A Good Day to Resign
The night before, Saori and I had made a promise ahead of time. Even though I had no choice but to accept her help, she was just supposed to watch from the sidelines until I said I really needed it. Of course, I knew her mental manipulation powers were incredibly strong. If she wanted to, she could resolve the crisis I was in right now in an instant. But if I solved this mess with her help so easily, I'd end up hoping for the same kind of luck every time something tough came up in the future. That wasn't what I wanted, so I decided to handle as much as I could on my own first. Experience matters in everything, after all. Luckily, Saori respected my thinking, and that led to the situation we were in now.
Ding-dong! When the elevator arrived at the sixth floor, Saori and I stepped out at the same time. She had her hands stuffed in the pockets of a jacket bigger than her body, looking around in wonder.
"This is where you work, Sensei?"
"Yeah, pretty much."
Since it was rush hour, there were quite a few people coming and going in the hallway. But not a single one noticed Saori's presence, which stuck out like a sore thumb in this company space.
"But seriously, no one can see you at all."
I leaned down a bit as I said that, and Saori just shrugged like it was no big deal.
"Right now, I'm basically invisible to them. All info about me is automatically filtered out of their brains."
Saori was currently in a sort of stealth mode. It was an application of her mental manipulation ability—she was messing with people's five senses so they couldn't perceive her existence at all.
I thought only Eisen could pull off something like that.
Her hypnosis powers really had endless applications.
"Alright, let's head in."
I checked the time on my watch and grabbed the office door handle. Saori stopped gawking around curiously and came back to my side.
Click!
I carefully opened the door, and the office was already mostly full of employees who'd arrived. It was almost exactly 9 a.m., but it seemed like everyone had come early today because of some big company event they wanted to watch. The problem was, I was the star of that event.
"Mr. Kim Taemin? The digital forensics results are in."
The audit team manager I'd seen yesterday was waiting at my desk, holding what looked like a report and a ziplock bag with a phone inside.
"We'll talk details inside."
He nodded toward the meeting room as he spoke. Since I'd already braced myself for this before coming in, I followed his lead without a word.
As I entered the meeting room with the audit team manager, Lee Hyuncheol—the co-CEO who usually showed up late—was already seated at the head of the table, waiting.
"What a shame, Deputy Kim."
The moment our eyes met, he went straight for the kill. I already had a feeling the evidence was fabricated at this point, but since nothing was confirmed, I decided to hear him out first.
"I was half-doubting when the anonymous tip came in, but I never imagined you'd actually done it."
"What are you talking about?"
"Everything you've done. All of it."
Lee Hyuncheol took the documents from the audit team manager, skimmed them, and tossed them in front of me. Curious what ridiculous charges they'd cooked up, I read them—and holy shit, the report was a joke. Messenger logs I'd never written, access records from anonymous sites I'd never even had an ID for, call recordings from calls I hadn't made recently. I'd expected some tampering, but not on this level.
"So you're saying all this came from my phone?"
"That's right."
The audit team manager lied without batting an eye when I asked in disbelief. At this point, it was almost impressive.
He'd told me yesterday not to worry, that it'd be fine—and now here he was, ready to stab me in the back.
"CEO, do you really want to drag this to court with me?"
The manager was just following orders, obviously, so I directed the question at Lee Hyuncheol, the one pulling the strings. He shrugged.
"Go ahead if you want. But do you know how long a lawsuit takes, Deputy Kim? You'll waste time, blow a fortune on lawyer fees, and spend all that while bouncing between court dates, unable to get a new job and burning through your savings. If you still wanna do it, be my guest. Our legal team will handle it anyway."
"...Are you threatening me right now?"
"Threaten you? In this day and age? I'm just worried about your bright future. Thirty-one's a great age for a fresh start, isn't it?"
He flashed a weaselly smile. From my position, it was clear there was no escape. What he was really saying was: 'What if that evidence is all fake? If you sue for wrongful termination, the one who suffers is you, not me.'
In this situation, I had two choices: Admit the fake evidence and get fired quietly, or fight the injustice in court no matter the time and money. Of course, as an average employee suing a company, my odds of winning were basically zero. So whichever I picked, he didn't care.
That's why I cut straight to it.
"What do you want?"
Finally getting somewhere, he leaned back and said,
"Nothing much. I just want you gone from my sight, Deputy Kim."
"My existence bothers you that much?"
"Yes. You get it."
Lee Hyuncheol finally showed his true colors without pretense. I'd known he saw me as a thorn in his side, but I hadn't realized he hated me this much.
"...You could've just done recommended resignation or something simpler to cut me loose."
He smirked.
"Then I couldn't make you suffer."
"......"
It was a reason I'd never even imagined. Had I ever faced such pure human malice head-on in my life? I was so stunned I couldn't speak, and assuming total victory, he grinned disgustingly.
"Ever wonder how I knew about those calls with your old colleagues?"
Come to think of it, yeah. Unlike the fake evidence, my actual call logs—he couldn't know about those without checking my phone himself. But someone around me who could...
"...No way."
"Hahaha! Finally figured it out?"
He burst out laughing at my frozen expression, clearly delighted.
"That Lee Seokjin you mentored for two years? He was my plant!"
Hearing that, the conversations I'd had with the junior over the past few days flashed through my mind like a montage.
'But sir, that anonymous post on the company messenger—is that for real?'
'...Should I go kiss ass to the CEO? Beg him to let me go nicely?'
'I'm frustrated, that's why. Frustrated. You're my only senior, and it sucks seeing you take the hard road over stupid pride.'
Chopped foot by the axe you trusted—is this what that feels like? Honestly, this hit harder than anything Lee Hyuncheol had thrown at me so far. After the whole dev team quit over shady shit, Seokjin was the only one I trusted in the department. And he'd been planted to spy on me?
Now that I knew, the betrayal shook me to my core.
What the hell did I do wrong?
I just joined this company because I loved games. I gave it my all, and I was proud of what I made. But the guy in charge couldn't care less about the games' success. He treated the company like his playground, obsessed with tormenting people who rubbed him the wrong way.
Normally, I'd swallow the boiling rage. If I wanted to keep the job tomorrow, I'd grit my teeth through the boss's bullshit—that's reality. But not today.
I'd come to work this morning fully prepared to get fired. Nothing scared me anymore.
So I finally did what I'd only imagined before—directed at Lee Hyuncheol, who sat there with that punchable smug face, acting like he'd won.
"Hey, you fucking bastard. You call yourself human after that?"