Eun-chae suddenly got to her feet as though she had just remembered something, still perched on the edge of the veranda.
“Oh, right. Gran, they said the fire inspection is next week.”
Grandma turned her head.
“When did they say?”
Eun-chae took out her phone and opened the spreadsheet. She found the item she had written in the In Progress column.
“It’s been ten days since I applied... I’ll check the text.”
She reopened the message she had received a few days ago.
“Fire Safety Facilities Completion Certificate—On-Site Inspection: Next Tuesday at 10:00 a.m.”
“It’s Tuesday at ten in the morning.”
“That’s right after we take guests on Friday. Next week already.”
“Yeah. But is there anything we need to prepare?”
Grandma thought for a moment before answering.
“They’ll check the locations of the fire extinguishers, the emergency exit lights, all that. If it’s the way we used to keep it, there shouldn’t be any major problems.”
“How many fire extinguishers do we need?”
“One on every floor. And one in the kitchen.”
Eun-chae added a new item to the list: *Check the number of fire extinguishers, check that the emergency exit lights work.*
“Tomorrow’s more urgent, but we’ll have to look at this tonight too.”
“We can do both. One at a time.”
Eun-chae grabbed a flashlight and went to the shed. Two fire extinguishers sat there under a layer of dust. When she checked the pressure gauges, one was in the green and the other was close to the red.
“Gran, I think the pressure’s low in this one.”
Grandma came over and examined the extinguisher.
“We’ll have to replace it. It’s old, too.”
“Where do we buy one?”
“They sell them at hardware stores, but you’ll have better luck at a fire-safety supply store.”
Eun-chae added another item to the list: *Replace one fire extinguisher (buy tomorrow morning).*
The Before Starting column had grown longer again. With preparations for the guests and the fire inspection overlapping, her thoughts became tangled.
“Gran, I’m already worried about the guests coming tomorrow, and now I have to deal with this too. I feel like I’m losing my mind.”
“That’s why we’re getting it organized tonight. Tomorrow, you can focus only on the guests.”
Eun-chae nodded and checked the emergency exit lights one by one with the flashlight. One of the lights in the second-floor hallway was flickering.
“We need to replace this one too.”
“There are spare bulbs in the kitchen drawer.”
Eun-chae worked through the list one item at a time until late into the night. She put off replacing the fire extinguisher until tomorrow, but she fixed all the lights that night.
After replacing the last bulb, Eun-chae sat down on the stairs and caught her breath.
“Gran, once all this is done, there really won’t be any problems, right?”
“There shouldn’t be any major problems. But...”
Grandma sat down beside Eun-chae and continued.
“Tomorrow’s guests come before the fire inspection. That’s enough for tonight. Go to bed.”
After catching her breath for a moment on the stairs, Eun-chae opened her laptop again. She brought up the spreadsheet she had made a few days earlier. The three columns—Before Starting, In Progress, and Complete—were still there.
She began moving over the things she had taken care of throughout the day, one by one.
She dragged *Replace emergency exit lights* from the Before Starting column to Complete. The cell changed to green.
She moved *Check fire extinguisher pressure* to Complete as well. Instead, the newly added *Replace one fire extinguisher* went into the In Progress column.
Eun-chae scanned up and down the screen. The Complete column had grown noticeably longer than before: Check business registration certificate, check building register, submit succession report, replace emergency exit lights.
There were still a few items in the Before Starting column: *Manage website reviews, repair the kitchen garden fence, prepare supplies for the dog.*
Eun-chae added one more item: *First Friday guest check-in*—and put it in the In Progress column.
Grandma, who had been looking at the screen beside her, tilted her head.
“So it all gets marked by color now?”
“Yeah. Green means it’s done, yellow means it’s in progress, and red means it hasn’t been started yet.”
“Funny. I just drew lines through things in my notebook.”
“It’s just a different method. The result’s the same.”
Grandma gave a short laugh and looked over the screen again.
“But once tomorrow’s over, you’ll fill it up with new things again, won’t you?”
“I guess so. Once we have guests, something else will come up.”
“That’s how it is. There’s no day when everything’s finished.”
At those words, Eun-chae looked away from the screen and at Grandma.
“Then when do you get to relax?”
“You don’t relax. You get used to it.”
Eun-chae turned the words over in her mind and looked back at the screen. The two items lined up in the In Progress column caught her eye: *Replace fire extinguisher* and *First Friday guest check-in.*
As she closed the laptop, Eun-chae said, “I’ll go to the hardware store first thing tomorrow morning. I’ll buy the fire extinguisher and check the room one more time.”
“Do that. I’ll get breakfast ready.”
The two of them went off to their respective rooms. Eun-chae lay in bed, but sleep did not come easily. She kept going over the things she had to do tomorrow.
*Greeting guests at check-in, showing them the room, explaining breakfast hours...*
After repeating it to herself several times, Eun-chae fell asleep without realizing it.
At six in the morning, Eun-chae woke before her alarm. She had woken up at the same time when she had been going to the office a few days earlier, but getting out of bed felt different now.
The sky outside was still pale blue. Eun-chae folded her bedding, washed her face, and went to the kitchen. Grandma was already putting rice in the rice cooker.
“You’re up early.”
“There’s a lot to do today.”
Eun-chae hurriedly changed clothes and stepped into the yard. The morning air was cold. The hardware store was a twenty-minute walk away.
The hardware store’s door was still closed. Eun-chae lingered nearby until she heard the shutter rolling up, then went inside.
“I’d like to buy a fire extinguisher.”
The owner took one out from the back.
“For home use, this one’s enough. It’s 3.3 kilograms.”
“Will this pass the inspection?”
“For a guesthouse, you just need the right number on every floor. If the gauge is in the green, there’s no problem.”
Eun-chae bought the fire extinguisher and walked back to the guesthouse. The morning sunlight was gradually brightening.
When she returned, Grandma was tending the garden bed in the yard.
“Gran, I bought the fire extinguisher.”
“Replace the one next to the shed.”
Eun-chae went to the shed, removed the extinguisher with the low pressure, and replaced it with the new one. She opened her laptop and moved *Replace one fire extinguisher* to the Complete column in the spreadsheet.
She went upstairs and performed one final check of the room. The bedding was just as she had arranged it yesterday. The lettuce in the pot by the window had also taken root nicely.
She refolded the towels and squared them up, then placed two welcome tea bags on the nightstand. They were chrysanthemum tea Grandma had dried a few days earlier.
She stood in front of the mirror and checked her clothes. Her fingertips trembled slightly.
“Gran, what time did you say they were coming?”
“Three in the afternoon.”
She checked the clock. There were still six hours left. During that time, Eun-chae checked the breakfast ingredients and went over her check-in greeting in her head one more time.
The morning passed. After lunch, when the clock moved past two, Eun-chae began pacing in front of the entrance.
“Gran, I’m going to sit down for a bit. I’m so nervous.”
“There’s nothing to be nervous about. It’s just guests coming over.”
Though she said that, Eun-chae kept staring toward the entrance to the yard even after sitting on the veranda.
As three o’clock drew near, a car in the distance turned toward the yard.
Watching it come to a stop in front of the yard, Eun-chae rose to her feet. Her heart was pounding.
*I’m only the owner-to-be for now, but once I’m officially the owner, I’ll have to do this every time.*
The thought actually calmed her a little. It was her first time, so she told herself it was okay to be awkward.
The car doors opened, and a young man and woman got out. They handled the suitcases with an easy tenderness as they took them from the trunk.
Eun-chae took a deep breath and walked out into the yard.
“Welcome! This is Sandeul Haven Guesthouse.”
Her voice trembled slightly, but she did not stop smiling. The man stood his suitcase upright and greeted her.
“Hi, we have a booking.”
“Yes, I found it. You must be tired from the trip.”
Grandma watched from the veranda. She did not interfere.
“If your luggage is heavy, I can carry it for you.”
“Oh, that’s okay. We can carry it.”
As she had practiced yesterday, Eun-chae walked ahead of them. The wheels of their suitcases followed behind her.
“Let me show you the way. It’s the last room on the second floor.”
As they climbed the stairs, Eun-chae glanced back. The woman was looking around the yard and whispering something to the man. She looked happy.
When Eun-chae opened the door, the woman exclaimed first.
“Wow, there’s a planter by the window. Is that lettuce?”
“Yes. I transplanted it from the kitchen garden.”
“It’s so pretty.”
The reaction eased Eun-chae’s mind for a moment. She could feel that all the preparation she had done late into the night yesterday had not been for nothing.
“Breakfast will be ready at eight tomorrow morning. Please let me know if you need anything.”
“Thank you.”
Before leaving the room, Eun-chae pointed to the chrysanthemum tea on the nightstand.
“This is chrysanthemum tea we dried ourselves, from beside our kitchen garden. Please help yourself.”
The woman’s eyes lit up as she picked up the tea bags.
“Wow, you really thought of everything.”
Eun-chae smiled awkwardly and left the room. As she closed the door and walked down the stairs, the strength suddenly left her legs.
Grandma, waiting on the veranda, saw her and smiled.
“How’d it go?”
“I don’t know. But... it was fun.”
Grandma nodded.
“That’s how it starts.”
Eun-chae sat on the edge of the veranda and looked out at the yard. The sunset began to catch on the roof. For the first time, this place felt like the owner’s seat, not a guest’s.
Author’s Note
She finally welcomed her first guests safely. Eun-chae’s first step continues in the next chapter.