Match, what match? Odd or even, is that what he’s talking about?
When Lee Heewoo just stared at the man’s face with a bewildered expression, he scratched his cheek. He seemed to have realized he’d said something wrong. The man, who’d been lost in thought for a moment, soon changed his words.
“Would you hold my hand just once?”
“…Your hand?”
Why the hand, at this point?
Come to think of it, from the moment the man started going on about matching rates, he’d been spreading out his hand as if asking to hold it. Could this be some new scam method? Lee Heewoo wasn’t someone who usually suspected people, but this was too strange, way too strange.
The problem was that the man was a customer. The convenience store manager had told Lee Heewoo and all the part-timers to accommodate customers’ requests as much as possible. Polite greetings were of course included.
He was debating whether to give the man his hand or not. Beep, an alarm went off from something like a bracelet on the man’s wrist. For Lee Heewoo, who was ignorant of new technology, it seemed to be a smartwatch of an unknown model.
The man who checked his watch clicked his tongue briefly. Then he withdrew the hand he’d been holding out and said,
“Let’s check next time.”
Ding-a-ling.
As soon as he finished speaking, the man went outside. Left alone again, Lee Heewoo watched the man’s retreating figure beyond the glass door before plopping down in his seat with a thud. He picked up the triangle kimbap he’d set down again.
“What a strange person…”
Lee Heewoo consoled himself that he was fortunate it passed without incident and chewed the triangle kimbap in his hand firmly, slowly. If he ate quickly, the feeling of fullness would disappear quickly too, so he had to chew as slowly and for as long as possible. Considering the part-time jobs he had today, it would be difficult to get a proper meal in between.
Even while he slowly ate the triangle kimbap like that, no more customers came. By then, Lee Heewoo also felt something was off. This convenience store, located in a good spot, was a place where sometimes over a hundred people would stop by in the morning.
That’s when it happened. Ding-a-ling… The door opened and a familiar face appeared.
“Oh my, Heewoo.”
It was the manager. The manager, who had only a few grayish-white hairs left, had a flustered look as soon as he saw Lee Heewoo.
“You still had the store open in times like these?”
“Pardon?”
“Don’t you know? The chaos outside! Aliens have come barging in!”
“…Yes…?”
Lee Heewoo, who’d stopped at the manager’s words, looked outside. The scenery with the morning sun almost fully risen was no different from usual. No, there was one difference. It was the battleship that filled the sky above.
“That thing, that! The thing floating in the sky! Because of that, it’s a national emergency right now! Didn’t you get the disaster text?”
“Ah…”
Lee Heewoo belatedly checked his phone. The old flip phone had received the disaster text, but unlike other latest model phones, it didn’t ring loudly with notification sounds. Moreover, since he tended not to look at his phone while working, Lee Heewoo had no way of knowing a national emergency had occurred.
“I, I didn’t know…”
“Aigoo, keep up with what’s happening in the world. Anyway, I’m closing all the convenience stores I have right now too, so Heewoo, you go home for today too.”
“Pardon?”
“Then what? Should I have you work here when the country’s in chaos like this?”
He was dumbfounded. If a national emergency is declared… does that mean he can’t work part-time either?
At that point, Lee Heewoo read the manager’s mood. The hourly wage—then what about today’s hourly wage? For Lee Heewoo, whose monthly living expenses were already tight, if even one day’s wages were cut, next month would become bleak.
“Um…, Manager.”
“Hurry up and go! I don’t want to linger here and get in big trouble either!”
The manager snapped at Lee Heewoo’s sluggish actions. In the end, Lee Heewoo couldn’t even bring up the subject of his hourly wage, took off his uniform vest, and was kicked out of the convenience store. He could see the manager following out behind him and locking the convenience store door.
Standing alone on the street, Lee Heewoo blankly looked up at the sky. The battleship was still floating there without any particular sign of anything. It wasn’t particularly shooting missiles or firing guns, so was there really a reason to declare a national emergency?
Lee Heewoo, who let out a deep sigh, carefully opened his flip phone and looked. The phone that would normally be quiet was noisy with arrived messages. The senders were all the part-time job bosses he was scheduled to work for today.
📶✉️ 🔋
Text Message
Sender: Matgal Meat Restaurant Boss
Heewoo~ We decided to take today off ^^ See you tomorrow
📶✉️ 🔋
Text Message
Sender: Today’s Soup Rice Boss
Heewoo, did you see the news? I’m taking today off~
📶✉️ 🔋
Text Message
Sender: Bonita Boss
Heewoo, all employees are off today. It’s paid leave so don’t worry too much.
News of being off came from all four part-time jobs scheduled for today, including the convenience store that started at dawn. When he did four in one day, his body was naturally exhausted, but he had to do it that way to barely get enough money to survive the next month. The roughly 200 million won gambling debt Lee Heewoo’s father left behind was an illegal loan with a structure where no matter how much he paid, it was hard to even pay just the interest, let alone the principal.
So if all four part-time jobs suddenly close at once like this, it’s really troublesome… A deep sigh leaked from Lee Heewoo’s mouth.
Leaving his frustrated heart behind, Lee Heewoo headed to the bus stop to catch a bus home. But no matter how long he waited, even the bus didn’t come.
Listening to the stories of people passing by, it seemed all buses had stopped operating except for the first train at dawn and a few vehicles. Only Lee Heewoo, who didn’t use a smartphone, didn’t know this.
In the end, only after walking for a total of 2 hours could Lee Heewoo return home. Coming home this early in the morning was really the first time since elementary school. Lee Heewoo returned to his bone-chillingly cold home, turned on the electric blanket, and then pressed the TV power button.
—…Then what are they currently demanding?
Inside what appeared to be a newsroom, two people were sitting and having a serious conversation. Lee Heewoo, sitting on top of the electric blanket, focused on the story inside the TV.
—Yes, they are currently calling themselves ‘Espers.’ Esper is a term referring to psychics. According to what they claim, in order for ‘Espers’ to use their psychic powers, the purifying power of a ‘Guide’ is absolutely necessary.
—So you’re saying they came to our Earth to find ‘Guides’?
—That’s how it can be seen…
Espers, Guides. Lee Heewoo, who had little education, couldn’t properly understand what those were. But he remembered what the only customer he met while working part-time at the convenience store this morning had said to him.
‘Are you a Guide?’
He’d definitely asked that. That man, could he have been an alien? But in appearance, he wasn’t much different from Koreans. The style of clothes he wore was a bit peculiar, but even that wasn’t special if you thought of it as fashion.
—The US government has reported that President Ashton is directly continuing dialogue with their representatives. Also, South Korea’s President Shin Minsu is scheduled to attend the emergency summit being held this afternoon.
A national emergency has been declared, and it seems America and other countries are in chaos too. Lee Heewoo looked at the TV with blank eyes once, and then looked once at the only window in the house connected to the outside. How can all countries be in a state of emergency when nothing is happening like this?
From Lee Heewoo’s mouth as he watched TV, only sighs burst out. Whether the world ends or he can go back to work—whichever of the two, he didn’t care, he just wished a conclusion would come quickly somehow.
* * *
Unfortunately, Lee Heewoo’s wish was not fulfilled. It had already been three days since he couldn’t go to work. However, if there was one fortunate fact, news came from the bosses that he could come to work starting tomorrow. It was thanks to the national emergency being lifted.
—President Ashton of the United States clearly stated that ‘what they want is only peace, freedom, and Guides’ and announced an official position.
—The battleship currently docked in Earth’s airspace is scheduled to withdraw as soon as the mission is complete, and they plan to continue ongoing communication with Earth in the future…
As Lee Heewoo expected, the battleship floating overhead wasn’t particularly dangerous. In fact, if they’d intended to conquer Earth, it would have already been reduced to ashes by missiles and then some.
Lee Heewoo, who was watching the news, opened his flip phone and looked down at the messages that had arrived a little while ago.
📶✉️ 🔋
Text Message
Sender: Matgal Meat Restaurant Boss
Heewoo~ Tomorrow you can come at the usual time! ^^
📶✉️ 🔋
Text Message
Sender: Today’s Soup Rice Boss
Heewoo, back to work starting tomorrow~!
📶✉️ 🔋
Text Message
Sender: Bonita Boss
Heewoo, you can work again starting tomorrow, right?
📶✉️ 🔋
Text Message
Sender: 24 Convenience Store Boss
Heewoo. Starting. tomorrow. we decided. to open. the convenience. store again
Fortunately, he wasn’t fired. If he’d rested any longer here, he would have had no choice but to go out for manual labor, so this was really fortunate. Lee Heewoo let out a deep sigh of relief.
In the midst of all this, the news inside the TV kept flowing out.
—The ‘Guide’ they are looking for is, to be precise, a ‘match,’ and it’s known to be distributed in very diverse forms among us Earthlings.
—Also, those called ‘Espers’ have taken a hard-line stance that they will not hesitate to use any means or methods to find their ‘match.’
Lee Heewoo, who was operating his flip phone with short fingers to send greetings to each of the bosses one by one, ended up not hearing the words that continued on the news.
Therefore, he overlooked the fact that the Espers who fell from space one day could consider married women or married men, or even young children as candidates if it meant finding their match.
