I Was A Porter - Chapter 7

Job Search (1)

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Seung-ho repeatedly turned the screen of the smartphone in his hand on and off.

He learned how to use it from his father all night, but he still felt awkward tapping on a smartphone touch screen.

He walked to the office a little too early in the morning. With nothing to do, he is tapping his phone to pass the time in what is now called a community center.

His mother walked too hard yesterday and got sick, so his father volunteered to accompany him.  However, he declined and went alone.

The deadline for re-issuance of the Resident Registration Card is within six months. Still, he left home as he was forced to follow his father’s opinion that it is better to get his card re-issued that as soon as possible so he could do social activities.

Seung-ho strolled on a quiet street. It was still a good 30 minutes to go before office hours.

“Co-Talk, Co-Talk, Co-Talk”

When he opened his phone yesterday, the first app was called ‘CocoaTalk.’ Lee Min-ju explained that this is going to be a chat room.

-Lee Min-Ju: Brother, I sent a picture of my kids apologizing, left is Seong-a, and right is Sia.

Seung-ho clicked on the photo sent by Lee Min-ju with his finger; he saw a picture of long hair hanging on the floor and bowing down.

He only saw the back of the head in the photo, so if Min-Ju didn’t explain, he wouldn’t know who that was.

-Seung-ho Lee: Uh

-Lee Min-Ju: Why is the answer so short? Are you mad?

-Seung-ho Lee: Yerub

-Lee Min-Ju: What?

-Seung-ho Lee: Difficult

-Lee Min-Ju: You must use it a lot. When you talk with your nieces, you’ll get to learn incredibly fast,

-Seung-ho Lee: I will use it later

-Lee Min-Ju: Okay, next time you see the kids, try to look good ~ Because the kids thought about their father, don’t hate them too much ~

Lee Min-ju kept talking while he sheds sweat. He did not even sweat this much when catching monsters.

After struggling with the smartphone touch screen, he pushed that nasty smartphone down in his pocket and walked the streets more comfortably.

He strolled without a destination. The time suddenly passed by 9 o’clock, and he turned towards the community center.

As Seung-ho entered, he started to feel strange because of the looks coming from the people in the center.

He stood at the entrance and traced back and forth to remember where he felt that way.

Seung-ho had an unpleasant memory of what he felt there, and how he felt the same getting looks from people sitting at the community center.

He wasn’t sure, but when he looked at them with suspicion, his doubts became convincing.

Seung-ho turned right back on the way and left the community center.

He expanded his senses because he wondered if the stares would follow him.

Only a few people knew that he would come to renew his resident registration card: police officers, association people, parents, and Lee Min-ju, and his nieces.

However, his family would not have reported that, so either the police or the association gave out information. Either way bothered him.

To sell the mana stone, he had to somehow go through the association, and it was impossible to beat the police.

He tried to calm the simmering anger. After nearly 20 years catching and killing monsters, he needed his rage to rise quickly to stay alive. However, he does not need it now.

‘Dump!

A woman walking in front of him, in her early twenties, suddenly fell.

Seung-ho wanted to help, so he ran to the woman, but he was too late. The woman died in an instant. He knew after touching her stiff body.

“People!! Help!!”

Seung-ho, who knew how to kill but didn’t know how to save, began to shout urgently.

There was not a lot of people in that place. He thought of the groups of people gathered in the community center, and he carried the woman off there without thinking about other thoughts.

“She has a heart attack! Help!”

He pushed through the resident center’s glass door carrying the woman, and the people sitting in chairs and the staff stood up quickly.

A young man from the staff comes to them. The woman held by Seung-ho was laid on the floor. The man tilted the head, secured the airway, and immediately grasped the condition.

“No breath, no pulse.”

As soon as the young man figured out the condition, he raised his head and looked at Seung-ho, who was next to him.

“How long has it passed?”

“It took less than a minute.”

“Please call 119, Ms. Sua, defibrillator! Can you help me? You have to do it immediately!”

In response to the male employee’s unsuccessful instructions, Seung-ho pulled out an awkward smartphone and started making calls.

A woman nodded and ran toward the central stairway where Seung-ho entered.

An intelligent-looking man in his early thirties, with spectacle glasses, took a quick look and approached the staff to volunteer.

“I will help too.”

“Thank you. Then let’s start.”

Each of them started kneeling at the side of her chest and the bedside and started practicing CPR.

“One, two, three… … thirty”

“Shhh! Yum!”

After several repetitions, the woman’s heart showed no signs of jumping again.

A siren was heard from a distance.

At that moment, the woman’s finger moved.

The employee, who became sweaty, missed the sight, but immediately Seung-ho, who was watching eagerly behind the scenes, noticed that.

“Her finger moved!”

After Seung-ho’s words were over, the woman began to breathe thinly.

Everyone who watched the scene cheered loudly, and a woman called Sua, who went away, appeared shaking her head off while walking down the central stairs.

“Sua, why didn’t you bring me a defibrillator !!”

“I was looking for it…”

The male employee who heard the words was angry because the answer was so ridiculous.

“You should have asked if you didn’t know!!”

“Okay, it’s good!! Why are you yelling like that!”

In the meantime, an ambulance arrived.

Rescuers rushed in, one of them carrying a stretcher.

The paramedics thanked the employees, and the citizens gathered around for taking the first steps.

After asking questions to the still weak yet conscious woman, they put her on a stretcher and loaded her into the ambulance.

The man in spectacle glasses, who helped with CPR, took a laptop out of his briefcase.

Seung-ho, who studied hard on the latest devices last night, looked at the man with his curiosity. He is seeing a laptop for the first time.

For him who is still struggling with his smartphone, it feels like watching a performance of someone pressing the keyboard as smoothly as playing the piano.

“If you’ll excuse me, can I interview you?” The bespectacled man suddenly spoke to Seung-ho.

“Me?” He tried to step back.

“Yes, I’m going to write a little article, but is it possible for you to cooperate? You’ll only have to answer simple questions, such as where you found the woman and how you thought about bringing her here. It would be helpful. If you help me with this, I will give you a small gift certificate.”

Seung-ho felt a little weak.

This man helped with this incident caused by his mistake, so he decided to respond to the interview in a way that wouldn’t reveal his identity.

The reporter first interviewed Seung-ho.

“How did you first discover the woman?”

“I was just walking around; then she suddenly fell in front of me.”

“The woman was lucky you were there. Why did you think to bring the woman here?”

Seung-ho hesitated to the reporter’s question but decided to answer with a little falsehood.

“I had a job in the office a while ago; after that, I left, when I was on my way home the incident happened.”

At that moment, there was a flash in the head of the reporter interviewing Seung-ho.

“What do you do for a living?”

“It is a personal matter.”

Seung-ho avoided the question, and the reporter grew apologized for his small doubts.

“Okay. Have you ever learned CPR?”

“Yeah… I wouldn’t have helped you if I didn’t learn it, but I’m sorry.”

“No, don’t be sorry… But have you ever been to the military?”

Suddenly, he wanted to ask why the reporter was talking about the military, but then, he just nodded.

The reporter sensed that he was taking the bait.

“Hey, you look young, but you must have been in the military quickly.”

Seung-ho wanted to tell the reporter that he went ten years earlier than him, but he just smiled forcibly.

“Where have you been? Marine? Army?”

“I went to the army.”

“Service tenet.”

“What are you talking about?”

When Seung-ho looked confused, the reporter smiled.

Apologetic doubts turned into firm conviction.

Suddenly, the reporter brought his face close to Seung-ho. He smiled, then whispered so that the others could not hear:

“Mr. Seung-ho Lee, can I interview you?”