Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 233

“It’s starting.”

Park Yu-min stared blankly at the neatly arranged shop.

“Yeah.”

Kang Jin-ho stood next to Park Yu-min, also gazing at the shop with a blank expression.

“…I can’t believe this crazy thing actually went this far. I thought we’d just pretend to try and then quit.”

Joo Young-gi’s face showed more of a sense of hardship ahead than a feeling of novelty.

“Anyway, now that it’s come to this, let’s do our best!”

“Hmm….”

Kang Jin-ho nodded, and Park Yu-min’s face also turned resolute.

“We might not have started with much, but now that we have, we need to do it properly!”

“That’s right.”

The three of them looked at each other, nodded, and walked into the shop. The three men’s backs were filled with a sense of grim determination.

And then….

“Haaah.”

Park Yu-min yawned, gripping the mop tightly.

“Umm.”

Wiping his mouth, Park Yu-min glanced at the front window and then started cleaning the floor again.

“What are you doing?”

“Cleaning.”

Joo Young-gi’s face contorted.

“Why are you cleaning all day? You’ve been wiping the floor for eight hours! Are you trying to make all the customers slip and fall? Huh?”

“…Well, I mean, there’s nothing else to do.”

“Ugh.”

Joo Young-gi stared at the entrance door with a face that looked like it was about to burst into flames.

“Damn it, it’s not like it’s some legendary door… It’s not a door that needs a spell from mythology or a door cursed so that only a hero can open it, but strangely, that door just wouldn’t open.”

To put it more plainly, there were no customers.

“…Hey, just come out.”

“Hmm….”

“There aren’t any customers, so what are you doing in the kitchen? Just come out and play games.”

“Hmm.”

Kang Jin-ho came out of the kitchen with a subtle expression and sat down next to Joo Young-gi.

“What time is it?”

“Ten.”

“…Let’s clean. We need to close the shop.”

“I’ve been cleaning all day, you know.”

“Kaaaaah!”

Finally, Joo Young-gi, unable to hold back any longer, burst out in frustration.

“Why aren’t there any customers! Why! If there aren’t any customers on our opening day, what are we supposed to do!”

“Isn’t it normal not to have customers since it’s our opening day?”

“Have you never heard of the ‘opening day effect’?”

Park Yu-min flinched at Joo Young-gi’s retort.

“S-so, does that mean we should have had the most customers today?”

“If we haven’t had a single customer today, and that’s supposed to be the most, what does that even mean?”

“You have a talent for stabbing people in the heart while pretending to be innocent.”

“Huh?”

“Shut up!”

“Yes, sir.”

As Park Yu-min shrank back, Joo Young-gi clutched his head.

“What’s the problem? Shouldn’t people at least come in and take a look when they pass by? I heard there are people who only go to newly opened restaurants, where did all those people go?”

“Didn’t you say your parents used to run a restaurant?”

“They’ve been running a restaurant since I can remember, how would I know what it was like when they opened?”

“…So, there’s no answer?”

Seeing the two of them flustered and confused, Kang Jin-ho chuckled lightly.

“It’s okay, it’s just the first day. Once customers start coming in, it’ll gradually increase.”

“Ummm….”

Joo Young-gi nodded.

It wasn’t particularly convincing or based on any evidence, but thinking that way was better for his mental health right now.

“Right! Tomorrow will be different! Everyone go home, clean up, and sleep. It’s bad luck.”

“Okay!”

The three of them exchanged glances and tidied up the shop.

The next day.

“…You said there would be customers today?”

“No matter how I think about it, you seem to have a bad nature, Yu-min.”

“Huh?”

Joo Young-gi gritted his teeth, watching Park Yu-min casually stab people in the heart.

It felt like the shop was ten times cleaner than when it first opened, due to the lack of customers. The three of them had been wiping and polishing everything, so now it looked more like a model home just before opening than a restaurant. It was so clean that it made you wonder if customers were too intimidated to come in.

“They’ll come tomorrow, right?”

“Maybe?”

Kang Jin-ho sighed softly, watching the two of them talk with anxious faces.

“…Are we cursed?”

One day could be understandable.

But two days was a bit much, and three days was unbelievable. For a shop located on a main street in one of the top five commercial areas in Korea to not have a single customer for three days was beyond just bad luck.

“Should we go out and try to attract customers?”

“Are you going to be a tout [someone who solicits business aggressively], you idiot?”

“Still, it’s a problem to just sit here without doing anything.”

“Ugh….”

Joo Young-gi looked at Kang Jin-ho and asked.

“What do you think?”

“About what?”

“Why aren’t customers coming? At this point, it feels like it’s beyond just coincidence.”

“I don’t know….”

“I was a fool to ask you.”

At that moment, the door opened, and someone came into the shop.

The three of them instinctively jumped up from their seats and bowed deeply.

“Welcome!”

“Welcome!”

“Welc….”

But after confirming who had come in, the three of them sat back down and grumbled.

“Ugh, I thought it was a customer.”

“Me too.”

“Tsk.”

Jo Gyu-min, who had only opened the door and entered, protested with a wronged expression, having received the three’s critical gazes.

“Hey, did I do something wrong?”

“No. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Yeah, whatever.”

“Tsk.”

‘You little brats!’

Jo Gyu-min shuddered. He hadn’t done anything wrong, yet he was being treated with such humiliation!

“Are there any customers?”

“Do you not have eyes?”

“No, Mr. Jo.”

“Tsk.”

Jo Gyu-min looked around the shop and then walked over to the table where the three of them were sitting and sat down without saying anything.

“How much have you sold?”

“Oh, so I have to explain this to you? Listen carefully, Mr. Jo. We’ve achieved a feat that no one else in this area has ever accomplished. Perhaps this achievement has never existed before, and may never exist in the future.”

“Really?”

“Hahaha! We’re continuing with zero sales. A three-game shutout [a term from baseball, meaning a game where a team doesn’t score any points] is not something just anyone can do.”

“……”

Jo Gyu-min asked with a dumbfounded expression.

“You really haven’t had a single customer?”

“Yes.”

“Yes.”

“Yes.”

Jo Gyu-min clutched his head at the three consecutive answers.

“Ah, no, this isn’t right….”

The shop was started to see Kang Jin-ho’s management skills. So, at least to some extent, it should be on track or have customers so that something can be evaluated.

If he wrote in the report that ‘the shop failed because it didn’t have any customers from the start,’ Chairman Hwang Jung-hoo might eat him alive.

“Why aren’t there any customers?”

“That’s what I’m saying.”

The three, no, four of them, clutched their heads in worry.

“It shouldn’t be this bad… Even failing businesses usually have some customers in the beginning, I don’t understand why there are so few customers.”

“That’s what I’m saying.”

“If this continues, we’ll just be losing money. It seems like we need some special measures….”

“That’s what I’m saying.”

“…Do you have anything to say other than ‘That’s what I’m saying’?”

“That’s what I’m saying.”

Jo Gyu-min couldn’t help but be flustered, seeing the three of them answering with vacant expressions.

‘No way. These guys… they’ve completely lost their motivation.’

At this rate, they would definitely ruin the shop before even trying anything.

They had already spent a huge amount of initial investment by redoing the interior and re-planning the concept, and if they couldn’t even recover that, it would be the biggest business failure ever.

“This is a big problem, really.”

Just as Jo Gyu-min was clutching his head, a jingle was heard, and the door opened again.

“Welcome!”

“Welcome!”

“Welc….”

But this time, after confirming who had come in, the three men slumped back into their seats and sighed.

“Hey, you guys! How can you sigh when someone comes in!”

“I thought it was a customer!”

“Me too.”

“Go home, go home.”

Kang Eun-young’s face turned red.

“What kind of people are you!”

She had squeezed her busy schedule to visit the newly opened shop to see if it was doing well, but this was how she was being treated!

And while Kang Jin-ho was understandable, the other two shouldn’t be like that.

Who was she? She was Kang Eun-young, who was currently ranked number one in the public opinion polls for female singers.

Even people who weren’t interested in idols should at least show some favor when they saw Kang Eun-young. It was like seven-year-old kindergarten boys looking at their five-year-old friend’s younger sister….

‘Even a cow wouldn’t look at a chicken like that.’

She had never expected anything romantic from her brother’s friends, but still, being treated like this made Kang Eun-young’s anger rise.

“Why aren’t there any customers!”

“There aren’t any customers because there aren’t any customers, but if you ask why there aren’t any customers….”

“Stop with the lines! We spent a lot of money to open this shop, so if there aren’t any customers, we need to come up with a solution! The four of us need to put our heads together!”

At that moment, Joo Young-gi’s mouth dropped open, and he grinned broadly.

“I’ve been thinking….”

“Huh?”

“If the last-place student, the last-place student’s lackey, and that lackey got together to study, would their grades improve?”

“…That sounds like a path to ruin?”

“I think that’s exactly our situation right now. No matter how much I think about it, I don’t think anything will come out of me, him, and him putting our heads together.”

Kang Eun-young sighed deeply, looking at Kang Jin-ho and Park Yu-min, who had bright expressions, and Joo Young-gi, who was smiling.

Joo Young-gi’s words weren’t wrong.

“We have Mr. Jo!”

“Mr. Jo?”

Joo Young-gi chuckled.

“If he were a student, Kang Jin-ho wouldn’t be the last-place student.”

“No, wait a minute. I’m actually pretty good at business.”

“There’s always someone who opens a shop with such unfounded confidence and then ruins it.”

Kang Eun-young shook her head.

“So, you’re saying we’re currently in the process of ruining it?”

“Well, you could say we’re experiencing the bitter taste of society?”

“I knew it.”

Kang Eun-young gritted her teeth.

“Do you think business is easy? This is a battlefield! Everyone is desperately competing to make a living, and you guys jumped in with the mindset of ‘If we just open a shop, it’ll do well on its own,’ so you’re getting hurt! Even when opening a neighborhood chicken shop, you research the location, check the competition, and create a portfolio from all angles, but where else do you see people jumping in like you guys!”

“Did you hear that, Mr. Jo?”

Jo Gyu-min, who had nothing to say, lowered his head.

“Rather than this, we should quickly admit failure and try a new method….”

“No!”

Kang Eun-young cut off Jo Gyu-min’s words firmly.

“We can’t do that. I can’t let the word ‘failure’ be engraved on my brother’s career because of something like this.”

“Then?”

“We have to make it a success no matter what!”

Kang Eun-young’s eyes blazed.

“That’s a true socialite [a person who is part of high society and is known for their social life]!”

“When you think about it, Eun-young is the most economically minded person among us.”

Kang Eun-young shouted, looking at Kang Jin-ho with fiery eyes.

“Get ready, brother! It’s the start of the counterattack.”

“…What do I have to do?”

Kang Eun-young smiled triumphantly.

“Makeup.”

“Huh?”