not permission. And loyalty that requires you to become smaller is not loyalty at all.
As I left that evening, the elevator doors opened.
The same woman who had warned me not to anger Jang stood inside with a janitor, two interns, and a senior vice president.
They automatically moved aside.
I smiled.
“Don’t move.”
I stepped in beside them.
No executive car.
No service car.
No invisible ladder measuring human worth.
Just one elevator going down.
As the doors closed, my reflection appeared in the polished metal.
Six months
