A bit ago we had a Public Transportation Day to celebrate the fuel-saving, environmentally-friendly idea of using public transportation to get to school and work. In honor of this day, everyone is supposed to use public transportation if at all possible. Now, since everyone loves the environment, and nobody wants to look like a jerk, everybody feels duty-bound to follow through on this, if only to save face. On the day in question, I got a ride from Jung Mi-gyung as usual. She always takes a route that brings us around the back of the school, and we were just approaching the back entrance when she suddenly saw a big banner with “Public Transportation Day” on it hanging above the street. “Oh no,” she exclaimed, bringing the car to a screeching halt before executing a sudden u-turn. “It’s public transportation day!”
Right behind my school is the city sports stadium, complete with its own small parking lot. Mi-gyung pulled us into that parking lot and explained. “Let’s park here and walk the rest of the way, so we can pretend we took public transportation.” “Ok,” I said. “It’s our secret,” agreed Mi-gyung.
As we got out of the car, she did a double-take on the car parked next to us and checked the license plate. “Oh,” she laughed. “It’s the school cook’s car.”
At the end of the day, I was supposed to get a ride home from Mr. Lim. Since he sometimes forgets, I went to find him and confirm. “Yes, yes,” he said. “You ride with me. Let’s meet in 10 minutes.” “Ok,” I said, starting to walk away. “Oh, wait,” he exclaimed suddenly, beckoning me closer. In hushed tones, he explained, “My car is in the back today. You know the stadium? In that parking lot. Because… today is Public Transportation Day.”
As I made my way down the hill towards the stadium, I couldn’t help laughing. Nobody actually wanted to take public transportation, but nobody was willing to admit it. The result: the stadium parking lot was suspiciously full for the middle of the day on a weekday!
