A Battle of the Sickest

I've been quite sick for a couple weeks. I've been hacking, dealing with a headache and fever and blowing my nose every 2 seconds.
I've had to go to the doctor twice, which is so much fun when neither you nor the doctor speak the other's language, and I have to go again on Monday. I've been on two rounds of antibiotics. I had a fever and have an ear infection. I still can't hear out of my right ear. This is only the second ear infection I've had in my life. I never had an ear infection when I was a kid. Shit is actually oozing out of my ear. I've never had anything ooze out of any of my orifices and, on my sickest day, Agnes says I absolutely must teach my 8-9:30 p.m. adult class. I had to attend my 7-8:30 a.m. class that morning, but I was able to skip my classes during the afternoon. I guess I should be thankful I got out of working during the day.
Agnes kept calling my phone starting at about 6:30 p.m. and I ignored the calls because I was trying to sleep. Literally two minutes after her last call I hear a bang on my apartment door. Guess who it was?! Agnes ran over to my apartment because she "thought I may have fallen down." Umm, don't you think if I was sick and weak enough to have fallen down then I'm probably too sick to lead an English class for two hours? Just a thought.
She said there was absolutely no way around it, I absolutely had to be there to teach the class. She couldn't teach it because she had something to do, she said.
"We need to cancel it then," I say.
She had a look of absolute shock and confusion, like the idea didn't even occur to her.
"We absolutely can not cancel the class, the students won't be able to make it up," she said.
My lack of caring could not be conveyed in a convincing enough manner for her.
"You absolutely have to be there," Agnes added. "All the Korean teachers were complaining all day about how long their day was."
I teach a 45-minute class for each teacher each day. They each had to work an extra 45 minutes more than their normal schedule because I had a fever and funky goo oozing from my throbbing ear. They come to work at 2:30 p.m. and leave at 5:30 p.m. or, at the latest, 6:30 p.m. every day. And they were complaining.
Are you kidding me?
I start some days at 7 a.m. and don't get out of there until 9:30 p.m. every night. Did I mention something is oozing from my head?
I said to Agnes, "Well, I guess since you're clearly not giving me an option, I have to be there. This is ridiculous, but I'll see you at 8."
With that, she stood right up, said, "Ok, thanks Erika," and she left my apartment. "Be sure to lock your door behind me."
If I had the strength I would have had the door hit her on her way out.
I want to hurt her.
I get to the school a few minutes before my 8 p.m. class and Agnes tells me I have a new student in the class tonight. For some reason this was just enough to set me over the edge.
I completely unleashed on Agnes. I was screaming at her saying it was asinine and completely ridiculous that I was being forced to teach this class when I was as sick as I was and could barely stand . She kept trying to speak, but I kept talking over her. I went on about how I thought it was ludicrous that the other teachers were complaining about how they had to work an extra 45 minutes that day. Agnes said that I get paid more than the other teachers and I told her I should get paid more than them, I work twice as many hours as they do and my hours are far more spread out and sporadic.
She just kept smiling at me, which I know is part of the Korean culture, but it really irritated me. You are also not supposed to disagree with an elder or a boss. You are supposed to go along with whatever they say. I clearly don't operate that way. Apparently that's the American in me. Agnes is 33 and my boss. Double whammy. But I didn't care, I was furious.
I told her that I was not happy about the situation and I was feeling very much like I was being taken advantage of, but clearly that didn't matter to her.
Then I left her standing there and attempted to teach my class.
After the class was finally over, I felt a little bad about the way I had spoken to Agnes. But, the feeling quickly passed and I made my way back to my apartment to pass out again.