Gluing ; Feeding My Guide 33

As soon as Lee Heewoo saw the text message, he startled and turned his steps toward the bank. His phone was a flip phone, so he couldn’t do mobile banking like everyone else did these days. Still, thanks to keeping his card and bankbook in the crossbody bag he carried every day, he could make transfers as long as he found a bank ATM.

Lee Heewoo’s debt repayment date was the 31st of every month, but occasionally when his part-time job bosses deposited his wages late in the afternoon, he would receive menacing collection notices like this from his creditors. Gulping down his saliva, Heewoo hurriedly ran to the bank. Heichi followed behind him.

Fortunately, thanks to the ATM having no line, Heewoo was able to stand in front of the machine quickly. First, he pulled out his crumpled bankbook from his crossbody bag to check his balance.

Normally, he should receive 2.25 million won in monthly wages from the convenience store, soup restaurant, and cafe. With his weekend part-time job, an additional 420,000 won should have come in. On top of that, the one million won in cash he’d received from the meat restaurant had already been deposited into his account, so the amount shown should be close to four million won.

With a trembling heart, he updated his bankbook…

20251231│Kim Minsu│₩320,000│1,340,540 won

20251231│Bonita│₩466,300│1,806,840 won

20251231│Today’s Soup│₩864,250│2,671,090 won

Remaining balance: 2,671,090 won.

Heewoo blinked his eyes repeatedly. The amount didn’t match. The one million won he should receive from working at the convenience store… why hadn’t it come in? Had the convenience store owner perhaps forgotten the payday?

The convenience store owner had hired Heewoo at an hourly wage of only 8,000 won—less than minimum wage—on the grounds that there was nothing to do from dawn until morning. Because of this, without weekly holiday pay or the four major insurances, roughly one million won coming in each month was typical.

After pondering, Heewoo opened his flip phone and pressed the convenience store owner’s phone number. Ring ring… It didn’t take many rings before he was connected to the owner.

—What is it, Heewoo? What’s going on?

“Um… Boss. My wages haven’t come in…”

—…

No voice came from the other end of the phone, but that alone was enough to make Heewoo anxious. The convenience store owner didn’t hide that he was currently displeased.

—Don’t you remember when you got fired? The convenience store shelves—they were all broken! Do you know how much it cost me to fix that!

“B-Boss, that was, last time…”

Heewoo suddenly glanced at Heichi standing next to him. Heichi and AJ had said they’d taken care of it themselves, but had the boss not received compensation?

—And Lee Heewoo, did you or didn’t you steal and eat our convenience store triangle kimbap?

At the convenience store owner’s interrogation, Heewoo bit his rolled-in lips. The other part-timers either weren’t interested in the discarded food or didn’t touch it, so most of it had gone home with Heewoo. At the time, he’d been so grateful for just that, that even knowing the convenience store wage was low, he couldn’t quit.

“At first, you said that… it was for disposal… that it was okay to eat it…?”

—There’s a limit to taking and eating it day after day!

At Heewoo’s feeble resistance, the boss shouted angrily as if he’d been waiting for this. Finally, the convenience store owner yelled that he couldn’t give him his wages so Heewoo should handle it himself, then hung up the phone on his own. Heewoo looked down at his phone with a dazed expression.

Looking at the balance of 2.67 million won shown in his bankbook, his breath caught in his throat.

The money he had to repay to the loan sharks—including interest and principal, three million won every month. On top of that, on the 1st of each month, he also had to pay the 350,000 won monthly rent for the semi-basement room where Heewoo stayed. Since the money he’d receive this month seemed like it would be around four million won, Heewoo had naturally thought that today he’d be able to pay all the necessary money and still have enough left over to treat Heichi to a meal out.

But looking at the situation, far from buying Heichi a meal, it looked like he wouldn’t even be able to repay the loan sharks. Heewoo’s complexion turned pale white, knowing well what would happen if he didn’t bring them money faithfully.

Just like they’d threatened in their text, the loan sharks would frequently barge into Heewoo’s workplaces. They would openly reveal themselves as loan sharks to the people around him, pressuring Heewoo. The part-time jobs Heewoo had lost in that manner already exceeded several dozen.

Heewoo knew too. That rather than splitting up work like this, entering some factory and living with room and board provided would be a more human way to live.

However, the loan sharks who kept coming and his one and only mother prevented him from even doing that. That was why Heewoo specifically split his time to work four part-time jobs. Because that way, even if he got fired from one immediately, he could somehow survive the next month.

“Um, Heichi-ssi…”

Heewoo sent the 2.67 million won he could send to the loan sharks through an account transfer. If he at least sent this, they wouldn’t come looking for him and would only threaten via text, so he’d have to find a manual labor part-time job within this week and send money. For the monthly rent, he’d plead with the landlord grandmother to wait just a little…

Even after that, Heewoo having no money was the same. His shoulders drooped, having been excited about treating Heichi to delicious food since it was payday. With his current account balance, he couldn’t even buy him another pair of sleep socks, let alone eat out.

“I’m sorry, but…”

“Heewoo-ssi. The compensation from last time, you haven’t received it yet?”

“…Huh?”

Having only said that much, Heichi strode forward and stood in front of the ATM. The sight of him—an alien—handling an ATM was quite shocking, but he was more skilled than expected. Heichi pulled out a card from his chest, slid it into the slot, then tapped the screen a few times, and soon the machine made a chururu-ruk sound of money rolling.

And finally, what Heichi grasped looked tremendous at a glance. But Heichi didn’t stop there and tapped the machine several more times. Once, twice… six times. A total of six million won ended up in Heichi’s hands.

“It seems the compensation payment is taking time. I’ll pay you by tomorrow, so please accept this first for today.”

Even for a bank ATM, there was a set daily maximum limit, and six million won was probably that maximum. Heichi placed the money he’d withdrawn like that into Heewoo’s arms. Having unexpectedly received six million won, Heewoo’s hands trembled.

“Th-this… for me… all of it…?”

“The damage compensation scheduled to be paid is even more than this. Since Heewoo-ssi is currently in a hurry, please accept this first.”

But earlier, he’d already bought Heewoo clothes. It wasn’t ending with just clothes—he was giving this much money too.

Having never held such a large sum of money in his life, Heewoo trembled and abruptly handed the money back to Heichi.

“Th-this is too much…”

Actually, was this money he shouldn’t receive? Heewoo had never experienced things like good fortune, or chance opportunities, or miraculous events in his life.

That’s why he couldn’t readily accept the money Heichi was offering even more. If he received this money, he might lose it all instantly or have it stolen. And then, he wouldn’t be able to return the money anymore.

“It’s not much. Compared to the compensation Heewoo-ssi will receive going forward.”

“…”

Heewoo couldn’t bring himself to ask how much the compensation was. However, since Heichi showed no sign of taking the money back, Heewoo became afraid of losing this large amount of money. After pondering, Heewoo finally headed to the ATM and began depositing the money he’d received into his account.

20251231│Deposit│₩1,000,000│1,001,090 won

20251231│Deposit│₩1,000,000│2,001,090 won

20251231│Deposit│₩1,000,000│6,001,090 won

As soon as he deposited the money, Heewoo sent the remaining 330,000 won to the loan sharks. Only then did he finally catch his breath, when a text message arrived on his phone. Opening his flip phone, Heewoo gulped and checked the message.

📶✉️ 🔋

Text Message

Sender: 010XXXXXXXX

I was gonna see you at your cafe tomorrow if you didn’t put it all in today but I’ll let it slide lol

Feeling slightly relieved, Heewoo tapped the ATM again to find the landlord’s account number. After sending the 350,000 won monthly rent as well, the final remaining amount was printed in his bankbook. And still, over five million won remained.

Five million won.

Heewoo had never had this much money. When he first got a job at the kimchi factory, he wanted to start even a small savings account, but whenever he tried to save even a little money, it would inevitably get stolen by someone. Being too busy putting food in his mouth today, Heewoo back then didn’t have the confidence to feed his future self as well.

Blankly looking down at his bankbook balance, Heewoo slowly turned around to look at Heichi. Stuffing his bankbook into his crossbody bag, Heewoo put both hands together, then bowed deeply to Heichi, bending his waist to ninety degrees.

“Thank you.”

“…”

“…Really, huu… thank you…”

If he’d been fired from this part-time job too, Heewoo would probably have fallen even further into the abyss. The continuous descent had been pushing Heewoo to his limits without him even realizing it.

With five million won in his account, it was enough money for Heewoo to survive a month even if he got fired from all his part-time jobs. With just this. With just this, the absurd thought came to him that Heewoo could somehow survive. A breathing hole had opened up, even if just a little.

“Heewoo-ssi.”

“Yes. …Yes?”

“So, what’s the food you’re treating me to today?”

Heewoo’s eyes widened as he looked at Heichi. His gaze looking back was as calm and emotionless as ever. Nevertheless, Heewoo somehow felt like he couldn’t take his eyes off him, so he opened his mouth with a somewhat embarrassed voice.

“…Samgyeopsal…”

—

Red Guide Appears in Africa

https://newsdaily.now.com/?list&wonshot=906

News Spring?

Fucking hell, the more I know about this world the less I understand it, for real

How does that rare Red Dwarf Guide come out of one of Earth’s worst impoverished countries lololololol

Look at that kid’s bewildered face

They say South Sudan doesn’t even know what Espers and Guides are yet;

‣Likes(36)│Comments(6)

Anonymous1: That kid’s life really opened up, fucking jealous

Anonymous2: Finding them at that level is legendary lmao How did they even find them

⤷Anonymous4: They were getting off a battleship and crash-landed in South Sudan, legendary

Anonymous3: What happens to that kid now?

⤷Anonymous5: For now since there’s no match, an Esper from Epsilon came directly to bring them. AJ? That Vice Captain appeared again

⤷Anonymous6: That person really appears everywhere lololololol Does he have spatial teleportation superpowers

—

I saw the post below, does our country have anything?

Forget about Black, haven’t even heard of Brown? level, am I right?

Haven’t found any yet? Or maybe it’s me haha

‣Likes(12)│Comments(6)

Anonymous1: With how small Korea’s population is, wouldn’t it be a miracle if there was one? They say even Yellow and above can’t be found even searching at a planetary level

Anonymous2: But I heard Korea has unusually many Guides relative to its population~

⤷Anonymous3: 2222 I heard this too, if you look around there are surprisingly many Guides

Anonymous4: Is Brown like 100 million?

⤷Anonymous5: Fucking legendary, 100 million dollars

⤷Anonymous6: WTF How much is that in Korean won then

—

Is it true Korea has many Guides?

Ithoughtindiahasthelargestpopulationonearth,doeskoreahaveremorethanindian?whereudhearthis?

‣Likes(381)│Comments(12)

Anonymous1: Why are you even curious about that…?

Anonymous2: But isn’t this post kinda weird? ;; No spacing either

⤷Anonymous3: 2222