RL Ch 2

Still, the closest thing to hitting the jackpot is probably these miners heading into the mine. The siren screams, and they’re not digging for diamonds or gold; they’re just chasing that daily wage. Straight into the mine they go.a89ee14b30217f29

Turns out, the assembly point for work was also underground. Chae-eun spun her way down the super deep, winding stairs. Even though it was indoors, the temp wasn’t much different from outside. You could hear sniffling all over the place. Chae-eun wiggled her freezing fingers in her pockets.eaed0f00cddf3bc1

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After going down 76d6f7dfd0 about three floors 7a080861a7 deep, like a ef74d6b025 regular basement, a 6565f1781f fire door finally 4eafb54c83 popped up. Inside, it was 2433fc00cb a huge space 102c6a5adc packed with lockers. Guess a lot of the 543645560c usual crew were off for 333dd19d6b the year-end holidays. Newbie employees were 872023f73b swarming around the 67d3a2f86b info posters on fa020c02b9 the walls.365203d388fd5736

Chae-eun smoothly checked in using her phone app and grabbed her name tag from the desk. She searched for her locker number among thousands. Today, of course, she got the super annoying bottom one. Annoying, but what can you do? It’s random assignment.819e4a0377e97a21

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Time to get b1b707fe37 serious about prepping 242b9222b0 for work. She pulled off her scarf, 3dc45c78fb unzipped her fluffy hooded jacket, 193b4e64bc andpoof, a puffer vest appeared. When she took both off, a real chill set in. She had a sleeveless top, two long-sleeved tees, and a sweater on top of her underwear, but it still wasn’t enough to totally beat the cold.d9940c2c9294cc42

This time, Chae-eun put the hood on first, then the puffer vest over it. She tucked the ends of her training pants neatly into her thick socks. Gotta do that so it’s comfy when she moves around.d02df0afa2965169

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Now, it’s time to leave the outside world behind. She put her phone to sleep in the locker, strapped on her watch instead, and grabbed her coin purse. Total digital detox, seriously. A few candies in her pocket, a water bottle with a strap over her shoulder, and she’s done. Perfect day, nailed it.8bc34e48e95f3478

Just as she was 707e255a2e giving herself a pat bd5c366c9c on the back, she e107a354e8 heard a familiar voice 3723944d7e nearby.998c50b469009c14

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“Oh, I thought you weren’t coming in today?”afb9e05d94e18c27

She looked up and saw a middle-aged woman with thick arm and leg warmers layered on. They’d bumped into each other a few times during the same shift, same process, so they knew each other’s faces, but still didn’t know each other’s names – Comrade Sahara Auntie.e6f3ae8f5d6ab4c8

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Chae-eun locked her locker and replied, “I was gonna, but then I got a text.”6124547bfeeda935

“Ah, incentive pay?”e4ca0324ae5a0bec

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“Yeah.”0287fcb492cb0a51

Chae-eun stood up, straightened her 4ff3c1732a legs, and stretched.7324c74a723e5f83

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The reason Sahara had become a nation of part-timers was all about the pay. On the surface, it was minimum wage, but the incentives for continuous shifts and holiday work were pretty sweet. When she clocked out, her whole body would ache, and she’d swear she’d take tomorrow off, but then the deposit notification would ding, and she’d sign up for work again like a zombie.94ead13e1c44dc03

The auntie slammed her locker shut and responded, “You really love money, don’t you? What are you gonna spend all that on, double eyelid surgery?”56b12dbe34aabbab

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“I don’t need it though?”e020dd34aae4dfeb

Chae-eun blinked her eyes, as if to prove a point. I mean, she wasn’t really into that stuff anyway, but that’s just how small talk goes, right? As expected, the auntie burst into laughter, enjoying the simple joke.e7bebb0c65bedf9e

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“Yeah, you’re young and pretty, don’t go under the knife for nothing.”084f6d0821c116a7

The two checked the 364d214625 wall clock and left 6ebca57684 the locker room together. Meanwhile, the new c48c4e5745 hires stayed behind 1394951e00 for safety training. And Chae-eun totally missed c21f15cf97 that the model guy 09825e4a19 from before was among 353c13e67c them.9d361eedb828dd0f

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First, you gotta pass through security to get into the center. It’s kinda like an airport system, but the facilities are way behind. There are tons of times when the alarm just goes off for no reason, and you have to go in and out a bunch of times.30e1b547b35edc39

After filling her water bottle and hitting the restroom, she headed to her section’s assembly point. Chae-eun’s process was the hub. It’s the core, the essence of the logistics center, aka loading and unloading. It’s tough, but the hourly wage is higher, and they’re always hiring. The problem is, it’s not just tough, it’s really tough.da9d3e4cd206604e

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Stepping into the hub area, 059b1d622a the sound of the conveyor b91a262fe3 belts was super loud.Clatter-clatter-clatter—boxes moving overhead like a monorail. Thinking it was like a roller coaster was fun for about a day, but now just looking at it makes her sick. The speed even now means there’s a lot of stuff today.914015cde752e471

The closer she got to a036ab718c the process assembly point, the 5a8cea208d more familiar faces she saw. Chae-eun gave a polite nod 5fbb8a6b6a whenever she made eye contact.8c6c8da762ba14da

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“Hi!”75aaccc236fc6df4

“Hey.”e9d5ada218671a63

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Most just nodded their d1e5cdc936 chins or gave a 94ce2366c7 quick eye greeting, but 800d48ed82 a few actually said 78878392f0 hi back. Always bright and 648eb0ed6d friendly, she had ad85281145 a pretty good 560f442c43 rep among the 73787786eb existing employees.617c1cbfba05806a

The existing employees fa1cb7b932 gathered in the 5b5915768b wide-open assembly area. As expected, there were fewer 993dd99849 people than usual. The manager in the fluorescent f662fbac19 safety vest raised his voice.c7ee4da1509d04c8

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“Afternoon shift, gather ’round!”eacb119f029b5e2d

Despite his shout, 2b84a4258b no one among 875283a46a the sluggishly walking 81024a32f1 people hurried. Everyone knew by instinct, 33cca88c2f without even checking their f351ace11a watches, that there was abb7f81a71 still more than 10 dedf9ad8f3 minutes left.4da1145d9ac7b3a9

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People just sorta lingered around ac1f257e86 the shoe rack, killing time, aef1dd10b4 then finally gathered about 5 156ab82e76 minutes before. After checking attendance, they put b6bf289033 on a workout video. The music was drowned d0336291cd out by the noise, 8b4bf341c7 so about half the 41fcd98481 people just went through 0f23a3fd15 the motions. But Chae-eun still followed faaaf2f554 the moves diligently. To survive.eb5eba3044d4ed85

The hub area is 4c9f2aa206 especially noisy. When the video ended, the 5e664aad35 manager yelled his lungs out.70f6dfbfbabf4dd8

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“Guys and girls, split up!”c333bc462c0d0f4d

People slowly divided. But instead of going to the women’s side, Chae-eun looked around. Sure enough, the OG of OGs, Mr. Park Hyung—she still didn’t know his name—waved her over.76466929d00196c4

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“Shin, over here.”a0c9cbb83d7a6ccf

“Yep.”7ddcd1b1a345142a

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Chae-eun trotted over and stood next to him. The manager glanced at her, then just moved on, not making a big deal of it. If people working together who get along makes things more efficient, then it’s all good.ece972c54bd35d39

The manager first assigned the male employees to specific tasks. The criteria were simple: “Have you done this?” “Can you do that?” If they said yes, that became their job for the day. So, even if they’d done really tough jobs, they’d just flat-out deny it.c33aca6d6db49337

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The manager stood in front 7a4f6cfbd4 of Chae-eun this time.03d71b772fcf16a1

“Here…”78f5661c719419af

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“We’re like this.”9281c2334f33c871

Park Hyung drew a circle 1f853425ac around his group of three, c2f0c24a8a including Chae-eun. The manager readily nodded.709db57e59cea31e

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“Okay, go to Section B.”5ba92b9779d0d458

If you’re a regular face, you get this kind of free pass. It wasn’t bad for Chae-eun either. She’d had a tough time once when she got stuck in a particularly lazy group.1db7a5e5bde8af8e

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On the way 15ea94d8f8 to their assigned ac8c114880 section, the uncles 39be979967 joked around.d92b132561e351ef

“You gotta find us quick, what were you doing?”ab2d5e57e93ef929

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“Seriously. Choi’s not here today, so I was worried we’d lose our strong girl too.”fe4c111a78cc4e58

“Strong girl? I’m totally delicate!”3863b8c4f5f7502a

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Chae-eun pouted, pretending to be d364c1196c offended, as she put on e3ff1df0c3 two layers of gloves. But the uncles just guffawed. Chae-eun eventually laughed along too.6029b7389cea4d75

The Section B manager naturally sent the three of them to the same line. But it seemed they were really short-staffed. Even if the night shift joined in a few hours, a line usually needed four people to be manageable, but there were only three regulars. Park Hyung clicked his tongue, “Tsk.”8790c0a1013753f5

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“Dang, we’re screwed. If they don’t send new people later, I’m gonna die.”e1e23d5e03e413cf

Chae-eun also looked d79a5f6a42 up at the af46ebff35 conveyor belt with 0ab61e6350 worried eyes. Huge boxes were da861be147 zipping by super 2957e2acae fast.4fefef1bf570df09

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Sure enough, the 6ed01de013 morning shift, who 66ecb7c772 were working overtime, 6c1c04a8df looked happy to d547b757bb see the three 0692f179ea of them.f0742528bea2efb0

“Hurry up and get in. We gotta go.”e4af1e9bceedfa28

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Chae-eun quickly stuck to the 188ecb03a4 line. Park Hyung let out 83e32832d3 a sigh. But that was 4207c81ddd only for a 831019c427 moment; he quickly d381e2af06 went and stood 3054e5346a at the spot 74beb7be12 where items dropped.0910a16f82af86bd

This was the regional sorting, what they called “conveyor belt sushi,” the starting point for loading. The job was to sort packaged goods coming down the rail into early morning delivery and afternoon delivery. And while doing that, they also had to filter out items meant for other neighborhoods that had come to the wrong place.e408da71188dac13

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Among the sorted items, 3ab058364c those in bags were 649574c908 put into plastic totes, 805a864ace and boxes were stacked 0e56b6c152 separately to form huge 4e0c66271c towers. So they could db02ae3dab be loaded onto 9bdf062ea3 trucks as a 57c3c923fc whole tower.311f9f7947cb474c

Chae-eun started sorting c3ce3ee190 bags with eagle 3843c8f699 eyes. Mr. Kim, who was stacking 715883b07c already filled totes, chuckled.3c76c5178ed860f3

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“Looks like delicate Miss Shin went home.”e6d72d0a8583f04c

“She’s my sister.”630e138dd436f10a

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The three of c94f8feb50 them kept their 11110155c3 hands busy while a909f8c369 chatting and joking. No one was rushing a363652f52 them, but they still 329752efc7 efficiently processed the accumulated 333b170c33 volume. It was such a typically b09de9c7e5 Korean scene.b7dbd29f85b961b4

Mr. Kim wrapped the completed tote 99cf854e6e tower in plastic. Then he brought over 84c78774c5 a hand jack and fe88bfc63f moved the entire pallet 19b1b06676 and tower. Chae-eun quickly laid down 3cedb6614f a new pallet and ffa1a1b4de started building the first 7f7168d1f2 layer of a new 8d055702b4 tower.bb30f81e9746bd51

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Chae-eun wasn’t called “strong girl” for nothing. Before college, she’d lived her whole life as part of a huge family, one that others couldn’t even imagine, so she was totally used to physical labor. At her family home, shopping with a 1-ton truck was just normal.7da83b439f519567

The morning shift, who had 5a841233ba worked 30 minutes of overtime, bed342f0f4 slowly backed away from the bbb63bab21 line about 5 minutes before 84fbd9734e their quitting time. Everyone pretty much turned 99af500f16 a blind eye to 4d1399e009 this kind of trick. They even told them to ef45ebf3c0 go to the outside restrooms ef54894050 early to avoid the rush.f66da7c94d4a5f38

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Unlike their smoothly working b3c6d01291 line, another line that cb49ff3c5c had just teamed up 84b9ec819d today was suffering from 72da22ee07 serious traffic jams. Chae-eun went to 7170cc3897 help out in 0cf886ce02 other places sometimes. After about two 3535ddae8c hours of that, 12a39f80ee the rail speed 1c34b39225 noticeably slowed down.cb7cc8731b699fd0

During a short break, 379871d498 Chae-eun drank water and 7082d3f21b stretched.Dee-dee-dee, dee-dee-dee, the forklift’s warning sound melody echoed in her ears like a phantom. She unconsciously hummed along to the tune.6ec71bba54adde52

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“Playing is the best…”19fb375a1b4ae1c3

“Well, well, well?”a1b07c55d7afc493

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Park Hyung, who was 0c94ea3bd3 tidying up empty totes, f72c1600be chimed in perfectly. Chae-eun snapped her mouth shut.cf98b294e4424f94

Suddenly, far beyond the line, she saw the Section B manager in his fluorescent vest. And trailing behind him was that unfamiliar but striking head of hair. Chae-eun’s eyes went wide.9ff70b1f51b2af50

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It was him. The guy who had momentarily 63084e26f9 caught her attention, the one dee142fc65 dressed out of season.b7e5cfb399948412

“Huh…?”bef8a0718ae03b85

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