[TS] Became a Peach Saint – Chapter 16

Taking off his sunglasses, he started wandering around the inside of the general store, picking up items that he thought would be fun to use on a broadcast.

“Hoh, is this a Hahoe mask?”

Next to the sunglasses, what caught his eye was an Imae-tal, one of the traditional Korean masks with a mischievous grin and a cut-out mouth that makes it look like your real mouth is showing when you wear it.

The Imae-tal, which seemed to reflect my inner self, instantly won my heart.

“If I see this at night, I’d probably pee my pants.”

After picking up the Imae-tal, I decided to take one last look around the store. As I wandered, my eyes landed on a box on display.

“A tripod with a built-in power bank?”

Picking up the box and reading the description, it turned out to be a multi-purpose phone mount. The tripod itself had a power bank function, and when you folded the legs, it could be extended and retracted like a selfie stick.

“Oh, this is nice.”

Intrigued, I read the instructions on the back of the box, which listed various features. The one that caught my eye the most was the gimbal function—a shake-proof feature that keeps your phone level when you move it around.

“You’re a keeper too.”

With three items I liked in hand, I headed to the checkout counter.

“Can I get these three items, please?”

“Sure, I’ll help you with that.”

The clerk took the items, scanned the barcodes, and called out the prices.

“Sunglasses, 90,000 won. Phone mount, 80,000 won. Hahoe mask, 30,000 won. That’ll be 200,000 won in total.”

Hearing the price, regret suddenly hit me, and I started sweating buckets.

“Since you bought a lot, I’ll throw in a freebie.”

The clerk mentioned a freebie and headed to the display corner, returning with a pair of transparent plastic glasses.

“See this button here? If you press it, LED lights come on. It’s pink LED, so I thought it would suit you well.”

The semi-transparent heart-shaped glasses emitted a pink glow.

Just as I was considering removing one item, the clerk handed me the freebie, making it impossible to back out.

“Ah, thank you. I’ll pay with my phone.”

“Yes, thank you. I’ll put them in a paper bag for you.”

“Okay, I’ll make good use of them. I’ll be back.”

After finishing the payment, I stepped outside and muttered to myself.

“This store really knows how to do business.”

As I stepped outside, feeling the weight in my right hand, I glanced at the paper bag and then at the sunglasses.

He took it out and used it.

Black snapback, black mask, black long puffer jacket down to the ankles, shiny pastel pink hair, and 8-bit sunglasses—he was the perfect attention-seeker.

Looking at my reflection in the glass of the convenience store I just came out of, I was a total mess.

“Attention-seeking pink penguin…”

Though it looked ridiculous, I gave a slight nod of satisfaction to my attention-seeking fashion and pulled out my phone to check the map for the clothing store’s location.

According to the map, the clothing store was located past Rodeo Central Plaza.

I looked up and saw a circular plaza not too far away, so I headed in that direction.

As I walked, I soon entered the plaza and spotted the clothing store across the way.

The clothing store, located in the notoriously expensive Rodeo Central Plaza, seemed to be doing well, as it occupied an entire six-story building—five floors above ground and one underground.

Seeing it at the top of the search results when I looked up nearby clothing stores, it must have been quite famous.

As I was about to head into the clothing store after checking out the building, I noticed a homeless man sitting on a bench in the plaza, shivering with a plastic basket in front of him.

The homeless man’s face was covered in grime, making it look pitch black, and he appeared worn down by the hardships of life.

He was wearing what looked like a thin puffer jacket or rags, torn and frayed with stuffing sticking out.

His wrinkled face made it hard to tell if he was an uncle or a grandfather.

I thought to myself, if I had gotten injured and couldn’t even do manual labor, I might have ended up like him.

Before I knew it, my steps were heading toward the homeless man.

As I approached and looked down at him, he looked up at me.

His eyes were dull, lifeless, as if he found no meaning in life.

They were the same eyes I used to have—afraid of dying but just barely living.

I felt no sense of kinship.

I’m far from being a do-gooder. Forget good deeds—I can barely take care of myself.

That’s who I was.

After staring at him in silence for a while, I finally spoke.

“Hey, old man. You trying to die in this weather?”

Just a few days ago, I was in a position to be pitied, but now I was the one showing pity. Embarrassed, my speech, which had been slowly shifting, reverted to a mix of dialect and my usual tone, laced with curses.

My curse-filled…

The homeless person just stared blankly at me.

“Ugh, man. I’m too busy trying to survive myself.”

When the homeless person didn’t respond, I cursed under my breath and pulled out the fake leather wallet I bought for 2,000 won at a stationery store back in elementary school.

By now, it was so worn out that no one would even bother picking it up if I threw it on the ground, but it was a precious wallet I’d used for over 10 years, filled with mixed emotions.

I hesitated as I pulled out a crumpled 10,000 won bill, then took out all the 100,000 won inside and placed it in the homeless person’s basket.

“Ugh, man. Old dude, that’s money I earned from hard labor. I wasn’t planning to spend it, damn it.”

The homeless person didn’t even take the money, just stared blankly at the basket.

I looked at the homeless person’s appearance, then took off my padded jacket and draped it over their shoulders.

“Wear that and go get yourself a warm bowl of soup nearby, huh? Do that. Don’t freeze to death here.”

I kept spouting harsh words, hoping the homeless person wouldn’t think I was acting out of pity.

“No matter how dog-like life gets, good days come around eventually.”

The homeless person didn’t take the money, just fidgeted with the clothes I gave them. Worried someone might steal it, I picked up the money and forced it into their hand, then quickly walked away without looking back.

“The attention-seeking pink penguin has turned into a crazy pink attention-seeker.”

A black snapback, a hoodie that flowed down to the shoulders, sweatpants held up with a clothespin, black socks with white sneakers, 8-bit sunglasses, and finally, a pretty pastel pink hair color.

She was the epitome of a crazy woman.

“It’s freaking cold.”

As the cold hit my milky white skin exposed under the sagging hoodie and my shoulders, which were as red as if splashed with fruit juice, I unconsciously quickened my pace and entered the store.

Inside the store, the warmth circulated, probably due to the light bulbs shining on the displayed clothes.

“I thought I was going to freeze to death.”

As I entered the store, I noticed there were about ten employees, given the size of the store.

An employee passing by looked at me like I was a crazy woman and went about busily organizing clothes even though there were no customers.

I was standing there blankly, unsure of which clothes to buy first, when one of the employees who had been staring at me whispered to a woman, who then walked over to me.

The employees walking around had name tags, but the woman in front of me wasn’t wearing one.

The woman approaching me was in her 20s.

She looked to be in her mid-20s, very young and beautiful, dressed in a stylish outfit that was almost like a suit, as if to show what the essence of a career woman’s fashion is. She had short hair tucked behind her ear, and on one ear, she wore a long, casual-looking surgical earring.

The woman approached me, her heels clicking, and spoke to me.

“Hello. Are you a customer?”

Seeing such a beautiful woman in person for the first time, I was stunned for a moment before hurriedly replying.

“Ah, yes? Hello.”

“Hoho. You’re such a cute customer.”

“Uh… Thank you?”

“Your voice is also very beautiful. It feels like fruit juice is bursting every time you speak. I’ve never heard a voice like this before. Are you a voice actor?”

She must have thought I was nervous because she raised both hands, drew a circle, and exaggeratedly said.

“No. I’m a jobless person in my room.”

She smiled brightly, seemingly trying to ease my tension, and spoke kindly.

“Haha. If there are pretty jobless people like you, being jobless doesn’t seem so bad.”

“Ah… Haha, thank you.”

“You’re cute. Are you looking for any clothes? I can help you.”

Despite her career woman-like appearance, which seemed hard to approach, she kept smiling and responding to me.

“Looking at me now, you can probably tell, but I have problems from head to toe, so I need to buy everything from underwear to clothes.”

“Even though it’s hard to see because of your glasses and mask, just looking at your jawline and facial features, I can tell you’re pretty. With that kind of looks, even rags would look good on you. And deep fashion is usually hard for the public to understand.”

Listening to her, I wondered if even clothespins could be considered fashion.