit of money on it.”
More had gone out than expected.
They’d spent well over half of their accumulated profits.

“Meari: Autumn alone accounts for that.”
With just that one product, they could generate over twenty million won monthly.
“And now we’re releasing a new aged yakju.”

“Well, yes. Guess I should head over to Se Jun’s.”
When he’d casually mentioned the new aged yakju’s launch to Yun Ju Ho, the Juuju Daily representative had wanted to visit Songhadan right away.
Though he’d been too busy to actually come.
Still, he’d been texting every single day since.
[Yun Ju Ho (Juuju Daily): When is Dalvorde coming out?]
[Yun Ju Ho (Juuju Daily): The waiting is unbearable,,,ㅎㅎ]
A new alcohol release meant the name had already been decided.
Heading to the storage area, Ha Jung immediately sprang up from where he was packaging the newly bottled aged yakju and shouted.
“Boss! Dalvorde packaging is finished!”
“Already?”
“Mm. Dalvorde is a great name. It’s easy for English speakers to read too.”
“That was intentional.”
The name of Songhadan’s aged yakju being released and submitted was decided as Dalvorde.
Derived from “Dalvordae,” meaning sweetness, it was chosen with an eye toward overseas markets and crafted to be easy for foreigners to pronounce.
And he’d racked his brains for long enough over it.
“From now on, you handle the naming. Yeon Wu.”
“What? Me?”
“I’ll just keep drawing… Though Cookie wasn’t so bad either, come to think of it…”
“That’s not it. Ha Jung…”
They say heaven is fair.
The other employees at Songhadan apparently had no gift for naming.
“Anyway, this should proceed just fine as is.”
“Right. As long as things go smoothly like this, everything will work out perfectly.”
“Then I’m relieved. Oh—did we get around to contacting Su Bin?”
“Right. I’ll send that message right now.”
Jung Su Bin—a star who had risen to the ranks of a national actress, despite having started as an idol with recognition, all at an age barely into her twenties.
All of this at such a young age.
So when she, wielding such tremendous influence, had lavished praise on Meari—Songhadan’s signature spirit—on her YouTube broadcast with the fervor of someone being paid for an advertisement, it made moments like these possible.
“If it had really been an advertisement…”
“We probably would’ve had to sell the brewery just to match her rates.”
Se Jun was right.
That’s how much a national actress was worth.
“Normally we’d have nothing to offer, so I’m grateful she enjoyed the spirit we made.”
Muttering thus, Se Jun began composing an email to the agency that represented Su Bin.
The message was simple.
“Thank you for savoring our carefully crafted spirit. We’ve been helped tremendously because of you. Though modest, we’d like to send you a gift.”
“Clear and concise.”
“But will she accept it? She’s an enormous actress, after all.”
“She will. Absolutely.”
“I’m not so sure. Should we send it anyway?”
Not long after sending that email, one day arrived.
“Wh-what? Wh-what-what? Why is this…?”
“What’s the matter?”
“No… it’s… wh-wh…”
Ye Hyeon, as if he’d lost the power of speech, began pointing at the monitor with trembling fingers and babbling.
Ye Eun approached the screen on his behalf and, after a moment’s pause, opened her mouth.
“Jung Su Bin… sent an email…”
“I figured it’d be positive. Good people recognize good spirits, don’t they?”
“No… that’s not quite it, sir… I think this is something else entirely…?”
“Pardon? What do you mean, Ye Hyeon?”
But Su Bin’s passion for our spirit had run deeper than I’d anticipated.
“She says she’ll visit in person.”
“…Visit where?”
“Here, obviously. Where else?”
Ye Hyeon’s speech had broken down along with his composure at the unexpected turn.
Unable to process the surreal situation, he was jolted back by Song Ha’s voice.

It was thanks to the Dokkaebi’s confirmation that he could accept this was reality.
“Jung Su Bin… is coming to Songhadan?”
And so Songhadan found itself preparing to receive an unexpected, extraordinary guest.
* * *
“Everything’s ready, right?”
Time passed, and the day Su Bin had promised to visit arrived.
Everyone at Songhadan had been bustling about since morning.
Of course, the brewery’s day started early regardless, so the wake-up time wasn’t much different from usual.
But there was an unmistakable thrill in the air.
“Yeah. I’ve already mapped out the whole route for her visit.”
“I’ve compiled all the questions she might be curious about!”
Se Jun and Ha Jung thrust their hands up suddenly, rattling off the preparations they’d made.
It was all meant to accommodate Su Bin’s comfort.
The twin siblings followed suit, unwilling to be outdone.
“Just in case, I’ve decorated the garden beautifully!”
“I looked it up… apparently she has no sense of direction… so I put arrows everywhere…”
“And on top of that, I prepared water in case she gets thirsty…”
“That’s excessive.”
“Oh, is it?”
Ye Hyeon’s hand, scratching the back of his head, trembled slightly.
The others, for all their affected composure, were no different.
“It’s nerve-wracking, honestly, knowing it’s not just a casual visit…”
And indeed, Su Bin’s visit to Songhadan was far from a simple social call.
“I never expected things to blow up like this… you knew something, didn’t you? Yeon Wu?”
“How would I have known?”
I swear by heaven, I genuinely had not.
All I’d anticipated was that she might accept the spirit we’d sent.
Well, I’ll be damned…….
“I never imagined you’d be the first to suggest we shoot a YouTube video together.”
It all began with the email we sent to her agency.
Even though we’d been grateful for them to simply read it, their reply came back swift as a blade.
She said she’d come pick up the liquor herself.
And it wasn’t just a casual visit.
It was a full collaboration proposal.
Fancy words aside, it simply meant that since both of us ran YouTube channels, what if we filmed a video together?
“What was the concept they mentioned?”
“Right… they said it was a healing concept set in the countryside.”
“Well, Yeongwol is rural enough.”
And Songhadan was tucked away in an even more remote corner of Yeongwol.
We should have plenty of scenes that fit their concept.
Our role in all this was to provide alcohol that Su Bin enjoys.
“Though our Brewery isn’t exactly a drinking establishment…….”
“Since they mentioned it would be in tour format, wouldn’t that work fine? It’s promotional for us too. And we’ve already done tours like this for the local elders, haven’t we?”
“You’re right, sir.”
“Anyway, Se Jun—you’ve got that ready?”
“Ah… that? Of course. Heh heh.”
Se Jun nodded and flashed a sly smile.
He grinned like a villain straight out of a drama before continuing.
“Ha Jung and I poured our hearts into preparing it.”
“An opportunity like this doesn’t come around often. We can’t let it slip away.”
“Exactly. How could it be otherwise?”
“What about cleaning?”
“That’s the bare minimum. Even our regular routine keeps things clean enough.”
“Still, I figured I’d ask just to be sure.”

While I was speaking with Se Jun, Song Ha suddenly cut in.

Looking out the window, a black van slid smoothly into Songhadan’s parking lot.
Su Bin had been renowned as an enthusiast of drink even in her past life, so Song Ha calling her a true drinker was apt enough.

Though I hadn’t expected it to be quite this intense.
“They seem to have arrived. Let’s get ready.”
The driver emerged from the van first as it came to a natural stop in the parking lot.
Then out she burst from the van like a bullet.
“Wow! Finally made it!”
“Sigh… Su Bin… please…….”
“I mean, I was cooped up in that car the whole ride here and my whole body’s stiff. Ugh!”
Su Bin stretched luxuriously the moment she stepped out, showing off her lean frame.
Then she turned her head slightly toward where we stood and smiled brightly.
“Oh! Hello! I’m Jung Su Bin!”
A smile that looked like it had been painted from a picture.
Apparently it wasn’t just anyone who could be an entertainer—more than a few people would lose their minds at that smile alone.
“Wow… it really is Jung Su Bin…….”
“Oh wow… you’re so beautiful…….”
“An actress… it’s an actress…….”
“The proportions… her face is mesmerizing…….”
By any objective standard, she was beautiful.
She seemed like someone anyone would come to adore after seeing once.

But even so, I didn’t lose my composure like those two.
If one were to truly lose one’s composure, it should be over liquors I hadn’t yet encountered—those with captivating hues and finish, those legs, that mesmerizing aroma and flavor that conquered both nose and palate all at once.

In that moment, I thought there’s no truer friend than a dokkaebi who knows a thing or two.
“We’ve met before and now we meet again! I went to your popup store!”
“Hey! Su Bin! You can’t—!”
“Why! What! Why didn’t you tell me the boss already knew about this? And you’ve already uploaded everything to YouTube — what’s the point now!”
“Ugh. Really… please just… you’re a celebrity, you know…….”
Su Bin walked over with firm, decisive steps, leaving the manager behind — eyes glistening but tears firmly swallowed — and thrust her hand toward me with a flourish.
“Hello! I’m Jung Su Bin! I came to drink and unwind today!”
“Hello. I’m Song Yeon Wu, and I run Songhadan.”
“Hehe. I know. Thanks so much for having me today, boss!”
It was, without question, a bold and refreshingly straightforward first impression.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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