Chapter 58
Chapter 58
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 58
Chapter Title: The Entitled Neighbor
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“What? What the—?!”
Yoon Kang-deok shot up from his seat a beat late. He jabbed a trembling finger at me and yelled.
“What do you take people for, saying crap like that?! It sounds like I’m only here after your money—I’m scared someone might overhear!”
He grumbled on with an air of utter injustice. Anyone watching would think he’d been falsely accused.
I snorted dismissively and replied in a bored tone.
“Wasn’t that the case? The way you were talking, it sounded like you were angling for some kind of payout, so that’s what I figured.”
“Hey now, you. Payout?!”
Yoon Kang-deok continued confidently.
“Unless you mean compensation for damages.”
I knew it.
Jo Yi-ruk stared at Yoon Kang-deok with a slightly dazed look. He seemed to have grasped the situation.
Ridiculous, right? I thought so too.
In a capitalist market, getting edged out due to lack of competitiveness was inevitable. Instead of working to improve himself, he was just blaming others.
“Don’t get the wrong idea! Your place is clearly harming the small businesses around it, so you ought to compensate us properly. How can you just brush it off like that?”
Yoon Kang-deok pushed forward as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
That brazen attitude would’ve left a novice owner stammering, “Is this normal?” and getting dragged along.
“How is our shop doing well hurting anyone? As I said earlier, some customers come for us but end up at nearby spots too. Isn’t that actually good for the area?”
“Come on. You can’t think of it that way. We’ve been tending this little patch of earth for years, and you just sprinkled some seeds on top and grew them big. How can you claim all the credit? That’s straight-up thief mentality!”
Yoon Kang-deok waved his hands wildly as he spoke.
“And how are small merchants like us supposed to compete with a big company like yours? You’ve swallowed up an entire corner of the alley!”
The Song’s branding had indeed transformed part of the alley into something unique. That drew crowds here, which clearly rubbed him the wrong way.
“Big company...? Us?”
“You’re running multiple huge shops—doesn’t that make you big? We’re all just scraping by with tiny hole-in-the-wall places!”
Maybe. We’d started with just one gukbap joint ourselves.
We’d grown by expanding into various ventures. Our starting point had been the same as theirs.
‘Of course, I was the secret weapon.’
Even before my regression, I’d built a major company from nothing, so that wasn’t much of an excuse.
‘Not that explaining would help.’
No logic worked on someone like him. The answer was predetermined—he’d come here determined to squeeze compensation or a payout out of me, one way or another.
Decades as a merchant had honed nothing but his stubbornness and self-justification. Words wouldn’t get through.
So I opted for a more aggressive approach.
“Mr. Yoon, you run a noodle shop, right?”
“That’s right! Twenty-seven years of tradition! Our place might be small, but it’s got history...!”
“How much has it changed in those twenty-seven years?”
“Uh, whuh?”
“The anchovy noodles from twenty-seven years ago versus now. How much have they evolved?”
Yoon Kang-deok shot back immediately at my question.
“Not a single bit!”
“Right? Just the price went up?”
“Well, prices rise with inflation...”
“Do you develop new menu items at all?”
“Develop?”
He looked at me like I’d asked something absurd.
“My anchovy noodles are the best they’ve ever been right now! There’s nothing left to tweak!”
“Mr. Yoon, the world has changed a lot in twenty-seven years. Sure, some folks chase nostalgic flavors, but to win customers, you’ve got to keep up with market trends, don’t you think?”
I smiled brightly and continued.
“Do you replace your kitchen tools on a schedule? They’re not still the same ones from twenty-seven years ago, are they?”
“W-well...”
As if.
“Opening a shop isn’t the end of it. You have to maintain it consistently and keep evolving, or you fall behind.”
People get it all wrong.
They think standing still keeps you in place forever. That’s the biggest mistake.
Standing still means falling behind.
Your competitors keep moving forward, leaving you stranded. To customers, it looks like you’re the only one lagging.
“I checked out the market for research once. Your noodle pot was all scorched and grimy—made me lose my appetite. Did you know about that?”
“...”
Yoon Kang-deok clenched his fists, trembling. I saw Jo Yi-ruk subtly positioning himself between us in case things turned violent.
“You’re making a huge mistake.”
Yoon Kang-deok glanced at Jo Yi-ruk and ground his teeth, not daring to lunge.
“I’m a local lifer who’s done business here my whole life. You think you can treat me like this and keep operating in this neighborhood?!”
His eyes flashed wildly, looking downright menacing. I took another sip of coffee and set the cup down on the table.
“Yeah, I think we’ll be fine.”
“No matter how many outsiders you draw, this is still a neighborhood reliant on locals! You’re cocky now with the crowds, but just wait and see.”
Yoon Kang-deok muttered darkly.
People who say “just wait” never amount to much. As I mused that casually in my head, he got even more incensed at my unflinching calm.
“I’ll be watching with both eyes wide open to see how long you last!!”
BAM!
Yoon Kang-deok stormed out, slamming the door. No Se-hee let out a small “Oh!” of surprise, followed by the sounds of him leaving the office entirely.
Finally, some peace.
“Sorry about that. Shouldn’t have asked you to brew coffee for nothing.”
The untouched cup sat forlornly behind the tray Jo Yi-ruk was holding.
“I thought the talk would drag on longer. He bailed sooner than expected.”
Some types hound you relentlessly for cash. Yoon Kang-deok was easy by comparison.
Just a little scratch to his pride, and he stormed off.
“Never seen anything like this before.”
As Jo Yi-ruk muttered, No Se-hee peeked in to check on things and chimed in.
“It happens sometimes. Not often, though.”
“Huh?”
Jo Yi-ruk looked stunned, so No Se-hee came inside and picked up the untouched coffee cup.
“Mind if I have this?”
“Oh, sure. Go ahead.”
“Thanks.”
No Se-hee settled naturally into a seat and continued.
“When all the shops are middling along and one suddenly stands out, it stirs up trouble. The other owners get jealous.”
“Even so, outright demanding money like that... Isn’t that too much?”
Jo Yi-ruk, who’d spent his life buried in books, clearly couldn’t wrap his head around it.
No Se-hee, with her industry experience, seemed to have a rough idea of how things worked.
“Usually, it ends with quiet envy. Copycats pop up sometimes. But when it’s bad, they demand cash or harass you out of business.”
“Whaaat?”
“If that one shop vanished, customers would come to ours~—something like that, I guess. Who knows.”
No Se-hee shrugged. Don’t bother trying to understand. They often don’t even know their own motives.
“Man, what weirdos.”
“It’s like that everywhere. Even among small business owners, some are extra prickly.”
It wasn’t limited to self-employed folks. People who can’t stand seeing others succeed and try to drag them down exist everywhere.
“But Owner, that must’ve been new for you too, and you handled it great.”
At No Se-hee’s words, I grinned. New? I’d dealt with it dozens of times.
The first time, I floundered. Next, I hesitated before kicking them out. Later, I just sighed in exasperation.
“Yeah, I didn’t even know what shop he ran. When did you check out the anchovy noodle place?”
Oh, that.
“It’s an old commercial district, so I figured something like this might happen eventually.”
I’d anticipated it from the start.
That’s why I’d thoroughly scouted nearby shops. Once I learned about the merchants’ association, I visited every member’s place.
Yoon Kang-deok’s, as the de facto head, went without saying. The hygiene was so bad I couldn’t even touch my chopsticks.
“...From the beginning?”
“Pretty much.”
So when Yoon Kang-deok showed up out of nowhere, I wasn’t surprised. Just, “Here it comes.”
“I’m not even startled by this stuff anymore.”
No Se-hee gave me a strange look. I shrugged, and she shook her head.
“But will it be okay?”
Jo Yi-ruk asked cautiously, looking worried.
“I know it’s just bluster, but he’s a local lifer and the merchants’ association head. What if there’s backlash?”
Yeah, easy to think that way.
Same mindset as owners who cave to black consumers, fretting over future retaliation.
“Don’t worry. You can’t sweat every little thing and expect to last in business.”
“But...”
“And.”
I grinned and continued.
“I told you. I saw this coming from the start.”
I’ve got a plan~