Do People Change That Easily?
Do people change that easily?
Boss Bang's voice drifted over to me.
He was more polite than I had ever heard him.
"Hasn't the city been leaving this Food Truck Zone to rot for quite a while now?"
"Well, I wouldn't call it neglect, exactly…"
"Come on. If you leave something alone for years, that's neglect, isn't it?"
"Ahem. The previous mayor put this together on his own authority, so there wasn't much we could do about it."
"Of course, of course. I understand completely. Did that guy ever do anything right? No wonder the current mayor ran against him and won."
"That's right, isn't it? Haha."
"Exactly."
The content itself was not polite in the slightest.
From the sound of it, those people are city officials. It's true the Food Truck Zone has been around a while. So this was the previous mayor's project.
Boss Bang had given them a little shove, and they looked like men who had been summoned and were expected to produce results. That, too, seemed part of the plan.
He shifted smoothly into soothing mode.
"Since the previous administration threw this together however they liked, things got a bit messy."
"I can see that. Looking at it now, there do seem to be a lot of people…"
"Please. Those numbers are inflated. They just pass through here on their way into our food alley."
"Is that so?"
"As you can see for yourself, only a few of these trucks are actually doing any business."
"Only a few… Well, it does look that way."
In truth, it wasn't only a few that were doing well. My Ramenkase truck and the coffee truck. On top of that, there were quite a few trucks selling snacks like buttered squid to people waiting in line. Boss Jang, especially—a sharp operator—kept bringing in whatever dishes were trending and selling them well. There was no way those men couldn't see that. They simply weren't looking.
"Which is exactly why the mayor is building the Youth Mall, isn't it?"
"That's right. It's something His Honor has been putting a lot of effort into."
"And as it happens, the Youth Mall is going up right over by the food alley, isn't it?"
"Haha. And so?"
Had the soothing worked? Or did Boss Bang simply have better connections than I expected? The official who looked most senior was paying close attention now.
"I have a rather good idea, if I may…"
"We're listening."
"Ahem. If you're going to erase the traces of something, shouldn't you erase them completely?"
"How so?"
That was when Boss Bang dropped the bomb.
"The new mayor has opened the Youth Mall for the hardworking small-business owners of the Food Truck Zone! How does that sound?"
"Opened the Youth Mall? That part was already the plan, wasn't it?"
"Sure—but you add one heartwarming story on top of it."
"A heartwarming story?"
"Yes. The food truck owners from here move into the newly opened Youth Mall! From food truck operators to proper shop owners. How does that sound?"
"Ohhh…!"
"That's a brilliant move!"
Clap, clap, clap.
As if they had been waiting for their cue, applause erupted all around. From what I could tell, the other owners who had come with Boss Bang were leading it, and the remaining officials got swept up and started clapping along.
Hearing it laid out, it wasn't complete nonsense.
Now that I think about it… it is a clever move, isn't it?
The tug-of-war between the previous mayor and the current one wasn't my business. What mattered was whether the Food Truck Zone would survive. From the look of things, the current mayor meant to wipe it out. The problem was what happened to the rest of us. We hadn't put down a lump-sum lease, but we had been paying proper rent and running businesses here for a long time. If they told us to get out tomorrow, things would get ugly fast.
But if they gave the food truck owners priority placement in the Youth Mall…
That is actually a pretty good idea.
It made for a solid plan. I could agree it would look like a nice story. The problem was the messenger. Sometimes the messenger matters more than the message. The fact that Boss Bang was the one delivering this left a bad taste in my mouth. There had to be something else going on.
"But still, this place is doing at least some business, isn't it? Thinking about the Youth Mall location, some of them might not want to move right away."
"Of course. But as you can see… the environment here is really not good, is it?"
"The environment?"
Boss Bang had pulled out a strange talking point. For the record, we had trash cans placed throughout the area—nothing that would make anyone wrinkle their nose. I had a bin set up right next to my own food truck so people could dispose of things after eating. Apparently none of that was visible to them.
"Yes. Trash turning up here and there."
"Hmm…"
"And once you have trash like that, the rest of the area starts looking… well, you know."
"Is that so?"
"Yes. You've heard of the broken windows theory, haven't you?"
"Broken windows?"
"Yes."
Oh, for crying out loud. Now he was hauling out a theory that didn't even fit. The broken windows theory—the old idea that if you leave a building's broken window unrepaired, the whole area slides into lawlessness. New York had actually put it to use with some success.
But that's a theory about crime, isn't it?
It wasn't a wrong theory. It just wasn't something you slapped onto this. We weren't broken windows. It was a ridiculous comparison—but Boss Bang was not the type to feel embarrassed by it. He squared his shoulders and piled on more pressure.
"I'm saying this place is that broken window. Our market merchants are starting to struggle, too… You know how long the local people here have been around, right?"
"Of course. Of course we do."
"Plenty of them have been here since I was a kid. These are people who live in this neighborhood…"
"Ahem… We know."
"I'm actually making this request carefully. I've taken it upon myself to play the villain for the merchants' association. Haha."
"The merchants' association."
"Yes. After all, we're the ones who actually live and do business in this area. Ah—of course, once the Youth Mall opens, people will move in there too, right? Probably?"
"I understand."
Merchants' association. Local people. Excellent words for leaning on someone. The official opposite him wasn't a fool, either. He had clearly grasped Boss Bang's meaning right away. And knowing that full well—
"Wouldn't it be better to clean things up before any incidents happen?"
For some reason, Boss Bang glanced in my direction as he drove that last line home.
Business is about making a living.
The moment I closed up for the day, I called over the food truck owners I was on speaking terms with. Boss Kim from the coffee truck, and Boss Jang, the sharp operator who sold snacks. Both of them came right over. As soon as I saw them, I passed on what I had heard.
"The Youth Mall?"
"Yeah. Apparently that's what they're doing."
"Wasn't that a project that got shelved? Why bring it back all of a sudden…"
"Looks like they want to wipe this place out and push the Youth Mall through."
The coffee truck owner's face darkened as he listened. Just when things had been starting to settle into place, a change like this—there was nothing good about it.
"Huh… So what are we supposed to live on, then?"
"It sounded like they'd give us priority points for moving into the mall."
"Mmm… Priority points, huh. Really?"
At the mention of priority points, Boss Jang from the snack truck cut in.
"If there are priority points, we should be able to get in without much trouble, right?"
"Probably? The Youth Mall was around during the big food truck boom, and a lot of them have disappeared since then. So the competition shouldn't be too steep."
"Yeah, that part makes sense."
Both of them seemed to take the news of priority points well enough.
"But what if we don't get in?"
"Then things really blow up."
"Man, this is complicated."
"It is a complicated problem."
When survival is on the line, nothing is simple.
"On the surface, it looks pretty reasonable. For us, too… a real shop would be better than working out of a truck."
"That's true, but… abandoning this spot and moving just feels wrong…"
"That part already seems like a done deal."
"Yeah, fair enough. Not like we can change it."
"Right. We'll have to go along with it. Getting in would be fine, but…"
"Something about it just sits wrong."
On paper, there was nothing for us to lose. We could even upgrade our shops. Running a business out of a cramped truck was never ideal—even a small storefront would be better. All of us had started in trucks because we had no other choice. So it was a good offer, in theory. And yet the unease would not go away.
The source of that unease was simple.
"It's Boss Bang being involved that bothers me, right?"
"…That's it! I knew something felt off—it's that bastard making me nervous!"
"Right?"
"Yeah! No matter how I look at it, I can't believe he'd do something just for our benefit."
Boss Bang. He was the sticking point. Boss Jang, who had only arrived more recently, seemed less sure.
"You think so? I saw him set up that standing signboard a while back… At this point, couldn't it just be a different calculation?"
"A different calculation?"
"That he can't beat us here, so he's surrendering."
"Surrendering?"
"Yeah. Surrendering. People line up here every day. So since he can't win, he's trying to drag us into the Youth Mall instead."
"And what changes if he drags us there?"
"From what I hear, the Youth Mall is deeper into the food alley. If we move in, it's the same as us entering the food alley, right?"
"Ahh. So we share the foot traffic boost together?"
"Exactly. Wouldn't that revitalize the whole commercial district?"
"Couldn't they just go to the Youth Mall on their own?"
"From their side, every single person counts."
"Hmm… Hearing you put it that way, it does make sense."
"So maybe he's trying to bring us into the fold."
"Bring us into the fold…"
Boss Jang's argument had its grounds. More foot traffic alone would help things along. If that was the play, it wasn't wrong. Calling it their "declaration of surrender" even sounded pretty good. No matter how much business is a fight over limited customers, picking a fight every single day is no way to live either.
Thinking about it that way, it does add up.
It was clearly a sensible argument. And yet—why? Somewhere deep in my chest, something still felt off.