NOVEL NEXT 60
“Good morning, everyone!”
He bowed deeply with a booming voice, his angle so precise it resembled a flip phone.
“I’m Park Sang-won, starting work today! I look forward to working with you all!”
Park Sang-won straightened up and glanced around at us. His eyes sparkled impressively.
It’s rare to see someone with such passionate eyes after they’ve been through the wringer of society.
“Welcome aboard.”
I greeted Park Sang-won with a broad smile. Jo I-ruk followed with a slight bow.
“Pleased to meet you. I’m Jo I-ruk.”
“Yes! I’ve heard so much about you!”
“Haha. I’m a bit worried about what you might have heard. We’re short-staffed, so I’m afraid we might have given you a hard time.”
“It was quite challenging.”
Roh Se-hee chimed in naturally.
“Welcome to hell, Park-ssi.”
“I’m not even an Assistant Manager anymore. Haha.”
Park Sang-won scratched the back of his head.
“I heard there’s only a distinction between team leaders and team members here. So feel free to just call me by my name.”
What’s the point of titles like Assistant Manager or Manager in a company with only four people? For now, we were maintaining a relatively horizontal relationship without a proper rank system.
I keep calling Jo I-ruk “Team Leader Jo” out of habit without realizing it, which seems to have led Roh Se-hee to follow suit…
“Thank you for joining our company. It couldn’t have been an easy decision to leave a big corporation like Hyeonmu.”
“Not at all! I’m sick and tired of Hyeonmu by now.”
Park Sang-won shook his head vigorously.
“I wanted to work under someone who better appreciates my abilities, especially since our team is staying together. Although
“Thank you for the kind words.”
“I mean it! I did a lot of research before deciding to change jobs. Manager Roh also told me plenty about the practical aspects. But our team’s opinion was always the same!”
Park Sang-won clenched his fist and shouted,
“We’ll die together or live together! That’s the spirit I’m bringing to this job!”
Wow.
Could it be that the glint in Park Sang-won’s eyes wasn’t passion but madness?
Was the Park Sang-won I knew a more worn-down version? This relatively young Park Sang-won seemed to overflow with an almost unmanageable passionate energy.
“Uh, um. Yes. Fighting.”
As I smiled awkwardly, Roh Se-hee let out a deep sigh.
“I told you not to overdo it.”
“Ah! I’m sorry!”
Even his deep bow was excessively loud. What an unusual character.
“Park Sang-won-ssi will be working under Team Leader Roh from now on. Since you’ve worked together for a long time, I think you two know each other better than I do.”
“Yes!”
“Then Team Leader Roh, please divide up the work and handle the handover.”
“Understood.”
Good. That wraps things up here. More team members will be joining one by one, which should lighten the load for Jo I-ruk and Roh Se-hee each time.
Of course, as the number of franchises increases, so will the workload, so it might be a zero-sum game. Still, it’s fortunate to have more hands on deck.
“Oh, Jo I-ruk-ssi, I mentioned we’d have a business trip today, right?”
“Yes, I’ve cleared my schedule.”
“Great. Let’s go.”
“Um, CEO. May I ask what kind of business trip this is?”
“Ah. Didn’t I tell you?”
Oops. I thought I had.
I looked Jo I-ruk up and down. Hmm. He’s well-dressed in a suit, but…
I suddenly narrowed my eyes and stared at him, causing Jo I-ruk to look bewildered.
“This won’t do. You look too much like an office worker.”
“Well, I am an office worker…”
“We’ll need to stop by a clothing store first.”
“Pardon?”
“Let’s go!”
I dragged Jo I-ruk out unceremoniously. It was amusing to see him repeatedly asking, “What?” and “Huh?!”
I’m in the mood. I’ll buy you clothes out of my own pocket, so let’s hit the clothing store first.
⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱
“Oh, that looks good on you!”
“…Thank you.”
Jo I-ruk responded with a tired face. Hmm. It’s been a while since I’ve bought clothes for someone else, so I got a bit excited and made him try on several outfits. Was it really that exhausting?
After choosing the most flattering casual outfit and having him wear it, he looked quite different from his initial appearance, giving off a boyfriend look.
Good. Just as planned.
I had come dressed casually from the start, so there was nothing else to worry about for me.
“Ah, let’s buy hats too. Two of these, please.”
“Certainly~”
I pointed to some neutral hats hanging on one side of the store.
“Here you go.”
I handed one of the two to Jo I-ruk, who reluctantly accepted it.
“What on earth is this all about?”
“My, you still haven’t figured it out?”
“I don’t have a clue. I’m starting to wonder if this is some form of workplace bullying.”
Unlike before, his expression has turned gloomy. Tsk tsk. With such weak stamina…
“Don’t worry. We’ve finished picking out clothes, and the time is just…”
It’s a little past 11 o’clock. When did time fly by like this?
“If we leave now, we’ll be right on time.”
“So, where exactly are we going that requires buying new clothes? This doesn’t seem work-related at all… CEO, don’t tell me…”
Jo I-ruk crosses his arms and gently places them on his chest with a terrified expression. It’s an oddly irritating pose.
“Don’t tell me you’re…”
“Is that what you think this is?”
“I’m sorry, but I tend to avoid office romances.”
“It’s not that, so don’t worry.”
This is really exasperating.
Judging by Jo I-ruk’s expression, he’s not entirely serious. He’s just trying to annoy me a bit too. And to some extent, it’s working.
“We’re going to visit a franchise.”
“Ah, there. …But why do we need to dress like this?”
He seems to be holding back from asking if a suit wouldn’t be better. Right. It’s probably best to restrain yourself in front of someone who just bought you clothes.
I’m sorry, but there’s a reason for everything.
“Because we’re not going officially.”
“Pardon?”
“We’re going in secret. Without them knowing we’re coming.”
“!”
Jo I-ruk’s eyes widened at my words.
“So that’s why the hats…!”
“They’ll know our faces. But if we’re in casual clothes and wearing hats, they’ll be too busy with the business to pay attention to our faces.”
In other words, an undercover operation.
“It’s meaningless if we announce our visit in advance. We might not see their usual behavior.”
“That’s true.”
“We’ll experience it without revealing that we’re from headquarters, and if we notice any deviations from company guidelines or areas for improvement, we’ll provide feedback later. Of course, if anything is seriously wrong, we’ll issue a warning and halt operations without hesitation.”
That’s much better.
Just imagine if food poisoning were to spread due to unhygienically prepared food at one of our franchises. Although we’re insured for liability, insurance doesn’t solve every problem. If a customer were to fall seriously ill, it’s terrible just to think about. Not to mention the damage to the brand’s reputation.
Rather than going through such an ordeal, it’s better to apologize, temporarily close the business, and conduct an emergency inspection.
“Of course, since they’ve only been open for a short time, there probably won’t be many deviations from company policy. Instead, we’ll focus on suggesting improvements in areas like customer service and kitchen efficiency.”
“That’s a good idea.”
Jo I-ruk nodded.
“…But why am I coming along?”
Truthfully, there isn’t much Jo I-ruk can do by coming along. He could share his experience from a regular customer’s perspective, but…
Jo I-ruk is ultimately a novice in the business, having only learned by observation.
And there’s quite an age gap between Jo I-ruk and me, so it’s a bit awkward to pose as a couple. It might have been less conspicuous if Roh Se-hee had come along instead, as two friends of the same gender eating together.
Especially since Roh Se-hee is also in charge of PR, she might have been able to point out more detailed aspects.
Despite all this, there’s only one reason I brought Jo I-ruk along.
“Because you’ll be managing this in the future, Team Leader Jo.”
“…Managing what?”
His face turned pale, as if sensing the impending workload. I grinned and replied.
“The undercover team. I prefer to call it ‘The Royal Inspector Has Arrived,’ though.”
“When you say undercover team…”
“You’ll be doing what we’re doing now – visiting franchises disguised as regular customers and trying the food. If there are any shortcomings, we’ll re-educate the franchise owners, and of course, conduct hygiene inspections.”
“Ah. That kind of team.”
“It’s essential.”
Franchises are hard to manage as I’d like. No matter how much attention I pay.
I try to minimize any gaps, but we can’t conduct surprise inspections every month, can we?
Once every three months, once every six months. With regular inspections scheduled like this, headquarters can’t do much about franchise owners becoming lax in between.
But with a specialized undercover team like this, it serves as a self-regulating mechanism to some extent.
“Later on, it might be difficult to go undercover even with hats. But we’re still in the early stages now.”
“CEO, you always speak as if you’ve experienced times beyond these early stages.”
Sharp observation.
“Anyway, get a good feel for it today, and for the time being, you can take turns conducting undercover operations with me or other staff members.”
“Yes. Understood.”
“That’s why it is, so stop complaining and put on the hat. We should start with the closest location.”
“Alright.”
I got into Jo I-ruk’s car.
After a 30-minute drive.
Once we park in the spacious parking lot, we arrive in front of a bustling soup restaurant that seems to have opened recently.
Whistle.
I couldn’t help but let out a whistle.
“Business is booming.”
“Even from the reports, this place has been doing well. There’s high foot traffic, and we paid a lot of attention to parking space from the start.”
Well, the location is impeccable since Jo I-ruk chose it and I reviewed it. That part doesn’t worry me much.
It’s off to a pretty smooth start.
“Welcome~! Table for two?”
“Yes.”
“This way, please!”
Fortunately, it seems there was a table available. We were able to get seated without waiting.
“Here are your menus~”
The server handed us menus and left. Since it’s a single-menu restaurant, there’s no need to even open them. Just as I was about to call out for two bowls of Hapjae soup…
I overheard the next table placing their order with the server.
“We’ll have one Hapjae soup and two yukgaejang, please.”
…What?