You're an Ace
I checked the dummy data and clenched my fist tight.
It's normal.
The numbers sat dead inside spec. They couldn't have come back any better.
"Sunbae. The dummy data's in."
"Hrk—! ...Yeah? How's it look?"
My trainer, who'd been dozing sprawled in his chair, jolted upright to answer. He didn't look like he was expecting much.
"It's normal."
"Right. Figured it'd be a reject— wait, normal?"
He sat up and checked the data himself. Normal, sure enough. He turned a baffled look on me.
"..."
Was he actually about to praise me for doing it right? I wasn't even hoping for that much.
"Which solenoid did you swap?"
"No. 13. The one connected to the Divert Line air valve."
I got ready to explain the rest—why the solenoid on the Divert Line, the line that handled divert and bypass, had needed replacing at all. But he never gave me the chance.
"Mm. Yeah. Got it."
He didn't ask. He just nodded and started bundling his things together.
"Let's go. Time for the Inform."
"Ah— yes."
He wasn't even curious? If it had been me, I would have asked. But standards differ from person to person. I followed him without another word.
That was how we reached the meeting room. Senior Woohyeon and Senior Jihan from the incoming shift were already there.
"Good morning."
"Yeah."
"Hey, hyungs~"
"Yeah."
Greetings out of the way, a short stretch of small talk. Once everyone was ready for the handover, my trainer started the Inform.
"Nothing else special. We just checked the dummy data on WN-3, and it came back normal. Should be fine to run it once you've confirmed the first lot."
"What'd you do to get a normal?"
"Ah~ that one. I swapped solenoid No. 13."
Would you look at that. He'd spent the entire solenoid swap goofing off, and now he was telling Woohyeon, the shift leader, that he'd done it himself.
What do I do.
Say it was me, right now? That was as good as picking a fight. But before my fretting could matter, Woohyeon spoke.
"Why?"
"...Sorry, hyung?"
"I said why. The solenoid swap."
"Uh... that..."
My trainer's eyes darted. Woohyeon's stare bored straight through him.
"You swapped it yourself and you don't even know the reason?"
"No, it's— I mean..."
"What. You were about to say you swapped it because it just seemed like that one, weren't you?"
"..."
"So next time the dummy data comes in high, you'll go straight for solenoid No. 13 again. That right?"
Woohyeon drove him back in a perfectly calm voice. My trainer had no idea what to do with himself; cold sweat poured off him. And then—
"Rookie."
"...Yes! Yes, sir!"
Woohyeon's eyes came to me.
"Time you started giving Informs yourself. You tell it. Why you swapped solenoid No. 13."
A faint expectation flickered through his eyes. He'd probably already caught on, from the difference between my trainer, flustered, and me, perfectly calm.
He knows.
I'd looked into it before I ever touched that solenoid. Of course I knew the reason. I opened my mouth, steady.
"First, the previous shift replaced the air valve, but the dummy data was still high."
"Mm."
"So I thought it might not be a hardware problem."
"And?"
This was the important part.
"The WN tool deposits metal species onto the wafer surface. It does that using several process gases."
"Mm."
"From a process standpoint, dummy data only runs high if the process conditions change. Pressure, temperature, gas flow—things like that."
The words came out smooth, as if I'd rehearsed them. Reading the tool manual and the process spec cover to cover had been worth it.
"On the FDC data—Fault Detection and Classification—there were no anomalies in pressure, temperature, or gas flow. So I had to consider the cases where additional gas could still get in."
Understanding lit in Woohyeon's eyes.
"And that's the Divert Line?"
"Yes. That's right."
I nodded and went on.
"If you look at the tool's process sequence, before gas flows into the chamber where deposition actually happens on the wafer, there's a step that dumps it out through the Divert Line."
"So if the valve on the Divert Line side doesn't open, and the gas never escapes—what happens?"
"The flow into the chamber ends up higher than usual."
"Yes. That's why I thought the data could come out high."
Which was why I'd checked how the solenoid tied to the Divert Line was actuating, and replaced it. When I finished the Inform, Woohyeon nodded, looking satisfied.
"You're an ace."
"...! Thank you."
I bowed. My chest hammered at a compliment I hadn't seen coming. Beside us, Senior Jihan was clapping, openly startled.
"Wow. That's something. I don't think I could've managed that a month after I came in."
"Yeah. You couldn't."
"Come on, sunbae!"
Woohyeon let out a short laugh.
"Anyway. Good Inform. And Dongcheol."
"...! Yes— ah, no. Yeah, hyung."
"An engineer has to be able to reach a result through logic. There is no 'just because' for an engineer."
"...Yeah."
"I'll let this one go. But I don't accept you doing worse than the junior you're supposed to be training. You can do this too."
"Yeah. I'll remember."
"Good. Nice work. Get ready to head out."
My trainer and I bowed and left the meeting room. On the walk back to the office, I was tense for no good reason.
He's not about to tear into me, is he?
He'd been taken apart in front of Senior Woohyeon. On top of that, the other seniors had already been on him from the moment the shift started. If he wanted to throw a fit, the conditions were perfect. But—
"Good work today, sunbae."
"..."
He packed his things without a word and left.
Guess that stung.
I shrugged. Not my job to soothe him. I grabbed my own things and left the office. Today's work was done.
A one-room studio of a little over 350 square feet, tucked into a cluster of walk-up villas. This was home.
"Haaah..."
I tossed my bag somewhere and dropped onto the mattress. The soft give of it wrapped around me.
I'm melting. Melting.
The fatigue of the shift seemed to drain right out of me. A semiconductor line is built so that dust simply cannot exist, which means the pressure inside runs a little higher than outside. They hold it around 1.1 atmospheres at all times. Maybe that was why the tiredness hit harder than it otherwise would.
At first I used to pass out the second I got home.
These days I'd built up enough tolerance that I could at least move. I hauled myself up, unsteady, and pulled a cold beer from the fridge. This was the joy of my life.
Day off tomorrow anyway.
A day I could drink without a second thought.
Ding-dong.
The delivery arrived right on cue. Extra-crispy chicken from X's. And Enflix up on the computer to go with it. If this wasn't happiness, what was? Carbonation slid down my throat, and a sound of pure satisfaction escaped before I could stop it.
"Kyah!"
Sitting in the chair with a movie on, I thought back over the day. Giving the Inform in front of the seniors, on the tool I'd actually fixed. And Senior Woohyeon's reaction.
A smile pulled at my mouth before I knew it. I'd been recognized. By the shift leader. Maybe it meant I wasn't just a new hire anymore—that I'd become someone on the team who pulled his own weight.
Getting ahead of myself?
A breath of a laugh slipped out. Maybe it was the buzz. For no real reason, everything felt good.
I should do this well.
I'd left home to take the job and settled in a strange city. I couldn't see my parents often, so I owed it to them to work that much harder.
First paycheck, I'm buying Mom and Dad a present.
And I'd still have a few thousand dollars left, wouldn't I? A conglomerate would pay at least that much. Obviously.
"...How far can I go."
The ability to see faults. Whatever broke on a tool, I could find it. If I kept getting results recognized the way I had today, couldn't I stand somewhere higher?
Which means more money, too.
Or just start a company of my own? Build a portfolio starting now and get headhunted by some foreign giant for hundreds of millions of dollars. That wouldn't be bad either.
...Am I drunk?
Thoughts I'd never entertain sober were piling up one after another. My motto was to do the job in front of me well first. And yet I felt strange.
I don't hate the idea of going in.
I was looking forward to it. How far this ability of mine could take me. What else I might pull off. I wanted to get in front of the tools and build my skill, even a day sooner.
"What if I just go in tomorrow too?!"
That snapped me sober on the spot.
"..."
I'd said it out loud, but it wasn't going to happen. I wasn't so far gone that I'd spend a day off at the company.
Days off vanish in a blink. It honestly felt like a lie.
Already time to go in.
Looking forward to work was one thing. Actually having to go was another, and this was going to kill me.
Why did I say that.
Was heaven punishing me for saying I was looking forward to it? Was that why the day off had blown past so fast?
"...What's the point of thinking about it."
Shake off what's already gone and move forward. I wagged my head and headed for the office with a determined stride.
"Good morning."
A proper new-hire greeting for every person I passed. I reached my desk. And then—
"..."
What was this atmosphere? The whole department was walking on thin ice. Bright as I'd been with that hello, I suddenly felt like I'd misread the room.
...What happened?
I was the new hire. There was no one I could ask. All I could do was read the air and keep my breathing small. Inform time was coming up fast, and my trainer showed no sign of clocking in.
Running late?
Was he sick? Even so, I couldn't sit around waiting on someone who wasn't coming. The seniors were already in the meeting room, waiting on the handover. I grabbed the Inform notes in a hurry and badged into the line alone.
Going in by myself feels strange.
A little lonely, even. I reached the meeting room.
Tack. Tack.
The seniors from the outgoing shift were typing their Informs into the company system. Every one of them looked grim.
"Good morning, sunbaes."
"Oh. Seokhyeon, you're here."
Only one of them lifted a hand in a half greeting. Seriously, what was going on? Was the whole world running a hidden-camera prank and leaving me out of it?
"Where's Dongcheol?"
Another senior asked after my trainer.
"Ah, well... he still hadn't come into the office by the time I badged in."
I told it straight. And then—
Bang!
I nearly jumped out of my skin.
"That bastard screws up and then doesn't even show? Is he quitting on us?!"
"Hey, hey. Calm down. What's the point of yelling in here."
"Even so, this is too far! There's such a thing as basic decency."
I put the situation together fast. Anyone who wasn't an idiot could see it in a second.
My trainer caused an incident and didn't come in.
Not showing up was an incident all on its own.
...Is he really not coming?
Then was I supposed to run today's work by myself? A new hire with one month on the job?
...Seriously?