Chapter 8 : Praise Specials . Even whales can dance ?

Current time: Monday, 9:30 AM.

Hearty breakfast finished!

Outfit prepped with the hoodie and jeans my younger sister bought me!

“Ptooey ptooey ptooey!”

“Why do you keep opening your mouth like that?”

Torturous makeup session also complete!

The long-awaited time for my part-time job has arrived.

Pushing through the throng of busy office workers, I arrived at a large, bustling downtown area.

There, I familiarly found a building and went inside.

The place I work is a large PC bang with a whopping 300+ seats, and befitting its enormous size, the PC bang was teeming with customers even in the early morning.

Our future pro gamers, having finished their quick “commutes” no less than office workers.

Seeing them, I felt a sense of reassurance, as if I’d just eaten a hot bowl of gukbap.

This is why Korea is called a gaming powerhouse.

Their passion for games is undeniably the best in the world.

I’m proud of Korea. I’m reassured by my country!

Most of the customers seemed to be students who were either on vacation or had just finished their semester.

Or perhaps they were unemployed.

At the counter, I saw busy part-timers bustling around, and just then, I spotted the manager filling the shelves. I quickly approached her and greeted her.

“Good morning! The substitute part-timer has arrived!”

My sharp, military-style salute, befitting someone who’d been discharged just a month ago, surprised the manager.

“Ah, you’re the one who’s filling in for Jeong-ho? What’s your name?”

Han Jeong-ho.

That answer rose to the tip of my throat but I barely swallowed it.

“…Han Hyo-jeong.”

I hypnotized myself.

From now on, I am Han Hyo-jeong.

This is my first time working at a PC bang, and it’s your first time seeing me.

We’re strangers.

But damn it.

Why does it feel so familiar?

Huh? Why is my body, as soon as I arrived, automatically looking at the order slips and making ramen?

Seat 84? In this huge PC bang, why are my feet moving so smoothly towards the unique seat number 84?

“Customer, your ramen is ready.”

Why am I naturally saying these words?

After finishing the delivery and returning to the counter, I saw a part-timer struggling with the order machine.

I glanced at it and said,

“I think the receipt is stuck.”

“Oh, you’re right?”

Me, that guy.

Don’t solve problems as if you’re used to it.

“Get out of my body right now, Han Jeong-ho!!”

No, wait.

“Get out of my body right now, Han Hyo-jeong!!”

And while you’re at it, give me back my precious little thing!!”

“Hah, hah….”

The breathtaking battle between Han Jeong-ho and Han Hyo-jeong to occupy my body continued until lunchtime.

My name is Han Jeong-ho.

I’m 24 years old.

Due to unavoidable reasons, I’m currently using the name Han Hyo-jeong, but in the past, I was a fairly well-known figure in the part-time job world.

I’m called the specialist of the part-time job world, the MacGyver of the part-time job world, because there’s no part-time job I haven’t done since I was young.

I dare to say that working at a PC bang is quite easy, classified as “low difficulty.” At least until now.

As with any part-time job, where there are many customers, there are bound to be various difficult customers in proportion to that number.

Among them, the variations of difficult customers at PC bangs were quite diverse.

There’s the “What did I eat earlier?” type of customer who comes in after drinking a lot until dawn and then proudly displays the snacks on the floor (mainly what was in their stomach).

There’s the “Hey, good things should be shared” type of customer who brazenly plays videos that shouldn’t be seen in public places and even turns up the volume magnificently.

There’s the “Ring the Pungak!” type who diligently hits the keyboard to inform everyone of the auspicious news that happened to them.

And then there’s the “Why is it dying?!” type, a master of interjections who creates a harmony with the former.

There was also the gourmet type who adds raw eggs to green grape ade or adds spicy peppers to Americano as a sister product… But most of them were at that level of cuteness.

Commonly seen villains that you can just laugh off lightly.

The problem was when it wasn’t a normal case.

At the PC bang, abnormal phenomena that didn’t exist in my data were frequently being witnessed.

“Hey! Haven’t we met somewhere before?”

What? Who are you?

A male customer suddenly grabbed me and said that.

“No, seriously, your face is familiar! Did you happen to go to such-and-such elementary school?”

It was such a natural question that I couldn’t help but wonder if I really knew him.

But it’s only been two days since I became like this.

For even I to be unfamiliar with this face, for someone else to find it familiar is, in some ways, truly bizarre.

‘Bizarre, bizarre….’

The strange phenomena didn’t stop there.

Someone ordered two drinks and when I went to deliver them, they said,

“Have one yourself.”

And then there’s the person who throws out a completely rude question right off the bat:

“Excuse me, but do you happen to have a boyfriend?”

The street harasser I encountered before was nothing compared to this.

Every time I went to serve food, the countless handshakes pouring out from everywhere made me quite uncomfortable.

Si, sign. Uncomfortable…!

“Hyo-jeong, take it easy.”

“Ah, yes.”

Part-timer A, who was always listless, has a lively face today.

“If you’re tired, just take a break. Oh, the customers are starting to thin out, so would you like to man the counter? The two of us can handle the food preparation.”

And then there’s part-timer B, who always had a dissatisfied look and snapped at me whenever I did anything.

Their names were probably Choi Myung-jin and Heo Jun-tae, I think.

Especially Heo Jun-tae, who, despite only being here a month longer than me, acted like such a senior.

His face wore a kind smile that I had never seen before.

A guy who looks like he has a 50/50 chance of winning a fight against a bear has such a gentle expression.

“Ugh.”

The strange sense of incongruity made me reflexively gag.

As a result, a spoonful of worry was added to Heo Jun-tae’s kind smile.

“Hyo-jeong, are you okay? Do you want to go out for some fresh air?”

I’m not okay.

I’m getting worse because of you. Ugh!

Dot damage is accumulating in real time.

I seriously wonder if he’s the same part-timer I knew.

Could those burly muscles actually be a kindness pouch instead of a threat?

Like a certain Hoppangman, he gives out a handful whenever someone is craving kindness.

Truly, an enormous muscle of kindness.

As my complexion worsened, their eyes filled with worry.

It was the first time in my life I’d received such gazes from men.

No.

Wait.

Come to think of it, I think there was one other time.

When I was joking around with a friend and he kicked me hard in the groin.