Mi-jeng held on to a pole in the bus as it rocked back and forth. The driver honked at something and her legs slammed into a middle-aged woman who gripped the seat in front of her. The bus stopped but the passengers brace themselves. Mi-jeng balanced herself and instinctually kept her knees bent.
I hate the bus. I hate the bus. It started forward. Thirty minutes more. Why do I have to take the bus? Her back hurt. She grabbed the closest pole. An older man sitting to her right got up. As the bus slammed to another stop he let the force propel him forward. Mi-jeng leapt to the seat and let herself fall into it. An older woman arrived too late. "Tsk tsk," she said to Mi-jeng. She looked out the window and pretended not to hear.
She hoisted her feet up. Her seat was on the tirewell. The bus slammed forward.
When she got to Gupo-dong and the bus came to a complete stop she, like the old man had earlier, let herself get thrown forward, out of her seat, like a slingshot, to the exit. She kept her momentum going straight out the door until her high heels were safely on the ground. The bus sped away and she tried balanced herself in a cloud of exhaust.
She was late. She ran. Her shoes clip clopped against the brick sidewalk. Chock chock chock a customer came out of convenience store. She dodged to the left and her right hand still crashed into the door. She kept running.
It was hot and humid. It was August. A heat wave. She smelled her makeup as it rode a sweatbead down her cheek and under her nose. Her phone vibrated in her purse. She knew who it was. She ignored it. She was almost there anyway. She stopped and panted. She took out her mirror. Her hair was fucked. She patted at her bangs. Fucked! She pulled out a napkin from her purse and dotted at her face collecting the sweat. She threw it on the ground and reached for another. Her phone was still vibrating.
She kept dotting her face as she chock chocked toward the door. Finally she reached her work. She let the napkin fall to the ground and pulled the glass door open.
"Bitch, where have you been? You're late!"
Mi-jeng said nothing.
"Bitch, get in here. Look at your face. Slut, did you fuck someone on the way here? Go to the bathroom and clean up. The coffee is on the table. Hurry the fuck up!"
Mi-jeng ran to the bathroom. She looked in the mirror and put powder on her face. She looked at her pimples and applied more makeup. She took a blue oil pad from her purse and dotted at the grease on her face.
"Bitch! Get the fuck out here!"
Mi-jeng ran out from the bathroom.
"I put the coffee in there. Go to the rotary, turn right, go past the Nongyup bank and turn on the Family Mart street. Half way down the street. Han-ook Apartment. Apartment 312. Got it?"
Mi-jeng grunted in acknowledgement.
"Hurry the fuck up. I'm going to take a higher percentage if he tells me you're late. That will be a penalty. We fixed the bike and it's out back. Get out, now!"
Mi-jung grabbed the plastic container and ran out the door. She kicked the metal door open and ran into the back. There, was the small grey moped she'd fallen off just days before. Her leg still hurt from that. She felt like an old woman sometimes, her body always sore. She attached the container onto the back. She wheeled it out front, turned the key and sped off.
Once in the street she stayed to the right. The rotary was not far. The cool air tried to dry the beads of sweat. She took a deep breath and adjusted her bottom against the seat. A car blasted its horn next to her.
"Slut, gimmie coffee!" a school boy with his friends yelled as she turned past Family Mart. The group stared at her. Mi-jeng watched them in her mirror to make sure they went away and didn't follow her. She stopped the bike and detached the container. She ran up the stairs. The stairs were hot and the stench of smoke choked her. She coughed and waved her hand in front of her face. When she got to the third floor she stopped and slammed the container on the ground. She pulled out her mirror and looked at her bangs. Fucked. The hot weather made them go straight out. A door opened. She threw her mirror into her bag. An old man with a cigarette peered out the door, looking opposite to her before looking at her. He saw the container on the floor.
He motioned with his head for her to come in. He again surveyed the 3rd floor. "Hurry up. Did you put your bike out front?"
"I parked it under the stairs on the first floor, sir," she said undoing the strap that held her high heels to her foot.
The man said nothing and shut the door. Mi-jeng looked around the apartment. Dirty take out food dishes sat on the floor next to the door. "Put those in the hall," the man said as he swept some newspapers off the bed. "Hurry up."
"Ok, sir," Mi-jeng said cheerfully.
She carefully placed the metal bowls inside the large metal bowl.
"Did you eat well sir?" she asked the man.
He grunted yes and stubbed out his cigarette. He poured a glass of beer.
"Don't you want coffee sir?" He looked at her. She quickly pushed the bowl outside the door. It made a scraping sound that raised the hairs on her arm. She ran over to the man.
"Let me pour your beer sir?" she said, pulling the bottle from his hand, pulling a chair close to him. "Here sir, drink this," she said.
He looked not at the beer but at her. She thought he was staring at her legs. She'd worn short white shorts. She looked at her shorts. There was a streak of dust on the front of them because she had kept them hidden under her bed. The man still looked at her legs. Then at her ass. She thought he smiled.
"Do you like me sir?” she said smiling. It was then she realized he hadn't smiled. He continued to stare at her body. Two people in the apartment next door were arguing.
"You don't know my mind!" a man shouted.
"You don't know my mind!" a woman shouted.
"You can't believe me because you don't know my mind!" the man shouted.
"Fuck your mind! You are so cheap and you don't know my mind!" the woman shouted.
Mi-jeng looked playfully at the man as he took a sip of beer. He was still looking at her body.
"You won't yell at me like that will you sir?"
The man said nothing.
Mi-jeng smiled brightly, but was a little scared. She sensed something bad in the man, but she couldn't express that. Just then he grabbed her by the hair and pushed her to the bed.
"Sir! What about the coffee?"
He clawed at her shorts breaking the top button off. Mi-jeng heard the button bounce on the linoleum floor as the couple next door kept screaming.