Mastore 68 - Dumpster

Magic Realm Convenience Store – Ch. 68

Convenience Store Clerk and Pollen Warning (3)

The situation was spiraling out of control. Yoonha Noona frowns at the chihuahua looking down at her.

"That... Sorry, but who are you?"

"Why are you asking who I am. Do I need to show my ID to buy a mask?”

"That's not why I asked, but why is your speech so short?"

"Should I make 'give me a mask' longer instead of shorter?"

“?”

At this point, Noona also seemed to realize that the chihuahua was not your everyday customer. Looking up at the chihuahua with a face that lost both words and sense, she caught my eye and asked.

“Lee Chan, what’s with this chihuahua? Why's he acting like this to me?"

I don't exactly know what he is, but I know why he's acting this way. A chihuahua's aggression doesn't discriminate by species or size. But saying this probably won't improve the situation...

"I'll tell you later, just him a mask for now."

Keeping them from talking to each other seemed like the best plan. Noona grumbled at my answer, but then pulled a plastic bag with the masks out and handed it to me.

I quickly took out a kobold-sized mask and offered it to him, but he didn’t even take it—his attention was glued elsewhere. He was staring intently at Noona's pants pocket, or more precisely, at the discolored mask inside the pocket.

Then, he started talking to her again.

"Hey, human female. Can you even breathe through that mask?"

"What's it to you how my mask is?"

"I'm saying it's filthy. The look of it is just…”

Clicking his tongue, he pulled out a 10,000 won bill from his wallet, stuffed it into my vest pocket...

“Hey, get her a new mask. I’m outta here.”

He ripped open the packaging, kept the mask, and walked off with it. It was only when the chihuahua disappeared into the darkness that Noona asked me.

“Why didn’t he take his change?”

“No idea.”

Since we were on the topic, I told her everything I knew. That he seems to work at some company, he's a regular who comes whenever you start to forget about him, and he has a serious defect in his anger management department.

I also mentioned how he cursed me out every time I mentioned his change, though I had no idea why. After sharing a few stories about him, I glanced over at her. She was wearing a puzzled expression, clearly at a loss.

“Why do you keep letting a guy like that come in until he’s a regular? Should've kicked him out long ago."

“If I kicked out every customer who acted like that, there wouldn’t be a night shift anymore. And, honestly…”

“What?”

“To be honest, that chihuahua’s actually better than other troublemakers.”

Noona frowned deeply, but I was half serious.

This convenience store is at a downtown intersection, with a subway station and bus stop right in front, and a food alley lined with pubs and fusion bars a few minutes' walk away. It’s a pandemonium hub.

With such a location, we’re bound to see a constant stream of difficult customers. Just from what I've experienced so far, the front gate gets smashed, orcs engage in PvP using car doors, and fire woman and ice woman get into a catfight...

Compared to those other chaotic messes, this chihuahua is actually a relief. At least he doesn’t wreck anything besides my mental health and leaves peacefully once he’s got his stuff.

Plus, he occasionally throws me a little bonus. That’s actually the best part.

"You know that wheat beer you took before, Noona. That was from this chihuahua too."

“Why’s he giving you beer?”

“If you ever meet him again, do me a favor and ask. He just tells me to shut up and drink it.”

“You want me to talk to that chihuahua again? Me?”

"If you don't want to, don't."

They probably won’t meet again anyway. Today was more of a random mishap thanks to the chihuahua’s mood swings. Unless Yoonha’s got some terrible luck…

Either way, I got the cash, so better finish the payment before I forget.

When I scanned the barcode on the packaging the chihuahua left behind, it was 1,700 won. 8,300 won became discretionary funds. It was money that chihuahua gave me to buy a mask, but there was no need to spend money on something that I already had.

"Noona, do you have a specific mask you use?"

"Give me whatever. A mask is a mask."

“Then use this.”

I handed Noona the mask Manager left for me to use. Then after bringing in the supplies Noona brought and finishing the paperwork, we stood side by side at the front door to get some air.

“What are you going to do now, Noona? Go home and sleep?”

“Yeah, that’s the plan. But actually, there was something I wanted to talk about with you before…”

"What."

“That damn chihuahua threw me off, and now I forgot. Ey shit, what was it?”

Annoyed, she pulled out her herbal cigarette, bit down on it, and tapped it against her lips. Watching her do that suddenly made me think of something.

“Was it about the license?”

As soon as I said it, she stopped fidgeting. Holding the herbal cigarette in her hand, she looked at me with a grin.

“That’s right. I wanted to congratulate you on that. Congrats, man.”

“Hearing Noona says that reminds me, I’ve got something to say too.”

“You do?”

“Thanks. If it weren’t for Noona, I would probably be looking at cram schools by now.”

Thanks to Noona, I didn't suffer from indecision or get beaten up by an angry ATM. Yoonha Noona chuckled awkwardly, then poked me in the side out of nowhere.

“If you’re thankful, punk, you should’ve called right after you got the license. Do you know how worried I was before I heard from Unnie?”

“That’s… kind of on me, but....”

There's a reason for this too.

"How could I contact you when I don't know your contact info?"

“No, why don’t you have my number?”

“You don’t know because I didn’t tell you. Then do you know my contact information?”

"Uh..."

So we immediately exchanged phone numbers, and my saved contacts became three: Manager, 7-year-old kindergarten dragon girl, and Noona.

Somehow they're all females. Is spring finally coming to me, who in 29 years of life only had Team Leader Kim Miyoung's contact among women?

“Just so you know, I’m going to text you whenever I have a free moment now. Got it?”

“Fine by me, just not during the day. I’ll be sleeping.”

"I can consider that much..."

Even if she doesn't consider it, I won’t get the messages anyway since I’ll be off in another world. With a satisfied face, Noona puts her phone in her pocket and lets out a big yawn.

With tears even forming in her eyes, she looks much sleepier than usual. Something occurred to me, so I asked.

"Noona. Just before we parted yesterday, you said your boss contacted you. Something about the corporate card, right?"

“Huh? Oh... That’s right.”

"Did that get resolved well?"

I should’ve asked her about this sooner, considering I caused the issue. She gazes up at the sky, hesitates briefly, and then finally answers.

“It’s sorted out.”

“Sorted out as in how?”

“How else? Wrote an incident report, got some criticism like 'Yoonha why do you keep causing trouble'—"

She stops mid-sentence and yawns again, but something doesn’t sit right with me. Noona always comes around this time, but she’s never looked this worn out.

“…did my usual work. That’s that, so you can stop worrying about it too….”

“What about the balance on the corporate card? Did you make up the difference?”

“Yeah, I went to the bank and fixed it. What, are you worried I’ll charge you for it?”

I shook my head. Why would I be on the hook for an ATM going haywire and went bandit? Maybe for the repair costs, but…

No. That ATM was destined to be destroyed by someone else, even if it wasn't me or Noona. Even if they charge me, all I have for real assets are two 29-year-old kidneys. If it's urgent, they can take those.

This wasn't what I wanted to talk about anyway.

"You said it ended with writing an incident report and getting scolded."

“Yeah. I told you, that’s all it was.”

“The director must have read the report that Noona wrote.”

“Why are you dragging this out…?”

"Didn't the director ask? Like, who’s this convenience store clerk you helped out?”

This bugs me.

If Noona wrote her report properly, then she would’ve said something along the lines of, ‘I helped out some part-timer, and that’s how it all happened’.

And if I were the director, I absolutely wouldn't leave that convenience store clerk punk off the hook.

When your office's corporate account got messed up because of some random convenience store clerk you've never met, wouldn't it be right to at least get their phone number and either curse them out or make them do dishes, even if just out of anger?

Even if not that, at minimum they should have called me to verify the incident report's authenticity. If they didn’t, their subordinates might start taking him lightly and cause this kind of trouble again.

But I haven’t gotten any calls. The only reason I can think of is that Noona didn’t mention me at all.

“Look, Noona, I seriously doubt they would accept a report where you conveniently left out the main troublemaker.”

It obviously would've been rejected, and the rewritten content wouldn't have been different from the first. After repeating that, they probably decided there's no point in making her write more reports.

If it were me, I would’ve just fired her at that point, but her director must think differently. Her worn-out look is proof enough of whatever other solution he came up with.

"They made you work overtime, right? I’m telling you that the expression I made when I was made to work overtime at my old company is the same as the expression Noona has now.”

“Hey, did you write a novel?”

Noona snapped back, but I almost never believed words said without eye contact. I continued.

“Then don’t look so worn out if you want me to believe otherwise. You said yourself that things slow down in May.”

Specifically, she said that the Gates or whatever don’t open in May, so she would have more free time to visit.

“But here you are, conveniently looking dead on your feet. How am I not supposed to make that connection?”

“....”

“Fine, say I’m writing a novel—then answer this one thing. If Noona tell that director about me, how do Noona think they’ll react? Regardless of this incident."

My guess is, that director would ask to work with me.

Call it overly self-conscious, sure, but I’m not just throwing out random guesses. Just yesterday, I was offered an assistant professor position, believe it or not.

If a national exam proctor got it into his head to say that kind of thing, how different could a corporate director be? It wasn't hard to guess they'd try to give me office work or something.

“I’m hopeless at paperwork, so office work isn’t an option for me…”

Right after saying this, Noona spoke in an exasperated tone.

"Fine, I didn't tell them about you. Because it obviously wouldn't end there."

"Then you did work overtime."

"Worked my ass off. Happy?"

It sounded like she didn't want to talk about it anymore. So I deliberately didn't answer.

For the next minute or so, she just kept puffing and exhaling her herbal cigarette without a word. Since her face no longer showed signs of sleepiness, I figured it was okay to ask again.

“What was the overtime for?”

“I helped clean up that park, get rid of the pollen. That place has an absurd amount of pollen, I swear.”




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