The Hi Mart Dancing Girls Are My Enemies

I live not far from a busy road in Okdong. All day and almost all night, you can hear traffic rolling along down it, but this has become white noise to me by this point, and therefore, I am not annoyed by it. People have to get from one place to another.

On the other side of this road, there is a Hi Mart, which an electronics store. It's like Best Buy sans the media; the LG and Samsung stores come in roughly similar formats. On some days, there will be a mini stage set up with sound equipment. On the stage will be two dancing girls. They will be dressed alike in impractical sexy/cute outfits and they will be holdings mics. They will be dancing and making the occasional announcement using those mics.

Leaving aside gender issues for the time being (can't they at least having dancing boys now and again? for me?), I am convinced that the dancing girls want to see me destroyed.

The problem is that sound spits on the difference in distance between my apartment and the Hi Mart. "Oh, Kelsey, you think shutting the window will help you?" the sound seems to say. "You're so adorable, I could just pinch your cheeks." So the sound leaks through and I'm treated to an endless stream of muffled K-pop and indecipherable speech all the live-long day.

This is particularly bad, because I'm one of those people who cannot deal with any sort of music or talking if I want to get any work done. My concentration shatters. Headphones don't work - even listening to music of my own choosing has that effect. Earplugs hurt my ears. Do I try to soldier through the assault? Do I say 'fuck it' and go to Tous les Jours and hope that their radio is all quiet-like today? I've not yet found an adequate solution.

Are the dancing girls aware of the torment they inflict upon me? Common sense would suggest 'no'. My soul after being treated to the billionth repetition of Big Bang's 'Tonight' while struggling to churn out words in the right order would say 'yes'. To what purpose? That, I can't say. Maybe it's the only way they can entertain themselves on the job. Maybe it's part of a sinister master plan, the likes of which you'd have to have the mind of a Medici and the heart of a Borgia to discern. Probably the latter.

And that is why the Hi Mart dancing girls are my enemies. At least the yowling of stray cats is limited to the summer months.