↪️ the timing and precision of a wreck
⏪ [22:50 / THURSDAY] 명진피앤피 PC방 @ INCHEON OUTSKIRTS
“they say big money’s on the table if you're willing to lend the boss a hand,” he tells her — the kid’s a former co-worker, a hoodrat around her age, but an ill-founded bottom feeder caught up in all the wrong places with all the wrong people. at the rate he’s going his sugar-laced words are barely enough to grasp any sort of response from jiwon, who’s far too engrossed in her game, but her ears pique at the mention of money; it’s not as though she had any semblance of self control to begin with.
“he wants you specifically,” the sharp-eyed lad continues, “don’t go thinking that your impressive portfolio’s gone around unnoticed.”
jiwon peels her eyes from the computer screen ever so slightly and cocks an eyebrow — impressive portfolio? if this was an attempt at stroking her ego she shamefully had to admit it was working.
“and how exactly do you know it’s not a trap?”
“listen, i’ve worked under the guy for ages. you’ll be surprised, big-shot like him can’t afford to play games with a degenerate like you.” he pauses, takes one good, long swig of his cigarette then wills himself to go on. ”i mean he can afford it, the bastard can make it rain dollar notes if he wanted to. what he can’t afford is time. and the way things are, he needs all the help he can get.”
somewhere between all of that she turns her faltering attention back to the game, but not before giving the youth a shrug dripping with overconfidence. “geezer’s gotta be real honored to have my company then,” she hums, her fingers tapping tirelessly on her keyboard. “besides if i’m a no-show, joke’s gonna be on you.”
"i’ll work something out for you, don’t you worry. just wait for the call and you’ll be eye to eye with the big man himself in no time.” he knows what he’s doing, he’s known jiwon long enough to press the right buttons and bait her hook, line and sinker. jiwon doesn’t make it any harder for him, wearing her intentions on her sleeve and all. “i’m telling you, he’s already expecting you to be one of those sweaty neckbeards. living in mum’s basement and everything. oh boss, i can imagine it already. the poor sod is going to lose his marbles.”
he makes off with a cackle and a promise, and jiwon can’t seem to properly contain her enthusiasm.
⏩ [10:20 / MONDAY] 관교동 @ INCHEON OFFICE DISTRICT
decked out in a baggy black hoodie and jeans, it’s hard to imagine jiwon fitting into the white-collared, professional world. it hadn’t been anything like the movies, where you’d think that your employer would operate from an outlet as shady as he painted himself. but this was reality, and in reality monsters walked among men.
there’s no point really in giving jiwon a tour of the facilities, she’s sure they’ve realized that, but she gets a personal escort nonetheless. though she can’t exactly put her finger on it, is it because they don’t trust her? or if the problems withholding her from entry took far too much of everyone’s time?
(and there were problems alright, she’d already been thrown out twice for looking shady. it was the cap, it had to be! she swears on everything she owns that it was!)
“so your boss, what’s he like? ‘s he a pervy old geezer like in the movies?” the escort walks jiwon to the elevator, he’s an uptight fellow, looks about as boring as the office itself. a perfect match, as jiwon would describe, so it’s no wonder he doesn’t entertain her string of questioning.
“or is he like a ex-convict, a murderer with a scar over his eye, oh man that would be so cool.” jiwon peers over at the big guy, momentarily peeling inquisitive eyes away from the button smashing glory taking root on her phone’s screen.
“are you sure this the client? i think you’ve made a mistake.” he mutters quietly into his earpiece, completely under the impression jiwon can’t hear him over the noise of her game. damn these blasted brats, this is an office, have the least bit of respect! “this kid... couldn’t possibly have the aptitude...”
(she’s late. by a good hour and a half too, but that’s nothing new in her books, really.)
the exasperated man takes jiwon to the floor’s waiting room where she immediately makes herself at home; she pulls her legs up on the chair and settles back into routine, quickly occupying herself with another game or two to steer herself away from the oncoming boredom. it kills the poor guy from the inside out to just look at her, and for sure he can’t tell what he’s done to deserve dealing with this. he's a businessman, not a babysitter, he repeats, a businessman, not a babysitter.
the next client seems to have showed up early. jiwon can hear the sharp click of heels on the cold tile floor and the clang of the elevator drawing shut.
“it looks like you’ll both be working together, so why not get acquainted?” the escort tells the contrasting pair after he’s got the next bloke all settled in, then disappears with a sigh of relief behind the door ahead of them.
much like the others, this tall, polished man shows up dressed in a quaint black suit, crisp and ironed and oozing with a formality that was enough to stir even those as hardened as jiwon. there’s an air of familiarity around him and that unsettles her most, the kind that makes makes your heart stir and eyes burn.
wait a tic, it couldn’t be.
there’s no way.
like intersecting lines they met once, then had to go their separate ways. and jiwon thought all this time that there’s where it stopped — yet that was a mistake, unforeseeable, unprompted but a mistake nonetheless.
she freezes. her eyes dart away from her game to lock in on the man sitting across from her, and there she has it, every last bit of her prolonged suspicions are confirmed.
it’s sanghyuk.
(she sinks into her oversized garb and hopes for a miracle, an unlikely, uncharacteristic miracle, that sanghyuk is blinded enough by the circumstances not to notice.)