Chapter 184 - State-of-the-Art Factory Construction (3) – PART 1
Gun-Ho was having a beer with Jae-Sik at the security office in his company. It was all dark outside.
“You used to be very active in the literature club when we were in high school, and if I remember correctly, you also participated in making our school newspapers.”
“Yeah, I did. After graduating from high school, I went to college in Seoul and majored in creative writing. It was not one of the top universities, but I had a good life at that time because I could do what I enjoy doing.”
“That’s right. I think I heard that you studied creative writing.”
“I even won the annual spring literature contest after graduating from college, which was held by a newspaper company in a province. At that time I felt like I could rule the world. I wanted to get a job in a newspaper company, but I found a job at a publishing company instead.”
“So you got a job where you can use what you learned in college and that was also what you liked to do with your life.”
“As you know, a publisher is different from a factory like here. It was a small publisher with only three or four employees and it wasn’t doing very well.”
“Hmm.”
“However, that publisher was publishing a few bestseller books at that time, so they could pay me even though it was not much. I met my ex-wife there too.”
Jae-Sik’s voice started shaking when he talked about his wife.
“Have some more beer.”
“Sure.”
Jae-Sik sipped his can of beer before he continued to talk.
“Did your wife work at the same publisher?”
“My wife was a poet. In order to make our livings, we both worked at the publisher as a freelancer doing proofreading and editing.”
“Hmm.”
“I am not good at physical work since I have always done office work like writing and editing. Moreover, I had a bad credit score. So it was really hard to find a job. I saw Jong-Suk working with machines and doing welding. He looks great. I know I can’t do that kind of work.”
“So, you have 50 million won debt in total?”
“I have been paying for the debt until now. I think I have 30 million won left by now. Oh, I talked with the general affairs manager the other day about it. He said I would get paid 1.6 million won per month, and I can take the amount of basic living expenses out of it before it is seized. I think I can save some money then.”
“Saving money?”
“Yeah. My rent is paid by the company, and I can have my meals at the company. So, I think I can pay off the debt after ten years working here.”
“Right. The biggest expense that the people who don’t make enough money is the cost of the rent. The people who don’t have money have to pay for rent, and the people who have money receive that rent from them. That’s the current economic system we are living in. Consequently, the gap between the rich and poor is getting bigger. Ten years are too long for you.”
“Well, it is still hope. It’s a good thing that the debt is shrinking instead of growing. There is one thing that bothers me a lot though. I collected some funds from our friends from high school to make an alumni directory book. I couldn’t make it happen even though I really was going to make it.”
“People don’t make those types of directory book nowadays, do they? Many people don’t want to expose their real address.”
“I know. So I was going to enter their e-mail address instead of physical addresses with phone numbers. I started collecting the necessary information and writing some stuff already like the history and path that our school took so far and news from our friends, etc. I still have the writings with me. It will cost 2-3 million won to complete it but I used that money to pay my rent because I was about to be evicted. I became an animal to our friends.”
Jae-Sik eventually burst into tears.