Ever since the KEC Group's new restaurant across the street officially opened, the clouds on Haruka's face had become increasingly thick. She would sit there muttering under her breath every night while checking the account, cursing the other side to close down quickly.
The opening ceremony of KEC was quite grand. Not only many celebrities from the local political and business circles came, but also a large number of journalists from the news media, which showed the strong strength of KEC. The group itself also expressed great confidence in the new izakaya project, proposing a new business philosophy of "follow the times, have a drink".
The Japanese economy is in a period of continuous recession and no one knows how long it will last. Every year economists say that it will end this year. But the next year, the situation will be the same. And this continuous economic recession cause the level of consumption is also declining year by year. People have less and less money in their pockets, so they naturally become more and more stingy in spending.
According to statistics, about 52% of people hope that the cost of drinking after get off work should be controlled within 1,000 yen, and 59% of people said that it is best not to drink with more than two people. The overall market begins to show some points like short time and small expenditure.
In order to follow this trend, KEC has launched a variety of "thousand-yen set meals", such as including a bowl of ramen (or chazuke rice), two side dishes and two big glasses of draft beer. It can fill your stomach and make you tipsy. At the same time, other dishes at KEC are also quite cheap. The common side dish of cold tofu, which is 199 yen at Pure Flavor House, is selling for 159 yen in the new restaurant.
In just four or five days since its opening, the business of KEC has begun to boom. Although the number of customers will not be completely losing immediately, they are disappearing at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The regular customers that Haruka said would not be easily swayed didn't seem to be very loyal either. Seeing that the prices were cheaper and the decoration was more decent, they decided to find a new place.
"Sister, drink some water" Akiho persuaded Haruka softly. Her big sister was talking to herself there non-stop, as if the pressure was going to explod.
"I'm so angry! They're from Kyoto but don't respect tradition at all. They even do such dishonorable things as fast food. It really embarrasses all the Kansai barbarians!" Haruka was so angry that she fired a map cannon, one shot covered an eighth of Japan. "Obviously our food is more beautiful in look, more sophisticated in materials, and more meticulous in production. Are those drunkards blind?"
Looking at the current situation, Haruka immediately defined their shop as a slowfood-style traditional cultural store and took the moral high ground. In fact, Pure Flavor House has only been open for less than three years, which isn't longer than KEC group.
Moreover, the new izakaya's cuisine across the street is not as bad as she said. It is a standardized operation with top celebrity chefs designing the cooking process behind it. It feels a bit like McDonald's. It is not very delicious, but can be widely adapted to the tastes of the public.
"Don't worry, big sister. We are also designing new dishes. It should be of some help."
Haruka frowned: "My father's cooking skills are just like that, not of much use. For now, we can just reduce price!"
Akiho was surprised, "Reduce price? Sister, they have a group advantage, as well as their own pastures, fisheries and planting bases. We can't compete with them in this regard!"
Haruka's temper was already rising, "So what! We are all daughters of the martial arts family. We must not sit back and wait for death!"
"How much will it reduce?"
Haruka hesitated, feeling like dozens of knives were stabbing her in her heart, "The dishes are all 10 yen cheaper than them, and the wine is also... wait, let's check the situation like the other side first!"
Akiho lowered her head and calculated silently, "Then we will have almost no profit at all."
Haruka was irritable, "It's better than no one coming to eat!"
After shouting, she remembered that Akiho was in front of her, and felt slightly embarrassed, but she was the eldest sister and couldn't apologize to her younger sister. She picked up the account book, "I'll go find dad to discuss it. Don't worry, it's not a big deal. Maybe everyone just finds it fresh and will come back after eating it a few times."
After saying that, she went to the study with her account book under her arm, but Akiho was lost in thought for a long time. No one in the family knew how to run a business. Would the family be unable to survive in less than three years after her mother was gone? Father has to lie down for most of the day, and the burden falls on big sister.
Could it be that big sister can't hold it suddenly like my mother? Why am I only fourteen years old...
...
The next day was another Saturday, and school was over at noon. Kazuya looked at the drizzle, feeling sticky and uncomfortable.
It is now the second week of June, and the rainy season in Nagoya has been here for three or four days. In Japan, the rainy season is like the "Sakura Front" advancing from southwest to northeast day by day. It rains in Nagoya about four or five days earlier than in Tokyo, so it only takes these two days to get wet in Tokyo.
The rainy season lasts for about a month. It is basically rainy weather with extremely high humidity. Even the air seems solemn. The exhaust fumes from cars passing by on the road cannot rise and can only turn into smog and circulate.
Kazuya looked at the sky, thinking that he would have to suffer this kind of weather for more than a month. He complained in his stomach and took out his umbrella. The rain could not get on his clothes, but his body would still be uncomfortable with dampness. Who can bear this weird weather?
But just as he was about to leave, he saw Haruka's small figure standing on the side of the pillar in front of the teaching building. She was sulking at rain with her mouth pursed.
There was no conflict between them recently, and their relationship is okay. Kazuya hesitated and asked, "Do you forget to bring an umbrella?"
It rains every day. Why can you forget to bring an umbrella?
"I took!" Haruka paused for a while, "But I don't know which bastard stole it. It's best not to let me find him!"
Kazuya felt something was wrong slightly. This school still has a strong school spirit and it is rare to hear of stealing things. Isn't this little radish being bullied in disguise? Most likely, she has basically offended her classmates.
He said with some sympathy: "If you can't contact Haruna, I can take you to the station." Haruna's phone is basically a decoration. She often forgets to charge it and likes to stuff it in her schoolbag.
As he said this, he opened his umbrella and motioned for Haruka to come with him. Haruka hesitated for a moment, then stood under Kazuya's umbrella with her schoolbag in hand. She tilted her head and did not look at him but whispered: "That will cause trouble for you..."
"It's okay, just on my way." Kazuya said. When they went home, they generally go to the station first, so the journey was the same.
They walked together outside the school holding an umbrella in the drizzle. Kazuya controlled his walking speed to prevent Haruka's two short legs from having to work hard. People like him usually walk very fast because they want to cherish time to do more things. If their feet can take three steps, they will never take two steps.
However, Haruka usually walks fast because she also belongs to this kind of people. But now Kazuya walked slowly with an umbrella, she could only follow him and walk slowly. They didn't speak to each other. For a while, there was only the rustling of the drizzle on the umbrella.
After walking for a distance, Haruka secretly glance up at Kazuya (the top of her head was level with Kazuya's chest) and then looked around again, feeling a bit like a scene in a manga.
This guy is a handsome boy. He looks like the male protagonist in the comics who is holding an umbrella for her. He moves similarly. Surrounded by drizzle, he is quite romantic. The atmosphere is also similar. If she was 1.6 ms tall, there's nothing to fault about this picture: she is wearing five-cm height-increasing shoes.
She liked this feeling and felt very relaxed. The stress and depression of the past few days seemed to have dissipated a lot. She thought that Kazuya had helped her hold the umbrella, she could do something for him later. His towel was quite old, so she could give him a new one. It turned out to be a modified mop.