New Year's Messages

When the delivery boxes came into the shop, they arrived unfolded. You had to fold them into proper box shapes ahead of time and stack them in the storage room, or the orders would back up the second things got busy. And of course, folding them fell to the two of us working the floor — me and Lee Jieun.

Hum, hum—

A little tune drifted over from beside me as we worked through the mindless folding. She had always been a good singer, so it wasn't grating, but something about her today felt different — unusually upbeat, even.

"What's with you? You seem like you're in a great mood today."

Lee Jieun flashed a bright, toothy grin.

"Oppa, today's January 1st."

"And that means...?"

"Wait... you don't know what January 1st is?"

January 1st?

New Year's. The start of 2018. Everybody gets a year older. What else was there? It wasn't like she'd just come of age or anything.

While I stood there thinking, Jieun pressed on, looking genuinely disappointed in me.

"The minimum wage! 7,530 won! It went up by a whole thousand won!"

"Ah."

Now her good mood made sense. For part-timers like us, what could possibly matter more than the hourly rate?

Well, I don't really feel anything about it...

Then again, if I didn't have the Sex Coin app, I'd probably be soaking up this raise just as much as she was. Thinking about it that way, maybe Sex Coin wasn't entirely a blessing...?

While I was entertaining that idle thought, Jieun kept going, still riding her high.

"How could you not know this? What, you don't even care about the wage anymore because you're quitting? When are you leaving, anyway?"

"I dunno... I'd like to get out of here soon, but I figure I should wait until they find a replacement."

"That's not how it works. So if they never find anyone, you're just staying forever?"

"Come on, I'll at least finish out the month. I already told the boss, so he'll understand."

She nodded at that and fell quiet.

A brief silence settled over us, and then a faint buzzing started up from Jieun's side.

Bzzzt— bzzzt—

The vibration kept repeating, loud enough to get on your nerves. She was so lost in thought she didn't seem to notice, just folding boxes in silence, so I said something.

"Jieun, isn't that your phone?"

"Oh... it's not a call. Probably KakaoTalk."

Bzz— bzzzzt—

She was right — the intervals weren't regular the way a phone call would be.

"You gonna check it? What if you got added to some group chat?"

Only then did she pull out her phone. The second she looked at the screen, her face scrunched up.

"Ugh, seriously... maybe I should just turn this thing off."

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

The cheerful girl from a minute ago had vanished. Watching her get irritated like that, I couldn't help wondering what was going on.

"What's wrong? Who's messaging you?"

"Oppa! Just look at this."

She shoved the phone in front of my face. The screen was a wall of one-sided messages.

One person had dumped a pile of short, one-sided messages on her. And even as I was looking at the screen, another useless one popped up.

"StrongestSeongyong...? Wait, is this the Choi Seongyong who works days?"

She nodded and scrolled the screen up so I could see more. Jieun had replied here and there, but the overwhelming majority of the messages were Choi Seongyong talking at her.

"What the hell? Has he always been like this?"

Watching someone fire off one-sided messages at near-stalker frequency made my face twist before I could stop it. I'd known Choi Seongyong had a thing for Jieun, but seeing it laid out like this put a bad taste in my mouth.

"No, we barely even texted before..."

"So why the sudden change? He eat something weird?"

A curse had almost slipped out. I sanded it down as much as I could.

"I don't know. He's been like this ever since I sent him a New Year's greeting this morning."

"A New Year's greeting?"

Come to think of it, New Year's messages had come in this morning from the people I worked with — Cha Heejung, Jieun, hyung Dongmin, and the rest. I'd skimmed them and fired back half-hearted replies like "yeah, you too haha" and "you too, hyung haha," and that had been the end of it.

"And he's been like this ever since?"

"Just scroll through the whole thing."

Jieun simply handed me the phone. With her permission, I scrolled all the way to the top, and their first exchange appeared.

Harmless enough, so far. From Jieun's side it looked like she'd meant to send a polite greeting and leave it there — but Choi Seongyong, who'd had his eye on her for a while, had unilaterally kept the conversation going.

Choi Seongyong had even sent a photo of the rice cake soup he'd eaten for breakfast, trying to keep the conversation alive. Jieun, for her part, was giving him dry, half-hearted answers, clearly trying to let it die.

So this is how Jieun texts someone she has zero interest in.

I'd almost never seen a message from her without an emoticon. If a conversation like this had been with me, the Jieun I knew would have gone more like—

Come to think of it, Jieun really has always been like this with Choi Seongyong specifically.

I remembered the drinking party — how she'd scolded him for smelling like cigarettes when he tried to sit next to her.

Skimming through the rest, the pattern was obvious. Jieun kept giving one-word answers or taking forever to reply, trying to starve the conversation out. Choi Seongyong, meanwhile, just kept sending empty, pointless messages with nothing in them.

Does this guy have zero social awareness? He didn't seem completely clueless at that drinking party...

I couldn't tell if he was doing this because he genuinely liked Jieun, or if Choi Seongyong was just a weirdo.

I shook my head and handed the phone back. She looked up at me with bright, expectant eyes.

"You ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠see it all? What should I do?"

"Hmm... more importantly, did something happen between you and Choi Seongyong?"

"Huh? Happen?"

She tilted her head. I'd probably come at it too abruptly.

"It's just, even before this, it kind of seemed like you were uncomfortable around him?"

Words like hate and can't stand had jumped to mind, but I picked my phrasing as carefully as I could.

"Huh? No, nothing like that. Today's texts are annoying, yeah, but it's not like that."

Sure looked like she couldn't stand him...

I didn't let it show. I just nodded and moved on.

"Yeah? Well, if the texts are bugging you, why not just block him?"

"Come on, I can't just block him on KakaoTalk. Blocking's a little much."

As far as I was concerned, blocking was the obvious answer, but Jieun clearly didn't want to go that far. I didn't push it. I tossed her another option instead.

"Then what about just turning off the notifications?"

"Then I wouldn't see anyone else's messages either."

"No, not like that — just mute his notifications specifically. That's fine, right?"

"Wait, you can do that? Do it for me!"

So she just hadn't known how. I took her phone, muted StrongestSeongyong, and handed it back.

"Whoa~ I didn't even know this was a thing. How did I miss this?"

Jieun looked down at the phone I'd given back, her brow twitching slightly, then started tapping the screen with her thumb. She was clearly writing him a reply.

"What are you doing? You're not folding boxes."

"Oh, please, you were slacking off just a second ago too~. I'm just sending a reply."

She couldn't bring herself to leave him on read, so there she was, answering him again. Whether she didn't realize she was giving him an opening, or whether that was just who she was, I couldn't help letting out a sigh.

Wiiiiirrr—

"Whoa, that's creepy! So he was just sitting there texting her by himself all afternoon yesterday?"

I answered Cha Heejung over the sound of the hair dryer.

"Pretty much. After we closed last night she showed me her phone — over twenty messages."

"That's stalking at that point, isn't it?"

Her voice had climbed a notch. I glanced at her in the mirror while I kept drying my hair. She was already in full makeup, ready to leave the motel room, and her face was scrunched up tight.

"That pretty face of yours is gonna wrinkle."

I tipped the dryer up for a second and leaned in to kiss her on the cheek.

Mwah.

The kiss did its job. The frown vanished like it had never been there. But she wasn't done talking.

"Anyway, I didn't think Choi Seongyong was like that. It's kind of a lot."

"Hey, don't be too hard on him. He's just young, that's all."

I hadn't meant to talk behind the guy's back, so I found myself covering for him. I didn't have any particular fondness for Choi Seongyong, but trash-talking him hadn't been the plan. Personally, I figured people who badmouthed others only ended up docking points from themselves.

We'd spent another hot night together, same as always, and same as always Cha Heejung had gotten up first and woken me. I'd dragged myself out of bed, showered like usual, and come out — and she'd been the one to bring it up.

That was how yesterday's shift had come up naturally, and how we'd ended up here.

"Young? What's young about him? He's not even twenty anymore — he's twenty-one. He's the same age as Jieun to begin with."

Watching her still going at it, I started to wonder if I should've kept my mouth shut. It almost felt like I'd stirred something up between them...

Ah, whatever.

It wasn't like I'd made any of it up.