It’s Fine as Long as You Cross Dimensions - 2
We were just stepping out of the convenience store.
A sign reading Closed hung on the door.
Suddenly, A-yeong looked back.
The convenience store was growing smaller and smaller behind us. She waved toward it and called out in a voice that sounded like she was talking to a child who had started crying.
“Be good! Don’t cry! I’ll be back soon! I’ll never forget you—!”
“....”
I watched her from the side.
A-yeong’s expression was playful and lighthearted.
Even so.
For some reason, it felt like a joke laid over an old wound.
Half of that is probably something she’s saying to herself.
Whatever I thought, A-yeong’s farewell only grew more animated. In the end, she even grabbed my arm and shook it. Her rough hands toyed with my arm.
Shake, shake.
“Mister Manager, you should wave too so it doesn’t get lonely!”
“Yes.”
A-yeong and I waved at the convenience store.
“....”
“....”
A man and a woman waving at an empty building.
It somehow looked like a suspicious religious ritual.
But I didn’t ask what it meant.
If it was something she wanted to do in this moment, that was enough.
“....”
“....”
And then A-yeong finally snorted.
“Pfft....”
“?”
Seriously.
She was the one who started this, and now she was losing it.
If I’d just stood there quietly, I wouldn’t have had to deal with this.
A-yeong went into a fit of giggles, hiccupping with laughter.
“Pffft, kkhaha...! Ahahaha!”
“....”
“Aha—ha—!”
She clutched her stomach and laughed out loud.
For a second, I almost wondered if I had tickled her.
Only after a long while did she wipe the tears from the corners of her eyes and speak.
“It’s kind of funny.”
“What part?”
“Hehe, the part where you quietly stand guard over a convenience store no one ever comes to. And then waving goodbye at an empty convenience store. There’s nobody even watching. It’s weird and strangey, strange.”
“....”
“It is weird, right?”
“No.”
“Huh?”
I shook my head.
“That’s what sincerity is.”
“Huh?”
“The feeling that, even if no one else comes, you should still faithfully keep your place. And even if no one is watching, you still say goodbye to your own space.... It may be inefficient, but because everything is genuine, it becomes that way. Human sincerity is never efficient.”
“....”
“You may treasure it. I support that.”
“....”
A-yeong stared blankly at me.
“Am I not weird?”
“What part?”
“The convenience store is yours, Manager.”
“I decided that space was yours, A-yeong. There’s nothing strange about it.”
“....”
Even if I reset.
If this world continued, and A-yeong still wanted that place.... then it would become hers.
But I didn’t bother saying that much.
Regression, or whatever.... If I told her my circumstances, she’d never believe me anyway.
A-yeong had no answer.
“....”
She fiddled with her baseball cap,
then mimed kicking the ground with the tip of her foot.
Tap.
Tap—
And then she opened her mouth.
“Until when? How long can I stay?”
“....”
Very slowly,
as if she wanted to confirm something, she asked me.
“Until your part-time shift ends?”
“....”
I answered.
“Until you want to leave.”
“!”
A-yeong’s eyes went wide.
She seemed to chew on something she wanted to say.
“....”
But she didn’t open her mouth.
A-yeong’s expression was hidden under the shadow of her baseball cap.
“....”
“....”
Then she suddenly dropped her head and slapped my back with her palm. A capsaisin-like pain burst across it.
Smack!
Her hand had a lot more sting than I expected.
“That hurts.”
“Eek!”
A-yeong muttered under her breath.
“D-don’t say stuff like that! Seriously! You’re saying it so meaningfully—! I-I mean, I’m happy! I am! But that’s bullying—! Stop doing that now! Bullying is bad—!”
“....”
That was a very complicated emotion.
I couldn’t know exactly everything that had happened.
And yet, I could tell she was refusing it.
It’s good that she’s honest about her own line.
This was a line I shouldn’t cross any further.
Taking A-yeong’s words into account, I decided not to use words that implied scale from now on.
“Understood. And it hurts more than I expected.”
“I-it hurts that much?”
A-yeong carefully rubbed the spot she’d hit, over my back. She looked worried that she might have hurt me.
I set her mind at ease with the truth.
“I’m fine. Bruises hurt more when you touch them by hand.”
“Geez, seriously!”
A-yeong hit my back once more.
But this time she put less force into it.
In the end, we returned to silence and kept walking.
“....”
“....”
A-yeong spoke first.
“W-why are you being so nice to me?”
“?”
“Why are you treating me so well?”
“....”
I answered honestly.
“The first day we met, you gave me ten thousand won.”
“...?”
“This is my repayment.”
“....”
A-yeong tilted her head. It looked like she was trying to remember our first meeting. At last, she seemed to recall the memory from a few weeks ago.
“Ah...! When you were eating ramen alone and left?”
“Yes.”
“B-but ten thousand won? Did I give you anything? I only remember you wearing that sparkly thing in your hair back then....”
“....”
...She forgot.
That felt familiar.
I waved it off.
“Well, it’s fine. It isn’t an important detail.”
“....”
“Though I’m not sure whether that answered your question.”
“....”
A-yeong lowered her head again and worked her mouth as if chewing over words. But this time, she said in a voice full of certainty,
“I’ll believe you.”
“....”
“Just like you did, Manager, I’ll also....”
“Is that so.”
“And also.”
“?”
She smiled.
“Next time, I’ll definitely remember.”
“....”
“I’ll never forget.”
“....”
“I’ll treasure it.”
The sunset was hot.
The start of a walk meant to gather material for the broadcast.
We hadn’t even moved beyond a few steps.
“....”
I nodded.
But I couldn’t answer.
A vow made while looking at different times was not valid.
Rustle—
Only the ten-thousand-won bill in my pocket answered in silence.
*
Under a shadow stretched unnaturally long,
the two of them walked and chatted.
Aki chattered away about what had happened on Sunday afternoon. Once Clara’s idea had opened the floodgates, every profit structure in the company had started to normalize.
“So the president said he absolutely wants to repay that one hundred million won this time. And he thanked me, saying he’d make sure I could build the stage I really wanted....”
“I see. That was wise of him.”
“Huh?”
Aki turned her head.
Seonwoo Taek spoke calmly. Even while talking, he kept turning his head this way and that, observing the people around him.
“The interest-free loan model. At a glance, it looks like you gain nothing from it, but among investment methods, it’s actually the safest. If you save the company, your personal returns stabilize too. And on top of that, you can naturally preserve your reputation.”
“R-really?”
He nodded.
“If A-yeong had demanded equity in the company when she invested then, the debt proceedings would have become very complicated. While running broadcast activities, you’d have had to manage both shares and control of the company. That isn’t how you win someone’s heart.”
“I-I don’t really know much about investing....”
“....”
Seonwoo Taek explained it in a way she could easily understand.
“A-yeong, by moving money without asking for anything in return, won the president’s heart. That’s not something you can buy with money. It is, literally, credit.”
“Credit?”
“Belief that can never be earned with a mindset of squeezing out several times more than you lent. It’s the trust that says you’re someone who can walk with me even in hard times.”
“....”
“You gained the trust of people who would stay with you for the long haul because of money. And that money saved the company and returned to you as profit.”
“...I see.”
“It was a very fine investment.”
“I guess so.”
Aki came to a stop.
Just one month earlier, she had despaired at watching one billion won get cut in half, and then get cut in half again. But within that, she had made an “inefficient choice.”
She saved the company.
She asked for nothing in return.
Instead,
she bought people’s trust.
“....”
Seonwoo Taek said that had been wise.
Because of that praise,
the gloom lingering in one corner of her heart seemed to clear away.
Did I make a stupid choice?
That kind of gloom.
“....”
Aki nodded.
...I was right. This path wasn’t wrong.
She could believe that.
“Th-thank you.”
“Think nothing of it.”
The two of them started walking again.
Before long, they had come quite a distance from the convenience store.
The quiet was gone,
and the bustle of Hangang Park was now in the air.
-Wahaha—!
-This is good....
-Delivery here!
They walked quietly through it.
“....”
“....”
Aki looked at Seonwoo Taek.
Ever since a while ago, he had been turning his head this way and that, scanning the people around them. There were people laughing and chattering, eating, drinking, and enjoying themselves everywhere she looked.
Does he like people-watching?
That was unexpected....
He looked like the type who would live by his own convictions no matter what others said.
At that moment.
Seonwoo Taek froze.
His gaze had stopped on one spot.
“?”
Aki naturally followed his line of sight.
“....”
In one corner of Hangang Park, there were elementary school students. They were holding their phones with both hands and playing a game, bursting out in laughter every few seconds.
-Hey! You can’t go there!
-Damn it!
-Yeah, get wrecked, scrub~
In the end, the losing children sighed in defeat, while the winners wore victorious expressions. The winning side stepped forward and mocked them with a ridiculous little butt wiggle.
Doda does that sometimes too when she wins and sits in front of the computer...
Aki murmured,
“They’re kids playing games.”
“....”
After a silence, Seonwoo Taek asked an odd question.
“Would it be a lot more fun if they played like that together?”
“Huh?”
“You can meet people over the internet and play games that way too. But is it much more fun when you meet in person and do it?”
“Hmm....”
Aside from rhythm games, Aki had never really played anything else. Whenever words like slashing and killing came up, she’d break out in a cold sweat and hide under the blankets.
Doda would probably know a lot more about this....
Still.
Somehow, she felt like she understood the feeling.
“If you look at the people who go to arcades and play there.... Maybe there’s something fun about gathering together like that? If you can see each other’s faces through the screen, maybe it feels a little different.”
“Hmm....”
Seonwoo Taek scratched his chin and said,
“PC bangs and arcades are on the decline, so I figured people would probably not like that sort of thing anymore. But even so, the sight of friends gathering together to play hasn’t gone away.”
“Ah....”
Aki scratched her head.
Then she gave the most plausible reason she could think of.
“Hmm, maybe because it’s fun when you’re together?”
She pointed at Seonwoo Taek.
“We’re walking together like this too. We could just walk alone. But it’s fun, right?”
“!”
“Maybe it’s something like that? Maybe sales are just, um... because people don’t have money?”
“....”
“Games are, um.... just an excuse. Maybe what they really need is a place to hang out together....”
“....”
Seonwoo Taek nodded slowly.
“As I thought.”
“Huh?”
“A-yeong, you’re wise.”
“?”
“Let’s go back to the convenience store now.”
“??”
Aki tilted her head.
*
The next morning.
Aki, who had dozed off snoring in the break room, said goodbye to Seonwoo Taek and came out. For a part-time job, it had been an awfully comfortable way to spend the time.
Still, it seemed like I got the answer Manager wanted after all....
Aki returned to the lodging.
She quick-stepped through the alleys of Sinchon, then went into the area where the officetel stood. After that, she entered the familiar front door password.
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
Tring—!
“I’m home....”
She greeted softly,
and just as she was about to shower....
In the living room, someone was placing money on an altar and bowing deeply. They looked like a devotee of some capitalist heresy.
-O Big Man, grant me your holy gospel and....
Her hair was so greasy it was hard to tell, but no matter how she looked at it, it was the youngest, Kang Do-dam.
“?”
Aki approached her.
“Do-dam, what are you doing this early in the morning?”
“I-I can’t think of a b-b-big concept idea...! The planning meeting is soon...!”
Do-dam clutched her head. Then she stamped her feet around like a chicken on a hot pan.
“Just making us play some online games together can’t be a big concept...! Kraaah—! Big Man!”
“....”
“Kiiyaaah—! I can’t become a smart ningen like Ye-seo unnie—! Big Man!”
Hmm.
That was a familiar kind of nonsense.
Aki grinned.
What, this is just normal Do-dam.
Still, a concept idea....
That reminded her of what they’d talked about on yesterday’s walk.
We’re walking together like this too. We could just walk alone. But it’s fun, right?
I feel like people’s hearts are probably pretty similar....
She said the thought out loud without meaning to.
“Games are just an excuse, and setting up a place to hang out together is....?”
“!”
Kang Do-dam froze.
Then she looked at Aki with bloodshot eyes.
“...That’s it!”
“?”
*
The big plan meeting had returned.
With a face already half ruined from exhaustion, Do-dam shouted,
“Let’s rent out an entire PC bang and turn it into a theme park—!”
“....”
“....”
“....”