An Unexpected Guest
It was a complete turnaround.
From the way things had been going, I thought they'd decided against entering the Youth Mall.
Am I just that bad at reading the room?
If this wasn't giving up, then what on earth was it?
I couldn't begin to imagine.
Then why bother looking at real estate together?
Their tone certainly wasn't the casual offer of tagging along out of kindness.
So none of it made sense.
"We're the ones not going in!"
"That's right. We're the ones not going in. Giving up? Hardly."
"What?"
Ah. These people!
They were playing word games.
"We decided not to go into the Youth Mall. It's not that we gave up—we're just not going."
"Haha. What are you even saying."
"We have to do this together, right?"
"Exactly. Even if we couldn't start out together, we should at least finish together. Would it really be okay if only we went in there?"
"It just feels like crawling in on our knees. The second I think about going in, it feels so damn petty."
"It's not like we don't have money—it's that we have pride. No, this is about self-respect. You can throw pride away, but you've got to protect your self-esteem, you know?"
They even layered on playful voices, as if trying to lighten any burden I might feel.
……Ah!
What consideration this was.
Something I had never expected.
It was always like this.
Even long ago, there had always been people like them.
Before I grew strong. Back when I couldn't even handle my own share of the work.
People who sacrificed themselves to pull me up.
"You have to live."
"You at least have to survive. If you live, you can save even more people."
"Don't get the wrong idea. We're not dying for your sake, okay? We're just saving who we can save."
"Don't fall apart."
In those barren days when life itself was nothing but hardship.
The countless people who kept me standing.
Whenever I grew so disappointed in humanity that I felt I couldn't summon another ounce of strength—
People would appear like unexpected gifts.
As if telling me never to abandon hope in life.
Each time, I found the strength to go on.
I endured that grinding existence.
To feel that again here, of all places.
Perhaps because something so completely unexpected was unfolding, my head felt blank.
"Bosses……"
"Haha. Why that face? You're making it awkward."
"Ah, don't look at us with those eyes. We calculated all of this too."
"Right. We're not doing charity work—we're being ridiculously calculating, you know?"
"What would we do without Boss Kim? Would people even show up?"
"Exactly. If we went into the Youth Mall, we'd just slowly wither on the vine. Without drawing anyone in."
"That's what I'm saying. And look at me. If I don't have proper beans, I'm finished, right? You know that? Haha."
Avoiding my eyes, the two of them kept talking without pause.
As if telling me not to feel any more burdened. Not to take it that way.
That's not it at all.
Anyone could see these were excuses.
Both of them could have coasted comfortably for years if they entered the Youth Mall.
The odds of that are high.
The newly elected mayor would keep pushing the Youth Mall hard.
The cooking competition had wrapped up successfully, hadn't it?
Since he could claim it as his own achievement, he would throw all kinds of events their way.
Only growth would have been waiting for them.
And yet they were giving that up—no, saying they would do this together.
There was only one thing I could offer these two.
"Thank you."
I bowed my head deeply and gave them my gratitude.
I had gained people.
And with them came the courage that, together, we could accomplish anything.
Fired up with determination, we launched into action right away.
We went out to find shops.
"What is this? It's harder to find something than I expected."
"Right? Weird, isn't it?"
We had set out full of drive.
Yet nowhere could we find a decent spot with good foot traffic for doing business.
"If this were the food alley, I could understand there being no vacancies right now."
"Exactly. That's a restaurant street no matter how you slice it, so demand's always there. Why is it like this over here?"
"That's not even the real problem."
We hadn't so much as glanced toward the food alley.
Rents there were steeper than expected.
There was no need to force our way in.
Especially since a place big enough for all three of us to set up at once would be even harder to find.
So the spot we had chosen was the Shinsigaji right next to it.
Rents there were relatively cheaper than the food alley.
The downside was lower foot traffic, but we figured the three of us could solve that much.
After all, we were the ones who had lifted even the deserted Food Truck Zone.
But no matter how hard we searched, there wasn't a single promising listing.
"Aigoo. There's nothing on the market around here these days."
"Why not?"
"Why do you think? Because people already signed contracts, that's why!"
"Contracts this suddenly?"
"Exactly! Some rumor must have gone around. In that short time, every decent spot got scooped up. I should've gotten in on it myself, but I missed out. I'm dying of regret!"
According to the real estate agent we found, the listings had been cleaned out recently.
Every last good property in the already limited Shinsigaji!
What kind of rumor went around? What the hell?
Every other agency just shook their heads and said the same thing.
If only we'd come a little sooner.
"Does this even make sense?"
"Aigoo. Tell me about it."
"At this rate, neither the food alley nor the Shinsigaji is going to work."
"Mmm……"
Nothing. There was nothing.
Out of sheer frustration we circled the Shinsigaji again and again, places we had already covered.
We hunted down every agency we might have missed.
And that was when it happened.
In the corner of a new real estate office, I spotted someone.
"Isn't that Jang On-gyu over there?"
"Huh? You're right!"
"What's he doing here?"
"He's at a real estate office, so he must be looking for a shop, right?"
"Ah……! He saw us."
Right then, Jang On-gyu noticed us too.
He didn't stride over like some third-rate villain.
He simply smiled brightly, projecting pure class.
Interesting. Even when he decides to shake us up, he refuses to do it in a cheap way, is that it?
I could feel the other meaning hidden beneath that brilliant smile.
And with that, I more or less grasped the situation.
"Now I understand why all the decent listings in the Shinsigaji disappeared recently."
So Boss Jang made his move.
I explained the whole situation.
How I had been offered a spot in that five-story building we'd seen earlier—told to move in first.
It immediately made clear that he was planning to do something far bigger in this Shinsigaji than any of us had thought.
"No, Boss Kim, why didn't you take that? It would've been better than the Youth Mall, wouldn't it?"
"I didn't want to set up in a place someone else prepared for me."
"Why not?"
"I was afraid of being jerked around. Even in the Food Truck Zone, something was always happening and we kept getting pulled every which way, right?"
"Hmm. Well, that's true enough."
The coffee truck boss knew exactly how I'd been jerked around before.
Even so, he asked with shared regret.
"Still, it's a shame. Don't you think so?"
"In the short term, yes. In the long term, it's fine."
It wasn't as if I felt no regret at all.
But now I was completely at peace with it.
"Actually, looking at it now, this is even better. Because I turned him down, the three of us can stick together, right?"
"Haha. Well…… that's true!"
At the mention of sticking together, the boss broke into a bright smile.
It was such a pure, clear laugh for a man his age.
No wonder he had managed to keep his stubborn insistence on good beans even while running a food truck.
He was a man with the right kind of stubbornness.
That smile confirmed for me that my choice had been correct, and I continued the explanation.
"Anyway, Boss Jang has a lot of franchises, right?"
"Of course! There's a reason they call him a business genius. If you count the smaller ones too, he's got over twenty."
"I figure he's trying to set something similar up here."
"Ah! That's it! Jang Sa-jang Street!"
The man commonly known as the business genius, Boss Jang.
He was famous for starting with a single restaurant and then filling the entire surrounding street with the various restaurants he owned.
The so-called Jang Sa-jang Street!
That was how it all began, wasn't it? The whole 'business genius' nickname started there too.
After that he had begun commercializing in earnest.
I knew he had launched a bunch of franchises and spread them everywhere.
At the same time he went on television, built a clean public image, and rode a solid rise in stock prices.
And that had been it.
As far as I knew, he hadn't pushed any new projects after that.
Looks like that's no longer the case.
Judging by what I was seeing, he was ready to start something new.
It wasn't just the building he had shown me—he was clearly preparing other pieces as well.
And would rumors about that really not have spread?
Of course not.
Word of mouth traveled fast in this business. It was bound to get out.
"Tsk. If a new Jang Sa-jang Street goes up, foot traffic will definitely increase."
"Right. Looks like people who caught wind of it early came and rented everything. Just so they could set up next door."
"That tracks. Now it all makes sense!"
Once people heard about him and flooded in, of course the listings vanished.
There was no point blaming anyone else.
This was a matter of survival.
If you want to live, of course you grab it.
Everyone dreams of doing business in a prime location.
And when an opportunity appears, of course you have to seize it.
Self-employment is hard even when you pour everything into it, so there was nothing to criticize about people acting on the single hope of doing well.
Still, all I could do in this situation was sigh.
"So what are we supposed to do now? Mmm…… Boss Jang? Why have you been so quiet this whole time?"
"……Ah?! It's nothing."
"You're a business genius too, Boss Jang. You're the most resourceful one among us, so don't worry too much."
"Ah, that's not really it, but. Yes! Understood. Haha."
"Haha. That's right, keep laughing like that—it'll give you energy!"
For some reason the Boss Jang who had agreed to join us let out an even heavier sigh.
Considering he usually had the most positive personality of any of us, it was unusual.
Maybe it's because he only started his shop not long ago. He probably doesn't have much in the way of spare capital.
It was odd, but not hard to understand.
Either way, the important thing was figuring out how to solve this.
"We're going to have to find a way."