Starting Over (21)
"I'm really not that kind of person, I'm just this person's direct supervisor..."
"What do you mean, 'supervisor'? You're the same age as her!"
"...Haha, anyway, that's who I am..."
I handed my business card to the gas station owner who was looking at me with disdain, offering a friendly smile and nodding repeatedly. When the owner actually came out after hearing the commotion and threatened to call the police, I honestly thought, Is this it? Am I getting hauled off?
...Of course, they would have let me go once they verified my identity at the station, but then it would have been even harder to talk to that woman.
"Anyway, what's the issue with our employee...?"
"Ah, this friend here and I have some company business to discuss."
"...You're a company man?"
As luck would have it, that gas station had a strange policy forbidding second jobs. Min Suyeon was rubbing her forehead, looking like things had gone sideways. She, who had foolishly let it slip, muttered, "...Is having a second job a crime?"
"You don't know how it is. I could just hire young kids and have it easy, but these older ones who already have jobs don't do anything right, they just slack off. They're always nitpicking and making life exhausting."
"..."
It seemed like nobody at this gas station liked Min Suyeon either.
"Still, Min Suyeon seems to do her job quite well..."
"What's the point of just being good at work?"
....?
"I tell her to do something, and she doesn't. She doesn't listen to a damn word."
What exactly did he tell her to do?
"Fucking hell, hey, ah, god... stop with the bullshit. What didn't she do? Not go to the company dinner?"
"Look at that mouth, oh my... she's always fighting with customers too,"
"No, the customers keep touching me, why the fuck should I put up with that? It's disgusting!"
Hmm, that's something I wasn't aware of...
"Crazy, now I see you're in on it too. Did you ask her out for drinks just to try and fuck her once?"
"You, you? You wet-behind-the-ears brat, where do you think you're—"
"No, please calm down, sir. You see, that..."
"Fuck this, I quit, this is bullshit. Spit. Ha, I should've known it was weird when you were so eager to take off my uniform..."
"Yeah, I was planning on firing you anyway, you bitch. These young kids today have no manners,"
"Go to hell, you idiot. If you're groping people because they look like your daughter, your own daughter must be a bitch too. It's too filthy to work here, you moron—"
.... Why did I come here?
Min Suyeon spat on the floor, threw the light blue uniform she’d been wearing onto the ground, turned around, opened the door, and walked out somewhere. I wanted to chase after her, but...
- Cleaning up the mess was my job.
"I'll provide some compensation. She has a bit of a temper, haha. Please let me apologize on her behalf."
"...Hmph."
I took a blank check from my wallet, wrote down 5,000,000, endorsed the back, and handed it over with both hands. Some might say, What kind of 5 million won is that for such a grand blank check? But people with money use cashier's checks like this to pay amounts on the spot. I couldn't exactly pull 5,832,900 won out of my car and count it out bill by bill, could I? And I couldn't pay for 5 million won worth of gas with a credit card, either.
"I'm sorry."
"...I don't know what your relationship is, but that girl is a real lunatic, honestly..."
"What do you mean she fights with customers?"
"Every time they come in, she's shouting and fighting with them. I thought today was the same. It happened last week, too. She's an exhausting person. Nitpicking everything, acting crazy... sigh, this is why you have to hire young kids."
After apologizing, I bowed to the car behind me, apologized again, and slowly drove out of the gas station. I was looking around wondering where that woman had gone, when I saw her sitting on a bench at the bus stop across the street, crying... wait, crying?
"Get in. Quickly."
"..."
"I said get in. The bus is..."
15 minutes left. How am I supposed to wait for that?
"Are you going to wait 15 minutes, or are you going to ride in my car?"
"Now you're trying to kidnap me, you fucker..."
"..."
This is really driving me crazy, this insane woman.
"Look, you walked out after acting like that, so I had to apologize to the owner."
"..."
"I paid 5 million won in settlement money, you know? My hard-earned 5 million won. It's a waste. So get in, quickly."
She looked at me.
"..."
"I don't know what your time is worth, but can you trade it for 5 million won?"
"...You crazy bastard..."
"Let's go, quickly. The AC is all leaking out."
- "...Fuck, if you touch me, I'm calling the police."
"I won't touch you."
"..."
Hmm, I understood why Min Suyeon was like this. First of all... her chest size, which might have looked dull if it were just a little bigger. F... G? Maybe. Ah, I shouldn't be thinking about this. What if she could read my mind? Her hips were decent, her height was decent. Smaller than Jia, bigger than Eunbyul. Honestly, even if she hadn't gone to Seoul National University or gotten a job at DW Chemical, she probably could have made it as a shopping mall model. That's probably why men kept trying to grope her, and perhaps that's why she acts so paranoid.
"...Where do you live? Is there a cafe near your place?"
"No. Even if there was, I'm not going with you..."
"..."
"Fuck, this is so embarrassing. Hey, I told you not to come..."
"Are you going to keep talking informally?"
The light turned red. I pressed the brake softly and turned to look at her.
"5 million won, that's a huge amount of money."
"... ..... Bullshit."
It wasn't going to be easy. Min Suyeon seemed like she didn't even want to share a conversation, so she manipulated my car's navigation system herself to search for her address, and then deleted the search history so no record would remain.
"12, Seunghak-ro 253beon-gil, Seo-gu, Incheon. I've memorized it."
"Go to the police station. Just turn yourself in."
"...Can't you even take a joke?"
It didn't work. This, too. Anyway, I started driving the car through the alleyways, driving carefully toward her home.
"Why do you act like that at the gas station?"
"...None of your business, get lost."
"...I'm just curious."
"Curious, ha... it's already fucking annoying enough. It's annoying how you try to use people with your money. Don't beat around the bush and just say what you have to say."
"Why are you so aggressive?"
First, start with what I'm curious about. This is what I want to know most.
"Everything I hate is you."
"...?"
"Chaebols, kids who act high and mighty because they have money. Being stupid and optimistic. ...Being a man."
"Why do you hate men?"
Min Suyeon started to open up, saying, "You wouldn't know." Whether it was because of the money or because I hadn't touched her while driving her home,
"...Because they're all perverts."
"..."
"You're the same."
"What kind of pervert am I—"
"You masturbate, don't you? Haven't you? Just doing that makes you a pervert. A potential criminal. If you can't hold it in while jerking off alone, you kidnap someone... that's what you are."
The more I learn, the more dizzy I get...
"Masturbation is a physiological need, and calling that perverted isn't a valid reason..."
"It's dirty."
"No, why is that dirty..."
"It's dirty. Fuck, it's dirty. You touch me with the hands you used for that. You don't know, you don't know how dirty that is..."
I slowed the car down. To hear more.
"The 5 million won is the same, ha... I'm the idiot, why did I get in this car..."
"Well, our company employee made a mistake, so I have to take responsibility,"
"Don't talk about 'responsibility' like it's something grand. Who are you to take responsibility? Are we close? Are you my family? No, you're not."
Haa...
"Even if we aren't family, I can still take responsibility. If I can do it, shouldn't I?"
"So you put the employee in the hospital on the back burner and worry about me?"
"...I already went to the hospital this morning, so don't jump to conclusions."
I blocked that well. Since the woman had stopped talking, I moved to the next question.
"...Have you been sexually harassed a lot?"
"I don't want to talk about it."
"I won't do that. So, please don't have any strange misunderstandings."
"..."
A minute or two passed.
"...The owner is the same, the gas station owner... he said he'd raise my hourly wage if I worked the night shift with him..."
"..."
"Fuck, I told him to make a man do the night shift, but he always brings in one girl... one girl quit crying last week because of that. That fucking bastard, if I had evidence, I would've reported him immediately."
Well, it seems it really is serious.
"...So, do you hate men because they sexually harass you often?"
"That's part of it."
"Did something like that happen to you severely..."
I used euphemisms to ask if she had been sexually assaulted, thinking I could help. If that was the reason she was like this, she needed to go to a hospital before worrying about work.
"Fuck off, nothing like that. I don't even drink on purpose. Anyway, I know they all drink together and try to fuck me later."
"...That's a relief."
"Ha, relief my ass, bullshit..."
Min Suyeon felt disgusted listening to this man, who was filled with this subtle pity. What did he know? As a man, she didn't think he could understand even a fraction of her pain. However, '....' bit by bit, her heart began to tilt.
So, without even realizing the car had arrived in front of her house, Min Suyeon continued,
"...They're all dirty bastards, disgusting, they smell. They're all rotten, it's repulsive..."
"..."
"They're always trying to put their hands on my waist or hips, they try to touch me on the subway or the bus... pretending to brush against me, it's fucking annoying... as if I don't know. They think all women are stupid. It's dirty. Vile and..."
"...."
"Losers, because they can't date women, they try to do all sorts of things with money and power... they say they'll discipline me if I don't listen to them, and when I leave, they're nothing... ha, fuck, it's really shitty..."
She began to open up, telling me things I hadn't even asked about.