Martoons

Today: Miss No grapples with Thomas’ rejection.

Cast of characters

Miss No

*

Early next morning Miss No hadn’t wanted to but was still mentally dealing with Thomas rejecting her.

As she removed the padlock from Riverside at the crack of dawn, she had that fragile feeling in her head that comes from not having slept all night.

It reminded her of the mornings after she’d wasted entire nights laying awake waiting for Mr Go to return from night-lifing.

Even though Thomas was only a foreigner, No wasn’t used to being rejected by any male.

Nine times out of ten it was she who dished out the rejection.

That part she could handle.

It made her feel all puffed up like a cat in an alley fight.

But who would have thought that Thomas, brand new in Korea and wet behind the ears, would so readily turn the tables?

The lowly waygook had just dumped the lofty boss.

Yet, falling for a Coffee Lady?

That was pouring an entire shaker of salt on the wound.

Dejected, deflated, and doubled-over, No got the sliding door unlocked and made her way up to the office.

She even found herself short of breath.

Upon entering the staff room, she flicked on the lights and sat behind her desk against the back wall and clanked the ring of keys down on the desktop.

Nobody says No to Miss No. 

“Thomas! How dare you cast me aside for a tea house tart!”

Over the next few days she braced herself whenever she heard his voice in the institute.

She couldn’t bear the thought of facing the six-pack-abbed Canadian again and if he was in the hallways she’d run for cover in her office.

Yet, every time she did so she asked herself why she should have to hide from one of her own underlings?

She was The Boss!

Yet being humiliated by a foreigner was somehow different from being dumped by a Korean.

It was more alienating.

And, she imagined, he’d probably ridicule her – to his friends, to that same Coffee Lady – circulating rumours like “she groped me” and “she sexually harassed me.”

And that simply wasn’t true.

* Was it not? *

“Yes it was,” said the little voice in her head.

“Na-na na-na-na.”

“Okay, so it’s true. But I had the best of intentions.”

“You did not!”

It was true, though, what they said about sexual harassment.

It poisoned the work environment; her work environment anyway.

Thomas hardly noticed that Miss No seemed a little more standoffish that usual; yet in Miss No’s mind, the chill she felt toward the waygook continued for a week or two.

Finally, events unfolded suddenly and Thomas was gone.

When Go had called her and told her so, it was as if she was sitting inside her body watching herself condone it all.

She’d been vindicated.

Nobody says no to Miss No!

* Will this ‘vindication’ last? *

*

Tomorrow: Mr Go makes Damion squirm.