For a New Hire to Adjust, a Three-Month Probation Is Recommended

The fine print was a shock: fail to meet the target, and they would collect a piece of your body.

I stared blankly up at the page hanging in the air, no longer sure whether I was looking at an employment contract or a waiver surrendering my own flesh.

The blond man watched me do it, and spoke with a kindly smile.

"Those terms are merely insurance! Our goal is the client evaluation. Do the work well, and nothing will happen—nothing at all…."

Then he went on, wearing the merciful expression of a man offering one last chance.

"So what will it be, Leehyun? Will you sign, or would you rather pay with your body right now? For the record, if you're right-handed, I recommend selling the left eye."

He smiled, bright and easy, and brought his index finger up to my left eye.

I shut it on reflex. Something tapped my eyelid—the cool touch of a leather glove.

…There isn't a choice.

Did I stage a tearful collapse here and now, or did I lower the odds, even a little? Anyone would pick the latter. So I had no choice. No choice but to agree to the contract, sick to my stomach.

"Excellent thinking! Someone like you will settle in just fine. Let's enjoy working together from here on!"

Crunch.

The man—who looked like the most stereotypical vampire imaginable—caught my left hand with open delight and drew it to his mouth. He nicked the index finger on a fang, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠brought up a single drop of blood, and pressed it to the contract as a seal.

"Rest assured! A bite no worse than this won't leave you wrong in any way!"

The representative added the explanation while he watched my pupils shake like mad.

Ha…….

My head spun. The disaster had come down on me like a traffic accident, sudden and total, and all I could do was gape, unable to grasp what was happening.

…Get it together. You have to get ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it together.

I felt like I might lose my mind, but at a time like this the only person who could look after me was me. I drew one breath and steadied myself.

……Just endure one year. The moment the contract ends, pay off the debt in one piece and resign.

Right. If I simply earned good client evaluations, the way the representative said, this was nothing but a high-paying job at eighty million won a year. What had happened had happened, and with no way out I brainwashed myself as hard as I could, just to keep from facing it—telling myself that landing a job at all, in times like these, was something.

"Good. Perfect!"

Blood-seal gleaming on the employment contract in his hand, the representative beamed as if nothing in the world could please him more.

"There are a few things to issue. First, put on the Translation Smart Watch. I ought to explain the company benefits as well… Ah! More importantly, the brand design team has just stepped out for a client meeting!"

…I wasn't hoping for a new-hire orientation at a company this bizarre, but something in the way he said it turned ominous again.

Whether he noticed my heart sinking or not, he led me to a door at the end of the hall.

Beep-beep-beep-beep. He punched a code into the keypad on the wall, and when the door opened a black vortex unfurled beyond it.

"Seeing it once beats hearing it a hundred times! Why don't you observe the client meeting with your seniors? Hahaha!"

…I'm sorry?

Right now? Just like this?

Thump.

I had frozen in front of the door. The representative shoved me.

And so I was thrown through that strangely swirling doorway—no handover, no work guide, nothing.

"Hey, you fucking companyyyyyyy!!!!!!"

Thud.

The door banged open and I dropped into somewhere I couldn't name. The shove had sent me rolling, and every joint ached.

He was the one who'd said I would need time to adjust to the company! And he jams me straight into live work?!

I was angry enough to die. I swallowed it and lifted my head—and five gazes, seated around a table, drove into me all at once.

……Wait.

Five gazes?

The space looked like a conference room. Along one side of the table sat a human, and something that resembled a human. And on the opposite side…

"……."

A single eye. I was looking at a single eye…….

Beneath the torso that held that one eye, tentacle-legs trailed away. It had spread them into a star, sat down on them, and was squirming…….

Oh. Some kind of squid? A creature like that existed in the world?

One soul-leaving shock after another, the kind that could have wrung tears out of me, and they simply kept coming.

I was just a job seeker who'd come in for an interview…….

I shook my ringing head and tried to get a grip on the situation.

…He told me to join the client meeting.

From what I could guess, one side was my superiors and the other was my client. Please. Please let the human side be the bosses…….

I got to my feet and offered a greeting to the bewildered person… and to the bizarre things.

"Hello. I'm Choi Leehyun, a new employee at Vanta Design. I was told to observe the meeting, so I came in a hurry."

Introducing myself in the middle of a meeting was painfully awkward…. Was I even speaking smoothly? Half my mind was trying to flee the premises, so I couldn't tell. What else was I supposed to do? Everything around me was enough to drive a person insane! Not collapsing on the spot already deserved a medal!

Fortunately, the silver-haired human man spoke first.

"He must be our team's new hire. I apologize for the sudden interruption."

The sharp-looking man wore all-black business casual, as dark as the circles under his eyes. Beside him sat something human-shaped, with blue-tinged skin.

A jellyfish…?

A woman. Over the hair she had braided to either side, a translucent membrane like a jellyfish's bell lay draped across her head, almost like a hat. She was looking at me with bright, curious eyes, but this was a client meeting, and she seemed unable to speak.

The tentacled monster across the table glanced from me—still awkward from the greeting—to my superiors, and answered.

"It's quite all right. Shall we continue the meeting?"

A droning voice reverberated, alien and wrong. God—every time that huge single eye blinked, I heard a wet schlick as the eyelid peeled off the surface of the eyeball….

Still. What can I do, in my position.

I had to obey the president's order to observe. I sat beside my superiors and tried to listen to the client's explanation, keeping my gaze a little lowered. I didn't have the nerve to meet that single eye head-on…….

The materials the client had prepared appeared on the presentation screen.

"We want to make a city no one can invade—a city that is ours alone. The species outside the gate are all primitive… It would be better if only we, the chosen, remained. The appendages we created keep crawling up."

It was more belligerent than I had expected. I flinched, a small tremor running through me. For a statement steeped in that much hatred, it was delivered politely enough at a business table. I supposed I ought to call that a mercy.

"So this time we'll make a logo for the newly established fortress city, and mark our territory beyond any doubt."

The page turned. Over a photograph of a pentagonal city, a name lay across the screen.

"We'd like a nameplate on the gate at every entrance to the city, and posters that explain what this city means. The way one marks territory."

Next, the brand slogan appeared.

…The most inflammatory slogan I had ever seen.

"That's the idea. We'd like a logo and posters to match."

When the client finished, the silver-haired superior carried the meeting forward with practiced ease.

"Understood. Is there a direction you'd like the design to carry? Adjectives will do. For example: strong, solid, thorough."

The tentacled client considered for a moment, then answered.

"Hmm… I'd like it as tough and merciless as a city of iron, and yet as warm as a teddy bear. To our kind—those of us who aren't impure stock—it is warm, isn't it."

……??

Both of my superiors went stiff in the face. So it wasn't only my ears that had found the direction impossible. This was exactly like being told to make it simple, but flashy…….

The superior who had creased his brow without meaning to came back, as if nothing had happened, to a perfectly blank expression, and spoke again.

…His control of his face was impressively professional.

"The two directions you've given us contradict each other, which concerns me. What if we emphasized only one of the two qualities?"

"What?? No. But this is our fortress city, isn't ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it? We need both the iron and the teddy bear."

"Then, since the image we have in mind may differ from yours, we'll prepare a mood board for the second meeting. We'll discuss how to visualize the direction, and then move into drafts."

A mood board is a tool for conveying visual direction before the design proper begins. You scrap images that already exist out in the world, gather them, and use the collection to communicate a mood. To visualize the refreshment of summer, for instance, you might assemble waves, lemons, a Pocari Sweat logo, and the like.

Looking at the mood board, he means to persuade them a step further.

By showing the client images that collided with one another, my superior seemed to want them to realize their own demand was unreasonable. The handling struck me as quite shrewd. He seemed competent, and that was a relief.

However.

"A mood board? Will there be time to make something like that? The deliverable has to be ready in three days."

??!!

Every eye at the table went perfectly round.

"…A single branding usually takes more than three months. Even at the absolute shortest, you need over a month."

"What?! When we discussed the project period with your representative, he said delivery within three days was possible. Didn't you hear that this was an urgent job?"

…Blaire, was it?

The representative's face came back to me—grinning, the contract in his hand. Insufferable beyond words…. A flash of genuine anger crossed my superior's face as well. This time the crease between his brows looked entirely serious. But he seemed to give up quickly. He let out a small sigh and went on.

"Yes. Understood. Given how short the timeline is, however, we'd like to show you the final result directly, without an interim review."

"Hmm… It will have to be what we want on the first try. For now, all right. We'll talk more about the report in three days."

The meeting wrapped, and the client rose. Only three designers were left in the conference room, looking utterly hollowed out.

"……."

…Obviously, I hadn't even set up a computer yet. My first day, and I had received no desk assignment, no introductions to the team—nothing at all.

"……Are you okay?"

"……With… what?"

"Just… everything."

"……."

……And like that, overtime hell began.