Waiting
"Thank you, boss! I'll be sure to wear the hat!"
"The work is... like I said earlier. Just one week, tomorrow through next Wednesday. One hour, seven to the morning until eight. It's unpaid, so I don't think we need anything like an employment contract."
"Of course. I'm coming to learn."
"Today, just figure you're picking up the job and stay the hour. The time's all right, yeah?"
"Yes. I'll be in your care for the week, boss."
"Don't call me boss. Call me Manager."
The manager went back to the dishes and jerked his chin at the round analog clock on the wall.
"Don't forget—starting tomorrow, you're in at seven. Late even one day and... you know, right?"
"Of course."
A chance I barely managed to get. If I can't drag myself up, Chio, you're the one who has to wake me.
Understood. Leave it to me.
"The word late does not exist in my dictionary. If there's grunt work, just give the order and I'll start right now."
"Then wipe the tables with that cloth hanging over there. Don't scrub too hard. They're solid wood."
"Yes. Understood."
I took the dishcloth off the drying rack without another word, and the manager spoke like a man laying down a warning.
"Oh, and—no matter how hard you work, I'm not officially hiring a part-timer. I said it plain. Don't go changing your story later..."
"That will never happen, bo— I mean, Manager. I don't even want that. I'm grateful enough as it is."
A needless worry. If the hypnosis succeeds, he wouldn't do it even if you ordered him to.
Yeah. Fair.
"And... come over here a second. It's only an hour, but you're still cafe staff. Better to know how to make the basic drinks. Do you know how to pull an espresso?"
"No. I don't."
"No customers right now, so I'll show you."
The manager rinsed the last plate, set it on the rack, and peeled off his rubber gloves. He glanced over the tables deeper in the cafe, then beckoned.
What. Is he telling me to come into the kitchen?
"Taking orders and the register—I'll be handling those anyway, so don't worry about them. The ade recipes are written next to the fridge. Just follow what's there."
"Understood."
I stepped into the kitchen.
The manager pushed the glasses up on the bridge of his nose, took something like a ladle down from where it hung on the kitchen wall, and held it out to me.
"Here. Know how to use this?"
"...No. I don't."
"You don't know a single thing. For a guy who says he's going to open a cafe someday."
"Starting today, I'll study hard..."
"Haah— look. This is called a portafilter. When you're extracting a shot... You do know what a shot is?"
"That, not really either..."
This part-time job was going to be brutal.
First time working a cafe, after all.
The man in the checkered button-down opened the convenience store door on his way out and looked back.
"I'm off, then?"
"Yes."
"I'm really going?"
"..."
Ding—
Work a convenience store long enough and you meet every species of asshole there is. The man who had just left was one of that countless number.
Once he had the door all the way open and vanished outside, Kim Yuna slowly leaned back in her chair.
"Haah... Fuck. Disgusting bastard..."
If she didn't at least spit it out, the feeling wouldn't settle. Getting sexually harassed was already dogshit, but take it from an ugly bastard and that was the kind of day that drove a person insane. It was why she always wore a mask on shift.
The sticky stare from a moment ago wouldn't fade, so she tugged a baseball cap down low, pulled her hood over it once more, and rested the back of her head against the cigarette display.
"Ah... I need a cigarette."
That was when the smartphone resting on her knee rang.
A call from the close friend she'd gone to cram school with. She hit the answer button and brought the phone to her ear.
"Yeah. Sua, what's going on this early?"
"Working. Why."
"Convenience store."
"How about the silver-spoon bitch shuts her mouth?"
Kim Yuna rubbed her forehead and let out a long sigh.
What was hard? Convenience store work was not a job for human beings. No—none of service work was. She turned her head to one side, flopped forward over the counter, and lifted the phone to her ear.
"I don't know... Everything's just hard. Dealing with customers fucking sucks, and ugly bastards constantly creeping on me fucking sucks too."
"There's this dick-pig bastard. Just fucking disgusting. Face looks like it got dragged across asphalt two or three times, and he keeps creeping on me."
Cursing at least that much made her insides loosen a little.
"But I can't do any time except this one. You know I sleep like the dead in the morning... Hey, hold on a sec."
Ding-a-ling!
A middle-aged man opened the convenience store door and came in. A blue vest hung shabby on him. He went straight to the drink cooler, brought two bottles of soju up to the counter, and held out his card.
"Ah."
Damn it—reaching for the card, she caught the man's hand instead.
A silence dropped between them.
"..."
"..."
He paid and headed out, turning to look at her one more time. She frowned and flicked her hand, hard, twice.
"God, seriously... I hate this. Ugly guys are all just fucking disgusting."
Only after the door shut did she sit back down. She picked up the smartphone with a sigh.
"...Why do only guys who look like bums come in here. Unnie, you said if I worked a convenience store I'd get a boyfriend."
Thud.
Kim Yuna set the phone on the counter, pumped hand sanitizer from the bottle beside the register, and rubbed it in. She paid special attention to the spot that had touched the middle-aged man's hand, working it until her skin squeaked.
"Anyway. Why'd you call out of nowhere? Get to the point."
"Didn't I tell you? Total disaster."
"It actually might."
Kim Yuna let out a snicker.
"Hell if I know. Fucking world. It only shits on me... You got a guy you can set me up with?"
"...Can you not say disgusting shit."
"Guys who work out have way too much ego. I don't like it..."
Kim Yuna tore open a carton of cigarettes, sorted them by brand, and slotted them into the display. Dunhill... Esse... Marlboro.... When they were all in, she stood and stretched long.
"Nnngh—! No. I thought about it for a second, and I don't think so. What I'm starving for right now isn't sex. It's a handsome guy. Somebody new."
"No, no. I have class."
"At orientation we all did course registration together. Do it as a group and of course you drop a few..."
"But what's even more fucked is that all my major requirements are morning classes. Fuck... haah..."
"Monday and Wednesday. Freshman schedules are supposed to be the most open of all. Ugh, thinking about it pisses me off again."
Kim Yuna tossed the plastic trash into an empty cigarette carton and shoved the box roughly to one side of the counter.
"I studied my ass off to get here, and I don't even know if it's any good. Back at the academy I used to say it all the time. Go on the freshman trip, have a barbecue party, right? A rose-colored campus life. My dream."
There had been a dream that was hers alone, one she'd nursed while tending the looks she had at her peak. It had broken clean against the wall of reality and turned into a delusion.
"I want to think positive. I just can't..."
She craned her neck and checked outside the store. Almost no one was passing by. She confirmed it, pulled her mask off, and wiped the moisture trapped inside.
"At least there aren't many people today..."
She lifted the cap a little, fixed her bangs, and tugged it back down. Fretting over her appearance by the second was a habit of hers.
"Oh. What about you, though? Did you get in?"
"Right. I was wondering why you hadn't called. How are you planning to survive academy life again?"
"If you're getting in anyway, come here."
"A mixer? I'm good... I go for the natural meet."
"Pfft. Ah. I can't believe I laughed at that. My pride hurts. Forget it. You don't have to set me up. And... I've already got someone picked out anyway."
"A cafe owner I know. He's an ajusshi, but he's handsome. Seems like he works out a bit, too."
That was why, whenever something forced her out of bed in the morning, she always stopped by the cafe.
"He didn't seem that far off. Mid-thirties? If a guy's handsome, he's oppa."
"I don't know. Didn't look like they were hiring."
She dug through her pocket and pulled out a hand mirror.
"And... someone like me is wasted rotting in a cafe. Maybe next time I'll try a pub. Sales would jump on the spot."