The Porter (6)
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“Customer 375, please come to Window 4.”
Following the announcement, Seung-ho went to Window 4 and sat down in front of it. For some reason, the location was familiar, and the female employee in front of her also looked familiar.
“Welcome. What brings you… it’s you!”
The female employee recognized him as the person who helped a collapsed woman, and Seung-ho remembered her face as well.
“I’m here for grade re-measurement.”
“Please give me your Hunter Registration Certificate.”
After he handed her the certificate, she stood up and led him down a corridor.
They stopped at the door with the nameplate: Measurement Room.
The female employee went in first. Seung-ho followed her with his eyes and saw the measuring instrument at the end of the room.
The female employee approached the desk in front of the meter and whispered to the man sitting there.
There were three other people waiting in the chair next to the measuring instrument. A woman in a test suit went out of the measuring instrument.
The meter displayed the value of 378.
“Ah…” The woman who saw the figure sighed with obvious disappointment, and the man sitting at the desk soon pulled out the result sheet and handed it over to her.
As the female employee who guided Seung-ho went out of the room, a male employee approached him, asking him to change into an inspection suit.
As he was changing, more people came inside the room. He felt like being a zoo monkey, but he decided to ignore them.
“Mr. Lee Seung-ho, you can go inside and stand on the footprints shapes. Please stand with your arms wide open. When you hear the beep, don’t move as much as you can, and you can come out when the sound ends.”
Seung-ho nodded at the explanation of the male employee and went inside.
“I will start soon,” the male employee announced.
Beep—-
When the sound ended, Seung-ho paused for a few more seconds, before he opened the door of the measuring instrument and went out.
The number 0825 was displayed.
The employees seemed to be discussing the results.
“Uh… Class B.”
“Wait, look at the result. Isn’t that wrong?”
“The machine had never turned out an incorrect result.”
Seung-ho looked confused.
“Can we measure it again?” the male employee asked him.
Seung-ho entered the instrument again and waited for the beep.
Beep—-
When he went out, the results remained the same.
I couldn’t convince my mother to allow me with this result, Seung-ho thought, but there was no way to change the figure.
The employees inside the room clicked their tongues.
As soon as Seung-ho has changed his clothes, the manager Choi Myung-su approached him.
They laughed awkwardly as they remembered the incident before.
“I was sorry the other day. At that time, I was very nervous…” Seung-ho said.
“No. At that time, I didn’t have too much to say… But why don’t you re-measure, Seung-ho?” the manager said.
Seung-ho looked puzzled. “I don’t think there’s a reason to do so. I’ve already measured twice, with the same result.”
The manager shook his head and pointed at the meter.
A man has just walked out of the instrument. The meter displayed 412.
Seung-ho still doesn’t get it. “Are there any problems?”
“Your measurement says 0825, right?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“But the meter there shows 412.”
The thought suddenly came to Seung-ho’s head.
“Oh, is the meter only up to 4-digits?”
“Normally, yes. As most people only have 3-digit results, we don’t need more digits. In your case, though, it’s 0825, not simply 825… We can adjust the output value if you wait.”
Seung-ho thought about it. He wanted to know the real value, but he remembered Seong-ah waiting for him.
He forced a bitter smile.
“I have to do something today, so I will come tomorrow. By the way… why are you doing this much for me?”
It was natural for him to be suspicious.
The manager scratched his head. “Well… it’s been five years since I became the manager, and I haven’t done anything noteworthy. If this year’s performance is still unremarkable, well… do you know what I mean? Maybe if we could put out articles and promotions about a measurement taken here, you know, with your reporter friend…”
Seung-ho thought it was somehow related to Drachsh, but hearing the reason, it was purely for the manager’s self-interest.
He shrugged his shoulders and smiled brightly.
“Okay, I will.”
“Thank you,” the manager looked relieved. “This is my contact. If you contact me 30 minutes before coming for re-measurement, I will have the output value adjusted.”
“Rather, I’m grateful. I will contact you for sure.”
* * *
“Min-ju, I’m here.”
As Seung-ho pressed the bell, Democracy opened the door immediately as if she was waiting near the front door.
“Thank you, brother! I’ll go!”
She sped past him. Is her job that urgent that she could go without even looking at his brother’s face? Seung-ho thought.
“Uh, go carefully,” was all he managed to say.
He saw Seong-ah pull her head out of the living room.
She had a sad expression, and Seung-ho wondered if something was going on.
“What happened? Have you fought with your mother?”
He waited for an answer as he took off his shoes. None came.
“How will your uncle know if you won’t say? Tell me, what are you fighting about?”
It was as if her lips were zippered close. Seong-ah didn’t answer and kept her head bowed. Seung-ho held her hand and wrapped it in his.
He saw his niece’s nails. The tips of the nails were jagged. He felt pain in his heart as he looked at his poor niece and clutched her hands tighter.
It seemed to work after a while. Seong-ah picked up a piece of paper placed on the table and handed it to him.
When he unfolded the paper, Seong-ah’s SAT report came to view.
“SAT scorecard? Wow! You’re good at studying, Seong-ah! Where are you going to college?”
“I’m not going to college.”
Seung-ho was frustrated by the words of Sung-ah.
So, this was the cause of the fight, he realized.
Lee Min-ju works like a maniac to be able to send them to college, only to find out that Seong-ah didn’t want to go.
One the one hand, he understood his sister, while he also understood his niece’s condition, and he couldn’t choose sides.
He chose to talk with Seong-ah some more.
“You haven’t decided where to go? If you haven’t decided on a course, don’t you have something you dream of becoming? What is it?”
Seung-ho jokingly asked while poking Seong-ah’s forearm, but her mouth closed once more.
“Seong-ah. If you don’t tell me, I won’t know anything.”
“… I want to be a PD”
“You can do that! Beauty PD Kim Sung-ah!”
Seung-ho purposely cheered her to relieve her feelings and lift her up, but she was still downcast. Moreover, her arms are closed as if she had been offended.
“Seong-ah, do you want uncle to go with you to college? Do you want us to go together?”
Seung-ho talked mischievously, but suddenly, Seong-ah’s face turned red as if his words triggered her.
Suddenly, she burst out screaming.
“I can’t even go outside now; how can I go to college?! How can I go to college?”
Tears flowed down her cheeks in a rush.
“Seong-ah…” His heart tore, watching her like this.
Seong-ah kept staring at the floor while crying.
“Uncle, I also want to go to college… but when I think about going out of the house, I’m so scared, outside… Ugh-“
Seong-ah had a seizure on the sofa.
Seung-ho calmed down by pressing down on her shoulder.
“Seong-ah!! No! There’s no one! Keep calm and exhale, exhale!! Ha! Ha! Yes, yes.”
After the seizure, they were still for a long time. He wiped off the tears on saliva on her niece’s face.
Psychiatric treatment was urgent before Seong-ah was broken.
* * *
“Mother, I have something to tell you.”
As Seung-ho opened her mouth during dinner, her mother hardened her face and put the spoon down.
“Cannot be done.”
“It’s not that; it’s about Seong-ah.”
At the end of Seung-ho’s words, his father sitting next to his mother began to notice.
Seung-ho also hid it from his father because he knew that his father won’t be able to hide it from his mother.
“The day I quit working part-time… it was because… Seong-ah had been an unfortunate incident.”
His words surprised his mother, and her mother began to stand up in worry.
“Seong-ah? What happened? Is she hurt? Min-ju didn’t say anything…”
“She was kidnapped and faced a lot of trouble…”
“What? Who?! Who did it?!”
“Mother, please listen to the end. First, take a sip of water.”
Her father poured water into her cup. She emptied the cup all at once, as if she had a burning throat, then leaned her arms on the table, waiting for Seung-ho’s words.
“Fortunately, she avoided the worst, but Seong-ah is badly traumatized.”
“Hoo, I’m glad she’s not hurt… Who is that bad guy? Did you catch him?”
“Yeah, he was punished… he died of a heart attack. But mother, Seong-ah is so traumatized now and couldn’t be left alone…”
“Oh, my baby… How terrible it is!”
“Let’s gather and live together so she won’t be alone at home. I think she also needs to go to psychiatric counseling regularly,” Seung-ho continued. “If I add my money, I will have no difficulty buying a house. And…”
“Oh, what else is left? Your mother’s heart can only take too much, but how much more do you want to surprise me?”
At the moment, Seung-ho was nervous.
He was about to tell them about being a hunter, and he was trying to find the right timing.
His mother’s hand was on her chest, and his father held her other hand.
His father read his mind and spoke. “If there is anything you want, son, wouldn’t it be better to get done with it and tell us?”
Seung-ho took a deep breath.
“Mother, can you come with me to the Association tomorrow? You can see me get re-measured, and judge that I can be safe being a hunter.”
His mother released his father’s hands and grabbed Seung-ho’s hand with tears in her eyes.
“My son… why do you want to keep working as a hunter? How nice it is to be able to live like this together, even if you live a little poorly?”
“Mother… Seong-ah and Sia are going to college, and I want to be a help, and I have to get married soon, too. I’m going to be a hunter and earn enough to get married and eat and live.”
“I… How can I live because I am anxious…? My heart trembles even at the thought of my son entering a gate…”
He felt his mother’s hand tremble. He knew his mother kept watching shocking and horrifying stories about hunters and worried her son would share the same fate.
Seung-ho sighed and held his mother’s hand tighter.
“Tomorrow, if you come with me to the Association and hear the explanation about my grade, you will be worried for the monsters, not for me. Believe me, mother.”