WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Potter
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Regressed Assistant Manager Kim Can Read Minds ◈
Chapter 11
──────
The moment we stepped off the plane, hot air wrapped around my face.
By the time we cleared immigration and went outside, beads of sweat covered Kang Minho’s forehead.
Minho’s dress shirt was already sticking to their back.
“Minho, let’s get changed first.”
“I didn’t pack a change of clothes.”
“Wear mine.”
I took a T-shirt and shorts out of my suitcase and handed them over.
“Take the slippers too.”
A little later, Minho returned in much lighter clothes.
Once I handed over a hand fan, Minho looked just like a college student on summer vacation.
“Thank you, Assistant Manager Kim.”
“Next time you visit a hot country, pack spare clothes first. Bring plenty of underwear and socks too.”
“Yes. I will.”
Minho’s shoulders looked more solid beneath the loose T-shirt than I’d expected.
“Did you use to work out?”
“I did a little boxing and judo.”
“That’s reassuring.”
Our meeting time had passed, but there was still no sign of anyone from Mekong Green.
I sat down and opened the company documents again. Minho sat beside me and took out a notebook.
“What should we look at first when we get there?”
“The warehouse. First, we need to see whether they actually have the green coffee beans they’re supposed to supply, and whether the quantity matches the paperwork.”
“The samples listed in Mekong Green’s documents were top grade.”
“On paper, yes.”
Mekong Green had never exported green coffee beans before.
According to the documents, they had processing facilities modeled after a Vietnamese coffee farm, along with a large warehouse. But I knew how this would end.
“If this really is a scam, they’ll have prepared for everything we might check.”
“We’ll have to stay on our toes.”
“Be suspicious rather than nervous. Trust the goods and records we see ourselves, not what their representative tells us.”
“Yes. I’ll remember that.”
Just then, a small silver car stopped in front of the airport.
A man wearing sunglasses spotted us and waved.
“Nice to meet you, bosses. I’m Sok.”
“Sok?”
“That’s right. Sok. Sok, Sok!”
With an innocent smile, Sok took my suitcase.
“Hot, isn’t it? I’ll take you straight to the hotel.”
“Sok, can’t we go straight to Mekong Green’s warehouse from here?”
“Now? Nooo. Roads are bad. Takes at least three hours. Arrive at night, you can’t see properly! We go tomorrow!”
I focused on Sok’s thoughts.
[អាល្ងង់··· ឯងគិតថាខ្ញុំនឹងព្រមលែងឯងទៅពិតមែនឬ?]
‘What does that mean?’
Cambodia’s main language was Khmer.
I could have understood at least some English, Japanese, or Russian, but a language I’d never heard before remained nothing more than sounds in my head.
“No worries, no, no! You bosses are here for three days and two nights anyway. Rest today, go tomorrow when it’s nice and cool! Just trust Sok!”
Sok smiled and got into the driver’s seat.
Minho and I sat in the back.
On the way to the hotel, Sok talked nonstop.
“You must see Royal Palace in Phnom Penh. There’s Silver Pagoda, and oh! A Buddha statue Korean people like! Leave without seeing it, you haven’t been to Cambodia. Drop bags at hotel, then go right away?”
“We’re tired today. We’ll just rest.”
“Then tomorrow? The full package you bosses love. Full package!”
He poured out phrases he’d picked up who knew where.
When I didn’t respond, Sok checked on me in the rearview mirror several times.
[ហេតុអ្វីបានជាអាពួកឆ្កែពូជហ្នឹងមិនមានប្រតិកម្មអ្វីសោះ?]
I still couldn’t understand him.
But when our eyes met in the rearview mirror, his weren’t smiling at all.
Noticing my gaze, Sok lifted the corners of his mouth again.
“Korea is the best! Samsung! Hyundai! All good! My phone is Samsung! Car is Hyundai too!”
“...”
We reached the hotel in less than an hour.
It was a three-story stone building a little outside central Phnom Penh.
The area was quiet, but the inside was cleaner than I’d expected, and the air conditioning was cool.
“Bosses, here we are! Hotel is good! Everything good! Rest thirty minutes, then we go for dinner. Sok prepared everything!”
Once Sok left, Minho sat on the edge of a bed and let out a breath.
“Sok speaks Korean pretty well.”
“That probably means he’s dealt with plenty of people like us.”
First, I checked the reception on my flip phone.
Thankfully, roaming worked, so I could contact Korea.
“Minho, put all the important things in your bag and take them with you. Documents, camera, passport, everything.”
“Would someone come into our hotel room?”
“We’re not here on vacation. Don’t let your guard down.”
Without asking anything else, Minho put the documents and camera into a bag.
Then we went out with Sok.
The place he took us to for dinner wasn’t a restaurant.
Inside a large private room, beer, liquor, and even soju were laid out in neat rows. There were several empty chairs too.
“Sok, what is this place?”
“Korean people like drinks and pretty women. Sok arranged something special! All free. Enjoy as much as you like.”
“We’re not drinking. Please take it all away.”
Sok tilted his head for a moment, then clapped.
“Aha. Girls coming soon! Western, Asian, tall and curvy! Gorgeous girls...!”
I left the room before he could finish.
“Boss? Boss!”
“Listen, Sok. We didn’t come here to drink with women hanging off us. We came to inspect the green coffee beans Taeseong Trading plans to import.”
“...Come on, bosses. Let’s all have a good time...”
“We’ll take care of dinner ourselves. See you tomorrow morning.”
Leaving Sok behind, I headed for the hotel.
Minho picked up the bag and followed me.
When we returned, the woman from the front desk hurried out of our room.
She started when she saw me.
“What’s going on?”
After a moment of confusion, she spoke in English.
[Sorry. There was a problem with your room, so I checked it. Fortunately, everything seems fine.]
[What problem, exactly?]
[...The air conditioner. Sometimes the power cuts out and it shuts off.]
She looked flustered again when I answered her easily in English.
[Please don’t enter our room while we’re out again.]
[Yes. I’m sorry.]
The woman hurried down the stairs.
Inside the room, I found my suitcase half unzipped. The clothes I’d folded inside were in a mess.
Someone had clearly searched it in a hurry.
“Ha... They searched our room in that little time. I’m glad we took everything with us like you said.”
“If this is what they’re doing on the first day, tomorrow should be quite a show.”
Just then, Minho’s stomach growled.
Minho tightened their stomach, trying to act as if nothing had happened.
“Hungry?”
“I’m fine.”
“Really?”
I opened my suitcase again.
When I took cup noodles, kimchi, and instant rice out from beneath the disturbed clothes, Minho’s eyes widened.
“...You’re the best, Assistant Manager Kim.”
“You only just realized?”
* * *
After we had a late dinner of cup noodles, Minho spoke quietly.
“Sok glared at us when we left earlier. His face looked completely different from when he was smiling.”
“I saw it too.”
I pushed the company documents beside my bed toward Minho.
“Minho, check the warehouse location first.”
“Are we going without Sok?”
“That’s the only way we’ll get a proper look.”
Minho spread out the location sketch beside the hotel’s area map.
“It’s less than forty kilometers from here. Even with bad roads, two hours should be enough.”
“Let’s leave before sunrise. We need to see it before they can do anything.”
“Yes. Understood.”
I lay down, but unfamiliar insect calls and the noise of the old air conditioner kept me from sleeping deeply.
Every time I heard unfamiliar voices outside the door, I found it hard to relax.
Minho must have been awake too, because a voice came from the darkness.
“Are you asleep, Assistant Manager Kim?”
“No. Why?”
“May I ask you something?”
“Go ahead.”
Minho stayed silent for a while.
“Why are you so good to me?”
“Me?”
“You taught me how to use the copier, and you let me learn beside you on the Gwangjin Precision job. Then there’s this business trip.”
Suddenly, I remembered what Han Gyeongsu had said in the back alley on the night of the team dinner.
“People who work hard should be rewarded.”
I heard Minho shift in the darkness.
“Yes. I’ll work even harder, Assistant Manager Kim.”
“Don’t overdo it, though. Let’s only work as much as they pay us to.”
“Yes.”
I closed my eyes for what felt like a moment. When I opened them, faint light was spreading outside the window.
I dragged my heavy body out of bed, but Minho had already washed up and was ready to leave.
“Let’s go.”
“Yes, Assistant Manager Kim.”
The same woman from yesterday was sitting at the front desk.
[Breakfast is ready on the first floor.]
[We’re going for a short walk before we eat.]
[Now?]
[We’ll be right back.]
Outside, we hired one of the tuk-tuks waiting by the road.
I showed the warehouse address to a driver who understood English.
[Far! Ten dollars!]
[Round trip?]
[One way only.]
[Then no.]
I shook my head and started looking for another driver, but the driver immediately reached out.
[Okay, okay! Ten dollars, round trip!]
The tuk-tuk left the paved road and turned onto a red dirt track.
Every bump sent us bouncing up and down.
After a long ride, a warehouse with an old sheet-metal roof came into view.
It was smaller than I’d expected.
Inside, workers were hurriedly moving sacks of green coffee beans that had just arrived.
“This seems to be the warehouse in the documents.”
I asked the tuk-tuk driver to wait a little, then approached the warehouse.
At the entrance, I handed a worker carrying sacks my Taeseong Trading business card and the official notice of our on-site inspection.
The worker looked back and forth between them, then went into the office at the back, saying they would contact Sok.
“Get the camera out. Start taking pictures from the entrance.”
“Yes.”
As we entered the warehouse, a musty smell stung my nose. Even the new sacks were sitting directly on the floor without pallets.
The warehouse doors stood wide open, and I couldn’t see any equipment for controlling ventilation or humidity.
Left like this for just a few days, the beans were bound to absorb moisture.
I passed between the sacks at the front and went farther inside.
The deeper I went, the stronger the musty smell became.
When I opened a sack at the back, yellowed beans spilled out, mixed with insect-damaged ones.
“...Ugh. That smell.”
“Make sure the sack number is in the picture.”
Just then, the worker who had gone into the office returned and blocked our way.
Speaking urgently in the local language, the worker called someone.
Then, in broken English, they tried to claim these weren’t the beans meant for Taeseong Trading.
“At least tell a believable lie.”
Minho opened the shipping manifest and compared it with the sack numbers.
“Assistant Manager Kim, the numbers match.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes. The sacks at the front and the back are all part of our shipment.”
I took out the sample bags I’d brought.
“Take a sample from the front and one from the back. Write down the sack numbers too.”
Minho put the beans into separate bags and sealed them.
The photographs, shipping manifest, and samples we’d collected ourselves would be enough.
[The beans at the back aren’t for Taeseong Trading. Our representative will explain when they arrive.]
[The sack numbers match. What more is there to explain? We’ve seen everything we need to.]
Without dealing with the worker any further, I left the warehouse.
Leaving them scrambling behind us, we got straight into the tuk-tuk and returned to the city.
I called Seo Jeonguk right away.
-Assistant Manager Kim. What is it?
“Mekong Green is a scam operation. The samples don’t match the actual shipment, and the warehouse is a mess. They’ve mixed rotten beans into the shipment.”
-Evidence?
“We have photographs, sack numbers, and sealed samples.”
After a brief silence, Seo Jeonguk made a decision.
-All right. We’ll remove Mekong Green from the candidates. Submit your report as soon as you return.
“Understood.”
-Assistant Manager Kim.
“Yes, Deputy General Manager Seo.”
-Good work. Bring Kang back safely, and take care of yourself too.
When I ended the call, Minho looked at me.
“Let’s change hotels first.”
The inspection was over, so there was no reason to stay any longer.
I asked the driver to wait a moment, then went into the hotel.
The woman at the front desk flinched when she saw us.
She lowered her head, pretending nothing was wrong.
I was about to walk past when some understandable English reached me among her thoughts.
[...I did what Sok told me. Will this really be all right?]
I stopped on my way to the stairs and returned to the desk.
[Did you go into our room again?]
[...No. Why would I?]
Her answer came immediately, but her eyes kept drifting toward the top of the stairs.
I focused on her thoughts.
[...They can’t find out I hid drugs in the bag. Sok said he was only going to threaten them. Once the police get here...]
Drugs.
I went straight upstairs.
Minho followed me.
“Minho, lock the door first.”
“Yes, Assistant Manager Kim.”
I hurriedly searched my luggage.
Inside my suitcase was a palm-sized packet that hadn’t been there before.
“...What is that, Assistant Manager Kim?”
Below the balcony, I saw two vehicles pulling in.
I immediately went into the bathroom, tore open the packet, emptied its contents into the toilet, and flushed.
The police came upstairs a little later and pounded on the door.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
I opened the door with a calm expression.
Sok and two local police officers stood outside.
As if they had planned it in advance, they opened my suitcase first.
They pulled out the clothes and even felt along the lining, but found nothing.
[What do you think you’re doing?]
[...Nothing.]
The officers exchanged uneasy looks.
Sok protested, but the officer in front snapped something in Khmer and left the room with the other officer.
Sok seemed about to follow them, but stopped at the door.
When he turned back, there wasn’t a trace of a smile on his face. His jaw twitched as he clenched his teeth.
“Boss, why are you doing this? Just sign the contract, everyone makes money. Why make things like this?”
“You’re hardly in a position to say that after mixing in rotten beans and planting drugs in someone else’s bag.”
“Why not make it good for everyone? I know office workers don’t earn much. I’ll give you money. How much do you want?”
I looked Sok straight in the eye.
“Why would I trust a scammer?”
“You ruined everything!”
Sok swore and lunged at me.
But Minho was faster.
Minho caught his wrist and turned.
Sok tried to wrench himself free, but his arm was twisted behind him and he was slammed against the wall.
“Aaagh!”
“Keep your hands off.”
Sok turned his head and glared at Minho.
“L-let go!”
[...អាឆ្កែចង្រៃ។]
I didn’t know what it meant, but it certainly wasn’t anything nice.
Looking Sok in the eye, I slowly repeated it.
“អាឆ្កែចង្រៃ។”
Sok’s eyes widened.
When Minho let go, Sok clutched his wrist and stepped back.
Leaving him standing there dumbfounded, we collected our luggage and left the hotel.
I later learned that the words I’d repeated were a vicious curse meaning, “You rotten son of a bitch.”
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