Side Story: Sauce
Side Story: Sauce
"Whoa, you're a real fan."
"Haha... thank you."
"It's a shame I couldn't get the mayonnaise, but it still feels good to see a Qtuber I liked."
Everyone showed the same reaction before turning around and leaving.
No matter how you looked at it, with snacks or bread you could understand, but who would have expected something like this to happen over a sauce you sprinkle on food?
Maybe it was because as people's quality of life went up, the quality of the food they wanted also went up.
In that sense, the product that removed the sour taste of mayonnaise and enhanced its sweet and savory flavor could be called a revolutionary product.
Wasn't it very similar to how ketchup evolved?
In the past, there were multiple varieties of ketchup too.
But after tomato-based ketchup came out, ketchup came to mean tomato ketchup.
It would be the same for mayonnaise.
Now the old-style mayonnaise would disappear from the world, and the mayonnaise I made would rule the world......
"Keung... I guess I've been having too many grand delusions."
There was no way such a massive generational shift would happen in times like these.
Maybe in the past, but in this day and age, the things we eat have already been verified and were made by masters and PhDs, weren't they?
A sauce I merely mixed up would be forgotten in no time.
"Oh, a text came."
As expected of Director, she might ignore calls but she never ignores texts.
Reading it carefully, she said I was better at making things blow up big and told me to wait a moment.
She said she'd stop by the factory and bring them in bulk.
As expected of Director.
She did everything for money, but when her pride was on the line, she would scatter everything.
If she just scattered two or three boxes like this it wouldn't look good, so it seemed she planned to scatter a lot more.
It was good for me, and good for the people gathered here.
"Ugh... Anyway, it's getting cold."
Since she was coming anyway, I should tell her to come in the van.
*
"Seong-hwan-ssi, aren't you going outside?"
"It's too cold."
As soon as Director arrived in the van, I went inside.
The outside temperature was currently -5 degrees.
I had come out full of bravado, but it was a fierce cold that felt like it would tear my ears and hands apart.
And since I had achieved my objective, there was no need for me to be outside, was there?
I was a lovely husband and a cool dad at home, you know.
There was no reason for me to be put through hard labor in freezing weather like that.
"Well... It doesn't really matter since they seem to like the mayonnaise more than Seong-hwan-ssi anyway..."
"Saying it like that kind of hurts my pride."
No matter what, I was still a pretty strong money source for the agency.
No, could it be that mayonnaise was becoming that now?
Someone might wonder who handed out the mayonnaise if I was just hanging around inside, but naturally, there were other employees.
Right now, agency staff had been mobilized outside and were handing out mayonnaise.
I felt a bit sorry for them since they were suddenly dragged out, but perhaps because Director said she'd give them a bonus, they were working hard.
"But Director. That sauce there."
"What about it?"
"Can't we just release it normally soon? The quantity is too small, so I feel like it'll just make public opinion worse for no reason."
"Hmm... Seong-hwan-ssi, you pay attention to that kind of thing more than I thought."
"Of course. I have a daughter now, after all."
I didn't want my daughter to see people cursing her dad while browsing the internet or watching the news.
To prevent that, it wasn't just about me acting upright myself; I had to control my surroundings too.
"Tsk... It's a little bit of a shame, though..."
"Sauce is something that keeps selling continuously anyway."
"Well... it's already at the point where we're getting calls from major franchise locations."
"Really?"
"You know that golden arches hamburger place? We got a call from there too."
".........Good heavens."
Right now it was being sold as a collaboration product, but later it would be the secret sauce used in our sandwich shop.
So there wouldn't be any distributing it to other major companies.
But still, since the scale was growing for no reason, it felt like I was getting recognition, should I say.
I felt a little proud.
***
"Seong-hwan-a."
"What."
"The sandwich shop is good too... but couldn't we just sell the sauce?"
"...You're right. This is kind of insane."
We were looking at the bankbook for the sauce sales payments and feeling dizzy.
When I first saw it, it was the profit I had expected, so I felt a bit proud, but then something else immediately caught my eye.
The currency unit.
I thought it was won, but it was dollars.
About 1,200 times the profit we had expected.
It was such a huge profit that I wondered if an individual was even allowed to hold this kind of money.
Sales weren't limited to the Republic of Korea; they had circulated and sold it in foreign countries as well.
Particularly, it recorded very high sales in the Middle East and China.
The Middle East and China.
What comes to mind from those two?
Naturally, the word 'rich' would pop into your head.
The Middle East was oil rich, China was China rich.
Both had controversies so they didn't make it into the world rich rankings, but the rich were still rich.
After the sales quantity limit was lifted, they started going directly to the factory and buying up the goods.
"What are you going to do with this?"
"First, I'll split up your share... hoo..."
"You're sharing this with us? Honestly, it feels a bit burdensome to take."
"You guys made it, sold it, and pounded the pavement."
It was our first business item that we did together before the franchise business.
I had thought about making it myself and selling it through something like a smart store, but the two of them suggested it would be better to sell it by linking up with a large food company.
But since I didn't know how to do that kind of thing, I entrusted it to the two of them.
So this money wasn't all mine, and it was only natural to split it.
"But to split this kind of big money, the taxes will be no joke, right."
"Probably not. From the start, business income doesn't really have much besides withholding tax."
"Should we go see a tax accountant once?"
"Now that we've thought of it, let's just go now."
We grabbed the take-out coffees we had already gotten and stood up from our seats.
Since we had thought of it, we decided to go right away.
*
We came to the tax accountant and showed her the bankbook, and the tax accountant started foaming at the mouth.
She hadn't collapsed yet, but the look on her face and the glint in her eyes that said, 'What's with these bastards?' was a bit prickly.
"So... this is the profit from that business, you said?"
"Yes. It's the amount transferred from Ddukki Ddukki Co., Ltd. this time. But it's listed in dollars."
"Hmm... well, there isn't any big problem or anything. But to handle this amount of money, it looks like it'll take quite some time."
"How long will it take?"
"This isn't the only job... when it's all done, maybe about a month?"
"Then how much should I give you to process it quickly?"
"Excuse me?"
The tax accountant stared at us as if asking what kind of talk that was.
Usually, when you commission an illustration or something, if you want a fast deadline, you pay extra and get it done quicker, don't you? Something like that.
I said it with that kind of feeling, but it seemed she didn't understand.
"Hey, stop bothering the tax accountant."
"I'm not bothering her, it's business."
In this kind of capitalist world, money was everything.
Except for a person's life, you could buy and sell everything.
No, wait, in some countries, didn't they even buy and sell people?
So what was the big deal about mere time?
Huh.
Had I become corrupted?
"We can just wait about a month, what's the big deal."
"No, if I just add about two thousand more to the service fee, wouldn't she finish it within two days?"
".........? Hey, customer? When you say two thousand."
She must be interested, after all.
Didn't people work to earn money?
"Twenty million won."
"Hup......"
"I'll give you twenty million more, so can you process it quickly? There's something I want to do."
"Ah... understood. I'll process it as fast as possible."
"Mm-hmm."
I nodded my head moderately and stood up from my seat.
To work, I needed to get the client out of here.
"What are you planning to do?"
"I'm going to try buying some land."
"Where?"
"Gangnam. Honestly, not just the mayonnaise sauce, but shouldn't there gradually be some changes in mustard and tomato ketchup too?"
"Hmm... mayonnaise, okay, let's say some people like it and some don't..."
"Not sure about mustard and tomato ketchup."
The two of them didn't seem very drawn to it.
But I was a little different.
Since I had already done it, I might as well do it in various fields.
There was no value whatsoever in a world that had already become stable.
The one who twists that world and finds something new becomes rich.
There was no law saying someone like me couldn't start a company like Heinz, was there?
"Ei, if making stuff like that was easy..."
"Hey. Didn't you say that before we made the mayonnaise too?"
"....Did I?"
The person most responsible for getting the mayonnaise onto the market in the first place was this guy, Lee Min-ho.
He subtly provoked me, and I did it on impulse.
In a way, the biggest shareholders in my success so far might be A-ra and Lee Min-ho.
A-ra always cheered me on, while this guy was always busy provoking me.
"That's a compliment, right?"
"You think it's a compliment? The amount you're supposed to receive will be reduced by 10%."
"Ah why~ I'm going on a trip with Minji~"
Oh-ho, so he had the nerve to be planning a trip with my little sister?
If that's the case, I'd have to reduce it by 20%.
"But... if you do that, what happens to the mackerel sandwich?"
"Hm... I don't know..."
If not that, should I try opening a mackerel set meal restaurant?
Strangely, the sandwich just didn't appeal to me anymore.
"Honestly speaking, it might be better to turn our eyes toward sauce sales rather than the sandwich."
"Yeah. There's nothing good about messing with small business owners for no reason, right? In the case of sauce, if it's delicious, it's even better for small business owners."
"Is that so... Then I feel sorry to Jeong-hwan's Mother for no reason."
"What are you talking about. My mother will probably want to use that idea even more. If you say you're not doing it, she'll probably run it herself."
That's right.
Jeong-hwan's Mother was that kind of person.
I had momentarily forgotten.