The rough edge in the air tipped the slime off that something was wrong, and he dropped everything he’d gathered in his arms in one clattering rush and bolted for the door. Up until a moment ago he hadn’t even known how to walk, but put him in danger and it turned out there was nothing he couldn’t do.
With the shouting fading behind him, he ran so unsteadily he nearly went sprawling, then ducked into the weeds along the side of the road. He watched the human who’d come out after him rage for a while and then go back inside the food place, and only then did he creep back out.
“Hah, hah.”
He clutched at his chest, gulping down air.
There was a human guarding the food place. So that was his territory. I wasn’t supposed to just take things.
Anyway, so running makes you this out of breath. ...Dojin must’ve been so out of breath, too.
Out of nowhere he remembered Dojin running his heart out to protect him. Thinking of Dojin brought a sigh up out of him, and left him at a total loss. I miss him... and I’m so hungry...
He stood there like a post in the middle of an endless open sea, no idea what to do, until the thought that he had to go find Dojin got him moving. The slime was walking along slowly when something reflected beyond the clear window beside him made him jump out of his skin.
When I move, that thing moves too.
When I run, that thing runs.
Who is that?
Startled, he shrank back and took up a wary stance, and the other one took up a wary stance right along with him. Only then did the slime realize that this creature just copied him and did him no harm at all. He started to walk on past, then stopped short.
That’s not one of my dungeon friends. It looks like a human.
Then don’t tell me.
Is that... me?
He was so shocked his mouth fell open, and right then the door swung wide and a human with long head-fur came out wearing a smile.
“Customer, do you want to come in and have a look? We’ve got lots of nice things.”
“Eep...!”
The slime let out a terrified squeak and ran. Earlier, he’d gone in through a door just like that and gotten grabbed by someone calling him customer, and he’d nearly had something horrible happen to him. He ran for the place up ahead with all the trees and came to a stop. Panic set in, and his eyes rolled uneasily from one thing to another.
What do I do now. Where am I supposed to go.
That was when it happened.
“Hey there.”
He turned and it was another human. He was so startled he started to run again, but then something small was thrust out at him. This was... the black thing he’d been trying to carry out of the food place earlier. The man said,
“If it’s expired stuff you’re after, you’re better off at that convenience store over yonder. Back there they won’t even give you a box, I tell ya.”
“Myung...?”
He had no idea what any of that meant, but the human seemed to be trying to help him. The human looked him up and down, clicked his tongue, tsk, and jerked his chin.
“Come on.”
The slime stared blankly at the man, then got his feet moving.
And a little while later, the slime’s hands were full of all sorts of things. He gathered them up in his arms in one big armload and trailed along at the man’s heels, and the man explained as they went.
“Used-clothes bin’s over there on the left. Manager’s slack about it. Take good care of your boxes too, keep ’em out of the rain. You know how much sucking up it takes to get boxes that sturdy?”
“...”
“Living a life ain’t easy, I tell ya. Dunno if you’d know that, young as you are.”
Nod, nod.
The slime agreed with the man with his whole heart. It really isn’t easy. So the human world is a really hard place. The man took the slime back to his own habitat, then passed him something from inside it. A few books came to rest on top of the used clothes.
“Bought these a long while back to give to my girl... don’t need ’em now. She’d be all grown by this point. Press the buttons there and a voice comes out, I tell ya. Seems like something’s wrong with your tongue, so give it a bit of practice, why don’t you.”
“Muuu...”
The slime looked down at the armful of things piled against his chest.
The human world is hard, but it has good parts too.
The slime gave the man a polite thank-you, then found himself a decent spot and sat down. First things first: he wrestled the food open somehow and got it into his mouth. The slime’s eyes went round.
Wow! This is delicious! The black thing’s got a whole bunch of white stuff packed inside it.
Chewing away in a frantic hurry, he turned the pages of a book one at a time. Click. He pressed a button, and a person’s voice came out.
Thank you.
The greeting flowed out of it, warm and kind. That’s the greeting Dojin said a lot. He pressed down on another button next to it.
Welcome.
Welcome? Somehow that makes me feel good. A grin spread across the slime’s mouth, rice grains and all.
“Tomorrow we’ll head to the free meal center together. These days they do it over at Gisang Park.”
Nod.
And so, at present, this is where things stood.
Snow-white rice, fiery red kimchi, seasoned tofu, stuffed cucumber kimchi, stir-fried pork, and even round little cherry tomatoes.
The tray was loaded with ingredients he’d never heard of, but today, too, a feast had been laid out for him.
The slime moved with great care, so he wouldn’t trip and spill the whole thing like last time. And, as always, he headed for the farthest corner. Beside a little tree, at the lip of a broken fountain, was his assigned seat. He settled himself on the hard stone and set the tray down.
When he lifted his eyes, he could see a whole crowd of people wolfing down their meals. Most of them were big grown-ups older than him, and the benches, the comfortable places to sit, were all taken by them.
As the newcomer, the last one to join, he could only sit on stone ground like this, or somewhere with no back to lean on. But he hadn’t a single complaint. He got to eat food this delicious!
With spoon skills he’d gotten a bit used to by now, he confidently scooped up a heaping bite of rice, put it in his mouth, and chewed. And while he ate he thought of Dojin, exactly as he always did. Just then, that name he missed so terribly brushed past his ear.
“Mine’s Woo Dojin! I just want to see him in person, even once.”
Woo Dojin...? Dojin?
That’s the same name as Dojin.
He whipped his head around, eyes bulging, and found three humans with head-fur both long and short huddled together, staring at a cell phone and chattering away.
“Ugh, me too. But Woo Dojin’s got that whole personality problem, you know.”
“Who said anything about wanting to see his personality? The packaging’s good, so that’s the part I want to look at.”
They giggled at each other and turned their attention back to the phone screen.
“Hey, hey, you said the posting’s up. Go look, hurry.”
One of them tapped at the square device every human carried around, then started reading out loud.
“Seongun Guild recruitment notice... whoa, they’re hiring a crap-ton of people this time?”
“No way. Should I apply? If I got in there, I’d actually get to see Woo Dojin!”
“And Ji Yeonho’s there too.”
Listening in beside them, the slime’s eyes went round. If he got in there, he could see Dojin?
“Hold on, wait a second though...”
The human with the short hair burst out all at once.
“This isn’t an office posting, they’re hiring cleaning staff!”
“Huh?”
Every pair of eyes swung back to the phone. Cleaning...? Did she say cleaning? The slime’s eyes went wider still.
To the girl whose face had fallen in open disappointment, another one spoke up.
“Hey, what’s wrong with cleaning work? You know my dad does cleaning, right?”
“Oh. Sorry...”
The mood went dark in an instant. Silence hung over them for a moment before the long-haired one raised her voice again, worked up.
“Honestly, should I just apply for this one anyway? I want into Seongun so bad. I can get in first and then apply for an office job later, right?”
“As if that’d work. Just wait for an office posting and do it then.”
“Still, it’s worth a shot. That’s not so bad, is it?”
“Yeah.”
The answer came out of nowhere, and the girls all jumped and whipped around. Sitting right there was some guy with his cheeks puffed out full like a hamster’s.
“Ugh, you scared me.”
“How do ya do that?”
The words drifted over, slow and unhurried. Their eyes moved up to the man’s face.
A clear, pretty face. And black hair in a strange shade with a hint of blue mixed into it somewhere. A cute, harmless, gentle face of a kind you didn’t just run into every day. What the — is he an idol? Or a trainee?
They were so taken with the face that none of them noticed the meal tray in his hands, and none of them registered that there was something off about his clothes, either.
And as happens to everyone in this world who looks at a face like that, a kind voice came out of her all on its own.
“You apply right here. This job site here. Or, see this address? You can go in person and hand in a résumé too.”
“Hmmmm...”
The man stared at the phone with a grave expression, his long eyelashes fluttering. The girls watched them as if under a spell. Then, having read the posting very, very slowly, he got to his feet.
“Thank you berry much.”
A quick bow. He turned and hurried off somewhere, and the girls watched him go without a word. Once he was completely out of sight, one of them opened her mouth.
“He’s got to be a trainee, right? Around here, that’d be... TR Entertainment?”
“But that face is way too good to waste on TR. Isn’t he more of a big-agency guy?”
“Hey...”
One of them gave her friends a nudge. When they turned, she jerked her chin to the side. On the rim of the fountain where they’d been sitting, a single cherry tomato sat there all by itself.
“Didn’t you see the tray he was holding?”
“A tray? What tray?”
“...He’s homeless.”
“...No way.”
Dumbfounded, they looked back and forth between the cherry tomato on the fountain and the spot where the man had disappeared.
“Ajusshi! Ajusshi!”
Mr. Kim’s face scrunched up at the sight of him come barreling over, out of breath.
“Now don’t go runnin’ like that. You’ll fall.”
The slime didn’t answer. He flopped down onto the man’s cardboard like he was collapsing, caught his breath, then snapped his head up.
“I’m gonna do labor!”
“...Say what?”
The man frowned like he must have misheard. The slime declared it once more, chest out, bold as anything.
“Labor! Where you do work and get money for it!”
