Chapter: 02
[This happened when I was working as a cleaner for the major corporation H Group.
I don’t know when I might be eliminated if I use the full name, so I’ll use an abbreviation.
Please understand.]
I discovered this post on a community site that was on the verge of shutting down because there were hardly any people left.
The post had been written about five years ago.
[After graduating from high school, I was wondering what to do when I heard H Group was hiring cleaners, so I applied.
There were no restrictions on age or education, and it felt like they just hired everyone.
It was about six months ago that I entered the ㅇㄱㅅ in P City.
I was offered an unbelievably large amount of money for a cleaning job and went there.
But when I actually got there, there were some seriously terrifying monsters inside.]
“Monsters?”
What could that mean?
[There really is nothing but monsters there.
Honestly, even the employees inside don’t seem human to me.
Those monster bastards crush people like tofu.
Even if a whole group of people armed with guns and knives attacked them, they wouldn’t even leave a scrap of flesh behind.
I still remember the first day I saw a human corpse. Fuck.
Do you know what’s the scariest thing?
No matter how many people die here, nobody outside knows about it.
They just disappear without a sound or trace.]
“H Group, P City, research institute……”
[I’m pretty sure nobody will believe what I’m writing, but this is real.
So don’t ever come here.
If you come here, you’re one hundred percent going to die.
I’m probably going to die soon, too.
I want to quit, but I can’t even resign.]
In fact, there were so many major corporations in our country with an H in their name that they couldn’t even be counted on both hands.
So there was no way to know whether this H referred to Hwain Group.
The post also strongly felt like something written as a prank by some kid.
It seemed so much like a joke that even the comments were full of things like:
[LOL, stop showing how you’ve never worked for a major corporation.]
[If you’re going to write a novel, at least try to write it properly. What the hell is this?]
[Idiot LOL]
Those were the kinds of abusive comments it had received.
There was absolutely no credibility to the post.
And yet, perhaps because the writer was a cleaner like me, my eyes lingered on it strangely long.
Or perhaps it was because of the word “monster” that the writer had used.
“What am I doing reading some weird post like this? I should just go to sleep.”
The fact that I was seriously reading such a nonsensical post with a strange subject probably meant that I was unusually excited about starting at a new workplace after such a long time, despite being well past the age to get excited like this.
I cleared the pointless thoughts from my head, tossed my smartphone onto the corner of the bed, and fell asleep.
I spent the precious weekend taking care of various things that needed to be done before starting work, and before I knew it, it had passed in the blink of an eye.
It was Monday.
When I arrived at the building lobby while pulling my suitcase with one hand, I saw quite a few people holding suitcases just like me.
There were some people around my age and even some considerably older adults, but most of them were young-looking people who had just entered the workforce.
Seeing them standing stiffly in their brand-new suits that hadn’t been broken in yet, I couldn’t help but smile at their freshness.
‘I wonder if I was like that once.’
There was still plenty of time before the designated meeting time, so the new employees around the same age as one another began gathering in small groups and chatting.
I took my eyes off the new employees and looked around the spacious lobby.
Employees wearing ID cards around their necks were coming and going.
Perhaps because the company was so large, everyone looked incredibly sophisticated.
As I was absentmindedly watching them, I suddenly felt as though something in the corner of my vision was bothering me.
‘Huh?’
Why was this happening all of a sudden?
I rubbed my eyes at the strange sensation and looked toward the edge of my vision.
Amid the people hurrying about, something completely out of place was standing there.
At first glance, it looked human.
However, the black ears sticking out from the top of its head and the tail swaying behind its back were far too strange for it to be called human.
Beneath its disheveled reddish-brown hair were bright yellow eyes, resembling those of a bird of prey.
It was December.
Even though it was a warmer year than usual, it was still too cold to wear only a single layer of clothing.
Yet that man was casually walking through the lobby wearing nothing but one loose-fitting garment.
‘What is that…… cosplay……?’
If it was cosplay, I had to admit the quality was incredibly high.
But did cosplay these days really involve tails that moved that realistically?
More importantly, judging from his appearance, he looked like a red fox……
Was there even a red fox character like that?
As I stared blankly at the incredibly striking man, a personnel manager and several researchers wearing white lab coats approached from beyond the security gate he had passed through.
“New employees, welcome to Hwain Group. My name is Kang Ji-seok, and I am the principal researcher responsible for leading the research institute together with all of you.”
The principal researcher who introduced himself as Ji-seok smiled gently as he made eye contact with each of the new employees.
The pitch-black eyes behind his rimless glasses gave me a strange sense of déjà vu.
‘I’ve never seen this person before…….’
For a moment, an inexplicable feeling of unease ran down my body.
“The new employee training will be conducted at the research institute, so please board the bus.”
After finishing his greeting, Principal Researcher Ji-seok strode toward the bus parked in front of the building.
‘Oh……? Are we going straight to the research institute?’
If that was the case, wouldn’t it have been easier to just meet at the research institute?
Why did we have to come here first?
I wondered about it for a moment, but the other new employees immediately gathered their belongings and followed Principal Researcher Ji-seok toward the bus as though they had been waiting for him.
I began to wonder if this was simply how things worked at major corporations.
I sat on the bus without thinking much about it and looked at the towering Hwain Building through the window.
That was when it happened.
On the rooftop of the building, so high that it was difficult to see clearly, I noticed a strange shadow standing there.
“……?”
At first, it was too far away for me to make out what it was.
But before long, I realized that the figure standing there was someone with pointed ears, and my eyes widened.
That was…… the fox man from earlier?!
‘What is he doing on the rooftop…….’
Even though he was standing with his back to the sun, the fox man gave off a bright reddish glow.
He seemed to be standing precariously on the rooftop.
And then—
He simply fell.
“What is he doing?!”
The person I had encountered earlier was falling from the rooftop.
It was such an unrealistic yet horrifying sight that I instinctively screamed and jumped to my feet.
The fox man accelerated as he plummeted toward the ground at an incredible speed.
Only a few seconds remained before he slammed into the ground.
What should I do?
Was there anything I could do?
‘119…… 112?’
I instinctively raised my smartphone and looked back and forth between my phone and the falling fox man with trembling hands.
Considering the height, the fox man’s body would be smashed to pieces.
Naturally, it wouldn’t be a pleasant sight.
Even so, I couldn’t take my eyes off the building.
I was glancing at my smartphone while dialing 119, and just as I was about to press the call button—
“Huh?”
When there was only a short distance left between him and the ground, the fox man’s figure suddenly disappeared.
He didn’t scatter like smoke.
Nor did he crumble like sand.
It was as if the screen of a smartphone had suddenly been turned off.
In the blink of an eye, his figure disappeared.
“Uh…… what?”
Considering the speed at which he had been falling, he should already have crashed into the ground.
Yet no matter how much time passed, the falling figure never reached the ground.
Could he have gotten caught on something along the way?
I looked up with a puzzled expression, but all I could see was the same enormous building that had filled my field of vision when I first looked at it.
There was no sign of the fox man anywhere.
Where did the fox man go?
As I looked around with bewildered eyes, trying to make sense of the incomprehensible situation, I heard Principal Researcher Ji-seok calling me.
“Ms. Seo-young? Is something wrong?”
“No, it’s just…… Did you see the person who was on the rooftop of the building? He had long hair.”
At my question, everyone looked at me as if they had no idea what I was talking about.
A puzzled expression appeared on Principal Researcher Ji-seok’s face.
Could it be that I was the only one who had seen him?
“Um…… I’m sorry. The sunlight reflecting off the glass was so bright that I must have seen something incorrectly.”
I answered with an embarrassed expression, and Principal Researcher Ji-seok smiled and nodded.
“I’m glad it was nothing serious. The bus will be departing shortly, so could you please take your seat?”
“Ah, yes.”
The bus departed as soon as I sat down, as though it had been waiting for me.
It seemed I had delayed everyone.
Oh, how embarrassing.
Embarrassed, I naturally turned my head toward the window. If it weren’t for that fox man, I wouldn’t have had to humiliate myself like this.
‘What on earth was that fox man?’
No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t understand what had happened.
Had I seen something incorrectly?
But if that were the case, why was the image burned so clearly into my retinas?
That thing had been real.
Then why hadn’t anyone else seen it?
Or had they seen it and simply pretended not to?
‘Ah, whatever. What’s the point of thinking about something so pointless? Nothing happened, so I’ll just assume I saw it wrong and forget about it.’
As my thoughts came to an end, Principal Researcher Ji-seok began giving us a brief explanation about the research institute we would be going to.
The explanation itself was the same as what the personnel manager had told us before work.
For security reasons, employees weren’t allowed to leave the premises on weekdays unless there was an urgent matter.
In exchange, all the facilities within the premises could be used free of charge.
Each new employee would be assigned a mentor and receive one-on-one training.
After the training was completed, employees would be assigned to positions according to where they were most needed. Depending on their abilities, they could even be assigned to a department different from the one they had originally been designated for.
Perhaps because I had already heard all of this once, Principal Researcher Ji-seok’s voice wasn’t really reaching my ears.
I wasn’t talented enough to be reassigned to a different department anyway, so there was no particular reason for me to listen carefully.
The rapidly passing scenery, Principal Researcher Ji-seok’s gentle voice, and his boring explanation.
All the conditions necessary for a good nap had been met, and my eyelids naturally grew heavy.
‘From Yeouido, where Hwain Building is located, to Jeokseong, where the research institute is located, was about an hour and a half by car, right……?’
His explanation was coming to an end.
As a working adult, I felt it was the least I could do to listen to the boring explanation until the end.
As soon as I heard Principal Researcher Ji-seok say that we could rest comfortably until we arrived, I closed my eyes and immediately fell asleep as though I had been waiting for those words.
I am, fundamentally, someone who sleeps well anywhere.
When I was a university student, my drunken friends once abandoned me on the side of the road, and I slept just fine.
Even when a fire alarm went off in a hotel room, I slept peacefully.
Once, I slept so deeply that my friends thought something terrible had happened to me and even called an ambulance.
My friends would even scold me and tell me not to close my eyes just anywhere.
Of course, I didn’t always sleep deeply. I thought that if I only fell into a light sleep, I could wake up at any time……
A dull impact struck my chest, and I suddenly opened my eyes.
I looked around with dazed eyes.
“Ugh…… what?”
Perhaps because I had been sleeping so deeply, my senses hadn’t fully returned, and the entire world felt muffled and distant.
The first sense to return was my vision.
I couldn’t tell what exactly the bus had crashed into or how it had happened, but the front of the bus had been crushed to the point that it was impossible to recognize its original shape.
The driver who had smiled at me earlier was slumped helplessly over the crumpled driver’s seat, bright red blood pouring from him.
The amount of blood flowing from him was far from normal.
“What…….”
Cold sweat trickled down my back.
What…… had happened?
