Winter Preparations 5
For a long while Nam Song-i stared at Sim Geum-a with a hardened expression. At last she shot to her feet and, without a word, walked toward the door.
Well, even I thought the whole thing was absurd, so her reaction was only natural.
“You’re just… leaving?”
Whether Nam Song-i left or not, Sim Geum-a simply exhaled another stream of cigarette smoke. Seeing this, Su-jin hurriedly followed and caught Nam Song-i’s arm.
“…Let go! I can’t listen to any more of this crazy talk!”
“Wait! The boss never hands out a job without proper compensation.”
“Oh yeah? You two know each other that well after all this time?”
Even with the two women arguing, Sim Geum-a still showed no reaction, so I looked at her.
She winked one eye at me as if she already knew what I was thinking.
In the end persuasion won out; Su-jin and Nam Song-i sat back down in their chairs.
“Su-jin’s right.”
Sim Geum-a finally spoke.
“If you accept my proposal, I’ll personally create ‘jobs’ for those women you’ve been so worried about.”
She watched Nam Song-i’s reaction for a moment, then stubbed the cigarette out in the ashtray and continued.
“Not good enough? Then how about this?
From now on, the detailed classification and management of resources will be work that only ‘women’ can do.”
At those words Nam Song-i, who had been looking elsewhere, flinched and turned to stare at Sim Geum-a, clearly startled by the offer.
“…That’s a method for most of the women, but in the end… it isn’t a method for the ones who’ll actually end up working there.”
“Is that so? Then what method do you have in mind for those ‘women’?”
Sim Geum-a asked with a smile, as if she had anticipated every objection.
“…Please don’t force any women into that building unless they volunteer.”
“Of course. What else?”
“…We need contraception. Just in case of any….”
“Ah, don’t worry about that. We’ll supply contraceptive tools without limit from our side.”
“…There’ll be hygiene issues too. Free use of the showers….”
“Don’t worry about that either. I’ll even build a dedicated bathhouse right next to the building.”
“Th-then we’ll need a way to control the people using it….”
“Su-jin.”
Sim Geum-a cut her off.
“I’ll assign you a few capable managers. Can you handle it?”
“Yes, boss.”
Nam Song-i fell silent, looking flustered as every problem she raised was resolved so easily, one after another.
“You forgot the most important part.”
Looking at the silent Nam Song-i, Sim Geum-a said,
“The women who’ll work in that building. They’ll need some direct ‘benefits’ coming back to them, right?”
She put a fresh cigarette between her lips and went on.
“First, the coupons or tickets needed to use that building—we’ll set the value of each one, manage them, and distribute them ourselves.”
“Wait a minute! Deciding that however you want is….”
“Instead.”
Sim Geum-a ignored the interruption and continued.
“Starting next year, when we begin building individual houses in earnest, we’ll supply them to those women first, with the highest priority.
Not shared dorms like now, with multiple people, but completely private homes of their own.”
She lit the cigarette and looked at Nam Song-i.
“Of course, there’ll be a little condition attached—that they do the work for at least five years.”
“…So, how about it?”
A little later, after Su-jin led the dazed-looking Nam Song-i out of the room, only Sim Geum-a and I remained in the conference room.
Once we were alone I brought up the part that had been bothering me.
“About building new houses earlier.
Building new houses inside the wall is impossible, so… that could become a clue that lets people infer the large-scale expansion we’re starting next spring, right?
I thought we agreed to keep that completely secret from everyone else.”
“Ah….”
At my point Sim Geum-a fell silent for a moment.
“You’re right. She didn’t seem that sharp earlier, so I just threw it out there….
You’re right, Seobang… Sorry. I’ll be more careful next time.”
“And about leaving all the detailed resource classification to the women only.
It might not come out with the same efficiency as what the men are doing now. If that happens, can we still supply resources stably to our Shelter side?”
“That part too… sorry.
I figured I needed to throw her a bigger bait to get her to bite…. Even if we reduce the compensation a bit, I’ll try putting in more personnel to somehow match the volume.”
“Then… one last thing.”
“Ah, there’s more? My head’s already working overtime today.”
When Sim Geum-a pouted and grumbled, I said with a smile,
“The contraceptive tools we agreed to supply—condoms…. Of course we can make them in the resource processing room from old tires or car rubber packings and such… but won’t the people using them feel grossed out?”
At my practical question Sim Geum-a glanced around for a moment, then came close and whispered in a very small voice,
“…It’s not like we’re the ones using them, so… whatever?”
At her all-too-honest answer I burst out laughing.
Some time later the old warehouse and the two-story building that had served as the managers’ break room inside Sim Geum-a’s fortress wall were renovated until they looked almost new.
And next to it, a small bathhouse building even began to rise.
Finally, on the day that bathhouse was completed, Nam Song-i stood before the many women gathered in front of the dormitory, with Kim Su-jin and three spear-wielding managers at her back.
“From now on, the detailed classification of resources will be work that only we women can do.”
At her words the gathered women began murmuring excitedly.
“Huh? Then does that mean we can get shower coupons or bath coupons steadily now too?”
“New clothes and winter clothes too—can we get those?”
Nam Song-i watched them for a moment, bit her lip once, and slowly continued.
“Instead… over there, in that newly built building, though only for volunteers, from now on prostitution… that is, sex work will take place….”
At her words the murmuring women fell silent in an instant, as if dead.
They stared at Nam Song-i with eyes of disbelief, and a moment later small curses began to rise here and there.
“That crazy bitch, what the hell is she spouting right now?”
“So, fuck, she’s telling us to sell our bodies!”
“Isn’t she telling us to spread our legs for the men!”
“No, she said only for volunteers!”
“What volunteers! She’s throwing out a job and telling us to crawl out on our own, fuck!”
At their murmuring Nam Song-i closed her eyes as if in pain, but a moment later she steadied her breath, opened her eyes again, and shouted,
“The women who will work in that building are truly only volunteers! It doesn’t matter if not a single one comes forward!”
As the women began to focus again, Nam Song-i looked around and continued.
“I also oppose you all doing that kind of work in that building. But I spoke directly with the owner of this place, Sim Geum-a.”
She went on.
“…First, if you work here, they said they’ll prepare contraceptive tools thoroughly from their side.”
She pointed with her finger to the newly built bathhouse.
“For hygiene issues too, they’ll make that building next door a dedicated bathhouse so you can use it freely anytime.”
This time she pointed to Kim Su-jin and the other managers standing behind her.
“And so that the men using this place don’t break the order with force, these managers have promised to stay on site twenty-four hours and protect you all.”
Looking at the women who had fallen quiet, Nam Song-i hesitated for a moment, then spoke the last and most important condition.
“And… finally….”
She swallowed once.
“If you contract to work here for at least five years, they say they’ll distribute the new houses that will be built from now on to each and every one of you.”
Having finished speaking, Nam Song-i looked once more at the women who were still silently staring only at her, then, as if she could no longer endure it, she looked at Kim Su-jin behind her.
Seeing Kim Su-jin nod and step forward to say, “We’ll accept volunteers from this evening until tomorrow evening. That will be all for now. Dismissed,” she headed toward her own dormitory with a tired, exhausted face.
Arriving in front of the dormitory, Nam Song-i stopped just as she was about to go inside, then a moment later slipped into the narrow, dark alley between the buildings.
In the narrow alley she plopped down on a pile of wooden planks, pulled her legs in, and buried her face in her knees.
The contempt and hatred mixed in the women’s gazes directed at her earlier, and the sharp curses, would not leave her mind. She finally let out a deep sigh.
“…I know you really don’t like saying these things… but I’ll do it. Is that okay?”
Whether she had followed at some point, Kim Su-jin was standing in front of her.
“What? Your role is to listen to the ‘internal talk among the women,’ right? Why’d you follow me all the way here instead of going to where they’re gathered?”
“Everyone already saw me standing with you and the other managers earlier, so what’s the point.
And the boss has planted a few more besides me. That role is over now.”
“What.”
Nam Song-i let out a bitter chuckle.
“So you don’t know everything about your boss either?”
At those words, instead of answering, Kim Su-jin quietly sat down next to her on the pile of wooden planks.
“Don’t hate the boss too much.
She may look like that, but back when she did similar work in the past… she was someone who thought and acted from the women’s perspective more than anyone.”
“…What am I hating? I’m just….”
Nam Song-i couldn’t continue for a moment.
“I’m just… I struggled so hard because I hated these kinds of terrible results in the past… but when it actually came right in front of my eyes….”
Nam Song-i bumped her forehead against the knees she was hugging with a soft thud, thud as she continued.
“…I just realized that in this world now, this is an inevitable result that has to come eventually. So I’m just feeling empty.”
“…As I said before, I’m sorry for deceiving you.”
At Kim Su-jin’s apology Nam Song-i raised her head, looked at her for a moment, then grinned and said,
“Thinking about it, you gave me so many hints, and I was the idiot for not catching on.”
“Hints? When did I?”
“From before, you kept saying good things about Sim Geum-a. I didn’t know then, but now that I know this whole situation and think back, I can see it all.”
Nam Song-i started speaking while counting on her fingers one by one.
“‘We’re the same women—would she really abandon us?’,
‘That woman must have her own way of thinking about everything.’,
‘Don’t hate the boss too much.’,
‘The boss always gives appropriate compensation when she assigns work.’ Things like that… how about it, remember?”
“D-did I… say that?”
Seeing Kim Su-jin blush and stammer at her words, Nam Song-i stood up from her seat with a somewhat more at-ease expression.
Then she looked at the newly renovated two-story building visible far away between the narrow alley.
“Yeah. Since I’ve decided to be the scapegoat anyway….”
She bit her lip and muttered,
“…I should try everything I can.”