“I sold my stuff and got some affection!”

The burgeoning labor story of a 10-year veteran part-timer at a convenience store!
Humor and wit are essential in the exchange of goods and money, and affection is a bonus!

"Kindness is a Bonus" is a record of the kind people met by a convenience store worker with 10 years of experience.
The author tells the story of an episode that occurred while selling goods in warm language with humor.
The author's vivid depiction of everyday life, as if it were a convenience store in our neighborhood, makes us laugh out loud, then get angry, and then, before we know it, shed tears.

The deserted road at dawn was a bit scary.
But I felt relieved when I started to see the convenience store with its lights on in the distance.
I walked with that light as my guide as if it were a lighthouse.
When I went inside, there were people there.
Some days it smelled like ramen, other days it smelled like Maxim coffee.
The fact that I wasn't alone in the early hours of the morning, that there were others awake besides me, soothed my lonely heart and helped me to keep my mind from wavering, wondering if I would go astray.

--- p.18

“Excuse me, but can I talk to you about closing that cash box?
It's so funny how you always have to push it closed with your stomach.
“I just pushed it shut with my stomach.” And then he burst out laughing as if he couldn’t stand it anymore.
I pretended not to panic, but my eyes and hands were at a loss as to where to go.

--- p.26

But loving a teacher wasn't always a bed of roses.
My literature teacher suddenly looked at me during class and asked me.

“Johnny Yoon Show, where did you three run off to again during study time last night?”
The problem isn't "I just went out for a bit and got some tteokbokki..." but "The Johnny Yoon Show"? I stared at the teacher with wide eyes, not knowing what he meant.

“You look like Jo Young-nam, your partner is Bae Cheol-soo, and next to him is Johnny Yoon.
“Didn’t you guys know this was the ‘Johnny Yoon Show’?”
--- pp.35~36

Today, a customer asked me what cigarettes taste like, and I told him I didn't know because I'm not a smoker. He got angry and asked if I didn't know that while selling the product.
I wasn't joking, I was really picking a fight (is that the face I'm making angry).
I was mentally devastated by the absurd situation.
They say people are more beautiful than flowers, and that you shouldn't even hit a flower, but he was a person who wanted to pull out the pillar of the thousand-year-old ginkgo tree at Yongmunsa Temple and make a fool of it.
On days like this, I feel like sewing up my snout, which says that all humans are lonely and need love and attention.
As soon as I got home, I lay down on the bed.

--- pp.100~101

Could it be that the bosses were unaware of my mistakes and missteps?
Perhaps time passed while you were wavering between 'When will I ever get around to that?' and 'Will talking about it make a difference?'
Thanks to that, I was able to become an adult safely.

--- p.111

People buy these things to survive, and I survive by selling these things to survive.
I think convenience stores are places where people who sustain their lives gather to buy energy for the day and comfort with a drink.
--- p.137

“Don’t try too hard.
It's all about tearing at one's own spine.
“Don’t be greedy, and live comfortably with what you have.”
It was an unexpected remark.
My grandmother, who used to click her tongue and say, “If you were born a pig, you should at least eat it,” to me, who was just lazing around watching TV, now tells me to stop struggling, and I think, “My grandmother is really getting old.”

--- pp.163~164

If learning the uses and places of things, appreciating the hard work of workers, and saying "thank you" a lot, which is said to attract good luck, is an occupational disease, then working part-time at a convenience store might be a pretty good job (I sometimes think about it).

--- p.210

I thought that career only meant successful experiences, but when I looked it up in the dictionary, it said, "various things you've experienced."
Failure as well as success was a part of my career.
If this is what career means, then maybe the sadness, frustration, and failure on my resume can stand before people with a name tag.
I may not have experienced success, but I have a history of failure, so I can offer my story to someone who needs comfort.
I began to feel excited again, harboring a pitiful hope.

--- pp.214~215