At five on the dot, Jiminie went home, after I reminded him to eat his dinner as well as breakfast the following morning. "Yeah, yeah, bye-bye now," he said, then was out of the door.
The shop was quiet, so I grabbed the opportunity to take Taehyung to my office for a quick chat.
"Do I have to?" My colleague asked, rolling his eyes.
"I think so, yes," I answered and sighed. Despite whatever thoughts circled Taehyung's mind right now, I wasn't any more comfortable with the subject matter than he. But nevertheless, the conversation needed to be had.
Groaning like a man five times his age, Taehyung fell into the chair and took on a defensive position. Slumped into his chair he sat with his arms crossed, glaring at me as if whatever bad thing had happened in his life was my fault.
"So…" I said, trying to find the best place to start this conversation. "You obviously know what this is about…"
Taehyung shook his head "Nope. I got no motherfucking clue. Please tell me."
"Taehyung!"
His glare intensified.
"It's about this morning, of course." I huffed
"What about this morning?"
"You know exactly what about."
Taehyung huffed, then crossed his arms and looked away.
"Taehyung, you brought a class A drug to my shop."
"Well, it's gone now. Isn't it?"
"It is, but nevertheless, that's a severe issue."
Taehyung jumped from his seat. "So what now? Have you decided to press charges? Well, then…fucking get on with it."
"This is not about pressing charges," I tried to soothe. "This is about trying my best to help you."
Taehyung barked a laugh but fell back into the chair. "Help me? Dude, you can't even help yourself."
I had to swallow hard. Essentially because his words really hit home.
"If I may remind you," Taehyung continued. "You were the one who looked completely fucked when he arrived at work, while I was actually doing the assigned task."
I bit my lip. I was talking to an addict. It was not an uncommon behaviour to lash out when confronted.
"You did, and I am grateful for it. But this is beside the point right now."
"And why is that?" Taehyung's sneer distorted his face and he almost looked unrecognisable.
"Why that is? What if I hadn't found the drug, Taehyung, or the needle? Would it have remained in my sleeping bag? What about Jiminie? What if he would have found the stuff? He was using the bag, as you know."
Taehyung rolled his eyes. "I only brought it with me that morning. Chim-Chim never was anywhere near that stuff. What do you think? That I put the little guy at risk voluntarily."
"I know addiction, Taehyung. It doesn't always lead to logical decision making." I held up my arm, signalling for him to let me finish. "I don't want to keep having this issue. I'm sure that you and your brother talked and are looking into what's best for you. And while you guys do that, I want to do my best to support you. You do a great job here Taehyung, and I'm happy to have you on board. I know an addiction is not something to cure overnight, and I know that there may be setbacks. And I'm prepared to support you through those. But I have to draw the line when you put others at risk. Jiminie needs a safe working environment. What do you think he may have done if he found the drugs? Or what might have happened if he accidentally hurt himself on that needle?"
Whereas a moment ago, Taehyung had looked like an angry bull, ready to attack any moment, he had now paled significantly. His hands were shaking as he kept on picking at the flesh next to his nail beds until they started to bleed. "I-I would never put Chim-Chim at risk," he mumbled.
"I know you would never do that on purpose," I added. "But I'm sure you understand how this morning could have unfolded completely differently. What if your dog hadn't located the drug? What if we didn't have this conversation? Or if you forgot about putting it there."
Taehyung had mumbled something that sounded a lot like, "of course, Tannie would have sniffed this out."
"Well, what if I didn't like dogs, and would have refused to have him anywhere near my office?" I raised my eyebrow. "Did you think of that?"
"Fine! I'm a fuck up! Is that what you wanted to hear?" Taehyung was shouting now, looking like a wild animal, and I can't say I wasn't afraid of him at that moment.
"No. That's not what I mean at all." I tried to hold my ground and keep my voice steady, although I wasn't sure whether I did a good job. "The only thing I'm asking for is honesty and carefulness. Talk to me. You have a bad moment, you need a fix, anything. I'll do my best to support you. But I can't have a syringe in my shop. And if there is anything else I can do to support you…"
Tae laughed. "Support me? I don't need people to fucking support me. It's not like you have any idea what it's like."
I crossed my arms. "And I think you're only hearing whatever you want to hear right now. There is no need to twist my words. I'm on your side. But if you put Jiminie at risk, I will draw the line, and that means speaking to the police if need be." Well, JK. After the last night, I really didn't trust the police as an institution anymore. "And once you can own and really reflect on this, I know that you'll agree with me. Because you're not one who wants to hurt others Taehyung, but that drug…it doesn't have the same consideration. And it takes control over you."
"Are you done now?" Taehyung asked.
"I am indeed."
"Good, because I'm not in the mood to listen to this bullshit any longer. I'm going home now."
Taehyung got up and did as said. A few moments later, I head the range rover pulling out of the car park. I rubbed my temples, hoping that he at least took something away with him. But I had to make Jiminie my first priority, no matter how much I wanted to support Taehyung. This was utterly non-negotiable.
I just hope Taehyung could see it the same way, once he calmed down.
Sighing, I got up then checked on my phone. The screen remained dark, but I hoped it was the battery rather than permanent damage, and plugged it in to charge. The idea of walking home without a working phone had my stomach turn and twist.
Now, that none of my colleagues was there to distract me, the happenings from last night returned back to me at full force.
And what didn't make it any better was the email I had received from head office this morning.
I opened said document and glared at it as if in the hopes I could change the phrasing. 'With the ease of restrictions starting next week just in time for Valentine's Day, we ask all branches to readjust their opening hours back to normal.'
That meant, instead of having my shop open from eight to eight, from Monday, it would need to open from eight to eleven pm. And maybe this was just my imagination, but walking home at eleven sounded more dangerous to me than walking home three hours earlier. And with the latest revelations, there was no way I could have Taehyung run the shop by himself at any time.
I closed my computer, shook my head. This was going to be a problem for another day. I had already responded to the email, advising that I didn't have the staff for the amended working hours, and waited for their response. At first glance, it looked like the shop was run by a team of three, and it needed a second look into the rota to notice that both my employees were on government-supported programmes, and a third to understand why. And I had no idea how deeply head office would be willing to look into this. To cut this short, I was almost a hundred per cent certain my request would be denied.
"Excuse me?" Someone called, and I rushed to the customer as fast as my knee would allow me.
"Good evening, madam, how can I help?" I bowed politely.
The lady in front of me was middle-aged and well dressed. She wore a dark green designer suit, and her hair was cut to a sleek bob. Her thick black-rimmed glasses and red lipstick and suited her well. My eyes briefly wanted to the mask exemption pin on her lapel, something I always checked, although I hardly told off any customers that didn't wear one. There was something familiar about her, but I was unable to pinpoint what that was.
The lady smiled a saccharine smile which reminded me of a shark. "I found a recommendation for your shop on the internet," she said.
Recommendations for my shop? It took me a moment to catch on. "Oh, the Borahaelattes, you mean? What would you like?"
"Just a medium-sized regular latte please," she typed something into her mobile and I noticed the impressive collection of rings on her finger. I couldn't help but wonder how much this jewellery collection was worth. What was someone like that doing in this neighbourhood?
Maybe she's a high-up at BigHit motors and visited the local factory, my brain provided. I'm sure they have important people coming to their way on occasion. What was so unusual of one of them stepping into my shop for a coffee because they had seen the borahae collection on the internet?
I smiled at her as I prepared the drink. "Excuse my curiosity, but you don't seem to be from this neighbourhood,"
"Guilty as charged," she laughed, and I liked the bright tinkling sound of it. As I said, I found you online and as I was close by, I decided to drop in. It's a great cause," she nodded to the sign for our borahae charity, that advertised inclusivity. "I have a child with special needs, you see. I appreciate what you're doing here."
"Thank you very much," I bowed, "this is kind of you to say. We do our very best to live as we preach. It was actually one of my colleagues that came up with the idea."
The lady nodded again, paid for her drink, then added me an additional ten thousand won for support and drove off in a sleek, black car.
"She seemed nice," I told my coffee machine, as I cleaned it.
Once the clock hit eight on the dot, I closed the front door. There were a few bits and pieces to take care of at the office before I went home, but this shouldn't take me more than fifteen minutes. But when I entered, I had to gulp hard as I started at the sight in front of me at disbelief. I knew for a fact that I had locked the thing. I always did.
My heart was pounding hard as I checked for signs of entry, but there was no broken window or even any dirty footprints. Other than the wide-open safe door, the office looked exactly like I had left it approximately fifteen minutes earlier.
A shiver ran down my back as I inspected the safe. Just as I suspected, the shopping bag with the syringe inside was gone.
That customer I just served…I now wondered…had she really been interested in a Borahaelatte, or had that served as a forefront, a decoy? Because clearly, the stuff had been collected while she was distracting me. The only thing I couldn't be sure of was whether she was part of the organisation, or if whoever had picked up that shit simply grabbed the opportunity.
Did it really matter now?
I checked on my phone, hoping it had sprung to life, so I could check with Taehyung's brother whether this was the pick up he had been talking about —just to rest my own, over-productive mind.
But the screen remained a deep black, blank space. I would need to wait until I was home that evening, and check on my computer.
I gulped, put on my jacket and left the shop, the task I wanted to finish completely forgotten. I didn't want to leave any later than absolutely necessary.
Carefully, I stepped outside and had a good glance around just to make sure I was by myself and no one was lingering in any non-existent bushes. The road was busy, and the traffic light was not working once again, but no way in hell was I using the underground walkway. I'd rather have myself run over by a car.
With a pounding heart, I stepped into the traffic and tried to make my way across the road as quickly as I possibly could.
The next thing I heard was screeching tyres.
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