After realizing the shocking truth that I was, in fact, a voluntary s*ave, I quietly put down the rubber gloves I was holding and, under the pretense of tidying up the seats, escaped from my spot as if fleeing.
Whew, that was close.
I almost fell for their trap.
My quick wit allowed me to see through their sinister intentions in advance; if I were an ordinary person, I would have been held hostage by them without knowing anything.
My name would have been changed to Hyo-shik, and I would have been forced to do the work of two people with the food of one every day.
They would eat premium ramen that costs over a thousand won a pack, while giving me the cheapest ramen.
They might even say kimchi is a luxury and give me pickled radish instead.
Ugh, how awful.
Cleaning the seats itself was a very easy task, but with a number reaching 300, it was quite a chore.
They say even a sheet of paper is lighter when lifted together; this was almost like a phone book.
Scrape.
Rattle.
I wiped the keyboard with a wet cloth as if playing an instrument.
Tap tap.
I rhythmically hit the bottom to remove the foreign substances that got into the keystrokes.
If there is a living hell where you can’t see the end, this must be it.
While cleaning the empty seats diligently in a state of mental emptiness, I happened to find a shiny coin lying next to a keyboard.
“Wow, five hundred won, super nice.”
Under the PC cafe’s ten commandments, which state that the first finder becomes the owner of a lost coin, I quickly picked it up and carefully placed it in my pocket.
The unexpected profit lifted my spirits.
A hum of a tune naturally escaped my lips.
Humming a cheerful melody, I searched for more lost coins, when…
“…”
I made eye contact with the customer next to me.
The customer stared, startled.
And a gang member caught red-handed in illegal embezzlement.
A suffocating silence fell between us.
You… saw it?
The scene of a perfect crime was exposed.
An unavoidable situation.
Immediately twist the witness’s neck and eliminate the threat…
…instead, I quietly raised my index finger.
Not to poke the customer’s eye with it.
But to make a silent gesture of bringing my index finger to my lips.
What you just saw must be kept secret for life.
Otherwise, I can’t guarantee what will happen to your future fox-like daughter and rabbit-like wife.
She might order chicken behind your back, and your daughter’s kindergarten drawing might have Mom and daughter, but Dad is completely missing.
You don’t want such a tragedy, do you?
If you understand, nod slowly.
As he nodded once with a stoic expression.
Nod.
Nod.
A response arrived.
It was the moment a peace treaty that would make the UN cry was concluded.
The PC cafe had hundreds of seats, and I cleaned as many seats, but unfortunately, there were no more lost coins.
Despairing at that unfortunate fact, I went to the bathroom to wash the rag for the last remaining floor cleaning, and when I came back…
“You b*tch, what did you just say?!”
An angry shout echoed from afar.
When I went to see what was happening, I saw part-timer Choi Myung-jin, who had a troubled expression.
Next to him was a male customer, his face completely red, pointing a finger at him.
“What’s going on?”
After listening to the story, it went like this.
The computer was lagging and unusable.
He failed his promotion match because of the lag.
So he wanted a refund for the time.
My gaze went to the problematic computer.
Blink blink.
What is this?
Am I seeing things?
There was a record of three hours of use on the screen.
Even though it was lagging, you used it quite thoroughly.
Was a promotion match usually three hours long?
Even I, who has never played a game, knew that wasn’t the case.
Moreover, Choi Myung-jin, the veteran part-timer at this PC cafe who had worked longer than me, knew how absurd that lie was.
It’s against the rules.
If you had called a part-timer beforehand or moved seats, this wouldn’t have happened.
That kind of typical conversation turned into an emotional fight.
It was the appearance of a troublemaker, the king of all troublemakers, the refund-seeker, who appeared at least once a day.
‘Right. It wouldn’t be right without a refund-seeker.’
Finally, the time had come to show off my skills honed through my long part-time experience.
“Oh, sir. I understand you’re angry, but let’s calm down and talk this out slowly, shall we?”
Like the saying, “You can’t spit on a smiling face.”
As I approached with a smiling face and spoke, the man’s gaze fixed on me.
“Who are you? Are you a part-timer too?”
“If the definition of a part-timer you’re referring to is someone who provides labor for a limited period, then yes, I am a part-timer.”
He had a look that said, “What nonsense are you talking about?”
A characteristic of angry people:
If you use nonsense, they get confused and their anger subsides.
In fact, the male customer’s lips were faintly lifted, as if my sophisticated humor had relieved his anger.
More accurately, it was twisted.
As if he were sneering.
“Can a part-timer make fun of customers like this?! Get the owner out here!”
Choi Myung-jin let out a small sigh at customer Choi Myung-oh’s attempt to summon the owner.
But now that I look at it, the customer’s condition is quite strange.
He can’t even stand properly and is swaying; did he drink?
Thinking about it, I can faintly smell alcohol.
Was his face red not from anger, but simply from being drunk?
Two part-timers caught in the booby trap of a drunk customer disguised as an ordinary troublemaker.
A brief exchange of glances took place.
They exchanged opinions that it would be difficult to handle alone, so they should join forces temporarily.
Meanwhile, the customer blinked his eyes and scanned me up and down.
“Ha! Why are all the part-timers here like this? One guy has no flexibility, and this woman came to work all dolled up.”
He sneered.
The man suddenly poked at my sore spot.
My conscience twinged along with it.
I was also forced to do it, but that fact wouldn’t matter here.
The important thing was that I had full makeup on while working a mere part-time job.
Ye-eun, I told you I didn’t want to, didn’t I?
Forcibly putting makeup on me when I said I didn’t want to has come back like a snowball.
I couldn’t refute the sudden DDoS attack and shrank back, and the man shouted again triumphantly.
“Look at this? Are you upset because you got told off? Why, are you going to cry? Huh? Is life just so easy? Just shed a few tears and sniffle, and all the men will baby you.”
What the f*ck?
The customer, who turned me, a person with a dry sensibility that could starve a cactus to death, into a crybaby in an instant.
When I raised my head, dumbfounded, I suddenly heard a gasp.
Choi Myung-jin was looking back and forth between me and the customer with uneasy eyes.
Hey, Myung-jin, it’s not like that.
I’m not a crybaby.
This crazy delusional person is spreading absurd slander as if it were the truth.
I tried to quickly deny these groundless rumors so that my precious fellow part-timer wouldn’t be caught up in them.
But the customer was one step faster.
“That’s why women should just do laundry at home.”
Surprisingly, he was not only delusional but also a great son of a b*tch equipped with a sexist mindset.
Doing laundry at home was my daily routine, so I wasn’t affected at all.
But the important thing was that my younger sister was included in his indiscriminate barrage.
What?! Make our Ye-eun do laundry?!
She’s the precious flower of our family, raised without a drop of water touching her hands.
Just thinking about her delicate hands suffering from housewife’s eczema made tears well up in my eyes, which had been dry for over ten years.
My face slightly contorted at his heinous act of attacking my family.
The man caught that perfectly.
“Ha! Now you’re even frowning? So if you don’t want to hear harsh words, just stay quietly at home. Women shouldn’t be so unladylike.”
Women shouldn’t be so unladylike.
Shouldn’t be so unladylike.
Unladylike.
Unladylike.
The customer’s words echoed like an echo.
He not only transformed our siblings into demure ladies but also declared a complete ban on going out.
What era is this, to be spouting such absurd nonsense?
Is he perhaps a person from the Joseon Dynasty who crash-landed here?
Then, the patience that had been quietly watching me whispered.
‘Are you going to tolerate this?’
I shook my head, and patience whispered again.
‘You must take revenge, right?’
In my imagination.
Ye-eun, suddenly unable to go out and forced to do laundry at home.
For her revenge.
I nodded faintly and said.
“Yes. Your mother must be very ladylike, because she’s very good at doing laundry.”
“Hyo, Hyo-jeong!”
“What, what? What did you just say?”
Choi Myung-jin, who had been fidgeting beside me, tried to stop me urgently, but I was like an eight-ton dump truck with broken brakes.
For my younger sister’s free outings, I was ready to brave the fires of hell.
“Your mother must cry a lot, judging by how you think all women do.”
Seeing him drinking and causing trouble at a PC cafe in broad daylight, it’s obvious what he’s like at home.
He must be a tremendous fire-attribute filial son.
A serial arsonist who sets fires in his parents’ hearts has finally crawled into the PC cafe to ignite the flames of discord.
“You b*tch, are you talking about my parents?!”
“Bullsh*t, you started the parent insults.”
“Hyo, Hyo-jeong, calm down!”
Wow, this is some double standard.
If you throw the first punch, you should be prepared to get hit back.
His behavior, throwing a fit over a few parent insults, was ridiculous.
And he wouldn’t be overreacting like that if he didn’t have a guilty conscience.
“Grr! You think I won’t hit you because you’re a woman?!”
The customer shouted and raised his hand, but I wasn’t intimidated and glared back.
At the sudden commotion, PC cafe customers raised their heads like meerkats.
Those who were initially watching with interest now murmured with worried eyes.
Oh, it’s nothing.
Even if I get beaten by Yun Geon-woo, I’ll bleed from my nose, not cry.
Don’t worry, please feel free to continue your games.
Queen never cry.
This is the perfect opportunity to refute the previous false rumors.
The time has come to show that the person in front of you is not some crybaby, but the great general Guan Yu.
‘Come on, come on.’
If I’m lucky, I might even get a generous settlement.
There were times like this in the past.
Back when I had nothing but malice and guts.
Han Jeong-ho in his middle school years, when he deliberately got hit and earned hefty settlements.
The memory of that time, when I had a meeting with a troublemaker customer at the police station, came back vividly as if it were yesterday.
Thanks to those people, I was able to contribute significantly to the household finances.
The demon of that era is trying to awaken again.
No, no.
Time out.
At my time-stop declaration, the inner demon that was about to awaken asked me, puzzled.
[Middle school Han Jeong-ho: Why, Master?]
‘I can’t have marks on my face.’
At those words, Han Jeong-ho’s spirit sighed softly and disappeared.
The reason I hurriedly sent him back.
Suddenly, an episode from my childhood came to mind.
[Oppa, why is your face like that? Did you do a panda cosplay at school or something?]
[Ah, I enjoyed the same popularity as Tu Bao.]
[Bullsht. Which btch is it? Is it that girl who confessed to you before? Did she call her friends and gang up on you? Should I go and teach her a lesson?]
[Ye-eun, do I look like I’d get beaten by a woman?]
[Yeah, totally.]
Our Ye-eun, who was unusually brave from a young age.
If she had been born a man, my younger sister, who would surely have become a great general ruling the world, couldn’t hide her indignation at seeing her brother with black eyes.
‘I can’t cause my sister any more worry as her older brother.’
I changed my mind.
I decided to give up on the settlement and focus on blocking the attack with all my strength.
Judging from the raised hand and the position of the stepping foot, he didn’t seem to have any professional martial arts training.
Moreover, he was drunk and incoherent.
In that case, protecting my face was the top priority.
Other parts of my body could be covered with clothes even if they were injured, but the face would show the marks immediately.
I felt the customer flinch as I took a guard stance.
It was as if he didn’t really intend to hit me, but was more flustered by my reaction.
It looked like he tried to do WWE, but I responded with UFC.
“What’s going on over there?!”
Just then, a wild bear… no, Heo Jun-tae, came running, shaking the floor with his thumping footsteps, wearing pink rubber gloves on both hands.
Judging by his appearance, he must have been dealing with the dishes I abandoned.
“Hyo-jeong, what’s going on…”
Heo Jun-tae, who met my eyes, widened his eyes when he saw my combat stance.
Then, he discovered the customer we were facing and was startled.
“You! What are you doing!”
He immediately rushed in and tried to subdue him.
‘Oh, MMA?’
The whole process of quickly tackling the opponent and slamming him to the floor was so smooth and natural that I couldn’t help but exclaim in admiration.
But even if it was a situation where a fight was about to break out, I wondered if it was appropriate to just throw him to the ground like that.
Is that really okay…?
Even though this was a situation that could be misunderstood… or, was it not a misunderstanding?
He was about to hit me… wasn’t he?
Whether his intention was just a threat or a genuine intent to assault me, only the customer would know.
After a brief moment of contemplation, Schrödinger’s right hand, trapped under Heo Jun-tae’s heavy body, finally let out a cartoonish scream, “Kyahhh!”
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