Chapter 85

Maybe it was sudden, but I wanted to explain Sorasum's office building.

The first floor was the lobby. ...There wasn't much to explain about it. Because there was nothing there.

The ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠basement floor we mainly used had one practice room, and opposite it were two vocal rooms that had appeared after Jeong Sowol joined the company.

Then the second floor.

There was one office where the President and Manager were cozily staying, and two empty offices.

This was the reason I'd suddenly ended up describing the company.

'Why is there still no employee?'

Ever since the company got busy, both the President and the Manager had been looking more and more haggard each time I ran into them.

Were they seriously planning to handle everything from A to Z themselves just to save on personnel costs?

Their own health... well, that was honestly a secondary concern, so for the sake of our stable debut, I really hoped they would reconsider.

I closed the door to the empty office, leaving behind a sigh.

Then I went back down to the basement where the practice room was.

Oh, right.

A new drinks fridge had appeared in front of the practice room too.

'Thanks, seriously.'

Since I was already here, I grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge.

I heard the door open behind me.

"Where did you go."

"Up to the office for a bit."

It was Baek Gyeonwoo.

To quickly explain Baek Gyeonwoo's current situation, his joining Sorasum was still treated as a rumor among fans.

Why hadn't it been officially announced?

Well... because YOUTH had attached a condition that it must not be revealed until after Giddeun's next album activities were over.

'That was reasonable.'

This was the time Giddeun was getting the most attention since their debut. More about whether Baek Gyeonwoo was joining than about the group itself.

Their goal was probably to keep riding that aggro all the way to their comeback.

Of course, Baek Gyeonwoo didn't commute by teleportation, so the sasaengs scattered everywhere would already know that Baek Gyeonwoo had joined Sorasum.

Rumors of Baek Gyeonwoo joining Sorasum had been going around by word of mouth, but those weren't just rumors—they were definitely from sasaengs.

The fans were probably frustrated.......

Still, getting a clean termination with just that one condition attached was a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠pretty good deal.

"What do you go to the office for. There's no one there anyway."

That's exactly why I went. Because I was curious why there was still no one there.

Baek Gyeonwoo grabbed a non-zero-sugar drink from the fridge that was full of zero-sugar drinks and said,

"I also saw your company info post when I filmed the program."

"Yeah."

"It said the number of employees was two. Where's the other one?"

"Isn't it the President and the Manager?"

"Since it says employee, the President should be excluded."

"......."

Baek Gyeonwoo, seeing my expression, drew a clean conclusion.

"You don't know, I see."

And I immediately went to find Kim Sanho inside the practice room.

I poked Kim Sanho, who had just finished practice and was sprawled out, and his answer came out slowly.

"That's right. There's one more person."

"......Who?"

"Ah, um, I haven't met them either."

Kim Sanho furrowed his brow and dredged up the memory.

"I think I heard they work somewhere else, not here....... Maybe they're working from home?"

No matter how much it was remote work, did it make sense for someone to not show up at the company this much?

It wasn't me being picky; I was genuinely curious. It had been half a year since I joined the company, and that person had been mentioned less often than a ghost.

Half curiosity about what kind of person they were, and half a sense that I should at least know the name of an employee who was working for us, I went to find the President.

"Ah, that kid."

The President answered calmly.

Given the word 'kid,' I figured this was another acquaintance of theirs.

As if to confirm my speculation, the Manager added,

"Yeah, tell Hee-seung to come in now. I'm dying of busyness!"

As he said, the two of them had been extremely busy lately. It had been so long since I'd seen them together in the office.

The President picked up his phone. He seemed to be searching for the contact of that employee named Hee-seung.

As he did, he explained.

"That kid had a bit of burnout, so I told her to rest."

"Ah, so now......."

"If she's rested for over six months, she has to come even if she's not okay."

After that, the President had a short call with someone, then put down his phone and said,

"She'll come tomorrow."

"Ah, okay."

And then it was the next day.

As it happened, Baek Gyeonwoo and I, who were on our way to work together, ran into the Manager at the cafe behind the company, and got dragged straight to the office.

"......Ah, hello."

For the first time in days, a new person had been added.

She was a woman... with straight-across bangs.

I'd had a gut feeling from yesterday's conversation that this person was that employee, so I was able to greet her without panicking.

"Oh, hi!"

"Yes, hello."

The new....... No, the employee I was seeing for the first time seemed to have a cheerful personality.

She was looking at us with one arm draped over the chair, in a somewhat slouched posture, and a creaking sound came as the chair swiveled left and right.

'.......'

Now, what were we supposed to talk about?

My deliberation wasn't long. She was the one who broke the ice first.

"Ah, you're handsome~ It wasn't for nothing that you snapped the team leader out of burnout. If you brought in trainees like this, of course you'd have to work hard."

"......Team leader?"

"Hm, ah, I guess it's President now?"

At the employee's words, the President, who had his eyes glued to the monitor, retorted as if exhausted.

"I haven't been a team leader for ten years, how long are you going to keep calling me that."

"Aww, but that was when I liked things the most."

They seemed pretty close?

After debating whether to ask or not, I asked.

"What kind of work did you meet through ten years ago?"

At my words, the employee suddenly froze.

Then she looked at the President with a horrified expression.

"Whoa, Team Leader, you didn't even tell them that?"

"How long are you going to call me team leader."

"Ah, yes, President. President! You have to reveal your identity to the kids. This could practically be fraud. May I tell them?"

The President didn't answer.

Whether she took that as affirmation or just ignored it, the employee turned to us with an excited face.

"You know Hexagram?"

"Hexa......."

"She was the development director of <SPACE G:>, which brought Hexagram to where it is now. Team Leader—ah, I meant the President—and I first met on that project. It was my first project ever, so there's a deep connection in many ways."

"......."

"Why aren't you surprised?"

What exactly was Hexagram?

"Space... hmm."

As I floundered, unable to find a response, Baek Gyeonwoo whispered to me.

"It's a game company. A triple-A one."

"What's triple-A?"

"Age, Eotree, At. The big three game companies."

So there were things like the big four agencies in the gaming world too.

'Games.......'

When he said games, I vaguely remembered hearing of <SPACE G:>.

I didn't know what kind of game it was, only that it was a game.

'Wait, no way.'

Was the system mainly using game terms like Save Point also related to the President?

No way, did the President develop it? The system?

......With that kind of ability, why were they making an idol?

"Ahem."

The President's dry cough cut off my delusions.

"The kid who jumped ship without a backward glance the moment an offer came from At talks pretty big."

"Hey, back then there wasn't even a name like Hexagram. And you were the one who told me to definitely go at the time, Team Leader!"

Listening to their conversation, something made me curious.

"At...... Didn't you say it's one of the big three game companies?"

"Huh? Yeah, that's right. These days they're barely surviving by milking the old guys' money since they have no hits, but......."

"Then why... how did you end up at Sorasum?"

As for the President, you could say he started his own company, so that's one thing.

But for an employee... to kick a major corporation to the curb and join a tiny company like this?

Outside the heartwarming human drama genre, in the usual genres, if this happened, wasn't it usually a spy sent by the major corporation?

"Ahh."

The employee rolled a pen on the desk and said, somewhat bitterly.

"The project I'd been working on got scrapped, so I got hit with a massive reality check."

The first one to react to those words wasn't me, but the President.

"That was a shame."

"Right! Hey, Cha-gyeom....... Can I call you Cha-gyeom? Cha-gyeom, listen. We were already a small team, okay? But they kept siphoning off our manpower to make an open world, kept cutting support, and the kids were getting sick one by one, and then it got scrapped."

"Aren't open worlds dying out these days?"

"What do the higher-ups know. They were just following trends."

I nodded and listened attentively.

'I have absolutely no idea what any of that means.'

I just decided to interpret it in my own way, as someone who got cut from the debut team and quit.......

Looking at the clock, it was ten minutes until our start time. It was when the members would be trickling into the practice room.

I grabbed Baek Gyeonwoo's arm and said,

"We'll be going then. The, um......."

So what was this person's job?

I'd gotten so distracted by other stories that I'd missed the most important question.

"......What should we call you?"

The employee's eyes went round at my roundabout question.

Then she craned her neck back and looked at the President.

"That's right. Team Leader, what am I?"

"What do you want to do?"

"Wow, seriously a 'good company' kind of statement......."

The employee, having straightened her neck back, deliberated for a moment, then gave a big nod as if she'd made up her mind.

"Call me Director. Because I came here for you guys in that role."

.......

Didn't she just decide that right now?

"It might seem a little unreliable....... Hm, you might be a bit taken aback, but I've got skills. I was from that art team—you know, the one from 'The art team, get out.'"

"You were also on the BM team, from 'Does the BM team have no parents?'"

"Team Leader! You're really saying anything in front of the kids!"

I looked at Baek Gyeonwoo.

'What is she talking about?'

Baek Gyeonwoo, seeming unable to grasp this either, shook his head from side to side.

In the meantime, the Director—since she told us to call her that—was opening a laptop that looked like she'd brought it from home.

"This won't do. I'll have to show you. My skills."

And she shoved the screen in front of us.

"Look, look, this is that project that got scrapped. I was in charge of almost all the background design here. No, you could basically say I did all of it."

"......."

"How is it? It's an urban-themed side-scrolling RPG. Those in the know will get it, but in side view, this background is a really, really crucial point! And I made all of this. Let me know if you need wallpapers! I'll send you the ultra high-res originals. And as for this game, instead of boldly abandoning the gacha, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠they did limited sales at full price, and once the limited run was over, they would do a gacha......."

"Then you didn't remove the gacha at all. And what are you doing brainstorming the BM before you've even made the game."

"Designing that part is the most fun, though?"

Using the Director's stream of words as background music, I focused and flipped through the slides.

'It's pretty cool.'

A ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠night street filled with neon signs. Traffic lights, a zelkova tree, and a supermarket next to it. Half-peeled-off road paint markings on the asphalt, and so on.

By reducing the sense of distance commonly felt in typical fantasy genres, but only extracting the cool scenes from reality, it didn't feel completely real either.

'If we do this well, couldn't we use it as our concept?'

And then, something caught my eye.

"Anyway, so complete collection....... Ah, that's the dungeon entrance."

"A dungeon?"

Baek Gyeonwoo added a footnote.

"A place where monsters appear."

"Huh, you don't know dungeons? It's the place you loop around to farm for loot!"

No matter how little I knew about games, I knew what a dungeon was.

Even though I didn't understand a single word of the additional sentence the Director just added.

But the dungeon I had in mind was... something like an underground prison.

"......."

"How is it? Doesn't it make you want to play?"

"Yeah, it's nice."

The dungeon in the image the Director showed was simply a deserted alleyway shrouded in fog, with a signpost stuck in the ground.

And seeing that, what came to my mind was Mary's ribbon.

An oble that was as comprehensive as the ribbon, could be utilized in multiple concepts, and was distinct enough to become a symbol.......

"It's seriously nice?"