007. Opportunity (1)
Spring morning. It wouldn't look good if the male director and female CEO arrived at the company at the same time, as if they'd planned it, so we'd decided to go separately. I'd assumed Han Yu-ra would get there first, but I beat her to it.
I'm the early bird today.
It was 9 a.m.—pretty early for work—but Kim A-ram, Yoon Se-hee, and Shin Na-young were already there. Without thinking, I greeted them.
"Morning. Nice day, huh?"
"Director, you're here!"
Shin Na-young was the first to respond, flashing her usual eye smile. Her fair skin looked as lovely as ever, but beneath that bubbly, super-energetic vibe lurked heavy dark circles. It struck me as odd.
Did she pull an all-nighter?
She'd covered it well with pro makeup skills, but she couldn't fool my eyes. We'd spent three years together in high school, then nearly six more as 'friends.' Even though she was a girl, she was like a bro to me—and I was probably like an ovary buddy (or fallopian tube friend?) to her. We knew each other's secrets inside out. From my perspective, today's Shin Na-young was exhausted.
Why does she look so wiped out?
Could it be... she instinctively knew I'd gone out with Han Yu-ra, had a delicious steak dinner, and then some forceful late-night sex? Had jealousy kept her up until dawn?
Get real.
That was pure self-indulgence on my part.
Shin Na-young...
Her short bob haircut revealed an alluring neckline. We'd been in high school less than two years when people started whispering we were dating. But I'd never even held her hand.
By senior year, everyone looked at me like I was an idiot. 'You two, why aren't you dating?'
To be fair, I didn't want to mess with my bro. I'd focused solely on studies back then, blocking out distractions. And that dynamic had only exploded now.
—I don't want to go home today.
That probably wasn't just her asking to crash at a sauna. Even with my developer-like obliviousness, I wasn't so servant-syndromed that I couldn't read between the lines.
It's a bit much.
I had no idea how to navigate our relationship going forward. Being with Shin Na-young was just... easy. We could talk about anything and everything. I'd seen her as a woman sometimes, even fantasized secretly a few times. But that was it. We'd stayed friends. It was comfortable that way, repeating our routine days. But she'd crossed the line. Returning to how things were wasn't possible anymore.
Eh, it'll work itself out.
"Hey."
Kim A-ram's greeting, on the other hand, was ice-cold. Did she have some grudge against me? The way she rolled her eyes made her look like a dumb herbivore on the savanna.
Will she ever wise up?
Probably not until a dimensional gate opened in Seoul, I awakened a status window, and Han Yu-ra and Shin Na-young unlocked their hidden talents to become SSS-rank hunters.
Even a child psychologist couldn't fix her. Hell, what Kim A-ram needed wasn't therapy—it was a dog trainer. She wasn't human.
I called out to her abruptly.
"A-ram."
"Yes."
"Progress report."
Progress report. The words every developer dreaded most. Kim A-ram swallowed hard. Her lips parted.
"Um..."
Um? Did she just say 'um'?
"I... uh... that is... um..."
Um... jun... The women I'd once despised. I felt a love-hate toward Han Yu-ra now, but pure awe toward Kim A-ram. How could someone born from a human womb with human genes live like that?
...And her eyes are so clear, too.
Shin Na-young looked dead on her feet, yet Kim A-ram's eyes were relatively bright. Fresh, healthy, dewy. It pissed me off.
A programmer dares to shower with two weeks until open beta?
Black sludge bubbled in my chest. A developer skipping overtime? It was like a daughter-in-law getting nagged by her mother-in-law, then doing the same to her own daughter-in-law. Or a soldier in the army repeating the abuse on new recruits.
You... you need to pull all-nighters!
"Let me show you what I've done. Uh... yeah. This is the server draft."
I eyed her rookie code. It wasn't a game server—it was a backend tutorial. Database setups, API calls and definitions, socket code. Building that didn't make the game run, of course. Kim A-ram had worked hard. She even had some coding talent. But that just irritated me more.
Why... why do girls like you have coding talent? Why?
"A-ram. Do you know what this code does?"
"...Um."
"Um? Um? A-ram, missing your mommy already?"
"Eek..."
Kim A-ram bit her lip. My temper boiled like sulfur fire. I couldn't hold back.
"I gave you about a week for this. So why can't you even build a backend for an idle game?"
"That's..."
"Isn't this an idle game?"
It was her idle game pitch.
"Planner. Speak up. You're the one who planned it as an idle game."
Just then.
"Uh... morning."
Illustrator Im Su-yeon opened the office door and came in. Kim A-ram shot her a desperate glance for backup, but Im Su-yeon ignored it completely, scurrying ninja-like to her seat. Once so close, now cut off faster than light. If she'd been born in 1930, she might've sold out the country.
"...Eek, ugh..."
Kim A-ram bit her lip and bowed her head. I loved that expression. And with Kim A-ram—who'd competed for campus beauty—making it? But it didn't turn me on at all. She was a beast, not human, and sadly, I wasn't into furries.
"Um... I hate how you chime in like that."
"Hic... Sorry, I'll do it..."
Kim A-ram trembled like a grandma's basic flip phone. She couldn't contain her own fury. I pointed at the whiteboard scrawled with D-DAY-16.
D-DAY-16
"A-ram. See that?"
"Yes..."
"One week left. One week."
When I worked here, I'd come in on weekends too. Punching in alone to an empty office, no clubs, no hunting bars—just me and C# all day. That 'life experience' of unpaid overtime in a peaceful space was pure hell.
"A-ram. What's your part again?"
"Ser... server side..."
"You're handling user actions logged to the DB, then fetched back to the client. Got it?"
"...Yes."
"I'm doing everything else."
"...Hic."
"Anyway, open beta in one week. Understood? You can do it, right, A-ram?"
Kim A-ram fell silent. She knew it too. Even all-nighters for a week straight wouldn't cut it. But I surrendered to the emotional flood. She'd only learn the hard way. Until then, she'd just bully others.
"What? It's an idle game—you can handle it, right?"
You haven't tasted developer life until you've sipped tear-soaked coffee. Iced Americano at a cafe to fight sleep? That's not coffee—it's life's garnish. True caffeine... is that Americano at 5 a.m. in the office. Tears instead of syrup—that salted coffee sums up a dev's sorrow in one cocktail.
"Y-yes..."
Kim A-ram answered for the sake of those few billion won.
…
What if the victim becomes the perpetrator?
If you made the perp suffer exactly as you'd suffered... would seeing their tears bring happiness?
Seong-u...
Shin Na-young thought.
Your anger was real.
She fully understood Im Seong-u. She'd sized up Kim A-ram's personality well.
—Clean up early morning.
—You can finish by deadline, right?
—I'm yielding here. Normally I'd make you write more planning docs...
—Na-young, why's your dev so slow?
Shin Na-young had endured two months of workplace bullying. Even with her hospital admin experience, it stressed her out.
Hospital sisters were less shitty, honestly.
They at least kept boundaries. After chewing you out, they'd buy drinks or gaslight to build rapport. They had intent to maintain power. But Kim A-ram? Pure emotional animal.
And now Im Seong-u was exacting his revenge.
Damn, it's cathartic even for me.
So you could do that with real power. Real life imitating drama. Im Seong-u could make it happen.
He's cool.
She swallowed her surging emotions. Im Seong-u had always been her idol. Raised in a monthly rent slum, his successes gave her vicarious joy—like her own wins. Pure happiness, but bittersweet. Each step he climbed distanced her more.
I want to be like you.
So Shin Na-young resolved: code harder, self-improve. Become a better programmer than him someday, make him need her.
Long road, but let's try.
As she steeled herself to code, a message hit the company KakaoTalk room.
Han Yu-ra...
Always busy, always cool, always the capable businesswoman. Unlike me.
Hearts waver like reeds—her former idol was now loathsome.
Why...
Not sabotage, of course. Han Yu-ra was CEO, skipping the booth today. Sixteen days to open beta. Im Seong-u was director; only Kim A-ram or Im Su-yeon could be spared. Logical call.
But she hated it. Teeth clenched, heart pounding.
...No.
Yesterday, Han Yu-ra left with Im Seong-u. What did they do? Dinner? Drinks? Business talk? Dating talk? Sex. Intercourse. Did they fuck?
Na-young's heart raced. Anxiety hit—left alone without him.
Too many pretty girls in this company...
Even demon-beast Kim A-ram, illustrator Im Su-yeon, comms-disabled Yoon Se-hee—all impossibly hot. If Kim A-ram went alone with Im Seong-u to the festival? No feelings guaranteed?
Shin Na-young gritted her teeth and hammered into the chat. Jealous women are terrifying.
Her heart thundered. Rival rage. Hatred. Then inferiority and defeat crashed in.
Why can't I...
As she typed more.
Shin Na-young stared at Im Seong-u in shock.