She bared her teeth at her brother, her eyes bulging as if she were about to tear into him.
“Looks like he’s one of the samjae, isn’t he?
Mom.
What do they say you should do to completely nip it in the bud?”
That was less a genuine question and more a warning directed at her brother.
At his sister’s chilling remark, Seo-won cowered further and completely turned his back to her.
Hye-won withdrew her venomous gaze, picked up the food with her chopsticks, and said indifferently.
“But Mom.
That’s all superstition.
If you go by that, our family has been in samjae for fifteen years.”
Hye-won, who had been pouting, mixed the cheonggukjang vigorously with her rice and crammed it into her mouth.
Her mother shot a sidelong glance at Hye-won, who seemed to take it lightly, and offered a word of caution.
“There you go again, talking like that.
Remember that.”
Remember that.
Her mother’s last words from yesterday echoed in her mind like a howling sound.
Hye-won briskly walked toward the subway station, shaking her still-damp hair.
It was a path she took every day for work, but today, on the second-floor window of a commercial building near the station, the red swastika symbol and the word Manwol written below it particularly caught her eye.
Hye-won, reading the red letters, unconsciously mumbled.
“So, ahopsu and samjae…”
Could it really be true?
Her mother’s words, which came back to her, were related to the promotion that had happened last week.
“This is unsettling.”
As she pondered various thoughts, Hye-won’s steps toward the company felt heavy.
Before she knew it, she looked up and saw a five-story small building atop a steep hill. This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
It was the headquarters of Studio Oz, Hye-won’s workplace.
At one time, she had thought it would take her to a paradise beyond the rainbow, just like its name suggested.
But now, in her sixth year of work, it looked like Golgotha Hill.
A place where she had to drag up her increasingly complicated situation and her ever-thickening thighs like a cross.
Hye-won couldn’t help but let out a wail.
Oh dear.
But what could she do?
A salaried worker had to go to work.
As she trudged her legs forward, she heard someone calling her from behind.
“Assistant Manager Lee.”
She glanced back to see So-young, her junior colleague who had just shed her intern title.
So-young, with a chubby face that still hadn’t lost its baby fat and wearing round horn-rimmed glasses, was panting heavily as she chased after Hye-won.