Chapter 11 · 8 min
Chapter 11
Chapter 11
11. Why Is Business So Good?!
The president's office at Waikiki Sun Beach Hotel.
The chairman, who had been scrolling through online newspapers, stared blankly at his secretary.
“Elina, this is a joke, right? Some kind of funny-video thing?”
“They are all articles dated today.”
“And we're the main story on all three local newspaper sites?”
“Yes.”
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Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Thursday, January 14, 2027 · Front Page
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【Unusual Competition Held at Hale Makani Hotel】
Reporter Noah Kawelo
At 8 a.m. on the 13th, 159 baristas lined up in the courtyard of Hale Makani Hotel, located at the far end of Waikiki Beach. It was the largest coffee event of its kind ever held in Hawaii.
···
When asked by reporters, organizer Kim Woo-jin, owner of Hale Makani, answered:
“For the advancement of Hawaii.”
He also spoke of his sense of duty to spread awareness of Kona coffee.
···
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Waikiki Weekly
January 14, 2027 · Cover
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【Inside Hale Makani Hotel's Barista Festival】
Reporter Keoni Silva
From 8 a.m. on the 13th until dawn the following day, a barista competition and festival were held at Hale Makani Hotel on the eastern edge of Waikiki Beach. There were 159 contestants, with roughly 500 people on site including staff and tourists.
The event had been scheduled to end with the 4 p.m. awards ceremony, but continued after organizers provided a barbecue party.
···
“Haah.”
The chairman irritably turned the monitor away and let out a hollow sigh.
“The hotel's name is in every single headline. Do you know what that means? At the very least, executives at the director level approved every one of them. They approved putting that damn hotel's name right there on their site's front page!”
“I'm sorry. My investigation was insufficient. I thought the only purpose was to recruit a barista.”
“How much did those bastards spend?”
“At least twenty thousand dollars on food, alcohol, and the band performance.”
“Lunatics!”
At the concrete figure, deep creases formed between the chairman's brows.
The barista competition alone had already been large enough to strain their books.
And then they'd spent another twenty thousand dollars throwing a party?
Even if they'd buttered up the reporters beforehand, it was still a brutal gamble.
“Unbelievable. HCA pulls people into the competition, then the media starts promoting them the second the party ends. Don't tell me they have political connections somewhere.”
“We cannot rule out the possibility.”
“Damn it! Those specks of sand keep irritating me every single day! Elina, when are the singers we hired for our promotion coming?”
“One month from now.”
“That long? If you can move it up, do it as much as possible.”
“Yes. I'll renegotiate their schedule.”
“How much was the booking fee again? ”
“A total of two hundred ten thousand dollars.”
“Whew. Right. No matter how hard those people struggle, twenty thousand dollars only gets them a few newspaper articles. Our hotel operates on a completely different scale.”
Only then did the chairman regain enough composure to look leisurely through the articles again.
‘Hmm? That face looks strangely familiar······.’
The smiling winner of Hale Makani's barista competition in the article looked somehow familiar.
***
At the same time, at Big Ross Farm.
“Boss, get up. Still lots of work left.”
“I'll be there soon. Just wait a little··· Urk!”
Yanya, who had been about to climb onto a tractor, collapsed to the ground and started retching repeatedly.
“Boss weak at drinking.”
“You inhuman bastards. How are you supposed to work right after partying until morning?”
“Boss bad for not working.”
“Ugh, this is all Woo-jin's fault! That cruel bastard! He made us drink all that coffee and then immediately threw a party? That's basically saying he'd keep us awake until morning just so we could keep drinking!”
“Nobody forced Boss to drink.”
“Woo-jin kept making toasts! Blegh!”
After finally creating something enormous on the dirt, Yanya flopped flat onto the ground.
“Ugh! I can't do anymore. Let me rest a little.”
With their boss now on strike, the workers had no choice but to sit down around her.
“But Woo-jin really impressive. Drinks lots.”
“Seriously. He was moving from group to group drinking all night. He must've had several times more than us. How can he do that?”
Woo-jin had been forged by Korean company dinners where going to a third round was practically the default once you started.
To the people of Big Ross, who had no way of knowing the abyssal depths of his alcohol tolerance, Woo-jin was an unfathomable creature.
“And drinking isn't the only impressive thing.”
“Right. Face handsome too.”
“Not his face! The newspaper articles!”
Yanya turned her phone screen toward the workers.
“They're all over the main pages of the news sites. Someone definitely pulled strings.”
As her hangover faded, Yanya's expression became noticeably serious.
‘Or maybe Woo-jin is important enough that someone would pull strings for him.’
Yanya was slowly beginning to realize that Woo-jin, who always took care of them with that friendly smile, might not be an ordinary man.
***
The director's office at the headquarters of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
- Ring-ring-ring.
A phone carelessly tossed on the desk began ringing.
[Mayor of Hawaii]
The middle-aged white man who'd been idly reading the paper jolted and immediately answered.
“Yes, Lopez speaking.”
(I saw the morning edition.)
“Yes, Mayor.”
(The festival photograph was on the front page. It's been a while since I've seen an article I liked this much. Thank you for working so hard to promote Hawaii.)
“Not at all! It's only natural!”
(I'll be counting on you going forward.)
“I'll do my best!”
- Click.
The short call ended just like that.
But Lopez, director of the Star-Advertiser, couldn't put his phone down for quite some time.
‘But why did he personally call me all of a sudden?’
In the festival photograph he checked again, Hale Makani Hotel's sign was clearly visible.
‘Don't tell me he was thanking me for promoting this hotel? Just who the hell owns that place······.’
Was it because the man's face wasn't visible?
A profound misunderstanding was steadily taking root in Lopez's mind.
Just like everyone else who'd read the article.
***
All right, time to post this.
(Post successfully uploaded.)
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Pathological Liar Gallery
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[General] Today's Hotel Management Diary (66)
HotelMan | 2027.01.14. 11:00:31 | Views 110 | Likes 16
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【Hale Makani】
╔═══════════╗
║ DAY 93 Scenario 5 ║
║ Funds $2,212,880 ▼$174,050 ║
║ Goal: 70% occupancy in 24 mo. ║
╚═══════════╝
┌ CORAL SANDS ────┐
│ 3F [■■■■■■■■■■]│
│ 2F [■■■■■■■■■■]│
│ 1F [■■■■■■■■■■] │
│ ■Occupied13 □Vacant0 ▨Cleaning0 │
│ XUnavailable0 │
└───────────┘
┌ Operating Metrics ───┐
│ Occupancy 100.0% ▲56.7 │
│ Room Rate $82 ▼$82 │
│ RevPAR $71.0 ▼ │
│ Satisfaction ★★★★☆ 4.73 │
│ Return Rate 8% ▼ │
│ Labor Ratio 41% ▲ │
└───────────┘
┌ Staff ─────────┐
│ Front Desk 2/3 ⚠ Short │
│ Housekeeping 4/4 ✓ Normal │
│ Maintenance 2/2 ✓ Normal │
│ F&B 1/3 │
│ ────────── │
│ 9 staff · $46,800/month │
└───────────┘
Yo, you seeing this?
Put our hotel at 50% off and we hit full occupancy in one shot lmaoooooo
Plus today we got S-tier newspaper publicity, so we're fully booked for the next month too lmaoooooooo
Burp lmaoooo
+ We opened the lounge café this time too. Gonna post from there this afternoon.
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└ Anon(211.36): Dude... if your room rate is discounted 50%, that's the same as only filling half the rooms...
└ HotelMan[OP]: But we're full, aren't we?
└ Anon(39.7): God-tier logic damn
└ Anon(101.58): Male stamina enhancer 100,000 won FREE TR★IAL giveaway! nOx
└ Anon(39.7): Mod, ad bot's here
└ 2YearsOnFluoxetine(58.140): The mod's been AWOL from this gallery for 2 years
└ Anon(39.7): Oh right fuck
└ PuttingMachine: His bullshit is so cheerfully innocent haha
└ Anon(290.31): But this bastard's been straight-up posting Hotel Tycoon screenshots lately lmao at least TRY to fool us.
└ 2YearsOnFluoxetine(58.140): He's posted like 60 shitposts already, he's just fucking lazy now.
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I'm just posting them because I'm lazy?
It's actually the opposite.
I've been entering the hotel's daily closing figures Frank reports to me directly into Hotel Tycoon.
Call it an integrated management ledger.
AI does the tedious work, while I get the satisfaction every time I open the game.
“Tsk. How could you people possibly understand the busy life of a hotel CEO? Heave-ho.”
I closed the laptop and painfully pushed myself out of bed.
I'd been drinking until dawn, so I'd considered just spending the entire day lying around the hotel, but that wouldn't do.
Today was the decisive day,
the culmination of a long-held dream,
the grand opening of Hale Makani's lounge café!
After the competition, Sophie's contract had gone through without a hitch,
which meant every condition for opening the lounge café was finally satisfied.
The interior had been finished ages ago and we'd even hired the employee. There was no reason to drag things out.
Sure, things might still be a little messy from cleaning up yesterday's event, but that had nothing to do with the café.
There wouldn't be any customers there anyway.
What lunatic besides me would order coffee costing nearly twenty thousand won a cup?
‘A café just for me, and a barista just for me!’
The kind of extravagant hobby only chaebol heirs in dramas enjoyed······.
Huh? What's that line for?
This is definitely our hotel.
But a crowd so long it obscured the main entrance was lined up outside.
No way?
I hurriedly parked in the lot and ran inside.
James was in the lobby, drenched in sweat as he directed customers.
“Please form a line! Coffee is takeout only! If you'd like to purchase beans, the front desk can assist you! Ah, President Kim!”
“James, what's going on?”
“Don't even ask! We've been swamped since morning with people coming to buy coffee and beans!”
I raised my head and glanced into the lounge café, which was naturally packed.
Even the seat I'd specifically designed for myself didn't have a single empty chair.
No, seriously, it's twenty thousand won a cup!
Why the hell is business so good?!
© Kim Mangcho#1ond5