4 PM, it was a time when customers became scarce. Now that he had some free time, he thought of Gu Baekyoung again.
‘By now, he should come to the convenience store at least once.’
Where on earth was he loitering that he couldn’t even see a trace of him? He was good at disguising himself, so he could come into the convenience store pretending to be a customer.
Gu Baekyoung, whom he’d been waiting for, didn’t come, but just then the sound of the door chime was heard.
The person who entered through the glass door was someone who didn’t appear to be an ability user.
A man who was quite tall but had a hunched back. The man, who was completely shrunken, pushed up his high-prescription glasses and looked at Onyul.
“Ah, h-hello… I’m the part-timer applicant who contacted you…”
He was a man whose vibe was completely opposite to Ji Sanghyeon, who looked exactly like the youngest son of a chaebol family.
Whether it was because of his unkempt hair, his posture, or his glasses, he looked somewhat gloomy and lethargic.
However, Onyul decided not to judge based on a person’s appearance alone.
I’ll have him try working first and then judge, I guess.
Other than this man, there had been no contact from anyone else.
“Hello, what’s your name?”
“Yu-u-young.”
“Ghost?”
The man hurriedly waved his hands.
“N-no! Yu Wooyoung. Wooyoung.”
“Ah… Wooyoung-ssi. Would you come this way? I’ll show you how to use the POS system.”
“Wh-what?”
The man, Yu Wooyoung, seemed startled as his hunched back straightened for a moment.
Beyond the glasses that had slipped down due to his straightened head, his eyes glowed blue.
Blue light?
But Yu Wooyoung hunched his back again and lowered his head in the blink of an eye.
“Wi-without even an interview, I’m hired right away?”
“I’ve been busy lately. I need a part-timer urgently.”
“Ah… it feels like this shouldn’t work out, but it also feels like it might…”
Are you saying it works or it doesn’t?
Yu Wooyoung, who trailed off his words, looked somehow unsatisfactory.
“Anyway, you’re doing it, right?”
When he asked as if to confirm, Yu Wooyoung reluctantly answered.
“Y-yes…”
Onyul calmly taught him the convenience store work.
Unlike the gloomy atmosphere he gave off, Yu Wooyoung’s work skills were quite good. He absolutely never forgot anything he heard once.
“You could start working right away without any problems, couldn’t you?”
“R-right… at this rate, it looks like I’ll end up working with no way out.”
“By the way, you don’t dislike working, do you?”
“It’s both right and wrong, but… Manager-nim.”
“Yes?”
“I’d like to get a li~ttle friendly with Manager-nim…”
Ugh… I’d rather not. Onyul awkwardly nodded and distanced himself from him. A shiver ran through him for an unknown reason.
“Then how about working from today until the night shift worker arrives?”
“Sounds go~od.”
“I’ll be next to you, so don’t worry.”
“O~kay.”
Onyul worked together with the gloomy Yu Wooyoung until the night shift worker arrived. Yu Wooyoung wasn’t chatty, but occasionally said strange things.
<This POS system… it’s old but pretty decent. It’s not completely parallel, but seeing how it processes multiple tasks at once, it must have a partial parallel structure. The calculation proceeds even while scanning barcodes.>
<This simple calculation method is rather what modern machines need…>
As he listened to conversations he didn’t quite understand, it was already approaching 10 PM.
The talk was somewhat difficult for Onyul, a liberal arts graduate, to understand, but listening to things he didn’t know was much better than being in awkward silence.
Does Gu Baekyoung know that the POS system has a mixed serial and parallel structure?
Onyul, who thought of Gu Baekyoung nonchalantly, shook his head.
‘Phew, the reliable Ji Sanghyeon will be here soon, so will my freedom be guaranteed?’
But thinking about it, even if he got off work at 10 PM, he still had to sleep in the small room at the convenience store.
What came to mind at that moment was Gu Baekyoung’s comfortable mansion.
Perhaps because he’d been sleeping at his house for various reasons lately, he had become comfortable there.
A spacious bed where two people could roll around, the food Gu Baekyoung made, the living room with a nice fragrance, a bathroom as big as the convenience store… Ah, I want to go.
At this rate, wouldn’t he end up settling down at Gu Baekyoung’s house… Amid the ominous premonition, there was a sound that cut off his thoughts.
Peck peck. A bird was pecking at the glass door with its beak.
It was a small white bird with eyes like black beans. The bird was looking at Onyul as if asking him to open the glass door.
And that bird looked quite familiar.
Onyul knew that bird. And it was a very… missed existence.
‘It’s Team Leader Na Geonwoo’s bird.’
Na Geonwoo was an S-rank Sorcerer who could use magic of all elements. He could not only use elemental magic but also combine those elements to create fake creatures.
Should he say he compressed air to make a skeleton, then wove moisture and dust to layer the exterior? It even contained heat, so it was warm to the touch.
At a glance, it looked like a living creature.
But the duration wasn’t long. When the mana granted to the bird was depleted, it naturally disappeared. And he couldn’t create creatures as large as a person.
Na Geonwoo would occasionally create birds to use as carrier pigeons. Onyul had also received carrier pigeon messages through birds.
<Baekyoung is looking for you.>
It was usually that kind of content.
What was curious was that Onyul’s therapy abilities worked on fake birds too.
Birds that received Onyul’s energy didn’t disappear even as time passed. Instead, when he withdrew his therapy energy, they disappeared immediately.
For that reason, he had spent quite a long time with the bird.
Seeing Onyul like that, Na Geonwoo had also suggested amicably.
<Onyul, if there’s something you want to see, tell me. I’ll make you anything as payment for receiving therapy.>
It was winter then, so he wanted to see cherry blossoms. But thinking it might be an unreasonable request, he didn’t say it.
If I had known I would die before long, I should’ve asked to see cherry blossoms then.
Perhaps because of the past that suddenly came to mind, the small bird felt even more welcome.
Onyul walked to the glass door in one bound and opened it wide.
The bird flew straight over and rubbed its face against Onyul’s cheek. As if it recognized him even though the shell had changed.
‘Kiki, did you really recognize me?’
When he gently stroked the bird’s white head with his index finger as in his previous life, the bird tilted its head as if greeting him. Being a bird made with magic, its intelligence was on the high side.
A note that seemed to be sent to Onyul was tied to the bird’s leg.
Onyul quietly untied the note and put it in his pocket. It was because Yu Wooyoung was looking at him and the bird curiously.
“I-it won’t peck, right?”
Yu Wooyoung, who was as big as a mountain, was trembling at a bird the size of a booger.
“So what if it pecks a little? It’s this pretty. And how much would it hurt to be pecked by this tiny beak anyway?”
“That’s true.”
Yu Wooyoung, persuaded by Onyul, calmed down.
Only then could Yu Wooyoung observe him interacting with the bird. Just as he was taking in that sight for a while.
“Manager-nim, I’m here!”
Ji Sanghyeon, the night shift worker, opened the convenience store door and came in.
Ji Sanghyeon was dressed like a rich family’s young master again today. No matter how you looked at it, he had an aura that didn’t suit a convenience store.
Ji Sanghyeon looked at Yu Wooyoung wearing the convenience store vest and burst out laughing with a pfft.
“Ah, I’m sorry. I have a habit of laughing when I see something gloomy.”
“……”
“Manager-nim, I see you’ve already hired a part-timer.”
“Yes, fortunately.”
“The new part-timer and I will work together well to help Manager-nim.”
Unlike Yu Wooyoung, how can he be so reliable?
“Thank you.”
Onyul thrust his thumb toward Ji Sanghyeon.
“But what’s that bird?”
“Ah, it suddenly flew in. Curiously, it follows me well.”
Onyul explained about the bird as if he knew nothing. Meanwhile, the bird stood upright on Onyul’s shoulder.
To be more precise, it stood firmly on two legs like thin branches, glaring at Ji Sanghyeon. As if it had detected some unknown danger.
“Manager-nim seems popular not only with people but also with animals. Do you have some kind of attractive charm?”
Ji Sanghyeon’s hand, which smiled crookedly, reached toward the bird. Almost simultaneously, the bird’s beak pecked his hand.
“Ouch, I guess it doesn’t like me.”
“Kiki, you can’t do that.”
“Kiki? I see you’ve already named it.”
Oops, I was surprised and called it naturally without realizing.
An awkward smile hung on Onyul’s lips.
“I just called it randomly. Haha. Anyway, I’ll be clocking out now! Wooyoung-ssi, you can clock out too.”
“G-good work. Then I’ll also clock out…”
The back of Yu Wooyoung’s neck, who was about to clock out with Onyul, was grabbed. Ji Sanghyeon had stopped him.
“How about learning a bit more from me before you go?”
“I-I’m not good with people I’m meeting for the first time…”
The gazes of Yu Wooyoung, who was about to refuse, and Ji Sanghyeon locked. Yu Wooyoung’s lips, which had trailed off, moved again before long.
“…O~kay.”
It was an unsatisfactory consent.
Of course, to Onyul, it wasn’t something he particularly cared about. It didn’t matter if the two stayed together all night. It would be even better if the part-timers got along well.
“Yes, fighting today!”
Onyul simply left the convenience store with a bright greeting.
“Phew. I’m off work.”
Only after walking to a place where the Management Bureau couldn’t see did he check Na Geonwoo’s note.
It was unexpected content.
