3 #2
“She’s different,” the director said.
John nodded.
“Smart. Top ten in her class at Korea University.”
“I reviewed her last report. It stood out from the other trainees. Strong analytical skills and writing.”
“It’s easier when they’re dumb. Normally I choose the pretty ones without much sense, but this girl—” Shin exhaled. “I don’t want her to make trouble.”
“I think she could. I don’t know why I say that, but—” John stopped himself.
Shin was nodding as if he was in a mess already. John let Shin pass through the revolving door ahead of him.
Once outside, Shin lit a cigarette, cupping his left hand over the match flame to block the wintry breeze. He inhaled deeply, then exhaled through his nostrils. John said nothing else.
“She could make trouble because I allow her liberties, which I shouldn’t,” Shin said.
John had to agree. More often than not, a man knew when he could no longer manage his affairs.
The café was empty, and Shin selected a table in the corner. He made what looked like a peace sign to the server, who recognized him, and the young man went to the kitchen to fix two brewed coffees.
“She is twenty-four,” Shin said.
“Yes. I looked at her file.” John tried not to sound disapproving.
Long ago, he had stopped saying anything to Shin about the other women.
From Helen, John knew that Mary knew about them.
These were private matters between a husband and a wife, and Shin almost never brought up the women he slept with, but Danbi’s age must be bothering him, too.
“Can you speak to her?” Shin asked.
“I don’t understand.”
“Ask her to resign. I can help her get another job, but I want you to get rid of her. I can’t do it. I tried.”
John looked puzzled. “Wouldn’t she suspect?”
“Probably. She’s very clever. But there’s a chance she might just think that you don’t like her. I can handle it after. After you fire her.”
Shin’s head was muddled, full of images of the night before—her pink mouth, her breasts shaped like persimmons, the curve of her ass.
“I can’t be alone with her at the office. She pushes me around.”
John frowned. He had never heard Shin say such things before.
“How do you want me to fire her? For what reason? She just finished a difficult training program. Miss Jung has the right to have this job. Wasn’t she hired because of her qualifications?”
“Of course. But I can get her another job.”
“Can you end this? End this relationship?” John asked.
“Do you think I haven’t tried? I can’t. I’ve even thought of leaving my family for her.”
John looked down at the steaming coffee cup, which he had no recollection of being served.
“Give her an assignment she cannot fulfill. Come up with something. Wait a few weeks. Let her fail publicly in front of the team. Be cold to her. She thinks you don’t like her.”
John put his hands around the coffee cup but didn’t drink from it.
“Brother,” John blurted out loud. At the office, he usually addressed him as Director Shin, but they were alone.
“Yaah—try to understand. Your brother is in trouble. I told her you didn’t like her, that you were a Christian and you wouldn’t approve. That you don’t look at women the way most men—”
“Brother—” John stared into Shin’s eyes. He had never seen him look this way before, frightened and disorderly. He started to protest, but Shin was undeterred.
“Put her on the coking coal projections. The demand numbers on that are a mess. Make her figure out the requirements, too. You can hammer out the details. Don’t give her all the information she needs.
Mix up the number from Illawarra and Peak Downs, or keep something back that would have been obvious later. ”
“How could she possibly manage that alone? That would be hard for even my best people to run the models, and if she worked with someone else, any senior guy would know that they’d need more information about the coking coal suppliers, and—”
Shin interrupted him. “I’m asking you for a favor. Please. Make up something. Others have to see how she can’t manage and that you won’t play favorites. People trust you, and you’d be justified in dismissing her.”
Shin drank his coffee.
“She will be fine. I will take care of this afterward. I know someone at Tiger Trading & Mining who needs someone like her, and I’m sure Miss Jung would be promoted there much faster than here. This can all work out.” Shin smiled at John. “Everyone happy,” he said in English. “Win-win.”
John looked up from his coffee cup, wanting Shin to withdraw the request, knowing that he’d never do so.
“It’s better for everyone this way. If she’s gone, I will be able to keep doing my job. We need me to have this job, right?” He paused meaningfully. “I promise, she won’t get hurt.”
After work, Danbi was waiting for him at the hotel.
When Shin entered the room, she was sitting at the edge of the bed, an open magazine on her lap, wearing what she’d worn at the office—a white blouse buttoned up to the neck, a navy crewneck sweater, and a pleated navy wool skirt.
She had removed her high-heeled shoes by the door.
Her camel coat and purse lay on the desk.
“My director is here. Your Danbi is unhappy.” She looked as if she might cry as she put aside the magazine and remained still, allowing him to undress her. She raised her arms, and he pulled the sweater over her head.
Shin unbuttoned her blouse and slid the straps of her brassiere off her shoulders.
“Tell me,” he said. “I will listen.”
“You smell wonderful. I like this aftershave.” With both hands, she pulled his head down to her breasts and breathed in the scent of his hair. She kissed his upper cheekbone and left ear.
Shin could not control himself. There had been dozens of girls, so many that he’d lost count, but this one was aggressive and made him do things, made him feel lost in her. The relationship was entirely sexual, but he felt alive in a way that he did not feel elsewhere in his life.
Danbi put her tongue on him and teased. She smacked his bottom, and when he was surprised by the pain, she pleased him.
“I want you to fire him,” she said, barely stopping what she was doing with her hands and mouth. She stared at him, looking hurt and hungry. “You have to fire him. Please.”
“Who?”
“Manager Koh. He gave me an assignment that no one can do. No one.”
“I can’t do that,” he said, shaking his head, eyes closed.
She pushed him down hard on the bed, then mounted him.
“He hates me,” she said.
Her fingers pressed against his backside, and he gasped.