Chapter 85
*
My eyes opened to the sound of the alarm. Maybe because I went to sleep late, I didn’t wake up immediately and felt dazed for a while.
I turned off the alarm and got up from bed to go to the living room. The family home I hadn’t visited for weeks remained the same. Even my belongings were untouched, so there wasn’t anything that could be called a change. The interior was sparse since a house with only men had minimal furniture.
It was quiet, so Dad and my older brother seemed to still be sleeping. They said they’ve been busy lately, so they’ll probably head to work on their own later.
Dad and my brother go to the office in the morning and visit the factory in the afternoon. Only I had to go to the factory early. That was the job of a temp worker.
“Yaaaawn.”
A long yawn escaped me. I was in a foul mood from sleeping less than two hours. I roughly heated up some side dishes and soup from the fridge, ate, washed up, and left the house.
As soon as I got on the bus heading to the factory area and sat in the back, I sent a KakaoTalk message to Ryu Jeong-ha. Only then did my tired brain start to clear up.
Then, looking through all the selfies Ryu Jeong-ha had sent me via KakaoTalk, my condition completely recovered in no time. Everything about him is cute, but the way he honestly looks straight at the camera lens when taking selfies is especially adorable.
As I killed time flipping through those photos one by one, the bus arrived at its destination before I knew it.
Several large cargo trucks were parked on the factory driveway.
“Ugh, this is going to be hard work.”
Just looking at them made my shoulder and arm muscles ache. Due to a large shipment volume, the interior was already bustling with people who had come to work early to move products.
I stared at the workers openly chain-smoking in front of the building with no-smoking signs.
“Khaak, ptui! It’s hot as hell on top of all this work.”
“How about a drink after we finish?”
“Sounds good.”
The faces of the people talking in phlegmy voices were all unfamiliar. They were probably day laborers hired on short-term contracts. If they were employees, they would have received separate training and wouldn’t be openly smoking at the factory entrance.
As far as I knew, these were the most troublesome people to deal with due to their lack of cooperation.
I passed by them and entered the waiting room. As I took out and put on work clothes and a safety helmet, a musty smell stung my nose. When I turned my head to check the source of the smell, there was a person chain-smoking right behind me.
This is indoors, is that bastard crazy?
The middle-aged man, who looked quite old, was looking at his phone while flicking ash onto the floor.
Shit. It felt like my patience had reached its limit before work even started. This is what this place was like. I belatedly remembered how I had studied like crazy in high school because I didn’t want to live seeing things like this.
My brow furrowed involuntarily at the cigarette smoke filling the room. Just as I was about to say something, the worker put out his cigarette and left the waiting room.
“Hey, Kwon-oh. Long time no see.”
At that moment, the factory manager came in and greeted me. I felt glad to finally see a familiar face.
“Uncle. Have you been well?”
“Oh, you know. But you, have you gotten even more handsome? Did you grow taller again?”
“I haven’t measured, so I don’t know.”
“The boss goes around bragging that his second son goes to Korea University, and I can see why.”
“Uncle, your dark circles seem to have gotten worse. Haven’t you been sleeping?”
“Don’t even mention it. We’re so busy these days. In the midst of this, one employee took leave because of some family matter, so we hurriedly found some people to cover for a few days, but as you know, well…”
The manager uncle shook his head and nodded towards the outside. Naturally, I was reminded of the people who had been chain-smoking in the no-smoking area earlier, barely even trying to hide it.
I nodded as if I understood.
“I see. I almost cursed at them on my way here. Did you give them safety training?”
“We did, but they don’t listen. You know how those types are. At that age and with that experience, they think they know it all.”
It was obvious how self-willed they were. It seems like I’ll be clashing with them quite often, which is annoying. I want to finish work quickly and return to Seoul, but it’s off to a crappy start.
“See you later.”
“Okay.”
After saying goodbye to the uncle, I went outside wearing my work clothes. As I was putting on gloves while reviewing the orders we had to process today, two workers nearby approached me.
“Hello.”
Since they were my seniors, I greeted them first.
“Hey, are you new? You look quite young.”
“Yeah, well.”
Most people thought I was a day laborer since they didn’t know who I was, except for the employees I had met a few times before.
I didn’t want to voluntarily correct their misunderstanding by saying I was the boss’s son. In a way, it was true that I was a day laborer since I would only be working for a day or two.
“You look decent enough, why are you doing this kind of work already?”
“……”
“You see over there? The new guy can fill up that far end.”
The worker pointed to where the largest materials were stacked. As they were large in volume, the boxes were naturally heavy. Usually, they would be collected and transported at once by a forklift, but when busy, people would load them directly. Like today.
I nodded and replied to Ryu Jeong-ha’s KakaoTalk message before officially starting work.
Then I immediately got into work. Today, moving outgoing products seemed to be the most urgent task. It looked like I might end up doing manual labor moving loads all day.
It was smooth sailing except for a brief hiccup at the start since it had been a while since I’d worked. The work was intense due to the backlog, but I liked that I couldn’t have idle thoughts because it was so busy.
It felt like I had only concentrated for a moment, but several hours had passed. My upper body was already drenched in sweat.
I went outside briefly to have a smoke and drink some water. As I was about to return to where I had been working, I noticed again the group stubbornly smoking in the no-smoking area.
Passing employees were frowning at the cigarette smoke.
“Hah.”
It seemed like I was the only one who could point it out since my brother hadn’t arrived yet and the manager uncle was busy handling customer service.
I roughly shook off the sweat on my head and approached the group of middle-aged men huddled together.
“Excuse me. This is a no-smoking area, so you need to go over there to smoke.”
They didn’t budge at all and looked me up and down with cigarettes still in their mouths.
“Cigarettes? Everyone smokes here.”
“That’s why I’m saying everyone shouldn’t smoke here and needs to go over there.”
“It’s just us here, what’s the big deal.”
Now that I looked closer, it wasn’t just the smoking that was a problem. All the boxes these people had moved were a mess too.
“And you shouldn’t just put them in randomly like this, you need to check the product numbers and stack them separately. You have to think about how they’ll be shipped out in sets. If you separate products with the same number like this, it’ll take a long time.”
“We’re already dying trying to get the work done, how can we check each one individually?”
“That’s why you should memorize the product numbers before you start.”
“What does a young person like you know, huh. I’ve done this job a lot, and I know there’s no need to be that meticulous.”
Then another guy next to him chimed in.
“That’s right. You don’t need to work your ass off like that. If we just move them, others will organize them, right?”
I didn’t answer and just stared at them silently. Then one of them let out a derisive laugh and approached me.
“Hey, newbie. What’s with your attitude? Glaring at your elders. You’re trying to teach us from up on your high horse.”
“Listen to what this man is saying. We’re all close with the delivery drivers here, so we know how things are done.”
I swallowed my rising irritation. Right. This is the kind of place where these people cause trouble thinking their bit of experience is everything. Thinking connections are everything.
This is why Dad and my brother are so desperate to move beyond local business. In this industry, you need to be several times larger than now to be able to filter out guys like this.
There was no point in talking to them any longer. Feeling they weren’t worth dealing with anymore, I turned to go back to my spot. That’s when one of the guys chased after me from behind.
“Hey, you. Can’t you hear me? Damn it. Where did you roll in from, not knowing your place…”
Thinking I was backing down when I moved away, the guy grabbed my shoulder. He put the cigarette he had been pretending to put out back in his mouth and started yapping.
I turned back around and got right up close to the guy. From the grimy hand that grabbed me came a revolting smell of alcohol, cigarettes, and sweat from not washing for a long time.
It was an unbearable stench for my nose, which had only been smelling the fresh and sweet scent of organic peaches for a while.
“Mister.”
“What, you little punk. You wanna fight?”
“I just got out of prison and I’m really trying to live an honest life now.”
“What? Pri…son?”
“Please cooperate. Put out your cigarette.”
Before he could answer, I snatched the cigarette from his mouth and threw it on the ground.
But the guy didn’t even seem to notice his cigarette was taken, as all his attention seemed focused on the word ‘prison’.
“What do you mean prison? What did you do to go to the slammer at such a young age… How old are you?”
“That’s all in the past.”
When I answered in a low voice, as expected, it got quiet after that. It was a method I had used several times before, and it always worked like a charm.
Before long, as if rumors had spread among the day laborers, they quietly started putting out the cigarettes they had been smoking everywhere and began working silently.
As things settled down and became peaceful around me, I checked my phone. Ryu Jeong-ha, who had gone to his part-time job, sent a photo of boxes piled up like mountains, saying he had packed them today.
“This fucking bastard.”
That boss is crazy. What business does he have making Ryu Jeong-ha do all this alone?
At my curse, a worker who was coming this way glanced at me nervously and quietly changed course.
And just then, my brother came into the factory.
“How’s work? Doing well?”
“Brother. I’m going back to Seoul after working until tomorrow.”
From the looks of things, it seemed we could handle the urgent matters by tomorrow. Hearing my words, my brother looked around at the quiet surroundings and asked in a low voice.
“Did you lie about escaping from prison again?”
“It’s convenient. No need to fight.”
“Sheesh. You crazy bastard.”
“Well. As long as the work gets done, right?”
“Fine, do as you like. But you absolutely have to finish shipping by 4 PM, so take care of that. After you’re done, come inside and continue the assembly work on the door hinges.”
I felt a surge of anger as my own brother tried to pile on more work instead of lightening my load. I stuck close to Joo Kwon-young and growled.
“What the hell. Am I a slave?”
“Think of it as paying off your credit card debt. Working for two days and calling it even is basically getting a free ride.”
“…Haa. Fine, I’ll just go make a quick phone call and come back.”
“What phone call?”
Momentarily at a loss for words at my brother’s question, I scratched my neck and turned my head. The area around my finger with the couple ring felt itchy for no reason.
“Just. To a friend.”
“Stop talking nonsense and finish your work first.”
No mercy, shit. It’ll probably be night by the time I finish all this work. Looks like I won’t even get to hear Ryu Jeong-ha’s voice once.
