Except for sleeping time, I carried the paper around all day. The eyes of students in the lecture hall all turned toward me at once. They had interested expressions as if it was unexpected.
“Today, my presentation topic was ‘Labor Law in Daily Life.’ Do you know where we spend the most time during the day?”
Someone shouted loudly “home.” I continued with a slight smile.
“Some of you may think it’s home, but no. It’s the workplace. Never give up your rights at the place where you will spend the most time in your lives from now on. This concludes my presentation.”
Applause burst out.
“Lastly, I have one thing to say.”
I said toward the professor and fellow students.
“My remaining team member could not attend today because they are at the scene protecting the workplace rights I just presented about. I ask for the generous understanding of the professor and fellow students.”
I finished my greeting and came down from the podium. Sung Woo-jae, sitting in the front row, winked and gave a thumbs up.
“Then, with Mo Hyo-kyung-gun’s presentation as the last one, we’ll end today’s class. The expression ‘outsourcing of danger’ was impressive. It was a time to think once more about the essence of labor. See you next time.”
I was going back to the back seat when Jung Hyun-wook was standing at the back door of the lecture hall. He walked toward the front where the professor was.
“Hello, Professor.”
The professor greeted him with delight.
“Jung Hyun-wook-gun. So, have you returned now?”
“Yes.”
“Then see you next time.”
The professor patted Jung Hyun-wook’s shoulder encouragingly. Soon, the professor who was leaving the lecture hall turned back and said,
“For this presentation assignment, I’ll give the same score as Mo Hyo-kyung-gun. The words at the end about not being able to attend in order to protect the scene of rights changed my mind.”
The professor left the lecture hall laughing quite pleasantly. Only then did the students buzz and crowd around Jung Hyun-wook. They tapped his shoulder, saying things like it worked out well or asking if he was okay.
But at the end of Jung Hyun-wook’s gaze was me. He smiled and walked straight over.
“Well done. You didn’t tremble at all.”
Female students leaving the lecture hall glanced at Jung Hyun-wook.
“Hyun-wook-ah, what happened?”
It was Sung Woo-jae.
“I heard roughly from my father. The company also suddenly received notice of contract termination from Songrim, so they couldn’t help it.”
Jung Hyun-wook nodded slightly. Songrim terminated the contract with the existing company and was proceeding with negotiations with a new company.
“But how did you get out? Did you give up in the end?”
Sung Woo-jae casually asked what I couldn’t bear to ask.
“It’s better this way. Why should you suffer for nothing? You weren’t going to keep doing that work anyway. Your situation is different from those ajummas. Just shake it off!”
It was an impulsive action to grab the hand of Jung Hyun-wook, who couldn’t respond, and leave the lecture hall.
“Let’s go eat.”
***
Jung Hyun-wook simply couldn’t stop laughing.
“Woo-jae is a bit clueless. He doesn’t mean anything bad.”
“But why do you keep laughing?”
We ate kimchi stew with rolled omelet for dinner and sat at the convenience store table drinking canned coffee. I felt awkward for no reason and fiddled with the bandage Jung Hyun-wook had put on me.
“Because I think you’re getting braver and braver. You should have seen Woo-jae’s expression. It was a face that got completely hit. Haha.”
I fiddled with the warmly heated can. Anyway, as long as Jung Hyun-wook could laugh, that was enough.
Always seeing only customers sitting here, it felt strange to actually be sitting like this myself. Leisurely, refreshing… how should I say it? Yes, it felt like I had margin in my life too.
“But anyway, Woo-jae can be like that because I put his father in a difficult position. I’m okay.”
“You say you’re okay too.”
He made an expression of being hit. Laughing and shaking his head, he drank the remaining coffee, crumpled the can, and threw it in the trash. The can, crumpled flat without mercy, made a perfect goal.
“Ah, everyone enjoyed what you brought yesterday. The kid with a face like rice cake has a firm personality too.”
Jung Hyun-wook laughed, imitating the ajumma’s way of speaking. Then suddenly his gaze turned toward the air. I asked excitedly,
“Then can I go greet them again?”
At my question, Jung Hyun-wook’s expression suddenly darkened. He frowned as if trying to say something, then soon rubbed his face.
“No.”
I opened my eyes wide at the unexpected answer.
“Why?”
“Actually, the ajummas kicked me out.”
What could have happened?
“They kicked you out because they were worried it would be hard on you, right?”
There was no answer for a while.
“At first, I just needed work. At dawn, the hours weren’t long either, and when I went, everyone except me was mother’s age and even the men were elders, so I thought the work would be easy. The first day was a really cold day. After wiping floors and windows spanning hundreds of pyeong and cleaning almost over 100 toilets, even though all the heating was off, sweat poured down like rain.”
Jung Hyun-wook, who had been looking at the air for a moment, continued speaking.
“At first, it was cutting the meal allowance. The meal cost was 2,000 won, and they were going to cut that. I protested. When I looked into it, the subcontractor was touching even the meal allowance to take commission fees from the money Songrim gave. Songrim knew but turned a blind eye.”
Jung Hyun-wook’s body, having stretched greatly, leaned loosely against the plastic chair.
“Once I got in, there were too many unfair things. From annual leave allowances to work hours, not one thing was kept according to the labor contract. They told us to finish all the cleaning before work hours just because the lawyers didn’t like seeing us. The lawyers were all seated at their desks by 8 o’clock. Inevitably, everyone came to work an hour early. That became the accepted practice. So I gathered people and said we should speak up to the company.”
Jung Hyun-wook thought they needed a channel to make demands even after he left the company. But from then on, the company started becoming more harsh to the people.
“It’s all because of me. I stepped forward rashly when I couldn’t even resolve it properly and ruined everything.”
Watching that solid Jung Hyun-wook crumble was unbearable.
“Is there some… misunderstanding?”
“Is it a misunderstanding?”
“You did everything you could. There are things in the world you can’t do anything about. You can’t change everything.”
“What if I could have changed it?”
“What?”
“What torments me is… that I could have changed it. From my position, it was a method I could never do even if I died, but to people for whom that’s survival, I’m ultimately just a hypocrite.”
I couldn’t understand what he was saying. But somehow, I felt like this story was a kind of warning about us.
***
The rush hour crowd was tremendous. Packed buses continuously transported office workers, and people poured out endlessly from the buses.
I didn’t know this street was so lively. I always went to work at the convenience store late at night and got off work in the darkest hours of dawn.
I squeezed into the crowd of people wearing ties and entered the Songrim Building. The lobby was spotless, as if the protests that had been going on never happened. The marble floor gleamed brightly.
The security guard happened to recognize me. He was the first to acknowledge me.
“Oh? You from that time?”
I nodded.
“You here for something? Didn’t you hear the news? It’s all over. The ahjummas are only working one more week and then they’re all quitting.”
What on earth happened overnight? Just yesterday, it seemed like Jung Hyun-wook wouldn’t give up easily. But even if there was a problem, there was no reason for the blame to fall on Jung Hyun-wook.
“Are you a student?”
How much information could I get from this person? I was hesitating when he spoke a bit irritably, seemingly annoyed that I didn’t answer.
“You’re not actually in school, right? You work at the convenience store next door.”
He knew me? When I made eye contact with him, he finally brightened up and said,
“The part-timer who works the dawn shift and doesn’t talk. You’re kind of famous among us. I went there a lot to buy cigarettes, don’t you remember?”
There was no way I’d remember.
“I thought you couldn’t talk, but I was really surprised yesterday. But you’re not talking again?”
At this point, my mouth wouldn’t open any further. As if he received a call through his earphone, he answered his radio.
“The cleaning staff break room? I have the master key. Hey, but I’m busy right now, so I’ll go check in 10 minutes.”
I made a decision. I would let this man hear my voice.
“I remember. Dunhill Light?”
Eight or nine out of ten men in their twenties smoke this cigarette. It’s the number one seller at the convenience store. If not, then never mind. The man’s expression became subtle. Was that right or wrong?
“Ha. Your voice is different from what I thought.”
He said something strange. I ignored it and stated my business.
