Chapter 18

* * *Daemyung was the one who got called up first. He looked nervous. Daemyung walked up to the chair Miso had been sitting on.‘Self introductions?’Maru glanced at Miso for a second. She had been glaring all of them for a second earlier. Including him, of course. He remembered seeing a word bubble pop up when she looked at him.[This one’s alright. He knows how to take it.]It seemed to be some sort of a test of hers. Daemyung was probably called out first because he got the worst score. It was understandable. Miso’s eyes had been more intimidating than even the worst customers he’s had to deal with. There was no way Daemyung managed to take that glare. “Get up.”“Excuse me?”“Get up on the chair. Don’t make me repeat myself. You have ears, don’t you? Learn to listen.”“Ah, yes ma’am.”He was completely overwhelmed. Daemyung probably couldn’t think of anything right now. His head must just be a blank slate. The boy stepped up on the chair with an empty expression. His eyes were shaky, unable to find a place to settle on. It was bad enough to make even Maru feel a little nervous.“What’s your name?” “P-Park Daemyung.”“Y-yes.”“Breath deeply.”“Yes?”Miso smiled almost as if she had been ridiculed. She took out a pen from her pants, and stabbed Daemyung’s side with it. Very deeply, too.“Ugh.”Daemyung stepped off of the chair with a groan.“Did I say you could come down?”“E-excuse me?”“Did I say that you could come down?”“N-no.”Miso gestured towards the chair. Daemyung climbed back up with a pale face. He was fiddling with his fingers constantly which seemed to give Miso more annoyance.“Fingers.”“Y-yes!”Daemyung froze up completely. Maru was reminded of the military when he looked at Miso. This was pretty picture-perfect example of what usually happens in a military. Things would only get more painful for Daemyung if he kept making mistakes. What he needed to do was relax, and just endure. Maru tried to convey the message as best as he could with his eyes. Daemyung couldn’t be able to see it though. His vision was probably tunnelling really hard.“Now then, chin up, chest straight,” Miso said, poking Daemyung with a pen. The poor guy would flinch every time the pen approached him.“You’ll be giving your self introduction now. It’s simple. You look towards where my pen is pointing, and you talk. Talk as if you need to make yourself heard to an imaginary person waaay behind you. Talk as loudly as you can. Understood?”“Y-yes!”“Now then, think about what you’re going to say. You’ll be talking for five minutes. The rest of you should think about what you want to say.”5 minutes. She was serious, huh. It wasn’t that long of a time for most people. But to Daemyung, this was probably going to be the longest 5 minutes of his life.