Ep 3: Kicking Off the Heels and Barefoot on Asphalt

How many times did I lie down on the stairs and cry? When Yuna was so dry that no more tears could come out, Yuna stood up unsteadily. The yellow interview jacket was crumpled, and the face was a mess, stained with sweat and tears. But what was most painful to her right now was the throbbing physical pain in her heels, rather than the wounds in her soul.

'first… … Let's get out of here. I need to get some fresh air from outside to be able to breathe.' Yuna carefully took one step at a time, leaning on the railing. I left the emergency stairs on the 45th floor and entered an elevator hall that sparkled like a mirror. In the hallway before work time, office workers with stylish employee ID cards around their necks were bustling with folders. Curiosity and pity passed through the eyes of people passing by towards Yuna, who was wearing a bright yellow suit, with a tear-stained face and a limping gait. Yuna did not lower her head. There was no reason to be ashamed.

Because I did my best and poured all my sincerity into it. As I took the high-speed elevator down to the first floor, the dazzling afternoon sunlight was pouring in through the revolving doors of the Seil Tower's spacious lobby. The moment I left the lobby and stepped onto the marble plaza in front of the tower, a sharp pain as if struck by lightning flashed through my heels. I couldn't even take one more step. Every time my 7cm heel touched the hard floor, the shock of my bones breaking went up my ankles and knees and up to my spine. Yuna stopped in front of a large stainless steel trash can placed in the middle of the square.

A large number of office workers and passersby pouring out of Exit 2 of Gangnam Station began to murmur as they stared at her strange behavior. 'Why do I have to walk in this narrow plastic box, crushing my skin?'

'To look neat to others? To force me to fit into the standards set by society?'

The moment a question crossed my mind, my pent-up anger and self-awareness exploded like a volcano. Without hesitation, Yuna bent down and roughly removed the heels of her high heels with both hands. Then, he grabbed the ankle part of the flesh-colored stockings, which were covered in blood, fluid, and sweat and stuck to his skin, with both hands and tore them apart. The cold air touched the wound and it burned, but the feeling of liberation at the moment when the constricting pressure disappeared was so exhilarating that it was indescribable.

“Shoes like these… get rid of these suffocating fake shells!” Yuna mercilessly threw the black enamel high heels worth 39,000 won into the depths of the trash can. The sound of someone hitting the stainless steel floor with a thud, thud, echoed in the air of Tehran Road like a cheerful gunshot. Without any hesitation, I threw the torn bundle of stockings into the trash can. And Yuna stood barefoot on the sidewalk block of the square. The rough texture of granite blocks against the sore soles of your feet. The warmth of the stone floor, which had been gently warmed by the early autumn sun all day, was honestly conveyed to the entire delicate soles of my feet.

The moment Yuna spread out her ten toes and grasped the earth, for the first time in her life, she felt the overwhelming vitality that her feet were tightly bound to the earth. After 24 years of standing precariously on high-heeled shoes, it was the moment when I finally landed safely on real ground. In the center of the square, a huge circular fountain was spouting cool spray as if to show off Seil Global's enormous capital power. Dozens of nozzles were spraying water over a granite tank over 20 meters in diameter, scattering white mist into the air like fog.

As if led by Yuna, she walked barefoot towards the fountain. The soles of my feet stung every time I stepped on a heated sidewalk block, but it was an honest feeling that proved with my whole body that I was alive. Yuna sat down on the granite ledge of the fountain and without hesitation, she plunged her bloody feet into the clear, cold water of the fountain.

“Aaaahhh…!”

The moment the cold water gently embraced the sore wound, the ultimate shiver went through my entire body, as if the burning sensation that had paralyzed my entire body's nerves was instantly washed away. The red blood spread like a light haze in the transparent waves and then dispersed into the whirlpool of the fountain. Yuna tilted her head back and looked at the clear autumn sky and let out a deep exclamation. “Wow! Taking a foot bath at a fountain in the middle of Gangnam in broad daylight, a really hot and cool person has appeared!”

A cheerful and generous man's voice knocked on Yuna's ears. When I turned my head in surprise, a mint-colored vintage food truck parked under the shade of a tree on the street of the plaza right across from the fountain caught my eye. A red neon sign reading ‘Beat & Beans’ was blinking on the front of the truck, and a groovy old school boom bap hip-hop beat from the 90s was flowing heavily from the high-output speakers. Behind the truck bar counter, a young barista in his late 20s wearing baggy denim overalls and a cap hat backwards was smiling broadly with sparkling eyes. “I… I’m sorry. My feet are burning so much, so I’ll just stay like this for a moment.”

When Yuna panicked and tried to hurriedly take her steps away, the young man opened the truck door and jumped down holding a wooden tray. “No, don’t pull it out! Just looking at it made me feel like my feet were burning, so soaking them in cold water is the right answer. I’m not a strange person. My name is Kang Min-jae, the owner of this food truck. Now, drink this. It’s our truck’s special lemon balm ade made with plenty of freshly picked fresh plum mint. Our first service for brave barefoot customers in broad daylight!” In the transparent cup that Minjae handed over, there was a refreshing combination of thick ice cubes, green herb leaves, and fresh lemon slices. When Yuna absentmindedly took the cup and took a sip, the refreshing, tangy carbonated flavor and cool scent of mint instantly washed away the stuffy feeling in her chest. “It’s really… refreshing. I think I’ll buy it.”

“Isn’t that so? There’s nothing like this when you’re feeling burnt out. Looking at the yellow jacket, it looks like you’re on your way out of a job interview at Sail Tower. Looking at the blood on your heel, you can almost see the angle. I, too, came out of the interview room on the 50th floor of that building three years ago with my soul ripped out.”

Yuna's eyes widened at Minjae's words. “Minjae too?” “Of course! I majored in computer engineering at the prestigious S University and worked my way up to the final stage of the artificial intelligence logistics team at that company. At that time, the interviewer said, ‘You have good coding skills, but I doubt your loyalty to the company and ability to adapt to the organization.’ Algorithms exist to make human lives more free, but those people wanted to use those algorithms to create a prison that controls and monitors humans every second. That’s when I realized. I was forcing my soul into a square frame set by others. If I try to put it in, I'll go crazy first.

So I used up all my savings to buy a truck, put on my favorite hip-hop music, and started making coffee. Now? “I’m a hundred times happier than the tie unit in that building!” Minjae patted the old bandage wrapped around his wrist and laughed heartily.

"Yuna, do you know what the essence of hip-hop is? It's music that started on the broken concrete floor of the South Bronx, with poor young people with nothing, using two turntables and a microphone, laughing at the discrimination of the world. Perfect specs? A smooth shell? That's the most unsophisticated thing in hip-hop. A real, raw story, a vitality that smells of sweat, is the greatest art. Yuna's sweat at the Okcheon Logistics Center is the real hip-hop." At his unrestrained laughter and sincere confession, a bright smile finally appeared on Yuna's stiff lips.

“I also failed for the 10th time today. They say my experience is an emotional arm that is of no use in logistics.” "Ah, those people's eyes are strained! A person who has rolled around and sweated on site is a true gem, but what do old-timers who only look at the shell know? Yuna, throwing those shoes in the trash was really a decision worthy of 200 points out of 100. If I'm going to bleed trying to get other people's attention, it's a million times better to stand rough on the world with my bare feet. And Yuna, your yellow jacket, really. It's dazzling, like a free yellow canary in that dull gray suit forest.

“It is a new horse that has kicked down the cage door set by the world.” Minjae lightly sprayed the cooling spray he brought from the truck onto Yuna's ankles and heels. The cool menthol chill enveloped the sore wound and completely silenced the remaining pain. “Thank you, Minjae. Today, for the first time in my life, I feel like I can breathe through my feet.”

“You’re welcome! To survive as your real self in this forest of buildings, you sometimes need the courage to point fingers at others and say they’re crazy. Looking at Yuna’s eyes, it looks like you’re going to do something big today? Do you have somewhere to go?” Yuna raised her head and looked up at the sky. At the top of the 60-story sail tower, the railing of the rooftop heliport facing the blue sky was sparkling in the dazzling sunlight. The urge to put all the buildings of Teheran Road under my feet and feel the free wind at the highest point swept through my body. “I’m going to the highest place over there.”

Yuna said firmly, pointing to the top of the tower. Minjae blinked, then smiled brightly and raised his thumb. “Rooftop? Wow, that’s romantic! Barefoot queen, get some fresh air and be careful coming down! When you come down, I’ll make you a really delicious signature vanilla latte!”

“Yes, I will definitely come! I promise!”

Yuna took her feet out of the fountain, wiped them with a dry towel, and adjusted her bag. The honest texture of the asphalt and sidewalk blocks warmed by the sun was conveyed to the entire sole of my feet. With bare feet as light as a feather, Yuna began to take powerful steps toward the entrance of the tower again. The gazes of countless people passing through the square were no longer the chains that bound her, but were merely lights illuminating her majestic march.