Chapter 31: Deal with Seungseok (1)

Otherwise, she kept wanting to complain. 

Even if it wasn’t an amazing SS-rank from the start, if she’d at least awakened as a C-rank hunter, things would be better than now. 

Then, she wouldn’t have ended up in charge of such a big store.

If I think like that, I should start by resenting why I was born this way.

The scariest thing was if she couldn’t handle this job properly. 

Hyejin was terrified of disappointing Asha, failing to protect the convenience store, and ending up with nothing changed a year from now compared to a year ago.

That might be why she had no choice but to rely on Asha even more.

But succeeding in the hidden mission was thanks to Asha. 

Without those glasses, I couldn’t have done it.

She couldn’t deny that.

Plus, the words about not relying on her entirely were right.

Just because she’d worked part-time at clothing stores or restaurants didn’t mean she could immediately become a boss and run a store successfully. 

Not without working her butt off. 

And even if she put in the effort, failure could happen in an instant.

Still, Hyejin wanted to rely on something.

Being alone in such a dangerous place as an F-rank. 

Hyejin felt thoroughly isolated.

Everyone around her in the convenience store was either an SS-rank hunter or a capable spirit, which made her feel endlessly pathetic by comparison.

So maybe that’s why she wanted to act spoiled.

“Hoo, snap out of it, Cha Hyejin!”

After pulling herself together, Hyejin rubbed her face dryly and looked at the supercomputer screen.

Update Complete

The small window announcing the update completion blinked a few times before disappearing. 

Then, the list of products in the convenience store scrolled out.

While looking at the product list, Hyejin clicked the order window and ordered the items needed for the promotion.

To check the response for a week, she ordered 30 sets of each for now.

Order List

1. Healing Bandages

2. Disinfectant Hydrogen Peroxide

3. Toys That Attract Monsters

4. Chocolate Pie Box That Eliminates Hunger

5. Portable Lantern

6. Umbrella

7. Hunter Nutritional Supplement Comprehensive Vitamins

8. THE COOKIE

30 sets each entered.

Do you want to place the order for the above items?

YES/NO

After confirming the contents, Hyejin pressed the YES button.

Then, a system window appeared saying the order was successfully completed, and it returned to the first screen.

Hyejin stared blankly at the first screen, lightly clenched her fist, then turned her head to look alternately at Seungseok’s business card and her phone.

Now, she had to negotiate a deal with Seungseok.

If Seungseok said he’d raise the price of the goods, she’d accept that loss as long as he came more often. 

At this rate, running the convenience store was risky.

***

At that moment, the staff room door opened, and Eunwoo’s voice came through.

“What are you worrying about so much?”

Eunwoo said as he approached Hyejin. Just then, Suho, who seemed to have finished cleaning the store, was also looking at Hyejin.

Having emptied the trash can, he smiled toward Suho and placed his hands on his hips.

“The store is sparkling clean. Suho hyung is really good at cleaning too. But I’m just as good as hyung. Take a look outside.”

“It’s natural for it to get clean when you clean. No need to check every little thing. Especially among fellow part-timers.”

“Aw, why take it so stiffly, Suho hyung? Suho hyung, you’re 26, right?”

“Are you even digging into personal information now?”

When Suho glared sharply at Eunwoo, Eunwoo waved his hands as if to calm him down.

“Not like that—we’re basically celebrity-level. There are tons of stories about us everywhere. ‘I went to school with Lee Suho,’ ‘I’m an employee at Baektae Confectionery,’ ‘I saw Yoon Eunwoo in person,’ ‘I saw Chef Cha Seojun in real life when he worked at the hotel, and he was really handsome,’ and so on! It’s all over the place with stuff like that. Even just looking at my SNS.”

Eunwoo pulled out his phone, held it out to Suho, and continued.

“Here, take a look. See how many followers I have? A whopping 5 million.”

“I’m not interested in that.”

When Suho kept refusing the conversation, Eunwoo shook his head as if he couldn’t stand it.

“Hyung seems like a really boring person. You don’t seem like the type to do SNS, but if you did, your profile message would be something like ‘Today too, I live diligently,’ or some profound quote, and your photos would be all expressionless and stiff, right?”

“SNS is a waste of time. If you do that—”

“See? You can’t deny it. I knew it. But hey, Manager. I’ve been thinking, shouldn’t fellow part-timers drop the formal speech? We can do hyung and dongsaeng. I’d like it if Suho hyung dropped it with me too. It’s so stiff, it’s like turning into a log.”

“Th-that.”

While listening to their conversation and looking back and forth between her phone and the calendar, Hyejin quietly put her phone in her pocket. She thought about calling, but just then, today was the day the goods were coming in.

Then, to mediate between the two who were still looking at each other disapprovingly, she opened her mouth.

“If dropping formal speech is more comfortable, you can do it.”

“Then drop it.”

“Huh?”

“I’m so uncomfortable I can’t stand it, so drop it. Having someone four years older than me speak so formally is really unbearable. When I lived abroad—”

“Fine, shut up.”

Suho said toward Eunwoo. When Hyejin widened her eyes and looked at Suho, Suho looked at Hyejin and Eunwoo and continued.

“Is it okay to use informal speech?”

“You don’t have to ask me that—as long as you two aren’t uncomfortable with each other, I don’t mind. Just don’t fight and quit.”

When Hyejin said it with an awkward smile, Eunwoo finally shrugged his shoulders.

“Ah, now it’s comfortable. When Chef Seojun comes, I need to tell him to drop it too. The convenience store is going to feel like home for a while, so it can’t be uncomfortable.”

Having gotten Suho to go along with his idea, Eunwoo smiled brightly and swept his hair back. 

Then, his cute face was revealed, but unlike when she first saw him, he looked quite exhausted.

“Um, Eunwoo.”

“Yes, Manager.”

“I think you should rest a bit now. Even if you’re SS-rank, you need to rest when it’s time.”

At Hyejin’s serious words, Eunwoo, who had been jokingly saying he didn’t want to go home, smiled widely and then let out a small sigh.

“I have nowhere to go.”

“Huh? Oh, you said you got kicked out of the house. But you must have friends. Can’t you stay at a friend’s place?”

“Well, I have a lot of friends. People who like me are all over the world.”

Eunwoo nodded with a somewhat heavy expression. Then, Hyejin smiled and said to him.

“Go meet some friends or something. What if you collapse here?”

“Yeah, collapsing while working would be weird too. Then, I’ll go play for a bit and come back.”

As Eunwoo finished speaking and took off his vest in the staff room, heading out of the convenience store, a familiar headlight beam illuminated the store.

“What’s that light?”

Eunwoo shielded his eyes with his left hand as if it was blinding, and Suho, after finishing a customer’s checkout, pulled out a wooden sword from his status window and headed to the convenience store entrance.

Hyejin smiled brightly and waved her hand vigorously.

Lee Seungseok ahjussi!

Then, she quickly stopped Suho, who was on alert.

“Um, Suho. He’s not a bad person. He’s the one who delivers goods to our convenience store.”

“Ah, I never thought I’d see a truck in a dungeon. Come to think of it, it makes sense that it’s connected to our convenience store. I thought it might be a looter or something.”

A looter.

Hyejin smiled lightly at his whimsical thought.

Sometimes, the stoic Suho showed some pretty cute sides.

“Induk Trading—he’s the president there.”

After saying that, Hyejin opened the convenience store door and ran toward him, saying.

“You’re here, ahjussi?”

Then, Seungseok, getting out of the truck, looked at Hyejin and adjusted his hat.

“Hahaha, the week went by fast. Have you been well, young and rich manager?”

“Young and rich? I’m not rich.”

“Anyway, so modest. By the way, did you run out of anything while working? It seemed a bit short to me. Rumor has it the convenience store in the dungeon is doing really well.”

At Seungseok’s words, Hyejin’s eyes sparkled as she wondered how to broach the subject.

“W-well, it’s not going badly, but like you said, ahjussi, there was a bit of a problem. So, I have a favor to ask you…….”

“A favor? From me?”

Seungseok pointed at himself with his finger, asking with a flustered face.

“Is that favor something difficult?”

It wouldn’t be difficult.

But it wasn’t exactly easy either. The most important issue was whether he had the will.

“First, let’s unload the goods, ahjussi. I’ll ask the favor after that.”

“Hm, sounds good. Let’s finish the work first.”

As Seungseok seriously opened the truck’s back door,

“I’ll help.”

“Ah, I was going to go out and play, but I guess not.”

Seeing Seungseok about to unload, Suho and Eunwoo rolled up their sleeves and followed him to the back, loaded with cargo.

At first, Seungseok, who had no particular interest in the two, set down the load he was holding on the ground for a moment and said.

“Strange. Faces that look familiar from somewhere. Aren’t you those famous hunters? Names were something like Su-something and Eun-something.”

As Seungseok scratched his head and spoke, Suho smiled lightly and nodded.

“That’s right.”

“Not something—it’s Yoon Eunwoo. That brilliant SS-rank healer, chaebol second generation. Right? That’s me.”

“Heh heh, to think such amazing people are all working at a convenience store.”

With Seungseok’s exclamation, Suho and Eunwoo lifted plastic boxes full of cargo from the truck and went into the convenience store. There was still a lot left to unload.

The moment Hyejin approached Seungseok to help, he asked her in a low voice.

“You’re quite something, aren’t you, manager? No, how do you gather only famous hunters and run a convenience store like this?”

I’m curious about that too.

As Hyejin smiled awkwardly, wondering how best to answer, Seungseok nodded repeatedly, as if he’d come to his own conclusion.

“Ah, well, since it’s in a dungeon and a convenience store, hiring shady hunter part-timers would be a problem too. There’d be rat-like guys eyeing these goods.”

“Ah, yes. That’s right.”

It’s not wrong.

Hyejin quickly agreed to Seungseok’s words, then swiftly threw a question to change the topic.

“Once we unload all the goods, is it okay to talk about the favor I mentioned earlier? In case you’re busy.”

“I’m fine for a bit. Then, we gotta move the cargo quick.”

Hyejin looked at Seungseok, who energetically picked up a logistics box, with an expression that was neither laughing nor crying.