The Tempting Offer
甘い誘い
Three days later, the email arrived, but it was not the one they expected.
They had not won the competition; another company had taken the top prize.
The three founders felt tired and quietly for a whole day.
But the next morning, a very different message appeared in Maya's .
A large delivery company had watched their pitch and wanted to talk.
At the meeting, a polite manager offered them a surprising amount of money.
The company wanted to buy the app and add it to its own service.
"You would be well paid, and you would never worry about money again," he said.
For a moment, the three students could hardly believe what they were hearing.
Then the manager explained one , and the room grew cold.
Under the new plan, the food would no longer be given away for free.
Every meal would carry a small , paid by the hungry users themselves.
"Free does not ," the manager said with a calm, practised smile.
That evening, the three founders sat around their small kitchen table.
"If we sold the app, we would finally be safe," Ken said slowly.
"If we took the money, we could pay our and finish university."
Rio nodded, but her eyes were on the table, deep in thought.
"But if we charged the hungry, we would become the very problem we hate," she said.
Maya had been silent, remembering the man beside the cold rubbish bin.
She thought about the very first night, and the behind the name.
"We were offered a lot of money today," she said. "Maybe too much."
"If money were the only , we would have started a different company."
The three of them looked at each other across the quiet table.
The would stay open for one week, the manager had told them.
Seven days to who they really were, and what their table was for.