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One of my grandnieces works at a cosmetic counter of a large store where the smell of French perfume greets visitors. Department stores throughout the world place women's beauty products on the entrance floor.
She is a lovely girl, with her large black eyes, relatively small face with powder white skin and dark brown hair. I've known since she was a baby that she is good-natured and she shows natural hospitality to any customer who stops by her counter. Her co-workers, all females, are fond of her. But she says she is not happy because she has no boyfriend.
"I'm a mobile mannequin. My makeup must be perfect, obviously. I must wear expensive dresses, and it's a standing job. My feet get swollen in the afternoon, and I've shoe-bites and calluses that hurt a lot," she complained when she visited me on Seollal. "And all my customers are rather annoying women with whom I must always maintain an amiable smile. That's OK, but I don't have any chance to meet boys."
Hmm, I thought for a moment imagining the luxuriously illuminated and somewhat coercive ambience of entrance floor displays. "Don't boys notice you when they pass by your counter? You are well-dressed and your makeup is perfect after all," I said. "Of course boys throw side glances at us. but that's all. They are afraid to come to our counters, as if we sell cactuses.
"A prize beyond one's reach," I said. "What's that?" she said. "Boys get the idea that you girls are an unattainable object because all of you there look too expensive," I explained.
"We're not expensive, the cosmetics are," she said. I suggested she change jobs as meeting a nice boy, or two or three, is one of the most important things in a girl's life.
"How about working as a cabin attendant of an airline or at an information desk of a large firm. You'd meet a lot of boys, face to face," I added. My pretty niece was thinking. "It's not a good idea to become a secretary for a CEO or chairman of a corporation though," I warned. "Why not?" The naive girl needed to learn a lot.
"Because some girls and boys who work closely with celebrated people get to hold the wrong end of the stick as if the bosses' authority is their own. Young boys you'd meet would generally have a minor position. He would immediately feel your authoritative attitude in your stance, and no romance would germinate under such circumstances. Not only that, but some female secretaries may fall into an illusion that her superior's money is theirs. It would be a sad situation for a boy to marry such a girl.
"Actually, dear, I like your job. You don't need to borrow a man's authority to show off. You are your own virtuous woman dealing with only female customers. If a boy approaches you, consider him a brave man who has the confidence to deal with an expensive girl like a flower on the ridge. He has at least enough courage to crawl up the cliff to reach you, unafraid of getting some cactus stings," I explained, hoping it was good advice for a young girl who is still ignorant of a man's world.
"I like that," my grand niece said and decided to stay as a mobile mannequin in the fog of perfume.
The writer is a grandmother. Her email address is ham1940@gmail.com.
