Mastore 69 - Dumpster

Magic Realm Convenience Store – Ch. 69

Convenience Store Clerk and Pollen Warning (4)

I asked right after hearing it.

“Why is Noona cleaning that up?”

I know Noona's occupation is a hunter. Catching monsters and closing Gates are her main duties.

I don't know exactly how these things are done since I've never seen it, but cleaning up flower pollen doesn't seem to have anything to do with those jobs. Why is Noona handling spare work that city hall officials or park staff should obviously be doing?

"Those guys do dump their work on us around this time. They know we have less work right now."

"What does Noona not being busy have to do with those guys..."

“A lot, actually. We cross paths with them often.”

“How?”

“Well, first off, they provide us subsidies.”

I thought, if you're getting money, you've got to earn what you receive, what else can you do?

But from the sound of it, their relationship isn’t a straightforward, ideal partnership.

Aside from subsidies, there are many ways to get tangled up, and one of them is like this. Let's say a monster appears in the middle of the city, and in the process of catching it, three utility poles are destroyed.

In that case, a damage report for both public and private property needs to be sent to the city hall officials. It's to prove 'We didn't wreck the utility poles on purpose, there were circumstances. Please approve the budget.'

But what if the relationship with those officials is shot? They might just throw the report back with a note that says, ‘Given the circumstances, it looks like this was avoidable; it seems like it was your fault, so no, we’re not funding this’.

And if that happens? The company would have to pay out of pocket to replace each of those utility poles. Keep that up, and they’ll be in the red, and the company will go under.

In short, this pollen cleanup thing was essentially Noona grinding ‘goodwill points’ with those city hall officials. And judging from the tone of her voice, Noona seemed to have a lot of resentment built up over it…

“Thing is, it’s not just this kind of stuff. When a Gate opens, evacuating different species in that area is the police department's job, but we can't contact the police directly. The law's weird like that. So we have to go through the city hall, but those son of a bitch pick and choose which company they’ll answer calls from, so we—”

“Noona. I understand, but let’s save it for later; you’re about to pass out.”

Noona hadn't taken a single breath while saying all this.

While Noona caught her breath, I did some thinking of my own. I understand why Noona went to clean up the flower pollen... but is that an amount that can be cleaned up by sending just Noona alone?

I’m asking because I saw what the park looked like on the news. They called it ‘pollen’, but it was more like a Siberian plain covered in strawberry syrup.

"Doesn't seem like city hall officials would be happy even if you send just one person to that mess..."

"We're pretty high-quality workforce, you know. When they work with us, they get super happy and stuff."

“What exactly did you do over there?”

I asked without much thought, and Noona just shrugged her shoulders and answered casually.

“Pulled the trees out, shook the pollen off, and replanted them.”

“Uh... Really?”

“I’m joking. I was about to do that at first, but they freaked out and stopped me, but they stopped me, saying it’ll be a disaster since the tree are national treasures or whatever.”

She giggled after answering, but I could only give a hollow laugh. So, she’s basically saying she could yank a 30-meter tree out by the roots if she wanted to?

“Anyway, drawing too much attention doesn’t go over well, so I didn’t do anything too flashy.”

She says since she couldn't touch the trees, she just used magic to make the pollen protective suits and equipment worn by city hall officials lighter, and carried the sacks filled with pollen.

Just hearing it brought back memories of stuffing junk food wrappers to lighten my load during training marches. Even just these things seemed enough for Noona to be treated like a fairy.

"Today's done but... gotta go for a few more days. What kind of pollen is this, clear one truck and two trucks' worth comes out."

“What time did you wrap up today?”

“Just now. Went to the logistics center and came straight here.”

It’s 12:30 a.m. now, so she probably left the park around 11:00 p.m. if we're being generous. Noona would have started work around 9 a.m...

A total of 16 and a half hours. I shared my thoughts.

“Tell the director about me, Noona.”

Noona answered immediately.

“No.”

"Whether you like it or not doesn't matter, just do it, okay?"

“Hey, Lee Chan. So, you think this is all your fault? Was it you who told me to swipe that corporate card? No, I swiped it, didn't I?"

This must be Noona's real feelings. Anyway, she's saying she's the one who swiped the corporate card, and not seeing the incident report coming is her responsibility too. I can see how to continue this conversation.

"It's not something I did because you told me to. I did it on my own, so you shouldn't worry about it-"

"I appreciate that, but still tell them."

“Are you even listening to what I’m saying?”

"I'm listening, but Noona, listen to me too. Let’s say you keep your head down, bite the bullet, and work overtime for 16 and a half hours until you’ve cleaned up all that pollen. Then, what happens next?”

"Next?"

"In my opinion, this won't end with just one overtime?"

Here’s how I’m reading the situation: Hunters are less busy in May, so the city hands off odd jobs to them, and Noona took on this particular job.

But, it's the second week of May right now.

There's still a long way till May ends, and they probably won't leave hunters, who they call high-quality workforce, alone after just one job. If they have to, they’ll make up tasks to keep them busy.

And from my group living experience, when bomb passing starts within a group, bombs tend to keep exploding in the place where one already went off. I especially know this well since I'm someone who burst a blood vessel from taking those bombs.

“It’s not like you can refuse if you don’t want to. This isn’t just overtime; it’s punishment, plain and simple.”

“…Doesn’t matter to me. Whatever, I'll just do it."

"Doing it is all fine, but who's going to handle logistics? The logistics."

If she wants to work herself to the bone, I can't stop her. If she says she’ll do it, what can I do?

But here’s the thing: overtime isn’t planned with a person’s well-being in mind. Let’s say she’s lucky enough to finish by 10:30 p.m. today and go haul containers. Who’s to say it’ll turn out like that next time?

There isn't. If Noona ends up with an all-nighter job and can’t find the time to handle deliveries, a lot of things will start to spiral. For starters, an empty-shelved convenience store won’t draw in customers, so the store's sales will suffer…"

"Manager will obviously find out too. What are you going to tell her then?"

"You're stressing yourself out over nothing. You really think it’ll come to that?”

"Maybe it won't. But, isn't the current overtime situation something that happened while saying 'no way' too?"

Noona only mentioned the incident report, she didn't even bring up overtime.

In other words, even she didn’t have a perfect read on her director. It means 'I didn't know the director was someone who would assign overtime work,' right?

And it’s not impossible that ‘I didn’t expect the boss would make me pull an all-nighter for overtime’ could come to pass too. It’s unlikely, sure, but if it happens, I can’t exactly save her from it.

“What I’m saying is, I hate it when everyone argues about who’ll take responsibility, and we end up in a situation where no one can take responsibility. That’s all.”

“....”

“It’s right for us to end this on our own, even if it’s for the sake of Manager. There are only three people involved here, Noona, me, and Manager. Does Noona think Manager would be pleased if we kept it all bottled up between us?”

Given Manager's personality, she definitely won't curse, but she would probably give a word... and get gloomy. I'm way more scared of hearing that word than getting cursed at.

Noona's expression stiffened when I brought up Manager, but she didn't say anything. She took a drag on her herbal cigarette, fitted the filter between her fingers, and spun it around…

After about ten or so spins, Noona finally opened her mouth.

“You can say it so easily because you’ve never met the director.”

"What, is the director an ex-fighting champion or something? Gave up his belt for violence charges?"

"That level would be rather cute. Rather... That’s..."

Apparently, it wasn’t easy to sum it up, so she took her time finding the right words. After choosing and choosing, she came out with something unexpected.

“…He feels kinda like you. That’s probably the best way to put it.”

"Wow, is that person a high school graduate too? Maybe we’ll hit it off.”

“He’s oddly logical and persuasive, like you. Do you think this is a joke?”

She reached over and pinched my arm, and honestly, I felt wronged. She jokes about yanking trees out of the ground, but I can’t joke back?

“He’ll definitely grind you down, that’s for sure. You’re good at your job, so there’s no way he would settle for just one or two outsourced gigs…”

"I wouldn’t care even if it wasn’t just one or two."

"What?"

"They'll pay me eventually, won't they?"

Even if they work me hard to make up for the corporate card charge at first, later they'll pay me. If not, I can just go find a labor law specialist lawyer.

Whenever it is, as long as they pay me, I think I can endure most things. Just as long as they don't assign things between 10 p.m. and 10 a.m.. I have to man the counter.

"I can choose which work to take, and for things I don't know well, I can ask Noona and Noona will tell me."

“....”

"For Manager, we can tell her depending on the situation... Anyway, that’s that.”

I've said everything I could say for now. Did my best too.

Still, if Noona says she'll take all responsibility, then I don't know. Maybe it’s because my persuasion skills fell short, or maybe she thought my observations were too abstract; it’ll be one of the two.

Even if I can't accept it, I'll understand it. Because I know why Noona acting like this.

"...Sorry."

“What.”

"I shouldn't have used the corporate card back then, seriously..."

Now it was time to say what needed to be said.

“I think it’s half and half, Noona.”

“What half and half?”

“I’m the one who tossed a cigarette butt into a thatched-roof house, and you’re the one who threw a can of gasoline on the burning house. So whose fault is it? The one who started it, or the one who made it worse?”

“...What do you think?”

"I'm asking because I don't know either?"

Actually, I do. Half and half my ass, it's entirely my fault.

I’m the one who asked her for help. I’m the one who dragged her along, saying we had to catch the bank robber. Then it's my fault, how does it become Noona's fault?

Of course, Noona would argue right away. That there must’ve been another way to handle it.

But I should have thought of that other method myself. It was my exam. The moment I couldn't think of that method myself, I should have left without looking back. Because I wasn't qualified.

Then Noona would argue again. Saying she was the one who recommended getting the license, so how could she leave it like that. And then I would argue back again, saying that’s what retakes are for.

If we kept up that argument, we would be up all night. That’s why it’s half and half, and that’s why I tried to persuade her. Since we would just go in circles if we both tried to take responsibility, I declared I'm taking responsibility because it's something I have to.

Though I can't say it out loud, since it's obviously going to sound cheesy. Noona asked again.

"Are you really asking because you don't know?"

"I'm telling you I don't know? I'm not an insurance planner."

“I mean, is that your real feelings? That."

Real feelings? I just hate seeing Noona suffer like this anymore.

I hate seeing her working overtime, I hate that she’ll probably do it again, I hate myself for making a thirty-year-old woman have flower pollen on her fingertips instead of nail polish, I just hate it all.

I want to live well and eat well. For that, at the very least... I think I shouldn't live wrongly. These are my real feelings.

“Since it’s how I truly feel, if Noona isn’t sure either, just leave it at half-half and let’s be done.”

"...You really live a tiring life, you know.”

“It’s better than Noona. Does Noona know what time it is? It’s 1 a.m., 1 a.m. You should be sleeping.”

“It’s already that late?”

"It's exactly 1:17, so go home and sleep. Don't forget to tell the director about me tomorrow morning-"

"Okay. I said okay, yeah."

With that short answer, she let out a yawn.

She stretched her mouth wide, then whistled sharply. As soon as she did it, a winged horse appeared in the distance, fluttering in the wind from the distant parking lot.

After skillfully tying a rope to the horse that landed on the container and tugging it a couple times, I asked as I watched her get on the horse.

"Noona. I think this every time I see it, but isn't that heavy?"

“I make it lighter, so it doesn’t feel heavy. At this weight, it’s about… 10 kilograms?”

“Ah, I see.”

"If you're curious, you can try lifting it yourself."

“I’m good.”

Setting aside the weight, I wouldn't even know where to grab the container to lift it. When I declined, she nodded saying okay and yawned again.

"Get home safe."

"Yeah. See you later."

With that, Noona left. Looking down at the horse feathers left where Noona departed, I started yawning too.

I went back into the convenience store, grabbed a couple of sodas, and drank them throughout the night. Maybe because I have been talking so much, my throat felt parched.


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