Chapter 197 (1/2)
Chapter 197: Chapter 191
Hyunwoo's eyes opened wider at that.
He guessed the call had been about the senior center but he never thought that the seniors had made such a request.
What was more strange was that they had no reason to do so. For he had never caused any inconvenience to them since the senior center was opened there. He was well-liked by the seniors because he sometimes visited with a bag of snacks for them.
“Because of Ani & Funny? What's the reason?”
“They are saying they want to move the senior center so Ani & Funny can use the s.p.a.ce and accept the students who want to study animation there.”
Hyunwoo was speechless for a moment.
He never expected they would make such a request, and he was deeply touched.
On the other hand, he became curious.
How did they come to know about the situation involving the students?
They may have seen the students coming to the office in droves, but it was impossible to infer from that what was going on exactly.
I wonder if any of our staff members asked the seniors to do so.
If that was the case, Hyunwoo would have to express apologies because it was like ordering them to vacate the senior center.
The city official said, “We have a problem here. We have not allotted any money in the budget for moving the senior center to another place this year.”
In Hyunwoos' mind, it was not a matter of money because he could afford to pay for their move. Under any circ.u.mstances, he could not force them to move out.
“Let me go and check out what's going on. Please allow me to get back to you in several days.”
“Sure.”
As soon as he left the city hall, he headed straight to the office and asked the staff about it.
All of them said they were unaware of it, saying they didn't know at all such a request was filed with the city hall. Some of them even welcomed the request.
“Can we use the first floor from now on?”
“We didn't know the seniors downstairs had such consideration for us. I wish I visited them sometimes to say h.e.l.lo.”
Hyunwoo tilted his head and said, “Are you really sure any of you has never requested the seniors to vacate the first floor? I'm going to see them right now, so I hope you won't betray me…”
They all shook their heads, denying it.
Still, Hyunwoo wanted to confirm it. He went downstairs to find a dozen seniors there. They welcomed him, and Mrs. Paenamu and Heejung's grandmother, in particular, greeted him gladly.
“Welcome, Hyunwoo!”
“Come on in. I guess you're in trouble because of the office s.p.a.ce.”
At that moment, Hyunwoo's eyes popped up because Heejung's grandmother mentioned the matter of office s.p.a.ce.
Hyunwoo cautiously asked, “How did you know about that?”
“Well, I heard even if you wanted to accept all the students coming here to learn, you couldn't because of the small office s.p.a.ce.”
“Don't worry, Hyunwoo. We already made a pet.i.tion to the city hall.”
“Why didn't you tell us about it in advance? If Heejung's grandmother had not told us, we would have been kept in the dark forever.”
Now, Hyunwoo could figure out how all this happened.
He asked cautiously, “Did Heejung ask you to vacate the first floor?”
“No. I just heard what the students said. Heejung just said you could accept all the students if you had a bigger office s.p.a.ce, so we seniors here exchanged opinions about it and made the decision to appeal to city hall.”
Fortunately, they wanted to move out voluntarily, but he still felt heavy because they had to move to an old building if they did.
“You don't have to move. I'm looking for a new bigger office right now. You can stay here.”
“No, no. We don't want to stand in the way of the students' future.”
“In fact, the senior center here is too large for us.”
All of the seniors made the case for their moving out.
Deeply moved by their sincerity, Hyunwoo said, “Thanks so much. In return, I would like to find you a beautiful senior center.”
And then he called the social service department of the city hall.
“Ani & Funny would like to pay for the cost of the senior center's relocation. Is it okay with you?”
“How wonderful! We would really appreciate it if you can, but our department alone can't settle the matter of Ani & Funny using the first floor. We'll discuss with the relevant department here and let you know.”
When the weekend came, Hyunwoo found out that his life had changed a lot, compared with the past.
The biggest difference was in the number of his hiking outings to the mountains with the seniors. In the past, he hiked in the mountains with the seniors at least two or three times per month no matter how busy he was. But now, he did so only a couple of times this year.