Chapter 1

001 This is reality.

Ding, ding, ding.

Sigh, shit. I can’t help but curse. It’s definitely a call complaining about a lack of materials. I want to reject it.

“Hello.”

“Ji-gwajang! Fifty at twelve, right? We don’t have it!”

“Manager, please look again. I checked everything yesterday before leaving.”

“No, what am I supposed to do if it’s not there! We can’t do anything without the bolts. What are you going to do?”

“I told you, it’s right where I put it. I checked two bags yesterday.”

“No, how can you say it’s not there when I’m looking right at it! Anyway, I clearly said that if we don’t have it, you’re responsible!”

“Sigh. I understand. I’ll come over now.”

This company has no concept of weekends. The guy who calls without any regard for day or night would at least get weekend pay if he came in on Saturdays. Ah, so frustrating.

I was hoping to sleep in today, but the phone ringing in the morning filled me with annoyance.

If I had known, I wouldn’t have watched 'Game of Thrones' yesterday. I held off until the season finale and then binge-watched it, but now I’m exhausted. Stannis fricking!

I just washed my face and brushed my teeth, then got into the car in my 'churin' (tracksuit). The idea that I have to go to work on a Saturday for a few hundred won bolts made my head boil.

As soon as I started the car, I rolled down the window and lit a cigarette. The only legal drug the country allows, you’re the only one who comforts me. Sigh, huff.

The roads are clear on weekends. Others are probably sleeping in or going out to the suburbs. I envy them, I really do.

“Damn it.”

I was spacing out when the ash from my cigarette fell on my pants. The wind coming through the open window scattered the ash everywhere. My 3.5 million won Maltese is getting dirty!

I never really cared about cars. The subway and buses in Seoul are so good that I never felt the need for a car. To be honest, maybe it’s not that I didn’t care, but that I didn’t have the luxury to care.

This company makes it impossible to commute without a car. The areas with factories have terrible public transportation. The bus schedules are a nightmare, and you have to transfer three times. In the end, I had to buy a used car with my meager salary.

With a salary as low as mine, the only cars I can afford are used Avantes or Malteses.

Anything more is beyond my current means. I’m already trembling at the thought of the 200,000 won I spend on gas each month.

So, I brainwashed myself into not caring about cars. This miserable life.

One day, I’ll graduate from this life. Right now, I’m just a salaryman with no future, but dreams should be grand. Who knows, maybe I’ll win the lottery and hit the jackpot!

After 20 minutes, I arrived at the factory, 8 minutes earlier than usual.

“Oh, Ji-gwajang is here?”

Manager Kim Jin-hyun greeted me with a smile. His bright smile gave me a bad feeling.

“I found it under here.”

If I hit him, it would definitely be self-defense. Considering the loss of sleep, extreme mental stress, the time and gas money spent coming here, and the ash on my Maltese, I should sue for damages.

“Sigh. I told you it was there.”

“No, we should have made it easy to find. We’re already busy, when are we supposed to look for it!”

Chief Um Mi-ock shot back. It’s my fault, apparently. Damn.

“Mrs. Woo, it’s fine. You found it, that’s all that matters.”

Their banter is an art. They’re so stuck together, they might as well be electrocuted.

This isn’t the first time. It’s a constant, not a variable. I’ve learned to accept it.

I’ve talked to the CEO a few times.

“CEO, if the materials are stored properly, I don’t need to be here on nights and weekends, right? I can’t go home because of constant complaints about missing materials.”

“You’ve worked hard. Let’s all gather and find a solution. I’ll think about it too.”

He looks like he’s going to do something, but his words are predictable. It means I should figure it out myself. Nothing changes, and I end up being labeled as a complainer.

I wish I could be born into a good family like you and act all high and mighty.

“By the way, isn’t the job of material management to ensure that production doesn’t stop by supplying materials on time? If there are constant issues, doesn’t it mean there’s a problem with how you’re doing your job?”

My tone is infinitely polite. I always speak formally and act gentle, but every word is disrespectful.

The conclusion is that I should figure it out myself, and that the problem is with how I work. Stop whining and come in.

The company’s management is terrible, the worst!

* * *

“Manager, are you done? I’m going in.”

“Since you’re here, why don’t you stay for lunch? You came all this way, you should eat.”

The moment I left home after the call, I had a bad feeling. Today’s lunch is going to be greasy rice. In the end, I spent until 5 PM putting lids on 80 transformers and tightening bolts. My shoulders were trembling, and my hands were numb.

“Everyone, you’ve worked hard. Take a good rest tomorrow.”

“Thank you for your hard work. See you the day after tomorrow.”

We exchanged insincere pleasantries, and I quickly headed home. The road started to get congested as I met the returning traffic.

Sigh, so frustrating! Working on weekends is already annoying, but traffic makes my head spin. I can’t help but smoke.

Come to think of it, I’ve been smoking a lot more since I started this job. As far as I know, in highly developed modern civilization, there’s nothing better for stress than cigarettes. My soul friend!

Ding.

The sound from my phone made me jump. Now, I’m so scared of my phone. This is a disease.

Fortunately, it was a text. It’s hard to resist curiosity, even though you shouldn’t look at your phone while driving!

What is it? I’m not expecting any packages. I clicked the link, ignoring the usual warning about unverified links. It asked me to install an app for verification. What a hassle. Still, my curiosity overcame the annoyance.

Beep.

I didn’t even notice the signal had changed. If I had hesitated a bit longer, a missile would have been launched from the car behind me.

I could only check the return content at the next signal. It said there were no returned items for the customer. Damn, what a beautiful bunch!

Of course. Who would send me a package? If anything, it might be my ex-girlfriend returning the gifts she received last year because she couldn’t stand looking at them. But she wouldn’t return them. Thinking about it raises my blood pressure. Where’s my cigarette?

We dated for four years, so it must have been a relationship based on affection. We met, took photos at nice places, ate, toured shops, watched movies, and then broke up. When I got home, I had to make a mandatory phone call.

After joining this company, I couldn’t even do that. My body was too tired. I had to work non-stop from 8 AM to 5 PM. It was supposed to be an 8 AM start, but 7:30 AM was the norm. Even then, I often worked overtime until 9 PM.

After such exhausting work, I would come home and collapse. I couldn’t even properly rest on weekends.

My girlfriend’s frustration grew. She needed to vent her stress, but I couldn’t handle it, so it just piled up. In my opinion, it didn’t even qualify as stress. I was on the verge of death; who could handle someone else’s stress?

Our hearts and bodies had drifted apart, and we couldn’t find the energy to continue the relationship.

My girlfriend blamed me for everything. She said she tried her best, but I had changed. A cliché. In the end, I had to take all the blame and break up. I’m the bad guy. Yeah, that’s it.

Let’s stop thinking. I’ll go home.

As always, a rooftop room is perfect for a nobody like me. There’s no law that says I have to live in a rooftop room, but I can’t escape it. Should I be satisfied that it’s not a damp basement with a sticky vinyl floor?

The company offered to provide a dormitory as a favor. They rented a dilapidated three-story building and boasted about it like a palace, where three people lived together. They even deducted 100,000 won per month as maintenance fees.

Living there would make me a slave for life. Even a humble shack is better if it’s my own.

I climbed the four flights of stairs and opened the door. The place is so small that I don’t even need to turn on the lights. I reached for where the water bottle should be. When I come home tired, I need to find water immediately. The heavy bottle gave me some comfort, as it seemed to last about three days.

“Damn.”

A curse slipped out. It felt unusually heavy. I should have suspected something when it didn’t shake normally. The thick, sticky phlegm from nicotine is disgusting. I should turn on the lights when I get home from now on.

After coughing up the foul taste of nicotine phlegm, I checked the time. It was 7 PM.

Ding.

What text at this hour?

On a Saturday evening at 7 PM, my phone should be on fire, but after three years of this company life, most of my friends have drifted away. I missed a few calls, and they drifted away too. I need to live like a human being...

-6 30 38 39 40 43

The text from an unknown number only contained numbers. What is this weird spam?

After a refreshing shower and a bowl of Jin Ramen, it was almost 9 PM. What a waste of a golden Saturday. How tragic.

In school, I never really worried about employment. Maybe because I was naive or immature, I thought university should be a place for academic research and focused on studying. Even a sociology major, who has a hard time finding a job, didn’t realize it until graduation.

When I finally graduated, I had nothing to do. I always dreamed of starting a business. Not just any business, but a huge one! The scene of entering a meeting room and all the CEOs of subsidiaries standing up to greet me. Dreams should be grand.

But dreams are dreams, and reality is reality. I needed to eat. Every penny counted. After sending out resumes everywhere, I ended up at this company.

If it wasn’t selling insurance, credit cards, or real estate, this was the only place I could go. I signed a 20 million won slave contract as a 'management position' in charge of materials.

I realized too late that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) don’t have 'management positions.' Only family members or relatives of the CEO can be in management. For a salaryman, it’s impossible. The 'management position' in SMEs is just a trick to avoid paying overtime. The notorious comprehensive salary system. What bastards.

After a year of intense work, I developed a sense of pride. Fine, let’s see who wins. I’ll extract everything I can from here and start my own company. We’ll see. The pride gave me strength, but it was still hell every day. I managed to last three years.

There were many changes, but the only good one was a slight increase in salary from 20 million to 22.5 million won. Do I still need to endure? Will I become a slave instead of starting a company?

I don’t know. Can I really achieve my dreams? Maybe if I win the lottery.

Speaking of which, it’s time for the lottery. My only hope, let’s try to win the lottery.

“Huh? What’s this!”