Chapter 10

Chapter 10. Baristers (2)

Seokhun felt uneasy as he watched Jinhyeok return to his seat.

He had expected Jinhyeok to come back after being thoroughly scolded over the Étoile incident.

Instead, Jinhyeok looked completely peaceful.

Two days earlier, the director had asked to see Jinhyeok immediately after Seokhun submitted the Mullae-dong report.

He had said he wanted to ask about the Étoile incident.

Even so, Seokhun couldn't get rid of the uncomfortable feeling in his stomach.

“Manager Kang. Come out for a moment.”

Seokhun dragged Jinhyeok into the lounge and asked,

“What did you talk about for so long?”

“The Étoile Sillim branch. He asked why I made that decision.”

“What did you tell him?”

“I just explained what I thought. That I did what I believed was right.”

“Ha... You said that crazy nonsense in front of the director too? You should've been apologizing and showing regret.”

Seokhun laughed in disbelief.

But Jinhyeok didn't waver at all.

“Regret what? Haven't you heard how much the group's image improved after the Étoile Sillim event spread online? Isn't that exactly the mutual growth our group always talks about?”

He really was insane.

Seokhun had always known Jinhyeok was stubborn.

But he never imagined the man would say things like that directly to the director.

“You still haven't learned anything. The director must've been dying inside listening to you. Tch.”

“I don't know. He seemed to like my answer. He even gave me a new assignment.”

Seokhun frowned.

The director had given Jinhyeok an assignment directly, without going through him.

“The director gave you a direct order? Are you joking?”

“No. Baristers, Gimpo Janggi Branch. He told me to find a way to revive it.”

The moment Seokhun heard the name Baristers Gimpo Janggi Branch, he burst out laughing.

“Puhahaha! Don't tell me you think that's a good thing.”

Not long ago, the Franchise Operations Team had contacted him, saying they intended to declare the store beyond recovery.

It was a handmade ice cream shop whose commercial district Seokhun himself had analyzed before opening.

It didn't really matter to him anymore.

Five years had passed since the store opened.

If it closed now, it wouldn't affect his performance record.

But the director had assigned that place to Jinhyeok?

Seokhun thought Jinhyeok had completely misunderstood the situation.

“That's poison, idiot. It's basically a cup of poison. Tch.”

Seokhun genuinely believed that.

He assumed the director had become frustrated while discussing the Étoile incident and given Jinhyeok an impossible assignment.

This wasn't a place that could be saved through luck like the Étoile Bakery.

It was less than ten meters from a subway exit.

It had a massive apartment complex behind it.

The location itself was excellent.

Unlike Étoile, Baristers Janggi Branch was already in a prime location.

The only reason business was bad was that the trend for premium handmade ice cream had ended.

There were ice cream shops inside every apartment commercial area.

On top of that, there was a major competitor famous for its thirty-one flavors.

No matter who went there, Baristers Janggi Branch couldn't be saved.

But Jinhyeok spoke calmly as though none of that mattered.

“Why is it poison? I only need to analyze whether recovery is possible.”

“Haha. Listen to you. When someone tells you to analyze whether recovery is possible, they're telling you to find a way to save it. You've been at this company for ten years and you still don't understand that?”

Jinhyeok understood.

But he had no intention of thinking that way.

If he saw a method to save the store, he would report it.

But he wasn't going to force himself to create some impossible solution.

He had made that clear to the director.

He was a commercial district analyst.

His job was simply to produce a proper analysis suited to the situation.

And yet...

The moment Seokhun openly mocked him, Jinhyeok suddenly wanted to succeed.

“I won't decide anything before inspecting the site.”

“Pfft. Really? I like how consistent you are. Let's see what happens. Hehehe.”

Seokhun tapped Jinhyeok's shoulder in amusement and returned to his seat.

Jinhyeok remained alone and clenched his fist.

The director had openly given him a test to prove the words he had spoken.

Kim Seokhun was delighted because he thought Jinhyeok had received poison.

Before leaving this company, Jinhyeok wanted to show them something.

A commercial district analyst who had spent ten years giving everything to this work...

Could save almost any place.

The next morning.

Janggi Station intersection.

The streets were extremely quiet on a weekday morning.

Baristers, Seongun's handmade ice cream brand, was just as empty.

Leaving the deserted shop alone for now, I entered a second-floor café overlooking the intersection and opened my laptop.

The first thing I needed to analyze was foot traffic.

The world had become convenient.

Ten years ago, information like this required physically walking around and counting people.

Now it could be checked with only a few clicks.

Small Business Information System.

Municipal foot-traffic statistics.

Even big-data services like GeoVision Puzzle, operated using telecom data.

They could cross-analyze which age groups and genders gathered in certain areas depending on the day and time.

According to the data, the location wasn't bad.

The surrounding environment looked good too.

On each side of the intersection were large apartment complexes and a busy restaurant alley.

There wasn't an obvious answer.

But I wasn't frustrated at all.

This wasn't like the past, when I had to run everywhere searching for clues.

I had the diary app.

I could see the future.

I took out my smartphone and wrote another fake entry.

[Thursday, March 12.

Apparently, even I don't have a magical answer.

After visiting the site myself, I realized it.

There's no saving Baristers Janggi Branch.

Just like the Franchise Operations Team, I'll have to declare it impossible to recover.]

There were two reasons I wrote something I didn't actually believe.

If saving the store was impossible, I didn't want to waste my energy.

But if it was possible...

I wanted to find a way no matter what.

Ding.

The instant I saved the entry, the diary app reacted.

[XX/XX.

I visited Janggi Station intersection again after a long time.

While looking around, regret suddenly overwhelmed me.

Why didn't I see it back then?

A newly opened ice cream shop at the entrance to the restaurant alley was packed with customers.

Why didn't I think of this?

If I had been just a little more careful, the owner of Baristers wouldn't have given up on life.

The solution was so simple.

How could I have carelessly moved on?

Was I possessed by something?

I hated my past self more than I could describe.]

The diary didn't even display a date.

Apparently, it was from the distant future.

I had just read something horrifying.

The Baristers owner would take her own life?

It was only a hypothetical future created by my fake entry.

But even imagining it was terrible.

I bit my lip and deleted the fake diary entry declaring the store beyond recovery.

The future diary slowly disappeared.

Now I had another reason to save Baristers.

A reason far more important than the director's test or Kim Seokhun's mockery.

The solution described in the entry was surprisingly simple.

Move Baristers toward the restaurant alley.

As I looked down over the intersection with that thought in mind, a large banner across the diagonal corner caught my eye.

It belonged to a clothing store.

[THE OWNER HAS GONE CRAZY!]

The words were written in huge letters.

From the banner alone, it looked like that store was also preparing to close.

The two businesses had chosen completely opposite locations.

There was only a single intersection between them.

But the difference was enormous.

Behind the clothing store was the entrance to the restaurant alley.

Behind Baristers rose a massive apartment complex.

Ice cream was an impulse purchase.

Something people bought casually.

Clothing was a planned purchase.

Something people looked for when they actually needed it.

No wonder the clothing-store owner was going crazy.

Nobody finished a meal with a full stomach and suddenly wanted to try on clothes.

People who had been drinking definitely weren't going clothes shopping either.

I left the café and sat inside a convenience store beside the clothing shop.

There were limits to foot-traffic data.

I needed to watch and listen with my own eyes and ears.

Not just age and gender.

I wanted to estimate their occupations and hear what kinds of conversations they were having.

When lunchtime arrived, office workers poured out.

Nine out of ten passed in front of the clothing store and entered the restaurant alley.

They barely went near Baristers.

After lunch, elementary, middle, and high school students gradually appeared.

So did housewives taking a break after finishing their chores.

Most of them followed the same route.

There was no need to observe the evening.

This location needed to sell ice cream, not clothes.

The Baristers across the road showed the exact opposite pattern.

Older residents stayed around the Baristers side and avoided crossing the intersection.

That alone told me enough.

People would probably pass there mainly after work.

Hungry office workers wanting to get home as quickly as possible.

After entering my observations into the laptop, I headed to Baristers.

I would make this work somehow.

This was no longer simply about saving a store.

It had become about saving a person.

When I opened the door, the sweet scent of vanilla brushed my nose.

“Hello.”

The female owner, who had served only five customers throughout the entire day, sighed and sat across from me.

“You came.”

Her voice was as lifeless as it had been over the phone.

Her lease was approaching its end.

She probably had countless things on her mind.

“Do you have a moment?”

“Yes. It's embarrassing, but as you can see, there are no customers at all. But why is someone from the Commercial District Analysis Team here?”

Her reaction was natural.

The Commercial District Analysis Team created the initial plan.

The Store Development Team and Space Design Team executed it.

After that, everything became the Franchise Operations Team's responsibility.

No wonder my sudden visit confused her.

“I had somewhere nearby to visit. If you don't mind, could I give you some consulting advice? I heard your lease is almost over.”

“Consulting?”

Her eyes were suspicious.

She must have accumulated plenty of disappointment along with regret.

Some people believed that simply obtaining a Seongun franchise would guarantee at least a stable living.

Reality was different.

Eventually, every franchise owner learned the harsh truth.

To headquarters, franchise owners were often just tools for increasing corporate profits.

Survival was still each owner's responsibility.

The structure wasn't designed so that headquarters automatically lost money whenever a franchisee did.

Whether the store succeeded or failed, franchise operating fees remained.

And to make matters worse, headquarters sometimes pressured owners to replace signs or redesign interiors.

No wonder she viewed my sudden consulting offer with suspicion.

“I'm not asking for a consulting fee. I'll just give you some advice. Could you tell me more about your situation? What do you plan to do once the lease ends?”

“...I don't know. My children are still young, and we have a lot of debt. Recently, my husband was injured too...”

I didn't need to hear every detail.

She was clearly suffering from severe financial hardship.

That was probably why the future had ended so tragically.

“Have you considered moving the store? I analyzed the commercial district this morning, and no matter how I look at it, this location is terrible for you.”

“...Move the store?”

Worry flooded her face.

The worse business became, the more time she had to think.

She must have already considered countless possibilities.

But a mind filled only with despair rarely produced hope.

I was different.

I already knew there was a solution.

“See that place over there? The store with the huge banner saying the owner has gone crazy? That's the prime location. It's one of the worst places to sell clothing, but for your business, it's nearly perfect.”

Had I made myself sound too much like a con artist?

The owner stared at me as though I were insane.