Chapter 31

Chapter 31

A local auto-parts dealer near Parramatta.

Rosie smiled bright, checking the heavy parts boxes set on the counter.

The lower arm to repair the underside of her old Toyota, and the small parts, had all arrived.

Tracking down parts for an old model like this at offline dealers, and receiving them herself, had taken quite a long time.

"Good! Finally all gathered."

Rosie hummed and hugged the heavy parts.

'Later when Jeong-su comes to work, I have to ask him to fix it!'

If it was Korean magic-hand Jeong-su, who could fix anything, machine or car, he would surely fix her junk car perfect with these parts.

In return, buying a fine dinner would do.

Thinking the tremendously expensive Australian workshop labor was saved, Rosie's steps were light as they could be.

* * *

In front of the Crane Australia site office.

"Jeong-su!"

From behind, Rosie called me in a clear voice.

"Good morning! You came at a good time. I finally got all my car parts! There's something I want to ask..."

The moment I slowly turned.

"Ak!!"

Rosie dropped the box that seemed parts she was holding and let out a short scream.

Her face, about to greet glad, went pale in an instant.

As it would, because my state was pitiful, literally.

Last night I thought only a wound and it was fine, and waking in the morning I had become puffed bread.

Thick gauze stuck plastered on the forehead above the eyebrow, and the left eye dyed bright red, vessels burst from the shock of the guys' clubs, was like a zombie just popped from a horror movie.

And on the left arm a half cast wrapped tight in bandage, an arm sling hung on the neck.

"Oh my god, Jeong-su! What on earth happened?! Did a dump truck hit you on the way to work?!"

Rosie hastily set the load down, opened the office door, and dragged me inside.

She pointed back and forth at my bright-red eye and cast arm and dug for the whole story.

Sipping the warm coffee Rosie made, I put on the most pitiful, wronged face in the world.

A full-soul act to somehow get my blood-like hospital bill of 2,550 dollars back as the company's WorkCover.

"Haa... don't even say, Rosie. Yesterday I finished work and was going home quiet. And suddenly in a dark alley, bad-quality gang-like thug bastards, fully seven, pop out holding clubs."

"Good heavens... seven?!"

Rosie covered her mouth as if she could not believe it.

"Yeah. Honestly if it was one on one I could have swept seven of those guys in one shot. Really! But I'm a working-holiday person. Fight wrong and Immigration comes to catch me right away. If I swing a fist wrong there, wronged, and the visa gets cancelled as mutual assault, what then. So I held it and dodged even getting hit. This cast cracked blocking their clubs too."

"Oh... Jeong-su. Good heavens, doesn't it hurt a lot? You nearly had a big problem."

Rosie, fully moved by my cowardly excuse mixed with a hero tale, let out a pitying exclamation.

I shouted 'now!' inside and casually brought up the point.

"So, Rosie. I'm in name a diligent ace employee of Crane Australia, and I got hurt this wronged on the way home. Could this count as a commute injury and WorkCover apply? I went to emergency once yesterday and the hospital bill came out at fully 2,550 dollars, blood about to rise backward."

The moment the word WorkCover came from my mouth, Rosie's face, which had been showing full sympathy, stiffened a moment into embarrassment.

"Uh... if it's a commute accident a journey claim is possible... when exactly did the incident happen? Do you have a police report or a hospital diagnosis?"

I held out, as if I had been waiting, the diagnosis pulled yesterday and the memo with the police case number.

Rosie took the documents and began examining careful.

But a moment later, a deep sigh flowed from her mouth.

"Jeong-su... I'm really sorry, but this doesn't seem it can be processed as WorkCover."

"What!? Why? I said it was the way home after work?"

"Look at the diagnosis and the police report here. The time the police attended the scene was past 10 at night. Your official finish is 4 in the afternoon. An incident that happened fully six hours after finishing, you can't insist it's an ordinary commute route. And this is Wetherill Park, and the incident area is the city center."

At her fact violence hitting the bone, I became a mute who ate honey.

"This is the company's thorough policy and the Australian insurer's strict rule, so I can't do anything either. The personal time delay after work was too long, so this, a shame, is classified as an incident with no relation to the company at all..."

Rosie, truly not knowing what to do, put her hands together and apologized sincere.

The gap of those six hours, running a second job after work and crossing to the city, seemed a clear limit even connections could not cover.

'Ah shit... my 2,550 dollars...!'

Blood tears inside, but if company rules are so, pressing the good employee Rosie was useless.

I let out a deep sigh and nodded.

"Haa... nothing to be done. Company policy is so, what power do you have. Sorry. The request to fix the lower arm, I won't be able to take for a while either."

I lifted the left arm hurt stiff and laughed bitter.

"Anyway the arm is like this, so for a few days I don't think I can repair equipment or lift heavy materials. For a while I'll rest solid and knit the bone. Process some unpaid leave."

"Of course! Fixing my car is a later problem, your body first. I'll handle the documents all, so don't worry and rest solid until you're completely better. I'm really sorry, Jeong-su."

Leaving Rosie, not knowing what to do from guilt, I set the few days' leave convalescence diagnosis on the desk.

A shame, but this was unpaid leave.

Paid leave doesn't work unless it's a full-time job.

'A shame. In the end no choice but to patch it with the agency insurance.'

Shoulders drooped deep like a person who lost the whole world, I opened the site-office door and walked out plodding.

* * *

Exchanging greetings with the site workers a long while and coming out, I turned my steps at once toward the Korean agency in the city center.

When the agency first said to join comprehensive insurance, seeing it was 600,000 won I had been shocked.

Really, did the noona scam me? Suspicion rose to that point.

But the noona said Australian hospital bills, working-holiday people absolutely cannot bear, join no question and go, iron words, so I believed those words and joined.

I didn't know it would come back like this.

Company injury processing had crossed the water, so the way to fill this wronged 2,550-dollar bleeding was only this now.

Opening the agency office door and going in, the agency manager tidying documents at the consultation table raised her head.

"Welcome... heok!"

The moment she saw my state, the manager dropped the pen she held.

Thick gauze on the eyebrow, the left eye burst bright red, and the half cast hung on the neck.

The same reaction as Rosie a moment ago, no, rather more freaked.

"Aigo, Mr. Jeong-su! Good heavens, why is the face that shape? Did an accident happen at the company?"

"If it were the company it would be fortunate. They'd at least process injury insurance. Haa..."

I let out a sick sound and sat down hard on the chair in front of the table.

And from the pocket I took out the crumpled 2,550-dollar hospital receipt and the police case receipt and set them on the table.

"Manager, the working-holiday comprehensive insurance I joined in Korea and came with? I want to claim that. I went to emergency once yesterday and the consultation came out at fully 2,550 dollars. Blood rose backward and I couldn't sleep."

"T, two thousand five hundred dollars?! Good heavens, I knew Australian hospital bills were ignorant to working-holiday people... how on earth did you end up in a rough state like this?"

The manager asked, gathering the receipt and documents.

"Manager, you don't pay hospital bills like this?"

"Permanent residents or citizens have Medicare, so even going to emergency is free. You have to wait a bit long, though."

"Ah... free."

I carefully touched the cast arm and clicked my tongue bitter.

"Last night I was ambushed by that Park Ji-hun bastard in the city lodging lot."

"Yes?! Who?"

"That Park Ji-hun who uses our share house, right. And the one who goes around with him, Kim Tae-sik, is it? I still don't know the name. Anyway that guy and five more others, seven total, came holding bats."

"Re... really that Park Ji-hun person did that?!"

"Yes. The police already caught them all. They'll probably get shaken down clean? There seemed someone above giving orders too."

"Aigo! What kind of guys..."

The manager watched my mood.

She seemed worried I might catch a fault on the agency side.

I knew that, but went on calm.

"Those guys weren't ordinary bad guys. They were doing vicious contractor work, coaxing the kids staying at our lodging and sending them to country farms. And they clung to the women too. Two seemed already gone over. Anyway because of thugs like that, Koreans get cursed along."

"..."

The color left the manager's face clean.

The head would be complicated.

If it comes out in the police investigation that Park Ji-hun targeted agency students and diverted them to farms, this agency would not be safe either.

Neglect of student management or aiding, a situation perfect for the police and Immigration to catch a fault.

I gave a short laugh toward the stiffened manager and asked as if tossing it.

"By the way, manager. Do you happen to know an 'Owner Kang'?"

"Owner Kang? There are so many owners with the Kang surname in Sydney... which person do you mean?"

"He said he works on the construction or interior side."

"Ah! You mean Mr. Kang Dal-yeong!"

The manager brightened as if she knew at once who, and went on.

What so many, I heard a little over 2,000 if you take out working-holiday people.

"How does Mr. Jeong-su know Dal-yeong? He immigrated to Australia in '95 and lived really hard from the very bottom. He comes out tremendous at the Korean church, and takes charge of volunteer work every weekend. How agreeable he is to people around, a person with a very good reputation..."

"Ah, the reputation is that good?"

I squinted the left eye stiff with pooled blood and sneered cold.

"But manager. Is that person really that good a person?"

"Yes? What is that..."

"That Kang Dal-yeong with the good reputation seems the person who commissioned Park Ji-hun. I haven't been here long, and the person I made an enemy of is only him."

Ah. Count Park Ji-hun and it's two... count the guy called Andy and it's three.

"A friend called Dong-myeong who uses the share house with me was thoroughly exploited for labor by that human too. He had it so hard I told him not to go. Then he kept calling and harassing the kid."

However I think, there's only that person.

"Yes?! Dal-yeong? Come on, surely not..."

"Anyway Park Ji-hun got caught, so climb and it'll all come out. I'm thinking of formally reporting and putting in a complaint to the Australian authorities, tying not only Park Ji-hun but Kang Dal-yeong as a set."

The manager's pupils shook as if an earthquake.

A model student of immigrant society with a good reputation turned out to be trash doing contract assault and labor exploitation, and the shock seemed considerable.

I leaned my body slightly over the table and stared straight through the manager with the bright-red eye, vessels burst.

"So, manager. When I put the complaint in to the authorities, you'll have to help me a bit."

"H, help? What would I..."

The manager flustered and tried to quietly avoid the gaze.

'If you don't want to take the dump Park Ji-hun shat, you'll have to behave, manager.'

Thinking so inside, I began pressure in a very polite but boned voice.

"I'm not wishing anything great. I'll report Kang Dal-yeong to the Australian Tax Office and Immigration for tax evasion, illegal labor exploitation, and trafficking. You only have to help so I can organize that into a document and make a complaint. As you know, if they investigate the agency name will come out no question... for the Australian authorities to see the agency not as an 'accomplice' but as a decent 'victim', isn't it better to hand over sure material together and cooperate with the investigation?"

At the word accomplice the manager's shoulder flinched large.

She instinctively sensed it was a problem with the agency's safety and her own livelihood on it.

"Uh... th, that..."

The manager swallowed dry and began connecting words stammering.

Cold sweat had already formed on the forehead.

"Th, that would be so... Mr. Jeong-su's words are right. We're wronged victims fooled by that swindler Park Ji-hun too... we shouldn't take the dump for nothing. Uh... right. I'll help. I didn't see Dal-yeong like that, I seem to have seen the person very wrong!"

"A wise judgment. Ride the line well and no spark will fly to you, manager."

I stroked the cast arm and tapped the 2,550-dollar receipt with the remaining hand.

"Ah, and my hospital bill. This too I'll only trust you firm, manager."

"O, of course! Whatever means I use, I'll press the Korean insurer and get it so not 1 dollar falls out!"

The manager gathered the receipt careful with both hands, in an attitude much more urgent and desperate than before.

Now the 2,550-dollar bleeding would be filled, and a weapon to cut the breath of Kang Dal-yeong who harassed Dong-myeong came as a bonus.

Unlike the hurting body, the mood at least was very refreshing.

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