141. Cha Yeji
141. Cha Yeji
***
Past five o'clock, a message came from Sua.
Yoon Sua.
[The person from the company says she'll be arriving soon!]
Ding-dong!
Less than five minutes after the message arrived, the bell rang, and Serin opened the door without much thought.
"Hello, ma'am!"
"Ah... yes, hello."
The moment the door opened, a woman greeted her in a bright voice, and Serin looked her over, a little startled.
She'd said she was from a cleaning company, so Serin had unconsciously expected an older woman to show up.
'What the hell, why is she so young?'
The person before her was a woman in her late twenties.
Her hair was neatly tied back, giving her a tidy impression, and her outfit stood out.
An all-white uniform with a gold logo on the shoulder that appeared to be the company name.
—Royal Cleaning.
"Nice to meet you, ma'am! I'm Joo Yerin from Royal Cleaning. I understand you requested a basic cleaning and organizing. Is that correct?"
"Yes, that's right."
"Understood. Then, ma'am, may I come inside?"
Serin nodded and opened the door wide, and the woman who had introduced herself as Joo Yerin carefully stepped inside with various equipment.
Serin's gaze was drawn to the massive equipment the woman had brought without her even realizing it.
Countless items were packed in, from all kinds of cleaning tools to what looked like other necessities. At a glance, she looked less like a cleaner and more like an engineer handling electronic equipment.
"Ma'am, may I take a quick look at the interior?"
"Yes, that's fine."
She spoke with meticulous politeness, checking at every turn, and as Serin answered, she thought this was a remarkably courteous person.
This wasn't the kind of cleaning company worker I'd imagined.
Considering the uniform and logo, I even found myself wondering if this was some kind of high-end service I just didn't know about.
"Alright, then. I'll take a quick look."
The woman who had introduced herself as Joo Yerin moved lightly through the apartment, looking around. Even though she was only inspecting my home so she could tidy it up, I still felt embarrassed, as if I were exposing something private to a stranger.
She'd haphazardly shoved aside the clutter from last night's drinking session as a stopgap, so it felt awkward.
After checking the entire interior for a moment, the woman spoke up with a surprised expression.
"Ma'am, the condition of your officetel is really quite good. I think about three hours should be enough to finish the work. Oh, and the work will generate a fair amount of dust, so I'd recommend stepping out for a while, ma'am."
Serin accepted the woman's suggestion to go out without any particular objection.
"Ah, yes. Then I'll be out for a bit, so please contact me when you're done."
"Yes, understood."
She'd ended up being practically forced outside by the woman's words, but since Sua had told her something about the cleaning service, she wasn't too flustered.
After exchanging contact information, she naturally made her way out of the house.
Click.
At first she thought about stopping by a café to people-watch and pass the time, but since she was already out, she decided to walk the streets a bit and think.
And so Serin ended up going out at an unexpected hour.
***
PC bang.
As times changed and technology advanced, it was counted among the industries that would gradually decline and be phased out.
With the virtual reality industry era opened by Another World, PC games were slowly losing ground due to VR, and PC bangs would naturally disappear as well.
Many experts and people said so, but unexpectedly, most PC bangs survived.
2031. The PC bang industry was waging a fierce survival competition through all sorts of business diversification.
Along with various drinks like a well-known café, offering frozen foods and desserts that had long been sold was now the most basic of basics for every PC bang, and PC bangs that professionally cooked food were commonplace.
Unlike the PC bangs of the past where the main purpose was playing games, the purpose had now shifted toward being a "rest space" where you could take a break and also use a PC.
The hourly rates were cheap, and the quality of the food and drinks had uniformly improved, so most people frequently used them as a way to kill time.
......
—PC Bang with a Pretty Part-Timer.
It was an extremely blatant PC bang name, but unexpectedly, this kind of clickbait name worked quite well.
The place was nearly full.
"Ugh, seriously... why is there so much, seriously."
Yeji, a part-timer at the PC bang who had been serving the ordered food, muttered quietly as she looked at the bustling crowd inside.
It was truly packed, to the point that she felt there were especially many people today.
But Yeji, who arrived at the customer's seat at the far end and set down the food, immediately changed her expression.
"Here's your order~"
"Yes, thank you."
At the man's glance toward her, Yeji answered with a service smile and even changed her voice, then turned around.
"Yes, have a great time!"
Returning to the counter like that, Yeji frowned slightly at the pile of orders.
She'd wondered why the hourly wage was high for a PC bang... there was always a reason for a high wage.
There was absolutely no time to rest.
"Minseok, I'll make the food, so can't you do the serving?"
Turning her head, Yeji whined at Minseok, who was cooking food according to the orders coming in across from her.
"Yeji... you know everyone who comes to this PC bang comes to see you."
"Ugh, seriously, stop saying creepy stuff. And why is a PC bang part-time job this busy, seriously?"
Minseok laughed, asking why she was suddenly saying that, as he flipped a fried egg. He was also cooking multiple dishes on two pans at once.
"Come on, Yeji, did you forget the name of this PC bang?"
PC Bang with a Pretty Part-Timer.
...Yeji, reminded of that again, continued grumbling.
"I know they hire based on looks. But still, this is too much, seriously, it's so hard."
And no wonder—Cha Yeji was only in her first week of the part-time job, so she hadn't adjusted yet.
Minseok, a junior from the same department. She'd taken the bait when he said there was a part-time job paying 20,000 won an hour, but she felt like she'd been scammed.
More than anything, she really didn't like how customers openly stared at her face every time she served.
Seeing that Yeji seemed to be struggling, Minseok laughed awkwardly and said,
"Well... Seulgi said she'd be here soon, so just hang in there until then, okay?"
"Ah, well, that's a relief... I really wish the customers would order in moderation."
After continuing to exchange complaints with Minseok, Yeji suddenly typed a message into the counter chat.
—There are a lot of food orders, so it might take a while! Please keep that in mind! (Emoticon of a baby rabbit folding its ears and pleading!)
As a little trick to buy herself some breathing room, she sent a broadcast message to the PC bang customers.
......
Jingle.
At the sound of the PC bang door opening again, Yeji changed her expression as if she'd never been whining and spoke.
"Welcome~"
"Yeah."
Yeji glanced briefly at the customer who gave a curt answer, then suddenly blinked and fixed her gaze on them without realizing it.
'No way, someone like this comes to a PC bang?'
The face revealed beneath the black beret was so pretty it was genuinely incomprehensible.
On top of that, the woman wore a black cardigan over a black beret as if color-coordinated, and her figure was just as striking. Her long, brilliantly shining silver hair made Yeji look twice without meaning to.
Yeji wondered for a moment whether even a famous celebrity she knew would be prettier than the person before her now.
Yeji was staring openly at Serin like that. But when Serin came straight to the counter instead of going to the kiosk to reserve a seat, Yeji panicked a little, wondering if she'd been staring too openly.
"Excuse me."
"Y-yes?"
Serin spoke as if she didn't mind Yeji's stammering.
"It's my first time at a PC bang, so how do I use it?"
'God... even her voice is insane.'
Pushing aside the thought that came the moment she heard the soft voice, Yeji composed herself and answered with a small smile.
"Ah, if it's your first time at a PC bang, you see that big red machine over there? You can reserve a seat at the kiosk and then go to your seat. You can order food, desserts, and drinks directly from your seat."
"Ah, thank you."
"No problem. By the way, you're really so... pretty."
Yeji had added the compliment without thinking, but Serin just nodded calmly and headed to the kiosk.
Watching her go, Yeji found it a little fascinating.
How many compliments about her looks must she have heard in her life to react so calmly?
'Well, of course. There's no good-looking person who doesn't know they're good-looking. She's probably heard that kind of thing all her life, like breathing.'
Yeji didn't consider herself someone who fell behind anywhere, but Serin's retreating figure was so pretty that even Yeji couldn't stop looking.
Then she found herself idly wondering what brand the black cardigan, the jeans, and the beret were.
Because the person wearing them was pretty, even the clothes looked so pretty.
"Ah, Yeji, I'll do the serving from now on, so want to switch?"
When Minseok spoke up beside her in an excited voice, Yeji looked at him with a cold laugh, as if dumbfounded.
"Kang Minseok. You're seriously trash, you know that?"
"Yeji? Calling me trash all of a sudden—isn't that a bit harsh?"
"Just now when I asked to switch, you refused, and now what? You want to switch?"
"Ahem, hem!"
Minseok cleared his throat as if denying it, pretending to be distracted and avoiding her gaze, and Yeji laughed softly and shook her head.
Seriously, boys are all the same.
"You really just lose your mind over any pretty girl, don't you?"
"Oh, come on, Yeji. You were staring at that woman just now too, and you're only saying that to me?"
"Well. Maybe so... I don't mind switching, though."
Then Yeji decided to just accept it, since there was no point in stopping Minseok.
"Thanks!"
"Hey, but don't you think you'd look pretty ugly to someone like her?"
At Minseok's change in attitude when a pretty customer arrived, Yeji teased him with a playful jab, and Minseok nodded and laughed.
"Ah, right? Now that I've seen that silver-haired woman, Yeji, you honestly seem kind of plain too—"
Thwack!
Yeji kicked Minseok in the leg and immediately turned around.
"Oh, really? Then forget it. I'll just do the serving myself."
"Ah, Yeji!!"
"Yeah, too late."