Starting Over (30)
"Well, everyone has at least one good friend..."
"Friend? I work weekends, I work weekdays. Do I look like I have friends?"
"...When you get off work,"
"Fucking hell, I'm asking because I don't, you stupid bastard."
Geez, how can someone have absolutely no friends?
"...I see. I won't say anything else, so please, just tell me."
"See, you already don't want to talk to me."
"...?"
No, I said I wouldn't interrupt you, so why are you taking it that way? Why is this person so twisted?
"Other people are the same. Everyone hates me. You know that? After a few sentences, they stop talking to me. You wouldn't know anything about that."
That's probably because you talk like a piece of shit... but I have to keep my mouth shut.
"Lunch at the office is the end of it for me. I eat one meal a day. Because I don't have the money to buy food. You've never seen someone like that, have you? You just... eat three meals a day prepared by a housekeeper,"
Wait, I don't have a housekeeper. Well, if I had to be specific, there's Seo Jia...? She's a woman who insists on acting like a housekeeper, but...
"And at lunch, you probably go to such expensive places. People must buy it for you, just to meet you once. Yeah, you really are an amazing person. Now that I think about it, there's a silver spoon, no, a diamond spoon right in front of my eyes."
Actually, no, I'm going to a convenience store...
"You probably eat dinner at some fancy place too, right? Rich people are always slicing up steaks and stuff, do you do that too? I can't understand you, someone who blows my entire month's living expenses on a single meal."
I think there's a misunderstanding... but let's not say anything.
"That's why you can't understand me. You, who eat only good things with good people every day, can't understand me, who ends the day with one meal at the company cafeteria. You talk to other people while you eat, right? I don't even talk. There's no one to talk to, and I don't even have the desire to speak."
"...."
"Living day by day is hell. Have you ever felt this? You haven't, right? Yeah, even when you cause a huge accident, there are people to clean up the mess for you... I'm dying from the struggle, I want to die every day, but there's no one to listen to my story... You and I are different."
I think there are many misunderstandings here. This person. Why is she like this... Delusional disorder? Something like that?
Min Suyeon thought this way. She believed that I couldn't understand her, that I couldn't understand this because I'd never been in her position. Usually, when people hear stories like this, they leave. People like those who shine on their own; they wouldn't like someone like her, who sucks in the light around her and burns black. It was time to feel the sensation of being abandoned by someone else again.
"Why are you crying?"
"...See, you don't understand this either."
A single tear fell onto her knee. I could tell the woman, who had slowly bowed her head while speaking, was crying. Looking at this woman, who seemed to be rotting inside even more than she realized herself, which made her look quite pathetic, he slowly opened his mouth.
"Is that so?"
"Ha, why am I saying so much to you? It feels like talking to a wall. If you've heard everything you were curious about, get lost now. You're the same kind of bastard anyway, and you've never been in my position—"
"Alright, then let's go eat steak."
-
"...Are you crazy?"
"No. I'm driving well. You should be happy; it's rare for me to drive with someone in the passenger seat. Consider it an honor."
"Are you a crazy bastard? Is something broken in you?"
"Speak... politely. Or with class. Okay?"
He put her in the passenger seat of a car that she could only afford if she saved every penny for about 13 years and 7 months, and he drove. Why steak, you ask?
"Why steak?"
"You said rich people are always slicing up steaks."
"..."
"So we have to slice some today too."
As she rode in the car, Min Suyeon wondered if every steakhouse in Incheon had gone out of business. Why would someone who wants to eat meat take the Gyeongin Expressway?
"If you wanted to eat, you could've just eaten nearby..."
"You're not refusing, though."
She'd been fired from her part-time job, and now she didn't even know what she was going to eat. Getting the settlement money was a good thing, but because of that, her plans had been disrupted, and she was on the verge of not being able to eat a single meal on the weekends until she died. They wouldn't let a woman join a construction labor crew. At a time like this, talking about steak—normally, her salary from the gas station would have been cut in half, so she wouldn't have been able to go to that steakhouse she'd planned to eat at this Wednesday anyway. She had already drawn a red line through the schedule for September 14th in her notebook.
"Where are we going?"
"Somewhere delicious."
Traffic on the Olympic Expressway was jammed. Slowly. He turned on the car's autopilot function, set it to go slowly on its own, and leaned back against the seat. Of course, Min Suyeon saw that and said, "...You, you aren't holding the steering wheel straight? Get out, if you're tired, right now—"
"It's driving itself, so don't worry about it."
"...?"
The car really was maintaining its center and moving forward slowly, and when the car in front stopped, this car stopped exactly the same way. It seemed like the first time she'd seen this feature, but I decided not to tease her.
"So, did you want to eat steak?"
"..."
"I guess I was right."
"No, I don't want to eat it. Who said I wanted to eat? You're the one who dragged me out by force..."
"You don't seem like the type to follow along so obediently if you didn't want to."
Looking away when something true is said is a characteristic of Min Suyeon. A fact I learned after watching her for two days. By the way, it really seemed like she didn't eat on the weekends. How many times had I heard her stomach growl since I started the engine? It was hard to pretend not to notice.
The car arrived in front of a tall building near Sinsa Station, and, "Get out. We're here."
"Where is this...?"
"A place to eat."
"..."
"Are you not getting out?"
Min Suyeon, who had been looking up at the 722-meter-tall building outside the window, heard his words belatedly, then snorted and said, "See, that's why rich people are so stupid. You think this is a parking lot—"
"....Are you not getting out?"
A man bowed politely to him, and he stepped out of the driver's seat, walked around, and looked at her. It was as if he were saying it would be better to get out before she felt embarrassed. There was no choice. She had never known what valet parking was in her life, and she had no interest in it.
"Who is that guy? He's just blocking your car like that..."
"Just think of it as valet parking."
"You're just doing this to look cool, right? You think I don't know? Something like that for free..."
"It is free."
If I had to be technical, it's a credit card benefit. But I didn't pay money for it, did I?
"Hey! How is this free? Are you ignoring me because I'm poor? You think I don't know, you fucking—"
"Please be quiet in a public place. As I said before, speak with class."
"...Class, my ass..."
Leaving her, who was saying that, for a moment, he walked somewhere and said a few words to the staff member at the desk. Min Suyeon saw the desk staff bow deeply and greet him, and while she wondered what he was doing, he said, "Get in. The elevator is here."
"...I know that too."
"You looked like you were spacing out."
Floors 72 to 156 were the hotel, and 157–160 were the restaurants. To use the restaurant here, you had to take an elevator, and since the overall service level was high, if you expressed an intention to use the restaurant, an attendant would escort you directly. Normally, an office staff member or secretary would handle all these procedures, but since this was a private meeting, he had to do it all himself.
The elevator went up at high speed. When the doors opened, Min Suyeon had a look on her face as if she knew where this was. Had she been here before?
"...! H, how did you..."
"...? Have you been here before?"
"No... that... um..."
Originally, she had wanted to come here. This building, one of the tallest skyscrapers, the 160th-floor steakhouse of the Ipelet Tower. However, this place...
"Did you prepare this in advance?"
"No."
Because the reservations were packed, if you made a reservation now, you'd be able to visit in about 6 months. For a moment, I wondered if she had made a reservation 6 months ago just to contact me, but that couldn't be it. It was just...
"May I ask for the name of the person who made the reservation?"
At Doowon, there is something called a 'Clothing Fitting Voucher'.
"What's that? Clothing... isn't that for buying clothes?"
"It's a secret."
"...See, fucking hell. You're trying to rip something off me..."
"I told you I didn't prepare it in advance. Do I look like the mastermind behind some case or something..."
Why would a clothing fitting voucher come up at a restaurant? Well, the reason this is necessary is...
"Please check this."
"...?"
"If you don't know, please ask another staff member. Take it."
Decades ago, it was a method of using paper vouchers that didn't display a face value, but now it's different. At Doowon, a clothing fitting voucher is also used as a lobby pass; anyway, to explain, he inserted the credit card he had into the terminal. Then, at specific shops—affiliated stores—[Clothing Fitting Voucher Confirmed] is displayed on the POS machine, and, "Yes, I'm sorry. Please wait a moment." And when you press that pop-up window—