An Unexpected Night Off
Maybe it was because it was the day after Christmas, but the shop was dead quiet. Not a single customer walked through the door, and when even the delivery orders dried up completely, the boss—who had been staring at the TV the whole time—suddenly barked out an order.
"Dongmin! Fry up one chicken! Minseok, you take down the sign."
"What? Take down the sign right now?"
"Yeah. Business is crap today anyway, so let's just call it. Don't take any more deliveries either. I've been driving all damn day and I'm wiped."
It was barely nine o'clock. We had only opened in the evening, so the shop had been running for all of three hours.
"If we stay open till two like usual, your wages are gonna cost me more than we make. I'll count you as working till ten, so eat some chicken and head home."
Four hours earlier than normal?
For me—fresh off pocketing a cool ten million won in Sex Coins and already thinking about quitting this job—getting out early was nothing but good news. Dongmin hyung got paid a monthly salary, so it worked out just as well for him.
Is Jieun okay with this, though?
I glanced over, wondering if cutting her hours might bother her.
"Whoa! Boss, you're the best!"
Apparently three extra man won on payday mattered less than freedom right now. She flashed the boss a big thumbs-up and cheered.
Thinking back to the days before Sex Coins, I remembered how good it felt on early nights too—like you'd somehow stolen a little extra time for yourself.
I switched off the lights in the sign, locked the front door, and flipped the hanging placard from OPEN to CLOSED. That was what the boss meant by "taking down the sign."
I was about to start cleaning so we could get out of there when the boss called me over.
"Minseok, leave the cleaning for later. Come sit here first."
"Huh?"
Lee Jieun was already sitting at the table he pointed to.
Wait, he's not heading home?
Normally he told us to fry the chicken and went straight out the door. Did he have something to say to the part-timers?
I wanted to finish cleaning and clock out already, but I couldn't exactly ignore the boss when he called. I took the seat beside Jieun, and he got right to the point.
"Dongmin told me you're going back to school?"
"Ah, yeah. Planning to."
"Why? Didn't you say you weren't going back?"
He wasn't wrong. I distinctly remembered telling him that during the interview. Back then I'd figured, what's the point of finishing college anyway…
Honestly, that part still hadn't changed. But if I wanted to keep mining Sex Coins, I needed to meet a lot of different women, and the best place that came to mind was a university campus. It wasn't like I could just ask someone to introduce me to girls for the sole purpose of sleeping with them.
I couldn't exactly say any of that out loud, so I settled for an awkward little laugh.
"Haha…"
"Good call. Nobel University, right? If you got in, you might as well graduate."
I half expected him to feel betrayed that I'd changed my story, but instead he actually praised me for going back.
"Exactly! Unnie Heejung worked so hard to get in!"
The boss snapped his fingers like Jieun's words had jogged something loose.
"Ah! Now that you mention it, Heejung got into Nobel too, didn't she?"
Then he tilted his head and looked straight at me.
"…Are you two dating?"
I nearly sprayed the water I'd just sipped.
As if getting caught going to karaoke with Jieun today wasn't enough…
I glanced sideways. She was watching my mouth with pure curiosity written all over her face.
Time to brazen it out.
"Dating who? Her? Or Heejung?"
I pointed at Jieun as I asked. I could feel her looking at me like, Why am I even in this conversation?
The boss just scratched his beard.
"Aren't you going out with Heejung? She said she's taking your evening shifts, so I figured you two must be a thing."
"Come on. I've barely seen Heejung's face five times."
Technically true—the number of times I'd actually met Cha Heejung was still under five. The problem was how far things had already gone between us.
"That so? Then how long are you planning to keep working here, Minseok?"
"Well… I'll need to find an afternoon job first, won't I?"
"Ah, don't worry about that. Heejin just quit, so I'll just put her on."
"Unnie Heejin quit?"
For a second I blanked on who Heejin even was, then it clicked. The boss's daughter—and Dongmin hyung's girlfriend. I barely knew her myself, but I'd heard she and Jieun had hung out a few times on their own.
"Yeah. That girl still hasn't gotten her head on straight at her age. Something about chasing her dreams, blah blah. She's my daughter, so of course I'll support her, but if she's not doing anything she can at least come work the shop."
That left me in a bind.
I could quit the part-time job tomorrow and it wouldn't matter—except then how was I supposed to keep working on Lee Jieun? The chicken shop was the only point of contact we had. We weren't the kind of people who texted each other outside of work. Quitting and then being the first one to send a message out of nowhere? Not exactly easy.
But giving up on Jieun wasn't an option either. That Difficulty of 364 and that cute face of hers had their hooks in me. If there had been zero chance I might've let it go, but ever since karaoke yesterday it felt like we'd gotten a lot closer…
"Huh? Boss. Didn't Heejin say she was going overseas?"
Dongmin hyung walked over carrying a freshly fried chicken, and with one sentence my whole dilemma evaporated.
"What? When?"
"She said she's going for about two weeks in January… Hasn't she told you yet?"
"That little—! Everyone just eat the chicken and go home. I'm leaving first!"
The boss shot up from his seat and stormed out the back door. The look on Dongmin hyung's face as he watched him go clearly said I'm screwed.
"Hyung. You gonna be okay?"
"Hell if I know. I figured she'd already gotten permission. Anyway—what happened after I left yesterday?"
I'd been ready to clean up and get out of there, but Dongmin hyung latched onto a whole new topic.
"What do you mean, what happened?"
"Exactly what I said. I was too busy earlier to ask properly. You suddenly saying you're quitting and everything."
Unlike the boss, Dongmin hyung had actual reasons to be suspicious. He'd seen me getting cozy with Cha Heejung while he was still there, so the doubt was fair enough.
"Nothing special. We just drank a bit more and then split up… Right, Jieun?"
"Mmm~ I left early yesterday, so I wouldn't know!"
"You left first, Jieun? So it was just Seongyong, Minseok, and Heejung drinking after that?"
Dongmin hyung tilted his head as he said it. Fair point—Choi Seongyong had only shown up because of Jieun. The idea that he'd stuck around after she left was weird.
Claiming the three of us kept drinking would get exposed the second Seongyong opened his mouth. Saying we'd just wrapped it up right then wasn't safe either—I had no idea how much Cha Heejung had already told Jieun.
Lying was getting complicated. Better to stick to the truth and just leave out the parts that mattered.
"No, Seongyong left early too. We still had some drinks left, so Heejung and I just finished them together."
Details like whether we'd ordered more, how late we'd stayed, or where we'd gone afterward—those could stay buried.
"Yeah? And you two went to karaoke today too, I heard."
The net was tightening. But I wasn't about to fold over something this small.
"We were just talking about this and that yesterday, and somehow karaoke came up, so we went this afternoon."
I kept my voice as casual as possible, like I genuinely couldn't see what the big deal was.
"Oppa! I was there when that came up! Why'd you two go without me?"
Jieun jumped in at what she clearly thought was the perfect moment. She was badly mistaken.
Jieun… Dongmin hyung was still there when we talked about it…
Choi Seongyong had been sitting there with a face like thunder, too. Dongmin hyung's expression only got more skeptical.
"You should've texted her, Jieun. Heejung was the one who suggested karaoke first today."
"Unnie Heejung suggested it first?"
"Yeah, that's why we went today."
I wondered what Jieun would make of that. Would she assume Cha Heejung had texted me first to invite me to karaoke? Even if Heejung had already told her we'd grabbed a hangover cure together that morning and then suddenly ended up at karaoke, it didn't matter. The fact that Heejung had been the one to suggest karaoke while we were out on our little date was still true.
I kept walking that tightrope until Dongmin hyung finally couldn't take the dancing around anymore and just asked straight out.
"So is there really nothing going on between you two?"
"The boss was already on this, and now you too, hyung? If going to karaoke together means something's going on, then what about you and Jieun? You two went together last time too."
"That was different—Heejin was there too…"
Dongmin hyung looked like he wanted to push further, but Jieun cut in before he could finish.
"Then Oppa! We got off early today—let's go to karaoke together!"
Nice one, Jieun. Perfect timing for a subject change.
"Oh, should we? Want to come too, Dongmin hyung?"
"Mm… Not tonight. Looks like the girlfriend's gonna be calling soon."
Given how furious the boss had been when he stormed out, the fallout was definitely going to hit Dongmin hyung too.
"That so? Jieun, you okay with just the two of us?"
"I don't mind at all!"
And just like that, I ended up going to karaoke alone with Heejung during the day—and alone with Lee Jieun at night.