27 The Boss Is Working Part-Time

- Y-yes, I’ll contact you later!

“Customer? Customer? Hey, you fucking bastard?!”

The call had already ended.

I’m only swearing because I know it’s already disconnected.

People like that are notorious for writing bizarre reviews if you get on their nerves.

“Hehe! She says I look young! My efforts are finally paying off! This is wonderful!”

Renea was so excited that she hopped around the office, while Kim Yang devoted herself to practicing headbutts.

The problem is, those headbutts aren’t aimed at the customers—they’re aimed at me.

It’s not that I can’t pay her salary.

I can pay it if I pull the money out of my stocks right now.

‘But if I pull it out now, I’ll take a real loss.’

It wouldn’t just be a loss; it would be such an idiotic move that people would be justified in pointing fingers at me.

The market had only fallen temporarily because of the natural disaster.

Wolfguard aside, the other stock prices would return to normal soon.

“Kim Yang.”

“Why?”

“Could we delay your salary just a little?”

“……”

“Ah, just a little. It’s because I’d lose money if I pulled it out now.”

“P-pass! P-pa-se!”

Kim Yang’s headbutts grew even more violent.

I kept my mouth shut and started looking through the documents.

‘I wonder if any matchmaking fee is about to come in.’

Speak of the devil.

My phone rang right away.

“Ah, yes. Mr. Cheolsu.”

This was already the third wildman I’d introduced to him.

I’d been hoping things would work out with this raccoon wildman-.

“Yes, yes, ah… I see. Ye-es. Something a little hairier? Yes, yes.”

Click.

After hanging up, I let out a short sigh.

At this point, wouldn’t it be better to go to an animal shelter and pick out a pet?

“A wildman with a little more fur-.”

While looking through the files, quitting time arrived before I knew it.

For some reason, Renea kept loitering nearby, while Kim Yang was getting ready to leave.

Kim Yang put on her outerwear and picked up her bag, then looked over at me with a puzzled tilt of her head.

“B-boss. Are you working overtime?”

“Since I was out today. I thought I’d get a little work done before I left.”

I needed to make sure Kim Yang’s salary was covered, too.

“……”

After staring at me, Kim Yang said she was leaving and went outside. I also got up to smoke a cigarette and headed for the entrance-.

Pitter-patter!

Renea suddenly blocked my way and ran straight into me.

She hadn’t even hit me that hard, but Renea fell to the floor.

“Aah!?”

“……What.”

Was she trying to pull some kind of insurance scam?

“To think you defeated me so easily. It can’t be helped. By the rules of marriage through martial combat, I shall marry you-.”

I simply stepped over her and went outside.

Renea followed after me, shouting at the top of her lungs.

“Why not?! You accepted Baek Yeonhwa this way! Then shouldn’t I be able to do it too?!”

“You’ve learned something strange. And Ms. Baek Yeonhwa left a note saying she’d introduce you to a man separately if you came.”

I wasn’t sure whether she’d accept that.

“Don’t try any weird tricks. You know you’re still F-rank, right?”

I warned Renea, who had followed me all the way to the smoking area. She hadn’t changed enough to warrant a rank reassessment yet.

At most, she’d started a part-time job and rented a room.

“Ugh, yes, I know.”

“Phew.”

I exhaled a plume of smoke.

I glanced at Renea fidgeting beside me and offered her some advice in my own way.

“How about getting a proper job? Instead of a part-time job, why not get an office job?”

“Y-you’d have to use a computer, wouldn’t you? I don’t know how to use one.”

Come to think of it, she’d only bought a phone recently.

“There are academies like that, too. They teach courses to help people from the 4th or 5th Floors settle in.”

The 6th Floor was out of the question, since its technology was so advanced.

There were also academies that taught all sorts of things to people from the 4th and 5th Floors.

“Hmm, there were things like that? I suppose I should give it a try, shouldn’t I?”

“Phew, yeah.”

Actually, there was one very simple solution.

Renea could become a hunter.

She’d taken down the Net Queen in one blow and received a 200-million-won bounty, and she’d once stopped Azure Dragon with a single arrow.

If she did that, she could rise from B-rank to A-rank in an instant.

Nothing could be done about her age, but older people usually offset that with money.

“Ugh, should I really attend a job-training academy?”

I glanced at her as she agonized over it.

Even though she was depressed about having to work in society, she didn’t seem to have any intention of taking up her bow again.

Tap-tap.

I tapped the ash from my cigarette and stretched.

“Phew, I’m going to work overtime, so head home first.”

“……It’s boring when I go home.”

“Is this a playground?”

“I haven’t even finished hearing the 22-line acrostic.”

“Ah, seriously.”

In the end, we went back into the office together.

“Come to think of it, didn’t you say earlier that you had someone to introduce me to?”

“Ah, right. Here, take a look.”

“Mm-hmm.”

I took out a file and showed it to her.

Name: Kim Geun-bae.

Age: 46.

Origin: 3rd Floor.

Occupation: Executive at Mirae Civil Engineering & Construction.

.

.

.

Overall: C-rank.

“He makes a lot of money, you know? But he doesn’t manage himself very well-.”

“……”

“Don’t pretend you didn’t see that.”

“I have preferences too! I told you to find me someone who looks like Cha Eun-woo!”

“At 1,901 years old, you should be grateful to anyone willing to take you…….”

Well, if she refused, there was nothing I could do.

It wasn’t as though I could force a match.

As we worked, the sky gradually grew dark.

“Zzz.”

Renea was sitting beside me, dozing with her head on the desk. If she was going to sleep, I wondered if she shouldn’t just go home.

‘I’m hungry.’

Before Azure Dragon came down, I would have ordered jajangmyeon right away. Unfortunately, I’d have to make do with cup noodles now.

I was filling the kettle with water for the cup noodles when the office door opened.

“Huh?”

At the entrance stood Kim Yang in her casual clothes, holding a bag of old-fashioned fried chicken.

“B-boss. I brought food for overtime.”

“Really? Wow, this is kind of touching.”

“Sniff, sniff! It smells savory!”

Renea sprang to her feet.

Kim Yang was a little surprised to see that Renea had stayed this late, but she said nothing and set everything up.

“S-so? Did you get much done?”

“I left everything organized on the desk, so just make some calls tomorrow. I’ve matched about five couples.”

“Oh.”

Kim Yang didn’t eat any herself. She just kept tearing off pieces of chicken and holding them out to me. She seemed to have something to say.

“What’s wrong? Is it really about your salary? I can pay it.”

“……I-it’s okay if it’s a few days late. Y-you said pulling out the stocks now would mean a l-loss.”

“That’s-true.”

Even if we were a small company, was it really okay to share the company’s financial situation with a subordinate to this extent?

“Mm, thanks, Kim Yang. Sorry I’m such an incompetent boss.”

“B-boss, you’re not incompetent.”

“You are incompetent! You said you’d find me someone who looks like Cha Eun-woo-!”

I stuffed a dry piece of meat into Renea’s mouth to shut her up.

I took a sip of the cola we’d bought together, and finally felt refreshed.

Maybe I felt relieved because Kim Yang had said it was okay to delay payday.

“Phew, what a relief. If it really got delayed, I was going to go work part-time for Ryu Seoram starting tomorrow.”

After all, didn’t small-business owners and restaurant owners often work part-time elsewhere when they had nothing to do?

“Huh?”

When Kim Yang tilted her head as if asking what I meant, I briefly explained Ryu Seoram’s offer.

“Do you want to die?”

“……”

“Y-you’re going to work there tomorrow.”

“No, it’s okay if it’s late-.”

“Pay me my salary-!”

A headbutt flew at me right away.

* * *

What a strange life this was.

‘I’m working a part-time job to come up with my employee’s salary.’

For a company owner, wasn’t this the textbook road to ruin?

Once the stock market stabilized somewhat, I needed to keep at least enough money in my bank account to cover the essentials.

All that effort to scrape together every last bit of money for my dream of buying an apartment had come back to me like this.

The place I visited early that morning was a 40-story skyscraper in the city center.

BLR (Black Line Risk), the hunter management company Ryu Seoram worked for.

Unlike the Hunter Association, which worked for the public good, hunter management companies prioritized profit.

That was why hunters usually worked for companies like this in their prime, then often moved to the Association when it was time to retire.

‘If I’d become a hunter, would I have worked here too?’

It wasn’t hard to imagine myself setting out on assignments with Ryu Seoram.

When I arrived at the entrance, Ryu Seoram was waiting with a file binder, wearing a 'Daeheung Bear Force' baseball jacket.

She had brown hair and sharp teeth.

Her freewheeling outfit was a sign that she hadn’t gone to work yet.

When I actually showed up, she smirked.

“Honestly, I didn’t think you’d really come when you said you would.”

“Me neither.”

“What, did you have a change of heart or something?”

“It’s not a change of heart.”

I couldn’t bring myself to admit I’d come running because I couldn’t pay my employee’s salary; my pride wouldn’t allow it.

“You could say reality pushed me into it.”

“What the fuck does that mean? Never mind, I already told them. You can get clothes on the 27th floor. Change into those.”

“I have to change clothes too?”

“Today’s job is bodyguard duty. You planning to guard someone looking like that?”

I’d dressed with some care because I was going to a major corporation.

“Since it’s bodyguard work, even someone like you without a license can do it as a part-time job. I pulled strings to get you in, so do your best.”

I took the temporary employee ID she held out. It had my name and photo on it.

‘When did she get my photo?’

The question flashed through my mind, but I let it go for now.

I was more curious about the work itself.

“Aul, the guy we saw yesterday? I’m guarding him?”

“That’s right. I do wonder why we have to guard some mere singer. Honestly, it isn’t dangerous at all.”

“What a sweet gig.”

“It is.”

Ryu Seoram grinned.

So that was why she’d told me to come work part-time.

Nine hours of work meant 900,000 won a day.

Three days of work meant 2.7 million won.

Even after taxes, that would be enough to pay Kim Yang’s salary.

‘It’s a little unfair to compare it with a major corporation, but the difference is huge.’

Sorry, Kim Yang.

Once our business took off, I’d make sure to give you a generous salary.

“Go up, change clothes, and fill out the employment contract... Oh, right, did you renew your passport?”

“Passport? Yeah, I did.”

This was while Meracle was getting established.

I’d often gone back and forth to the 4th Floor to promote it, so there was still plenty of time before it expired.

“Good, that’s a relief. I hear the person you’re escorting today is going up to the 5th Floor for his schedule, so keep that in mind.”

The 5th Floor?

“Wait a second. No one told me that.”

When I asked again, flustered, Ryu Seoram glared back at me irritably.

“Do I have to get a part-timer’s approval for the schedule too?”

She had a point.

“It’s a free trip to the 5th Floor, so consider it a good deal and hurry up.”

Going to the 5th Floor right now was a little dangerous.