When You Work, Work Hard

At seven they took attendance and checked the headcount, then paired everyone off into teams of two.

Naturally, Seong-min was teamed with Min-hyeok.

They'd worked hard on the same line yesterday, and the supervisor had thoughtfully — or so it seemed — assigned the two of them to that same line again.

"Wow~ Thanks to the supervisor, we get to work together again today?"

"You happy about that?"

"Of course I am~! Working with a hyung I already know beats working with a total stranger any day!"

"We only met yesterday, you know that, right?"

"They say even Gangnam can change in a day~"

"It's not Gangnam, it's mountains and rivers. And it's ten years before mountains and rivers change."

"Let the little stuff slide. Worry about that kind of thing and you'll get a headache — won't live long that way."

Seong-min found himself thinking that this kid really did live life free and loose.

He was about to buy a coffee from the vending machine when a hand suddenly shot out in front of him.

"Hold up."

"What?"

"Hyung treated yesterday, so today it's my turn to be generous."

Min-hyeok tapped his card against the machine and pressed the milk coffee button.

"This is the one you want, right?"

That had been exactly what Seong-min was going to get, so he nodded.

A moment later, once the paper cup had filled, Min-hyeok opened the hatch and pulled the coffee free.

"Here you go."

"Thanks. I'll enjoy it."

"Think of me while you drink it."

"……"

"I'm kidding."

Seong-min had no idea what went on in this kid's head.

Min-hyeok pressed the cocoa button for himself again, same as yesterday. A paper cup dropped down and slowly filled with cocoa.

"Cocoa again? Yesterday and today both?"

"Yeah. I just like cocoa."

He pulled the cup from the hatch, breathed in the aroma, then took a sip.

"Yep. That's the stuff."

He looked thoroughly satisfied.

"Hyung, let's go smoke."

"I told you, I don't smoke."

"Ah, right. Guess I'll have to go suck down a cloud candy all by myself, then~! Be right back after one."

He headed for the smoking area. This time the supervisor didn't call him over, so he settled comfortably onto a bench, lit the cigarette between his lips, and drew in a long drag.

I used to smoke one whenever my chest got tight, too.

These days he couldn't even justify buying a pack, so he'd quit. Bad for you, besides.

In practical terms, once he'd co-signed a loan and gotten stuck with the debt, Seong-min had quit smoking instead. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Better to put that money toward paying off what he owed — that had been the mindset. Little choices like that, stacked one on top of another, had chipped a five-thousand debt down to under two thousand.

His bank balance was empty because of it, but if he just kept working hard, he figured he could clear the rest soon enough.

And more than anything, Seong-min now had something incredible: the Status Window. If he used it to grow and develop himself going forward, he was certain life would get better than it was now.

And that's not all. Working this hard, three level-ups are doable. Experience is already past sixty percent, so today even four is possible.

After three level-ups he'd still been over fifty percent experience. That was how brutal the work was — like high-intensity exercise. Looking at the experience bar now, once today's shift ended he wouldn't stop at three. He could hit four.

No wonder he was in a good mood.

Seong-min tossed his empty paper coffee cup into the trash.

"Heh heh heh…"

Just thinking about it made him grin without meaning to.

"Hyung, you were thinking about a girl again, weren't you?"

"Huh?"

He turned his head. Min-hyeok, already finished with his cigarette, had somehow appeared right beside him.

"That kind of face only shows up when you're thinking something dirty~ I hit the bullseye, didn't I? You can try to hide it, but you can't fool me… hehehe."

"……"

Seong-min stared at him in silence, then started walking toward the restroom.

"Huh? Hyung~ Wait up!"

Min-hyeok hurried after him.

They finished their business, and at the twenty-five-minute mark the supervisor called them back. After a rundown of work precautions and a few announcements, they were finally sent out onto the line.

"You did this yesterday, so you know the drill, right?"

"Don't worry…! I had a real breakthrough. Came fully prepared…!"

"Good to hear."

"Hyung probably thought I wouldn't even show today. Just watch. You'll see how serious my resolve is."

Min-hyeok pulled on his work gloves and glared at the truck reversing in with the eyes of a beast.

"Hey, you don't have to glare at it like that."

"I'll show you my true colors."

This kid doesn't listen to a word I say.

Still, looking at the fire in his eyes and the way he'd steeled himself, Seong-min figured at least the kid was properly locked in — and that was a relief. What mattered to Seong-min was whether the person working beside him would actually pull his weight instead of slacking off. On a job this hard, even one person loafing made the partner miserable. So as weird as Min-hyeok's attitude was, seeing him hyped up and ready was better than the alternative.

At last the courier logistics truck's dungeon opened, and inside, countless packages from every region were stacked high and deep.

"Let's go."

"Yes sir!"

The courier war had begun.

Whether it was the hype or the attitude that showed how seriously he'd set his mind to it, Min-hyeok worked harder than yesterday, hauling packages off the truck and setting them on the conveyor rail. He grunted and groaned, but he didn't slack — and they cleared an entire truck's worth of packages onto the automatic rail right on schedule. In the end, how hard your partner worked decided how fast you could empty a truck.

They finished the first truck a little faster than yesterday, which bought them a bit more breathing room.

"Hah… hah…"

Min-hyeok sat wiping sweat and catching his breath. Seong-min pulled a thermos from his bag and poured him a cup of cold water.

"Here. Drink."

"Oh~ Water!"

The second he took the thermos lid, he brought it to his mouth and gulped it down.

"Hyung, can I get one more?"

"Sure. You're working hard, so I'll pour you another."

He refilled it, and Min-hyeok drained that one just as eagerly.

"Ahh~ I'm alive. Hyung, you're my savior!"

"Don't overdo it."

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Seong-min answered with a snort of laughter and poured himself a cup as well. The water really was colder than yesterday — probably because it had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠been sitting in the thermos.

"Wow… even when you steel yourself for it, this is seriously brutal."

Min-hyeok roughly wiped the sweat running down his forehead with his sleeve and stuck out his tongue.

"Courier loading and unloading didn't get famous for nothing. But it's brutal in proportion to the daily pay, so people still do it."

For people who, for personal reasons, couldn't take bank transfers, the company put the day's wages in an envelope. Getting cash in hand instead of a deposit made the work feel more rewarding, too — that was part of it. Some people worked hard just for the pleasure of receiving that envelope of cash at the end of the day.

Seong-min was one of them. Getting cash in an envelope instead of a bank transfer made him feel, I really worked hard today. There was a reason they handed out the money that way.

"Honestly, if the daily rate is a hundred seventy thousand won, it's not bad — but damn, is it hard. When I was working as a waiter I sometimes made more than this, and it wasn't nearly this exhausting. Of course there were awkward situations, and the income wasn't steady…"

"Waiter? You worked at a room salon or a nightclub?"

"Nightclub. Not for long — about seven months. Besides that I did odd jobs, and, well… stuff that paid pretty well, though I don't really want to get into it."

"Stuff that paid pretty well?"

Min-hyeok grinned.

"Hyung, hard to say it right here, but if you played it right it was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the kind of work where you could touch real money. I saw hyungs who'd started before me, and when business was good they made a lot. Rolexes and Ferraris were nothing special."

"What kind of work was that?"

"Kinda hard to talk about… and it's gotten a lot harder to do these days anyway."

"Sounds illegal just from the description."

"Hah! I thought so yesterday too, but hyung, your instincts are insane?!"

"……"

Was that really something to be shocked about? Anyone hearing that story would assume it was illegal. Was the kid an idiot, or just simple?

"Hyung, you should learn face-reading or fortune-telling sometime! Looking at you, you've got talent for it."

"…You're joking, right?"

"I'm serious."

"……"

Seong-min looked down for a moment at Min-hyeok, who was blinking up at him, then quietly turned, closed the thermos, and put it back in his bag.

"Hah! Hyung… look over there."

At Min-hyeok's startled voice, Seong-min turned his head. Another truck was reversing in their direction.

"Second vehicle's starting."

"Wow… breaks are over in no time."

"We still rested a little longer than yesterday, though."

"Yeah, that's true."

"If we finish this one as fast as the last, we get a little more rest. Let's push."

The trucks arrived on schedule. Finish faster, and even a short rest stretched a little longer. Slack off and fall behind, and rest time shrank by the same amount — because the next vehicle always came in on time.

The second truck's doors opened.

"Come on, Seong-min. You can do this."

He pumped himself up the way he did at the gym, with lines straight out of a youth drama — steeling his resolve.

"That's right, hyung! Let's do this…! Let's show them who we are…!"

The shout from beside him drew stares from people working other lines, and the embarrassment fell entirely on Seong-min. For someone who used to mutter things like that without a second thought, this was the first time he'd ever felt self-conscious about it.

I should cut that out from now on.

The second truck's doors swung wide. Seong-min and Min-hyeok both worked hard. The third truck was the same.

By the time they'd emptied all three, the sweet relief of lunch break had finally arrived.

Today's meal was a can of soda and a fried-rice lunch box. Seong-min grabbed a disposable spoon and chopsticks along with the drink, found a decent spot, and cracked open the lunch box. Naturally, Min-hyeok ate with him.

After that they had free time until the supervisor called them back at one.

"Hyung, how did you end up doing this job?"

"This job?"

"Yeah. This is seriously brutal work. You can't do it on half-assed resolve."

Having experienced courier loading and unloading two days in a row, Min-hyeok seemed genuinely curious about why Seong-min did it.

"To eat."

"Huh?"

"If I want to eat, I have to do what I can do. I didn't learn much, and a high school diploma isn't exactly impressive. I'm not particularly smart, either. So when I looked for things I could actually do, it was jobs like this. That's why I do it."

"There are other part-time jobs, though."

"There are. But gombang and work like this pay same-day, and the daily rate is solid. Hourly easily clears ten thousand won."

On top of that, if something came up you could simply not show. You earned what you put in — that was the nature of this kind of work.

"What's gombang? Is that courier work too?"

"No. Construction site work. Brutal, but the hourly pay is good."

"For real?"

"Yeah. Next time there's a chance, want to try it? Watching you work this job, you've got potential."

"Potential means I'm good at it, right?"

"At this level, yeah, I'll give you that. You haven't run off, and you're pulling your weight."

"I've got that side to me, you know. Not bragging — when I was a waiter my nickname was Wind, because my hands were that—"

"Why did you start doing courier loading and unloading?"

Sensing Min-hyeok's story was about to stretch on, Seong-min cut him off and flipped the question back.

"Me? Well… same-day pay, and… it just seemed decent."

"Decent?"

"Even though it's brutal… after doing it yesterday… yeah."

The unexpected answer made Seong-min think that this kid, who'd looked like a total slacker, had actually made up his mind to do this job. There was real sincerity in the answer — no joke in it.

They finished lunch, gathered again at one for attendance and a briefing, then went straight back onto the line.

All through the afternoon, Min-hyeok kept working hard.

"See you tomorrow, hyung~!"

"You actually coming?"

"Of course I am…! What do you take me for? I'm out~!"

Seong-min watched Min-hyeok wave and hurry off, then set out for the bus stop himself.

Today I won't go straight home. I'll stop by the gym first.

As planned, Seong-min intended to drop by the gym on the way.

Status Window.

Walking toward the bus stop with anticipation, he opened it.

Nice!

Just as expected — four level-ups. He immediately dumped all four points into Martial Power.

Finally — Martial Power is at seventeen.

Three more points and Martial Power would hit twenty. Beyond the four level-ups, he still had fourteen percent experience left.

The harder the work, the better the experience gains.

Confirming that formula with his own eyes felt good. He planned to get one more level-up at the gym before heading home, which meant five level-ups in a single day.

I can feel myself growing. Heh heh heh…

Watching the change through the Status Window filled him with a deep sense of satisfaction.