Chapter 4

Ten minutes before 6:00 p.m. the next day.  

Yujin, having come down from the rooftop, tidied up the displayed items, occasionally glancing outside.  

“Boss, the new part-timer is coming today, right? Is it a girl or a boy?”  

It was when Jiyeong, the part-timer who worked until 6pm, asked with a curious look on her face.  

The convenience store door opened, and Eunwoo walked in wearing black pants and a deep green sweatshirt.  

Their eyes met, and he gave a slight nod, while Yujin belatedly answered Jiyeong, who was staring blankly at Eunwoo.  

“Boy.”  

“…Wow. Crazy. His face is insane. Wow… d*mn!”  

Jiyeong, twenty-one this year, muttered as if entranced, then quickly pulled out a small hand mirror from under the counter and fiddled with her face.  

Seeing this, Yujin shook her head with a smile.  

Among the part-timers she had hired, Jiyeong was especially interested in the opposite s*x.  

“Go home a bit early today. I need to teach him the ropes.”  

“Should I teach him?”  

Jiyeong, who was usually eager to go out and have fun after her shift, volunteered with sparkling eyes at Yujin’s words.  

But before Yujin could reply, Eunwoo approached the counter, and Jiyeong’s attention shifted.  

“Oppa! Hello, I’m Kim Jiyeong… I work Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 1 to 6 p.m. Oh! I’m twenty-one.”  

At Jiyeong’s enthusiastic self-introduction, Eunwoo, who had been looking at Yujin, turned his gaze to Jiyeong.  

“I’m Go Eunwoo. Twenty-nine.”  

“…Ah.”  

Jiyeong, who had been friendly, looked a little awkward at his brief and plain introduction.  

Yujin glanced up at Eunwoo.  

He had seemed friendly enough during the interview, but now, in his attitude toward Jiyeong, there was a subtle sense of distance.  

Did he take to heart the caution she gave during the interview yesterday?  

She was watching Eunwoo carefully when he suddenly turned to her and asked,  

“What should I do first, Boss?”  

“Oh, first… I’ll find you a uniform. Can you wait a moment?”  

Looking at Jiyeong, who seemed a bit sulky as she watched Eunwoo, Yujin thought she should send Jiyeong off first.  

“Jiyeong, didn’t you say you have a blind date today? You’ll be late, go quickly.”  

“Oh! Right, the blind date! Yes! Ah, cutting it close! See you Friday. Goodbye!”  

“Okay, good job!”  

Successfully redirecting Jiyeong’s attention, Yujin smiled brightly and turned away from Jiyeong, who disappeared quickly.  

Then she looked at Eunwoo, who was calmly surveying the convenience store interior.  

‘He didn’t seem to have dressed up, but why did he look so neat? Is the finishing touch to fashion really just the face?’

Recalling Jiyeong’s face lighting up when she saw Eunwoo, Yujin scratched her brow with a troubled expression.  

‘Eunwoo was twenty-nine, Jiyeong was twenty-one. Do kids these days think an eight-year age gap is nothing? Or does age not matter if you’re good-looking?’

“Boss?”  

Lost in thought with her head down, Yujin was startled by the low voice coming from above.  

Eunwoo, with the same slightly distant expression he’d shown Jiyeong, was looking down at her.  

“Weren’t you going to give me the uniform?”  

“Oh, ah, yes. What’s your size, Mr. Eunwoo?”  

Yujin hesitated a moment on how to address Eunwoo, then chose to use an honorific.  

Since there wasn’t much of an age difference, she didn’t feel comfortable speaking informally as she did with the others.  

“I’ll call you Mr. Eunwoo. Is that alright?”  

“Yes, whatever’s comfortable.”  

As she left the counter and headed to the supply room, Yujin looked back at Eunwoo, gauging his height and build.  

“You look about 186 or 187 centimeters. Will XXL fit?”  

“Yes.”  

Soon, Yujin came out of the supply room with a dark red vest in the right size.  

But then she noticed Eunwoo crouched down, looking intently at the display shelves.  

“Eunwoo, what are you doing?”  

When she approached and asked, Eunwoo glanced at her and replied,  

“I was memorizing where everything is. That’s necessary, right?”  

Surprised by the unexpected answer, Yujin raised her eyebrows.  

Eunwoo stood up, his face calm, and took the vest from her hand and put it on.  

With the weather getting colder, the vest had recently been switched to a lightweight padded material, with a simple design featuring black at the hem.  

But when Eunwoo wore it, he looked like he’d just stepped out of a winter fashion catalog.  

‘Was this vest always this nice? Does the wearer really make the clothes?’

Yujin glanced at her own reflection in the convenience store window.  

She was wearing the same dark red vest, but why didn’t she shine like this man?  

Feeling a bit bitter, Yujin quickly dismissed her stray thoughts as Eunwoo looked at her.  

“First, come this way. The order of explanation is a bit out of order.”  

Yujin walked back toward the supply room.  

The supply room was divided into three main sections: one for storing goods, one where Yujin did paperwork, and one that served as the changing room.  

Yujin immediately pulled back the dark gray curtain to reveal the inside.  

“This is the changing room. See, there are nine lockers in total? I’ll put your name tag here. Use this locker, and you can store your belongings when you come in. As you can see, the lock is a door lock, and I’ll reset the password and message it to you. And…”  

Yujin mechanically explained to Eunwoo the location of the supply room, how to clock in and out on the POS system at the counter, how to manage and clean goods, and how to ring up purchases on the POS, one by one.  

She also had him try ringing up purchases for customers who came in during the training.  

What she hadn’t anticipated was Eunwoo’s aptitude.  

She’d known from his resume that he was smart, but she hadn’t expected him to absorb everything like a sponge.  

He didn’t forget anything she taught, was quick on the uptake, and didn’t make the typical beginner mistakes with the POS system.  

‘Was it okay to be this efficient?’

‘Was it right to waste such talent here?’ 

Yujin thought she’d never had such a leisurely time teaching a part-timer.  

“Thank you, have a good night.”  

Eunwoo said calmly to a middle-aged man buying snacks, then turned to Yujin with raised eyebrows.  

“Why are you looking at me like that?”  

Yujin, who had been watching Eunwoo from the side, tilted her head and sighed.  

“Did I do something wrong?”  

Noticing her complicated expression, Eunwoo asked, and Yujin waved her hand.  

“I’m just wondering if it’s right to pay you 9,860 won an hour. It feels like a serious waste of talent…”  

Eunwoo blinked at the unexpected comment, then let out a faint chuckle.  

Seeing his face, Yujin immediately reached out a hand, signaling for him not to say anything.  

This was someone who’d worked at Google, and at Company L, one of the biggest corporations in Korea.  

She thought he might immediately ask for a raise, so she said firmly,  

“Still, I’m not going to raise your wage after just one day, so don’t get the wrong idea. But if you keep this up until tomorrow, you’ll be fine on your own.”  

“Is that a compliment?”  

“It’s a huge compliment. It’s… 11 p.m. now, right? I haven’t said a word since 9. You’ve done everything so well on your own.”  

Yujin, delighted to have such an elite part-timer, smiled brightly.  

Moreover, the reaction of the female customers over the past hours had been nothing short of enthusiastic.  

Regardless of age, many glanced at Eunwoo, blushed, or struck up conversations.  

Some even left and came back to buy something else, presumably just to see him again.  

And what pleased Yujin most was Eunwoo’s dry attitude toward those customers.  

He didn’t seem to go out of his way to act differently because he was being watched.  

—I’ve never given hope to anyone I wasn’t interested in. You’ll see.

Yujin raised her eyebrows and nodded.  

And she became quietly curious.  

If a man who could make hearts flutter with a meaningless smile ever gave hope to someone he liked, what kind of impact would that have?  

Anyway, seeing Eunwoo’s dry, straightforward, and at times cold behavior, Yujin felt her worries ease a bit.  

“Eunwoo, it’s usually quiet around 11. We should start closing up. What you need to do is…”  

Yujin was pointing to the trash bins inside the convenience store when the door suddenly slammed open.  

A middle-aged woman wearing a green apron with ‘Haha Chicken’ written on it and a motorcycle helmet on her head entered, holding a large pair of tongs covered in frying powder, her face set in a grim expression.  

“Park Yujin!”  

The woman took off her helmet and put it on the counter, pointing the tongs at Yujin’s face.  

“Mom?”  

Startled by the fierce entrance, Yujin blinked at the familiar face.  

“What are you doing here at this hour…”  

Yujin instinctively took a half step back, sensing something serious, when her mother, Bangsook, lunged at her.  

Yujin nearly had her eyes pop out from the smack on her back.  

Thwack! Thud! Thud thud!  

Yujin, hit three times in quick succession by her mother’s relentless hand, nearly fainted from the pain.