Kneeling Won't Change a Thing
"This video will go up as Dohyun's version."
"Wait, boss...! Hold on a second...!"
With everyone gathered in the meeting room, Dayeon pulled up both videos and compared them down to the finest detail. Park Woojin's cut should have been the one to go live. Instead, Dayeon announced she would upload Dohyun's — as if there was nothing left worth looking at.
"I only waited because the original deadline was today, Woojin. Dohyun's video was already finished yesterday morning."
The truth was that Dayeon had liked Dohyun's quality so much she had wanted to upload it then and there. The one who talked her out of it had been Dohyun himself.
"Dohyun also pointed out that this was originally your job, so we should at least review your video too. That's another reason I held off."
Even so, if the deadline had already slipped, or if the video had needed to go up that same day, Dayeon would have refused the suggestion outright.
But.
Anyway, it doesn't go live until tomorrow. I wanted Park Woojin to see the gap in skill for himself — to really feel what it means to fall behind. And if noona watches that happen, maybe some of the stress she's been carrying will finally ease a little.
Just as Dohyun had said, there was still time left on the original editing schedule. And once Dayeon thought of it as a chance to work off some of the stress Park Woojin had been putting her through, she decided it was fine.
"Dohyun already finished editing the next video today as well, Woojin. And I don't see a single thing that needs revising."
In other words, if Woojin ran late again — or if the quality simply wasn't there — she could schedule Dohyun's version for upload on the spot.
"...Kh— no...! This is completely unfair...! That bastard— I mean, if Dohyun is so good at his job, you should give him other work...! Why are you taking mine and handing it to him...!"
Park Woojin had no idea how absurd his own argument sounded.
"I set a weekly quota and split it evenly between the two of you. One of you finished early and still had enough left in the tank to edit the other person's share. The other keeps getting revision requests and can't even keep up on speed."
Dayeon had stayed quiet until now, deciding it wasn't even worth a response. But watching Park Woojin refuse to grasp his own position and keep stepping further out of line, she went on in a voice gone cold.
"If Dohyun can do your entire share himself, I have no reason to keep you."
They had signed an employment contract. That much was true. But from a company's standpoint, there was no reason to keep paying someone who wouldn't work and wasn't needed.
"If this keeps up, I'm going to let you go."
Dayeon said it quietly, like a warning.
"W-what... you're going to fire me...? We signed a contract! You can't just fire me whenever you feel like it!"
"I never said I would fire you on a whim. I never said I was firing you right now, either. I said that if you continue to be useless, I will let you go."
The law required advance notice before termination. With that in mind, Dayeon was putting him on notice: if he kept working like this, she reserved the right to process his dismissal.
"When you hire someone, if they put in the effort and actually improve, that's one thing. But you have no intention of trying. All you do is blame other people. You have no sense of responsibility toward the work. How am I supposed to keep working with someone like that?"
Dayeon had given him advance notice that he would be competing with Dohyun. Park Woojin had agreed to that competition. Given all that, he should have shown her he was working harder. Instead, he had slacked off the same way he always did.
"I hire editors because I want better videos. If they can't deliver that, what reason do I have to keep them around?"
The editing quality kept dropping, and he showed no interest in getting better. And it wasn't as if his work had been outstanding to begin with — it only became passable after revision upon revision. The raw quality had never been that high.
That said, stacked against other editors and their various styles, it wasn't as though Park Woojin was terrible. But if you had to choose between a man whose defining trait was laziness, who would drag things out and play around until the deadline, and someone who finished the video well ahead of schedule without needing a single revision — of course an employer was going to pick the latter.
"...Kh— no... but..."
No, but, however — Park Woojin kept cycling through the same words, yet nothing resembling a real rebuttal came to mind. He knew perfectly well that not a single thing she had said was wrong.
Fuck...! What the hell is this situation...!
Until now, he had paced the work at his own leisure. The constant revision requests had been annoying, sure, but once the deadline drew close he would always manage to compromise and slide by. He had assumed he could keep living that easy life forever.
If another editor started looking a little too competent, he would just grind them down mentally until they quit. Once they shut their mouths and walked out, Dayeon would be stuck in a position where she couldn't fire him no matter how much he trolled — and the cycle would repeat. That situation had made Park Woojin lazier and lazier. He had started to think work was easy.
This is all that bastard's fault...!
The cushy ride he had believed would last forever had come crashing down the moment Dohyun showed up. Threats didn't work on him. He was diligent. And in a mere two weeks, he had sent Dayeon and Eunchae's opinion of him through the roof — an existence that simply should not have been possible.
A rattled Park Woojin started chewing on his lip.
Am I actually going to get fired at this rate...? Shit... ah, fuck, what do I do... I'm going crazy...!
He had graduated from college, but he had no career in his actual major. Dayeon had given him such a comfortable environment that the thought of starting over as the junior at some other company was more than he could stand.
Sh-should I beg...? It'll sting the pride a little, but if I get on my knees and grovel, maybe somehow...
Dropping to those cheap knees of his wasn't going to change a thing. But the anxiety had already eaten Park Woojin's reason alive.
His knees hit the floor.
"Woojin? What do you think you're doing?"
Reason had already been swallowed whole. He couldn't even register the deeply unpleasant look on Dayeon's face.
"I'm sorry, boss...! I'll work harder, I swear — just please don't fire me...!"
"Woojin, get up. What are you doing."
"Please, I'm begging you...!"
The expressions on the three people watching Park Woojin kneel in front of Dayeon with his forehead pressed to the floor were not kind.
This should at least make them think twice, right...? I mean, come on, a person got down on their knees...!
Park Woojin was under the delusion that his knees were worth something.
"Park Woojin, I said get up!"
Only after Dayeon's voice cracked upward did he lift his head — and finally realize the situation was getting worse, not better.
"I never said I was firing you right this second. Instead of wasting time on your knees, shouldn't you be showing me you'll actually work harder? What does kneeling change?"
Irritation had climbed all the way to the top of Dayeon's head. She snapped, then pointed at the door.
"Get out!"
"W-wait, boss...!"
"Today's work is done, so everyone go home. I'll see you tomorrow. All of you, please leave."
Dayeon dismissed not only Park Woojin but Dohyun and Eunchae as well.
"Let's just go quietly."
Dohyun had already clocked that saying anything more would only pour fuel on the fire. He leaned in and whispered to Eunchae.
"Yeah. Once Park Woojin leaves, we'll go."
"That's the plan."
Park Woojin got to his feet first and trudged out of the room. Dohyun and Eunchae followed, glancing back at Dayeon with worried faces before they stepped out.
"Haa... ah, this is actually stressing me out. If it were up to me, I'd just fire him right now."
Once the three of them were gone, Dayeon shut the door and paced the room, muttering to herself. In her entire life, she had never been this stressed out by another human being.
"Aagh! This is so infuriating!"
She had tried so hard to treat him with respect. She had tried to make things convenient for him. She had wanted to treat everyone well, had wanted them all to get along, and so she had thrown money at frequent company dinners and filled every request for supplies that came her way.
No matter how she turned it over, she felt she had treated him decently — humanely. That it had come to this was nothing but stress.
"...Hah... so this is why the big companies run personality assessments."
Not that she believed those tests could filter everyone out.
"...My head hurts. Should I take the day off streaming?"
It would be an unscheduled break, but the thought of going live in this state made her certain the broadcast would only turn out ugly.
"Haa..."
After a long stretch of deliberation, she posted the news to her fan cafe: she would be taking the day off.