Kang Jin-Ho asked another question. “Can you deliver them right now?”

“Y-yes, of course!” The manager hurriedly nodded. “We can certainly deliver, but... But, due to the sheer volume, we need to bring in a delivery truck which might take some time, sir. Around one hour at the latest, sir.”

“I see. In that case, I'll wait until then. In the meantime, let me pay for them.”

“W-well then. The total cost is…” The manager hurriedly tapped on the till's touchscreen to calculate the total cost, then his eyes began twitching. He double-checked to make sure he didn't get a digit wrong, then took several deep, deep breaths to calm himself.

'Am I dreaming right now?'

Of course not. This couldn't be a dream, but still...!

He was not a department store employee but a manager of a toy shop! It was already quite unusual to see a customer buy toys in bulk, but clapping his eyes on this total price tag left him even more shocked and terrified, too!

“W-will this be alright, sir?”

The manager knew that a seller asking such a thing to a customer could be construed as a bit rude. However, the price tag was so enormous that he simply had to ask.

“Yes. I'll be paying with this one,” said Kang Jin-Ho while taking out his bank card from his wallet.

“...!” The manager clamped his mouth shut and stared at the offered card.

In every other case, a customer getting ready to pay such an exorbitant price would act all haughty and high-handed while taking out their card. Heck, even if it were a mere quarter of this price, they would act the same way!

However, that didn't apply to Kang Jin-Ho. He was the very picture of politeness as he presented his card. The manager accepted the card while feeling awkward and lost, then reflexively asked, “How many months of installment should I...?”

“Mine's a check card, actually.”

“...O-oh, I see.”

Was it even possible to pay this amount with a check card? The manager had never experienced anything even remotely like this before and couldn't tell what might happen. He recalled his first time standing behind the counter after getting hired in this store. Hadn’t he also been a bit lost and confused back then?

The manager cautiously swiped the card and waited until Kang Jin-Ho typed in his PIN. Then, the till began spitting out the receipt while issuing its usual beeping noises.

'Oh, so the payment went through, huh...' 

The manager blinked his eyes at the receipt being printed while feeling like he had learned something new today. “H-here's your receipt, sir.”

Kang Jin-Ho coolly shook his head. “You can throw that away, thank you.”

“But, sir. If you don't keep this receipt, you won't be able to exchange or get a refund later on.”

“It's fine. Please throw it away.”

The manager's hand holding the receipt began trembling. He couldn't bring himself to discard this piece of paper into a dustbin conveniently located below the counter, so he quietly slipped it inside the document holder next to the till instead.

“Mm, now that's been taken care of...” Kang Jin-Ho began looking around the vicinity.

The manager hurriedly jumped out of the counter to stand before Kang Jin-Ho, then politely pointed in a direction. “A-allow me to guide you to the manager's office, dear customer! We have a comfortable couch there, so waiting for the truck should be more manageable there, I believe!”

“Oh? Am I allowed to do that?”

“Aigoo, dear customer! Of course, you are! It'll be our honor! Please, it's this way!”

The manager successfully ushered Kang Jin-Ho inside his office, then carefully closed the door. However, his brows shot up the moment he thought he was safe, and he urgently looked behind him. “H-have you found a delivery truck yet?!”

One of the employees manning the desk nearby quickly replied, “Yes, manager! It's coming!”

“Is it a large container truck?”

“Yes, manager! We contacted the head office to dispatch a truck that usually delivers our stock as soon as possible. I've received word that it should arrive in less than thirty minutes!”

“R-really?” The manager nodded animatedly, then yanked out his credit card from his pocket. “In that case, hurry and get us some coffee!”

“Uh? You want me to brew our instant coffee, sir?”

“You moron! You want our customer to drink that cheap-ass crap?! Hurry up and go to the cafe upstairs to get the proper coffee! Hurry!”

“...But, what kind of coffee, sir?”

“I don't care; just buy them all!”

“Yessir!” The employee saluted and dashed outside the store.

The manager placed his hand on his chest and felt his stunned heart pounding madly away.

'Do I need to take a cheongsimhwan or something?'[1]

It seemed Kang Jin-Ho had accumulated yet another bad karma by straining a poor person's heart so early in the day.

***

“Everything is ready, sir!” The manager energetically cried out.

“Thank you.” Kang Jin-Ho coolly nodded.

The manager finished supervising the extremely-fast loading of the cargo, then made sure all the packages were firmly secured to prevent getting damaged during transit. Once he was done, he rushed back to the office to report the news to Kang Jin-Ho.

“Dear customer, we will deliver the rest of the products in a week as we have discussed earlier.”

“Yes, please do that.”

“W-would you like to ride along on the truck to supervise us, dear customer?” The manager inadvertently blurted out something usually done in the military out of nervousness.

Kang Jin-Ho shook his head briefly. “No, I'll drive my own car. Where is the truck?”

“Ah, it's parked by the front gate, sir.”

“Okay. I'll head to the front gate, so get the truck ready to depart, please.”

“Understood, sir.”

Kang Jin-Ho exited the manager's office and leisurely headed to the elevator.

After confirming that he was gone, the manager turned to an employee next to him and quietly growled, “Listen up! I'm gonna tag along for the delivery, so look after the store while I'm gone! Okay?”

“Yes, manager.”

“I'm off!”

***

The manager rushed toward the front entrance of the building and jumped into the waiting truck. Not too long afterward, a flashy red supercar came to a stop in front of the truck.

'It's that one!'

The manager instinctively understood it. No, never mind his instincts; his common sense told him that it was the big spender's car. Even a blind could see that the low and sleek vehicle looked terribly expensive. In addition, only someone well-heeled enough to afford such a ride could afford so many toys!

“By the way, where is this address located, anyway?” the manager muttered to himself, wondering what kind of place this was while looking at the delivery address. Inputting the address into the truck's navigation system would get them there, and the manager would eventually see what kind of place it was. However, that didn't mean he was any less curious about the identity of the kids these luxurious gifts were for.

Vroom, vroom...

The red supercar in front slowly set off.

“That one! Follow that car, please.” The manager hurriedly pointed at the red car.

However, the driver making the dazed face of a man experiencing something new and unexpected responded in dismay at the manager's request. “What the heck? How am I supposed to follow a Lamborghini in a truck, mister? You think I'm Schumacher or something?”[2]

“He's the one who bought all these products, man! Don't worry, he probably won't drive that fast.”

“Gee whiz. Well, there's a first time for everything, I guess.” The truck driver grumbled, thinking that he had to be the only one in the history of the entire world to ever chase after a Lamborghini in a delivery truck.

However, the manager gravely added, “Make sure not to lose him.”

“Why? Don't you have the delivery address?”

“...No, I do.”

“Eh? Then, why do I have to stick to that Lambo?” The truck driver blinked his eyes in confusion.

“Well, I have a feeling that we must. That's why.”

The truck driver directed a strange gaze at the manager, forcing the latter to sneakily turn his flushed-red face away toward the window.

***

Kang Jin-Ho leisurely drove his car so the truck behind could keep up. While driving, his mind was occupied with the conversation he had with Park Yu-Min last night.

“Hey, Jin-Ho. Do you know why the kids were wary of you when you first showed up?”

Kang Jin-Ho tilted his head slightly. “Because I was a stranger?”

“That's right. Then, do you know why they are wary of strangers?”

“...Because they are strangers?” Kang Jin-Ho rubbed his chin while answering.

Park Yu-Min lightly chuckled. “It's because they are scared.”

“Scared of strangers, you mean?”

"No. They are scared of getting close to someone."

“...?” Kang Jin-Ho narrowed his eyes, unable to understand. He heard about how some people were afraid of failing to get close to others, but being scared about getting close to someone? That was a concept he had a hard time understanding. “I don't quite follow.”

Park Yu-Min's voice sounded lonesome as he explained it to his friend. “These kids are starved for affection, so when a stranger shows up and says he'll look after them, they will latch onto him pretty quickly. Merely spending time with them makes them happy, you see?”

“Mm...”

“But then... If that man's life becomes too busy, and he can't spare the time to stop by the orphanage, the kids... Whenever it's time for that person to show up, the kids would stop what they were doing and stare at the entrance. They would be waiting, wondering when he would show up.”

Kang Jin-Ho's expression hardened as he listened.

Park Yu-Min continued, “Of course, it's not cool to blame that person. We are grateful that he had taken some time out of his busy and difficult life to hang out with the kids. However... That still hurts the kids, you know? They end up thinking that they are being abandoned again. I mean... They are still too young to understand the complexities of life, you know?”

“Yeah, you are right.”

“I get that you're busy, Jin-Ho. I definitely do. And I think you don't really have a reason to stop by the orphanage either. But that goes for me too, I guess. So, like... Jin-Ho, as a friend, can I ask you a favor? Can you stop by the orphanage every now and then? Even if you don't have a reason? There are way too many kids glancing at the doorway, wondering when you'd show up again. I'm sorry for asking you to do this, but please do understand.”

“He's sorry, huh...?” Kang Jin-Ho muttered softly before sighing deeply.

One had to be responsible even in something like raising a pet. If one started looking after someone, or something, one needed the resolution to see it through till the end. And this was about getting close and sharing affection with other people. As such, the responsibility on one's shoulders would obviously be heavy.

'What an idiot I am...'

The revelation of how the kids were staring at the entrance, waiting for him, left this aching sensation in Kang Jin-Ho's chest. What a surprise it was to learn that he still had such emotions left...

Physical gifts wouldn't be adequate enough to serve as his apology for going missing all this time, but Kang Jin-Ho believed they should at least show the kids that he was being sincere. And he knew all too well that the real apology should be how much attention he would be able to pay to the orphanage moving forward.

'Why can't I figure out these kinds of things by myself without someone waking me up first?'

Jo Gyu-Min and Park Yu-Min would often talk about how Kang Jin-Ho was capable of achieving any feat, but he disagreed with their assessment. Kang Jin-Ho saw himself as an idiot who couldn't do anything properly without other people's advice.

For instance, he couldn't even deal with the orphanage's situation. Considering that, what could he even do by himself? Back when Kang Jin-Ho was the leader of the demon cult, he used to make all the important decisions by himself and forced others to abide by them. Only now could he appreciate all the pain and frustration his underlings had to have felt back then.

'Yeah, I kind of deserved to get stabbed to death, didn't I?'

Kang Jin-Ho groaned and slowly shook his head before noticing the orphanage building in the distance. He parked the car in a suitable spot and climbed outside just as the truck came to a stop in the orphanage’s front yard.

The manager climbed down from the truck's passenger cab and asked Kang Jin-Ho, “Where should we unload the cargo, sir?”

“Hmm...” Kang Jin-Ho scratched his cheek. “For now, take fifteen of each product inside the building, please. As for the remainder, there is a storage room behind the building. I'll go open it up for you, so store them in there."

“Yes, sir!”

The sudden noise of a truck prompted Park Yu-Min to come outside to take a look. “W-what's going on here?!”

He quickly walked around to the back of the truck to discover Kang Jin-Ho talking to the toy shop manager. He looked around in a daze, then asked his friend, “Uhm, hey, Jin-Ho?”

“Hey.”

“What's in this truck?”

“Toys.”

Just as Kang Jin-Ho finished his brief explanation, the cargo bay of the truck opened up, revealing its large cache of toy boxes to the widened eyes of Park Yu-Min.

“...Hey, Jin-Ho?”

“Yeah?”

“You're only buying toys, so why does the scale of your operation have to be so chaotic?”

“Well...” Kang Jin-Ho grimaced slightly after failing to think of an excuse.

***

The kids were visibly excited. They were so happy that some of them even bounced around like a bunch of lunatics. Still, it was good to see them enjoying themselves. With the exception of a minor problem, that was.

Kang Jin-Ho’s expression was unreadable as he observed the kids busily screaming and ripping off the packaging of the toys. “...Park Yu-Min.”

“...Y-yeah?”

“I'm trying to recall what you told me yesterday.”

“Uhm...”

“Something... about the entrance?”

“...I'm sorry.”

Everything was swell, except for one thing... The kids were so moved by the deluge of toys they had never seen before that they completely failed to notice Kang Jin-Ho's presence next to the orphanage's entrance. As a result, no one paid him any attention whatsoever for the last ten minutes he had been standing there.

Kang Jin-Ho growled unhappily. “What is going on here?”

Park Yu-Min sheepishly looked away.

“I said, what is going on here, Yu-Min!”

“...Oh, hey, how about something to eat?”

“Get lost!” Kang Jin-Ho making a dejected face yelled at his friend, then groaned loudly while observing the excited kids. However, his expression was definitely not gloomy. The purpose of his trip this time wasn't to make the kids notice him, after all. No, he simply wanted to make them happy. In that case, why should he feel bad about how things had turned out?

“Uh? It's Jin-Ho oppa!”

“Uwa-uwuuhh!”

One of the kids finally discovered Kang Jin-Ho and shouted, which started a chain reaction of sorts, as kids began discarding their toys and rushing toward him in droves. Were these kids connected through a hive mind or something? Once someone moved, everyone else would do the exact same thing.

Dozens of kids all discarded their toys and began rushing straight into Kang Jin-Ho's arms. Without a doubt, this was a very moving sight... if it weren't for the horrified screech belonging to the toy store manager coming from somewhere behind Kang Jin-Ho. “N-no! Don't step on that! T-that costs nearly a million won!!! Uwaaah?! I said, don't step on thaaat!”

The manager had to pay a hefty price for choosing to bring in first the mecha toys purchased through the demonstration of the concept, 'throwing money around'. Every time he witnessed the mecha's wings get crushed and fall off, the manager's tragic sorrow-filled screams reverberated throughout the orphanage's entrance. “No, you mustn't! Don't step on iiiiiit!”

Toys being chucked around in all directions, kids bouncing and rushing toward Kang Jin-Ho, and the manager's tragic cries... Kang Jin-Ho, stuck in the middle of all this pandemonium, could only stand there scratching the back of his head.

“...I don't know anymore.”

It was all good as long as the kids were having fun, no? Kang Jin-Ho chuckled, then began hugging and picking up the kids jumping into his embrace.

1. Also known as 'clear mind pill', cheongsimhwan is a traditional Korean medicine meant to treat various symptoms such as numb limbs and fit of apoplexy, epilepsy, etc. ☜

2. This is a reference to Michael Schumacher, one of the most successful Formula 1 racing drivers of all time. ☜