Chapter 1. Ordinary is Best
Chapter 1. Ordinary is Best
There are two types of people in this world.
People who whip their own lives and live exhaustingly,
and people who settle within their given orbit, extracting only optimal efficiency.
I, Seo Ji-han, am definitely the perfect specimen of the latter.
6:00 PM sharp.
I turned off my monitor and tidied up my desk.
Section Chief Park at the next desk was clutching his head and pounding on his keyboard as if he were trying to break it, but that wasn't my problem.
Because I had perfectly finished my assigned share for the day.
To be precise, it was the result of me finishing a proposal in just one hour that others would struggle with for two or three hours, and then slacking off for the rest of the time.
'The employees at our company work overtime because they're incompetent, not because the workload is murderous.'
Of course, I don't do the stupid thing of saying this extremely rational fact out loud.
My life's motto is efficiency, but I'm not some socially maladjusted person with no tact.
I learned at a fairly young age that even if you say the right thing, if you don't pick the right time and place, it becomes a shackle.
That said, it would be unfair to call me an incompetent person who just barely scrapes by.
It's not me being full of myself, but the fact that I was the first among my entry-year peers to get the Assistant Manager badge proves my competence.
The quality and speed of my work were so overwhelming that even my superiors, who had promoted me to Assistant Manager in just three years, couldn't dare to nitpick about my on-time arrivals and on-time departures.
"Seo Daeri, leaving already?"
Sure enough, Department Manager Lee Chang-seop approached, shaking a sign-off folder with a sinister smile.
I could tell what was going on just by looking at that old snake's face.
'Since you're leaving, take a look at this.'
The identity of that document was a video I didn't even need to watch to know.
It meant he wanted me to patch up the proposal shit that the famous screw-up from the next team had dumped.
"Yes, Manager-nim. I'll be heading out. That's Kim Daeri's main responsibility, and if I touch it, the process will get tangled. You know that."
"Hah, you're quick on the uptake... How did you know what this was? Ugh... You annoying bastard. Fine, go ahead."
I smoothly deflected the Manager's subtle maneuver and picked up my bag.
The Manager tries to subtly support me because my work ability is good.
That was definitely something he would have let me take credit for if I had accepted it, but the moment I took that bait, at least an overtime shift was guaranteed for the day.
'I hate that kind of life.'
And even though we're in the same department, I don't want to clean up the shit someone else dumped.
Just the work I need to do. That is my life's motto.
"Seo Daeri-nim, leaving on time again?"
As I was about to leave the office, my peer, Associate Kim Yu-jin, blocked my path holding two paper cups with steam rising from them.
A peer who joined the company a year younger than me.
If she hadn't messed around trying to start a business when she was twenty, she would have been my junior. She joined as a high school graduate just like me, and she's someone who gets told she's "good at her job" just like me.
"Why are you calling me Daeri-nim when we're peers?"
"You have to separate work and personal life. Seo. Dae. Ri. Nim."
Yu-jin called out the words distinctly and dropped a paper cup on my desk.
It was Job's tears tea, with a nutty aroma wafting up.
In this company, the only one who knows that I don't drink coffee in the evening because of the caffeine—no, the only one who cares about it even if they know—is her.
"Thanks, Associate Yu-jin."
"If you're thankful, why don't you help this poor peer with her overtime?"
"Refrain from talking nonsense, it's bad for your mental health."
"...Wow, aren't you being too much?!"
"If it's unfair, try moving your fingers faster."
"Geez. Teasing me because you're good at your job! Do you think I'm staying because I like working?"
Yu-jin leaned her upper body toward me and whispered irritably so the Manager wouldn't hear.
"And that damn Kim Daeri bastard won't give me confirmation, so I'm about to go crazy."
It seems this person was also involved in the work the Manager had brought earlier.
"My goodness... that's a bit pitiful. I really want to help you, but as you can see, I'm on the planning team, so I don't know how to use design tools."
"...Sometimes you're really annoying, Seo Daeri-nim."
"I know."
She grumbled while sipping her own paper cup.
Even though her mouth is rough, she's the type who brings me drinks every time; she's strangely inconsistent.
She said she exercised for a long time when she was young, so even when she stood still, her spine was straight and her body was firm without any excess.
Healthy curves stood out in her silhouette as she leaned against the corner of the desk.
I glanced once at the Manager, who was leering at her from afar, and adjusted my bag strap, when Yu-jin asked, pretending to be indifferent.
"What are you doing this weekend?"
"I'm going on a trip to Japan. Okinawa."
"...."
The tip of Yu-jin's finger, which was about to touch the paper cup to her lips, froze for a brief moment.
"...With your girlfriend?"
"Yeah."
"Well, must be nice~ I'm jealous, I wish I had a boyfriend too~"
Her voice tone was the same as usual.
But somehow, it was a beat late, and I felt like she was trying hard to act indifferent.
Is it just my imagination? I adjusted my shirt collar without much thought.
"If you're jealous, you should date too."
"Who said I was jealous? Forget it, I just hope the airplane wing doesn't break."
"...What kind of curse is that?"
"It's a joke, a joke. Have a safe trip. Seriously."
The last 'seriously' had a strange weight to it, but I just raised my hand and left the office.
Assigning meaning to other people's emotions one by one is a waste of calories.
Not living exhaustingly, that is my motto.
When I left the office building, the evening air was still hot, even though it was early autumn.
Even though the season of Cheoseo (the end of summer heat) had passed, the asphalt in Seoul didn't know how to cool down.
During the short time I walked to the subway station, the back of my dress shirt quickly became damp.
Zzzzing—
A heavy vibration rang from my pants pocket. Just by confirming the three characters 'Yoon So-hee' on the screen, my mouth corners lifted slightly, strangely enough.
Even though we were entering our third year of dating, I decided to accept this reaction, which was still the same, from some point on.
"Oh, So-hee."
[Ji-han-ah! Did you finish work?]
A bouncy voice over the phone. It's the same Korean language, but I don't know why it sounds so bright when she speaks.
"Just now. I'm in front of the station. How about you, So-hee?"
[I'm packing my suitcase right now! But you didn't just pack short sleeves, right? They say the Okinawa night sea is surprisingly chilly!]
"So you're saying you've already packed my bags too?"
[Hehe. How did you know?]
There's no way I wouldn't know.
The time we've spent together is already 3 years.
She is the only existence that has embraced me, a person who seems cynical and heartless about everything, without getting tired for 3 years.
She is also the only one in the world who accurately understands the sincerity hidden at the bottom of my prickly jokes.
"Thanks."
[You said 'thanks' with that expressionless face again, didn't you? Be glad we're not on a video call!]
"...How did you know?"
[It's been 3 years, 3 years! I know everything just by hearing your voice!]
Pfft, a laugh leaked out. I became a strange guy laughing alone in the middle of the street, but so what?
[Come quickly. You said you missed me.]
"...I never said that."
[Telepathy came! Being prickly again! Come quickly, I'll be waiting. I love you!]
Click, the call ended. The last word remained in my ears, so I just stared at my smartphone for a long time for no reason.
We'll be together from tomorrow, so why do I miss her so much?
The subway station I arrived at was crowded with people getting off work.
The unique, weary fatigue of office workers was spreading through the air.
While I was standing in line in front of the screen door, blankly scrolling through Reels, the voice of a familiar anchor flowed out.
― Unexplained meteorological phenomena are being observed simultaneously in various places in the skies around the world. The Korea Meteorological Administration is "closely watching, as it differs from the trajectory of general aurora phenomena," but....
In the video on the screen, colorful streaks of light were flowing vaguely.
Red, blue, green. At a glance, it just looked like a pretty night view.
'YouTube and the news are really full of clickbait.'
I exited the subway station and headed to the residential alleyway leading to So-hee's studio apartment.
An annoying shout was heard from in front of a convenience store parasol.
Three thugs were surrounding and threatening a female student wearing a convenience store vest.
Unfocused eyes, indiscriminate pointing, the smell of soju vibrating in all directions.
It was the kind of third-rate thug behavior often seen in the back alleys of entertainment districts.
Normally, I would have just passed by. Being a busybody is tiring.
But unfortunately, at that timing, the female student's desperate eyes, which looked like they were about to cry, met my gaze exactly.
'Ah, this is going to be annoying.'
Contrary to my heart, my feet were already heading toward the convenience store.
"Hey."
The three of them turned to look at me at the same time.
"What, this bastard."
The guy who was the biggest and had tattoos poorly wrapped around his body approached threateningly and tapped my shoulder.
The smell of alcohol, close to a stench, stung my nose.
I let out a long sigh.
I had dealt with this type of person until I was sick of it in the rotten neighborhood during my high school days.
In my adolescence, having lost my parents early and with only venom left in the world, I grew up rolling in quite a dark mud pit.
Thanks to that, I could read the attack patterns of these third-rate guys with spinal reflexes.
Braggarts with collapsed lower body balance and only strength in their shoulders.
The moment the guy's dull fist flew through the air, I dove into his embrace with a timing half a beat faster.
After predicting the trajectory and catching his wrist, I twisted it, kicked his supporting leg, and slammed him into the cement floor as if throwing him.
From boxing to MMA mixed martial arts. There was no way a thug just posing while drunk could handle it.
"Arghhh! My, my arm! My arm is broken!!!"
"Be quiet. If you move, I'll really break it."
When I said it quietly, the other two froze.
"Take him and get lost. By the time I count to three."
There was no need to count to three.
The guys dragged their friend who was rolling on the floor and disappeared out of the alley.
"Th-thank you. Thank you so much...!"
The female student bowed her head. I waved my hand.
"It's nothing. Just in case, contact the store manager quickly."
The female student hesitated as if to talk to me, but as I turned around and walked away first, she soon moved her feet.
It's nothing. Seriously.
For me, pressing down on these ignorant guys with force was much more intuitive and easier than enduring troublesome BM development or the Manager's pressure for overtime.
Because the school taught me how to survive by rolling my body more than the regular curriculum.
'Of course, if Yu-jin had seen this scene, she would have glared at me with the most annoying look in the world, telling me not to act fake.'
I shook my wrists lightly as I exited the alley.
I didn't really use much strength, but my shoulders were sore for no reason.
The traces of the days when I rolled with thugs in a hopeless neighborhood where fists were closer than the law during my high school days still remained inside me.
Back then, I defined the whole world as an enemy.
I believed that if I didn't trample them first, I would be trampled, and the moment I caught my breath, my throat would be ripped out.
Because that was the only survival formula I learned in a trash heap that was embarrassing to even call a school.
But as I grew up and was incorporated into the huge framework called society, I realized.
That living every moment with bared teeth and venom is a stupider and more inefficient thing than I thought.
A life where I get paid as much as others at a decent workplace, leave work on time, and exchange meaningless, silly jokes with my beloved So-hee.
That's enough. If I have excessive greed beyond that, life becomes tiring, and greed beyond one's means inevitably brings disaster.
So I willingly entered the comfortable fence of ordinariness. Very satisfactorily.
'This must be what socialization is.'
I am a very successfully socialized office worker. I praised myself and moved on, when a vibration rang from my pants pocket again.
Kim Yu-hyeon. He was my best friend, with whom I had caused trouble and gotten beaten up together since high school.
[Yu-hyeon: Hey, how about a round today? A new character dropped.]
[Ji-han: Can't. Okinawa tomorrow.]
[Yu-hyeon: lol You bastard ditching your single friend to go on a honeymoon.]
[Ji-han: I'm not married.]
[Yu-hyeon: Shut up and buy me some whiskey at the duty-free shop.]
A tiring guy. He's a guy I've developed both hate and affection for, so I couldn't ignore him.
I sent him just a vowel that means the middle finger and put my smartphone in my pocket.
I arrived at So-hee's apartment before I knew it.
I stared quietly at my indifferent and ordinary face reflected in the elevator mirror, then closed my eyes gently.
Tomorrow, I will leave this stuffy forest of buildings and see the emerald sea that is wide open in all directions.
An extremely ordinary, boring, and peaceful vacation plan.
I naturally didn't know back then that that day was the last bit of 'ordinariness' I would be able to enjoy in my 24 years of life.
Because the next day, the sky split open.