Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Osaka Izakaya (3)
Upon hearing that Chairman Jeong Hui would be coming tomorrow, the H Chemicals director lost his appetite for alcohol.
If he drank too much now, he might make a mistake in front of Chairman Jeong Hui tomorrow. So he stood up from his seat.
The Osaka branch manager also stood up and said,
“Alright, let’s get a good night’s rest and see each other tomorrow. We shouldn’t meet Chairman Jeong Hui with a face all dull and puffy from drinking too much.”
As he put on the suit he had taken off, the director grumbled,
“Of all times, why does Chairman Jeong Hui have to come when we’re on a business trip to Japan? We can’t even properly enjoy sightseeing—what a waste.”
The branch manager tapped the director’s shoulder and said,
“Think of this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! How often do we get to see Chairman Jeong Hui up close like this? Try to make a good impression in front of her. That way, you’ll rise steadily.”
“Didn’t Chairman Jeong Hui fire an executive last year during an inspection of the Changwon plant?”
“Oh, I heard about that too.”
“She asked about the factory’s electricity usage and dismissed him on the spot.”
“That executive couldn’t answer the cost per kilowatt-hour right away. He had only recently been transferred down after promotion from headquarters, so he probably hadn’t fully grasped those details yet.”
“He couldn’t answer immediately and got fired? That’s unfortunate for him.”
“There must have been other reasons. Maybe his age or something like that. Don’t be too nervous—just take it easy and meet her tomorrow.”
The H Chemicals staff parted ways with the branch manager’s group and returned to their hotel. It was a hotel near Namba Station in Osaka.
The hotel was a newly built four-star hotel, clean and well maintained. The staff were also quite friendly. This hotel had been arranged by the Osaka branch manager.
Kim Chi-rok asked the director,
“You and the Osaka branch manager seemed quite close.”
“We worked together back when we were employees at the staff and assistant manager level. Most of our cohort has already left the group, so we’re even closer now.”
“The Osaka branch manager seems to have majored in Japanese.”
“That guy majored in English. But he’s good at Japanese too.”
“Is that so?”
“His older brother was probably a former consul general in Japan. So back in his employee days, he used to travel to Japan often.”
“I see.”
Kim Chi-rok thought that the Osaka branch manager was able to hold his position in Japan because of those connections.
[That’s right. It’s all connections. Connections are ability.]
Entering the hotel lobby, the staff at the front desk greeted them.
Among them, one female employee even greeted them in Korean. It was impressive how she could immediately recognize Koreans.
The section manager who came along said to the female staff member,
“You speak Korean well.”
“Yes. I studied language training at a foreign languages university in Korea.”
With that, the Japanese woman smiled brightly.
In one corner of the hotel lobby, disposable amenities were laid out. They were packed in small plastic bags for guests to take upstairs one by one.
However, a hotel employee organizing the disposable items was kneeling while doing so.
[Working on one’s knees… The work ethic of Japanese people is truly admirable.]
The group took plastic bags containing toothbrushes and other items and got into the elevator.
After entering, Kim Chi-rok pressed the button for the 12th floor where his room was located. But the elevator did not move.
The section manager who had come with them chuckled and said,
“You idiot! You have to hold the room key the hotel gave you against the button. That’s how the elevator works. This is an intelligent building.”
The section manager seemed more relaxed than the director. Since meeting Chairman Jeong Hui the next day was a burden for the director, he appeared tense, while the section manager was not. At his level, even if he stumbled in answering questions, it could likely be brushed off.
But the director was different. A situation could arise where he might have to put his position on the line. That’s why he was nervous.
Looking toward the elevator wall, the director muttered to himself,
“Originally, we were supposed to visit Universal Studios in the morning tomorrow and then go to Kyoto...”
The section manager smiled and said,
“Going to see geisha in Kyoto?”
“That would be difficult. It’s not just about money—didn’t they say you need reservations and can’t get in without them?”
Inside the hotel room, Kim Chi-rok took a shower.
After finishing, he changed into the yukata provided by the hotel.
Standing by the window where the night outside was dark, Kim Chi-rok drank a Sapporo canned beer.
[This is nice. I graduated from Seoul National University and work at a large company affiliate, so I get to enjoy this kind of comfort.]
Still, Kim Chi-rok felt a bit disappointed that he wouldn’t be able to go sightseeing tomorrow.
He thought he could take leave sometime later and come alone, but then he would have to pay out of pocket. Since most of his salary was being saved in deposits to prepare a lump sum, that was not easy.
Kim Chi-rok began to think that he should bring his mother to a nice hotel like this someday.
His mother had staked her entire life on Kim Chi-rok.
She had moved all the way to Gangnam just to educate her only son properly. She worked tirelessly at two jobs to support his education.
Because she worked as an apartment cleaner, his mother had to go to work early. She had to clean the apartment’s main entrance before 8 a.m.
Residents would file complaints if the entrance was not clean. If that happened, she could lose her job.
Having worked as a cleaner for so long, her hands had become worn and her fingerprints had faded.
Sometimes in the morning, she would struggle with the fingerprint scanner at the management office. In winter, she had to repeatedly press her fingers against the device while shivering in the cold.
After Kim Chi-rok got a job, his mother quit the apartment cleaning job.
Even though her son had been employed, she still wanted to keep working. But she had to stop because of her knees. Carrying heavy water buckets up and down stairs had caused degenerative arthritis.
Kim Chi-rok’s father had an accident while working at a construction site when Kim Chi-rok was in the fifth grade.
His father worked as a scaffolder at a construction site and fell from a height of five stories while installing scaffolding.
As a result, his father suffered serious injuries to his back and legs.
The injuries were treated through industrial accident compensation, but afterward he was unable to work.
For about a year, his father stayed at home, smoking cigarettes all day, and then one day said he was going to Wasu Vegas.
His mother tried to stop him, but he said he didn’t want to be a burden to the family anymore and insisted on leaving for Wasu Vegas.
When Kim Chi-rok heard that his father was going to Wasu Vegas, he thought it was Las Vegas in the United States. But it was Wasu-ri in Cheorwon County, Gangwon Province.
According to his mother, one of his father’s friends raised black goats on a nearby hillside in Wasu-ri, and he was going there.
About two weeks after his father left, a letter arrived.
It said his father’s friend had already moved elsewhere and could not be found, so he would live in the mountains, gathering medicinal herbs and living like a hermit.
His father said that if his back and legs ever recovered, he would return to live with the family.
After that, his father went into the mountains and disappeared without a trace, as if he had become a mountain spirit.
In middle school, his mother once went to Wasu-ri herself but returned in tears.
It seemed his father’s situation was not easy.
“Your father has become a mountain man.”
His mother said this and placed all her hopes on Kim Chi-rok. She worked herself relentlessly.
Even with her hands worn down and suffering from degenerative arthritis, she continued working fiercely.
A photo of his parents taken when they were young looked truly charming.
His father had originally been a poet. He had taught poetry writing at a local cultural center, where his mother had been a student. The two dated and eventually married.
However, the income of a poet was meager—worse than manual labor.
When Kim Chi-rok was born, his father quit teaching at the cultural center and began working at construction sites.
His mother also had to earn money, working at a mart in Goyang.
Still, the family had been modestly happy as ordinary middle-class citizens. But after his father’s accident, that fragile happiness was shattered.
Growing up, Kim Chi-rok came to resent his incompetent father. He also resented his mother.
Especially the fact that his mother worked as a cleaner in an apartment complex where his classmates lived—it wounded his pride.
He repeatedly begged his mother to move.
But she refused, insisting that he had to attend school in Gangnam’s elite district.
Living in a semi-basement, Kim Chi-rok was constantly ostracized at school. He was bullied.
Students in Gangnam spent money differently. From bags to shoes, everything they owned was high-end.
The wealthy kids would corner the poor Kim Chi-rok and take his money.
If he protested, what came back were fists. Not just one, but several fists.
In particular, a boy named Im Jae-geun, who lived in the Raemian apartment where his mother worked, bullied him terribly.
Im Jae-geun, the son of a prosecutor, would often extort money and beat him.
One day when Kim Chi-rok came home swollen all over after being assaulted by Im Jae-geun, his mother interrogated him, asking who he had fought with. She even jumped up, insisting they go to that boy’s house.
But Kim Chi-rok refused to tell her. His mother worked as a cleaner in the apartment where Im Jae-geun lived.
Fortunately, the bullying subsided around his second year of high school. Perhaps due to maturing and the pressure of college entrance exams.
Im Jae-geun graduated from Konkuk University and now lived in Garak-dong. His parents still lived in Dogok-dong in Gangnam, and after he got married, they seemed to have bought him a newly built apartment in Garak-dong. As expected of a wealthy family, he had married early as well.
Kim Chi-rok wondered if he himself would ever be able to get married. It seemed impossible without first owning a home. With that thought, he lay down on the bed in resignation.
Suddenly, the face of the famous geisha from the poster he had seen at the izakaya came to mind.
She was truly beautiful.