The Last Piece
The guild that always comes up when people talk about the most glamorous guild in the world is undoubtedly the Mets Guild.
Economics, finance, culture, fashion — you name it. Based in New York, the city called the capital of the world beyond just America, this guild boasts an endless history that began alongside the founding of the Bureau. It’s a true big-market guild that has sucked up New York’s endless capital from the moment it was born.
Wall Street, the heart of finance, sits right next door. Broadway is practically within arm’s reach. And then there’s Mets Square Garden, the arena that monopolizes all of New York’s attention and splendor.
City. Environment. Capital. Marketability.
In every single aspect, this guild is perfect.
Now, if they could just fulfill one last condition, the Mets Guild would become the most perfect guild in the world, not just America.
The last piece that countless Mets fans have wished for every year.
Yet even after decades, they haven’t even reached the threshold. That “thing” had become something of a joke.
On her way to work, Selena found herself humming that song again today.
“We’ve got everything. We just need results. Just results…”
Surprisingly, it was a real song.
It was called Factory of Sadness. It had been created by New York citizens the first time they tried to fire the Mets’ owner.
True to the city of culture, famous singers from New York eventually got together and released it as a proper album. The fact that every single one of those singers was a legend made it even more delicious.
“…The suits from Wall Street, taxi drivers, housewives, drug dealers, the middle class of this city all chipped in money. Just to curse you out — F**k, S**k…”
As you can see, more than half the lyrics were filled with F-words and S-words.
How is it possible for a big-market guild representing America to put up such miserable results for so long? Shouldn’t something have exploded by pure chance by now? Is this even mathematically possible?
And yet ticket prices are still the highest in the world?
Are you kidding? Where’s your conscience? Is it in that fat belly of yours?
If they had performed even half as well as those ticket prices, it wouldn’t feel this shitty. Fans pay the money and still get their moods ruined every single time. Think about the fans, you F**K S**s.
“Screw this. I’m switching to the Yankees. I’m escaping this goddamn sadness…”
Of course, that explosive passion eventually cooled off a bit once the Yankees Guild was established in the same city.
Unlike the Mets, they were a winning team that contended for the championship every year.
But the reason this song could become the anthem of Mets fans was the sincerity packed into its very last line.
“…See you on the weekend.”
They cheer even though they know it won’t work.
They still buy tickets even though they know it’ll be a mess.
The sincerity of fans who can’t let go of their affection no matter how much they curse and criticize.
That was why Selena, as a long-time Mets fan, sang the song with genuine heart every single morning.
“Selie, that shit song again? Here’s your coffee.”
“Thanks, Charlie. What can I do? I’m a fan of that dumpster fire.”
A café a few blocks away from Mets Square Garden.
It was the quietest among the cafés that opened at dawn, and Selena’s regular spot. The hand-drip coffee that the pot-bellied Charlie served was truly an art form.
“Why is this coffee so good? The aroma is especially deep today.”
“Stop changing the subject. What does being a fan have to do with anything? The problem is that you’re part of that dumpster fire.”
“Ugh… Didn’t I tell you I don’t like persistent men? Do you really have to dig into my heart like that?”
“Heh heh. I told you before. You should’ve stopped at being a fan. Weren’t you some kind of genius at Stanford?”
“I did pretty well, yeah.”
“And that ‘pretty well’ brought you here? You’re joking, right?”
“…What else? I came here for this amazing coffee. It really is especially good today.”
“Unbelievable.”
Charlie watched the black otter blowing on her coffee and pulled out a cigarette.
Harlem. Black skin. A mother who was a junkie, a father who either ran away or was in prison.
In a New York slum where the average path for men was gangster and for women was stripper, cases of success through studying were extremely rare.
Yet Selena had achieved that difficult feat. She was practically a miracle child. As a senior from the same slums, Charlie found it truly heartbreaking that this girl was tied down to that “dogshit” Mets Guild.
Especially since the trouble the Mets were going through right now was a serious issue for Black people like Selena and Charlie.
Because both the general manager and the owner were a pair of filthy racists!
“Don’t look at me with such pitying eyes. Things are actually going pretty well these days. Those two bastards are gone, and we’re still cleaning house.”
“Who said anything?”
“Just wait and see, Charlie. You saw us beat the Lions, right? This year is different.”
“Bullshit. You’ve been saying ‘this year is different’ for years now. And you still haven’t finished cleaning up the front office, have you? That’s why you’re here drinking coffee at dawn, isn’t it? Because it’s a mess over there.”
“…I really don’t like persistent men, you know.”
Charlie was right.
Separate from the raid team finally producing some results, the current atmosphere inside the Mets Guild was pure post-apocalypse. It had long since become a wasteland with no dreams or hopes left.
The more she thought about it, the more depressed she felt.
Ah, I don’t want to go…
At that moment, Selena lightly slapped her own cheeks.
No! Positive thoughts only!
If you stare at misfortune, misfortune stares back at you! Always thinking positively was one of Selena’s strengths.
“Going?”
“I have to.”
“Have a good one. Off to the dumpster fire.”
“Let’s go. To the dumpster fire!!”
Selena thrust her fist forward energetically and headed for the guild.
But despite that energetic shout, the trials waiting for her were not easy.
“Selena, teach the intern a bit.”
“Intern? Suddenly an intern? At a time like this?”
“I don’t know either. He just showed up.”
“…James, just asking — you do know I’m on the analysis team, right?”
“And you’re currently handling equipment team duties.”
“You can’t forget that I was doing business team work just a moment ago.”
“Perfect. Now if you handle HR duties too, you’ll be complete.”
Bullshit…
This really was a dumpster fire.
Bullshit
* * *
“…That’s why my expression was so bad today.”
“I-it’s fine.”
“No, I’m sorry. When you think about it, Seen came here to help us. Seen? Shin? Is that how you pronounce it?”
“Y-yes!”
Selena looked at the intern trembling pitifully in front of her.
An Asian man. His face looked young, as expected of an East Asian. His skin was nice too.
His fashion, however, was a hard no.
Permed hair, a checkered button-up shirt, horn-rimmed glasses with orange lenses, and a slouched posture on top of it all.
It had been a while since she’d seen this style. The nerds who used to clump together back in school always looked exactly like this. The way he was fidgeting and avoiding eye contact really fit the type.
Sigh…
This was going to be a long haul.
Selena’s face instantly filled with fatigue, but she quickly wiped it away with a forced smile.
“As you can see, the guild is in a bit of a mess right now with all sorts of things going on. So it’s hard for anyone to properly teach anyone else. That’s why, Shin, you’ll be coming around with me.”
“Y-yes.”
“Alright, stand up. I’ll buy you a coffee and give you a guild introduction while showing you what each team does. By the way, are there a lot of East Asians named Shin? The representative of that hot Korean guild right now is also named Shin.”
“I-is that so?”
And so Selena took Lee Shin around the guild.
The business team that handled various side businesses related to the guild.
The equipment team that bought and sold gear for the raid team.
The analysis team that discussed match strategies.
Besides that, Selena continued introducing various parts of the guild to Shin. Of course she’d have to make up for the lost time with overtime later, but anyway, that was how his first day with her passed.
And then the next morning at dawn.
Selena ran into Shin in a completely unexpected place.
“Huh? Shin?”
“Ah, s-senior.”
“I told you not to call me senior, call me Selie. Anyway, what are you doing here at this hour? It’s not time to come in yet.”
“Ah… well, that is…”
“Selie, why are you bothering my new friend?”
“Charlie?”
There was Charlie with his tattoo-covered arm draped around the new intern’s shoulder. His biceps were almost the same size as the kid’s head. Was this some new form of harassment…? The intern was either scared stiff or had lost his mind, because he was grinning like an idiot while caught in that arm.
Right. This was Selena’s regular café.
When she asked for an explanation again, Charlie spoke instead of the intern once more.
“He said he’s an intern at that dumpster fire guild and started asking me about it. So I told him who I am. The dumpster fire disposal team. The dumpster fire janitor. Charlie. I taught him all the secret, dirty little corners of that dumpster fire.”
“Secret?”
“Yeah. Secretly and in the wet places too.”
“Ha… I’m going to lose my mind, seriously.”
It seemed the intern who was curious about the guild had gone out on his own feet to gather information.
From the perspective of someone who had to teach him, the fact that he was moving on his own like this was actually admirable. People said Asians were diligent and smart, and it seemed they weren’t wrong.
But still… everything was fine except for one thing.
Why did it have to be Charlie’s café out of all the cafés in the world!
Charlie was indeed an expert on the Mets Guild.
It had been thirty years since he left the gang and opened this café with a view of Mets Square Garden. How many rumors and stories must he have heard in that time?
He was practically a living piece of history.
The only problem was that the person telling that history was Charlie.
There was no way Charlie — who loved the Mets Guild the most while simultaneously hating it the most — would have said anything normal to Shin, right?
The proof was in every sentence he spoke now, overflowing with F-words and S-words and countless mentions of “dumpster fire.”
Ugh. The strawberry cereal she ate this morning felt like it was about to come back up.
“Ha… Shin, come over here. You don’t need to listen to Charlie.”
“Kekeke, see? Just like I said. The only one who loves that dumpster fire is our little black otter here.”
“Hurry up and come. Quickly.”
“Take your coffee!!”
“Eat this instead!”
Selena raised her middle finger.
Charlie burst into loud laughter.
Shin laughed too.
In many ways, it was quite a unique morning.
But surprisingly, that wasn’t the only unique thing.
“H-here’s what you asked for.”
“I-I’ve gathered the materials.”
“H-here are the copied documents, and the approval documents are here.”
…Why is our intern so good at his job?
It was only his second day, yet he was handling everything smoothly. Business team work, equipment team work, even HR documents — he did it all without a hitch.
What was even more shocking was how he performed with the analysis team, Selena’s original department.
“The ‘roaming strategy’ of the Mir Guild is based on thorough preparation. It starts with the bottom laner’s survival, then mid lane safety and top lane pressure. Only when all of that is ready does the supporter’s roaming truly shine.”
“…”
“D-did I overstep my bounds?”
“No, it’s valid. Equipment should be focused on the carry. It’s quite convincing.”
Besides that, he handled many of the guild’s scattered problems with ease.
To the point where he was faster than regular employees. No — faster than most veterans.
There really were people who could learn ten things from being taught one. Even Selena, who had once been called a genius herself, was left speechless at how brilliantly Shin shone.
However, Shin’s extraordinary talent wasn’t entirely a good thing.
Word spread so quickly that everyone found out he was good at his job and started swarming him like bees, dumping work on him.
Actually, “dumping” was more accurate than “assigning.” The implicit disregard was so blatant it was almost offensive.
Especially the scouting team leader James. He was going way too far.
“James, why are you giving this to an intern? This is your department’s job.”
“Hey, cut me some slack, Selena. I’ve got too much on my plate.”
“No matter how busy you are, how does it make sense to tell an intern to organize important materials like scouting reports?!”
“If we’re going there, you showed analysis team data to an intern too.”
“Are you seriously comparing those two things?”
“What’s the difference?”
“James, you—!”
Selena’s face burned with embarrassment.
A chaotic atmosphere. No passion, no responsibility. It made you wonder if anyone here even cared about the guild.
And in the middle of it all, Shin’s attitude only made her feel more frustrated.
“I-it’s fine, senior.”
“I told you to call me Selie. And why are you just taking it like an idiot?”
“A-actually, I like it. I get to learn about the entire guild faster this way.”
“Ha… you idiot.”
Late into the night, she watched Shin passionately analyzing and reviewing not only Mets Guild matches but even the Mir Guild’s matches across the sea in the audiovisual room. Selena felt ashamed of herself.
She had been passionate when she first came here too.
She had burned day and night with the determination to bring this pathetic team to a championship.
…Of course, that fire hadn’t lasted very long.
That was why it came to mind even more strongly.
Even as an intern, he was working with such passion and devotion. What was she doing right now?
Just as she had been moved by Shin’s diligence, if she had smiled more brightly and spread that passion around, wouldn’t a second and third Selena have appeared?
Let’s reflect on this.
Being able to like something without responsibility was a privilege reserved only for fans.
Selena was not a fan. She was a stakeholder and a member of the guild. She needed to show responsibility and devotion. She had been using the chaotic atmosphere as an excuse to turn a blind eye. That was why she could laugh and joke about it being a “dumpster fire” with Charlie.
From now on, I’ll change.
She wouldn’t call it a dumpster fire in front of Charlie anymore.
She would try to smile at James even when he dumped work on her.
The harder it got, the more passionate she would become.
She would sacrifice and devote herself first so she could spread this passion to others.
So that the Mets Guild I love can become even better.
Let’s go. Let’s do this.
Selena clenched her fist tightly, put on her sleep mask, and fell asleep.
Without knowing what would happen to her the next day.
* * *
The next day, in the Mets Guild office.
What the hell is going on?
Selena had a giant question mark floating above her head.
Was it because their passionate nerd intern Shin had shown up in a completely different outfit? Or because he was no longer stuttering and was now pointing fingers at the employees?
“You, you, you. And especially you.”
And finally, to James — the one she had decided to treat nicely starting today — he emphasized “especially” and said with an innocent smile:
“Thank you for your hard work. Pack your things and get out.”
“??”
“??”
“What? What did you say?”
“Ha, this is exactly why I hate idiots with tiny brains.”
Don’t you get it?
Pointing at the dumbstruck James, Lee Shin made his declaration.
With an overwhelming aura he had never shown before.
“You’re fired.”
Get lost.