Female Employees and Male Employees
"Sorry, but would it be alright if I rested here for a bit?"
"Oh, of course! Come on in."
"Thank you."
I slipped through the gap the smoking men made for me, settled into a chair, and got a coffee from the machine. Men's break rooms always carried that particular stale cigarette reek and stuffy atmosphere that wasn't exactly pleasant, no matter the company.
As a non-smoker, I'd never even gone near places like that back in my old job. But here, that space had somehow become my desert oasis, which felt both funny and sad at once.
A few days had passed since I'd started working. At first I'd been full of doubts about whether I could last, but people really were adaptable animals — as time went on, I found myself getting used to the work.
The display areas I'd once fumbled through now sat perfectly mapped in my head, and the POS work that had left me floundering was something I could handle without major issues.
Physical labor that required real strength still left me completely outmatched, but after I'd pulled off that document work last time, the manager had started putting me on office duties for about half my shift. So the loading and unloading and hauling of goods on the floor had dropped off significantly.
But thanks to that, I'd thoroughly earned myself a place on the female staff's shit list.
"What's with her? She got hired as a part-timer, not a secretary. Why's she buried in the office and never coming out?"
They badmouthed me loud enough that I could clearly hear. The day after that whole thing, when the manager announced at the morning meeting that I'd be supporting office work for a while and they weren't to mess with me, the women's faces twisted in open resentment. But… I found a solution of sorts for that, too.
"Ugh, how were you planning to unload this alone? I'll spread the stock out for you — you just open the boxes and put them on the shelves."
"We know the POS menus too. If you don't know something, just ask us."
I'd been thoroughly marked among the female staff, but for some reason the male employees weren't hostile toward me at all — if anything, they were surprisingly friendly. At first I'd been a bit baffled, but as time passed I came to understand. Yeah, thinking about it, workplaces had always been a bit like this.
At my old company, the women had formed cliques and spent all their time on power struggles instead of actually working, which had driven me crazy as a mid-level manager trying to get things done with them. The men, on the other hand, might grumble, but when you gave them a job they did it properly, and they didn't get into weird little status wars.
Yeah, this was definitely right. And that fact gave me another strange sense of relief. Gender change or not, I was still a man at heart, and that was why the men's world felt more comfortable and familiar. Yeah. Exactly this.
Men wouldn't waste energy on pointless power games or gang up on someone over nothing. That was just how it was. So maybe that was why I felt grateful toward the male staff who treated me with quiet goodwill, and I tried to get along with them as best I could, smiling with real thanks every time they helped me out.
Each time, the guys would get a little flustered but clearly loved it. That put me at ease. After being shut out at work, I'd finally found colleagues I could belong with and be friendly toward. So today I'd worked up the courage to head for the men's break room on my rest break.
I'd worried about being a nuisance and was ready to leave the second anyone looked uncomfortable, but just as expected, the men were welcoming. Thanks to that, I didn't have to crouch and rest in a corner of the loading dock like I usually did. So I was sitting there with a little cup of vending-machine mix coffee and a cushioned chair, savoring that small happiness, when a familiar conversation drifted over.
"Don't you think Lotte's looking pretty solid this season? If they reinforce the pitching staff with that free agent, they'll plug the hole from losing those aces in no time."
"Eh… but the guy they signed last year was a total bust. You really think it'll work?"
"It'll be fine. The player they're bringing in this year is a real Korea-phile — he's got passion. I think he'll hustle hard."
"Right? See, what I told you… Huh? Wait, do you like baseball too, Hyomin-ssi?"
My sudden interjection drew the chatting employees' eyes toward me. Under those stares I scratched my head with an awkward smile.
"Just a little?"
"Whoa! Okay, now we're talking."
An even friendlier reaction than I'd expected spread through the group. I wasn't that big a fan, honestly, but they seemed delighted that there was a woman on staff who could actually talk about this stuff. So I was able to join the conversation naturally.
It was a strange experience. Even at my old job there had been times for shooting the breeze, but somehow there'd never been room for me to jump in. My place had been to sit quietly in the background and listen. Here it was different.
If I just sat and listened, the conversation always left me an opening to speak. Wow… people who actually worked with their bodies on the floor really were more honest and decent than those pretentious office types.
I did get a faint sense that their gazes weren't only focused on the conversation — that they were scanning my whole body a little — but it wasn't enough to bother me.
After everything that had happened, with no one left around me I could talk to freely, this small, easy conversation after so long was a real gift. So we went beyond baseball into games and variety shows guys liked, and I got to talk about all the things I'd been wanting to chat about for ages.
The break times that had always been gloomy and blank started to feel fun. I was always welcome in the men's break room, and those rest periods spent talking with them, building something like camaraderie, felt really good.
But there was someone who didn't look kindly on that.
"Hey, ajumma. What do you think you're doing? How long are you planning to sit around playing?"
"Ah, I'm sorry. But it's only a minute late…"
"A minute is still late, isn't it? Why do I have to work an extra minute because of you and not get to switch out?"
Under her blistering tone I shrank and lowered my head. The one chewing me out was a female employee years younger than me. Her name was Jeong-a, I think? She was only in her early twenties, but she'd been working part-time at this mart since high school, so she was basically senior staff.
Most of the women here seemed to be ruled by a few older ladies in their forties and fifties who ran their own little factions like mafia bosses. Those ladies never stepped out to cause trouble themselves, though — when they had a grievance, they sent out an enforcer to make a scene…
And this girl seemed to be the one who handled that role. I'd known for a while she had it out for me, but today she clearly felt like she had me dead to rights. I lifted my head a little and looked her over.
Still in her twenties, young, with a decent amount of flesh on her and blonde hair that looked like it needed a root touch-up. Overall she was the kind of face you'd pass on the street without a second thought, but among the mart staff she apparently ranked as one of the better-looking ones. Something the male employees had said once came back to me.
"Ever since Hyomin-ssi got here, the guys' mood has really brightened up. That other one just keeps giving us attitude."
"Ugh, don't even get me started on Jeong-a. She's got her own man on the side anyway."
She was clearly a love-hate figure among the male staff. The kind where you feel a little attraction looking at her face, then grind your teeth after getting burned by how she acts. And seeing a spitfire like her pick today to tear into me, I figured this wasn't going to blow over nicely.
For now… I had been in the wrong, so apologizing was the fastest way to end it, right? So I said:
"I'm sorry. Go ahead and take it out on me. I'll stay on POS an extra hour to make up for it."
"Ha! That's just ridiculous. And then what? While you're doing that the manager will call you into the office for something, and you'll go scampering off and dump the work on someone else again?"
Ah… I couldn't even deny that one. Lately it was true that the manager kept summoning me to the office over the most trivial things while I was mid-shift. I'd been worried, and sure enough, the resentment over that was no joke. That really was something I owed an apology for. But then Jeong-a started saying things I couldn't accept.
"What the hell even are you, ajumma? Did you come here to work, or to seduce the men?"
"What? What are you talking about? Me, seducing men?!"
I reacted hard. Other accusations I could let slide, but this one really set me off. They were the ones who'd frozen me out, and I'd barely escaped to the men's break room for a breather, and now she was calling that seduction? A wave of indignation rose up hot in my chest. But Jeong-a didn't back down — she shouted right back.
"So it's not? Walking around with it dripping off you? The manager's always been a horny bastard so whatever, but the other guys lose their minds the second they see you and drop their work to help you out. What the hell is that? Looking like some dried-up pollack head, and still— huh?!"
And then Jeong-a did something I never saw coming. She jabbed a finger straight into my chest.
And of course it landed right on my nipple. The reaction was anything but ordinary.
"Ahng!"
Once again a high, involuntary moan tore out of me. A tingling sensation raced all the way down my spine to my tailbone. I curled up in panic, and Jeong-a stared at me like she couldn't believe what she was seeing.
"What the hell? You're not even wearing a bra? This bitch is completely insane. And that reaction? What are you even trying to do here? Ugh, fuck. You're actually making me curse."
Jeong-a's language got rougher, but I couldn't manage a reply. I couldn't climb out of the sensation rolling through my body. And the bra comment hit me hard too. Ah… there was no way I could wear one, was there? I was a man. Just when I'd started to feel a little at ease, that unfairness seized me again. Why did I have to listen to this kind of thing? That was when—
"Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"Huh? Manager. No, this is… this ajumma was goofing off and showed up late for the handover…"
Seeing the manager suddenly appear and come toward us, Jeong-a scrambled for an excuse. No matter how aggressive she was, she apparently wasn't about to go head-to-head with the manager. He hurried over, planted himself in front of me like a shield, and said to her:
"You just do your own job properly. Stop chewing out Hyomin-ssi when she's working hard."
"But—!"
"This isn't the first or second time. How many female employees have you driven out by bullying them just because they rubbed you the wrong way? Keep this up and I'll talk to the ladies and have you transferred to the waste disposal section."
At that, Jeong-a flushed with resentment and glared past the manager at me. Then she spat out a line as she turned away.
"Just you wait. We'll see what happens when Kangho oppa gets here."
"That little… no manners at all."
"Kangho… oppa?"
Jeong-a's words lingered strangely in my chest. And the day she had warned me about arrived not long after.