Annyeong Jaggi,

I’m on break. You know how humid it gets in Geumsan. I’d love to shower but I’ve got to visit the security office. The security ajeoshi smokes and he’s old and he wants my foreigner card. He wears anti-tanning arm protectors so his skin won’t get dark. This is ridiculous – his skin is already dark and he’s wearing a long-sleeved shirt anyway. He makes me sad.

The ID card with magic marker is in my car now, bouncing on the cushion of a/c and defroster. I still want a shower but at least I have fresh shirts in the car. You put them there.

I’d kill for some “leprosy” soap that smells like oatmeal and cinnamon, your smell. I miss your smell. Jaggi neomu mani geuriwayo. I miss all of you. I wish you’d scrub my arms and legs. I wish you’d check my back for pimples. I wish you’d fall asleep on my arm and breathe softly into our pleather couch.

You’d like the tire factory, I think. You’d fit in with the chemists and the semi-voluntary exiles. I worry about you, Jaggi. Not everyone is out to get you. I’m not the only one you can trust.

The class is finished now. I like these corporate gigs, you know. All the students get bottled up all day, stuck under the tyranny of the old. The elderly are ascendant at the tire factory. Jun-woo’s getting frustrated, Dae-won, too, and I’m a release. I like being the good guy at corporate gigs.

I think you’d get frustrated here, sarangseoroun Yoonmi-ah. You’d fight the elderly and you’d get hurt and I wouldn’t know how to help.

I can only use the elevator going down – fingerprint scanners. You should work in the kind of place with fingerprint scanners. You should work in the sorts of high tech places I’m not allowed to go.

The lobby is air-conditioned – finally kills the sweat. I pause, not needing a shower for just a few minutes. The security ajeoshi who smokes too much gives me back my foreigner card. I hope he’s happier than he looks. I hope he’s happy like I am with you.