12. Part-Time Job
[Albert's flashback begins]
"Hey. Is something wrong? What's with your face?"
He was flustered by the man's sudden question. He began to wonder how he should react to the man's attitude of suddenly asking with concern when he looked at him, who was fine. He stared at the man without saying anything. Then the man frowned even more and asked.
"Something's wrong, isn't it?"
The man's persistent questioning when nothing was wrong with him gradually made him irritated. He couldn't figure out the meaning of this persistence—whether this person was genuinely concerned, or hoping something bad had happened to him, or telling him to at least brighten up his expression in front of him. He was suffocated by the persistence and briefly shook his head, answering that nothing was wrong.
"No... it seems like something's wrong..."
The man left a final suspicious remark and soon withdrew his burdensome persistence. He sighed as if drained by the man's persistence.
＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊
"Around 5 o'clock, the baby's parents will arrive first. The hall setup needs to be finished by then. Since there are about 30 people, set up three 5-person tables on each side, put a small parents' table next to the stage, and place a partition in front. Starting 30 minutes before, set up the frame and gifts at the entrance. Joy, you put stickers on the guests when they arrive. You two over there, when the video ends, go straight to the restaurant, bring the cake, and wait behind this partition, then set it up center stage when the MC calls. From mealtime on, clear the guests' empty plates well. And... Jjam-man! Yeah, thanks for your hard work today too. This is the last event of the day, so let's finish cleanly and go home."
The tall manager with slicked-back yellow hair smiled with a white face and encouraged the part-time employees. The female employees blushed at the gentlemanly manager's appearance, and irrepressible smiles spread across their lips. The men were young but had acne, were skinny, or had messy hair, while in contrast, the women had fair skin, shiny hair, slim waists, and nicely shaped legs. The women showed little interest in boys their own age and were busy talking about the manager who was older than them but clean-cut and mature.
When the table setting was finished and things became quiet, people began to arrive one by one. Those who came earlier than scheduled seemed embarrassed that there were fewer people than expected in the event hall and took out their smartphones to kill time. About 10 minutes before the event started, he went into the hall alone to collect the setting tools he had left on the table next to the stage, and meanwhile guests began to pour in. The female employee putting stickers on people's sleeves at the main entrance made a troubled expression as the line stretched to the elevator. The manager, who had come from the opposite hall, saw the entrance was crowded and grabbed Albert, who happened to be coming out of the hall, ordering him to help with the sticker work. He had no way with words and couldn't create an artificial smile, so it wasn't easy for him to put stickers on people's sleeves, especially older men.
While he was frantically putting on stickers, the event started, and as the number of people entering decreased significantly, the manager called the female employee and told her to follow him. Albert remained alone, putting stickers on the sleeves of latecomers and taking a brief rest. Then from afar, two men began struggling to bring in a cake taller than a person. One of them made eye contact with him, and the man glared at him with resentful eyes before entering the hall.
After the event ended and all the people had left, the employees began to clean up the hall. He too was busy clearing empty plates. Then the man who had looked at him resentfully earlier approached him.
"Hey! What were you doing?"
"Excuse me?"
"What were you doing!"
The man asked with an angry expression. He was dumbfounded just by the man's angry state, but he was also incredulous that a fellow part-timer was throwing manager-like questions at him.
"You were supposed to carry the cake with me! What were you doing!"
Only then did he understand why the man was angry. But he hadn't been slacking off either, and he wondered if there was really a need to discuss such things loudly where everyone was present, so he answered.
"...The manager told me to put on stickers."
"Wow. Look at this bastard. Completely shameless. There was no one there, what stickers were you putting on!"
The man began to lash out at him as if thoroughly angry. The women clearing plates nearby began to whisper at the man's loud voice, and although he hadn't done anything particularly wrong, his face flushed as the situation took a strange turn because of the man.
"What are you doing?"
Fortunately, the manager entered the hall with a female employee. The man's distorted face was quickly composed when the manager arrived, and he was just dazed by the sudden situation.
"What's wrong? The work's all done. Come on, let's finish up and go home."
The manager didn't particularly want to know why the two were red-faced, and just wanted to quickly clean up the hall situation and leave with the female employee who followed him around. When the manager left the hall again, the man looked at him, threw out a remark, and turned his back.
"Hey! Do it right!"
He was angry at the man's attitude and his fists clenched, but thinking that dragging the matter on would only tire people out more, he swallowed his anger alone and worked silently. But even while clearing plates, his heart kept pounding and anger continued to well up in his head.
＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊
"We need to finish installation by 4 PM today, so let's hurry. Like this, three of you install with Chief Baek at the tower across, and you two gentlemen do this here with me. A car will come soon, so let's move the stuff first."
A tanned man in his 40s wearing black sports sunglasses spoke with his arms crossed in front of people. He had broad shoulders like a fitness athlete and bulging arm muscles, looking like he could knock someone down with just his triceps alone.
Soon a blue freight truck arrived at the stadium main gate, and when the cargo tarp was rolled back, hard, heavy-looking elongated steel pipes were piled layer upon layer, pressing down on the vehicle. They had two men stand on the truck to lift the pipes and pass them to people below. When the hard, heavy steel touched their shoulders, it made even the most robust person realize they were nothing but soft protein-based creatures. As two people carried pipe bundles on their right shoulders and moved forward, their legs trembled, and they even doubted whether they could move all of it within the day. They advanced toward where the manager pointed, almost dragged along by the weight of the steel.
Soon, passing through a dark passage, the place where bright light leaked out was a large soccer field with wide grass. A famous singer's concert was being held there today, and from early morning many people were positioned here and there moving around to prepare for stage installation. Already in the middle of the field was a main stage higher than a person, with giant lighting towers rising at both ends. Giant monitors were installed at the center and both sides of the stage, showing tiny people enlarged on the monitors.
They set up to install a lighting tower in the middle of the A4 section seating. While seven able-bodied men transported pipes from the car for nearly an hour, they fell silent, three or four people already had back problems flare up, and their clothes were soiled with dust from the steel. They already felt doubtful about this part-time job, and some seemed to be thinking of just giving up and running away. This was because while 'construction sites' had high hourly wages befitting hard work so workers came mentally prepared, 'event assistance' was advertised as light work like a clown uncle handing out balloons with cheap hourly wages to trick people, then sucker-punched workers with heavy labor without time to think.
"Fucking bastards. They're really working us like dogs."
When a 10-minute break was given, a man smoking in one spot grumbled. His speech had a characteristically cheerful voice that made people listening nearby chuckle.
They built the tower up one floor at a time in a square shape, with one side of thick pipes supporting the ground. They connected round pipes between pillars and created footholds by hanging rectangular iron plates with holes punched through them on both steel pipes. Stepping on these footholds, they continued to build the tower one floor at a time. They wore safety vests, but not one person hooked a safety line to the work platform, nor was there a manager to wait for that. When the giant tower about 10 meters high was completed, the manager told people to climb up one floor at a time. Then giant trusses began to rise from below.
"Trusses are heavy, so you can't drag your feet. When they lift from below, you have to pull them up right away."
The manager had warned them beforehand, but when the giant steel actually came up from below, its weight was so absurd that holding and lifting it was unimaginable. The manager watching from below shouted and cursed. Eventually, when the truss got stuck in the middle, the manager climbed up holding a steel pipe like a grim reaper and helped him struggling with the truss. When one truss was installed at the top of the tower, a truss went up on the opposite tower as well.
Now thinking it was really the end, everyone was letting out sighs of relief while trying to calm their trembling arms, when the manager pointed at him and told him to go hang a steel wire at the top. He couldn't understand how he was supposed to climb a 10-meter tower with one hand while holding a steel wire in the other. He had no choice but to hook the steel wire to his belt loop and slowly climb the 10-meter tower along one pillar. Since there were no safety devices, it was a dizzying moment where one misstep would mean falling straight down. He slowly stepped on the narrow footboards between pillars one by one and climbed up. When he reached about the 4th floor height, with a strong will to get down alive, he climbed the last floor and barely managed to attach the steel wire at the top. Then he slowly climbed back down the pillar he came up. Below, the managers laughed as if the sight was amusing. When told to go attach the other tower too, he firmly refused. The manager asked other people, but no one readily stepped forward, and looking displeased, he grabbed the wire himself and climbed to the tower top like a monkey.
When installation was all done, they gave the day's wages right there on site. That wage was enough money to buy about two hamburger sets. It was an absurd compensation compared to the danger they had experienced working all day. While calming his trembling hands and dragging his heavy body outside, he noticed his left waist shirt was torn.
"Mister. You knew better, why did you do that?"
The man who had been grumbling at lunch approached him and spoke. He didn't have much energy to respond.
"They make us work like that all day and only pay this much, you can't just listen to everything those bastards say. It's not like they'll pay more for that. Even if you get hurt, you can't get any compensation. I'm telling you because you seem too nice, but if you work like that here, you're the one who loses out."
The man spoke to him as if worried while smoking a cigarette, but he felt wary that the man might secretly try to take his wages. But contrary to his worry, the man left saying, "Well, see you again somewhere else."
[Albert's flashback ends]