The Leak in the Plenum
Unfortunately, the business of talking me up went no further than that.
A shame. A real shame.
"They'll call you in again. Be ready beforehand."
Senior U Hyeon said it like it was nothing. Called in again? For what?
"Could I ask what I'm supposed to prepare?"
"Nothing special. Just keep doing what you usually do."
"Yes. Understood."
Put that way, it was a relief. Work the way I always worked, study the way I always studied. Surely they weren't going to stand me up in front of the department head, the deputy heads, and the managers and make me report again. Haha.
"Ah. Look at the time. I'm heading out first, you two. Good work today."
Senior Yeongseok glanced at the clock and packed in a hurry. He'd said he was a newlywed, and sure enough, getting out the door seemed urgent. He left the meeting room ahead of me.
I ought to get going too. I was gathering my things when U Hyeon spoke again.
"Good thing Yeongseok hyeong took a liking to you."
"...Sorry?"
I stopped with a hand on my bag and looked back at him.
"Wasn't Senior Yeongseok always a kind person?"
Could someone that decent actually dislike anybody? U Hyeon shook his head. Not so?
"That hyeong is a scary one."
"Huh?"
"I got torn apart too. At the beginning. It was months before he acknowledged me and we started getting along."
He said his own mentor had been the same way. Years of sharp words, recognition only at the very end, and a relationship that was decent enough after that. The scolding never left the work itself, and when it was over the man bought Korean beef, so you couldn't even hate him.
If he's buying beef, that counts as approval.
Buy someone beef and weren't you just a good person? That was the thought that came to me. Anyway.
Hard to believe.
I couldn't picture Senior Yeongseok as someone that exacting.
"Anyway, I'm glad you two get along. Nice to see. Ace."
"...! Thank you."
I bowed and stepped out of the meeting room. The day's work was done. I collected my things and left the office.
Off work.
On the way home a thought struck me, and I took out my phone.
Two numbers, saved side by side. I picked one and pressed it. They were always together anyway, so it hardly mattered which I chose. Whichever line I dialed, I could hear both their voices.
"Aigoo! Son! What are you calling about?"
"Hey, Mom. I was heading home from work and you came to mind."
"You've worked hard! Get home quick and rest!"
"Yeah. I will. What about Dad?"
"He came back from work and he's napping. I'll tell him you called when he wakes up."
"Okay. You rest too, Mom. I'll call again."
The call ended.
"Hoo."
For no particular reason I rolled my shoulders once.
I have to work hard.
This wasn't the cutting-edge line I wanted, and it wasn't the memory division at the heart of the company, and still I kept showing up. The work was fun, yes. There was a bigger reason than that. My parents. Even when there was nothing to spare, they had gathered one coin and then another and sent me to college. They never let me worry once about tuition or living expenses. They cut their own share smaller and pressed one more crumpled bill into my hand, all the way until I got into a major company. They had cheered for me the whole time.
I have to give them a good life.
To do that I had to work harder still. Get recognized. Climb higher. Then the money would come.
Right. Payday's soon.
I checked the calendar. Payday was circled. Not long after it, a day off fell on the same stretch.
I should go home for a visit.
Thinking that, I boarded the bus. Off work.
The next day I came in the same as always. I turned on the company system and read the Inform.
"Seokhyeon, hey."
"Senior Yeongseok. Hello."
Senior Yeongseok wasn't far behind me. The two of us entered the line together, took the handover from Seniors Hyeonseong and Hyeongjun, and went over the day's work. Then we sat down at the computers.
Quiet today.
No errored tools on the Inform, no breakdowns either. Nothing that needed inspection. For an engineer, this was the hour the job felt worth doing.
How well did we maintain it, for there to be nothing to do?
In repair work, the best possible day is the day nothing happens. Even so, one thought kept crossing my mind.
The plenum.
That glitter I'd seen yesterday on the scrubber. Would it still be there? The vendor had said there was no problem, but...
I'm worried.
These days I trusted my eyes more than I used to.
I should go down to the plenum.
I stood. Senior Yeongseok tipped his head.
"Where you off to?"
"Ah. I was going to walk the plenum and come back."
"Because of yesterday?"
The scrubber on WN-11. I nodded.
"Yes. I can't shake the feeling."
"Hm. All right. Go have a look. Nothing else going on."
"Yes. Thank you."
"Thank me for what."
The moment he gave permission, I headed straight for the plenum.
Wreeeeee—
The pumps howled. I picked my way through the tangle of pipe on pipe until I reached the scrubber run for WN-11, and then I doubted my own eyes.
...It's bigger.
The glitter had grown. Plainly. Certainly. Bigger than yesterday. This was as good as a hard signal from my eyes.
What in the world...
They had inspected it and said nothing was wrong. So what failure were my eyes trying to show me? I couldn't tell. A specialist had come and still hadn't found it.
Even so, I'll look once.
I dropped down on the spot and kept at the scrubber. Any alarm while it ran? Did it cut out partway? I set a hand on it. Was the temperature high? Nothing. Not a single thing out of place.
All normal.
The alarms. The PCW too.
Wreeeeee—
Somehow two hours had gone by.
I should head up.
Two hours was more than enough time for work to appear. I couldn't leave Senior Yeongseok to handle it alone. I left the plenum.
...This feels wrong.
I couldn't shake it. I came back to the engineers' computers wearing the worry on my face.
"Oh, you're back? Anything special?"
"No. More importantly, was everything all right? I wasn't down there too long, was I..."
"Yeah, it's fine. It's fine. I handled all of it."
Senior Yeongseok waved a hand as if it were nothing.
"...Sorry? You handled all of it?"
"Yeah. A few errors came up. Nothing difficult."
"...I'm sorry."
I'd gone chasing a single suspicion and left my senior to work alone. It sat badly.
"Hm? Nothing to be sorry for."
"...?"
"An engineer digging into whatever doesn't sit right — that's the job. If anything, it's worth praising."
"..."
"And I did my job too. Cleared the errors, same as any engineer. You think you're the only one drawing a paycheck? I get paid too."
I nodded, slowly, and sat down beside him.
He trusted me.
He had looked at me as an engineer and trusted me. A new hire, one month in.
"Thank you."
"Nothing to thank me for."
"...Yes."
When payday came, I owed him a drink at least. And so that day's work closed without further trouble.
About thirty minutes before the Inform. Before we moved to the meeting room.
"...Senior."
"Hm? What. Going down one more time?"
"Yes."
I headed for the plenum a last time. If the light had grown again, I meant to ask the next shift to check it. Senior Yeongseok sent me off as if that were the obvious thing to do.
"Go on."
"Yes."
I went back down, hoping the worry was only mine.
Wreeeeee—
The pumps roared again, loud enough to leave a ringing in the ears. I gritted through it and kept walking, toward the utility gear for WN-11.
Step. Step.
Between pipe and pipe. Between one skid and the next.
Step. Step.
When I drew close to WN-11—
Splash. Splash.
Something gave under my sole.
"...?"
The floor shone, slick and smooth. Light scattered everywhere and dizzied my eyes, and a ripple of water ran out along my footsteps.
"...Water?"
Water. Fuck.
I rushed to WN-11. Sure enough.
Psshhhhk—
Water was blasting out of the WN-11 scrubber piping. The flashing white light was bright enough now to blind.
"Damn it!"
My pulse jumped. That didn't mean I could flail. Calm, first. I picked up the phone we used inside the line and pressed my senior's number.
Ring— ring— ring—
A short tone, and then he answered.
"Yeah. Seokhyeon. What's up?"
"Senior. WN-11 scrubber. A water line blew."
"...I'm coming now. Shut the valve first."
"Yes. Understood."
The valve? Where was the valve? My hands and eyes moved at once. Where? My head spun, tracking the run of pipe, and not far off I saw the valve on the PCW line. I reached and turned it.
Pshhhhh...
The jet that had been climbing fell away.
Wee! Wee! Wee!
The moment the PCW supply dropped, an alarm started screaming that the scrubber temperature was rising. I was genuinely about to lose my mind. There was no time even to curse. I lifted the phone again and called the scrubber vendor.
"Yes, contractor speaking."
"Water is leaking from the WN-11 scrubber piping right now."
"...Sorry?"
"I've already shut the PCW line, so it isn't pouring anymore. The scrubber is throwing a temperature-rise alarm."
"Uh... it should hold for about thirty minutes. We'll be in before then."
"Yes. Thank you."
The second fire was out. Only then did the miserable state of the plenum come into focus.
Trickle, trickle—
What PCW was left ran from the pipe and drew ripples across the puddle on the floor. The plenum was soaked.
"...I'm losing it."
At a major company, what actually mattered? Results? Performance? Of course those mattered. What mattered more was an environment and safety incident. A leak of process liquid? That was an accident, full stop. And it had just blown open in front of my eyes.
My head's spinning.
Spinning, and I had no time to be dizzy. I pulled the safety signs from nearby and ringed the puddle with them, in case someone came close and went down. Signs and a barrier both. I had just finished and settled in to wait when Senior Yeongseok arrived.
"Seokhyeon!"
"Senior. I shut the valve first, and I called the vendor about the scrubber alarm. Just in case, I put up the safety signs and a fence around it."
"Huh? Uh... you did well."
He was just as thrown as I was. The words stumbled.
"The cause is a PCW leak from the WN-11 scrubber's PCW piping. Is there anything else I should be checking?"
"...Huh? No. For now... it looks all right."
"That's a relief."
Was it? I didn't know. I couldn't get my head to work. What now?
"What is all this?"
An unfamiliar voice. I turned. Three people were walking toward us. The two behind were Department Head Jo Heesang and Deputy Department Head Kim Soonhyeop. The man in front was someone I had never seen. Even at a glance he had the look of long years in the job. The badge on his chest read Team Leader Ji Hyeongwoo.
...Team leader?
A managing director. What was a managing director doing down here?
