Not a Second Too Late

[Translated from the vernacular]

"Minjeong-si, a word, please."

Nervous, she stands and walks over to Lee 팀장's desk like she's stepping on

(egg shells)

cicada husks. She doesn't know what she's done wrong this time, but she's about to find out.

"What time did you arrive at work this morning?" he asks, his breath a fetid mixture of cigarettes and coffee.

Forty-seven minutes before you, asshole, she'd like to say, but that would be inappropriate, would fly in the face of accepted social and business policies.

"Six o'clock, I think," she says, looking down at her slippered feet. Ankle-high white socks.

"Actually, well..." Lee 팀장 inhales a deep breath and lets it out slowly, like he's about to impart the secret of the universe as interpreted by cocksuckers. "Your time card says that you punched in at six o'clock and thirty-seven seconds."

Minjeong waits.

"As you know," Lee 팀장 continues, "official office policy states that if an employee is late twice within a month, he or she must work eight full hours on Saturday to make up for his or her tardiness."

"Oh..." Minjeong manages through a larynx constricted by anxiety.

"Yes," Lee 팀장 goes on, "and since you were also late last week -- wait, I have the record here somewhere...

[shuffling through papers]

"Ah, yes, Tuesday. You punched in at six o'clock and, wow, one second past the hour."

Minjeong's hands, hitherto placidly touching the sides of her navy-blue skirt, are slowly balling into fists.

"A commendable effort, I suppose, but late is late, and I have no other option but to schedule you in for work this Saturday."

"But it's my sister's wedding on Saturday."

Lee 팀장 poorly conveys an apologetic expression over his unmerciful smirk. "What time is the wedding?"

"Two."

"Ah, that's regretful, Minjeong-si. But I'm afraid I cannot in this case make an exception. If I did, every employee would be turning up here late, claiming one reason or another for their lack of punctuality, giving any sort of excuse for why they can't work on Saturday. Homin over there, for example, might say his mother is sick with cancer, and Wooseok next to him could claim it's his father's death anniversary. Or, like you, they'd most likely use a wedding as an excuse. Really, Jaeseok has tried that one so regularly that his relatives must be marrying each other he has so many family members getting hitched. I'm sorry to say it, Minjeong-si, but if your sister's wedding was so important, you never should have shown up late for work, twice, in the first place. You can apologize to me, but who you should really be apologizing to is your sister."

"That's..." Minjeong starts before cutting herself off.

"Unfair?" Lee 팀장 asks as though he anticipated her response all along. "Tell me, what is fair, you poor flower of a girl? Is homelessness fair? Is starvation? Is the execution of innocent men or the freedom of the guilty unjust, or is it natural selection? I will admit that our justice system is flawed, but it's getting better! So, too, is the way we do business. The Darwinian business module has no place for people who cling on to such outdated traditions as funerals, hospital beds, and dying relatives, nor for happy young couples and the sap they drip all around. No. Employees are bred, and a late worker is an undesirable one. You may consider me a hardass for my attention to detail as it relates to the nearest second, but keep in mind that you're afforded such a luxury, because the day will soon come when fractions of seconds will determine a person's worth, and if you're alive then I dare say you'll be an old woman hunchbacked and scraping off sidewalks the remnants of our rapidly advancing society."

"I see, Lee 팀장님," Kim Minjeong responds.