A Good Day to Quit
A Good Day to Quit
Last night, Saori and I made a promise in advance.
Although I had no choice but to accept her help, we agreed that until I said I truly needed it, she would just watch from the sidelines.
Of course, I knew that Saori's mental manipulation ability was extremely powerful.
If she set her mind to it, she could probably resolve the crisis I was facing in an instant.
But if I solved this matter easily with her help, I would end up hoping for such luck every time I faced a difficult situation in the future.
That wasn't what I wanted, so for now, I wanted to try as far as I could on my own.
After all, experience is important no matter what.
Fortunately, Saori respected my thoughts on this, and the result was the current situation.
Ding-dong!
When the elevator arrived on the 6th floor, Saori and I got off at the same time.
Saori, with her hands in the pockets of a jumper bigger than her body, looked around as if in wonder.
"Is this where seonsaengnim works?"
"Well, something like that."
Maybe because it was rush hour, there were quite a lot of people moving through the corridor.
But no one noticed the presence of Saori, who completely didn't fit in this company space.
"But seriously, no one can see you."
When I said that while slightly bending down, Saori shrugged her shoulders as if it was no big deal.
"Right now, from those people's perspective, I'm like an invisible person. All information about me is being automatically filtered out in their brains."
Currently, Saori was in a kind of Stealth Mode.
It was an application of her mental manipulation ability, and it seemed to manipulate the five senses of those around her, making them completely unable to perceive her existence itself.
"I thought only Aizen could do that."
Indeed, the application methods of hypnotic abilities seem endless.
"Then let's slowly go inside."
When I checked the time on my wristwatch and said that while grabbing the office door handle, Saori stopped looking around with a curious expression and came back to my side.
Dalkak!
When I carefully opened the door, most of the employees were already in the office.
It might be because it was almost 9 o'clock sharp, but today there was an important event at the company, so it seemed everyone came early to watch it.
However, the only problem was that I was the main party of that important event.
"Kim Tae-min-ssi? The digital forensics results are out."
The audit team team leader I saw yesterday was waiting in front of my desk, holding a document that looked like a report and a phone in a zipper bag.
"Let's discuss the details inside."
The audit team team leader said that and gestured toward the meeting room with his eyes.
Since I had already mentally prepared for this before coming to work, I decided to follow his instructions without a word.
When I entered the meeting room with the audit team team leader, Representative Director Lee Hyun-cheol, who usually comes in late, was already sitting at the head seat waiting.
"I'm sorry, Assistant Manager Kim."
As soon as our eyes met, Representative Director Lee Hyun-cheol started laying the groundwork.
At this point, I had a feeling the evidence might have been fabricated, but since it wasn't certain yet, I decided to first listen to what he had to say.
"Even when I received the anonymous tip, I was half-dubious, but I never thought you'd actually be doing such a thing."
"What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about everything you did."
After saying that, Representative Director Lee Hyun-cheol glanced over the document the audit team team leader handed him and tossed it in front of me.
Curious about what absurd charges they had written, I read it, and the contents of the report were truly a sight.
Messenger records I never sent, access logs to anonymous sites I didn't even have an ID for, and even call recordings I never made recently.
I had anticipated that the evidence could be fabricated, but I didn't think it would be to this extent.
"So you're saying all of this came from my phone?"
"That is correct."
When I asked with a dumbfounded expression, the audit team team leader lied without even wetting his lips.
At this point, I was honestly just in awe.
He told me yesterday when we parted that I didn't need to worry, but he was hiding a knife behind his back.
"Representative Director-nim, do you really want to go to court with me?"
Since the audit team team leader was obviously just following orders from above, I asked Representative Director Lee Hyun-cheol, who must have ordered all of this. He shrugged and said,
"If you want to file a lawsuit, go ahead, I don't mind. But do you know how long it takes for a lawsuit to conclude, Assistant Manager Kim? It takes time, you'll blow a huge amount on lawyer fees, and during that time, you'll be running in and out of court, unable to get a job, just burning through your savings. But if you still want to do it, that's fine. I've got the company's legal team to handle it anyway."
"...Are you threatening me now?"
"How could I do such a thing in this day and age? I'm just saying this because I'm worried about your bright future, Assistant Manager Kim. Thirty-one is still a good age to make a fresh start, isn't it?"
Representative Director Lee Hyun-cheol said that with a sly, snake-like smile.
But it was obvious to anyone that from my position, there was no way out.
Right now, he was telling me this:
'What are you going to do if all that evidence is fake? If you sue the company, it's you who will suffer, not me.'
In this situation, I had two choices.
Either admit to this fake evidence and get fired quietly, or proceed with a lawsuit using however much time and money to vent my immediate grievance.
Of course, as an ordinary office worker, the probability of winning a lawsuit against the company was practically zero, so from his perspective, it didn't matter which choice I made.
Therefore, I asked directly.
"What do you want?"
Thinking we were finally on the same page, Representative Director Lee Hyun-cheol adjusted his posture and said,
"I don't particularly want anything; I just wish Assistant Manager Kim would disappear from in front of my eyes."
"Are you saying that my very existence is an eyesore?"
"Yes. You know well."
Finally revealing his true, unadorned intentions, Representative Director Lee Hyun-cheol.
I had known for a while that he saw me as a thorn in his side, but honestly, I didn't know he hated me this much.
"...Even if you didn't use such a complicated method, you could have fired me with a recommendation for resignation or some other way, couldn't you?"
Then Representative Director Lee Hyun-cheol chuckled and said,
"Then I wouldn't be able to harass you, Assistant Manager Kim."
"......."
It was a reason I had never even considered.
Had I ever encountered such pure human malice in my life?
When I was momentarily speechless and couldn't say anything, he apparently thought he had completely won, and he said with a sickening grin,
"More than that, haven't you ever thought it was strange? How I knew that you had phone calls with your former colleagues."
Now that I thought about it, he was right.
Unlike the fake evidence, my call history was information he couldn't have known unless he had gone through my phone.
But the only person around me who could do that...
"...No way."
"Hahaha! You finally caught on?"
Representative Director Lee Hyun-cheol burst into laughter as if my stiff expression amused him.
"The employee Lee Seok-jin, whom Assistant Manager Kim taught for two years, was a spy I planted!"
The moment I heard that, the conversations I had with that subordinate over the past few days flashed through my mind like a lantern slide.
'But Assistant Manager-nim, that snipe post on the company messenger, is that real?'
'...Should I try buttering up the Representative Director-nim? Ask him to let you go nicely.'
'I say that because I'm frustrated. Frustrated. Even so, it seems like my only senior is taking a hard path because of unnecessary pride.'
So this is what it feels like to have the axe you trusted cut your foot.
To be honest, this was more shocking than anything Representative Director Lee Hyun-cheol had said so far.
After all the original development team members quit due to an unsavory incident, the only person I trusted in the department was that subordinate, Seokjin.
But that guy was actually a plant that Representative Director Lee Hyun-cheol had placed to monitor me?
Now that I knew the whole truth, I trembled with a sense of betrayal.
'What did I do wrong after all?'
It's just a company I joined because I liked games.
I gave it my all, and I had a certain pride in the game I made.
But the person in charge of managing all of this had no interest in the game's success.
He just treated the company like his playground, focused on harassing people for reasons that displeased him.
Normally, I would have held back this seething anger.
If I wasn't quitting the company tomorrow, I had no choice but to endure even if the boss's abuse was dirty and mean — that's reality.
But now, it was different.
I had already come to work prepared to be fired since morning, so I had nothing to fear anymore.
So, I put into action what I had only imagined until now, aimed at Representative Director Lee Hyun-cheol, who was making an arrogant face in front of me as if he had already won.
'Hey, you fucking bastard. Are you even human, acting like that?'