Detective Jeon (2) : He, Never Left | JJK

Ch4. Coffee

Opened in 1964, Hollier Bookstore, originally called "Mino-Chaegbang" [ 미노 책방 ] was the oldest comic bookstore in Seoul, South Korea. The original owner of the store was a Korean War veteran, named Kang Deogu who served as a medical officer in the war camp. After the loss of his family and home in the 1950s, he moved to Seoul Rehabilitation Center as a health in-charge officer which at that time was cramped up with war prisoners and other civilian refugees.
He worked there for eight years and then moved to the Seochon Village neighborhood. Using all the money he had saved during that time as well as his service pension, he opened the Mino-Chaegbang which served as the only comic shop in Seoul province in 60s.

Jieun couldn't stop staring at the old wooden furniture with gritty texture and faded paint peeling off from the walls. A rickety old fence barely held flower pots outside and a stack of musty old books at every corner inside. There was something nostalgic and equally haunting about it at the same time.

Her view was abruptly blocked by a large yellow coffee mug that Jungkook brought near to her face. "Where did you get that?"

"They have a self-service coffee counter. It was not there the last time."

"When was the last time you were here?" Jieun took the mug in her hand.

"Five years ago."

"What- I ... five years ago. You talk like you were here last month only."

"Careful it's still hot."

"Yeah, yeah! By the way, what happened next? He must not have been alive, Mr. Kang Deogu. Who owns this place now?" asked Jieun. She took another sip and slightly licked the corners of her lips. Jungkook handed her a tissue paper. She smiled and took it.

"It was later sold to some of his distant relatives in the late 80s. They changed the name to Hollier bookstore. The money Mr. Kang received after selling the place was then given to a local NGO working for the rights of prison reforms."

"Hmm... He was a good man."

"Or maybe he was just feeling guilty." Jungkook took a cookie from one of the jars at the counter and offered one to Jieun which she politely refused.

"Why guilty?"

"Nothing, have you read the new Bonobono comics? Look at this! It's a reboot version of a teenage girl named Bonoi who falls in love with the most popular guy in high school. Plot twist: he turns out to be the son of a mafia."

Jieun laughed at him so hard that some of her coffee spilled out from the mug. "Mianhae!" She took the comic from his hands and placed it back on the shelf. "Please! Stop. Don't tell me you are going to buy this."

"Aniyo, but seriously the graphics are pretty advanced nowadays."

"Yeah, I saw the kind of graphics you are talking about!"

"Whoa... wait I wasn't talking about it. I mean the face graphics, not the body ones. But they are good as well." Jungkook's cheeks turned red like summer strawberries as he tried to explain.

"I'm just saying, In our times Bonobonoya was a sweet comic!"

"Ah yeah. Let me explore the other sections. Be right back."

Jieun shrugged her head and walked towards the last section of the wall. It had two adjacent bookshelves with various sections divided according to different themes and genres. "Hmm... let's see. Romance... Action... Japanese art comics. Art comics? That's new. Wait, this one's not a comic. 'Modern Japanese kowabana (horror) stories,' interesting." Jieun turned some pages and read for a while. Ten minutes into the reading and she found herself yawning, "It's boring." She placed it back on the top shelf.