IQ148 // namjoon ✔️

__JULY__

July ; 2016

TRIGGER WARNING: SUICIDAL THOUGHTS

JungMi holds her stack of papers securely against her chest as she makes the trudge from her work station to the copy machine at the other side of the office. She has to make copies of all the sales she's made this past week and report them to Mr. Park.

Clutching her sales report in her hand, the stack does seem alarmingly thin, but JungMi is hoping it's enough sales to satisfy Mr. Park for the week. It felt like such a hassle to bring in the numbers she did, but no matter how hard she works, it never seems like enough. It's mentally draining having to call so many different people back to back.

JungMi stands in front of the office's copy machine which they positioned up against the wall just outside the break room where all the telemarketers eat their lunch or grab an instant coffee. JungMi remembers weeks ago when she would secretly make copies of her manuscript to send to publishers for consideration.

Apparently all of her secrecy was for naught. Those copies she made of her manuscript were probably thrown in the trash by now.

What a waste...

JungMi straightens out the stack and shoves it into the slot. She watches as the pages are systematically sucked into the machine at one end and printed back out on the other. The light scans the full length of her reports before taking a new sheet and scanning the next. Once the machine is done scanning the paperwork, it goes straight to work at printing out a new copy.

JungMi blows raspberries as she watches the papers fly out of the copier at a stagnant pace. The clicks of her heel per second from tapping her foot impatiently is more than how much
The droning buzz of the copy machine and the repetitive cycle of paper after paper causes her mind to wander off.

As JungMi's mind wanders off, she can't help but pick up on a conversation a few of her coworkers are having in the nearby break room. Although her ears long to drown out their conversation, her curiosity gets the better of her and her ears involuntarily perk up.

"I'm surprised she hasn't been fired yet." JungMi picks up on a sentence that one of her colleagues says to another mid-conversation, "It's such an easy job! Most of it is just common sense, but even then she still can't do her job properly."

"She's still learning." Another coworker of JungMi defends, clearly more forgiving than the first speaker, "It's only common sense for you because you're used to it. She just needs guidance."

The next few sentences are muffled in JungMi's ears from around the doorway, but it seems that their minor debacle is resolved when she hears much more clearly the concluding statement of one of her coworkers, "You can't just keep holding her hand through everything. She needs to toughen up."

...The copy machine beeps, signaling that her copies have been successfully printed.

JungMi briefly wipes away the silent tears that managed to fall before grabbing her copies and walking away back to her work station.

=====

It's July 31st and the whole month had been terrible to her.

JungMi walks into her brother's apartment clutching in her hand what is to be her final paycheck from Mr. Park. JungMi ran her hand through her hair in frustration so many times that her hair has become unruly and disheveled.

She doesn't bother to announce her arrival out loud for the apartment's only other resident, despite her arrival being much earlier than usual. She simply slips off her high heels and drops them on the floor near the front door.