Chapter 9
It doesn’t matter what day it is today.
The me who is living in this moment is not an Assistant Manager Han of some company with nothing to his name and no parents. I’m just Assistant Manager Han. Come to think of it, the title”Assistant Manager”strangely rolls off the tongue.
Then, from today onward, I am Assistant Manager Han. Not a Supervisor, not a Section Chief, just an Assistant Manager.
It feels like the title”Assistant Manager”suits me better because it’s like being a handyman who does the work that G*d’s servants should be doing. I couldn’t help but chuckle at that thought.
Anyway, this place is a shabby suburb without even a subway station or a bus stop, so I need to walk quickly to get back to the city.
The civilization of South Korea, having reached 2025, is still developing and is a promising prospect for the future. So, even if you leave a remote area for a bit, you can quickly enjoy the benefits of civilization.
For example, being lucky enough to catch a taxi passing by on an empty road.
It would have been an unimaginable situation if it were the United States, China, or Russia, where the land is incredibly vast.
“Please drop me off at a decent downtown area, anywhere is fine. I have money, so don’t worry.”
I pulled out a 50,000 won bill from my duffel bag, which was covered in dust but extra sturdy because it was for camping. Only then did the taxi driver, realizing that I was not a homeless person, show a look of relief.
Actually, he must have been unsure until he stopped the car. Whether he should really give a ride to the person walking on this desolate road.
The car might smell a bit and get a little dusty… but it would be enough to pay 50,000 won in taxi fare without any haggling.
I closed my eyes, thinking it would take about 30 minutes this time, as it took about 30 minutes to get to that spirit burial ground by taxi on a night I don’t even know exactly when.
When I close my eyes, I see a scene in the dark where bugs seem to be crawling around. Sometimes those bugs looked like letters with unknown meanings, or even human faces.
The sin I faced there was very heavy and deep, damp, and slimy.
I still can’t forget the feeling of coldness and unpleasantness penetrating my whole body, as if it were groping to possess even a little more of me.
Nevertheless.
I know that without this hardship, it would be impossible to even reach the starting line of the path I want to walk.
Did someone say life is 8 parts talent, 1 part luck, and 1 part effort?
Unfortunately, I wasn’t a chosen religious person or a born shaman, and looking back on my life, I don’t think I’ve been particularly lucky.
To even slightly close the gap with those extraordinary people, I have to make an effort with extraordinary hardship.
‘Looking at the history of Christianity, the Lord Jesus Father, although he expelled Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, still loved all humans and gave them talents in the name of ‘talent’ or ‘destiny’, right?’
Talent is not something that can be simply dismissed as just ability.
It can be called the initial setting value that determines a person’s life, and it can also become a passive skill or an active skill. Or, in some cases, it becomes a buff or debuff.
In other words, this talent is involved to some extent in the trigger of everything a person experiences in life. And unfortunately, there is a joke that those who fail to fully utilize their given talents get it back as much when they d*e.
Why do you think churches give talent vouchers to young believers and teach them that they should live a right and valuable life according to the words of the Lord Jesus Father?
It’s because they wanted to teach young believers how to freely dream and pioneer their own lives according to G*d’s will. Well, there is a contradictory part that says according to G*d’s will while advocating freedom.
Ever since I was a child, I was dragged to church half-forced by my parents, and I always wondered what exactly these talents did.
You can’t even use it as money, and even if you try to use it in church, its uses are very limited. What kind of country’s trading law is it to take 100 talents to exchange for a single snack?
That’s why Jesus beat up all the unethical merchants in Jerusalem and kicked them out. As expected, people should live frugally enough to be able to exchange a single snack for 10 talents.
Are you listening, pastor? You who emphasized to the elderly every day that they have to make offerings to go to Heaven.
‘Well, that’s not entirely wrong.’
It is a time-honored tradition, dating back to the time of Cain and Abel, for the rich to dedicate a portion of their possessions to the Lord Jesus Father.
It is an act of offering a portion of what they have harvested, what they have earned as income, and feeling grateful, saying that all of this was possible because of the Lord Jesus Father’s grace and blessings.
Although it has changed to offerings and tithes in modern times, it doesn’t matter because it is connected in the same vein anyway. However, that doesn’t mean that you go to H*ll if you don’t make offerings.
If that were the case, all the poor people would be going to H*ll.
“Hmm… Hmm…. Hmmmm…….”
“……”
Perhaps it was the aftereffect of singing hymns at the top of my lungs. I just closed my eyes and leaned back on the comfortable seat, but I ended up humming a hymn.
However, hymns don’t feed or shelter me, so there was little to gain from singing them as a hobby.
From the distant past to the present, it was money that fed and sheltered humans.
“…We’ve arrived, sir.”
“Here’s the money. Keep the change.”
After handing over the 50,000 won I had prepared in advance, I returned to the heart of Seoul, bustling with people and Yang energy.
I thought I was dressed quite neatly, even by my own standards, but looking at myself in the middle of the street, it wasn’t good at all.
There were black stains here and there that I couldn’t tell what they were from, and dust was flying everywhere as if I had been rolling around in the desert for a long time.
First, I went into a nearby motel and asked the motel owner, who was watching a daytime rerun drama, for a room. Perhaps because it was a weekday, the accommodation cost was relatively cheap.
Or maybe they just gave me a discount because there were too many flies in the motel.
I took the key to room 404 and headed to the 4th floor in the elevator. The best thing about motels is that if you use them during off-peak hours, you can enjoy extreme freedom.
You can roll around on the bed, feeling the strange pleasure of being the owner of this huge building, or watch a*ult channels on the motel’s dedicated TV.
That’s what we call ‘riding’.
It’s an extremely shortened expression for saying that you’ve naturally gotten on board with the situation, atmosphere, or flow.
Interestingly, this word ‘riding’ has one more use besides the expression of physically or mentally getting on something.
When an ordinary person with inspiration, or a shaman, approaches a specific area where there is a story or a spirit （ghost）, they are said to be ‘riding’ when they experience spirit possession, emotional sharing, or being possessed.
Yes, I think I rode that flow too.
I was standing blankly in the 4th-floor hallway, holding the key that said 404, but the 404 room I was looking for was nowhere to be seen. The secret space that should have been between rooms 403 and 405 did not appear.
“I heard they don’t even make keys for room 404 in accommodations or hospitals.”
I wondered if that idle-looking motel owner had accidentally handed me a key he had made by mistake.
At the moment I turned back to the elevator to get a new key, the door to room 404 appeared as if by magic.
Beep. Click.
As I held the clean 404 key to the lock pad, I heard the sound of the lock being released from inside the door.
When I grabbed the doorknob and pushed it lightly, the door opened with a weak creaking sound. The inside was cleaner than I expected.
No dust, no stains, no strange smells, and no traces of anyone using it before me.
It was just the perfect scenery for staying for a day.
“Let’s wash up first.”
I brought some spare clothes and toiletries in my duffel bag, so I can change after washing up. As for the dirty clothes… I guess I can go to a laundromat and wash them.
As I entered the bathroom, which was a bit spacious for one person and slightly cramped for two, a shabby single man in his 20s appeared in front of the mirror.
Compared to when I looked in the mirror at home, I didn’t look particularly haggard or anything. I haven’t eaten anything for quite a while, but my physique was the same, far from being skinny.
Have I become a being that defies even the law of conservation of energy?
‘People don’t change dramatically just because they don’t eat for a few days.’
Anyway, later when I go out and have some Gukbap or order delivery food, oil will ooze out of my skin as if nothing happened.
Although my dark circles had become even darker, it was fortunate that my previously dull and foggy eyes had become clear as spring water.
People say that the eyes have an advantage in a person’s first impression, but with such stupid eyes, my first impression would always be my last impression.
I walked under the large showerhead, where the water had started to flow, and washed away the dirt I had accumulated over the past few days.
I carefully massaged my scalp while shampooing so as not to become a hair loss patient in the future, and lathered my not-so-toned body with body wash.
Standing naked in front of the large metal, enjoying the foam all over my body and shaking myself, I felt a little ashamed, like a third-rate stripper.
But strippers don’t need to be ashamed. Rather, they should be proud. They would be a hundred times better than a jobless man who calls himself Assistant Manager Han.
After finishing my bath and returning as a fresh Assistant Manager Han, I roughly put on my spare clothes.
I put the dirty clothes in the plastic bag I used when buying things at Daiso and tied it tightly.
“I’m sleepy, bored, and hungry.”
Humans tend to have other thoughts when they have free time.
And when you have free time, primal desires usually overpower cold reason.
For example, like how ordering Jjanggae comfortably at the motel feels more appealing than trudging out into the chilly weather to buy a hot bowl of Gukbap.
Ding dong!
━Delivery for room 404!
