Blabla
I was back on the job. Even though I'd gone to the school two days in a row, I'd come away with nothing much to show for it except a whole bunch of high school girl acquaintances, and I was exhausted.
But no matter how tired I was, how could I just sit there working in silence? Eom Chaewon was killing time with online shopping, so I casually dropped a line.
"Hey, Eom Chaewon? Do you know about Dogs & Picks?"
"..."
She didn't seem interested in actual conversation today either. Of course, I knew how to use a wiki, so I'd looked it up roughly yesterday.
But since she was a full ten years younger than me, I figured she might be well-versed in the kind of experiential info you couldn't get from text alone, so I asked.
"I know what it is, you know? It's like some kind of SNS community mainly used by high school kids, but why is it so particularly popular?"
"Blabla... what's that?"
The moment the words left my mouth, I heard the sound of chair wheels rolling. Eom Chaewon spun her body completely toward me and asked with eyes full of shock.
"Team Leader, you don't use Blabla?"
"Is it... something I absolutely have to do? Is it super necessary for work..."
"No way, how is this even possible? Team Leader, what the hell do you even do at home on your days off?"
"..."
High school boy cosplay... I barely managed to swallow the words that nearly burst out of my throat. But how was I supposed to know what Blabla was?
"This is seriously ridiculous. Look at this."
Eom Chaewon was unusually kind today and even demonstrated by going into Blabla herself. But this screen looked really familiar...
Aha! This was the window she always had open whenever she wasn't online shopping. So she'd been goofing off here the whole time while collecting her paycheck?
"See here? It shows which company each person works for. It's not a nickname or ID—your company name becomes who you are. Since you can't get in without verifying, it filters out a lot of the people who just come to write crap and mess around."
"So I can get in too? But if our company name shows up, wouldn't it be way too easy to figure out who I am?"
"No chance of that. A shitty little place like ours just shows up as ETC, so we're all treated the same."
"..."
It really was a shitty little company, but did she have to use that exact word in an office with only one room? Anyway, I roughly got the idea.
The biggest advantage of Dogs & Picks, or Blabla, was that it was anonymous yet required verification. Because it filtered out the trolls on its own, the reliability of the information that came out of there was enormous.
"Ugh, come on..."
Suddenly Eom Chaewon got irritated. Had someone posted company trash talk on Blabla?
No. If that were the case, she'd probably be happy about it.
"What's wrong, Eom Chaewon?"
"The shipment got delayed, so they say ours will be the day after tomorrow. I came in for nothing today. Now I'll have to come in on the weekend too."
"..."
But then we'd get another day off instead, so wasn't it just three hours of overtime a week in the end?
Sure, commuting all the way to Incheon Port was tiring on the body, but she'd done nothing but online shopping and Blabla since clocking in today—what was she so unhappy about?
She probably just hated the extra weekend work. Given the nature of the company, we often had to sacrifice weekends, and since everyone else was resting then, it made it hard to build relationships.
Like meeting a 'boyfriend,' for example?
In any case, with nothing left to do today, we got to leave early. After finishing a few minor paperwork tasks, I headed out to the parking lot—only to find a completely unexpected person waiting for me.
"What were you doing that you're only coming out now?"
It was Eom Chaewon. Bag slung over her shoulder, she greeted me with an irritated face. Hadn't she already gone home?
"Uh... I had a little more to tidy up? What about you, Eom Chaewon? What are you doing here?"
"I was waiting so we could leave together?"
"...?"
The reason we carpooled was because of the department head's sweetness—he couldn't stand the thought of a single woman in her twenties walking around late at night even if dirt got in his eyes.
But right now it was broad daylight, not even lunchtime yet, with plenty of buses and subways. Did she really have to ride in my car?
"I-is that so? Sorry for being late."
But our relationship as teammates was already walking on thin ice—why make it worse? Ah, not aqua, worse.
Vroom~
I loaded Eom Chaewon up and headed for Seoul. Today she had earphones—no, AirPods—jammed in her ears again, so it was hard to strike up a conversation easily.
I didn't absolutely have to talk, but that's just how people live, right? It might just be habitual attachment like last time, so I figured I'd give it a try.
"Eom Chaewon?"
"..."
No answer at all, so it seemed like the real deal today. Just as I was about to give up and back off, she hit me with another delayed attack.
"Hey, Team Leader? Calling someone's name and then not saying anything is seriously annoying, you know?"
"What the... You weren't answering, so what was I supposed to say?"
"So what is it?"
"Haa... Honestly, the only person I can ask about this is you, Eom Chaewon..."
"Ugh... Nothing's more pussy than a guy beating around the bush, you know? Just spit out the main point."
"A-alright. Actually, it's because of my daughter..."
"What did you just say?!"
Screech! The sudden ear-splitting shout startled me so badly I nearly twisted the wheel. I barely managed to get the car back under control, but she had already completely lost her mind.
"D-daughter? Team Leader, you were a married man?"
"Uh... Didn't everyone already know?"
"No? I never heard a thing. Wow, this is seriously ridiculous. You don't even wear a wedding ring. Have you been pretending to be single this whole time and fooling everyone perfectly?"
"Th-the department head knows. And I never wore a wedding ring in the first place."
"Then what did you give her when you proposed?"
"I mean I've never been married."
"..."
I'd naturally assumed everyone knew. But Eom Chaewon was trembling all over with both hands and feet like this was the ultimate betrayal in the world.
"There's really no one you can trust in this world? So Team Leader, you're living with your wife right now and even have a kid?"
"No... I haven't seen the kid's mom in ages either. It's just me and my daughter living together."
When was the last time I'd seen Yu Jiyeon? I think it was the morning before she ran off with my brother on the train, when I briefly saw her on the way to school.
I'd asked why she wasn't wearing her uniform and was just sighing, and when she gave no answer, I figured it was 'that day.' Of course, biologically 'that day' was impossible.
"So you're a divorced single dad? No wait, since you've never been married, just a single guy?"
"Honestly, I've got a past that's embarrassing enough that I don't even want those labels attached, but even for you, Eom Chaewon, I can't talk about that..."
"Ah, whatever. Let's go somewhere, eat something, and talk."
"Huh? You mean lunch?"
"You want to have a conversation this huge inside a car?"
"..."
I'd just been thinking of lightly consulting her about Harin. But if she suddenly suggested lunch, how was I supposed to take that?
"W-well, sure. What do you feel like eating, Eom Chaewon?"
"Anything's fine."
"'Anything'... is the hardest, isn't it? It's cloudy out, so how about some refreshing kalguksu?"
"Haa... Do we really have to eat that?"
"Then Korean set meal..."
"If I'm just going to eat rice and side dishes, why not go to my mom's instead of paying money for it?"
"Then Chinese food might be easy?"
"I'm wearing white today, you know?"
"What the... Then pasta. Girls like that kind of thing, right?"
"Is it some kind of disaster if we don't eat noodles? Why are you so stuck on noodles from the start?"
"..."
I mobilized every menu I knew, but she hated them all. Eventually she got tired of even making excuses and just replaced them with the sound effect "Tsk..."
"Haa... How about you just pick, Eom Chaewon? I feel like I've listed every menu I know."
"Team Leader, you're thirty-four, right? And you can't even pick one place for lunch?"
"I'm thirty-four, sure, but I spent half of that at sea, and I've only been in Seoul for four months..."
"Still, you must have a regular place or something."
"The only 'eating out' I do is pork cutlet, really. And even that is hard to call 'eating out'..."
"Pork cutlet's fine. Let's go there."
"...?"
What was this? She'd rejected every gourmet list I'd made, but pork cutlet was suddenly okay?
Did she have an elementary school kid's palate? No, more than that—why pork cutlet of all things? That meant I had no choice but to go to Aunt's place.
Jingle!
In the end we walked into Aunt's Pork Cutlet Restaurant. Aunt turned her head like she'd expected me to show up, and her eyes went wide.
"Y-you brought a customer?"
"Uh... This is Eom Chaewon, who works with me at the company."
"Hello. Team Leader, are you really a divorced single dad?"
"..."
The second she saw Aunt, Eom Chaewon went straight for confirmation of the rumor. Aunt nodded awkwardly, and Uncle quietly cleared a table without a sound.
"Tell me everything. You said you were always just on ships, so when did you even meet a woman and start living together?"
"I've never lived together..."
"Then what, a stork delivered the kid?"
"Something like that. I should say she got delivered without me even knowing?"
"What kind of nonsense is that? How long did you date the kid's mom?"
"I didn't date her. Here's how it happened..."
I couldn't say it. It wasn't exactly something to brag about, and Harin herself still didn't know the truth—why would I make a full confession to someone who was just Eom Chaewon?
"Anyway, stop being so curious."
"It's too much of a shock, you know? So what's the problem with Team Leader's daughter?"
"It seems like the kid has a boyfriend. But this is my first time dealing with something like this, so as a dad I don't know how to respond..."
"Respond to what? Just leave her alone. What does a little kid even know?"
"A little... kid?"
There seemed to be some communication error. It was because I hadn't given proper information, but even if Eom Chaewon knew I had a daughter, she never imagined it would be a high school sophomore.
She was probably picturing a kindergartener at most. But I couldn't correct it now, and bringing it up in the first place had been a mistake.
"Don't talk about such heavy stuff—just eat first."
Aunt quickly jumped in and set the table. Somehow the portion of pork cutlet looked bigger than usual, and there seemed to be more side dishes too.
"You said you're the aunt, right? Doesn't Team Leader seem a little weird? Total daughter-obsessed dad? What do kids even know about dating that he's acting like this?"
"Right? For the record, he wasn't even that close with the kid's mom. Kind of a mistake he made without knowing anything at a young age? You understand, Chaewon."
"...?"
Understand what? Aunt seemed determined to downplay everything about Harin, and Eom Chaewon showed no interest in expanding beyond the information she'd already accepted.
"So that was it? You were so busy looking after the kid that you don't even do Blabla?"
"I probably wouldn't have done Blabla even if that weren't the case... Anyway, it's nothing fancy, but please enjoy."
"It's not even something Team Leader made, so why are you taking credit? But this is actually really good."
"..."
She sure lived an easy life. She just seemed to have an itchy mouth because she'd found out the team leader she worked with was actually a single dad with a kid.
"Anyway, Eom Chaewon, was it? How did the two of you meet and end up visiting all the way here?"
"It was a workday but the shipment got delayed so we left early. Team Leader said he had something to talk about so he suggested we at least grab lunch."
"Eom Chaewon? When did I ever suggest lunch..."
"You stay out of it!"
Aunt suddenly smacked me on the shoulder. With a beaming smile she asked Eom Chaewon,
"You've got free time for once—shouldn't you be meeting a boyfriend or something?"
"I don't have anyone I'm seeing right now."
"Is that sooo...?"
Aunt's eyes turned quite dangerous. Still, her curiosity seemed to end there, because she headed straight for the kitchen.
Bzzzt!
In the meantime my phone buzzed. Wondering who was looking for me at this hour, I checked—huh? It was Aunt.
If she had something to say, why not say it earlier instead of going to the kitchen? The text read like this.
"..."
Now I saw it—this was an invitation to a hearing.