When I quit my job, my co-workers became obsessed with me

Even though it was early, the bus was already full of people. The smell of sweat mixed with the scorching heat gradually erases the refreshing smell of the body. Every time I do this, I feel like taking a shower in the morning is meaningless.

I can’t help it, it’s all my fault for having my house as far away from work as possible.

I bought the car in a hurry, but the delivery schedule has been delayed a lot, so I have to do this for the next four months.

I sighed involuntarily in the dark mood, but the middle-aged man standing in front of me shrugged. It was as if my breath had entered my ear.

“sorry.”

“⋯⋯It’s okay.”

What does this person think of me?

As I exchanged eye contact and looked out the window, a thought suddenly occurred to me. College student? Office worker? self-employed? Whatever it is, it won’t be seen as a white beast. Thinking about that made me laugh.

I don’t even know what I’m doing now.

I got off the bus and moved to the officetel instead of the company. Eventually, I stood in front of the door and opened my mouth while ringing the doorbell.

“Are you there?”

The password itself was known by Gaaryun, but he never used it himself. This was to prepare for any unforeseen accident.

Not long after, there was the sound of footsteps from inside and the door opened. The girl holding the doorknob and looking up at me had a face so young that it was hard to believe she would be an adult next year.

It would have been nice if it had been the result of genetics, but sadly, that molt bone was close to underdeveloped because it did not receive nutrients in time.

“Now you live here.”

“I said I was going.”

As I followed Midsummer’s sharp reply into the house, a delicious smell caught my nose.

“Are you pitiful?”

“I left a while ago. I saw what was wrong.”

The empty table was full of dishes while I was wiping my hands. It was still a burdensome amount to eat for breakfast, but I decided not to express it.

I quietly sat across from the midsummer and raised my chopsticks.

“I will enjoy this food.”

As soon as the words were finished, Midsummer pushed a plate in front of me. The time for tasting has come.

“⋯⋯You also created a masterpiece that will remain in the culinary world.”

“I told you not to.”

Even in front of the cold reaction, he trembled without regard for it. If you don’t do it anyway, you’ll get a headache.

“Is this also a ‘cooking method’?”

Here, the recipe refers to the Me Tube channel created by a famous chef.

“Only the bass. If you really do it like that, you’ll break more than ten dollars.”

Midsummer answered calmly as if he had done something insignificant, but his eyes were constantly glancing at this side.

It’s a sign to praise you for doing a great job.

“No, it’s so, so delicious⋯⋯ even with less ingredients.”

I covered my face with my palm.

“⋯⋯ lagging behind.”

You seem satisfied.

After watching the news and chatting about various things, the meal was over at some point.

“I’m getting ready.”

After nodding my head, I checked the appearance of Midsummer taking out various books from the bookshelf, and then went to wash the dishes. It was time to pay the bill.

“Start.”

As soon as I ran out of words, Midsummer offered me a book of problems. It was very cute that the color of the face brightened noticeably whenever the red circle went up on the problem that was carefully solved.

“Good job, was there any part you didn’t understand or was difficult?”

Midsummer shook his head. With a curious mind, he dropped the fuss once more and laid out the class materials he had prepared on the desk.

“What we will learn today is⋯⋯.”

After the white male has finished explaining, the runaway high school girl asks a question. It was a strange scenery just listening to the description, but in reality it was running quite well. He took pleasure in the act of learning, and I felt satisfied to be able to help someone.

As we went to class one by one, took a break, played ball during lunch break, and continued classes, dinner was approaching.

I sighed and looked down at the midsummer lying on the floor.

“It was a lot of trouble.”

“OK.”

I tickled my toes a few times out of pity, and the guy quickly ran out of tears and apologies. I opened my mouth again, laughing at the midsummer wriggling like a cockroach.

“What do you want to eat?”

“⋯⋯Curry. There was a sale yesterday, so I bought a few.”

As I was preparing various things in the kitchen at headquarters, midsummer, who had suddenly woken up, rushed to me and put on my apron. After helping him tie the string, he handed over the potato he was holding and accepted it with a grin.

“At this rate, I will finish elementary school next week.”

“Oh really?”

A smile burst out of the summer’s mouth.

“why?”

“It’s funny that the day after tomorrow, the twenty-year-old wants to drop out of elementary school now.”

“You should be proud of that age. How many people skip it without even realizing that it is shameful.”

“Hmm.”

“And it will be even faster in the future. From the middle school onwards, I will study with Ingang.”

The delay in elementary school learning was due to his poor academic achievement rate, but it was also my fault. Because of personal greed, I extended the lecture time like a rubber band by arranging various liberal arts knowledge.

“Are you not confident?”

Midsummer said

“What?”

“I’m not saying I’m not confident in teaching because I don’t have the confidence to teach, now.”

“What do you mean, online lectures are more efficient than now⋯⋯ because the lecture time and content are systematically set.”

“Yes, you will. No, what can I do? You can’t ask for something like that from someone who’s been graduating for 12 years already.”

My self-esteem was hurt. It’s okay to say it yourself, but since then, it’s the body that I used to play in the whole school area when I was in school. Although I went on to the arts and physical education department, it was not an exaggeration to say that I was ranked at the top of the department in terms of my CSAT scores.

“Pu ha ha.”

But this cheeky middle school cockroach didn’t believe me. No matter how smart he is, he is worried that he will be able to blend into human society only if he is so shallow.

We need to increase our liberal arts education.

“Are you saying you teach anyway?”

“Oh, you can’t. Once you become a person, you have to study or do anything⋯⋯.”

“Okay then.”

Midsummer, cut to the end along with the skin of potatoes, became so docile that the arrogant attitude up until now felt like a lie.

“midsummer.”

“why.”

“Actually, it’s true that I’m not confident. Memories are memories too, but from middle school on, there are separate teachers for each subject, right? That’s why I teach systematic content.”

“I’m not sure either.”

Midsummer said while cutting potatoes.

“I’m not sure I can do it alone.”

Anyway, he’s an evil guy. The guy who usually acted as if he wouldn’t shed a single tear even if he pricked him with a needle only lowers the corners of his eyes as if intimidating.

In the end, after discussion, the class was held in the classroom, but it was agreed that I listened next to each other.

⋯⋯It’s like studying again.

* * *

“Whoa.”

After dinner, I was making class materials while waiting for Ga-ryun to come, when I heard a sigh from behind. Midsummer, who took off his headphones, made a crackling sound and loosened his wrists here and there.

I quickly brought the grapes I had stored in the refrigerator and said something.

“I’ve been working for over an hour, so take a break.”

Midsummer was playing online games. According to Yu Ga-ryun, he didn’t have a proper hobby, so it was a pity that he was idle even during breaks or only watched Me Tube, so he introduced me to various games, and it seems that he became interested in it.

Personally, I have no intention of touching it as long as it keeps the usage time. Whatever it is, it’s good to have a hobby.

“yes.”

At that moment, a ‘matching complete’ message was displayed on the monitor with a flash of light. Then, unlike any other time, Han Yeo-reum hesitated and spoke with a very bewildered expression.

“Well, if you refuse, because of the matching penalty⋯⋯. I’ll just do this and get you right away.”

“I know, you can do it.”

Midsummer bowed her head and turned her head again. On the monitor, there was a huge message of ‘promotion battle’ along with the nicknames of the people to fight from now on.

“If you win this, what will you be promoted to?”

“The Principal.”

“How tall is ⋯⋯?”

“Ah, second from the top. Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, then the Chancellor and the Minister of Education.”

It is indeed an inconsistent class structure.

I stared blankly at the monitor as I chewed the grapes. The screen, where several characters were listed, quickly switched to a first-person screen as soon as each team made a selection.

It was the first game I had ever seen, but the rules were simple enough to understand at a glance. You earn points by killing your opponent, and you win if you collect more points than the opposing team.

However, it was unusual that the characters were female students in school uniforms, not soldiers. It was clear that the game had an interesting worldview in its own way, with something like an angel ring floating above its head and wings sprouting behind its back, but that wasn’t something to be concerned about now.

The important thing was that Midsummer’s play wasn’t sane. Midsummer’s ability to clean up enemies one by one with dazzling movements seemed amazing to me as an outsider.

“Can I try it too?”

“Oh, but how do you do it?”

“No, but that’s it anyway. Aim with the mouse and click to shoot and kill.”

“That’s true, but each character has their own unique skills⋯⋯”

I took one lecture and started the game confidently, but in a fast-paced battlefield, shooting a gun was more difficult than putting a thread in a buttonhole.

After the game, I stood up quietly.

“why. do more It’s fun⋯⋯.”

“What’s the fun of walking around and just dying?”

Target shooting would have been easier than this. Anyway, this made it clear that Midsummer had unusual skills.

After that, for a while, I was admiring his cool play, but I felt his popularity from the front door.

“I’m home.”

“It was a lot of trouble.”

“Yeah, it was hard.”

Yu Ga-ryun, who had leaned on my chest for a moment and sniffed, sighed as if satisfied, and headed to the bathroom. So while she was washing her hands, I prepared a meal in the kitchen.

“Curry!”

Ga-ryun Yu, who came back at some point, hugged my back with a snoring sound.

“This recipe was devised by the midsummer chef himself.”

“Wow.”

“Aren’t you too soulless?”

“Can’t you just look at it? you’re dead zombie.”

Yu Ga-ryun let out a thin moan and bit my back slightly.

“Your brother is also infected now.”

“therefore? What should I do?”

“We have to make more zombies. to establish a kingdom. I am the king and my brother is the queen.”

We laughed a little.

“What happened in the morning?”

“yes.”

“How do you think it will work out?”

“As soon as I left, it was fixed. Because I couldn’t see my brother’s face for nothing.”

“Well done.”

As I lightly stroked my hair, Yu Ga-ryun rubbed her face against my back as she hummed in a pleasant way.

“What were you doing before I came? Did you have any fun?”

“Oh right.”

I pointed at midsummer with my finger.

“Is that, the little girl you do too?”

Ga-ryun Yu shook her head, sticking her head out from behind and checking the monitor.

“No, you know I don’t really like that gun game.”

“Then how did you know that?”

“Oh, you don’t know. Because that’s another hot game these days. He must have been curious because he kept appearing on various shows.”

I don’t know if it’s a console game, but I don’t know much about online games. In the past, I only did what Ga-ryun told me to do together⋯⋯. I didn’t even do that well.

by the way.

“broadcast? Are you talking about internet broadcasting?”

“yes.”

“⋯⋯Isn’t it a show that does weird things?”

Ever since I said something about watching Me Tube for a while, Midsummer didn’t bring up that kind of story in front of me at all.

Of course, I was being polite to others, but on the other hand, it was true that I was worried because there was no way to know what that guy was looking at.

“No, it’s just a game show.”

“Then that’s it.”

“Summer, in a few months you will be an adult.”

“I know, I know⋯⋯.”

It doesn’t look like a 3rd year high school student at all.

“⋯⋯Don’t do things like Done. Then I won’t care what I see.”

“yes.”

Hearing Yu Ga-ryun’s clear voice, I felt something embarrassed, so I decided to quickly change the topic.

“Anyway, you’re good at ⋯⋯, right? that. I couldn’t even take a single step.”

Yu Ga-ryun nodded and immediately handed me a smartphone with a video of a pro gamer playing.

When I just looked at it, I thought it was amazing, but when I compared it like this, I realized it anew. That’s right, even if it’s a professional level, it’s a skill that’s not inferior.

I hardened my resolve and gently patted Midsummer’s back.

“hey.”

“uh? Ah, that⋯⋯I was just about to turn it off.”

“Let’s put it on My Tube.”

“What?”

“Let’s record what you are playing and put it on me tube.”

He blinked his eyes as if midsummer was absurd.

“⋯⋯Why?”

“No, it’s a waste to be so good. It’s better to brag about how good I am rather than just play games.”

“Why? There are a lot of people who are better than me.”

“Okay, so just look at it. If not, you will be buried.”

It was three days ago that I uploaded a video by persuading Midsummer, who was so reluctant to do so.

“Look at ⋯⋯, no one is watching.”

“Because you can see it.”

And today is the day that the video was chosen by the algorithm and became a hit.

I was purely happy. It felt like the rain of praise pouring down through the comment window was directed at me. So I thought it would be good for him to feel the same way. He wanted to get out of the swamp of self-deprecation and feel proud of his talent.

I only wished for that.

― The call is not answered, so it is connected to voicemail.

He suddenly disappeared from my world.