Chapter 36 – 14. Going to Work. Medicinal Street. Knitting Room (2)
Late lunch. A street in Kela Camp that still remains.
“It was unexpectedly nearby.”
As I wandered around with the goal of knitting, I arrived at an alley 10 minutes away from the mansion.
Bibina and I are standing in front of a small knitting room in the corner.
“It feels more like a tea house than a knitting room.”
“Well, like that…”
In the world I lived in before, or when I was a pharmacy officer, the knitting room I occasionally saw while walking around the neighborhood was an old, narrow, small room with a bed and a counter.
An old woman who looks like she’s an expert at knitting at first glance sells yarn that is lined up on the wall behind the counter.
It seems that the structure was to sit on the bed with the customer who purchased her thread and tools and teach them directly. Additionally, it feels very old and shabby.
But what can I say about the knitting room in front of me now? I would say it’s very neat.
The front of the store, painted a pretty green color, and the beige wooden door were refreshing.
There are no beds or anything like the interior visible through the glass window, but there are several sofa tables for four people and a long table that is good for multiple people to sit together.
And various small-looking tea utensils inside the counter.
Knitting yarn, knitting needles, and crochet hooks seem to be displayed inside the glass counter.
Is it like a knitting shop and a tea house?
I guess it means sitting down in the shop, drinking tea, and relaxing while knitting.
It seems pretty good, but you don’t want to get into the car with your hair blown off, right?
People who really want to drink tea will go to a tea house, so I wonder if it would be a good idea to go in for a drink or two.
“Shall we go in first?”
Bibina nods her head in response to my question.
We walked into her shop, greeted by a jingling doorbell.
Inside a small teahouse where the subtle scent of tea leaves and a quiet atmosphere tickle your nose and ears.
There was no one else but us.
The problem is that, normally, there are no employees or bosses who should be excluded from the word ‘we’.
“Will you come…?”
“Uh, yeah…”
For a moment, I thought he was going somewhere and waited for a while.
“… Um, over there~? Are you inside?”
In the end, I couldn’t bear it anymore and called someone to the inner space.
“Ugh. The old man is deaf…”
Then, a little old lady who seemed to be a master at everything in life, beyond knitting, walked out from inside the store.
-Jingle.
“Welcome.”
At the same time, the store door opened and a sharp-looking, short-haired, glasses-wearing woman came in.
Looking at the green apron, it looks like he is a clerk at this store.
It’s time to bow our heads and say hello to the short-haired woman who bowed to us.
The woman went inside her counter and did her work in the area where the tea utensils and tea leaves were gathered, and her grandmother, who approached with her leisurely steps, looked at us scattered across her counter.
“…”
Then Bibina took my hand that had been left for a moment.
I held her hand and talked to her grandmother as she continued speaking.
“It’s my first time seeing this couple. “They are a pretty pair.”
“Yes. I settled here recently.”
Couple.
It’s hard to call them a couple since they haven’t officially married yet, but it was still a nice word to hear.
They look like a married couple.
Well, it varies from country to country, but in the overall culture of the world, the appropriate age for marriage is from the mid-to-late teens to the mid-twenties,
A man and a woman in their mid-twenties entered the open space holding her hand.
The only thing missing is a wedding and a ring on the ring finger of my left hand.
I was originally going to buy a couple ring, but should I just move on to the next step?
Just as I was thinking to myself, ‘I’ll have to ask Vivi later,’ I was about to continue the conversation with her grandmother.
“A-that…! Oh, a scarf…! “I came here to buy, buy… Thread for knitting…”
Vivi opened her mouth with a stuttering voice and closed her mouth because of me.
She decided to keep her mouth shut, thinking it was an effort to somehow overcome her social phobia.
Unable to hide her growing anxiety, he only held her trembling hand and held it.
“Do you want me to be your husband?”
“I, Nam…! It’s not… Uh, anyway…! Yes, yes…”
Vivina stutters three or four times more than when she was talking to me and Chloe.
I looked down at her grandmother and couldn’t figure out where she was going.
It was obvious that he was holding back from wanting to hide behind me right now.
But her grandmother didn’t feel awkward.
She nodded her head with the same warm and kind smile as before and listened to Bibina’s words.
No matter how understanding she is, when she looks at Bibina, she might be puzzled. Is this the quality of a life expert who has gone through all the hardships she has faced?
“Is knitting a tongue?”
“… Actually… It’s my first time… But… While reading the book… Uh, I tried… Somehow… It’s…”
“Hmm. It’s going to be difficult… If you have time, will this grandmother teach you? It’s free, so don’t worry. Instead, my daughter-in-law hates it when I tell her. “Please just have a cup of tea.”
“Mother. When you say that, it makes me sound bad. For those who are here for the first time.”
A girl with short hair and glasses who complain lightly, is her grandmother’s daughter-in-law.
“It’s bad. “I guess she’s sharp, unlike her grandmother.”
But her grandmother still smiled kindly and answered leisurely.
When she saw that, she thought she had to go to this store sometime.
The reason why Vivina spoke first and continued her own conversation was because she seemed like the perfect conversation partner for Vivina’s rehabilitation(?).
I asked Vivina.
“Do you want to go later, sister? It’s close to home anyway, so it’s good to learn well. “I also want to eat something sweet at a teahouse after a long time.”
“… Uh, huh? Mmm, I want to eat…?!”
In fact, I didn’t want to eat at all, but I lied to take advantage of the fact that when I said I would eat something, she made a fuss like a mother feeding her son who had starved for three days.
“Hey, let’s go later…! Yes!”
Bibina reacts as expected.
It’s cute.
I’m embarrassed to make such a fuss in front of others, but what can I do?
I nodded, thinking, and looked at the cake placed in the glass display case right next to me. Make it as small and cheap as possible…
“Bachelor. You have to decide the thread first. A woman will have the strength to knit if she chooses a color that the man likes. “If I’m interested in cake, I’ll write it.”
The grandmother lightly reprimands me for that.
I flipped through the pages while using the ‘fashionable smile’, which is essential for social life, and chose a colorful yarn.
“What color would be good? Sister?”
“Peh, pick the best ferry…”
“Hmm.”
Normally, I would have left it up to my sister, saying, ‘What color do you want me to wear?’
Even though it’s in front of my grandmother, who seems to accept anything with a kind smile, I’m too embarrassed to make fun of someone I’m meeting for the first time.
So I chose gray yarn.
“This.”
“Grey…?”
“Yes. I think it goes well with the cardigan I’m wearing right now.”
It’s gray, the middle color among achromatic colors that goes well with anything.
If Vivina makes it in the first place, you can even wear a rag sack.
Vivina, as if the gray color wasn’t bad, nodded her head and said to her grandmother, “Uh, this…”
And after a while.
I sat by the window at a table for four people, ate tea and cake brought by my glasses-wearing daughter-in-law, and watched an impromptu knitting lesson.
Bibina sitting in front of me and the grandmother sitting next to Bibina teaching me how to knit.
She still seemed restless and hesitant, but she followed her grandmother’s instructions and played with her yarn and needle to make sure she was okay.
My anxiety has improved to some extent.
I’m right next to you too.
I am also full of will to overcome.
It seems like the person she’s dealing with is a kind grandmother who doesn’t feel any harm at all, so it seems like she can endure it.
Good thing she said let’s go too.
During the brief moments when Bibina was concentrating on trying out the skills she had learned, my grandmother and I had a chat.
“I think this is my first time seeing a knitting shop that even has a tea shop.”
“Originally, it should have been a knitting room that I used alone.”
It was originally an ordinary knitting room.
“… That’s why we’re continuing thanks to my daughter-in-law.”
“You have a good daughter-in-law.”
“Okay then.”
The older son suddenly said he was going to get married and brought a girl from the tea shop, and thanks to the girl who became his daughter-in-law, he continued to open the tea shop.
“Then it must be quite a lot when there are a lot of people.”
“Yes. “I’m unusually free today… Everyone must be busy.”
The store is located between a mansion town where the rich live and a residential town where the common people live, so it does business through the wives and ladies living in each area.
And.
“Um, uh… Ha, grandma…? This is… A, that…”
“Ugh. Our lady is not very good at knitting. “I’ll show you again, so watch carefully.”
“Yes, yes…”
Very rare, rare, rare.
No, it was almost like I was seeing Vivina’s awkward and whining appearance.
Ah, the clumsy Bibi that hesitates is so cute.
“That’s right. That’s it. “Good luck.”
“Yes, yes…!”
I just want to bite your cheeks.
* * *
Embassy in Kela Camp.
Staff office inside the first floor.
“I think this is all I need to tell you. Then, I will ask you again.”
“Yes! Please take care of me too!”
I, Chloe, who is new there, am I taking over the role after a long time by playing the role of ‘a one-armed, but bright, cheerful, and social woman!’.
The position I hold is currently an administrative position in charge of dealing with the guests who require the most attention at the embassy: Bibi, her older sister, and Perry.
Other than that, he was an administrative assistant with no responsibility and no power, like the youngest who fell by parachute.
Perry and her sister aren’t the type of people to ask for big things from the embassy, so they only need to worry about it once a month on pay day or when they ask for something in particular.
It doesn’t even have to be work in the first place; you just decide to do this or that at home and deal with it accordingly. It won’t be difficult.
Most of the time, I will be an administrative assistant.
It didn’t seem like a bad workplace.
It is said that they are busy carrying out various projects with the support money received from the kingdom recently, but as a former member of the military special forces, I feel that they are just too busy.
According to the words of the senior who was handing over the handover, once the business stabilizes to a certain extent, it will become free again.
The atmosphere is not bad either.
Secretary and manager, headed by Ambassador Eric, whom I saw on the first day at Kela Camp.
There are three managers below him.
It was a simple organizational chart with 4 employees under each manager and less than 20 people in total. (I became the youngest member of Department 3.)
I don’t know if it’s because we’re busy, but it doesn’t seem like there’s an unpleasant atmosphere or a lot of checks between departments.
Well, it’s understandable because it was a one-off job that didn’t receive much support until recently.
I don’t know what will happen from now on when the massive subsidies start coming down, but I don’t think we’ll be troubled by company politics right now.
“… So, I go to the two mansions quite often.”
“Then it was right for Chloe to take charge of two people.”
“Yes. I will work hard.”
At lunchtime, while eating with the female seniors who remained in the office, I deliberately spilled the beans about Perry and her older sister.
Vivina, who I became close with during the three-month trip, likes me very much.
I also like that kind of girl, so I go out to hang out with her from time to time.
If I do this, there won’t be any suspicions about me going in and out of the mansion, which is just the two of us, every day.
“But that guy. Perry? I took a quick look at him the last time I came here, and he was really handsome. As long as you don’t come with a woman, I’m sure. Eight.”
“Sir. Are you lonely these days?”
“That’s what it says. This one.”
“… That’s because Perry likes her older sister so much. Ahaha… She told me to stop being so mean to her because she was in trouble with me too.”
“Great. That’s good. A man who is kind only to his woman. As expected, a love escapist.”
“… Ahaha.”
Fuck you.
Herbal Chunyeon with only heavy makeup.
How dare you spit on me and her sister. You slut.
I’m the kind of piece of shit who will run away if I get caught by Perry for a night…
… I wonder if Bibi or unni felt this way.
Sorry, sister. I will do better.
Well, anyway.
The conclusion is that it seems like a place worth working for.
But.
“Chloe. Could you please cut this for me? “The manager called me.”
“Oh, yes.”
A simple task that can be completed quickly by holding the paper with one hand and using scissors with the other to cut it, he went out of his way to find Seojin who was pressing the paper, and carefully cut it with a knife to avoid getting the lines crooked.
“Miss Chloe. Please stamp all of these by today. I’m sorry for entrusting you with Department 2 work, but I have to go out to work due to a contract… It’s not urgent, so please take your time until I get off work. When the seniors in Department 3 say something, they name me and say that they will help me with Department 3 work later.”
“Yes! “I’ll just do it.”
A task that can be completed quickly by stamping with one hand and flipping the paper with the other, but holding on to it for a long time while flipping the paper and holding the stamp with one hand.
“… So you’re the new guy who joined this time? I’m the section 3 section manager. Please take care of me in the future.”
“Yes. Thank you very much.”
Something like the momentary gap that occurs when a person who sees me for the first time glances at my missing arm before they say their first words.
I couldn’t help but feel depressed every time I realized the inconvenience and difference of having one arm.
Really.
Originally, I wasn’t the type of person to care about trivial things like this.
I was the type of person to move on and say that good things are good depending on the time in the world.
It’s nice that I don’t have to worry about things like this when I’m with Perry and my sister. Yes.
‘… It’s itchy.’
An hour before leaving work, when I was just about to finish stamping documents, I felt a phantom limb pain in my arm that I hadn’t felt in a long time.
It didn’t hurt like before, just a faint itch, but I still felt it clearly.
“That’s it for today. Everyone get off work.”
“”””Yes.””””
Manager 3’s order to leave work.
Like a newbie, I said cheerfully, “See you tomorrow!” And thought as I quickly left the office.
Let’s go see Perry and my sister quickly.
