In front of me stood a red building with a sign that read "RJ Entertainment." It was a fairly new company building, and I guessed that an idol group would probably debut under this company soon.
That meant this was a K-pop idol company. Yet, so far, I hadn't noticed many people coming or going. Perhaps it was because I hadn't paid much attention to it beyond knowing it existed.
Of the few people I had seen entering, they were dressed in full-cover outfits that hid most of their features. I assumed they were idols—but they could have been staff or workers, too.
I was just a nobody, working at a convenience store right in front of the building. Still, I planned to attract them to visit my store often to boost its performance.
I knew I was just a normal worker here, handling a full-time job alongside a few part-timers for the day and night shifts. I'd been working long enough to realize that this store was in bad shape.
Not many customers came here, and hardly any items sold. If anything, nothing seemed to sell at all. I wasn't entirely sure why, but it was probably because the store was new and had gotten off to a rough start—without any promotions to attract attention.
By "rough start," I meant that the store opened with a copied name, which drew criticism and caused a lot of people to ignore it. Yes, the store had mimicked a popular spot frequently visited by idols.
Thankfully, the boss had decided to change the store's name and style—with my help—and now it looked as original as possible. Sadly, that didn't help much.
The boss was on the verge of giving up on the store, which was something I couldn't just allow to happen.
I couldn't just lose my job if the store got shut down. I couldn't afford to, not like that. It was my first job, too. I didn't want to have a record like: "Used to work at a store, but it closed forever because of poor performance."
So, I had to do something about it. On the bright side, I noticed a small increase in the store's potential ever since that building was put up in front of us. Well… it wasn't brand new. I didn't know what it had been before. But a month or two after I started working here, a sign finally appeared on the wall: RJ Entertainment.
Now it had been two or three months, and I found myself spending most of my time watching that building. Not that I had much else to do—standing behind the counter waiting for customers had grown painfully boring.
While daydreaming, I saw someone exit the building. I couldn't tell who it was, but from their build, it was clearly a woman.
She wore a full black coat over a black shirt, leaving only her midriff visible. Her pale blue shorts revealed her thighs and shins. From what I could see, she looked healthy—her skin was fair, and she didn't appear weak or unhealthy.
Unfortunately, I couldn't make out her face clearly. I'm not a robot with perfect vision, and while the building wasn't far, it wasn't close either. My eyesight wasn't great, and my glasses had broken from my carelessness. I hadn't gotten a new pair yet—I couldn't afford one.
She wore a white mask and a hat that covered her natural black hair. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail, falling gracefully down her back. The hat was black, with a small logo on the front.
She walked to the left side of the building. From the way she moved, it seemed she was heading toward a store not far from the company building. That store sold some popular brand items and was known as a spot that famous idols visited almost every month.
Compared to that, my store barely saw any customers in a day. My salary wasn't great either. The first two months, I received the standard amount the boss offered, but it was slowly decreasing. That was worrying—money was tight. I needed it for my glasses and to cover living expenses.
If I stayed stuck here, I'd probably end up poor.
That left me with one logical choice: quit and find a new job.
Even though I had planned to help the store, I gave up almost immediately.
This isn't my store. Why bother trying? I can just quit and find another job.
I trailed off, lost in thought, my eyes wandering to the transparent glass window, focusing on the texture of the glass rather than the outside world.
Then, suddenly, a transparent pink screen appeared before my eyes. It looked like a game interface, displaying character stats.
I froze. At first, I thought I was hallucinating. For a few seconds, I did nothing but stare at the screen, trying to make sense of it.
It displayed stats—of me. But not like a typical game; it was… different.
Name: Han Ji Su
Birthday: 16 April
Age: 21
Height: 183 CM [6 ft]
Vocal: E
Rap: D+
Dance: F
Visual: B
Charm: F
Stamina: D
What…? Is this some kind of idol stats? And is it… about me?
Seeing my terrible stats, I nearly smacked my own face. For a moment, I thought I must be hallucinating—or going insane.
But then the screen vanished. Only after that did I notice a face outside the window. Our eyes met.
It was the woman who had exited the building earlier. She had clearly noticed me staring, and her expression grew wary, as if silently asking, "Why is he staring at me?"
I tried to stay calm, though panic churned inside me. I smiled at her, stepped off the counter-side area where customers could eat ramen, and walked toward the door, gesturing for her to come inside.
Surprisingly, she seemed to understand my improvised gesture, even if a real mute, a dead person, or a trained sign language user might not. She entered the store as I returned behind the counter, adjusting my green vest—the one that marked me as someone who worked here.