The protector

Call Man-bok

Warning: some slight angst/bloody scene here

At the peak of his career, Mr. Ra wasn't expecting to be called to work as a guide again(1). But it would have come an important personality, they had explained him, and there was needed someone experienced like him, they had said. Life could take unexpected turns.

Mr. Ra thought very highly of his Madam. At the very beginning, looking at her walking down the stairs of the airplane, he had wondered how could that young lady so incredibly "foreign-looking" be considered an important person. Maybe she was the daughter or the young wife of someone, or maybe there had been a last-minute change and the important person had been replaced by that girl.

But that opinion lasted less than ten minutes.

His madam, - she had asked him to call her just In-ah, and he had refused but, being her surname impossible to pronounce, and provided she didn't want for him to use her job title in public, the woman had kindly offered "call me just madam as we're used in my country, please," they actually weren't, but he didn't know it - well, his madam-impossible-surname had politely bowed and introduced herself in a perfect Korean, thanking him for being her guide. She had talked like an old diplomat, extending her right hand supported at the wrist by the left one. And because of it, he had suspected for her to know more than well that he wasn't just her guide.(2)

Then, in front of the police, the woman had opened her luggage without saying a word. The clothes were on a side, and on the other side, she had organized all the stuff they had to check. Personal computer, tablet, eBook reader, books, work documents. She had offered her phone to the policeman with a gracious bow and had received his refuse with another bow.(3)

"Poor boy, who knows the hard work he has to do with all these tourists, people should be more respectful during the security checks," she had told him. A sibylline comment to make it clear: I'm not here to create problems. Mr. Ra appreciated it.

Within a month they had already established a perfect routine. The woman had settled in her new house and asked him to help her to buy a bike and a phone. Then, something for the house. Frugal, he had noticed, that one was a woman who surely could afford a vacuum cleaner, yet she had bought a broomstick.

When she organized a dinner with the other foreign people, the morning after she lunched with the leftovers, and as the first time she had noticed his curiosity, since that day anytime she organized a dinner with the other foreign people, the day after they banqueted with typical food of her country or other nations.

They often met at dawn under her building to start working in the calm of the dawn, enjoying the mutual pleasure to be them two alone in all the building. They often joked about the fact that, instead of noise, they produced silence.

When she had arrived, there hadn't been big announces. But one month later, the office had been wholly reorganized. She had silently studied the skills of everyone and the way the funds were allocated, and slowly, so slowly that they hadn't even realized it was happening, they had found themselves working in a completely different way.

Efficiency and efficacy had become the natural way to lead the work. Human and material resources were spent after a long analysis, maximizing the results. All the assignments always followed the individual strengths, exploiting each one potential. There was no waste of time, of money, of energies, of estro.

There was a time for work, a time for checking the work, a time for meeting altogether and sharing ideas. The faster workers were encouraged to express themselves, freeing them from the duty to work in teams. And differently from her predecessor, who valued staying in the office till late, she considered it a sign that one wasn't able to complete the work in the established time. At 18, if you weren't wearing your coat, better for you to have a good reason. But at the same time, if there was some extra work, it always was shared, so that what the single would have finished in two hours, the team completed in twenty minutes, and all were sure they can count on each other's help.