Chapter 24:At the Korea Times

24
At The Korea Times, 1974~1980

In the stillness of night when the other coworkers had returned to their homes for peace and rest, I savored the loneliness in the company bedroom. There were a few other boarders almost each night from the brother vernacular newspaper who had lost the last traffic going back home while boozing with office buddies. There arose physiological odors and snoring noises. I climbed up to a top bunk to a fitful sleep.

Grammarian Lee, proofreading desk chief, who had been so named after his habit of keeping an old Japanese grammar book which had been worn out, said to me Dano at the time of business shift, "Report for work tomorrow afternoon, Mr. Park." "Why, sir?" I asked. "Because Mr. Kim will call in sick."

The Seoul air of the early winter morning in the periphery of the Korea Times was chilly enough. Dano's bus ride to his residence at Heuksok-dong, Dongjak-gu by No. 84 city bus was a painful reminder of the frustrated college life he had failed to consummate. He himself did not understand why he had rented his house at the Black Rock Town of all the places.

The homecoming route from the Heuksok-dong bus terminal to his rented house on the hilltop was a knee-hurting job: He had to negotiate an uphill slope. Tschai was about to leave the den after setting up a modest breakfast table for her husband with a few side dishes. He recently found out that Tschai had opened her seamstress' workshop at a corner of the town bazaar. The increased sickoo, or the "eating mouths" of four by two son children, who had been born in the 1970s at an interval of two years, had driven Tschai out of the house. The take- home paycheck envelope of a rookie newspaper proofreader just out of a three-month apprenticeship was too thin to support the family of four.

Taking care of the two sons was not a major problem. Tai, ages 5, the older of the two, was getting along well with the village boys who had not gone to kindergarten just like him and Hua, ages 3, the younger of the two, had gone to his mother's workshop, clinging to his mother's apron strings.

When I stepped in the newsroom on the third floor, I found the conversations, which had been going on around the entrance of the door, suddenly got stopped short. The atmosphere was that I myself had been an object of a back talk. Usually, it was time culture desk chief Ahn had been bragging about last night's money job of translating English novels.

Hardly had an intuition that I had made a fatal mistake or two last night struck me Editor-in-chief Chung somebody waved me over to his table. "Good afternoon, sir!" I said. Chung, a gentle-mannered man in his fifties, who had recruited me above the protests of the others, looked mischievously at me, and said, "Is the night shift too hard for you?" "Not at all, sir!" I replied.
"Compare the proofs with the original manuscripts more carefully, will you?"
"Sure, I will, sir!"
"And you are supposed to do day shifts instead of nights from now on."
"But for how long, sir?"
"Indefinitely."

How lucky of one to have such considerate and benevolent gentleman as Editor Chung and Grammarian Lee as one's superior, Dano always appreciated that. Lee and two other proofreaders were at their desk already. Lee suggested to Dano they have coffee breaks "down there." They climbed down the stairs of the company building and walked down the alley slope along the Japanese Embassy, stepping down to the Hankook Dabang.

The coffee shop was always packed with reporters and their visitors. When they were seated, a waitress asked for orders. All four of them ordered coffees. After having some sips, I wanted to know about my mistakes of the previous night. The chief and all the three colleagues beamed. Lim somebody explained to me that an opinion column contributor had pointed out one proof error on his article.

A lot of readers had also questioned the validity of the word food printed in the newspaper: "I leave Korea for food." The right statement should have read: "I leave Korea for good." By the proof mistake made by me Dano, South Korea was listed in such impoverished countries as DPRK whose people had been in famished state.