Getting off the elevator, Seong-ho Kim headed for the Japanese restaurant he’d visited before with Gyeong-eun Lee.

Amid the familiar emptiness, a staff member who’d been sitting at the restaurant entrance yawning spotted Seong-ho Kim approaching and hurriedly rose to his feet.

“Welcome. Oh?”

The employee looked at Seong-ho Kim’s familiar face and recalled the incident from a few days earlier.

“That customer from the other day…?”

With so few guests, the employee remembered that commotion all the more vividly, and stared at Seong-ho Kim with startled eyes.

Seong-ho Kim gave the employee a light nod of acknowledgment and walked into the restaurant.

The employee hurriedly gathered himself and moved to show Seong-ho Kim to a seat.

“Sir, this way…”

But contrary to the employee’s guidance, Seong-ho Kim’s steps headed toward the kitchen.

“Sir. You can’t go in there. Sir, that’s—”

As the employee tried to stop Seong-ho Kim, Byeong-jin Jo stepped in first.

“It’s all right. We’re people from Ilhyeon Group headquarters.”

“Ilhyeon Group headquarters?”

At the words “group headquarters,” the employee recalled something he’d heard not long ago.

“Ah? That restructuring…”

At the employee’s words, Byeong-jin Jo gave a light nod and followed Seong-ho Kim into the kitchen.

The kitchen was every bit as idle as the dining floor.

“You can’t come in here.”

The chef, leaning against the sink eating an apple, spoke without even checking who had entered.

Seong-ho Kim surveyed the kitchen for a moment and said to the chef,

“The kitchen’s smaller than I expected. Is that because there are no customers? Looks like there’s only one cook, too…”

When the intruder didn’t leave despite being told not to enter, the chef, who’d been sitting with his back turned, turned his head.

Confirming that the person who’d entered the kitchen was Seong-ho Kim, the chef pointed a finger at him and said,

“Huh? You… aren’t you that guy from a few days ago?”

As Seong-ho Kim looked at the chef, he held out a hand toward Byeong-ju Jeong, who drew a document from his bag and handed it to him.

Taking the document, Seong-ho Kim held it out toward the chef, who was still jabbing his finger and snapping at him.

“What’s this?”

“A notice of contract termination.”

“Contract termination notice?”

Frowning as if he couldn’t understand, the chef took the contract-termination notice Seong-ho Kim held out and looked over its contents.

“Terminating the contract with Ilhyeon Hotel?”

When the chef, having read the document, went wide-eyed in shock, Seong-ho Kim looked around the kitchen and said,

“Your contract is terminated as of today, so understand that, pack your things, and leave.”

“Wh… who are you to say whether a contract is terminated or not!”

As the chef tried to approach Seong-ho Kim, Byeong-jin Jo stepped forward.

“We’re people dispatched from Ilhyeon Group headquarters for the restructuring.”

“Dispatched from Ilhyeon Group headquarters?”

At the word “headquarters,” the chef faltered for a moment.

He, too, had heard the talk about the restructuring.

Seong-ho Kim looked at the chef — now hesitant, unlike his arrogant self at the start — and said,

“Ilhyeon Hotel is going to give its restaurants a great deal of support going forward.”

“Then why would you… terminate my — our contract?”

“‘Guests first.’ That’s our Ilhyeon Hotel motto, and you and this Japanese restaurant don’t suit that motto.”

“We also—”

The chef, about to say that they too put guests first, couldn’t finish the sentence.

Having already been seen by Seong-ho Kim behaving otherwise, he couldn’t very well claim to put guests first.

But unable to back down like this, the chef, after some thought, recalled the extension contract he’d signed last month.

“I-I clearly signed an extension contract last month. Throwing me out like this is a breach!”

“If you read the contract carefully, there’s a clause stating that when a guest lodges a complaint and the hotel judges that complaint to be serious, the contract may be terminated.”

“What kind of nonsense… Who lodged a complaint? Just who is it that complained about our restaurant!”

Seong-ho Kim drew a business card from his breast pocket and held it out to the chef, introducing himself.

“I’m late with my introduction. I’m Director Seong-ho Kim of Ilhyeon Group’s Strategic Planning restructuring team.”

“What’s the point of introducing yourself now…”

The chef took the card with an indifferent expression.

It struck him as absurd that Seong-ho Kim would hand over a business card and introduce himself now, in the middle of arguing over whether he’d leave or not.

Smiling at the chef, Seong-ho Kim continued his introduction.

“My father-in-law is Chairman Tak-hyeon Lee of Ilhyeon Group, and the woman who ate here with me the other day was my wife — Chairman Tak-hyeon Lee’s youngest daughter.”

In an instant, the chef’s face turned ashen.

He couldn’t believe that the woman he’d argued and shouted at the other day was Chairman Tak-hyeon Lee’s youngest daughter.

“My wife tells me she felt deeply humiliated at the time. In response, Ilhyeon Hotel is immediately invoking the contract clause to terminate its contract with this restaurant. If you can’t accept that decision, you’re free to seek the help of the law. We’ll be prepared for that too, of course. So then — you may clear out your things right away. Every day you’re late, we’ll bill you damages for it, so you’d best clear out quickly.”

Seong-ho Kim spoke as if simply notifying the chef, then turned around.

The chef tried to grab even at the hem of Seong-ho Kim’s trousers, begging forgiveness, but Byeong-ju Jeong and Byeong-jin Jo blocked his path and kept him from reaching Seong-ho Kim.

Seong-ho Kim came out of the kitchen, followed soon after by Byeong-ju Jeong and Byeong-jin Jo.

Seeing that staff from the other restaurants, who’d come out after hearing the rumors, were stealing glances at the Japanese restaurant, Seong-ho Kim gave Byeong-ju Jeong an instruction.

“Terminate the contracts for all the other restaurants too.”

“All of them?”

“Yes. From now on, the hotel will run its restaurants directly.”

After Seong-ho Kim’s visit to the Japanese restaurant, word spread that he’d terminated the contracts with all the hotel’s restaurants.

The eager anticipation the hotel staff had shown when Seong-ho Kim first arrived was nowhere to be seen anymore.

“Surely… they won’t cut us too, right?”

Ilhyeon Hotel bellboys, housekeepers, doormen and the like gathered in little clusters, talking about Seong-ho Kim.

“Is that honorary-retirement business or whatever off the table now? I already told everyone at home I could quit and walk away with 100 million…”

“Forget 100 million, you might leave empty-handed. Didn’t you hear about the restaurants on the fifth floor? They all got thrown out of the hotel with nothing.”

“Those people were individual business owners contracted with the hotel. That’s different from us, we’re employees.”

“No, think about it. If they’ll cut even independent contractors like that, is there any reason they couldn’t cut us?”

“That’s true too… What do we do?”

The bellboys and housekeepers fretted over their uncertain futures with faces full of worry.

Just then, a manager approached the place where they were gathered.

“What are you all doing here?”

“Ah, we were just…”

The manager waved off the bellboy’s attempt to make excuses, signaling never mind, and stated why he’d come.

“Everyone, go down to the banquet hall.”

“The banquet hall?”

“Yes. That restructuring team leader, or the chairman’s son-in-law, whatever he is, says he has something to say and wants everyone gathered.”

“Yes. Then, by when—”

“Right now.”

The manager gestured for them to head down immediately, then picked up his walkie-talkie and left to track down staff hiding elsewhere.

And so the managers of each floor rounded up the employees goofing off in hiding all over the hotel and sent them down to the banquet hall, while Seong-ho Kim’s group, already waiting in the banquet hall, quietly waited for the employees to gather one by one.

“Seriously, why is it taking so long just to gather the staff?”

Byeong-jin Jo clicked his tongue as if dumbfounded.

Byeong-ju Jeong couldn’t make sense of it either, and shook his head as he said to Seong-ho Kim,

“Director Kim. This is more serious than I thought.”

Seong-ho Kim watched the employees slowly filing into the banquet hall and nodded.

“This is the reality of Ilhyeon Hotel that doesn’t show up on the financial statements. At Ilhyeon Watch, sorting out the debt was enough, but here it seems that won’t do. This doesn’t look like a problem you can solve by letting a suitable number of employees go and clearing off the debt.”

“I agree with you on that. This place needs to be changed from the roots up.”

“That’s why I asked the chairman for personnel authority. You need personnel authority to carry out a truly proper restructuring.”

Seong-ho Kim had anticipated this situation to some degree.

He had a memory of having roughly heard what state Ilhyeon Hotel was in during his past life.

That was why he’d demanded personnel authority from Tak-hyeon Lee.

He knew that holding personnel authority was what would let him change Ilhyeon Hotel from the roots up.

‘Once I’ve decided to do it, I can’t do it halfway.’

Seong-ho Kim patiently watched the employees sauntering into the banquet hall at a leisurely pace.

By the time about an hour more had passed beyond the hour he’d told them to gather, the general manager approached Seong-ho Kim.

“Um… Director. The managers of each floor say they’ve sent down most of the staff.”

“Most? So that means not all of them?”

When Byeong-ju Jeong put the question in Seong-ho Kim’s place, the general manager, wearing a bitter expression, glanced around nervously and said,

“Wherever they’ve all hidden… it seems they’re having trouble finding them. So…”

“General Manager, what are you even saying? Isn’t this working hours right now? And yet, far from working, you don’t even know where they are — is that something a general manager should be saying?”

Byeong-jin Jo spoke as if dumbfounded by the general manager’s words.

It made no sense to him that anyone could not know where the staff were hiding.

The general manager, seemingly with nothing to say for himself, bowed his head, and Seong-ho Kim held Byeong-jin Jo back and said to the general manager,

“Understood. Let’s just begin as we are for now.”

Seong-ho Kim passed the general manager and stepped up onto the platform set up in the banquet hall.

Then, tapping the microphone with a finger, he drew the attention of the employees noisily chattering about why they’d been gathered, and said,

“Members of the Ilhyeon Hotel family. It’s good to meet you. I’m Director Seong-ho Kim, dispatched from Ilhyeon Group headquarters for the sake of this Ilhyeon Hotel.”

As the very figure the employees had been most curious about stepped onto the platform and began to speak, the unsettled atmosphere fell quiet in an instant.

The Ilhyeon Hotel employees waited for Seong-ho Kim’s next words.

Having surveyed the Ilhyeon Hotel employees once, Seong-ho Kim slowly opened his mouth.

“The reason I’ve gathered you all here today is to tell you how we intend to shape Ilhyeon Hotel going forward.”

As Seong-ho Kim began to speak, the Ilhyeon Hotel employees looked at him with faces mixing tension and expectation.

They’d heard that the restaurants and all their staff had left after their contracts were terminated, but even so, they held out hope that the restructuring method carried out at Ilhyeon Watch might apply to them as well.

But as Seong-ho Kim’s next words followed, the Ilhyeon Hotel employees’ hopes were all dashed to pieces.

“First, as you’ve already heard and know, we’ve terminated the contracts with all of our hotel’s restaurants. Going forward, our hotel’s food-and-beverage division will be operated directly by the hotel itself. Second, there will be job reassignments for Ilhyeon Hotel staff. A reorganization affecting all employees is planned. I’m telling you in advance that transfers to departments you may not have anticipated could take place.”

As talk of reorganization — rather than the consolation-bonus discussion they’d been hoping for — spilled out, the banquet hall that had gone quiet began to buzz again.

Seong-ho Kim waited quietly for the murmuring to die down, and once some time had passed and it settled a little, he brought his mouth to the microphone again.

“Those of you who feel you’ve been transferred to a department you don’t want and can no longer stay may come to the restructuring team and say so at any time. We’ll settle your severance pay and process your retirement right then and there.”

“Do we get no consolation bonus?”

Someone among the employees gathered in the banquet hall couldn’t hold back and shouted the question.

As the question everyone was most curious about came out, the banquet hall fell silent once more, and everyone looked to Seong-ho Kim’s mouth, awaiting his answer.

At the sight, Seong-ho Kim raised the corners of his mouth and said,

“There is no consolation bonus.”

At the short answer, the quiet banquet hall grew noisy.

This time Seong-ho Kim didn’t wait for the banquet hall to settle and spoke right away.

“Third, from now on we’ll be starting an evaluation-score system for all employees. Any employee who receives the lowest score twice in a row on that evaluation will be processed for immediate dismissal, so keep this in mind and take care to manage your evaluation scores.”

At the words that, far from any consolation bonus, they’d suddenly be scored and managed through evaluations, the employees gathered in the banquet hall froze stiff.

“With that, I’ll conclude my announcement. Next time, I hope to meet you all somewhere better than a place like this.”

Seong-ho Kim spoke with a smile and stepped down from the platform.

(End of Chapter 35)