Ace
As the conveyor sped up another notch, boxes came pouring down in a flood, and half the workers on B-line clutched their lower backs, unable to keep pace. Amid it all, Hyun-soo's hands never stopped. His eyes had grown quicker at reading the labels, and the motions of snatching up boxes and setting them on the sorting table had shed every last bit of waste. Lee Tae-ho watched from the opposite side of the line, then jabbed the arm of the worker next to him.
"Look at that. Day two, right? Looks like he's been at it a week already."
The worker turned to glance at Hyun-soo, then snorted a laugh and nodded.
"You're right. He's ridiculously good."
Just before two in the morning, three oversized boxes came barreling down one after another. Before Lee Tae-ho could even rush over, Hyun-soo already had one slung across his shoulder and was hauling it to the sorting table. Tae-ho took the remaining two and shot a quick look at Hyun-soo's face.
It was slick with sweat, but his breathing hadn't fallen apart.
"Hey, were you a supply clerk in the army? Or did you work at a moving company?"
"I wasn't a supply clerk."
Tae-ho set the boxes down and laughed.
"I'm asking because you're actually that good. This isn't a joke."
"I've got experience, that's all."
Hyun-soo answered with a crooked grin.
Time slipped by until the break bell rang. Tae-ho clapped Hyun-soo once on the back and jerked his chin toward the break room.
"Go eat your bento. The manager praised you today. Said you checked in two days straight without missing a shift and your work speed's climbing."
"Really?"
"I'm telling you."
Tae-ho pulled a canned coffee from the vending machine and added,
"Honestly, I'd love to lock you in under me permanently. At this rate, in a week I could hand you a whole line by yourself."
He tossed Hyun-soo a can of coffee with a grin.
"And bringing a bento every day? Your head's already in the right place."
Tae-ho laughed big and headed to his own seat, pouring hot water into a cup of instant noodles. Under the break-room fluorescent lights the smells of sweat and ramen tangled together.
Hyun-soo cleaned out his bento completely and stepped out of the break room to find Tae-ho already at the line, adjusting his cotton work gloves.
"That rice hit different. Look at your face."
"You work better when you eat well."
"You'll outdo me at this rate. All I get is cup noodles."
"You should pack a bento too, Chief."
"I could if I wanted... ugh..."
Whatever thought crossed his mind made Tae-ho scrunch his brow for a second. Then he turned his eyes toward the belt switch.
"All right. Let's get started."
Two-thirty in the morning.
The conveyor started rolling again and the wave of boxes resumed. The moment Hyun-soo's hands began to move, Tae-ho stopped checking on him. Instead he stuck close to the slower new hires, correcting their paths. Hyun-soo no longer needed that kind of help.
Three a.m. was the absolute peak. Boxes slammed into one another on the belt as they surged forward, and the entire line ran on pure tension. Hyun-soo read labels and moved his hands in the same breath.
Seoul, Gyeonggi, Chungcheong, Gyeongsang. The sorting motions flowed like water. A worker on the neighboring line hesitated for a beat and shot a glance at Hyun-soo's speed.
Tae-ho heaved a large box up, looked over at Hyun-soo, and grinned.
"Looking good~!"
They worked so hard that by the time five a.m. rolled past, the volume finally began to thin.
A few workers clutched their backs and leaned against the wall, but Hyun-soo held his post until the last box vanished from the belt. Tae-ho hit the line-end button and let out a long breath.
"Done. Good work."
"You too, Chief."
Tae-ho pulled off his hard hat and walked over to Hyun-soo.
"Hey, day two and you're already this solid? That's something. You never once got buried during peak. The guys next to you were shocked."
At exactly six a.m. the end-of-shift bell rang.
Hyun-soo was peeling off his hard hat and vest in the locker room when Park Ban-jang cracked the door and stuck his head in.
"Seo Hyun-soo. Today's daily wage is a hundred eighty thousand won, deposited tomorrow afternoon. Two days straight—well done."
Park Ban-jang tapped the attendance log and looked at Hyun-soo over his glasses.
"Keep it exactly like this tonight."
Tae-ho wiped his neck with a towel and cut in from the side.
"I'm telling you, he's really good. If this kid doesn't show, I'll drag him here myself."
He thumped Hyun-soo's shoulder once and laughed. The early-morning air in the locker room seeped in cold.
Hyun-soo took that cold air into his lungs, rounded the alley, and stopped in front of the front door. It opened from the inside. Jung Na-yeon stood there in a cardigan, face still half-asleep.
"You're back?"
She looked up at his face and took the bento bag from him.
"How was the taste?"
"It was good."
"That's a relief."
A small smile touched the corners of her mouth.
She unzipped the bag, checked the empty containers, and felt a quiet lift at seeing them cleaned out completely.
"Was the bulgogi all right? I worried the seasoning might be a little salty."
"It was perfect."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
She crouched right there in the entryway and untied the laces of his work boots as if she were the one taking them off for him.
"Your feet are swollen. Worse than yesterday, aren't they?"
"I'm fine."
"Still..."
The worry in her eyes warmed something in Hyun-soo's chest.
She finished with the laces, stood, caught the sleeve of his work clothes, and pulled him inside.
"Bath first. I already drew warm water."
Jung Na-yeon came out of the kitchen holding a glass of water.
"Drink this. Honey water. For the muscles."
"Thanks."
He drank the honey water she had prepared and headed for the bathroom.
When Hyun-soo finished bathing and stepped into the master bedroom, the blankets were already spread and Jung Na-yeon sat with two pillows laid side by side.
"Was today hard?"
"Same as always."
"Body okay? Back not hurting?"
"It's a little stiff."
Hearing his answer, she frowned.
"I told you not to overdo it. It's only day two."
She took his arm, laid him down, and drew the blanket all the way to his chin. Then she stretched out beside him and reached over to brush the hair from his forehead.
"Getting along with that Lee Tae-ho, the crew chief?"
"Yeah. He's good to me."
She nodded at his answer and smiled softly.
"I'm glad. Working under a decent person makes it less brutal."
She pressed a light kiss to his forehead and whispered,
"Tomorrow the wages come in—two days' worth, three hundred sixty thousand. Seo Hyun-soo's getting rich."
She tossed the light joke and laughed, then buried her forehead against his chest.
"Sleep. Sleep deep. I'll be right here."
"Yeah... but after living as a freeloader, doing this actually feels rewarding."
She lifted her head from his chest and looked up.
Her eyes went wide for a second, then slowly softened.
"Rewarding?"
"Yeah."
She rolled the word around in her mouth as if tasting it and studied his face.
"Never thought I'd hear the word 'rewarding' come out of Seo Hyun-soo's mouth."
"Weird?"
"Not weird."
She gave a little snort of laughter and tapped his chin with a fingertip.
"Is this really the same guy who just boiled ramen in his room, fell behind on rent, and grinned like he had no shame?"
She slowly pushed herself up on one elbow, propped against the pillow, and looked down at him.
"But honestly, I feel it too. That you've changed."
Her voice turned gentle.
"Before, you slept all day and just poked at your phone at night. Now you go out at night, come home sweating, and clean out every last bit of the bento."
"Because it tastes good."
"Because you eat it so well, I end up making it even more carefully."
She lifted his hand and opened the palm. The places that had gripped inside the cotton gloves were already rising red.
"Look at this. You're going to get blisters."
She rubbed his palm slowly with her thumb, face full of quiet pity.
"I've never seen hands like these. That man's hands were always so clean."
Jung Na-yeon let the sentence trail off and did not bother explaining who "that man" was.
She pressed a light kiss to his palm and then laid it against her own cheek.
"Feeling rewarded is a good thing. But don't push yourself. It's only day two. They say the body really starts hurting on day three."
"Got it."
"I feel rewarded too. Packing the bento."
She looked away a little, almost shy.
"I never knew cooking for someone could feel this good. After I got married it was just duty. Now it's different. When I see the empty containers after you've eaten everything, I feel this quiet pride."
She buried her forehead against his chest again and pulled the blanket up.
"A man who already feels rewarded on day two. Not bad."
She smiled small.
A little later, Hyun-soo fell asleep, and Jung Na-yeon's breathing evened out as well.
Morning sunlight slipping through a gap in the curtains spread warm across her sleeping face.
And then Thursday night.
The moment Hyun-soo took his place on B-line, Lee Tae-ho came over pulling on his cotton gloves.
"Day three. You made it past the rough patch."
Tae-ho clapped him once on the shoulder.
"From today you handle the left sorting table alone. I'll take the right, so just work it without waiting for signals."
He flipped the belt switch and nodded.
"I trust you."
The conveyor started rolling and Hyun-soo's hands moved on their own. Tae-ho no longer checked his side at all. Even through the early-morning peak, boxes never piled up in front of Hyun-soo's table. A worker on the next line clicked his tongue in amazement and asked Tae-ho,
"Is that guy really someone who started this week?"
Tae-ho grinned.
"He is. But the sense is different."
An ace, plain and simple.
And the next day, Friday.
When Hyun-soo arrived, Park Ban-jang came out of the office, stamped the attendance log, and spoke.
"Seo Hyun-soo. Four days straight, on time every day. Impressive."
He looked at Hyun-soo's face and added,
"It's daily-wage work, but once you're registered as fixed, you get priority on weekend overtime. Of course you said you don't do weekends, but the hourly rate goes up a bit too. If you're interested, let me know."
Then came the Friday early-morning peak.
The volume hit harder than Thursday. Weekend shipments piled on top and the belt never stopped spinning.
Tae-ho shouted,
"Friday's the worst! Hang on!"
While Hyun-soo quietly worked through the boxes, one of the men beside him grabbed his back and dropped to a crouch. The instant Tae-ho sprinted over to fill the gap, Hyun-soo had already stepped sideways first and was covering both lines at once.
Tae-ho froze for a second, stared at him, then laughed low.
"Damn, you really are a monster. In the good way."
At six a.m., when the end-of-shift bell rang, Tae-ho handed Hyun-soo a canned coffee in the locker room.
"Tomorrow's Saturday, right? Your day off."
He wiped his neck with a towel as he spoke.
"Yeah. I rest on weekends."
"Rest well. See you Monday. But seriously—ever since you joined this line, the work's gotten easier."
"I told you."
Tae-ho held out a fist and the two of them bumped knuckles lightly.