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[Alexandr Korol]

— What? What is it? Come on, say it, — I say, naturally curious. — Speak.
— But you didn’t want any provocations.
— Well, come what may. Maybe we’ll fight right now and that’ll be it. And if we
don’t — great. I have to go through this anyway. Speak.
— Well, actually... a year ago, you promised me a bonus if I finished something
on time — let’s say, 300 dollars — and you never gave it to me.

I’m listening to this, and imagine — can you picture what he says next? He
tells me that I don’t keep my promises either. Can you believe it? He’s saying
this to me! I could see right then that despite everything, his vile character
remained. Now that he’d spent twenty-four hours getting used to me again
and his fear had vanished, that — pardon my language — vile nature crawled
back out. It’s that self-defense mechanism he always uses: whenever he does
something wrong, in order to avoid feeling the weight of his guilt, he quickly
finds a flaw in the other person to hide behind. It’s his way of saying he’s
“not so bad” because they are bad too. I could see that even though the truth
had been exposed the day before and he had repented, the impact was so
great that his ego had to switch its self-defense back on. There are just
some people who feel a desperate need to stain you, to get that last word in.
And he says it so softly: “Well, Alexandr, just keep it in mind, since we’re being
so frank with each other.” Imagine! A man who stole huge sums of money
from me a thousand times (and hasn’t even admitted to half of it), who let
me down, deceived me, and did terrible things up to blackmail and threats
— a criminal, essentially. And this man brings up a single time a year ago
when I forgot to give him a 300 dollar bonus. He twists it so neatly and says,
“See, Alexandr, it’s not just me; you don’t keep your promises either.”
I didn’t snap, but it really stung. I realized immediately that I am still weak
— that I haven’t fully deified myself yet — because it actually got to me. Still,
I reacted differently than before. I said to him:

— Listen, man, let’s put it this way,” I spoke directly but tried not to wound
him, “Imagine you robbed a bank. You stole millions of dollars and should
have been sent to prison. But after you were forgiven and spared from
execution, you turn to the bank owner and complain that he forgot to give you