Sim Geum-a 2
After the long and intense time with Sim Geum-a finally ended, I finished showering, put my suit back on, and stepped outside to find that a full three hours had already slipped by.
Without the suit, my legs might well have been trembling.
I found Yang Jin-ju and Kang Po-gyeong waiting for me with visible anxiety in that conference-room-like space from earlier.
The moment they saw me, they both exhaled in relief and began explaining everything that had happened while I was gone.
“Oppa, what on earth happened in there?”
Yang Jin-ju asked.
“We’d been coordinating the trade quantities with that Sim Geum-a woman’s subordinate for quite a while.
Then suddenly someone whispered in her ear, her expression completely changed, and she said, ‘Understood. We’ll hand over the vehicle right away.’”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
Kang Po-gyeong added.
“And then she told us, ‘Next time, prepare a greater variety of goods in larger quantities, and while you’re at it, fill up on fuel and drive the car we’re giving you today yourselves,’ before guiding us back here.
Just what… happened inside, Yeong-chan-nim?”
Faced with their innocent questions, I couldn’t bring myself to tell them the truth.
I simply mumbled something vague like, “Ah… well, the bosses hit it off pretty well,” and left it at that.
The door opened. One armored figure climbed into the cargo bed while the other two women took the driver’s and passenger seats of the departing one-ton truck. Naked, Sim Geum-a watched it all in silence from her bedroom window.
Then came a careful knock—knock knock.
“Come in.”
At her languid reply the door opened, and her deputy Choi Eun-ji—the same woman who had just been negotiating the trade with Yang Jin-ju’s group—stepped inside.
She looked at Sim Geum-a’s bare back standing by the window, let out a deep sigh, and spoke.
“You gave them the car and your body.
What the hell are you doing? Even if we don’t use vehicles much, this is a clear loss.
Couldn’t we have just sent those people on their way?”
Without even turning to look at her, Sim Geum-a shot back, “Why is that a loss?”
She watched the truck grow smaller in the distance and continued.
“Eun-ji… Eun-ji… You’ve been in this business with me from the very beginning. How do you still not get it…?”
She walked slowly over to the bed and collapsed face-down onto it. Turning only her head, she looked at Choi Eun-ji.
“Press on my lower back a little, will you? I think I overdid it… That younger man turned out to be quite the beast, contrary to appearances.”
Choi Eun-ji sighed again, climbed onto her back, and began pressing firmly into the small of her back with practiced hands. Sim Geum-a let out a catlike, satisfied moan—“Oh! Ah, right there, that feels good”—before continuing.
“There’s only one thing I’ve learned with my body since I started crawling through this world at eighteen.”
She rolled over and looked up at Choi Eun-ji sitting astride her.
“A man never forgets a woman he’s mixed bodies with—whether it was good or bad. Never, for the rest of his life.
And a woman who danced on top of him like that… even less so.”
She turned her head back toward the window, gazing at the sky where the truck had now vanished to a speck, and spoke again.
“That guy out there… if something happens later and he has to choose between me and someone else—say, if those self-important 50th Division bastards end up going head-to-head with me…”
She looked back at Choi Eun-ji with a smile full of absolute certainty.
“He’ll take my side without question. Men are simple creatures like that.
A single night’s bond is far tougher and more terrifying than people think.”
Then she snickered, stuck a cigarette between her lips from the pack beside her, and lit it.
Meanwhile, at the edge of Sim Geum-a’s territory, a construction site repairing the fortress walls presented a scene entirely different from before.
“Hey, this hammer is the real deal. I barely hit it a few times and the nails just sink right in.”
“The nails too. The ones we used before were so rusty they’d bend all the time, but these are solid and straight.”
Admiration spilled from the mouths of the sweating laborers. In their hands, instead of the old, dull tools from yesterday, they now held gleaming new nails and sturdy hammers that fit perfectly in the grip.
That single small change was dramatically boosting the efficiency of what had been a grueling, dangerous worksite.
“Where the hell did they get stuff this good? Did they raid an entire military base or something?”
“No kidding. Thanks to this, today’s work’s gonna finish way earlier than usual.”
The workers traded jokes as they continued the construction far more smoothly—and safely—than before.
They simply felt grateful for a day’s labor that had become a little more comfortable, and kept swinging their hammers in silence.
In the kitchen of Sim Geum-a’s cafeteria, another quiet revolution was underway.
“Whoa… these are really nice. Not a single leak, and they’re so light.”
“Right? The old plastic ones always stank and cracked so water leaked out all the time.”
The cafeteria workers tapped the four newly arrived fifty-liter stainless-steel water containers with wonder, pouring out praise.
Until now they had collected rainwater or hauled polluted river water from nearby, then struggled to purify it for drinking. Even that precious water, lacking proper storage, would grow moss or attract bugs within days and end up discarded.
But now everything was different. These clean, hygienic, large-capacity “vessels of life” that could safely store water had instantly solved their biggest headache—water management and storage.
“Even if it doesn’t rain, we’ll be fine for a few days now.”
“Yeah. With these, we can give the kids cleaner water too.”
Genuine smiles bloomed on the cafeteria workers’ faces for the first time in a long while.
They still had no idea how great a change and hope these gleaming metal containers would bring to their lives and this small community.
They simply felt a humble happiness at the thought of cooking dinner tonight with cleaner water.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The dull sound of a hammer striking a rusted metal plate rang out, and people who had been at their various tasks inside Sim Geum-a’s territory stopped what they were doing and, as if by prior agreement, began lining up in front of the largest building in the center.
That place, with a huge cauldron steaming away, was the group’s only cafeteria, where meals were distributed to every member twice a day.
“Line up straight! Anyone who cuts gets no food today!”
Overseers who until yesterday had carried old iron pipes or clubs now walked around with spears tipped in gleaming metal points, shouting to keep order.
Choi Eun-ji climbed onto a rickety wooden chair to the right of the cafeteria and began calling out to the crowd.
“Starting today, every person will be issued a new meal tray, spoon, and chopsticks!”
At her words, the murmuring crowd’s eyes all turned to her at once.
“These are extremely valuable items, so when you’re finished eating, return them to the designated spot without fail!
If anyone gets caught trying to sneak one away, our overseers won’t go easy on you!
Think carefully! Our overseers aren’t carrying blunt clubs anymore—they’re holding something very sharp and pointed!”
She watched with satisfaction as the laborers received their meals on the gleaming new trays one by one and went to their seats to eat.
Fingering the smooth, clean metal spoon in her own hand, she thought:
People who can make or obtain things like this in bulk…
Sim Geum-a’s words brushed through her mind once more.
…In an emergency, they really might be a huge help to us.
Some time after the meal period ended, Sim Geum-a was lying on the old mattress on the rooftop again, smoking a cigarette and murmuring languidly.
“…When’s he going to come back? I’m already waiting this much—this is bad…”
Choi Eun-ji, who had been watching her, plopped down onto the empty spot on the mattress beside her and said flatly,
“They’ll have no choice but to come back here if they want to refuel. So don’t worry too much.”
She added, as if to reassure her,
“And when we trade again, I’ll check the dashboard carefully. Don’t worry about that either.”
“You’ve got an exact record of how much they’ve driven so far, right?”
Sim Geum-a asked, staring up at the ash-gray sky. Choi Eun-ji simply nodded.
The next time they returned, checking the vehicle’s odometer would tell them exactly how far the truck had been driven. And if calculated carefully, that would let them roughly estimate the distance to the unknown “sanctuary” where Seo Yeong-chan and his group were staying.
Sim Geum-a stuck another cigarette between her lips and lit it.
“Hehehe…”
An unpleasant smile curled at the corner of her mouth.
“When’s he really going to show up? I’m going crazy waiting.”
Her waiting was not pure longing for a lover.
It was the tenacious, dangerous wait of a cunning predator, watching for her prey to walk back into her web of its own accord.