Awakening

A strange rumor was making the rounds at the company.

"Assistant Manager Jeonghwan. Did you hear?"

"Hear what?"

The company I worked for was a hunter-management agency—the kind of place that handled all the odds and ends so hunters wouldn't have to.

"They said Dept Head Choi was quitting because her health was bad. Turns out that wasn't it."

"Sorry? What do you mean?"

"The illness isn't as serious as they made it sound. Word is she's starting a company somewhere else."

"Come on. No way. If that were the case, she could just tell the truth and leave. Quitting isn't a crime."

I didn't believe it at first. If she wanted to go, she could just go. Resigning wasn't some kind of sin.

"Aigoo, Assistant Manager Jeonghwan. You still don't know Dept Head Choi? That woman always wants people to see nothing but her good side. And the company she's starting isn't something she's building alone."

A female department head. What she hated most in the world was being dismissed for being a woman, and maybe because of that she had a habit of shoving herself to the front harder than anyone. Whether it was recognition she was after, I couldn't say.

"Wait. What are you talking about now?"

"There's a rumor Dept Head Park, Team Leader Kim, and Team Leader Seo are all leaving with her."

"...What?"

That was strange. Every name just dropped belonged to the core of the company. And they were all walking ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠out together? There was no way this ended cleanly.

"Then what about this place? The hunters those people manage—won't they all move with them?"

"Nah, I doubt it. The rest of us will just have to run things properly. You really think this place is going under? Biggest company in the region. It'll be fine."

I didn't see it that way. A full walkout by the core members, and of course the hunters would follow. There was something else, too. Paychecks had started arriving late—more than once, lately.

The other employees seemed reassured by the company's size and nearly twenty years in business, but quietly, I was uneasy.

"On top of that, I heard Manager Kim is getting named general department head this time."

"Manager Kim?"

"Yeah. Looks like they're leaving the other department-head seats empty and bumping everyone else up a rank."

Manager Kim Daehwan. The perennial manager.

He should have made department head ages ago. Instead the seat had gone to someone else—someone with no interest whatsoever in being a department head. In other words, he'd been passed over. For more than five years.

Putting that man in as general department head is the same as announcing they're washing their hands of running this company.

He hadn't been passed over for nothing. Not a speck of responsibility in him—the type who would do anything so long as he himself came out alive. Core members walking out. Pay starting to slip. Manager Kim's promotion. The bad conditions kept piling on.

That afternoon, I went through the hunter news. It was part of the job.

Fifteen years ago, a tower had appeared out of nowhere. And the Tower belonged to the whole world.

Each floor was divided into several phases. Hunters from every nation entered them—starting points scattered all over, a single exit. That was the problem. One exit.

Rewards and experience gained inside the Tower didn't count unless you escaped. If you wanted to bring anything out, escape was the baseline. And if you failed? You lost everything you'd gained and started over.

In the beginning, of course, the mood had been good. Early on, people helped one another. Everyone was busy enough just keeping an eye on the monsters.

But human beings are greedy by nature. Monsters were one thing—but kill the people around you, and you could take the rewards in comfort. More, even, than you could ever have claimed on your own.

The strong plundered the weak. The weak fled the strong. It was lawless ground, plain and simple.

So the days when simply awakening meant a good life are really over.

There had been a time I hoped to awaken, too. Materials that came out of the Tower sold for a fortune. But that was ancient history. You had to escape before earning so much as a coin was even on the table.

These days, an ordinary hunter needed a second job just to get by. Being a hunter didn't mean you ate well and lived well. All of it, of course, because we were a minor power.

...Still better than where I am now, though.

A little while ago, hearing about Dept Head Choi had left me unsettled. If this place really did go under...

"Assistant Manager Jeonghwan? Dept Head Choi wants to see you for a moment!"

"Ah—me? All right."

Dept Head Choi's summons. I headed straight for her office.

"Come in. Sit down for a minute. And close the door, would you?"

"Yes."

Close the door? That meant something important. I did as I was told.

"Assistant Manager Jeonghwan. How long have you been with us, as of this year?"

"This is my seventh year."

"Right. Seven years. I'll get to the point. It's time you moved up, too. That salary is awfully thin for raising twins, isn't it?"

We'd only ever planned on one child. Raising kids these days wasn't easy. But when did life ever go the way you planned? Twins, born without the slightest warning—a boy and a girl.

I brought home about two thousand a month. My wife brought home a little less. Neither paycheck was much, but we'd raised them on it anyway. It hadn't been easy. What else could we do? In our own way, we'd done our best.

"I've raised a child myself, so I understand. You and your wife both earn, but I hear the office has been giving her the side-eye lately? Women tend to have a harder time at work once they've had kids. So you, at least, need to be making more. Which is why I'm asking—how would you like to take my seat?"

"...Excuse me?"

"You know I'm stepping down because of my health. Honestly, it pains me to leave this place. Do you have any idea what it took to build? But I can't just leave the seat empty. Why don't you come up instead?"

Something felt off. This wasn't the sort of person who did things like this. Leaving out of nowhere, and handing it to me?

This industry isn't that big, so lifting someone to department head by mutual agreement is possible enough. Even so, that seat is one that has to carry the responsibility.

They called it a mid-sized company, but in practice it was small. The titles were little more than window dressing, which was why a department-head seat could be passed off like this. Even so, the feeling was rotten. Like being handed a live bomb.

"I'm truly grateful for the offer. It's just... very sudden."

"Crisis is opportunity. That's how it works."

"Yes, that's true. But I'm not sure I could do it well. For now, I'd rather just keep doing my own work, and do it properly."

"..."

For an instant, Dept Head Choi's eyes went cold.

"So you mean to sit in that seat for the rest of your life? Fine. I'll tell Associate Choi to take it, then. You don't mind your junior climbing past you, do you?"

"..."

Associate Choi. My junior, two years with the company. That seat, for her?

...Is she mocking me right now?

She wasn't usually like this. Or had she always been?

"Think carefully. I'm only making an offer like this because it's you."

"Yes. As I said a moment ago, I'm grateful for the offer."

"...Then why, exactly, are you refusing?"

Her tone flipped. Something hadn't gone the way she wanted, again. She had exactly one trigger: people not doing as she said.

"As I said, it's too sudden."

That wasn't the real reason. I'd heard the rumors.

"No. Even if it's a burden, when I tell you to do it, you do it."

"Sorry? What are you even—"

"God, you talk too much. I'm telling you I'll have everything perfectly arranged before I go!"

Talk too much? Was that something you said in a conversation like this? Then yes—there ought to be a lot of talking. Was I supposed to just bob my head, yes, yes, and take it?

"..."

Anger surged up all at once. It was true a part of me had been tempted by the seat. The pay would jump right away. But the longer we talked, the stranger it felt, and Dept Head Choi's reaction only made it worse.

"I'll think it over."

"Good. I'm saying all of this for your sake, you know. Let's be blunt. If not here, where else are you going to climb this high? Objectively speaking, your résumé isn't great either. We kept you on because you're diligent."

"..."

Well. That much was true. It was why the pay was low, too. But kept me on? No. I'd worked for exactly the treatment I received. She was talking as if she'd done me some great kindness out of the goodness of her heart.

Hah. Let it go.

Subordinate or not, saying that to my face? ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠She was the one who preached that we keep our manners with one another even inside the company, the one who'd discouraged getting too familiar—and now this?

If it were up to my heart, I would have walked out on the spot. Unfortunately, my situation was not one in which I could quit so easily.

That evening, I came home.

"It's Dad! Dad!"

"Kyaaaa! Daddyyyy!"

A thunder of little feet.

The moment the door opened, two small bodies came charging. My daughter, Ayun, and my son, Doyun, threw themselves into my arms.

"Aigoo—did you have fun today?"

"Yeah! Daddy! Mommy took us to the playground today! It was so fun!"

"Mommy! Mommy bought us this, too!"

They started showing off the second they saw me. Watching them light up, my own mood lifted whether I wanted it to or not. Right. This was why I worked. A whole day's exhaustion seemed to wash clean off.

"Daddy! Take off your shits! Shits!"

"Hm? No. Not shits. Shoes! Say it with me. Shoes!"

"Mm. Daddy shits."

"Daddy shits! Mommy shits!"

"..."

Their pronunciation still wasn't there. It sounded wrong no matter how you heard it—and from both of them, shits, shits...

"You worked hard."

My wife, already home, welcomed me too.

"Your face looks a little off, though. Did something happen?"

A ghost, as expected. I'd tried not to let it show. She'd caught it anyway.

"No. Nothing much."

While I washed up, I told her about the day.

"Really? But it does sound strange. Why that seat, all of a sudden? You asked for a raise over and over and they just ignored you."

"Well, they say there's no one else they can hand it to. I don't know. The mood at the company's been odd lately, too. Pay's been late a few times out of nowhere, and weird rumors are going around."

On instinct, I checked my wife's face in the mirror. Better to say it now, just in case. I told her what I thought.

"...I might have to quit. It's only my guess, but if that man, Manager Kim, becomes general department head, the place genuinely won't last."

"..."

"For the kids' sake, you've got ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to hang on somehow..."

"If your paycheck disappears tomorrow, we're in trouble..."

"If we want to buy a house, both of us have to work hard!"

Which of the three would come back? Given where we stood, none of them would have been wrong. We were barely holding on with two incomes, and I was going to quit out of nowhere?

But.

"I figured that place was like that. All they ever do is work you to the bone over nonsense. Calling you in on weekends, dumping every chore on you—remember? Aigoo, good riddance. If you quit this time, get some rest. You've worked without a break all this while."

"Huh?"

"It isn't much, but I'm earning too, and we've got the money we've been saving for a house. We'll manage somehow, won't we? So if you do end up leaving, take a few months and really rest."

...Huh.

This was not the reaction I had expected.

"I mean it."

"..."

Had I wanted to hear those words all along? Told to rest as much as I liked, I choked up before I knew it. I must have been more worn down than I'd thought.

"Thank you."

"Don't thank me. Finish washing up and come out."

Ten at night. The children were asleep.

Click. Click.

After that, I sat down at the computer and looked through job listings.

Hah. I knew this industry paid poorly, but I didn't know it was this bad.

I'd only ever worked in one place, so I hadn't known what the others paid. Somehow it was even less ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠than what I was getting.

Leave here, and buying our own home is going to take even longer.

Aigoo. Couldn't money just fall out of the sky?

EX-grade. And the trait—what? Disaster Creator?

"..."

An awakening had fallen out of the sky. EX-grade, no less.