Chapter 180 – Episode 180. Even if You Come Out in Front of the House, Pick Up the Number
After calling Kim Joo-hwan again and setting up a meeting time and place, she took a short break.
They must have been in a hurry, so as soon as I gave them the time and place, they took a taxi and came this way.
Since we were going to drink, we both said we would leave our tea behind.
I came out of the studio I was living in properly prepared.
Before coming out, I thought I would touch the guys’ heads at least once, so I brought a piece of hard wax in my pocket and came out.
After coming out, I decided to smoke near the house for a while before going to the meeting place as usual.
After lighting the e-cigarette, I inserted the hitz from my pocket and lit it.
“Sueup… Whoa…”
When I smoked a puff or two, a woman passing by seemed to pass by, then turned around and came towards me.
Then it happened that she came close to me and started talking to her.
“Excuse me…”
I somehow knew what she was going to say.
Because this happens quite often to me.
She was also a pretty good visual.
His house was not far from here, and he looked quite comfortable in a suitable outerwear, socks and slippers, but he still looked good.
She had big eyes and a pretty baby body, and her thick lower lip was attractive.
The body also seemed well-maintained.
Her first impression was pretty good, so I got a crush on her at a glance.
If it were other high school students other than me, I would have drool in front of them while standing in line.
But I couldn’t afford to make more women at this time.
It is still an unbearable situation.
When I already turn on my chat, there are endless beauties asking me to meet her, and it was difficult for me to accept her because of her studies, and I can’t find a situation where I can take time off from her.
She came close to me and talked to her.
“I wonder… Do you have a girlfriend?”
It seemed like they were trying to get my number.
I put down her cigarette, which she was smoking, and spoke to her as I pulled her back for a moment.
“Um… No, I don’t have a girlfriend, but I tend not to make one while studying… I’m sorry.”
I said that to her, bowed her head slightly, and added to her.
“Study well for the test, I hope you have good results.”
I gave my own encouragement, but from her point of view, she spoke to me in a voice that couldn’t cheer me up because it was a situation that struck me at the speed of lightning.
“Yes…”
Perhaps embarrassed, she left with a quick pace.
When I looked at where I was going, it seemed that I was living on the right side of this one-room village.
‘Today too.’
Really, this happens every few days.
Some people say that gosichon seems to make women feel lonely, but in reality it is not, but in my experience, it certainly seemed to be a more lonely neighborhood than Gangnam.
After she left, I started smoking again.
Near the house, there is a collapsed wall on the side of the road leading to the one-room village.
Shops run from here.
The collapsed wall remains low, making it very suitable for sitting and smoking.
I sat there and smoked a cigarette.
One shop is a small fried rice restaurant and has a long run, while the other shop changes quite often.
‘There was a webfoot octopus restaurant next door.’
I was lost in thought for a while as I looked at the store that had been turned into a bar.
Shops around here change quite often.
At first glance, since the floating population is so damn high, it seems like everything will sell well and make a lot of money, but that’s not always the case.
When I look at restaurants from a consumer’s point of view while staying in Gosichon for quite some time, there are three main variables.
Taste, passion, and market share.
First of all, there are many houses with no taste.
There are some stores with low quality, such as the pork smelling bad, the chicken gangjeong I bought but the skin gangjeong, or the bread a bit stale.
It is a mistake to think that if you sell cheaply just because you are an exam student, you will eat it yourself even if the quality is low.
Even if I am myself, I save up some money from my part-time job and eat food that looks edible, but since most exam students receive support from their families, there are cases where they can eat better with the support of their parents.
So, whether you are trying to sell cheaply or want to leave a lot, food made with low-cost ingredients is inevitably ignored by students who do not have as low purchasing power as you think.
From what I’ve seen, the most reasonable way around here is to sell cheaply with medium or higher quality materials, leaving only a little bit and selling them in a split-price fashion.
Passion is next.
I was surprised when I came here.
There were cases where some stores were hit hard, such as times when they were not open for a long time, wondering if it was right to do business like this.
For example, it is a restaurant, but it is only open for lunch during breakfast, lunch and dinner, and is closed at other times.
Even though lunch time is different, I know very well that it is the peak time especially in this high school town.
But if it works, all stores will be open for only two hours, from 11 to 1.
There is no reason to work 12 hours from 11:00 to 11:00.
You must have paid the right fee and came in, but it doesn’t seem easy with enthusiasm enough to go in after seeing daytime customers for a while.
And finally, market share.
Tonkatsu is very popular around here.
By the way, there are more tonkatsu restaurants.
There is one at the station, and there is a house that is good at cheese pork cutlet.
As you come up from the station, there is a large pork cutlet restaurant in the middle of the main road. The taste here is normal and the store is pleasant.
A sushi restaurant on the second floor across from that place also sells tonkatsu, but there are more tempura menus.
Based on our academy, the pork cutlet restaurant in front of the back gate of the academy also has rice bowls.
Both of them turn into pork cutlets at the two snack bars at the back gate of the academy.
And the fried rice restaurant on the side of the academy also becomes pork cutlet.
In front of the main entrance of the academy, there is a franchise Japanese pork cutlet restaurant.
There is another restaurant that serves tonkatsu in Baekban at the crossroads inside the eatery alley.
If you go further to the left along the intersection, there is another pork cutlet restaurant that serves thick lean meat.
If you go a little further from there, there is another restaurant specializing in tonkatsu rice bowl.
In the alley and the two bento restaurants in the alley next to it, both serve tonkatsu.
There are three more nearby snack bars, but all of them serve tonkatsu.
Pork cutlet, pork cutlet, pork cutlet…
These tonkatsu houses are just a quick thought, and if you think more specifically, there may be more tonkatsu houses.
No matter how large the floating population is and no matter how many college students, including me, like pork cutlet, if there are 20 to 30 pork cutlet restaurants, M/S, or market share, will inevitably be dispersed.
Just ‘there aren’t many pork cutlet restaurants, but since the high school students like pork cutlet, I’ll have to open a pork cutlet restaurant.’ It’s not easy to say if you start.
This is because there are so many other restaurants that don’t do pork cutlet as well as pork cutlet restaurants.
Well, it might be similar.
If you sell tonkatsu, which is a favorite menu for college students, the total amount of the pie itself will increase.
Instead, the competition will be tougher.
When it comes to selling Vietnamese rice noodles, a menu that exam students do not eat well, the overall pie itself will be smaller than pork cutlet.
But on a positive note, the competition itself will be less.
However, if you try to occupy an unpopular menu such as Vietnamese rice noodles, it may become difficult again as other stores that are already preoccupied are already occupying too strong a position.
So it seems that business may not be very easy.
It’s a great thing that requires a really big will to load taste and passion by default, but it doesn’t seem to be an easy task considering this tactical aspect of marketing.
If you look at it that way, the fathers of this era are truly amazing.
My father also runs a fried chicken restaurant in his hometown, but there is no place where there is no such difficult job, whether it is a company or a store, because everyone is running every day for their family.
Life is like a horse
A racehorse that does not know how to stop, and whose mane flutters while running.
That day will come for me too.
So before I get a job, start a family, and the race begins, I want to get some good pre-race rest.
“Sueup… Whoa…”
As I thought about it, I suddenly thought of my father and decided to call him.
After putting the cigarettes in ashtrays around the store, I called my father.
Of course, it was the cell phone, not the chicken restaurant my father was running.
Dad got a call right away.
“Hello, how are you?”
-Uh, Jinhyeok.
“It’s a busy time, right? Now.”
– Wouldn’t it be nice to be busy? Busy time is a good time to make money. Are you studying well?
When I hear my father’s voice, my emotions rise up for some reason.
A little strange.
It wasn’t like this when I was younger, but I think it’s because as I get older, I feel like I’m starting to understand how my dad struggles little by little.
“Yes.”
-When are you taking the exam?
“Three months left. It’s the end of March.”
-Okay. You’re close? Make sure you pass this time Don’t even think about coming home.
“Yes.”
-And Jinhyeok, aren’t you a child of one or two years old? If you fall this time, you told me to come home right away and fry chicken! Know?
“Okay. I’ll definitely pass this time.”
-Okay! Then eat well.
“Yes. You’re healthy~.”
If the situation at our chicken restaurant had been good, my dad might have said he would open a second store instead of asking me to fry chicken.
The current situation is not that good, and as such, it would be a great comfort for me as a parent to earn a living by quickly passing the civil service exam.
At this rate, I thought I would pass.
Today, I studied perfectly like crazy, so I finished the amount of study that was supposed to be done by 10:30 at 7:00.
Since the class I applied for at the civil service academy was a problem-solving class, I was able to solve a lot of problems.
I was convinced that my skills improved a lot in two months.
Of course, since I have a base for a third-year civil servant preparation student, I studied hard for more than 10 hours every day for two months and raised my skills to this point.
When I saw the civil service exam, it seemed that both the process of building up such a long course and the process of combining the accumulated skills with practical application problems over several months were necessary.
In the case of exams taken during school days, even if you just cram, you will come out fairly well, but such exams do not require internal training.
However, in the case of the CSAT, of course, cramming does not work and requires internal work, but the civil service exam is said to be a matter of direction, but from my point of view, it is a problem of difficulty… I think that the difficulty level is much higher than that of the CSAT, so it requires more internal work.
In the case of the 9th grade general administrative exam, which I am preparing for, I need quite a bit of patience, but in the case of popular series such as the National Assembly Secretariat, Court Clerk, etc., The difficulty is higher.
‘Anyway, what? I’m going according to plan.’
For now, my study plan is working very well, and I made up my mind to finish my studies well and blow off my stress well during this short break.
And after I finished the phone call with my father, I went to the place where I was supposed to meet up with my friends.
Passing by the rather large crowd at a slightly late dinner time, I came to the bar where I was supposed to meet Kim Joo-hwan and Choi Jong-hoon.
It was a stir-fried chicken restaurant, and I and the guys all agreed on the idea of having a simple drink and going with a meal menu.
The Dakbokkeumtang restaurant where we had an appointment was a short walk into the food alley after crossing the main road from the studio where I lived.
So I came to the meeting point in an instant.
It was very easy to find because I had seen it many times.
When I entered the restaurant, I felt like I was going to buy something.
“Uh~, it’s so warm here.”
After entering the store, I did not make a phone call, but looked for Kim Joo-hwan and Choi Jong-hoon all the time.
It was close to the studio where I live, so I felt comfortable, so the process of finding them while slowly walking around the store was not at all burdensome.
And I found Kim Joo-hwan and Choi Jong-hun, who had taken their seats by the window.
“Hey~! Lee Jinhyuk!”
“Are you here?”
The two greeted me warmly and shook hands.
