Even Madness Has Its Limits
Morning broke.
When I checked my phone, there was an absurdly grateful KakaoTalk message from Seola waiting for me.
I thought about replying right away, but I had to get to my part-time job, so I put it off.
If I answered now, we’d probably only manage a short exchange before it ended there.
When I got to the job, I saw my senior and Ji-hyun already there before me.
After I greeted them, Ji-hyun’s attitude was noticeably different from before.
“Haa... I feel like I’m dying. Are you okay, oppa?”
“I’m fine. I got plenty of rest yesterday.”
“Whoa... Oppa, you really can hold your liquor. That’s amazing.”
“One day of rest is enough.”
“Absolutely not. I’m still suffering. And thank you for helping me.”
“Aw, forget it. How many times are you going to thank me?”
“Because I keep being grateful, that’s why.”
Yeah, quitting this part-time job had definitely been the right call to make. I’d only gone out and had a good time, and somehow Ji-hyun and I had gotten this close.
“Whoa, you two have gotten close, huh?”
“She’s just thanking me for helping her the other day.”
“Huh? Then what about me?”
“Oppa, you were too busy playing around with other girls.”
“... That’s a little unfair.”
It was a perfectly reasonable complaint. I wasn’t saying my senior hadn’t been fooling around with women. I’d just been fooling around with him just as much as he had.
We were joking around about the other day when the manager came in and saw the scene.
“Hey! What the hell are you two doing? You came here to hang out?”
“I’m sorry.”
“If you came here to work, then work!”
As I apologized, I caught my senior’s eye.
We held a conversation with nothing but our expressions.
Why the hell is that bastard acting like this?
Beats me. Ah, maybe he’s mad because he didn’t end up with Ji-hyun and now he’s watching you two chatter away.
He’s seriously pathetic.
He probably thinks the same thing about you, which is why he’s blowing up like that.
... What a pain in the ass.
Yeah, he’s probably a pain in the ass too. He’s acting even worse than usual. When the Benz guy used to come around, he wasn’t this bad.
What a shitty asshole.
Then quit already.
I was seriously tempted.
Should I quit? I felt like I could get Ji-hyun’s number easy enough.
We opened the store in that awkward mood.
***
Evening.
“Ugh. This is seriously insane.”
“Why are there so many customers today?”
“No clue. Usually on days like this, somebody screws up at least once.”
“As long as it’s not me, I’m fine.”
“Then are you saying I’m supposed to be the one who screws up? Of course it has to be me. Your mistake is my mistake. My mistake is also my mistake.”
“...”
For some reason, business was unbelievably good today. So good that I, stuck in the kitchen, had to help with serving as well.
“Wow... this is really hectic. How’s it going in the kitchen?”
“Same here. At least the full tables have slowed down the orders a bit, so there’s some breathing room.”
“Phew... thank goodness.”
“The problem is that the floor’s probably even busier.”
As I talked with the newly familiar Ji-hyun, I saw the manager’s expression twist at the counter.
Before, those looks used to scare me, so I’d deliberately kept my distance. Not anymore.
If anything, it felt like proof that Ji-hyun and I had grown closer, so I smiled even more as we talked.
“Your appetizer’s ready.”
“I’ll take it. A customer’s calling over there.”
“You sure?”
Right as the side dish came out, a customer on the other side called for a waiter. Since I mostly worked in the kitchen, I wasn’t really used to serving, so Ji-hyun was being considerate in her own way.
I carried out the water the customer had asked for.
And then—
“Ah!”
Ji-hyun was laying out the appetizer when a customer, trying to clear space at the table, ended up knocking the existing dish onto his clothes.
It was clearly the customer’s mistake.
But apparently he didn’t see it that way.
“What the fuck are you doing?”
“... Pardon?”
In an instant, everyone in the restaurant turned to look. The customer who’d started cursing, or rather that bastard, didn’t care in the slightest and kept going.
“This is fucking ridiculous. I bought this outfit yesterday. Hey, you asshole! What are you doing, not paying attention? What are you going to do about this?”
Ji-hyun, flustered, couldn’t even get a word out and looked like she might burst into tears any second.
And honestly, who could blame her? It was bad enough to get cursed at over something that wasn’t even her fault, but now everyone else was staring too.
On top of that, the clothes really did look expensive.
I stepped in.
“Excuse me.”
“Who the hell are you supposed to be?”
“I’m another part-time worker. I saw it from the side, and it was clearly the customer’s mistake.”
“Wow, you fucking little piece of trash, huh? Listen, asshole. If you came here to work part-time, then act like it. If the customer got hurt, you should be bowing your head, not saying what? It was my fault?”
“...”
Damn it. My anger was climbing straight to the top of my skull.
A customer only deserved to be called a customer if they actually acted like one. This bastard was exactly the kind of trash customer people called a fucker behind his back.
“How much is it? I’ll buy you a new outfit.”
“Ha. Jesus, that’s fucking hilarious. Hey. What can you possibly do when you’re just some part-timer?”
“...”
“If you came here trying to earn money, then you should be running errands for me. A broke little bastard with no money acting all high and mighty pisses me off. Hey. You want to die?”
“...”
He was going way beyond what I’d expected, and it was getting harder and harder to stay polite.
Just as I was about to fight back properly—
“I’m sorry, sir! The part-timer doesn’t know any better yet...”
The manager rushed out and cut between us, offering an apology.
Fuck?
What pissed me off even more was that he blamed me in the middle of all that.
“What are you waiting for! Apologize already!”
I couldn’t bring myself to bow my head, so I just glared at him. The manager glared back as though he wanted to kill me.
Ji-hyun, standing beside us, apologized too and hurried us into the kitchen.
Once we were inside, Ji-hyun’s eyes filled with tears, fat drops spilling down her cheeks as she sniffled.
“Hic... I’m sorry, oppa. Because of me...”
Those were some seriously big tears. She must have been really shaken.
Then the bastard manager came in. He didn’t give a damn about the part-timers at all.
“Hey! Have you two lost your minds? Are you trying to drive this place out of business?”
“Manager, didn’t you clearly see it? That customer made the mistake.”
“Who made the mistake isn’t the important part! You should’ve apologized!”
“...”
This asshole had gotten into fights with customers at this place more than a few times, and yet somehow he was making us out to be the abnormal ones. Hell, the customer had been the first one to start swearing.
“Oh? Look at those eyes. Want to hit me? I’ve already been annoyed by how cocky you’ve been today, and now you’re really causing trouble. Hey, do you want to die?”
The manager shoved my forehead with his index finger, humiliating me.
“Are you an idiot? Do you not have eyes? Can’t you read the situation? Like the fucking customer said, if you came here to work part-time, then shut up and do your job. You people aren’t allowed to have feelings.”
Ah, I couldn’t take it anymore.
“What bullshit. You idiot.”
“... Did you just curse at me?”
“Then who else here besides you is the idiot? Are you blind?”
“You little shit.”
The manager lost his temper too and slapped me across the face.
Smack.
“Eek!”
“Shut up! You too! What exactly did you do right that you’re only crying?”
“Hah.”
It wasn’t that it hurt so much as that I couldn’t believe what was happening.
What kind of confidence did this lunatic have that he’d even use violence?
Ah.
Thinking about it, I could understand it well enough. To that manager bastard, I probably wasn’t a part-timer at all — just a sucker.
Come to think of it, that made sense. Whenever there was a hole to patch, I ran out immediately, and I worked without a single complaint...
He must have thought of me as nothing more than a slave.
And when that slave started getting cocky, anger overrode his reason.
He probably figured that even if he hit me, I’d do nothing but apologize.
He knew my situation wasn’t exactly great.
What a real idiot.
Using someone’s bad situation to act however you want.
I was fully prepared to answer that behavior in kind.
“Can you take responsibility for this?”
“Hah. Responsibility? Jesus, let’s see how far you want to take this. You can take responsibility? Want me to sue you for damages to the store? A broke little bastard with no money and all the pride in the world... Ah, I get it now. You two slept together, didn’t you? That’s why you little shits are ganging up on me.”
“Ma-manager!”
“What, you filthy bitch! I knew it from the way you’ve been spreading yourself around everywhere.”
“This is insane.”
“You fucking bastard. You’ve had no pride and always did as you were told, and now that you’ve got a girlfriend, you think your situation has changed?”
“You idiot. Get a grip.”
He had been right — I really was an idiot. If this had happened before, I would have apologized even after all this. No, actually, this situation probably never would have happened in the first place.
When a customer got angry, I would have bowed my head first, no matter whose fault it was.
That was how I survived in Seoul.
When I had no money, I couldn’t afford to keep even my pride.
But now—
“What a shame. I’m not like that anymore.”
Now I wasn’t so broke that I had to throw away my pride.
In fact, I was someone who could throw away money if it meant keeping his pride.
And because there had once been a version of me who gave up his pride, I had even more reason to hold onto it now.
That was the only way I could acknowledge myself.
“Let’s give you a proper lesson. This is what real life looks like, you idiot.”
“You bastard, you’re really going to the bitter end... Hey! Did you and that girl fuck first and then watch a movie or something? You think you’re the main character in that movie?”
“Go to hell, idiot. Even if I’m not the main character of a movie, I’m still the main character of my own life.”
“Wow... Jesus, what the hell do you see in this idiot? Well, I guess a slut would have no eye for quality.”
“Senior, please take care of Ji-hyun for me.”
“Fuck, where are you going! You two get back to work! You want me to actually file a damages claim?”
Today was the day.
I was going to teach this idiot, who had no idea how scary the world could be, a proper lesson.
He’d learn just how scary the world was.
But part-timers were easy prey, and in his lifetime he’d probably never once felt threatened by one.
So feel it now.
I took out my phone and dialed the Chief Secretary’s number.
“W-what? You calling the police or something? Which side do you think the police would be on? Be my guest.”
“What bullshit.”
Even bullshit had limits.