Magic Realm Convenience Store – Ch. 151
Everything has a cause and effect (3)
I chatted with Manager for a few more minutes before grabbing my
phone and wallet and quietly left. After taking a few steps, I glanced behind me
to find Manager waving at me.
I bowed my head in greeting and then
walked looking only forward during my entire walk home. When I returned home and
looked down at the phone I had been holding in my hand, it was soaked with
sweat.
I wiped my hands on my pants and checked my account. Excluding
the thousands place, 7.53 million won was really showing. I put my feelings into
words.
“Oh shit, what the heck is this...?”
Even fantasies
aren't usually this fantastic. Why in the world was a part-timer’s first
paycheck 7.53 million won?
(D: I thought Chan already goes full
time…)
Right before leaving the store, the manager had explained in
more detail. I work 7 days a week, and my working hours are exactly 12 hours
from 10 p.m. to 10 a.m..
From 10 p.m. to 6 p.m. was categorized as
night shift, meaning an extra 50% of standard wages were added. Just calculating
these 7 days a week, 8 hours of work, the wage including weekly holiday
allowance is about 4 million.
Calculating the remaining 4 daytime
hours in the same way gave roughly 1.4 million won, and when Manager searched
how much to give for my meal expenses, she said the average food cost for office
workers was about 8,000 won per meal per day.
That's 30 days, 4
million + 1.4 million + 240,000, totaling 5.64 million.
On top of
this, hiring freelance anti-magic specialist to organize the underground
warehouse logistics costs about 450,000 won per session, and assuming they're
called once a week, calculated as an average of 4.5 times per month....
Adding
it all up came to roughly 7.5 million won. She gave this explanation fluently
without a single hesitation, and after listening carefully, I squeezed out my
remaining mental strength and asked.
"Aren't additional allowances
not required for businesses with fewer than 5 employees?"
"Is that
how it is in Chan's world?"
"There's no law saying you can't give
them, and I haven't specifically learned the laws of this world, but still this
is a bit..."
Too much?
As the recipient, it felt
ridiculous to complain, so I couldn’t finish my sentence. But as if she clearly
saw through my thoughts, Manager smiled and picked up on my words.
"If
Chan have complaints, Chan can become the business owner."
At this
point, even if I didn’t want to think about it, doubts inevitably arose. Is
Manager's labor cost coming out of this?
I don't know the store's
complete financials, but I remember roughly what our daily sales average.
Approximately 250.000 won per day, split about half-and-half between the manager
and myself.
Even though accidents and incidents that should never
happen in one's life happen on a weekly basis, the location is good and there
are many customers. As many customers as there are, there are just as many
difficult ones.
Even those difficult customers haven't been coming
for the past few days because of the damn gate. Manager has never mentioned
headquarters, so I don't think they pay fees to a headquarters, but...
“...I
don't know.”
It's not like she's the kind of person who would take a
refunded salary that's twice what the employee expected, and it's funny to
imagine me returning a salary that's twice as much as I expected.
After
putting my phone down at my bedside, I used my arm as a pillow and looked up at
the ceiling.
"Seven hundred fifty."
The highest amount I
had ever seen in my account was 4 million won per month. And that was only after
working multiple jobs, grinding my herniated disc into powder through
overwork.
People who earn well might just give one compliment saying,
‘7.5 million? That should be enough to live on,’ and be done with it, but not
me. I want to go beyond compliments and give a seal clap?
With my
lack of abilities, I always thought that having this kind of money was as
unlikely for me as going to another world. Naturally, I hadn't given any thought
to how to spend it.
At most, some household appliances. I've been
using a rice cooker I bought for 30,000 won at a flea market for eight years
now, so I think I should at least change this one...
“...No. That’s
not it.”
With this line of thought, sooner or later I’d probably find
myself thinking, ‘Now that I have some money, shouldn’t I spend it?’ and end up
replacing everything from vacuum cleaners to floor wallpaper
indiscriminately.
I immediately picked up my phone and transferred
all but 1 million won of the 7.53 million to another account. Just enough for
the rent, phone bill, living expenses, transportation expenses in case I had to
take the bus, and some reserve funds for emergencies.
I figured I
should keep some money aside to stuff Hana with snacks until her stomach burst
if she shows up again. The same goes for Mongmong. I think I should show him a
new culinary world since he always eats convenience store hamburgers.
Beyond
that, I owe the Elder a lot, so later I should at least pitch in some cigarette
money for him. And Elena always drinks convenience store coffee when she visits,
so I should prepare some branded coffee for her.
For the police
officer, within the limits of the anti-graft law, I could give a few boxes of
fatigue recovery supplements, and since Noona has been so eager to have a meal,
I should have enough money to buy her a meal...
Charlie. For the
Chihuahua yangban, it's obvious I'll just get called a bastard if I give him
anything, so I need to test the waters a bit. With whatever’s left afterward, it
would be nice if I could buy Manager a meal.
“It sure feels good
having money…”
Maybe because it's June, the temperature was just
right for morning sleep.
I'll just sleep on it for now and think
about it later. At least this money wouldn’t run away like every other bit of
cash I’ve ever earned.
* * *
―Knock, knock, knock.
The
sound of someone knocking on my door woke me up. Now what?
I hadn't
ordered anything online or gotten food delivered. I rubbed my eyes and checked
the time. It was 8 p.m. on my phone screen.
It's not like there's
anyone who would visit me at this time. All the neighborhood friends have gone
to Seoul or other regions, and I'm the only one left in this neighborhood.
While
blankly staring at the front door, the knocking sound was heard once more.
―Knock, knock, knock.
—Landlord here. I came to talk
about rent, is Lee Chan in there?
He claims to be the landlord, but
the voice doesn't match. For six years, I had always visited the landlady
personally and paid her directly, but now it was a man's voice, sounding to be
in his early forties.
After hesitating briefly, I walked to the door
and knocked back in response. That seemed to be answer enough, as the
self-proclaimed landlord's voice came through again.
—It's nothing
major, but this month is your contract renewal month.
"...Yes."
—From
this month, you need to pay more rent. About 100,000 won.
"What?
100,000 won?"
I was trying to just listen as quietly as possible, but
as soon as I heard this, words burst out unintentionally. No, the monthly rent
is 300,000 won including the management fee, so why are you suddenly raising it
by 100,000 won?
—You've been living cheaply until now. Looking at the
contract records, you've paid almost the same amount for over 6 years.
"That's because the increase rate… No, more importantly, who are
you? Where's the landlady?"
―As of this month, I'm the landlord. I'm
coming down with a cold, so don't bother coming out.
Now I can guess
who this yangban is. This guy is the landlady's son. I've heard this voice a few
times when I went to pay the rent. It seems he's taken over his mother's
work.
The reason he suddenly said he's raising it by 100,000 won also
became clear. This man has absolutely no experience in real estate.
The rent cannot be increased by more than 5% based on the total
deposit. Wasn't that called something like a ‘contract renewal right’? Was that
even the exact legal term?
Anyway, I remember enough to argue this
point if landlords try to pull something, and I haven't forgotten yet. I never
had to bring it up with the landlady because we got along well, but...
But
this man, is it because he had just taken over his mother's work? The current
situation seems to be that he's just full of enthusiasm and has come to make
demands without reading any relevant provisions.
—Anyway, now that
you know this, do you have anything to say?
I don't have anything
specific to say, but I am thinking of opening the door and confronting him.
Saying he has a cold coming on so I shouldn't come out, that's
obviously an excuse. He knows he's pulling a shady move, so he's delivering a
one-sided notice before bolting.
Given that COVID was raging these
days, he was probably bluffing about possibly spreading it to me. Judging from
the disrespectful tone of his voice, I think he already knows my age....
―If
you don't have anything to say, I'm leaving.
Should I really charge
at him? Demand the contract?
After some thought, a third option came
to mind. This was the one I liked the most. Hearing the sound of footsteps
moving away, I quickly knocked on the door strongly with the back of my hand and
asked.
“When do I have to sign the contract?”
—By the end
of the month. The sooner the better.
"Yes. Goodbye."
―...For such a young guy, what a disrespectful way of speaking.
If
you're going to judge someone else's manners, you should have brought your own
manners first.
His grumbling voice faded into the distance. After brushing
off the dust on my feet, I finished showering and got dressed.
There
was still about an hour and a half left until work, but today I decided to head
out a bit early. There probably won't be many customers at the store anyway, and
it's an awkward time to do anything else.
Finally, I grabbed my phone
and wallet and headed out to the store. When I opened the front door and stepped
inside, as expected, the quiet shop had only Manager standing alone at the
register.
When our eyes met, Manager looked at the wall clock with a
slightly surprised expression. After a moment, she greeted me with a smiling
face.
"Hi. Chan came really early today?"
"I woke up early
because I had something to do, but after I finished, I was completely awake."
"What
kind of business?"
"It wasn't anything special. How was your shift
today?"
"Well, it's a disaster."
“Yikes.”
When
I stepped behind the counter and checked the POS machine, it showed less than
100,000 won in sales. It looked like the aftereffects of the gate opening and
closing were still lingering.
"But we’ve had about one customer every
ten minutes, so I think things will go back to normal in another day or two."
"Did
the news say anything new?"
“They repeated similar content with
slight variations: ‘We can probably relax now.’ ‘We can definitely relax now.’
‘Seriously, we really can relax now.’ Something like that.”
If I were
to compare this to the world I used to live in, I think it might be similar to
the country saying it's okay to relax about a neighborhood where an earthquake
occurred. Especially the part where, even if told it was safe, people would
still find it hard to actually feel safe.
“Well, that’s good news at
least. Manager-nim, are there any separate handover matters?"
“Chan,
that’s an occupational disease.”
"Ah... you're right."
Although
I had definitely checked the time before coming in, the first thing I asked upon
arriving at the store was if there were any handover shift notes. At this point,
there’s no denying it, I’ve become a full-blown, bone-deep, otherworldly
convenience store worker…..
"Then is there anything I can help you
with?"
“It’s okay. Since there weren’t many customers during the day,
I had to clean the place three times. Let's just chat?"
"Sure, why
not. Do you have anything to say, Manager-nim?"
“I don’t have
anything else, but I have a question for Chan. Like, what Chan'll do with Chan
first paycheck, or something like that.”
Oh, that. Actually, I was
about to bring that up myself.
“Manager-nim, what would you normally
do if you suddenly had this much money?”
"I would immediately start
saving. You never know what might happen later."
"You're exactly the
same as me. I was thinking of saving up first and worrying about it later, but
then...”
I already owe her so much, was it even right to ask her
something like this on top of everything else?
After hesitating, I
just went ahead and asked. Later I could treat her to a meal or something as a
brokerage fee.
“Manager, by any chance, do you know of any studio
apartments in this world?”
“A studio apartment?”
“Yes.
I’ve lived in the same place for so long that I’ve grown tired of it, so I'm
thinking of moving somewhere new.”
I’ve lived in that neighborhood
for 29 years. It’s about time I got out.
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