[🧩] Then I Should Do It!

✨ Summary by Gemini 2.5 Pro 　

A day when I found a dangerous tactile paving block left loose at a subway station, hesitated briefly, then personally handled it for others’ safety, felt proud of my action, and resolved to keep being a good influence.

• Original: http://blog.naver.com/hyeogikarp/223876636746
• Naver published at: 2025/05/24 22:40 KST
• Original category: Daily Life

Original

🗓️ Date: 2025.5.24 Sat

✨ Summary by Gemini 2.5 Pro

A day when I found a dangerous tactile paving block left loose at a subway station, hesitated briefly, then personally handled it for others’ safety, felt proud of my action, and resolved to keep being a good influence.

💭 Diary

I believe this. Good deeds give birth to more good deeds, and evil deeds give birth to more evil deeds.

I hope each small good deed of ours piles up and carries on as a good influence to the people around us.

This happened at the entrance of a subway station I visited today for a Karrot transaction.

I was leaning my back against the end of a railing halfway up the entrance stairs, waiting for the person I was trading with. Then I suddenly heard a couple passing beside me whispering.

A: “Whoa, oppa, isn’t that dangerous? Someone could get hurt if they step wrong…”

B: “Yeah, true? Looks like the staff at ㅁㅁ Station manage the facilities like absolute crap…? They’re still leaving something like that there?”

For a moment their gaze seemed to be directed toward me, so I was startled and thought, “Are they talking to me?” Thankfully, when I looked at their faces, it did not seem like that was it. (Whew, startled me lol)

After they passed, I got curious and looked closely just one step to my right. Sure enough, as they said, one yellow tactile paving block was slightly lifted and misaligned. Just in case, I lightly stepped on it with my foot, and it wobbled around!

“Uh…? Someone really could step on this while coming down the stairs and get badly hurt.”

I did hesitate for about ten seconds because I was conscious of people passing by and looking, but then I thought, “Sigh, why do I need to worry about other people’s eyes?” So I just yanked the block out, lifted it up, and stood it neatly in the empty space inside the stair railing so people would not trip over it.

For a very brief moment a useless worry crossed my mind: what if, in the worst case, I get reported for damaging property…? But the fact that someone could get hurt mattered much more.

Going down to immediately tell station staff was awkward because my Karrot transaction time was close, so first I quickly looked around. Fortunately, in a corner over there, I saw cleaning tools and a “Caution: slippery floor” sign. My eyes flashed, and I ran over, brought the sign, and set it up at the problem spot.

At that point, I felt I had done the best I could. I wondered, “Should I go down to the station office and separately tell them too?” But since I had done this much, at least no one would get hurt, and after some time station staff would probably discover it and handle it properly.

Soon after, the other person for the Karrot transaction appeared, and I safely finished the trade and returned home.

But after I got home, this thought suddenly came to me.

“No… they left that there until late afternoon? So many people walked past it, and no one thought to personally do anything about it?”

It felt a little sad. Thinking about it, even that couple earlier had only said “someone could get hurt…” and then passed by without doing anything.

Are Koreans too selfish and cold? No, maybe that is just ordinary human nature. But then why did I specifically want to help? Because of religion? I do not think so. Because I wanted attention from someone? Not that either. Just… I could not ignore a situation where it was obvious another person could get hurt. Is this an innate disposition? Or sociality learned through life? Suddenly I wondered whether altruism can also be learned.

All kinds of thoughts kept trailing one another, but in the end my heart reached one conclusion. “I am proud of my action today, and in similar situations from now on, I will gladly be someone who steps forward like this.”

I believe this. Good deeds give birth to more good deeds, and evil deeds give birth to more evil deeds. I hope my, no, our small good deeds pile up one by one and carry on as a good influence to the people around us.

✨ KPT Comment by Gemini 2.5 Pro (Persona: Jaemin)