NOTICE: Many of the novels have been removed because they might cause violations, which we were not aware of earlier.
Episode 37. The Reckless Pyeondol (1)
After 20 minutes, the little boy became a totem that aroused the curiosity of the guests.
“Sir, please give me a pack of Ace cigarettes….”
A salamander came to buy cigarettes while wearing a suit. The cigarettes he was looking for were at the bottom of the display case, so he had no choice but to look in that direction, and the little boy’s head was right there.
As soon as I made eye contact with the child, I saw the corners of his mouth go up.
“Oh, the boss’s kid is really… cute.”
“That’s not my child.”
“Yes? Then why are you here?”
“Um… somehow it ended up like this.”
“?”
I’ve had her sit at the checkout counter before, but back then it was quiet and there were no customers, and now it’s super busy. But what can I do when I have no place to put her?
Even though the little boy came to the checkout counter, he still felt uncomfortable with the attention, so whenever he made eye contact with a customer, he would bend down under the counter and look up at the customer with only his eyes sticking out. This actually had the opposite effect.
“Oh my… .”
A little boy who made eye contact with a harpy guest with feathers on his head and stuck his head out without hesitation. Upon seeing this, the harpy completely lost his expression.
“Honey, how old are you? Do you want me to buy you some candy?”
The little boy’s eyes lit up for a moment, perhaps taken aback by these words, before he shook his head and lowered his body completely. When I glanced at Harpy, he had an expression on his face that looked like his world had come crashing down. I spoke for him.
“He’s a little shy.”
“I see… Sir, how old is the child?”
“He says he’s seven years old.”
When I ask, he answers, but why do you ask as if it’s an established fact that he’s my lover? Do I look like I have a 7-year-old child?
Fortunately, after about 20 minutes, the crowd of customers had decreased and we had some time to chat. Now I guess I’ll try to have a conversation.
“Hey kid, is today the day you go to kindergarten?”
“I. I, uh, I’m sorry.”
“Why are you apologizing again?”
“I heard there are a lot of customers, so why don’t you come…?”
He said something like he was sorry for interfering with his work, but I immediately denied it.
“Kid. How did the faces of the guests who came look? Didn’t they all have gloomy expressions?”
“Is that wrong…?”
In my eyes, it was like that. These office workers all got seriously ill after the weekend.
“It’s called Monday blues, and it’s a very painful disease.”
“Huh? Are you sick…?”
“Yes. Adults with this disease become extremely lethargic, depressed, and extremely sensitive, and the medicine for this is extremely expensive. There is a precious medicine called Wolcha, but it is a last resort.”
“Wolcha? Meatball?”
It was a difficult explanation for the child to understand. I explained it to him in simpler terms.
“The customers liked seeing you, didn’t they? It’s because they got over their Monday blues. Not everyone, though.”
“Huh? I didn’t do anything?”
That’s the important thing. It’s like mysticism. If it’s a stray cat that doesn’t avoid eye contact when it encounters another cat on the street, it’s a story that becomes a joke, but if it’s a dog-cat, people will say, “Didn’t they originally have owners?” and the story will be swept under the rug.
“If you really care, at least say hello. Then you might get better.”
When I told him, the little boy who had been staring at me bowed his head.
“Hello.”
“Not me.”
“Are you not sick, sir?”
“I’m immune to Monday blues.”
Working without weekends has naturally led to the development of antibodies. Am I supposed to like this?
As I continued to receive guests, it was already 9 o’clock, and as if nothing had happened, the guests suddenly stopped coming. I asked the little boy.
“Does your mom take you to kindergarten?”
“my.”
“until when?”
“Uh… It’s been a while since I’ve been here at 10.”
“I think that will be enough.”
This guy hasn’t been able to make a Parents’ Day gift for days. Now I can finally make some progress.
After taking out the drawing paper that the child had brought, he took off the rubber band and took out four lighters placed nearby and placed them in the corner as cornerstones. He thought about using a cigarette pack, but when he saw the picture of the cigarette pack, he lost all desire to do so.
There was a decent amount of glue rolling around under the counter so it wasn’t a problem. The next thing was where to plant these paper flowers… .
“Kid, I think this is the right thing for you to do.”
“Me?”
“Yeah. This is something that shouldn’t feel like it was done by an adult.”
Because the cut flowers were so diverse, including forget-me-nots and sunflowers, without any distinction of habitat, I thought that arranging them normally would only give an artificial feeling. However, I did give them at least some advice.
“But don’t put flowers in the upper corners. Clouds here, sun here. That’s the rule.”
“My… modern times, if you don’t put in the clouds, you won’t be able to rent it…?”
“why?”
“I like clear skies.”
“I like clear skies better too.”
The little boy nodded to my answer and began staring intently at the drawing paper, holding a flower and glue stick in both hands. Judging from the way he occasionally tilted his head, it seemed like he wasn’t able to form a good picture in his head.
I also imagined it myself, but I thought that paper flowers alone wouldn’t be enough. Wouldn’t it be much better if I colored the background with crayons and drew a picture?
“Kid, do you have any crayons at home?”
“Uh… I have one at home… Oh, I think there’s one at kindergarten.”
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“That’s great. I’ll tell the kindergarten—”
I had to cut off the conversation. The expression on the little boy’s face when he brought up the topic of kindergarten wasn’t very good.
I immediately guessed what was going on, but I held back my words for now. The front door bell rang and a guest came in.
“Kid. Stay by yourself for a bit.”
“my.”
The one that came in this time is a cobalt that is close to a cat.
In addition to the vertically slit pupils, it is furry and has whiskers around its snout. I can tell it is a kobold, but I can’t tell if the original was a cat or a lynx.
I was thinking that he might be looking for a cat tower, when he came to me and asked me this.
“Snacks, where?”
It must have been a foreign cat. When I pointed to the direction where the snacks were, the cat nodded and went in that direction, but the little one was staring at the Cobalt guest while holding a stick of grass.
“Why are you doing that?”
“Hey, sir.”
“uh.”
“That customer is dark.”
What’s black?
It didn’t seem like he was talking about fur color. That cobalt’s color was dark, but not black enough to be called black. The little boy looked at my face, shook his head, and added a little more.
“My heart is dark.”
At the same time, the area around the little one’s horns began to glow slightly and then subsided. Only then did I understand.
“So… that kobold is a bad kobold, is that what you’re saying?”
“…my.”
Although he hesitated a little, his answer was firm. Considering that he had already said something that wasn’t asked, he seemed to have some confidence in himself. So, let’s assume he’s a bad guy for now…
“Excuse me, kid, but let me ask you one more question. Is that kobold a bad kobold ‘now’?”
“my.”
It’s none of my business whether the guy is a good guy or a bad guy. If they bring me stuff and money, it’s my job to pay the bill and send them away, no matter who it is.
But if he’s a bad guy ‘now’, it’s different. He’s not a customer, he’s just a guy who came in with the intention of stealing. But is this guy even capable of distinguishing between these things?
“Kid, can you even see that?”
“My… it’s shiny.”
This little kid is going to grow up to be a huge kid.
However, the little boy’s expression was not very good. It must be because he didn’t want to see it. The store manager said that even children don’t have good control over their organs… .
So I thought praising her would only make her sad, so I patted her on the head instead.
“Thank you for telling me, kid.”
“…my.”
And now I’m the problem. I’ve never seen a guy come to a convenience store with the intention of stealing. How should I deal with this?
Normally, when a convenience store is robbed, there’s only one thing the thieves can do: open the popcorn.
This is not a joke, there really is no way. With hundreds of customers coming in every day, how could a thief know which of them will steal something and when? Even if he could know, would he be the thief who knows how to do it? He’s the director of a detective academy.
The best you can do is respond after the fact. If you look through the CCTV later because the inventory doesn’t match up, you find someone in it, so you report that person. That’s all you can do. Even then, most of the time, they don’t even investigate properly. The police aren’t idle enough to catch the thief.
Since the crime rate is determined by the conscience of the residents of the neighborhood, convenience stores are a very difficult business. However, if there are two good points in the current situation, one is that they know in advance that the guy is going to steal.
And, another thing… this is another world. Since the store manager is a wizard, wouldn’t he be prepared for theft?
But I didn’t want to believe that, and I didn’t want to do that. Who would dare try to eat up their life while working all night to earn money?
“Mister?”
“Just wait a moment.”
I got up and picked up the broom and dustpan that were on the counter.
I was going to pretend to clean up, but then I was going to completely storm the scene and beat it with a broom if necessary. However, the moment I went into the snack corner and checked the cobalt, I realized that something was seriously wrong.
Dude, there’s no place to hide your stuff. No bag, no handbag, no pouch, nothing.
Even if you look at his outfit, all he’s wearing is jeans and a shirt, and all he does is turn his back to the ready-made display case and look down at the snacks. He even has his hands in his pockets.
If there’s anything suspicious, it’s that he stood there for a long time between the corners. Even if you pretend not to notice him and glance around, he just has a relaxed expression on his face.
That’s actually suspicious. Why does it take a minute to choose a snack? They’re doing it on purpose. They’re waiting until I pass out from exhaustion.
But it didn’t seem like looking any further would yield any good results, so I returned to the checkout counter. Only then did the wildcat come out of the corner, whistling, holding a bag of nachos in his hand.
He put the cookies on the counter and asked me.
“how much?”
What did you do?
I had to find fault with something, but I didn’t have enough evidence. I couldn’t just say, ‘That kid says that, but there’s a basket in the customer’s heart,’ and beat him up…
“Hey, how much?”
“… It’s 1,800 won, sir.”
“okay.”
I have no idea. So I decided to check just one more thing. When I told him the price, the cat reached into his back pocket… .
He turned his hand, put it in his pants pocket, took out 7,000 won, and handed it to me.
“Cigarettes. One. Please.”
“… … .”
“hey?”
I asked the lynx.
“Excuse me, sir. Could you show me your ID?”