NOVEL NEXT 62
“Oh my~ Who do we have here!”
A man with his head wrapped in a bandana greeted us with a bright smile.
“Boss Park, I’m sorry for contacting you so suddenly.”
“Oh, don’t worry about it. You’re welcome anytime!”
His smooth response flowed like water. Park Seung-jae, the franchise owner, maintained a confident attitude as if he had nothing to be ashamed of.
“Have you been well, CEO Song?”
“Haha. Thanks to you.”
My low blood pressure has been completely cured, I tell you.
“We’re in the process of inspecting our franchises one by one. I was wondering if we could take a look around the store today, if that’s alright?”
“Of course. Come on in!”
His gesture inviting us inside suggested he’d probably hidden the yukgaejang-related ingredients somewhere out of sight.
As Park Seung-jae strode in confidently, Jo I-ruk whispered to me.
“Should we have come without notice after all?”
“It’s best to conduct inspections unofficially and provide feedback officially. Don’t worry. We have a record of visiting earlier today anyway.”
There’s no point in trying to deny it. And who designed the interior of this store, after all?
‘No matter where they hide things, it’s all in the palm of my hand.’
I could see right through the thought processes of these cunning merchants.
Whispering, we followed Park Seung-jae into the store and took our seats. With all the part-timers gone for the day, the three of us sat alone in the empty restaurant.
Park Seung-jae initiated conversation in a friendly manner.
“So, shall I serve you a bowl of soup? I do have some broth still maturing~”
“You’ve thrown out all the blended broth from today, right?”
“Of course. Same-day consumption is the principle of our
He’s good with words.
“Well, I’m not sure what we should eat.”
“Ah~, why worry? There’s only one menu item here anyway.”
As I casually picked up and opened the menu, the ‘yukgaejang’ from earlier had vanished without a trace.
It was now a single-page menu, front and back, just as
‘Right. If you’re going to deceive someone, at least put in this much effort.’
Rather than feeling indignant, I was almost impressed by the dedication. I closed the menu with a thud and said,
“Don’t the customers ever complain?”
“Complain?”
“Well, people coming for hangover cures often look for hangover soup, or things like soybean paste stew with beef, right?”
As I probed subtly, Park Seung-jae glanced at me cautiously. Seeing my calm smile, he grinned and countered,
“Of course there are such people. Naturally. Even my acquaintances come and make such a fuss about having just one or two more menu items… Ah, you might know this, but I used to run a yukgaejang restaurant.”
“Of course I know.”
“Haha! Back then, my yukgaejang was absolutely top-notch~ My acquaintances know this, so they all come and say they want to eat my yukgaejang, and how great it would be if I just added that to the menu~”
“Oh, really? I’d love to try your yukgaejang sometime, Boss Park.”
“I’ll definitely treat you to it next time.”
He’s not falling for it.
I was ready to say “Gotcha!” if he offered to make it right away.
“If we boil a new batch of blended broth at this hour, we’d have to clean the kitchen again, so that’s fine. Let’s just take a look around the store. We’ll include a hygiene inspection too.”
“Sure~ Take a look around.”
Entering the kitchen, it looked even more organized than when we saw it earlier today. Did they clean up before we arrived?
‘Well, that’s pretty standard.’
Everyone tends to do a bit of extra cleaning when headquarters announces a visit.
Pretending to check the kitchen’s condition, I approached the area where they had cooked the yukgaejang.
“There are some stone pots here? It’s quite far from the toryeom area.”
“Ah~ I forgot I left them there for a moment.”
Park Seung-jae scratched the back of his head, looking sheepish.
“I must be really nervous. Haha.”
“You don’t need to be. Just relax.”
“How could I~? I’m still shaking.”
His attempt to brush it off with humor was quite slick. Well, he’s not new to the business game, that’s for sure.
“I’ll take a look at the refrigerator too.”
“Yes. It’s this way.”
“The storage area isn’t very large, is it?”
“No. It’s barely enough~”
We designed it that way on purpose.
“It’s best to store about 1.5 times the daily amount of ingredients.”
“Isn’t that too little? Buying in bulk would be cheaper…”
“We’ll find a distribution method soon to supply you frequently. Then we can make bulk purchases at the company level, which will be cheaper.”
“Still, 1.5 times is too little~”
I could almost hear Park Seung-jae’s unspoken thoughts.
‘What do you know, never having run a business yourself? Do you understand the practicalities? …Is that what he’s thinking?’
This is a conclusion drawn from blood, sweat, and tears. Well, explaining it here would probably fall on deaf ears anyway. I decided not to elaborate further.
“But something’s odd.”
“Pardon? What is?”
“I could have sworn this storage area was a bit larger.”
“…Haha. Was it? I thought it was always this size.”
Who are you trying to fool?
The kitchen isn’t that big, so there isn’t much extra space. If you needed to quickly hide stacked stone pots, it’s either the refrigerator or here.
The refrigerator’s interior is clearly visible, but the storage area might have some nooks to hide things.
Crack!
I peeled off the thin plywood attached to the inside.
Simultaneously, a stack of stone pots was revealed.
“Well, well.”
I pulled one out.
Meat, green onions, seasoning, mushrooms… No wonder the meat smells so gamey. It would be barely acceptable if the blood was drained and the meat parboiled, but leaving it like this in storage all day…
“What might this be, Boss Park?”
“That’s…”
Park Seung-jae hesitated for a moment before bowing his head deeply.
“I’m sorry, CEO Song. The truth is, my acquaintances kept insisting on having yukgaejang…!”
Oh? So that’s how you’re going to play it.
“I prepared this to serve my acquaintances. I never sold it to other customers!”
His repeated emphasis on the truth seemed quite sincere. Anyone who didn’t know better might have thought Park Seung-jae was truly wronged.
“I know I shouldn’t have, but my acquaintances were so insistent that I made a mistake. I’m sorry!”
“Oh, is that so? I would think other customers would have asked about it. Seeing people eat a menu item that’s not on the menu.”
“Some people did inquire, but I just told them we were out of ingredients. …I shouldn’t have done that either. I’m sorry.”
He’s absolutely refusing to admit it himself. I let out a deep sigh before bluntly saying,
“Really, why are you doing this, Boss Park?”
“…Pardon?”
“Let’s not do this. We both know what’s going on here.”
I pulled out all the stone pots stacked inside. There were a total of 32 servings.
How many of these were being sold each day? And when were they prepared? There was no way to know.
“Do 30 of your acquaintances visit every day?”
“Well, not exactly…”
“Do you think I wouldn’t know what this is? Do you think I wouldn’t realize these were prepared in advance to just add water and heat up for customers?”
As my tone sharpened, Park Seung-jae’s eyes widened.
He probably didn’t expect me, who usually spoke in gentle tones, to change so suddenly. But I’m quite skilled in handling people too.
I don’t particularly want to berate him, and that’s not the entirety of people skills anyway. I’m just choosing not to, not that I can’t.
“You need to say something that makes sense. There are 30 stone pots stacked here, and you’re saying they’re all for acquaintances? Does that make any sense? Boss Park, you tell me yourself. Does this sound like a plausible story?”
“…I’m sorry.”
“I asked if it sounds plausible.”
As I pressed him sternly, Park Seung-jae answered in a small voice.
“It doesn’t make sense…”
“You think so too, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then why lie? Did you think I wouldn’t know?”
“No, no. It’s not that… I, I made a mistake.”
What nonsense.
It’s obvious how much he must have looked down on me, thinking I was just some CEO with no business experience. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have told such a transparent lie.
I picked up a piece of meat from inside the stone pot and sniffed it. It reeked.
“Ugh. Look how it smells. When did you make this?”
“…Y-yesterday.”
“Are you sure? This doesn’t smell like meat from yesterday.”
It seems like it’s been in the refrigerator for at least three days. Fresh meat wouldn’t smell like this.
“Smell it yourself, Boss Park. See if this smells like fresh meat or not. You ran a yukgaejang restaurant, so you should know best.”
I handed the stone pot to Park Seung-jae, who carefully took it and picked up a piece of meat to smell.
“It smells, doesn’t it?”
“…Yes. It does.”
“You didn’t notice this?”
“I’m sorry.”
His quick admission of wrongdoing is commendable, but he shouldn’t have done something so indefensible in the first place.
Thud.
I set the stone pot down and said,
“Boss Park. Be honest with me. Do you sell yukgaejang here or not?”
“……”
“Did you sell it to customers or not? Tell me yourself.”
“…Well.”
I crossed my arms and looked at Park Seung-jae. The fate of this franchise would depend on his answer.
Park Seung-jae’s eyes darted around as if he was pondering. He seemed to be struggling with how to respond.
He’d be worried about getting scolded if he answered honestly, and concerned about facing penalties for breaching the contract.
But if he tried to lie, he’d be afraid of me staring him down with my piercing gaze.
Unable to decide, Park Seung-jae wavered before finally closing his eyes tightly and saying,
“I-it was just today!”
See what I mean?
I felt my anger rising.
“Are you still lying to me?”