sorry for the delay-i've been having a tough time
In the end, I walked away with two tickets from hospital to the airport, for which I had paid thirteen-thousand and seventy-seven, the maximum my credit card spat out. Thank god Pink Claws had the patience of a saint, despite the long line of complaining customers behind me.
I managed to wake Jimin, although he still wasn't the most conscious person on the planet, and we zombie-walked up the hill. I was genuinely surprised that Jimin wasn't complaining about the long march. But maybe he was too tired to fully comprehend what he was doing.
We stumbled forward, step by step, until I seriously considered throwing my backpack away. Even though my legs made all the right movements, I had no sense of moving forwards whatsoever.
Fucking Joon. How easy would it have been to offer us a ride. And it's not like I was in the wrong. He had found Jimin's suitcase and he kept it locked away in his closet. Forgotten or not, he had absolutely no right to be so upset about it. Maybe I should file a formal complaint about him?
I gritted my teeth.
Some stupid car behind me honked and I wish I had a hand free to give them the finger. The horn blared again.
"What the fuck," I spun around, only to be face to face with a sleek-looking sports car.
"Is everything okay?" The driver asked.
"Does everything look okay?"
The posh and polished dude behind the wheel rolled his eyes. "I was about to ask whether you wanted a ride, But I guess you won't mind the cold air to cool your head." He was about to roll his window back up.
"Hold on. Please. I'm sorry. Listen, I had a shitty day, but a…"
"Fucking get in."
The fucking rude brat in designer clothes must have been around my own age and his car probably a gift courtesy of mummy and daddy. But I was fucking exhausted and a ride sounded heavenly. Some things simply were worth swallowing my pride for.
"Thanks," I muttered.
"No issue. What's wrong with him?"
"Fever flared up, I think. It's been an exhausting day."
"You think? You haven't checked."
"I'm sorry. I've been busy getting kicked from my wanker of a friend's house and traipse across town." I bit back. "Fucking don't judge people you don't know."
Posh-guy shrugged. "Could ask you the same. You formed your opinion of me the moment you saw my car."
Well, touché, I guess.
"You're not a talkative one," Posh-guy observed. "Fine. So you're going to hospital to get your friend checked, or what?"
"Actually heading to the bus stop there. I need to get to the airport. I'm trying to get him home."
"Airport? That's gonna take you hours by bus."
"Well, lucky me, I guess."
"You're a wanker, but I feel sorry for your friend." Posh guy pressed a few buttons on his posh car's console and a ringtone sounded.
"Hello?" A sleepy voice answered.
"Tae? Just me, I'll be running late. I got an errand. Bye." Posh dude hung up. If I were 'Tae,' I'd be freaking annoyed by this behaviour.
"Well, buckle up," Posh guy glared at me through the rearview mirror.
"It's another five meters to the hospital." I protested.
"It's another thirty kilometres to the airport, where you said you needed to go. So fasten that stupid seatbelt."
"You're taking us all the way to the airport?"
"Well, you're obviously an idiot, but I feel sorry for your friend. So yes."
"Thank you," I said politely, then added more quietly, "and likewise."
Posh-guy turned on his radio-obviously to make any kind of awkward conversation impossible, and I was grateful. I wasn't in the mood to talk to that guy. He was less than an idiot than I thought, but we had obviously gone off at a bad start.
Instead I looked out of the window. A familiar-looking Mercedes was parked in front of the hospital, the rims still awkwardly bent, as if some idiot had randomly kicked them a fortnight prior. I still needed to apologise properly. And I still had to settle my debt. I needed to make this right.
The woman climbing from the car wasn't Dr Han, but the daughter who had been with her the other week. The resemblance was still striking. From the backseat climbed two little girls, one of them limping a little. I rubbed my eyes, blinked. I knew this little girl. Dr Han had pointed her out to me a few months back. Her hair got longer, and the big cast around her leg was gone. The little girl whose life Jimin had saved all those months ago…. She was… Dr Han's granddaughter.
"You okay?" Posh dude glanced at me from the rearview mirror. The music was drowned to more bearable levels.
"I think so." My eyes remained glued to the window. Dr Han's engagement, her personal interest to ensure Jimin was well and received the best treatment possible…it all made sense now. I wondered why she never told me.
"Okay," posh-guy drawled, but didn't press for further information. Instead, he paid the toll and entered the highway non-stop to the airport. We would arrive there in probably around thirty-forty minutes max.
"You live near the airport?" The guy asked.
"I think so…Consider this our moving day."
"You got some amazing timing."
"Tell me bout it," I sighed.
The guy laughed and sounded like a bloody window wiper.
"We need to get to Magnate Gardens, which should be close."
Posh guy typed something into his GPS. Magnate Gardens turned out to be about ten miles behind the airport. "What's the name of the street?"
"You sure you want to take us all the way? I mean… I really appreciate you taking us. The airport is fine,"
"That friend of yours really doesn't look well."
"My brother. And no, he doesn't. And I don't intend to be nosy, but it sounded like you have someone waiting for you as well."
"MY brother, and don't worry. That idiot can wait. May do him some good actually."
Halfway to our journey to Magnate Gardens, the rain got worse. It wasn't just any rain. Monsoon season had started and the vicious wetness was attacking every surface with needle-sharp drops. Posh guy was swearing as he continued to navigate his vehicle along the motorway. Cars were now creeping forward in a snail's trail, most with quite some difficulties. I guess big, expensive cars had an advantage, as posh guy's Porsche was still going steady.
"I bet you're glad you're not on the bus now," he remarked dryly as we passed by a public transport vehicle which had stopped at the side lane, all indicators flashing, waiting for the breakdown service. I'd never seen a bus being towed. Would they ask all passengers to embark first? But what would those poor sods do in the middle of the motorway? It's not like they could simply board a replacement bus. That one would just be as helpless against the weather, unless they had one with wheels like a tank.
"I guess I am," I allowed and a shudder ran down my back as I pictured piggybacking Jimin through the worsening weather conditions.
"How's your brother doing?"
I glanced at Jimin, then felt his forehead. "Sleeping, but I think his temperature went down."
"It's not covid, is it?"
"Shouldn't you have asked this before you offered us a ride?"
Posh dude shrugged, "I'm wearing a mask, you're wearing a mask, the air ventilation is blasting. A virus isn't going to stop me from common decency."
"So, how does it feel to live life on the endangered species list?"
"Huh?"
"Well, it may come as a surprise to you, but decency isn't all that common these days."
There was this windshield-wiper laugh again. "Aren't you a little bit young to be that jaded?"
I shrugged. "Some of us grow up with a golden spoon in their mouth. Others live in the real world."
"Mate, you need to get that notion out of your head that money is fixing all your issues."
I crossed my arms. "Well, it would certainly fix most of mine."
Posh dude eyed Jimin through the rearview mirror. "Does he need anything? Like medication or such? I mean I can…"
"I don't need your money." I cut him off, although maybe a little too harshly. I guess he only wanted to help. "I don't need pity. I need a fucking system that allows me to care for my brother without working myself silly, disqualify for any family benefits, because I'm not married and have no kids. Do you know how fucked up this is? It's like whoever wrote our laws had no idea disabled people existed."
Posh dude bit his lip. "Family law isn't my expertise, but from what I know, a lot of people in need of help experience difficulties in navigating their way around it."
"I guess I'm one of those idiots."
"I didn't imply people are stupid. It's an overly complex subject with an overly complex lingo."
"It's like they want to keep us in the dark."
"It may feel this way. Have you ever consulted a family lawyer and got some proper advise?"
I barked a laugh. "And for a moment I thought you really were a sensible person. How do you suppose someone like me could afford a lawyer?"
"Most of us volunteer, you know. If you reach out to the citizen's office, you'll find advise on lawyers in the required field that offer their services pro-bono."
Ms Eli had provided me with numbers to helplines that would apparently be able to assist me. But the person at the other end of the line only managed to get me a monthly sum of eighty-thousand won, which was just enough to cover mine and Jimin's groceries.
"If I were you, I'd try contacting citizens office. See what they can do. Really. Sometimes it takes a couple of attempts to find a lawyer that can give you the best advise."
The worsening weather had forced the car to come to a stop. "Oftentimes, we get to deal with queries which are not our field of expertise. And most of the time, this is fine. I don't need to have a complex understanding of contracting laws to assist someone in getting out of their gym membership. It's usually a very generic contract and a very common issue. So is assisting a single parent seeking childcare support. But if I were to advise you and your brother, I would be at a loss and would have to consult with someone working in the field. However, if you phoned the hotline and you spoke to someone who was actually working in family law, you'd be speaking to someone who is dealing with situations similar to yours on a daily basis, and the assistance would be more sufficient."
I sighed. "It makes sense, but if I call an advice hotline, why wouldn't they put me through to a person in that particular field right away."
Posh guy sighed. "In an ideal world, this should be the case. In reality, contracting lawyers, attorneys and people in investments are the ones earning the biggest coins, so you'll find a lot of those, and a little less in all other fields."
"So what's your playing field?"
The guy's early reddened slightly. "Investments."
"Of course. Capitalist shark."
"The best!"
We moved forward by another three to four meters. Or rather swam. The road ahead had turned itself into a riverbed.
"I guess it'll take us a little while to reach Magnate Gardens. Do you want to phone your new landlord to let them know you're going to be late? Or do you already have the key combination to your new place?"
Shit. I hadn't even thought about that. "I would love to, but my phone died on me."
"There is a charger in the console."
"Thanks," I plugged the device in. At least one of my issues got solved, albeit one I had completely forgotten about.
"Maybe you wanna phone your brother?" I asked.
Posh guy shrugged. "I'm not sure Tae is too well acquainted with the clock anyway."
I'm sure he hadn't meant anything by it. It was something silly I would have said a year ago. But as someone, who was spending hours teaching their brother how to read the time again, this kind of joke sat utterly wrong with me.
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