000. Shithole Company Reversal World (Complete)
Those were the glorious days of my childhood. I preferred happy endings to tragedies, pure love to degradation. My heart was soft. I hoped the poor heroine, slapped by her mother-in-law, would find a happy marriage. I'd sometimes cry seeing extras play the role of victims. I couldn't even watch cruel scenes in movies.
Yeah. I grew up into a really boring person.
But that never bothered me. If anything, I thought it was a satisfying life, free from harsh storms. I hoped my future would stay that way.
But one year in that shithole company changed me. It was a furnace that remade humans.
As the only developer back then, I handled every single computer-related task alone. I built the game client, the game server, even the homepage. It was hellish.
Deadlines were always tight, so overtime every day, all-nighters galore.
To me in that state, my colleagues would say:
"The image file size doesn't match? Ha, can't you just make it fit? You're the developer."
Ignorance.
"The planning's wrong? How am I supposed to write a perfect spec from the start?"
Shifting blame.
"When the hell is that bug getting fixed? Why'd you even pull an all-nighter? I've been telling you for months!"
Nagging.
If the CEO rejected the planning, the planner would scrap the entire document. The game would veer off in a completely different direction from the original concept, forcing me to rewrite the code from scratch every time. I protested countless times, but people who knew nothing about development just ignored me.
My shithole company life was always overcast, and that golden experience brought harsh realizations.
'Drinking an Americano because I'm tired? That's not real fatigue.'
The true hell was when I couldn't even count how many cups I'd downed.
'Other employees leaving before me? That's not despair.'
True despair hit when the sun rose during overtime and I watched the others arrive for work.
And now.
A few months after I'd left that company, I got an unexpected request.
"Seong-u-ssi..."
A red-dyed ponytail. She looked a bit worn out, but those sharp eyes still held the beauty from our college days. Long eyelashes, an explosive figure that suited her suit perfectly.
'Han Yu-ra...'
The former boss who'd once lorded her authority over me. Her hands trembled slightly. Was she ashamed to come begging now?
"So, what do you want?"
After a few seconds, she stammered.
"Can't you... come back and work here again?"
It had been exactly three months since I quit.