***
Two months later.
Now Sangho couldn’t tell whether he’d entered a comic world or if he’d originally lived here. It was a life no different from being an orphan in the first place. Even common school friends were only vague memories for Sangho, a middle school graduate. So he didn’t feel much attachment to his previous life. No, it would be more accurate to say there wasn’t much difference from his previous life.
The janitor work was heaven compared to what he’d done before. Every morning, Sangho took the first bus to Korea University and swept, wiped, and emptied trash cans. According to the comic’s content, stalker Sangho would have cleaned in the Academic Affairs building while thoroughly stealing Jang Wonha’s personal information. But Sangho had absolutely no intention of doing that.
After cleaning diligently, when lunchtime came, Sangho would get a meal from the faculty cafeteria and hide in the mop closet next to the environmental sanitation workers’ break room to eat. It was a proper meal, not the instant noodles he ate every day.
Sangho pulled out his phone from his pocket and checked his bank balance. Even after paying rent and buying necessities, 1 million won remained. Sangho giggled quietly and bought a whole carton of cigarettes that day. Carrying a carton of cigarettes in a black plastic bag, Sangho returned home as if flying.
I hope I can just grow old and die like this.
Arriving in front of his studio apartment, the gaming computer and box of drinks he’d splurged on were in front of the door. Sangho grinned and dragged the boxes inside. A life of working hard in the morning, getting off early, and playing games. He thought this was exactly heaven.
Until he was assigned as the gymnasium janitor the next day, Sangho truly believed that.
***
Having stayed up all night playing games the previous day, Sangho hurriedly took the first bus to Korea University.
The dawn in mid-March was pitch black like midnight. Sangho, leaning his head against the shaking bus window, occasionally made eye contact with his own face reflected in the dark outside. His gaunt face with dark circles looked depressing. Sangho tried to focus his eyes and shift focus to the outside scenery, then just closed his eyes.
When Sangho entered the Academic Affairs building he’d been in charge of, the cleaning supervisors were unusually gathered together waiting for Sangho.
“What? The indoor gymnasium?”
“Yeah~ Sangho-ssi. The newly built indoor gymnasium. You were hired to be in charge there from the beginning.”
Bullshit.
Korea University had recently expanded the indoor gymnasium and built a giant wrestling arena inside. The Korea University Wrestling Team, with Han Kyungoh who held the Halla Champion title, was on a winning streak enough to spark a nationwide wrestling craze. Although the semester hadn’t started, the indoor gymnasium was always a mess with sand dust because athletes practiced every day. Nobody wanted to be in charge of cleaning, so they’d been taking turns cleaning it weekly.
But timid Sangho couldn’t say anything and ended up taking on the indoor gymnasium duty. Sangho was the kind of person who didn’t know what to do and always got pushed around when others came at him unreasonably. Having lived a life noticing others’ moods while bouncing around PC bangs since childhood, Sangho didn’t know how to coordinate opinions with anyone. Nobody in the environmental sanitation team particularly looked after Sangho because of his always dark and depressing appearance.
Sangho had no choice but to go to the indoor gymnasium. He was angry inside at the cleaning supervisors acting however they pleased, but he didn’t have the courage to talk back.
“Fuck.”
Muttering curses quietly with this dark expression or roughly throwing a broom into the cleaning supply box. Just that much was the extent of expression Sangho could manage. Even if someone cleverly noticed Sangho’s anger, they’d think ‘that pathetic bastard has no manners’ and become indifferent again—that level of expression. Just that much was the size of attention Sangho could get in the world.
Cleaning the indoor gymnasium was an ordeal every day. The most troublesome thing was the Facilities Management Center Director’s threat to stay out of sight during students’ training time. The Center Director, a Korea University graduate, often tormented sanitation workers in incomprehensible ways. Under the guise of ‘service management,’ he’d make them bow to students or faculty at certain angles or recite Korea University’s Chinese characters or English spelling.
Among these, the Center Director didn’t like dirty janitors walking around freely in his proud alma mater. He wanted sanitation workers to finish cleaning before school hours on the grounds that complaints came in when students saw them. Thanks to this, Sangho had to finish cleaning at least the 1st floor wrestling arena before the wrestling team’s morning training. Previously, 6 o’clock would have been fine, but because of students training at 6, Sangho had to come to work by at least 4 o’clock. Yet the Center Director made a big show of letting Sangho leave at 12 o’clock.
Naturally, there were no buses arriving at Korea University at 4 AM. Sangho had to wake up at 3 AM, ride a public bicycle for 40 minutes to get to work. Fortunately, the weather had warmed up considerably so the roads weren’t frozen, but Sangho, already weak, arrived at the gymnasium exhausted and had to sweep, wipe sand dust everywhere, and empty trash cans. After repeating this for three days, Sangho had to work while dry heaving. When he became almost half-dead, Sangho decided to just take the last bus to work and hide somewhere appropriate. It was the storage room on the 4th floor of the indoor gymnasium.
“Ngh…”
In the athletic storage room filled with various exercise equipment, Sangho roughly laid out a mattress and curled up. Glancing at the clock reflected in the faint moonlight, it was past 11 PM. The thin blanket he brought from home couldn’t block the cold. At the chill touching his nose, Sangho sighed deeply and nodded off to sleep. Even as his consciousness flickered on and off while falling asleep, it was cold enough that his jaw trembled.
Creak.
Sangho, about to drift off to sleep, flinched at the sound of the athletic storage door opening. Someone seemed to have entered the dark storage room. Sangho, who had set up under the high jump equipment, kept his eyes tightly shut, earnestly praying for that person to leave. Since he was wearing a hoodie over his janitor uniform, even if caught, he might look like a student from this school. Even if discovered, if it was a building manager ahjussi, he’d wake him and send him home, but if it was a Physical Education student, that would be troublesome. If an outsider had infiltrated the new fitness training facility, he could be reported.
“Huh?”
At the voice full of doubt, Sangho grew more tense. The low, calm bass voice sounded young. A student. Sangho tensely prayed for the student to go outside. But the student began carefully approaching him. With a tension that felt like his heart would burst, Sangho held his breath.
“I told them not to eat snacks in the training ground because it smells. Who the hell ate and left…”
Grumbling, the student began clearing away snack bags and bread wrappers scattered on top of the high jump equipment. Rustling sounds came intermittently, and after the student roughly swept up crumbs that had fallen on the floor with his hand, he left the athletic storage. The kids never clean where you can’t see. I should organize tomorrow. He added such muttering.
…I almost got caught.
Sangho exhaled the breath he’d been holding as soon as the athletic storage door fully closed. Looking around the storage room where he was lying with fresh eyes, Sangho stared blankly at the various equipment scattered around.
***
The next day.
At 3:50 AM, when the alarm he’d set went off, Sangho immediately opened his eyes wide. Because he’d been too cold last night to really sleep, his whole body ached. Still, once today passed it would be the weekend, so he could go home and rest for two days.
Stuffing his access card in his pocket, Sangho avoided the CCTV, exited the gymnasium through the 1st floor side door, then tapped his card on the security entrance door at the main gate. With a beep, the door opened and he entered the chilly interior again.
Sangho, who started sweeping the 1st floor wrestling arena floor that was a mess with sand dust, swept out even the sand grains stuck in the floor cracks cleanly, then wiped the floor. He also wiped the dust stuck between the window frames one by one, collected the burst sand bags from training, and brought out new ones from storage. The Center Director always showed up unannounced and nitpicked about every little thing, so he couldn’t neglect anything.
When Sangho, who barely finished cleaning the 1st floor, looked at the clock, it was 15 minutes before 6 o’clock. By now the wrestling team students would start gathering, so he had to hurry to the 2nd floor.
The moment Sangho, gripping trash bags tightly in both hands, left the 1st floor wrestling arena, he bumped into something massive. Just as Sangho was about to fall backward, he felt someone grip his waist firmly.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes. Yes. I’m sorry.”
Sangho quickly apologized and tried to move away, but suddenly the arm wrapped around his waist tightened firmly. When the flustered Sangho raised his head, a man with a massive build was staring down at him. Thick eyebrows, a well-defined nose bridge, and a firm-looking jaw made him look strong, but he had a slightly youthful air he couldn’t shake off. The man stared blankly down at Sangho for a moment, then suddenly came to his senses and hurriedly stepped back two steps.
“Ah, uh. I’m sorry.”
“No.”
Sangho, recognizing from the low voice that he was the student who’d entered the athletic storage yesterday, quickly grabbed the trash bag he’d dropped. Then he walked quickly toward the outdoor trash area. The man left behind stood there for a long while, his gaze fixed on the entrance Sangho had walked through.
I didn’t get caught, right?
Sangho clutched his pounding heart and stood blankly at the trash area for a moment, catching his breath.
The wrestling team students gathered at the 1st floor wrestling arena at 6 o’clock for light stretching and light jogging on the mountain behind the school, so he planned to wait here for a moment and start cleaning the 2nd floor once the students left. Just then, students who’d finished stretching were running in a line toward the mountain path, shirtless. The man he’d bumped into at the entrance was running at the very front, so he seemed to be an upperclassman. Under his broad shoulders, tightly muscled body rippled. A body tightly packed without an ounce of fat. So all that bulk was muscle. Behind him, wrestling team students ran in line by year.
