“Pile up the sacks neatly and organize the wooden planks.”

Bangjoo sat down as he rolled up the sleeves of his work outfit. The only downside to this work was that he couldn’t roll up his sleeves no matter how hot the weather was. Although sweating was much better than scraping his skin, on a hot steamy day like this, he wanted to forget about safety and throw everything away.

“Hey, let’s go eat.”

“Yes.”

He put on his trainers, which had lost their color, and went to the cheap restaurant in front of the construction site. The technicians sat separately, while the temporary workers sat at one table.

“There are a lot of young people these days. Are you in college?”

When a man in his forties asked, Bangjoo replied yes.

“Is it for tuition?”

“Something like that.”

“Then work moderately. Don’t overwork yourself and get injured. I saw that you were working too hard. It’s your loss if you get hurt.”

Another man sitting next to him agreed to that. For a while, the men talked about how they got injured during construction work.

The stories included things like how someone’s construction helmet got smashed by a steel beam, how a pile of construction materials fell over, or how a truck went over them. It was a miracle that they were still alive.

After the meal, they left. The workers...