Martoons

Cast of characters

Coffee Lady

Max

*

After school each day, the teenager who was to become Coffee Lady set up a little coffee stand down the block from her high school campus.

It gave her a few extra dollars to spend on candy and snacks on her way home to the orphanage.

‘Coffee Girl’ had been born to an ignorant, poor farm couple in the Ulsan countryside who’d wanted a son, so they’d abandoned their bundled-up infant on the steps of a church.

The quiet and cute-as-a-button bundle of joy passed through many hands and ended up in a nearby orphanage run by Catholic nuns.

Coffee Girl had been an obedient young lady as she passed through childhood and entered adolescence.

She instinctively stayed out of trouble and always did what the orphanage director and her school teachers told her.

But she didn’t believe them: They’d told her if she was obedient and worked hard, eventually she’d meet her prince.

* And that isn’t true? *

She knew full well orphans were marked for life – untouchables; the bottom of the social barrel; destined to marry criminals, ex-convicts, cripples or other orphans.

She’d cast off all delusions of finding a prince.

* Has she finally found a prince in Thomas though? *

One afternoon as she sat at her coffee set up, head buried in her school books preparing for exams, she looked up to see a man in a mod, paisley shirt.

“Give me a coffee, black,” he said, addressing her almost as if she were an equal. “You make best coffee. Are you a student?”

She broke eye contact bashfully. “Yeah…”

“What year are you in?”

“High school. Senior.”

“How are you doing in school?”

She waved him off.

“What will you do upon graduation?”

She looked down. She hated that question. Adults always seemed to ask things like that and she was never sure how to answer.

* Did she not have a plan? *

“My name is Max Kim. I am a business man. Nice to meet you.”

He nodded his head slightly. Naturally shy and defensive, the coffee girl reluctantly stood up from her stool and returned the greeting with a full-fledged bow.

It was the best decision she made for a long time.

Max stopped by every day after that, same time. He became her most regular customer.

Yet he was something more.

* How so? *

He always talked with her, not down to or at her.

He was like the big brother she never had. Coffee Girl told her friends about the man and they’d shudder, warning her that “You never know – he could be a pervert” and to watch herself.

But she knew better. She always had a knack for reading people. Around Max Kim she felt safe. He seemed to believe in her, although she didn’t know how or why.

As he came daily and the months of her final year rolled by, she grew fond of him. She told her friends about the feelings she had and they told her that the feelings were love.

Unmistakably.

But it was one-sided love, for Max showed absolutely no reciprocal emotion.

* None at all? *

As a rising star in the Chinju gangster world, Max Kim lived by a strict code of ethics. Principle One: He never took advantage of a weaker person.

Instead, he cultivated Coffee Girl’s interest in him and channeled it into business. That way, they would both win.

A keen recruiter of talent, he secretly hired her during her final school days to work in his new Coffee Shop Max, which was one of the many businesses his family owned.

Customers never suspected she was only a student. She’d matured and filled-out faster than most girls and Max gave her all the makeup she wanted.

And after a full day of school, working in the coffee shop gave her access to all the coffee and cigarettes she needed to grind out shift after shift into the wee hours.

The caffeine and nicotine kept her awake and slim.

When business was slow, she’d pull the books out from under the counter and study for finals.

Max always paid his tireless Coffee Girl on time and gave her gifts – clothes and eventually her own apartment.

He always kept the relationship professional and beat any of his ‘boys’ who even thought about crossing that line with the youthful, spunky and curvy coffee girl.

She built up a reputation as a reliable, no-nonsense service girl who got the job done and kept customers happy.

She never complained but the few times she returned from service calls with bruises or emotional damage, Max would promptly take care of the grievance.

Mr Max had his own reputation as a slave driving boss, but at the same time he always took care of his staff first.

Occasionally that meant a tongue lashing for an abusive customer, or – if problems persisted – the back of a hand or a knuckle sandwich from his boys.

Honk. Honk. Honk. Honk.

The bus driver had reached the end of his tether.

“Ulsan. Final Call. All Aboard.”

* Will Coffee Lady get on the bus to Ulsan? *

*

Tomorrow: Coffee Lady makes her choice and Dame heads to Coffee Shop Max.