True Management

The commute home.

"Haaah…."

The long workday was finally over. Yu Sang-ho, a company man in his late thirties, let out a deep sigh. All that remained was the trip back to his apartment. Tomorrow was the weekend — for once, he might actually get some real rest.

Even so, a corner of his chest sat wrong. Drawing in the cold night air did nothing to clear the weight inside him.

"Why the hell are you sighing like that?"

"No reason. Just… thinking my luck's absolute garbage."

His coworker Eun-tae already knew why. It wasn't someone else's problem — it was his, too.

Rates really have gotten insane lately.

What used to be three hundred thousand won a month in interest had jumped straight to six hundred thousand. At least Eun-tae was still on a jeonse lease. Sang-ho had bought a place on a full loan. Word was he was shelling out over a million won a month in interest alone.

"Seriously, even early last year it wasn't even half this bad."

"Half? I was only paying a hundred thousand myself."

"I buy a place and the rates shoot up immediately — does that make any goddamn sense?!"

His take-home was roughly three million won. The two million left after interest barely covered putting food in his mouth.

He'd already closed out a savings account that put away five hundred thousand a month, and he was still barely hanging on. Being pissed off was only natural.

"What are you gonna do? The Fed's throwing a goddamn fit."

"Why the hell do they have to do it now?!"

"What power do regular people like us even have? Forget it. Drinks are on me tonight — let's go wet our throats."

"Yeah… maybe we should."

Eun-tae wanted to lift his friend's mood. It was about the only thing he could do for him.

The guy with even a little more breathing room picks up the tab. That's how it works.

Not that Eun-tae was rolling in spare cash either. Same salary, same grind. Still — for one night, they could eat something decent.

As Eun-tae scanned for a place to eat, two signs caught his eye.

Kotolizake

Tokyo Pocha

Izakayas. Eun-tae's favorite kind of bar — the kind they used to hit once a month, back when money still stretched.

Those Japanese bastards really do know how to make liquor.

Sake was pure fantasy the moment it hit your tongue. A swallow nothing like soju. Highballs were sweet and fragrant, sliding down easy — a completely different flavor from beer.

"Want to hit an izakaya?"

"Pass. What izakaya?"

"Why not? It's good."

"Just get cold tripe or something…."

Sang-ho liked izakayas too. They'd gone together enough times — and Sang-ho had been the one nagging to go — for Eun-tae ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠not to know.

Those Japanese bastards just charge too damn much.

The side dishes alone ran higher than other places. Add the liquor bill on top and your wallet never survived.

Gulp.

The place they'd gone before was Kotolizake. Expensive, sure — but the food earned every won. Their pockets were in rough shape tonight, though. Eun-tae was about to steer them toward the relatively cheaper Tokyo Pocha when —

An unbelievable sign. And it wasn't hanging on the cheap Tokyo Pocha — it was on Kotolizake.

"Dude, look at that! Unlimited refills!"

"Fine, let's just go to some unlimited-refill place."

"No — the drinks are unlimited!"

The liquor was free after the first glass. How were they supposed to stay calm about that?

Izakaya drink prices were brutal. If all we pay for is the food, this is actually doable. Sometimes the booze cost more than the meal itself. If they could cut the liquor bill, paying for expensive sides was worth it.

"Irasshaimase!"

They walked in with their heads high. The staff greeted them in Japanese, as if they'd stepped straight into Japan.

This place really does have the atmosphere and the food.

It was just the prices. The dishes were expensive enough on their own. Add drinks and your back started to buckle. But tonight — unlimited refills. Order one decent plate of food and drink until you couldn't stand.

They opened the menu. Something was different from before — the way the prices were written.

25.0 means twenty-five thousand won, right?

Not hard to figure out. Eun-tae immediately started hunting for the best value. A soup dish, plus one side — that would keep the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠drinks flowing.

"What the hell — oden soup is twenty thousand won?!"

"This place has always been a little pricey."

"Yeah, but… if you're gonna spend that, just get sashimi or the assorted skewers."

A bit expensive. And more importantly, it was food you could eat anywhere.

We're already at a place that actually tastes good.

Ordering real Japanese food wouldn't be a bad idea. He was in the mood for it.

"Sashimi santenmori, and the assorted skewers staggered, please."

"Order received~!"

"And a highball and sake."

"One highball, one sake — order received~."

"The drinks… those are unlimited refills, right?"

"Yes! Unlimited refill service for anyone who orders a food menu item."

Money saved on liquor. About fifteen minutes later, the food arrived.

Sashimi santenmori — a mixed platter with three pieces of each kind of fish. The assorted skewers were the familiar kind, but the look and the taste were on a completely different level.

"This blows the place next door out of the water~!"

"Obviously."

"A little expensive is the only downside."

Food that called for drinks. If the liquor had been expensive, they never would have been able to drink this freely.

Gulp. Gulp.

No need to worry. Unlimited refills. The highball slid down his throat in smooth, rolling swallows.

A piece of raw fish. Chewing it was pure heaven. He felt like he could do this forever.

"Hey — sashimi goes with sake."

"I'm not drinking sake."

"Just swap, then."

"Is that allowed?"

"Why wouldn't it be~ Just keep it low-key so they don't notice."

An offer he couldn't refuse. The sake Sang-ho was drinking — gulp. It would pair perfectly. One piece of sashimi, one mouthful of sake.

It might violate house rules. He glanced sideways at the staff.

This much is fine, right?

Just him. It wasn't like he was eating something he hadn't ordered. No big deal. The staff didn't seem to care either.

The sake he swallowed after crushing the guilt tasted —

"Goddamn perfect."

"I'm hitting the highball too?"

"That'll go great with the skewers."

"Yeah, it will!"

Thin ice floated on the surface. It blasted away the sticky early-June humidity in a single hit.

Young crowd comes here — the view's good too.

While watching the staff, he found them. A group of college girls sat by the window, chattering away. You could feel the energy of youth off them. This was Gangnam, after all — the quality was extremely high. One of them looked like she could be a celebrity.

He wanted to throw off the weight of being a husband, just for a moment.

"If I were ten years younger…."

"And your wife?"

"If the wife just disappeared for a bit."

"Yeah, same."

Just drinking in the same place was fun enough. Food and liquor kept going down.

It's real.

That scene. Sora was eating with her friends — at the izakaya her senior was consulting for.

"Is this actually free?"

"I didn't even bring my wallet…."

"It's free, so eat as much as you want."

"Hell yeah!!"

That was her job. Unlike her friends, who were losing their minds over free food, Sora knew exactly what her senior was after.

He's trying to reel in the male customers, right?

Just like the forty-something guys shooting glances their way. And there were plenty more of them. The window seats — seating them here in the first place was probably about pulling in people walking past.

"This place does unlimited highball refills, though?"

"I'd come even if it wasn't free!"

"Right?"

The drinks, too. The reason people came to an izakaya. Just like her senior said — a lot of it was about the highballs.

Unlimited liquor refills…

It was more than enough to pull in the value-hunting crowd. But there had to be losses to match.

This is basically bleeding-money business….

Even the floor manager had opposed it. Her senior had pushed through anyway, and once headquarters issued the directive, it went live. And it was already working. The place was packed in a way that made yesterday look empty.

"This highball is so good! I'm getting another one~."

"But can they even make money doing this?"

"That's what I'm saying."

Whether this could actually save the shop — Sora simply couldn't picture it.

Consulting.

"…I get it up to there, but."

"So you do have a brain."

"Hey!"

That said, what he'd actually done wasn't much. A single day's work, if that.

That's more than enough.

Small things, in a way. But one by one they stacked, and the butterfly effect they produced — that was the economy. And a commercial district was an economy too. If you couldn't shake something this small, you ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had no business going global.

"Another order of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠skewers over here! Highball and sake refills too!"

The forty-something guys kept glancing at Sora. Sure enough, they ordered more sides.

"That's thanks to me baiting them, right?"

"It's not like that had zero effect."

A man didn't want to look cheap in front of a pretty woman. That was just how the species worked.

That's partly why I put her there.

But this was a franchise. There were plenty of branches besides the Gangnam location. You couldn't hire eye candy for every single one of them.

Thwap.

He opened the menu. Instead of writing 25,000 won, an ambiguous 25.0 made people guess at the price.

"I've seen places write prices like this before — why do it?"

"The human brain."

"?"

"It muddies judgment."

Online games did the same thing all the time. Force people to buy crystals or tokens first.

When the unit looks small, the sense of spending money gets blurry.

A hundred thousand won looked big. A hundred dollars somehow felt fine. The illusion kicked in the moment the currency unit shrank. And there was more. Making the staff greet people in Japanese, putting real work into the interior — all of it connected.

"Like how you end up spending more when you're traveling?"

"Exactly."

"Raising the oden soup price so people order other food instead…."

"That too."

"Wow. Five different strategies prepped in a single day — so the swagger wasn't empty after all."

Sora stared at him with her mouth hanging open. It was probably the first time she'd seen a top-tier private equity manager go all-in for real.

Five? She's got jokes.

Everything was strategy. Root-and-branch disruption of this commercial district. From the start, there had only ever been one objective.

Outside the window, the competing shop was visible. Even with customers stolen away, it was still doing decent business.

"You know what PPI and CPI are?"

"I probably know that better than you, Senior."

"But you don't know how to use them."

"?"

Checkmate was already complete.