Chapter 6: Let’s Just Brush It Off and Start Over (1)  

That wasn’t all. The game money in my Virtual Accounting page also decreased by the same amount.

,991 won.

Really?

The money was really transferred?

Does this make any sense?

I couldn’t believe it. But my hands were already guiding the mouse and keyboard. I was going to verify the amount in my Saemaool Safe account that the money should have been transferred to, through internet banking. If it was really transferred, there should be a record of it in my account.

My hands were moving so fast that they seemed clumsy. Within seconds, I pulled up my account information.

At that moment, my jaws dropped.

“Oh my God!”

The money had been deposited. Exactly 99,999 won was deposited into my account.

The transfer date was also listed as today. I’m certain this was the game money that I just transferred.

‘What is this?’

My mind was drawing a blank for a while.

‘How could the game money be deposited into my bank account? Especially for a game that has already ended its service.’

However, the more I thought about it, the more my mind raced to a single conclusion.

The dream I had last night.

“It wasn’t a dream.”

It’s something that is unbelievable. However, I could not not believe it. There was too much clear evidence to show it wasn’t a dream.

First evidence is the dream itself.

No matter how vivid a dream may be, how could you clearly remember everything that happened from the moment you woke up in the morning to the moment you went to sleep at night?

Furthermore, I remembered pretty much everything that happened for about ten whole days without missing a single minute.

Second evidence was the Virtual Accounting.

The final amount I remember from my dream aligned perfectly with the amount in Virtual Accounting.

I didn’t even need to consider the other evidence. That was enough.

‘Just what is going on here?’

There’s no way I’m still dreaming, is there?

Riiiing. Riiiiing.

The phone alarm brought be back out of my thoughts.

I suddenly became alert.

“Aaahh! I’m late!”

I’ve always lacked sleep. That’s because after finishing work at the carwash, I would sleep late after having fun playing Royal Roader.

That is why I have two sets of alarm set up every morning. One to wake up from my bed. The second one to finish eating and get up from the restaurant.

Which means, even if I was to rush, I would still be late.

I frantically finished my preparations and darted out of the goshiwon like an arrow.

I was hungry, but I didn’t have time to eat breakfast. I ran full speed towards the carwash.

Unfortunately, my rhythm was interrupted by red lights multiple times.

In the end, I was 5 minutes late.

GM Jang was waiting for me and started to bark at me like a dog.

“Kang Hwi Ram, you’re late again?”

I feel very bad about being late. But why does he need to say ‘again’? During the two years that I’ve been working here, I’ve been late less than five times.

There was only one reason for GM Jang to do this.

He just wanted to yell at me.

“You have a lot of loose screws these days! You don’t put in any effort in washing cars and you suck when you are greeting customers! Do you not want to work here anymore?”

Honestly speaking, I didn’t understand.

‘Why is GM Jang treating me like this these days?’

When it comes to work environment, our carwash has probably the best one. The president treats the employees really well, and that is the method to our carwash’s success. Since the president treats employees like family, the employees just hold back no matter how rude customers are, and provide the best service.

GM Jang had learned a lot from watching his father, the president, so he was really good to the employees. Even to me.

But the atmosphere changed suddenly once the president was hospitalized after a car accident. GM Jang picked me to yell at all the time.

The amount of yelling he did wasn’t only a little either. He raised the intensity each and every day, making it feel like he was silently asking ‘oh, you’re still not going to resign?’

Today was especially bad. He seems to have made up his mind to blabber on.

“Starting right now, you are to practice giving a kind service 30 times before you start working. Got it? Today, do it where I can see you.”

Kind service practice.

This is where you have to bow and say ‘Welcome.’ ‘Thank you very much.’ And ‘Have a wonderful day.’ Over and over into thin air.

At that moment, a single thought came to my mind.

‘I guess this is the end for this carwash.’

If I’m being honest, I owe a lot of gratitude to the president. Whether it was for my mother’s hospital fees or younger sister’s school fees, whenever I needed an advance, he would let me borrow 500,000 or even 1,000,000 won (TL:~$500).

Of course I always paid the debt back quickly.

Because of my feelings of gratitude and loyalty, I continued to work at this carwash. But it puts me in an awkward position if GM Jang comes at me like this. We get plenty of nagging from our customers, but we have to suffer the same from our own family?

I can’t do that.

On one hand, I thought it was great. My mind was out in the bean field anyways.

Let’s be honest. Even now, my mind was full of Royal Roader. I wanted to hurry back to the goshiwon and experience that dream once more.

I felt like it was possible. Didn’t I verify the money that was deposited in my account with my own eyes?

If that type of thing could continue to happen, this would be my life doing a full 180. I didn’t have time to worry about this job at the carwash.

Plus, this type of job was easy to find if I put my mind to it. People are all saying that the unemployment rate is really high, but carwashes, and other manual labor jobs such as electrical or welding, are almost begging for workers.

As my thoughts reached that point, I made up my mind.

‘Alright! Let’s just quit! I have no debt or owed salary anyways.’

Even if I was going to quit on my own accord, there was something I needed to confirm.

I bluntly asked GM Jang.

“What is the reason?”

GM Jang could think that my attitude was terrible. My attitude and tone were both a bit like I was arguing.

Since I already decided to quit, do I even need to care?

Was that the reason? GM Jang hesitated for a second.

“……What did you say?”

“For the last few days, you’ve started to nag at me for no reason. Stop acting like a prude and speak up like a man. Did I do something to upset you?”

“Look at this punk! Are you talking back to me?”

“Punk? Just because I’m a little bit younger doesn’t mean you can talk like that to a full grown man. And this isn’t talking back; this is me asking a question. Why are you suddenly like this to me?”

Now I crossed the bridge of no return.

GM Jang must have felt it as well. He should know that I’ve made up my mind to leave.

That might be why, but he stopped being rude to me.

“I just never liked you from the beginning. So disappear quietly. We don’t need someone like you at our carwash.”

This is really weird.

I’ve been working at this carwash for quite a while, and working hard at that. In fact, I even gained a lot of returning customers for us.

Which means, if I quit, the carwash would face a lot of losses as well.

GM Jang should know this as well, so why is he like this? There has to be a reason for it. What could it be?

Whatever, I can’t figure it out. It’s not like it matters to me now anyways.

The more important fact was that Royal Roader was waiting for me. Let’s not waste my time here.

“Fine then. Tell the president thank you for everything.”

With that one sentence, I turned around with no regrets.

For some reason, my mind was feeling refreshed. Maybe it was because of anticipation or excitement, but my footsteps heading back to the goshiwon could not be any lighter.

(TL: Calling it now. President said he was going to leave the carwash to Hwi Ram).

Translator : Miraclerifle

Proofreader : Miraclerifle