Rabbit Hole Chapter 25

The absence of two people was huge. Geumseo was so busy he didn’t even notice the time passing. The hallway was complicated and chaotic, so he entered the wrong room a few times, but luckily it was just when customers were starting to fill up and they all wanted to order anyway, so he was able to get through it without issue. But what came next was the problem. At this rate, he was bound to deliver the wrong food. That would really be troublesome…. He considered asking Haeju for help, but today Haeju was busy too. He had disappeared when the boss called for him and still hadn’t come back.

Chewing his lips furiously, Geumseo bustled here and there. There were other servers, but oddly, it felt like only he was doing the work. Were the others just too busy to be seen?

Then he entered one room. The food names were as hard to memorize as the winding hallway. He wasn’t even sure if he was pronouncing them correctly, but he just blurted them out as best he could. At that, one of the men who had been quietly fiddling with their phones, unlike the customers in the other rooms, spoke curtly.

“This isn’t what we ordered.”

“Yes…?”

“I said it’s not what we ordered. Check properly and bring it back.”

Geumseo was slightly out of breath from practically running as he walked. So when he closed his mouth and took a breath, it must have sounded like a sigh. The man who had said it wasn’t their order put his phone down on the marble table with a clack and called Geumseo.

“Hey.”

“Yes…?”

“Did you just sigh?”

“No…?”

“Is it ‘no’ or ‘no?’ What is it. You don’t know either?”

He’d picked the wrong room. The single phrase popped clearly into Geumseo’s head.

‘The customers who come here don’t treat you like people. Them giving money is like tossing a receipt into a trash can on the street. What’s awkward about handling something that’s not a person in whatever way? That’s why I’m standing here. Not to stop something from happening to the customers, but to prevent something from happening to the employees.’

He recalled what the big and stalwart Haeju hyung had said. Geumseo trembled inwardly, afraid he was about to become that employee to whom something happened. Had Haeju hyung returned to his spot yet? Had the boss let him go? What if he wasn’t there?

In the meantime, the man shot to his feet. He was fairly tall. Still, not as tall as Go San. And yet the reason he was scarier than Go San was that he knew Go San wouldn’t sincerely hit him. Unha’s words were right. Go San was going easy on him.

The man looked down at Geumseo menacingly. With Geumseo looking at him with a blunt expression, unable to even avoid his gaze but not able to look at him properly either, he barely managed to look around his jawline. He hadn’t even realized he was being backed up, but before he knew it, he was against a wall. Completely cornered with nowhere to run, he was pressed close, nearly touching the man’s body. Behind him, he could hear the man’s companions laughing. Geumseo didn’t find it funny at all.

The man who had been backing Geumseo into a corner like prey for a long while cracked a smile.

“Get go—ing.”

It was drawn out at the front, like ‘get go—ing.’ Geumseo bobbed his head, but since the man didn’t move aside, his head bumped into the man’s chest.

“Oh-ho. Do you like me that much?”

“Hey, hey. Stop it.”

The companions snickered, having no real intention of stopping him. The man cornered Geumseo further, lightly pressed his lower body against him, and only then pulled away.

“Really, get going.”

“I’m sorry….”

Geumseo didn’t even know what he was saying. The man called out to Geumseo again as he was trying to slip away.

“Hey.”

It was ‘hey,’ with no name.

“You should take this. The wrong order.”

Right…. It could have only been a few minutes, but he was as exhausted as if hours had passed. Geumseo picked up the dish he had brought by mistake, bobbed his head repeatedly, and slipped out as if fleeing.

At the end of the hallway, Haeju was standing. Haeju grimaced and barked lowly.

“You! Move faster. The lights keep flickering right now…!”

Haeju, who had said he stood there to keep employees from getting into trouble, urged him on without the slightest clue about the crisis Geumseo had just experienced. Just as he said, the little bulbs attached to the walls were continuously flickering. Like fairy lights wrapped around a Christmas tree.

With no time to even think, Geumseo headed for the kitchen. His head went blank white, as if he’d poured bleach over it. He thought he could even smell disinfectant. Was it because he was near the kitchen? But it wasn’t the kitchen that it reminded him of—it was the swimming pool Go San had dragged him to.

“It went out right, though?”

The managing staff in charge between the kitchen and the servers said, annoyed.

“They said it wasn’t….”

“I’m telling you, you took it right. Go again. Ugh, shit, now they’re gonna bitch that it’s cold.”

“They really… really said it wasn’t, though…?”

“They do that sometimes. They were messing with you. Take it before it gets cold. If not, they’ll bitch even more.”

“Ah….”

The managing staff clicked his tongue seeing Geumseo’s pallid face. As his own version of consolation, he patted Geumseo’s shoulder half-heartedly.

“After they’re done messing around, they tip more, so just go and come back. If they say it’s cold, just, ugh shit… just say sorry and bring it back.”

Getting tips was a good thing, but right now, he hated even that. He just wanted not to take it and ask them not to play these pranks. He was biting the hand that fed him. Geumseo went back in a daze.

“Was it? Ah, sorry.”

The man who had been messing with Geumseo laughed heartily and tapped the table.

“It is what we ordered. Now that I look again.”

“Yeees….”

“Hey, eat up. Eat, the food’s here.”

The men who had been tapping on their phones the whole time finally leaned in. The man who had messed with Geumseo said he was sorry and stuck his business card into Geumseo’s front pocket. Not a tip, but a scrap of paper.

“Sorry. Okay? Come back a bit later. I’ll apologize properly, I will.”

Geumseo made a muffled sound, somewhere between an answer and a groan, and came out. When he took out the scrap of paper, a name was written on it. It said he was the CEO of some company, but to Geumseo, who knew little outside of the home appliance brands found in every Korean household, marts, or car brands, it was a name he’d never seen before. Heo Sangmuk.

“Muk-sabal….”

Geumseo muttered blankly.

Unable to wait even that long, Haeju stamped his foot and called out, Hey, Yang Geumseo! Geumseo had to move again as if his tail were on fire. Thinking at least he was lucky that Heo Sangmuk and his party hadn’t complained that the food was cold.

∞ ∞ ∞

Heo Sangmuk kept calling Geumseo. Even in the midst of being busy, Geumseo had no choice but to keep going to that room. The cumulative order total grew by the day. As if they had a sponge in their stomachs to absorb alcohol, they drank without pause. They emptied the ice bucket of its water multiple times too. Once, alcohol was mixed in with the ice water; once, food was mixed in. They were all excessively expensive things. Watching them get washed down felt like watching money flow down a drain.

“Geumseo-ya. Hurry back.”

Haeju didn’t protect the employee. He was too busy rushing Geumseo, who was at the point of losing all feeling in his legs.

“Hyung. I’m so tired. Just a little, 5 minutes, no, just 2 minutes rest…”

When Geumseo finally spoke in a dying voice, Haeju asked back instead.

“Didn’t you get a lot of tips? Jobs with high hourly wages are tough, that’s how it is.”

Was that so? If those words were true, then could the hourly wages of several people be so easily consumed in Heo Sangmuk’s room alone? Was it really true that earning was hard and spending was easy? Haeju shoved the back of Geumseo, who was having such thoughts.

“Today, just squeeze those druggies for all they’re worth.”

“The drugs they’re giving me probably won’t even show….”

Geumseo trudged towards the room.

“Oh. Bring the bill.”

At the gesture of Heo Sangmuk waving with his index and middle fingers pressed together, Geumseo couldn’t help but brighten. They’re leaving. He was happy that the room that had kept him even busier in the midst of busyness was leaving. Heo Sangmuk snickered at Geumseo’s transparent face, then came up and slapped Geumseo’s cheek with his heavy hand—smack, smack. It really made a ‘smack’ sound. It hurt. It brought him sharply to his senses but at the same time left him dazed. Did I just get slapped…?

“Cute little thing. Let’s see each other often?”

Geumseo, still in a daze, brought the bill. Heo Sangmuk, just like when he had asked for the bill, pressed his index and middle fingers together, slipped a card between them, and handed it over. He didn’t even properly look at the amount. It was enough to make one doubt why he had asked for the bill at all.

“The payment here….”

“Yeah. Sure.”

The manager in charge of the counter swiped the card. The staggering amount was processed in an instant. Geumseo was surprised, but the manager seemed unfazed.

“Does that person come often…?”