learning about love

Part 4

'Haaa... they don't pay me enough to care about this shit.'

Contrary to Kim Rok Soo's disparaging thoughts towards his workplace, most specifically the muk he was currently wading through, Kim Rok Soo continued working the unpaid overtime to help the little girl find the doll that had disappeared with her house when the landslide hit.

Technically this wasn't his responsibility. He was a team leader in a search and rescue company that assisted with disasters of all sorts. He really didn't need to find the little girls doll.

He had his own children to go home to.

No one else was going to find the doll though and the property was stable enough for him to search it.

He just needed to make it to the second floor bedroom, retrieve the damn doll, and leave.

He wouldn't normally acquiesce such a meaningless request.

It was her only memoriam of her dead mother.

Kim Rok Soo let out another deep sigh and continued his trek up the stairs.

They really didn't pay him enough.

His phone buzzed in his pocket and he winced. He was probably late.

He'd picked up an extra shift thinking that it would be another slog through paperwork and since Mary had the kids for the weekend, it only made sense to clock in some more hours. But no, there was a mudslide and a crying child and a stupid doll and... Kim Rok Soo let out a long sigh, pulling out his phone and frowning at the message preview.

[From: Choi Han (Raon's Teacher):

Do you have some time today? I'd like to...]

He almost didn't want to click on the message to read more.

What the hell did the teacher want with him now? Kim Rok Soo decided it could wait. Jammed his phone back into his pocket and continued the thankless trek through the sludge.

It took him the better part of an hour to find that damn doll among the destruction. He got chewed out by his boss for his efforts too.

The little girl looked a lot more comfortable at the shelter though and Kim Rok Soo couldn't help but feel his act was ultimately meaningless. How many other children in this very same shelter had become homeless in the very same night? He couldn't search all of their disaster area homes for items of comfort and even if he could, it would be senselessly reckless to even attempt.

He'd probably do it again though.

He waved off the thankful parents, feeling distinctly uncomfortable with their response. Next time he'd have an underling do the doll-exchange.

...not that there'd be a next time. He wasn't about to get himself wrapped up in other people's lives for such meaningless things. This time was an exception.

An exception in a long line of exceptions but despite Kim Rok Soo's exceptional analytical skills, he didn't seem to recognize the clear pattern in his own behavior.

Finally out of excuses to avoid it, he finally popped open the teacher's message and frowned at what he saw.

Seriously... he knew that Choi Han was suspicious of him, and with clear reasons to be so, but was it really necessary to pester him two days in a row?

The kids weren't coming back until after school on Monday though and he didn't really care to return to a suddenly too-silent apartment though.

Choi Han gaped at him when he arrived at the restaurant.