The second message from the Commission comms office arrived on a Sunday.
They wanted the report taken down from the wall. It had been shared publicly without authorization, they said. There was a policy. The policy was attached.
Gyeol-ri read the policy. Then she read the report again — the one that had classified Park Joonho as a null fidelity response because he had answered a question the Commission did not have a category for. The classification had been generated by an automated system. The report was a public document. She had looked this up before she mounted it.
She wrote back: I am aware of the policy on public documents.
She did not take the report down.
The wall now had four columns: Dr. Shin's measurements. The residents' own descriptions. The Commission report. What the categorization cost. That last one was the title of the piece. She had not known it until someone asked her to defend the first three.
The fourth column had no entries yet. She had been thinking about what to put there. Not the Commission's letter — that would be a response, not a cost. Not her reply — that was a posture, not an accounting. The cost was something else: the possibility that the Commission would reclassify her. Flag her calibration certification for review. Find a policy. She had a renewal in four months. She had looked this up too, after she did not take the report down, and she had not written what she found anywhere. Some weights you carry before you know how heavy they are.
She looked at the Commission's message for a while. Then she pinned it to the wall beside the fourth column and labeled a fifth: RESPONSES TO THE PIECE.
It was a working title. She would see what else arrived.
Park Joonho came by that afternoon. He stood in front of the wall for a long time without speaking. He read the Commission message. He read her reply.
I did not decline, he said finally. He had said this before, to her, to Dr. Shin, to anyone who asked. He had told them he could not describe the corridor from inside it. That was not a refusal. That was an answer.
Yes, she said.
So they classified me, and then they tried to erase the classification.
They tried to erase the record of the classification, she said. The classification is still in the system. It will stay there.
Park Joonho looked at the fifth column. Empty except for the Commission's message and her reply.
How many columns does it have? he asked.
As many as it needs, she said.
After he left she stood in front of the fourth column for a long time. Still no entries. She knew what the cost was. She had not written it down because some records changed shape when you looked at them directly. She was not ready for that yet.