Chapter 328: Chapter 327.

Chapter 327. Troubling Developments: My New Responsibility at Work is… (4/4)

Five minutes later she returned with a relieved look on her face.

“I did it. I gave a deep bow to everyone inside the store and apologized for my brash actions. They all said it was fine, nobody was mad. It looks like your job is safe.”

‘Good job. Now then…” I stuck my hand out in front of her.

She put her hand on top of mine and grabbed it like an obedient puppy.

‘What are you doing? Pay up.’

“Oh! Right, I forgot. Haha… sorry.”

She stuck her hand into her pocket, pulled out a dollar, and handed it over to me.

As soon as I accepted the dollar, she jumped at me with wide-open arms, hugged me tight, and buried her face in my chest while she rubbed the side of her cheeks up against it.

“As expected, it’s as soft as it looks.”

I stood there frozen in place unsure of what to do. Suddenly, a minute felt like an eternity as I slowly counted down the time in my head.

“Hey, I paid good money for this hug you know. What’re you doing?”

I tilted my head to one side cluelessly.

“A hug is only a hug if it goes both ways.”

What? Is that a thing?

“The clock doesn’t start until you hug me back.”

This is an impossible task for me. 

“If you don’t do it I’m not letting go.”

I mechanically wrapped my arms around her and held her close. She nuzzled up close to me and took full advantage of the situation.

As soon as the minute was up, I opened my arms up and released her.

“Cheapskate. You could have given me some extra time.”

Saddened that her minute was up, she reluctantly backed up.

‘There, you happy now?’

“I’m not content at all. I want to take this mascot costume home and use it as a hug pillow.”

‘That would be a crime.’

“If someone commits a crime and no one is around to see it, is it still a crime?”

I nodded.

“Who’s going to know?”

I pointed at myself.

“Oh, right. Do you mind closing your eyes for a second?”

‘So you can kidnap me then dump my body somewhere nobody will find it?’

“Yeah.”

‘Absolutely not. If you try anything, the mascot costume gets it.’

“What? You’d take it hostage?”

My head bobbed up and down seriously.

“It seems we’re at an impasse then.”

‘Indeed.’

“Haaaaah. Then I suppose I have no other choice but to back down.”

She sat down on her motorcycle sideways as she faced me and cracked open the drink she’d bought. She raised the bottle up to her mouth but just as she was about to pull down her face mask she paused and gave me a look.

“Uh, can you look the other way for a bit?”

‘Why?’

“I don’t want you to see my face.”

I kept staring.

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“Did you not hear me?”

‘It’s a free country. If you don’t want me to see your face, all you have to do is turn around yourself. Why do I have to be the one inconvenienced and have to expend my energy to look away?’

“Fine then.” Her face mask puffed out a bit to one side. I couldn’t see it, but she was pouting under it.

She raised one leg up, rotated her body ninety degrees, and mounted it properly.

She removed the strap around her ear on the side opposite to me and pulled it forward in front of her so I couldn’t see her face. She moved the bottle to her mouth and took a small sip.

“Uwha, it’s like seriously really good.”

She took another sip of it and continued drinking. She gradually raised the bottle up higher and higher. In a short minute, there was only a fifth of the contents remaining.

When she noticed how much was left she lowered the bottle and hooked the strap of the facemask back over her ear. She looked over to me and said, “You weren’t kidding. This stuff really is good. It must be pretty stuffy in that costume though, you’re probably thirsty, right? You can have the rest.”

I waved my hands from side to side to refuse, but she insisted, “Don’t worry about it. Just take it. Consider it my thanks for the hug at the discount price and also introducing me to such a good drink.”

She rolled her motorcycle closer to me, grabbed my wrist, and forcefully stuffed the bottle into my hand.

“No give-backs. See ya around.” She winked at me, revved her engine, and took off before I had a chance to say anything back.

I checked the time on my phone and realized my hour was up. I could return to the store.

I entered through the building’s back entrance as the Owner instructed. Inside the washroom, I removed the mascot costume then changed back into my work attire.

I looked down at the bottle in my hand and debated whether or not I should just drink it. It’d be a waste of money not to. In the end, I decided to forget that her lips had been pressed up directly against it and I quickly downed the remaining contents before I disposed of the bottle. There was no point in being overly conscious of it. 

If she gave me the bottle, it obviously meant nothing to her either.

When I returned behind the counter at the front of the store with Yuna, she glanced at me with a suspicious look but didn’t say anything immediately as there was a long line after the little advertising I did outside the store.

It took about an hour before the store cleared up and we were back to normal.

Only when there was nobody around did Yuna open her mouth and ask what had likely been on her mind the entire time, “Hey, are you cheating on Rosa?”

“If you’re talking about the girl with the ripped jeans missing a leg, it’s nothing like that. She just really wanted to hug the Yuna mascot because she found it cute. I told her I’d only permit a hug if she purchased an item from the store. It was strictly business.”

“Bullshit, what did you get out of it? There must have been something in it for you.”

“I charged her a dollar.”

“Are you planning to turn me into a dollar store prostitute?”

“That’s a mean way to put it.”

“You’re using my image and making people pay you for a hug.”

“I’m simply spreading joy and happiness for the low cost of a dollar. You should be praising my benevolent actions rather than condemning it.”

“Money can’t buy happiness, you ever hear that saying before?”

Of course. I more or less lived by that myself.

“Whoever said that was definitely broke.”

“Well, you’re not exactly wrong. The saying was a bit different back then but it meant essentially the same thing. That person grew up in poverty, and despite having many opportunities to accumulate wealth, they shunned it.”

“Exactly, if they shunned it, how would they know whether or not it could buy happiness or not? They shouldn’t knock it until they try it. If anything, I’m sure wealthy people would propagate this saying so they could deter others from eyeing their wealth.”

“That… could certainly happen.”

“Exactly.”

“But... do you genuinely believe money can buy happiness?”

“Yes… and no.”

“What do you mean?”

“I believe there should be a delicate balance. Too much money and you take it for granted and become indifferent to it, not knowing what to do with it all. Too little money and you’re starving to death out on the street depressed and thinking about dying rather than continuing to suffer. If you have just the right amount of money to maintain a basic standard of living, you will value the things you have and be happier in the long run.”

“So yes, it can buy happiness when you have the right amount of it. Not too much and not too little. Just as with everything in life, knowing how to do things in moderation and being able to remain in control of yourself is key. Live within your means, what you can reasonably sustain, and you will find happiness. At least, that is what I believe.”

“You sound like an old man rather than a teen.”

“You’re not wrong.” I gave a disgruntled cranky old man response as I leaned forward on the counter and propped my chin up atop the palm of my hand.

I wish I could think like a simple-minded sheltered teen again. Not knowing anything about the world. The world looked like a much better place when viewed under that tiny microscope that could only see a small portion of the various things going on at a surface level. When you get older and mature, you begin to see things you wish you didn’t. Those simpler, much easier days suddenly disappear. It’s like everything you thought you once knew about the world were all lies.

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