####
“Thank you. Please get home safely.”
The employees stood clustered at the store entrance, bowing to me.
Being seen off like this felt strangely awkward. For some reason, it made me feel like I’d become some gangster or yakuza boss.
Thinking their farewell was a little excessive, I shuffled out hesitantly.
“What’s that?”
“……Is she famous?”
Seeing the employees bowing to me, people passing by glanced over and began murmuring among themselves.
I could feel curiosity in their gazes.
The kind of curiosity that said, “Who on earth is this person for the staff to be greeting her like that?”
‘It’d be weirder not to look and just walk by.’
I understood it, since I would’ve done the same, but embarrassing was still embarrassing.
If I’d known this would happen, I would’ve paid more attention to my clothes instead of coming in a tracksuit.
‘Though women’s clothing would still be impossible, no matter what….’
Anyway, today’s lesson.
Don’t spend money recklessly.
And if I’m going to spend it recklessly, at least dress properly before coming.
Now that I thought about it, I felt a little wronged.
I hadn’t spent recklessly. I’d only bought what I needed.
‘There was just way too much I needed.’
Ten million won’s worth of furniture alone.
I’d gone around filling five carts with boxes, so it was fair to say there really had been a lot.
If there was one problem, it was that the space this furniture would fill was limited to the living room.
‘Ah, there’s a bed too, so I guess it’ll fill the bedroom a little.’
In any case, that meant I still had to buy furniture to fill the other rooms. Thinking about having to furnish those too made my head start to ache.
Excluding the bedroom, there were two rooms left.
I couldn’t just leave them empty, and I wasn’t going to live with anyone else, so I had to use them for something.
Not that I absolutely had to, but it would be a waste to leave rooms unused.
‘Should I use one as a computer room?’
Online, I’d often seen people decorate an entire room like a game room or PC café and post photos to show it off.
I’d been incredibly jealous of that.
Now that I had the money to decorate one myself, making my own dedicated PC room didn’t sound bad.
I could put in a computer and have a snack display shelf beside it.
In the end, I’d be the one filling it, but the atmosphere was what mattered.
‘Then should I turn the remaining room into a movie theater?’
I’d put in a soundproof booth there and an air conditioner too.
Buy a screen, cover an entire wall with it, then put in a soft, comfortable sofa.
‘And buy a few expensive speakers….’
As I was thinking about how to decorate the remaining rooms, I somehow arrived in front of the car I’d parked.
‘It’s nice having empty hands.’
With nothing in my hands, I’d walked over very comfortably.
I’d definitely spent around ten million won, and yet there wasn’t a single thing I had to carry right now.
All of a sudden, I remembered how I’d struggled yesterday at the mart, lugging things into the car.
‘It’d be nice if marts had a service like this too, where they delivered what you picked out yourself.’
There were services where you ordered from an online store and they delivered at the time you wanted.
The downside, though, was that, unlike when buying furniture, I couldn’t see the items myself.
It’d be nice if they changed the delivery method to work like this place.
I’d be confident going out to shop every single day.
I got into the car and buckled my seat belt.
Looking at the empty car, which felt awkwardly bare, I stretched once.
‘Then the furniture will arrive in two days… Should I rest at home until then?’
The furniture I’d bought today would arrive in two days.
Most of the furniture sold here was flat-pack furniture, so customers buying one or two pieces often took them home right away.
But what I’d bought wasn’t just one or two pieces, so using the delivery service was only natural.
I’d thought the shipping fee would be expensive because I’d bought so much, but it wasn’t.
How much was it again? Fifty thousand won? Seventy thousand won?
Even though I’d bought this much, they said that was all the delivery fee came to.
‘Anyway, that’s one worry solved.’
I’d bought the bed I’d sleep on and all the furniture for the living room.
I’d also roughly planned how to decorate the remaining rooms, so I could take my time buying the things to put in there later.
No, I’d just take my time and buy them online.
‘I don’t want to go back and get attention again….’
If I went again, they might try to escort me from the entrance next time.
If that happened, it would be uncomfortable, and I probably wouldn’t be able to look at things properly. It would be embarrassing too.
I kept thinking it was embarrassing like this, but being treated like a VIP wasn’t exactly bad.
Was there anyone who disliked VIP treatment in the first place?
I didn’t think so.
“VIP, huh…….”
Gripping the steering wheel, I murmured to myself.
My first VIP experience in life.
To think my first VIP status would be at a furniture store, when I hadn’t even managed it in games.
I thought it might be fun to go to a department store next time and become a VIP there.
At a department store, there would be plenty of people like me, so I probably wouldn’t attract attention.
Thinking about this and that, I drove over to the mart.
‘I should buy food for home.’
####
“Home…….”
As soon as I arrived home today, I collapsed again.
The floor was polished and spotless, without a speck of dust.
Thanks to that, I could lie there without coughing and enjoy the cool sensation.
“This is nice….”
I lay there and rested for a while.
I almost fell asleep like that, but if you sleep face-down on a bare floor, you’ll wreck your neck.
With some effort, I got myself up and took the things out of the shopping bags.
“This goes in the freezer…….”
The moment I said that and went to the kitchen, I froze in shock when I saw that something that should have been there wasn’t.
“There’s no refrigerator…?”
Unlike studio apartments, apartments don’t come with basic furnishings by default.
Some do, but I hadn’t moved into a place someone else had been living in; I’d bought a completely empty unit, so of course there wasn’t one.
I’d definitely seen it while looking around the place with the realtor, so why hadn’t I realized?
It was probably because I’d only ever lived in studio apartments.
If not, then maybe they’d given me money and taken my intelligence in exchange.
“……It still feels like a profit, though.”
If I got five hundred billion won in exchange for becoming the kind of idiot who didn’t even know there was no refrigerator in her own home and bought a ton of frozen food, then it was a profit no matter what.
Thinking such useless thoughts, I looked down at my hands, which had grown cold before I knew it.
There, a bag of frozen dumplings was looking up at me with a pitiful face.
They weren’t just ordinary dumplings either, but galbi dumplings, the most expensive kind. On top of that, there were dumplings with whole shrimp inside in the shopping bag too.
Honestly, I could just eat roughly what I could and throw the rest away.
And yet, the reason I couldn’t do that was—
“What a waste….”
I’d bought the expensive dumplings I’d always wanted to try. Wouldn’t it be too wasteful to pick at a few and throw the rest away?
Of course, if I ate nothing but dumplings until dawn, that would solve it, but this wasn’t a private prison. It was my home.
Was there any need to do something like that at home?
And the reason I was agonizing right now wasn’t just because of the dumplings.
“Ice cream…….”
A premium ice cream from an American company that everyone thinks is Danish.
That expensive ice cream you never buy unless you’re drunk at a convenience store.
“The ice cream is not okay….”
I hadn’t bought just one or two either; I’d bought a bunch in small and pint sizes. I couldn’t give this up.
They said even rich people licked the lid of their yogurt.
So my current line of thinking was extremely rational.
Even rich people didn’t just throw money all over the floor.
Anyway, the method I chose was—
“I’ll have to put them in the studio and come back….”
Going to my studio apartment.
####
“Don’t melt….”
I got in the car and quickly headed to the studio.
The warm sunlight streamed into the car, making me nervous that the ice cream would melt.
“Should I have covered it with something?”
That thought came to me belatedly.
But stopping the car, finding a plastic bag, and covering it would probably take even longer, so I just stepped on the accelerator.
For now, I’d store it temporarily and hurry up and buy a refrigerator.
It wasn’t like I could go back and forth to the studio every time I wanted ice cream.
“This is driving me insane, seriously.”
There probably wasn’t anyone as stupid as me.
It was so absurd that I ended up laughing to myself.
After laughing for a moment, I soon arrived at the studio.
I quickly got out of the car and hurried back to my room.
My room had become as clean as it had been on the first day I moved in.
Not a single trace of Choe Minhu could be found.
Leaving that aside, I needed to save the ice cream and dumplings first.
“Safe…!”
I quickly shoved them into the freezer, which had nothing inside except an ice tray.
Letting out a sigh of relief, I took out a small vanilla one and opened the lid.
It had melted a little, but not badly; only the outer surface had softened slightly.
It should be fine even if I froze it again.
“Mmm… Delicious….”
The taste of luxury.
The sweet and smooth vanilla ice cream passed coolly down my throat.
Savoring the vanilla scent lingering in my mouth, I glanced around the studio.
It really had become a new home.
As if no one had ever lived here.
If this had been a few days ago, would I have looked at this place with a little loneliness?
Maybe. I’d been a bit sentimental back then.
“I like now better.”
Now, I didn’t feel even a little that way.
I liked the present.
So I would never miss those days again.
That didn’t mean I would consider my past meaningless either.
After all, it was because I’d endured that life that I existed now.
Thinking that, I put the rest of the ice cream into my mouth and opened the door.
“What the—who are you?”
Someone suddenly looked at me and asked in surprise.
That was what I wanted to say.
“Yes……?”
No. I didn’t need to say that.
‘Why the hell is that team leader bastard here…?’
Because the person standing in front of me was none other than the team leader of that goddamn “family-like” company I’d spent all this time cursing.