Chapter 36. Halbaekase (1)
I stayed up all Friday night.
It was all because of the perfectly calculated editing of an OTT show that made it impossible to sleep without watching the next episode.
The show that stole away my weekend was a cooking competition where chefs from all kinds of fields competed against one another.
And I was watching its oldest season.
Season one.
Inside it was the younger version of someone I knew very well.
The life-changing story of the owner known as the Meat Gangster, a man who looked even more like a gangster than actual gangsters.
Watching him from back then, when he looked much tougher than he did now, reminded me of the first time we met.
It was my second year at Seongun Development.
Back then, I was still full of passion and incapable of ignoring injustice.
“Hello, President. I’m from Seongun Development’s Commercial District Analysis Team.”
“Commercial District Analysis Team?”
The owner, who had been drinking straight soju alone in the corner of his empty restaurant, glared at the employee ID hanging around my neck.
[Commercial District Analysis Team, Senior Staff Kang Jinhyeok]
Looking back, I really had been fearless.
“I came because I thought I might be able to help. I heard from the Franchise Operations Team that you’re considering shutting down.”
“Help? I’m about to lose everything and close the place. What kind of help are you talking about now?”
Only two years after opening, the owner was already buried under debts he could never repay.
His face was filled with despair.
He had once conquered online cooking channels with nothing but charcoal grilling and skill.
A true self-made chef with no prestigious title behind his name.
He had poured every won he had earned from his old restaurant in the Sihwa Industrial Complex into opening Gaon Charcoal Grill’s Gangnam branch.
Now all that remained inside the restaurant were the broken pieces of his dream.
Even though there were no customers, he couldn’t simply close the business.
The moment he did, creditors would rush in like a pack of starving dogs.
It was heartbreaking.
Even to a rookie like me, the failure of Gaon Charcoal Grill’s Gangnam branch had been obvious from the start.
This was back when Kim Seokhun was still an assistant manager.
Even then, he only cared about himself.
The Meat Gangster owner had been one of his victims.
Blinded by the desire to be promoted, Kim Seokhun had sacrificed a man who knew nothing except meat.
The restaurant occupied the second floor of a huge building on a side road, not even directly facing the main street.
It was a terrible location that could never survive on social media fame alone.
The rent was murderous.
The fixed costs were just as bad.
In the end, the owner had even borrowed from high-interest private lenders just to survive from one day to the next.
His eyes were full of rage and despair as they pierced through me.
Still, I had decided to say what needed to be said.
Back then, my conviction was stronger than ever.
I refused to let someone else go through what my father had suffered.
“What I’m doing here isn’t something the company knows about. I used half a day of leave to come.”
“...W-What are you talking about?”
To earn his trust, I told him a painful story.
The story of my family.
A family that had laughed and cried over one marinated rib restaurant.
“Ha... Why are you telling me that? Having the same wound doesn’t make mine hurt any less.”
“Maybe yours can hurt a little less. If the advice comes from someone who has already been beaten down once.”
“Are you saying there’s a way out of this?”
He finally looked willing to listen.
So I told him everything I had found.
Even among all the crazy things I had done during my ten years at Seongun, this easily ranked among the top three.
“First, take a look at this. There’s a clear error in the commercial district analysis data. I wasn’t sure if you still had a copy, so I printed it. This is the analysis you received before signing your franchise agreement.”
I placed the document Kim Seokhun had created on the table.
It contained the projected sales for the first year after opening.
“Read the part I highlighted.”
The letters were written in a disgustingly tiny font.
Because of this incident, the company later ordered that all commercial analysis documents use at least eight-point font.
[If actual sales remain below 50% of the projected commercial district analysis for six consecutive months or longer, the franchisee may terminate the agreement without penalty on the grounds of head-office responsibility.]
The owner narrowed his eyes as he read the tiny letters.
Then he looked up in shock.
“...N-No penalty?”
“Yes. You can terminate the franchise and get your entire deposit back without paying a penalty. Ah, but there’s one thing you need to do first. Look at this.”
I told the Meat Gangster owner about another benefit Kim Seokhun had conveniently left out.
A low-interest first-tier bank loan guaranteed by Seongun for small business owners.
“The important thing is that you have to apply for this before saying you intend to cancel the franchise. Complain that nobody explained this system to you, and say you want to refinance your high-interest debt. If you say that, the approval should go through without much trouble.”
The owner stared at me as if he couldn’t understand what he was hearing.
“Are you really from Seongun? If headquarters finds out you told me all of this, won’t you get in trouble? Why would you go this far for someone you’ve never met before...?”
“I already told you. My family went through the same pain. I was beaten first, so I wanted the next person to hurt a little less. That’s also why I started working in commercial district analysis.”
Fortunately, my crazy behavior never leaked outside.
The Meat Gangster owner looked exactly like the kind of man who could keep a secret.
And Kim Seokhun was far too busy covering up his own mistakes to notice anything else.
The owner’s face finally looked a little clearer.
He pushed the bottle of soju away and clenched his fist.
“Thank you. Really. To be honest... until just a moment ago, I was even thinking about doing something terrible.”
“Something terrible? Absolutely not. Especially not when you have a picture like that sitting on the railing.”
Despite his appearance, the owner was an incredibly soft-hearted man.
I had noticed the framed photograph from the moment I sat down.
Inside it, his adorable daughter, missing one front tooth, was smiling brightly while making hearts with both hands.
When I pointed toward the picture, tears soaked his thick beard.
He couldn’t stop crying.
So I gave him one more thread of hope.
“If you follow the process I explained, you should at least be able to clear all your debts. Once everything is settled, come find me. If you want to start another business, I’ll personally consult for you. I already have one idea in mind that might suit you.”
He used every tissue from our table and the one next to us to wipe away his tears and runny nose.
Then he followed the method I had given him.
And escaped hell surprisingly quickly.
After he cleaned everything up and came to find me again, I recommended something that wasn’t popular back then.
Korean beef omakase.
Along with the announcement that the cooking competition I was watching now was recruiting contestants.
“Whew... You cried too much back then, and you still cry too much now.”
I replayed his victory scene twice before checking the time.
It was already four in the afternoon on Saturday.
If Mom saw all the snack bags scattered over the floor, my back probably wouldn’t survive.
Starting tomorrow, I’ll be living with my parents again.
I could endure as much nagging from Mom as necessary.
Until my new building was completed next spring, this place would become my temporary home.
“Ugh.”
I stretched my stiff body and began getting ready to go out.
I wasn’t tired.
Today was the day I got to taste Father’s new menu.
