Convenience Store Worker From Another World Chapter 128

Episode 128. It was okay when you came in, but when you left (6)

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No, really, what is this?

I took it because it was supposed to be a potion to make me honest, but why did I come back to my childhood self when I was trying to sleep? Did I get the potion bottle wrong and bring it?

“But why are you here, sir?”

“No. Hey, kid. Your name is Lee Chan, right? What kind of Chan do you use?”

“It’s bright and cold.”

“How do I write it? If I bring a pen, can I write it?”

“I don’t know that Chinese character?”

“What the hell.”

This guy seems to be me. At this age, I didn’t know how to write my name in Chinese characters. Plus, he has black hair and a glum expression that looks like he’s lived a full life.

The sleeping bag he carried on his shoulder was made of a wooden stick wrapped with box tape, and I remember why it ended up like that. It must have been broken once or twice when he set it up to catch cicadas.

“… … .”

“mister?”

…first.

When I returned home, holding the two-sided sleeping bag in both hands.

My mother took out some duct tape and a wooden stick, and I looked at it and said, “Where did you get that stick? Just buy me a new sleeping bag. It only costs 5,000 won.”

Even though I was struggling and kicking my feet, he was unwavering. When I was about to collapse from exhaustion, he fixed all the bedding and silently handed it to me. He told me to swing it around once.

When I received it, I swung it hard on purpose. I thought that if the sleeping bag broke, you would buy me a new one.

But no matter how hard I swung my weight, the fixed bed would not break again, and in the end, I had no choice but to go outside in a gloomy mood.

Then later on, I ended up rewriting it myself.

“Hey, kid… .”

“?”

“… Chan-ah.”

“why.”

“How many times has that sleeping bag been rewritten?”

“Six times. Why, you tease me for playing with a broken bed like other kids?”

“No, it’s not like that. It’s just… .”

It brings back old memories. Good memories.

After swallowing my words, I took out my phone and switched the screen to the camera. I wanted to take a picture. I don’t have any more pictures of this guy.

But it was meaningless. Even though I aimed straight at my old self, I couldn’t see anything on the screen. All I could see was a bit of the night sky, a hotel table, and a bed.

Suddenly I came to my senses. This is magic.

The potion of being honest with yourself. You said that another self appears and disappears in your mind for a moment, and that even Miss Elena has no idea how that self will behave when it appears.

It seems like that’s how it appeared. It wasn’t even decided what age the other me would appear as. It was just a potion with added effects… .

This means that the guy in front of you right now doesn’t have a real body. When the effect of the medicine wears off, this guy will disappear too.

Nine-year-old Lee Chan just tilted his head, not knowing whether he knew he was going to disappear or not.

“Magic?”

“Yeah. Magic.”

“Hey, where in the world is there magic?”

He doesn’t seem to believe it at all. Well, it was when he was eight that he realized that there was no Santa Claus in the world.

“Hey, Chan-ah.”

“Sorry, sir, but I’m busy. I have to go catch cicadas.”

“Is catching cicadas our summer vacation homework? We’re asking you to write an insect observation journal.”

“Huh? How did you know? Even though you’re an old man.”

“There are ways, tsasha. Hey, let’s make a deal.”

“Deal? My mom said I shouldn’t do that with adults I don’t know very well….”

“Just talk to me for a bit, and I’ll teach you how to catch cicadas.”

At that time, whenever I saw a cicada, I would just cover it with a net, but the results were not very good. After thinking about it for a moment, the guy poked the end of the net down and answered.

“Preemptive strike.”

“No, what kind of guy is this?”

“Instead, I will give back as much as I received.”

“Even if you see a cicada, don’t go near it right away. Just check around its mouth for a moment. If it’s babbling, it’s drinking sap, so you can cover it then. Okay?”

I didn’t realize this until after the summer break was over. The guy who had been mulling over my advice just shrugged and sat down on the bed.

“What do you want to talk about?”

“A story from another world.”

I don’t know if it will make a difference if I do it, but I tried it anyway.

The first time I entered a convenience store, I met the manager, I suffered like a dog because I was told the truth, and then I met various customers, talked to them, and became close with them.

It’s been peaceful so far, but now something like a gate has come out and things are about to get messy. I’m shaking with fear.

After finishing the story, I looked down and saw that he was looking at me with a half-believing and half-doubting expression.

“Really?”

“Then you’re saying I’m crazy… No. Do you really believe this?”

“Honestly, I don’t believe it at all. But that doesn’t mean you’re crazy, right?”

I don’t understand. They must have received the same upbringing, but why on earth is this guy so ignorant?

“I guess that’s what I’m saying, you know? Can I go there too?”

“If I’m lucky later. Anyway, let’s say it’s true. How do you feel?”

“I envy you.”

After cutting him off, he muttered while looking at his sleeping bag.

“If there was such a thing as magic in my world, I wouldn’t have had to rewrite the bed like this.”

Since he was a guy who had to fix a bed because he didn’t have 5,000 won, it’s understandable that he would think like this. He mentioned one of the things he had said again.

“I told you, it’s not a place to be envious of. Something scary is happening there.”

“That’s because the old man doesn’t look that scared when you say that.”

“I?”

“No, that’s not it.”

Despite the fact that he changes the subject midway, his gaze is honest. At this age, I was the kind of person who never avoided eye contact only when it came to something I believed was right.

I can’t live like that now, but I decided to believe it for now. Unless I’m afraid of the gate…

“What am I afraid of now?”

I blurted it out and even I felt like it was a strange thing to say. It wasn’t a question I had asked with the intention of getting an answer. But I got an answer.

“It’s about finding out what kind of person you are in that world.”

“…what?”

“It’s like finding out that I’ve always been kicked out since I first entered society when I was 20, that I was always being pointed at, and that I’ve never really accomplished anything.”

……for a moment.

After thinking about it, I answered.

“You are magic after all.”

He has a calm expression. He doesn’t seem to have any intention of denying what I’m saying.

This guy is also magic in the end. He is not really me when I was a 9-year-old with a runny nose, but a manifestation of something in my mind.

So of course you know what I didn’t want to say. How pathetic and useless I am, and how I’ve lived for years without being able to settle down anywhere.

Now I know why this guy showed up, calling himself my ego. I didn’t want to tell this to him at all.

“You said earlier that you wish there was something like magic in the world you live in, Chan-ah.”

“yes.”

“Strictly speaking, it’s not that it didn’t exist.”

PC room. Karaoke room. Gas station.

Loading and unloading trucks, large marts, kids cafes, newspaper delivery, hostess bars, movie theaters, fast food restaurants, phone consultations, moving companies, bakeries, furniture factories, odd jobs. So many things I don’t even remember how I did…

Starting the day after my high school graduation, I started working two jobs a day, doing whatever I could. However, I couldn’t do anything properly. Since I had no work experience or anything, I couldn’t do the job, and my social skills were poor…

I had to go catch the bus right after work. I didn’t have time to hang out. As I did that, my body gradually became weaker and my expression fell.

After a few years, I became unable to speak or hear anything. Wherever I went to work, I was shunned as a gloomy person, and eventually I was kicked out. That lasted at most three months, and at least one month.

It was a gloomy day. Still, I had the strength to endure.

“You said it.”

“… … .”

“To me, you were the magic that helped me get through those tough times.”

When I fainted at work and had to get an IV drip, when I was fired for being hospitalized for two days and then immediately looked through job ads, when that became an annual event.

I was able to endure thanks to this guy. Because I was happy in the past. So, if I live, I will be happy again someday.

“If it’s not now, then what?”

“… … .”

“I didn’t live a short life. I lived for 29 years. It’s better than all the happiness I’ve felt in those 29 years, and even more than thinking about you.”

“yes.”

“… It was fun. This past month…”

After enduring all sorts of suffering from the truth-mongers and experiencing all sorts of strange things, my plan to just make money and run away was shattered long ago. But.

“This was the first time someone really listened to my story. They thanked me for helping them, told me they wanted to help me, and told me I wasn’t a stranger.”

So I was happy.

Now I can honestly say that I was definitely happy while I was here. But.

“You know. I was always the one getting kicked out. Even if I tried to hold on, my true colors would show in the end. Even if I tried to act cheerful, something would eventually blow up.”

“yes.”

“It was always like this. When someone expected something from me, and I failed to meet that expectation. The next day, the week after, I was already a nobody.”

It feels like this is the moment. I feel like I have to do something. Do you have any thoughts? Number 44?

“If I can’t do that, won’t I get kicked out again? Won’t the things that happened here become one of the many things that I didn’t do on my own?”

That’s what I’m afraid of. Even this happy moment here, like it always was, will become something that never happened. In the end, it will become a memory that will never come back, and I won’t be able to keep it even in a photo.

I wanted an answer to that. Nine-year-old Lee Chan shook his head.

“How would I know that? I’m nine years old.”

“… That’s true.”

“Right. It depends on how you do it.”

… I do it my way.

While I was thinking, I heard the sound of cicadas chirping from somewhere. It was 9 p.m. in a hotel room, under the moonlight of a star-filled night sky.

It was neither the time nor the place for cicadas to cry. Nevertheless, I could hear it clearly in my ears. I couldn’t tell where the sound was coming from, but this guy seemed to have a guess.

“I think I should go, sir. If I don’t catch it today, my homework will pile up.”

It seems like the potion is starting to wear off. I could probably hold on to it if I drink more of the remaining potion, but I can’t bring myself to do that. It’s time to let it go.

“Goodbye, Chan-ah. It was nice to see you after so long.”

“Yes… Ah, sir.”

“uh.”

“Is there anything else you want to tell me?”

There is. You must be asking because you know that. I was going to pat his head, but I stopped. I didn’t want to make this guy disappear with my own hands.

So I just said it.

“Be good to your mother, Inma. Don’t regret it later like I did.”

“yes.”

And then, a moment later, in the blink of an eye, it disappeared. I stared blankly at the spot where my memories had disappeared, then crawled onto the bed and lay down.

The ceiling is full of stars, and the temperature is just right. It’s been a long time since I fell asleep while looking at the moon.