NOVEL NEXT 63
“Boss Park. I clearly told you during training. Everything else was fine, but…”
When anger reaches its peak, my mind becomes eerily cold. The fury that seemed about to boil over has now settled into a low, undulating wave.
“If your cooking skills are lacking, we can provide better recipes. If your technique is poor, we can train you. If you lack business know-how, we can give you manuals. Anyone can do those things.”
These are issues that can be easily corrected with time and training.
Of course, innate talent makes learning easier. But that’s all there is to it.
“However, there’s one thing.”
I continued, looking at Park Seung-jae, who couldn’t meet my gaze.
“We can’t help you if you’re dishonest.”
“……”
“Even if you struggle, we can help you at the company level if you’re honest. But what are we supposed to do when you keep telling such obvious lies?”
“It’s… it’s not a lie.”
Park Seung-jae squeezed his eyes shut and exclaimed.
“I know it’s hard to believe, but it’s true! People kept suggesting I sell yukgaejang too, so I was just trying it out for one day…”
“And we just happened to come for an inspection on that very day?”
“Yes, yes. That’s right.”
There’s not even an effort in this lie.
“Boss Park. I really… I didn’t want to say this, but.”
Sigh. After exhaling deeply, I continued in a slightly tired voice.
“We came earlier. During the day.”
“…Pardon?”
“We came pretending to be customers.”
Park Seung-jae seemed to take a moment to process my words. He stared blankly into space before belatedly coming to his senses and asking,
“…During the day?”
“Yes.”
“Wh-when did you come? You should have said something. If you had…”
“If we had what?”
I pointed to the menu on the table and said,
“Were you planning to switch out the menus and pretend not to know again?”
“……”
“Other tables were ordering yukgaejang so naturally. Where did you put the menus with yukgaejang listed? They seemed a bit worn for something new today.”
As I continued speaking, Park Seung-jae’s face turned pale.
“And the yukgaejang you’re selling like this is not only pre-made but also has a strong gamey smell. We left most of it. Checking leftovers is basic in the restaurant business, did you even look?”
“……”
“You didn’t, right? If you had, you wouldn’t have been selling yukgaejang.”
Anyone even slightly sensitive to gamey smells would have left most of it uneaten.
If he had checked the leftovers, he could have noticed something was wrong with the yukgaejang. But he didn’t even follow this basic practice.
Well. If he’s willing to break the contract with headquarters as he pleases, how could he be expected to follow such rules?
“Is pre-making yukgaejang a habit from your previous restaurant?”
Park Seung-jae clamped his mouth shut like a clam. He wouldn’t have anything to say even if he had ten mouths.
I continued without waiting for an answer.
“That’s a very bad habit. What’s the advantage of doing it this way? Convenience?”
“Yes… It saves a lot of time, and improves turnover…”
“Don’t use turnover as an excuse. This method has no advantages other than making things easier for you.”
Even that is hardly an advantage compared to the drawbacks.
“You saw how pre-making it reduces freshness and causes a gamey smell, let’s put taste aside for now. Although a restaurant shouldn’t put taste second, let’s say we do for argument’s sake.”
It’s not like I haven’t seen people running businesses this way before. I’ve seen plenty.
When a lot of people come in, and you’re short-handed, you start looking for ways to pre-make food and minimize movement.
That’s not inherently bad. It’s a matter of degree.
Streamlining cooking processes and reducing time without significantly compromising taste should actually be encouraged.
But not like this.
“You just stacked these in the refrigerator without proper lids, didn’t you? Bacteria don’t stop multiplying just because it’s in a refrigerator. What were you thinking?”
“……”
“The world is so dangerous these days. What if a customer gets sick from eating something made like this? Can you handle the consequences?”
“Well…”
“You didn’t even think about it, did you?”
“It’s never happened before…”
What kind of excuse is that?
“The lack of complaints so far isn’t because you’ve been doing well. It’s because you’ve been extremely lucky.”
As I spoke sharply, Park Seung-jae broke out in a cold sweat. Beads of sweat were clearly visible on his forehead.
“If yukgaejang made this way tastes good and is efficient, why run a soup restaurant? You should run a yukgaejang place. No one would say anything if you sold yukgaejang like this in your own restaurant. It would be your loss.”
Assuming there are no hygiene issues, that is.
“But you’re doing this with
“……”
“If you wanted to run a yukgaejang restaurant, you should have said so. We could have just taken down the sign.”
Park Seung-jae fidgeted with his fingers but couldn’t say a word. At least he has some sense.
If he had tried to make excuses or talk back here, he would have faced even fiercer anger.
“And on top of that, you have the audacity to say you only started selling yukgaejang today……. Haha.”
I couldn’t help but let out a bitter laugh.
“What now? Do I need to turn this place upside down to find the menus with yukgaejang listed before you’ll admit it?”
Park Seung-jae looked at me with trembling eyes. Although he was clearly looking down at me due to his height, his gaze somehow gave the impression of looking up.
He had the face of a terrified child.
Not strong enough to fully bear the consequences of his actions, his expression was like that of a student being scolded by a teacher, even at his age.
“…I’m sorry.”
Park Seung-jae finally hung his head.
“I, I must have been out of my mind.”
Drip.
Tears fell onto his apron, leaving small marks.
“I’m sorry… I’m sorry.”
Seeing him apologize repeatedly in a small voice, my anger dissipated.
I sighed deeply once more, running my hand through my hair.
“…Boss Park. We signed a 10-year contract, didn’t we? To work as a franchise.”
“Yes.”
“I also told you not to worry about the contract period. If you wanted to work with a different franchise, you could. If you didn’t like what our headquarters was doing, or if you didn’t like the brand, you could change anytime.”
“…Yes.”
“And do you remember what else I said along with that?”
Park Seung-jae’s voice trembled, choked with tears.
“I remember. Sniff. That if we did anything foolish, you’d be… merciless…”
“Right. You remember.”
Why would someone like that do this? I clicked my tongue inwardly.
“If you had just been honest, it wouldn’t have come to this.”
Didn’t I say it? That anything else could be fixed. But lying is absolutely forbidden.
“Boss Park Seung-jae.”
I called his name softly.
“Thank you for your hard work until now.”
At that moment, Park Seung-jae collapsed to the floor as if crumbling. It seemed to perfectly reflect his shattered state of mind.
Tears soaked his face.
Regret always comes too late, no matter how quickly it arrives. It’s unfortunate, but we can’t continue a relationship when trust has been broken.
I walked past Park Seung-jae and stepped outside.
Sigh.
The cool night air brushed against my cheeks.
“……”
It’s not like I enjoy this either. Whenever I encounter such situations, I feel angry and dejected.
People simply don’t change. Past or future.
“I told him we’d communicate the details about the contract termination later.”
Jo I-ruk, who had followed me out, reported in a tense voice. Perhaps because this was his first time witnessing such a situation. His body was noticeably stiff.
I smiled faintly and patted Jo I-ruk’s shoulder.
“Were you very surprised?”
“…To be honest, yes. I was.”
“You’ll see this often from now on.”
Wasn’t Jo I-ruk originally in charge of selecting new store locations? Since the work isn’t fully divided yet, he’s also responsible for managing new franchises.
Until the workload is distributed, he’ll have to deal with these unpleasant situations.
“The hardest part of franchise management is that you see the worst in people.”
“You speak as if you’ve experienced it firsthand. But this must have been your first time too, CEO. I was surprised by how decisive and clean your handling was.”
I suppressed a laugh that was about to escape. It might seem that way to Jo I-ruk. But for me, this was something I’d been doing for decades.
“That person was also a franchise owner I had trained. I never dreamed he would do something like this. I certainly didn’t think he was the type to lie so blatantly to get out of an immediate situation.”
“Of course. If we had known, we wouldn’t have chosen him.”
It’s my fault for not filtering him out. What’s the point in blaming others?
The existence of such people in the world is an unavoidable reality. All I can do is try my best to manage things so that people like that don’t get mixed in.
“Let’s go. It’s getting late.”
The full moon was looking down on us.
“Will you be going tomorrow too? For franchise inspections?”
“We have to.”
“I’m scared. What if something like today happens again?”
Seeing the dark side of people is always frightening. But I deliberately smiled brightly.
“Tomorrow should be interesting too.”
“Pardon?”
“It’s that place tomorrow, right?”
I pointed to one location on the franchise list and said,
“The Doldari branch.”
“Yes, that’s right, but there’s nothing particularly different about that franchise compared to others. Why do you think so?”
I grinned and said,
“You’ll see when we get there.”