< Part 2 >
It was time for Coffee Prince's employee meeting.
“So what? We're going to raise Coffee Prince to become like Star?”
“Well, it's hard to say it'll grow as big as a worldwide chain, but it looks like he's willing to try out a franchise. He'll be investing, and we'll be providing the Princes' coffee and management know-how.”
“In other words, Coffee Prince Branches 2, 3, and 4? Our sajangnim's doing this, right?”
Han Kyul was still “sajangnim” to them all. En Chan shook her head.
“It's Dong Yi Foods. I'm going to meet the president of that company tonight and hear more about it. You have to come with me, Mr.Hong.”
“All right. But do you really think we can pull it off?”
“I think as long as we don't overdo it, we can. What do you think about opening up the second branch first and see how it goes and decide then whether we should keep expanding or not? The biggest asset our store has is that most of the customers are regulars, so we know them pretty well. Ha Rim always gives customers comments on their tie colors, new hairstyles, things like that, and En Chan hyung's memorized who wants their cup filled up and who wants only half a cup, who wants their coffee extra hot and who wants their coffee just as quickly as possible. There are a lot of people who come here because they find stuff like that comfortable. If there are too many branches, we'll lose our edge. Personally, I'd like to see branches set up in the countrysides. Not in the busy parts of town but in the outskirts, like us here, and small, so that they'll give off the feel of a friendly neighbor.”
“Ya, take Nak Kyun in my stead. Looks like he'd do a better job.”
“I can't, tonight.”
“Today's his girlfriend's birthday.”
“Oh, it's Soo Ae's birthday today, huh?”
En Chan found herself looking at him proudly. After returning to school, Nak Kyun had found a girlfriend. It was unbelievable that he hadn't had one before, but seeing that Nak Kyun had become far softer and more carefree made En Chan realize just how strong the influence of love was.
“Then you meet him by yourself tonight, Chan. When the talks start getting a little more detailed, let's all meet him together and discuss it in earnest.”
“All right. I should be going now. It's Friday and there's probably going to be a lot of traffic.”
“Oh, by the way, En Chan, starting tomorrow, I want you to go and get trained to become a barista.”
“Huh? Me?”
“You're not going to go back to the dojo, right? When we start building the second and third branches we're going to get busy, so you should take advantage of the time you have now to ge trained. I've already signed you up, so start tomorrow. What's the matter?”
“I don't know if I'll be able to do a good job....”
“You'll be fine. You work better under pressure. He said the longer the line of customers were, the faster and more accurately you seemed to work.”
“Who said that?”
“Oh-h... the c-customers did......”
Comments (8)
"the customers said that," my butt.
where's my choi han gyul?!
i don't want this to end yet, but i can't wait to read the rest! thankyousomuch for sharing this amaaaazing book!
Wow - everyone's moving on and doing good ..... but where's HK? "A customer"? Yeah, right!*sobs* Nearly the end ..... make it happy!
Arigatou for another great part. ^-^d
I'm iffy on the fact the cafe want to branch out. Hm... oh well. Everyone in Coffee Prince is sooo settle down. waaa... I guess a lot could happen in 5 months. lol. Thank you for translating!
Hmm....I don't like the franchise idea either.
Coffee Prince is doing great as one store, and if it becomes a chain, it'll be too different...not as close, or warm, or friendly. It won't be the same!! Especially with different people who won't necessarily know the customers as well, and with so many locations and...I don't like it. *sigh*
A "customer" said it, huh? Suuuree. Lol. That was a pretty bad cover-up, with the stuttering and all, so I'm surprised EC didn't pick up on it. But I think I have an idea of what's going to happen.... maybe...possibly ....hopefully....*hurries off to read next chapter*
Thanks!!