Deal Breaker - Chapter 3
She opened the message she’d received from the center earlier in the day and was searching up directions to her assigned branch. Just then, the front door of the villa opened, and she heard a groan. It was her grandmother.
Her grandmother, who worked at a restaurant, usually didn’t come home until after midnight, so Hyeji wondered why she was back so early… only to realize it was already past 1 a.m. She’d just spent more than two hours on her phone without noticing.
“Our princess is home?”
“Granny, Hyeji the princess is home.”
She rushed out of her tiny room to greet her, and her grandmother set down a grocery bag stuffed with food she’d brought home from the restaurant, smiling.
“Why is your voice so cutesy today? Granny didn’t bring any fried chicken.”
“Do I only welcome you home when you bring chicken?”
People often said she was blunt, but at home, her grandmother always boasted about how affectionate she was. Still, even Hyeji had to admit her voice was especially giddy tonight. It was probably because of all the excitement mixed in, about the prospect of a million-won salary.
Carrying the heavy grocery bag, which was so full the handles threatened to stretch, she headed to the kitchen. From behind, her grandmother called out,
“Why are you just standing there? You haven’t even changed your clothes. Go wash up and get to bed. Don’t fall asleep at school tomorrow.”
“I won’t.”
It wasn’t school. It was the Center.
* * *
The late-winter sky was reflected clearly in the gleaming glass. You had to tilt your head back until your neck hurt just to see the top of the towering building that looked like a giant mirror.
[ International Esper-Guide Center, South Korea Branch ]
The large, modern letters at the building’s entrance confirmed I was in the right place. Hyeji opened the message she’d received from the Center again.
– For the grade and matching test, please visit the Seoul office of the International Esper-Guide Center, Korean Branch, during weekday mornings.
The small clock displayed above the message turned to 08:52. Hyeji hadn’t slept a wink all night, staying up until dawn before leaving home. As a result, she’d arrived right at rush hour.
She hadn’t told her grandmother. She didn’t want to see Grandma’s face fall if she got her hopes up for nothing. What if it turned out the test result was wrong? Or what if she couldn’t pass the grade or matching test at all? Her worries outweighed her hopes.
Poverty teaches you not to expect things. That’s why Hyeji, who was so detached her friends called her a monk, usually went through life unruffled….
But this, how could she not be excited about this?
So she even skipped a class—a class she’d never missed, even while working late into the night at her part-time job—and came out at the crack of dawn.
“Huu….”
Hyeji took a deep breath in and let it out. She wasn’t the type to get nervous, but now, she was more nervous than ever.
– For the grade and matching test…
A test.
Just in case, she’d called the number in the message yesterday afternoon. When she said she’d received a message saying she’d been identified as a Guide, the staff member already welcomed her as ‘Guide Noh Hyeji’. Since she was on the phone, she asked if she needed to prepare anything for the test, but was told she just had to bring herself.
That made her uneasy. ‘Just bring yourself’… Was this one of those things where they make you sign a waiver and then steal your organs?
Nineteen years of living as Noh Hyeji, and she’d only ever been taken advantage of. Grown men who shortchanged her on wages at part-time jobs, landlords who stole her deposit because it was just women living in the house. So Hyeji was always suspicious, to the point where Grandma would nag that if she kept tapping a bridge until it collapsed, she’d never get across.
But this wasn’t just any old bridge; it was like the Hannam Bridge. And you can’t just stand around tapping it until it falls down.
Hyeji took a deep breath and stepped inside the building. The lobby was so wide you could have used it as a sports field, and people in business suits were busily crossing it in every direction.
As soon as she entered, a huge electronic billboard on the wall opposite the entrance caught her eye. Watching the clocks marking the time at each branch around the world blink on the world map, her heart swelled. She felt like an agent at the superhero headquarters she’d seen in movies.
“Welcome. How can I help you?”
Startled out of her thoughts, Hyeji looked down. The woman at the reception desk, just below the billboard, was smiling at her with gently upturned eyes. Hyeji approached the reception desk and handed over her phone.
“Hello. I’m here to take the test.”
“Yes, Guide Noh Hyeji. We’ve been expecting you. One of our staff will escort you to the lab.”
The receptionist handed her phone back with a smile as if it had been drawn on. How many chances does a twenty-year-old have to be called ‘Guide’ and receive such a grand welcome? Her heart started pounding.
A female staff member who had been waiting behind the desk led Hyeji to the laboratory. Even to an untrained eye, the staff member’s suit looked expensive. Every staff member she passed as they took the glass-walled elevator down and walked through marble corridors was impeccably dressed.
