NOVEL NEXT 58
“W-what, what did you say?!”
Yoon Kang-deok belatedly sprang to his feet. With trembling hands, he pointed at me and shouted.
“Who do you think you’re talking to?! You’re making it sound like I came here just for money. I’m afraid someone might hear!”
He protested indignantly, his voice quivering. To an outsider, it might seem as if he’d been falsely accused.
I responded coolly, without so much as a snort.
“Weren’t you? The way you were talking, it sounded exactly like you were asking for consolation money.”
“Listen here, you. Consolation money, my foot!”
Yoon Kang-deok continued boldly.
“Compensation for damages, maybe.”
Just as I thought.
Jo I-ruk looked at Yoon Kang-deok with a slightly dazed expression. It seems he’s caught on to the gist of the situation.
He must be dumbfounded. So am I.
In a capitalist market, it’s inevitable to be pushed out of the competition if you lack competitiveness. Yet here he is, blaming others instead of thinking about improving his own competitiveness.
“Don’t misunderstand! Your establishment has clearly caused damage to the surrounding small business owners, so naturally, you should compensate, right? How can you say it like that?”
Yoon Kang-deok pushed on as if it were obvious.
His attitude was so brazen that if I were an inexperienced CEO, I might have been flustered, thinking, ‘Is this normal?’ and gone along with it.
“How does our store’s success cause damage? As I mentioned earlier, there must be customers who come looking for our store and end up patronizing nearby shops. Isn’t that actually beneficial?”
“Listen here. You can’t think of it that way~ This is all a garden we’ve cultivated, and you’ve just sown seeds and grown them well on top of it. How can you think it’s solely your achievement? That’s a thief’s mentality!”
Yoon Kang-deok waved his hands as he spoke.
“And how can small business owners like us compete with such a big company? You’ve swallowed up an entire corner of the alley!”
It’s true that part of the alley has changed its appearance with
“A big company… us?”
“You’re operating several large stores, aren’t you big? We’re all just running tiny hole-in-the-wall shops!”
I’m not so sure. We also started with just one soup restaurant.
We’ve simply grown by expanding our business in various directions. Our starting point was the same as theirs.
‘Of course, I had the hidden card of my regression.’
But even before my regression, I had a track record of growing a company from scratch, so that’s no excuse.
‘Well. Explaining that wouldn’t make any difference anyway.’
There’s no point in responding to such a person with any logical argument. He’s already made up his mind and come here determined to get consolation money or compensation from me by any means necessary.
After decades as a merchant, all he’s cultivated is stubbornness and self-justification. No amount of talking will make him understand.
So I decided to take a more aggressive approach.
“Representative Yoon, you run a noodle shop, right?”
“That’s right! With 27 years of tradition! Our shop may be small, but it has a long history…!”
“How much has it changed in 27 years?”
“Huh?”
“The anchovy noodles from 27 years ago and now. How much have they changed?”
Yoon Kang-deok immediately retorted to my question.
“Not one bit!”
“Right? Only the price has gone up, hasn’t it?”
“Well, that’s because of inflation…”
“Do you ever develop new menu items?”
“Develop?”
Yoon Kang-deok responded as if I’d asked something absurd.
“My anchovy noodles are at their absolute best now! There’s nothing to change, I tell you!”
“Representative Yoon. The world has changed a lot in 27 years. Some people might seek out nostalgic flavors, but don’t you think you need to keep up with market trends to attract customers?”
I continued with a gentle smile.
“Do you regularly replace the kitchen equipment in your store? Surely those aren’t still the same from 27 years ago, are they?”
“Well, that’s…”
Of course he hasn’t.
“Setting up a store isn’t everything, you know. If you don’t consistently manage and continually develop, you’ll keep falling behind.”
Many people misunderstand this.
They think if they stay still, they’ll remain in the same place. That’s the biggest miscalculation.
When you stay still, you fall behind.
Competitors keep moving forward, and you’re left behind all alone. To consumers, it seems like you’re the only one lagging.
“I visited for market research the other day. The pot for boiling noodles was burnt black and didn’t look clean, so I didn’t feel like eating the noodles. Did you know that?”
“……”
Yoon Kang-deok trembled, his fists clenched tight. I noticed Jo I-ruk discreetly positioning himself between us, preparing for any potential violence.
“You’re making a mistake now.”
Yoon Kang-deok glanced at Jo I-ruk and, unable to lunge at me, gritted his teeth.
“I’m a local born and raised, and I’ve been doing business here my whole life. Do you think you can treat me like this and still do business in this neighborhood?!”
His eyes were bulging fiercely. I took another sip of coffee and set the cup down on the table.
“Well, yes. I think we’ll be fine.”
“No matter how many outside customers you have, this is ultimately a market that relies on locals! You might be feeling high and mighty because of your current success, but just you wait and see.”
Yoon Kang-deok muttered lowly.
People who say “wait and see” rarely have any substance. As I inwardly mumbled such nonchalant thoughts, Yoon Kang-deok grew even more agitated at my unblinking response.
“I’ll be watching with eagle eyes to see just how successful you can be, so remember that!!”
SLAM!
Yoon Kang-deok stormed out, slamming the door violently. I heard Roh Se-hee’s soft “Oh my” of surprise, along with the sound of Yoon Kang-deok leaving the office entirely.
Finally, some peace and quiet.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked you to bring coffee.”
The coffee Yoon Kang-deok hadn’t touched sat forlornly on the tray Jo I-ruk was holding.
“I thought the conversation would last longer. He left earlier than expected.”
There are some who persistently threaten for money. Yoon Kang-deok was relatively easy to deal with in comparison.
He stormed out just from having his pride slightly bruised.
“This is a first for me.”
As Jo I-ruk muttered softly, Roh Se-hee, who had come to check on the situation, peeked her head in and said,
“It happens occasionally. Not often, but it does.”
“Pardon?”
As Jo I-ruk’s face paled, Roh Se-hee entered and picked up the untouched coffee cup.
“May I drink this?”
“Ah, yes. Go ahead.”
“Thank you.”
Roh Se-hee naturally took a seat and continued speaking.
“When one place suddenly stands out among a bunch of similar shops, it’s easy to become the subject of gossip. Other shop owners might feel envious too.”
“Even so, to demand money so blatantly… isn’t that going too far?”
Jo I-ruk, having spent his life buried in books, seemed utterly baffled by this situation.
In contrast, Roh Se-hee, with her experience in the industry, seemed to have a general understanding of how things worked.
“Usually, it ends with quiet envy. Sometimes copycat businesses pop up. But in extreme cases, they demand money like this, or even try to harass the shop out of business.”
“What?!”
“They think, ‘If only that shop would disappear, customers would come to our place~’ or something like that. I’m not entirely sure myself.”
Roh Se-hee shrugged. It’s best not to try to understand. Often, even they don’t know their true motivations.
“Good grief. There are some strange people out there.”
“It’s like that everywhere. There are bound to be some eccentric individuals among small business owners too.”
This isn’t limited to small business owners. People who can’t stand seeing others succeed and try to bring them down exist everywhere.
“But CEO, this must have been your first time experiencing this too. You handled it well.”
At Roh Se-hee’s words, I grinned. First time? I’ve probably been through this dozens of times.
The first time, I naturally panicked. The next time, I hesitated before turning them away. Later, I became utterly sick of it.
“That’s right. I didn’t even know which shop that person ran. When did you visit the anchovy noodle shop?”
Ah, that.
“Given that it’s an established commercial area, I thought something like this might happen.”
It was like that from the beginning.
That’s why I investigated the nearby shops more thoroughly, and after learning about the merchants’ association, I visited and examined each of the members’ shops one by one.
Needless to say, I checked out Yoon Kang-deok’s shop, the de facto representative of the merchants’ association. The hygiene was so poor I didn’t even want to touch the chopsticks.
“…From the beginning?”
“Pretty much.”
That’s why I wasn’t surprised when Yoon Kang-deok suddenly showed up. I just felt like, ‘Ah, the inevitable has come.’
“Now I’m not even surprised by these things anymore.”
Roh Se-hee looked at me with a strange expression. I shrugged, and she shook her head.
“But will it be okay?”
Jo I-ruk asked cautiously, his face full of concern.
“I know it’s just bluster, but still, he’s a local and the representative of the merchants’ association. I’m worried there might be some disadvantages…”
Right. It’s easy to think that way.
It’s similar to how some owners can’t properly respond to black consumers. They worry about potential future disadvantages.
“Don’t worry. If you fret over every little thing like this, you won’t last long in business.”
“But still…”
“And.”
I continued with a smirk.
“I told you, didn’t I? I thought something like this might happen from the beginning.”
In other words, I have a plan for everything.