14. Colleagues
[Albert's flashback begins]
Light leaks through the narrow window of the dark bathroom. The light splits into two or three strands, obliquely passing by broken mirror fragments. The bathroom had long since dried of moisture. The blue mold caught between tiles had hardened like fossils. The man stares blankly at his fragmented face reflected in the broken mirror. Hollow eyes and dark circles, sunken areas here and there on his face creating dark shadows. The man didn't know how his face had become so tired. No matter how he looked, he couldn't find any corner where vitality might emerge.
After staring at his face for a while, he lifted his green hooded top. In the broken mirror, his gaunt bare body was reflected. On that gaunt body, small red hive-like spots spread from his neck to his arms, back, waist, and stomach. Looking at his body reflected in the mirror, he thought for a while that it was disgusting. Then when he thought it was his own body, he soon felt pity. He couldn't understand at all how such symptoms could appear on his body. A hollow laugh came out. He smiled bitterly, thinking God's curse had finally reached him directly.
"That's metal poisoning."
His colleague spoke while picking up a piece of pork cutlet from the lunch box on the table and eating it.
"What, did you think you had AIDS or something? Isn't it because when you work, you only wear short sleeves because it's hot and carry those steel chunks? This big brother here, no matter how hot it is, I absolutely never let dirty pipes touch my bare skin. Why? Because I know those bastards don't wash the pipes. Do you think after work they wipe down each pipe one by one saying 'ah my babies, good work today'? They just roughly shove them away and take them out again when there's more work. When you're working, dirt and dust are the basics, and there are even guys who piss on them. So if you rub them all over your bare skin, will you get metal poisoning or won't you? Tsk tsk."
The man with unusually thick lips brought the pork cutlet to his mouth, chewing it while shaking his head as if Albert was pathetic. Albert listened blankly to his story and then felt depressed at the conclusion that his symptoms weren't toxic but merely dirty.
"Hey afro. Are you going today?"
Thick Lips spoke to the afro-haired man who was puffing away on a cigarette beside him. The afro kept watching TV as if uninterested, continuing to blow cigarette smoke.
"Hey you XX bastard. It smells like cigarettes. We're eating. You have no manners. No manners."
Thick Lips kept grumbling, but the afro paid no attention and watched TV. When one cigarette finished, the afro stood up, looked at Albert sitting blankly, said "Ah XX, so fucking boring," and left, closing the door.
＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊
In the dark interior, psychedelic lights spin gorgeously. On stage, a DJ wearing a black tank top sways his body to the music, turning the sound up and down. People surrender their bodies to the music, eyes glazed as if drugged, swaying limply. The heavy booming sound from the large speakers seemed like it would bring the ceiling down.
"Hey. Listen carefully. No need for introductions. Three seconds of eye contact, three seconds of whispering in the ear, give and take a few times and the girl laughs. Then it's go go go. Girls who are arrogant like princesses, just pass on them. Got it?"
Thick Lips approached where a woman was, as if telling Albert to watch what he does. He lightly placed his hand on the woman's shoulder and said something to her with his mouth. The woman looked him up and down once, then turned her head as if she couldn't hear well. He spoke something in the woman's ear again, and the woman made a shocked expression as if horrified by his words, then looked at him as if he was pathetic. Then she said something to the man and left. Thick Lips returned to his seat as a defeated soldier.
"What did you say?"
"Hello? Should I take your pants off?"
"This guy's completely crazy. So what did she say?"
"She said to masturbate alone."
The afro cursed at Thick Lips and laughed as if it was funny. Thick Lips tilted his head as if not knowing his reason for defeat, then drank the beer on the table. The afro took out a beer glass and a shot glass from the table, poured liquor, then lit the shot glass on fire. When blue flames rose above the liquor, he lifted the shot glass and dropped it straight into the beer glass. Then the foam in the beer glass instantly climbed up the glass and poured out. The afro gulped down the beer glass, emptying it cleanly, then let out a loud burp. Then he got up from his seat and approached a woman dancing alone in a corner. He approached from behind the woman, gently placed his hand on her waist, and swayed his body left and right to the music. The woman slightly turned around, glanced at the afro, then silently continued dancing.
"Hey hey. You see that? That's the flow."
Thick Lips gulped down the beer remaining in his glass and again approached a woman dancing in the opposite direction. He approached from behind the woman and gently placed his hand on her waist, when the woman lightning-fast shook off his hand. Thick Lips was flustered but again rode the rhythm with thick skin, and while grinning, brought his hand to the woman's waist. Then this time the woman slapped him. Thick Lips's face turned bright red as he muttered something at the fleeing woman's back, and Albert, seeing this scene, just giggled as if it was funny.
After several stages repeated and countless people came and went from the table, time had long passed midnight. Thick Lips and the afro were nowhere to be seen. Albert continued sitting at his seat drinking beer. Rather than drunk, his body was beginning to tire as it got late. Then a woman sat across from him.
"Oh. This isn't our seat. I'm sorry."
He quite liked the woman's eye smile.
"Are you alone?"
"...For now."
As if not disliking his answer, the woman continued.
"I came with friends too. But I don't know where they all went."
Albert nodded as if understanding.
"Are you drunk?"
"...No... I'm sleepy."
He said with a smile. The woman nodded with an indifferent expression as if understanding.
"If you're sleepy, you can just go home, can't you?"
"...Um..."
He pondered for a while, then smiled as a thought suddenly occurred to him.
"Cinderella. Waiting. It's past 12 but she has no thought of going home."
"Huh?"
He opened his eyes dimly and smirked. The woman looked at him with strange eyes. From his one remark, the woman could tell he was a lacking person. The woman wondered whether to just get up, but thinking she should at least see the end of the unfunny joke he tried hard to think of, she asked back.
"Then are you the prince?"
"...Um... no... butler."
"Ah~?"
"Because he took the key and left... the. coachman."
The woman burst into laughter at his deliberate lip movements as if dumbfounded. He really liked the woman's laughing face. The woman who had been laughing for a while stopped laughing and stared at him. In the woman's eyes looking at him, some unknown sympathy lingered. The woman got up from her seat and said to him.
"Stop waiting. He probably already went home with someone else."
Albert couldn't look at the woman and with his eyes half-open, raised his eyebrows making a surprised expression, then smiled again and bowed his head in greeting. The woman left, leaving him behind. He stared blankly at the glass on the table, continuing to wear a sad smile. Loneliness and solitude flowed as if he had been left alone in the world again. He was alone. Even in this exciting, noisy, chaotic world.
"Hey. Butler mister. Want to dance with us?"
Where people danced, yellow, blue, and red lights alternately flashed, disorienting the view. The stage where singers performed was empty, and in the right corner a man kept touching the beat box while swaying his body. The man was led by the woman's hand to stand center stage. The woman looked at the man and laughed as if it was funny. The man liked the woman's innocent smile. The man was awkward, not knowing how to dance, and the woman pushed the man's chest with both hands and laughed heartily. The man kept looking at the woman. Then the woman pressed her body close in front of the man and put her arms on his shoulders. Then she brought her face close, looked into his eyes, and swayed her body. He too felt her body swaying and swayed along. He smiled happily.
"Damn. I'm tired. Why are all the women here so lacking in character?"
Thick Lips lit a cigarette and began grumbling. The afro sitting across snorted while drinking beer. Thick Lips drank the remaining beer on the table and turned his head left and right, looking around.
"What's he doing alone?"
The afro looked where Thick Lips was pointing. Far away on the empty stage, the man who had come with them was alone swaying his body and laughing like crazy.
[Albert's flashback ends]