Chapter : 07
As if there were no such thing as a right to refuse, Kim Hyeon smiled brightly and turned away from his seat. And so, a welcome party for new employee Lee Harang, along with a company-wide dinner, was decided.
However, party or no party, Harang was still sitting in the office doing nothing but staring down the monitor.
He hadn’t even received the ID and password needed to access the company’s internal materials yet, so he was cautiously limiting himself to web browsing while keeping an eye on everyone around him. Most of what he found was information about Eaton Company. On top of that, he was carefully getting a sense of the company’s internal structure.
I’m seriously going to die.
Looking at the empty can of coffee on his desk, Harang let out a deep sigh. If he kept sitting there like this, it was obvious that Kim Hyeon would drag him away again at lunchtime, and then he’d be dragged away to the company dinner in the evening.
In the end, after repeatedly checking the time, Harang quietly stood up around 11:20.
He slipped out into the hallway quietly enough to make it seem as though he’d simply gone to the restroom. He had brought along Kim Hyeon’s clothes, which he’d washed beforehand, as well as a new pair of underwear he’d bought at the convenience store downstairs. He hung the shopping bag containing them on the doorknob of Kim Hyeon’s lounge.
If I give them back face-to-face, who knows what excuse he’ll find to make trouble for me again.
Whenever he faced that man, Harang somehow felt as though he was constantly being manipulated. It seemed best to avoid meeting him as much as possible.
With a small sigh, Harang turned away as though fleeing. He headed for the facilities department office on the lower floors of the building.
He deliberately used the emergency stairs, inspecting each floor as he descended one by one.
But, just as he’d expected.
There wasn’t a single minor ghost in sight.
“This is way too strange.”
Normally, the wandering minor ghosts were a great help when gathering information about a “Rift.” They were invisible eyes and ears.
And the fact that there wasn’t even a single minor ghost around, as though they’d literally been erased, meant the opposite.
“It means there’s something here that the minor ghosts can’t even come near.”
Although Baektaek operated in a reckless and outrageous manner, he’d never been wrong when it came to anything related to “Rifts.” Therefore, Harang had no choice but to conclude that something extremely dangerous must exist in this hidden Rift.
That was why he intended to search for the energy he’d sensed when the toilet exploded yesterday.
This time, however, he would do it safely.
By following the pipes.
When Harang opened the door to the facilities department office, the strong smell of oil immediately hit him. He quickly looked around, then approached an employee who appeared to be just about to leave. With a friendly smile, he bowed his head.
“Hello. Um… I’m here because of the toilet on the fifteenth floor yesterday. I have to write a report about what happened, so would it be okay to ask someone here about it?”
“The fifteenth floor?”
The employee thought about it for a moment, then quickly lost interest and stood up after gathering his equipment.
“Oh, Team Leader Kim took care of all that. You can just leave.”
“Oh, really? That’s a relief. Thank you.”
Harang backed away as though bowing gratefully.
But with his sharp eyes, he was scanning the large diagram of the Eaton Tower Plumbing Network spread across one side of the office wall.
It’s too obvious.
The thick sewage pipe line that descended vertically without interruption from aboveground twisted strangely the moment it reached the fourth basement floor.
On the blueprint, the blue line made a long detour along the outer wall, as though it had encountered some enormous obstacle.
There’s definitely something on B4. But how am I supposed to get there?
“Ah, why aren’t you leaving? We need to get going too, so let’s go. I told you, there’s nothing for you to worry about.”
“Oh, yes. Sorry. I was just fascinated by it.”
“Come on. Let’s go.”
For some reason, the employee seemed almost desperate to pull Harang out of the facilities department.
Harang followed him outside, all the while desperately trying to memorize the plumbing diagram with his eyes.
Thud.
The door closed.
At the same time, Kim Hyeon picked up the shopping bag hanging from his doorknob and entered the room.
The neatly folded clothes inside carried a faint scent of detergent, mixed with the subtle, distinctive scent that belonged to Harang.
Kim Hyeon gave a languid smile and pushed aside the bookshelf against the lounge wall.
A black panel hidden behind it quietly lit up.
It was a CCTV monitor capable of viewing every area of Eaton Tower.
He skillfully scanned the entire screen before finding Harang lingering around the facilities department and enlarging the image.
On the screen, Harang looked serious and unable to hide his anxiety, as though he believed he was carrying out a flawless undercover investigation.
“You’re doing something rather cute.”
With his fingertip, Kim Hyeon slowly traced the pale nape of Harang’s neck displayed on the monitor.
He didn’t know what kind of scenes the man had worked in until now, but what an awkward and clumsy Baektaek agent he was.
“Go ahead and search as hard as you can. Go deeper… all the way to the darkest, nastiest places.”
Under the blue glow of the monitor, Kim Hyeon’s eyes gleamed red like a snake’s.
The company dinner was held at a Korean beef restaurant near the company.
The members of the TF team sat together inside a private room.
Kim Hyeon took the seat of honor and made Harang sit directly beside him.
“Eat as much as you like. Don’t worry about the price.”
“Thank you! I’ll enjoy it!”
The atmosphere was so warm and intimate that it hardly felt like a company dinner.
Harang slowly looked around at everyone, feeling unfamiliar with the situation.
There was something slightly strange about these people. He couldn’t see even the slightest trace of darkness or worry on any of their faces.
“Eat plenty. I’m worried because you’re so thin, Harang.”
But he didn’t have time to dwell on it.
Kim Hyeon personally grilled some meat and placed it on Harang’s plate.
The employees whispered among themselves as they watched Kim Hyeon.
“Wow, that’s the first time I’ve ever seen Team Leader Kim pick up the tongs.”
“Harang must really be getting special treatment.”
“So the rumors really are…”
Harang strained his ears to catch the conversation as their voices gradually grew quieter, but in the end, it was drowned out by the surrounding noise.
As alcohol began flowing, the table became several times louder. The mood grew increasingly lively before eventually settling down for a moment.
It seemed that no one wanted to talk much about their personal lives, so the conversation naturally shifted toward the team’s main product, Lunavion.
“But isn’t it really amazing? Our product works so well that it’s almost scary.”
Assistant Manager Park, already tipsy, lowered his voice.
“You know how there’s a rumor going around Cheongdam that if you apply this stuff, you’ll look like you did ten years ago? But did you know there are rumors about side effects too?”
“Side effects?”
Harang leaned closer, listening intently.
“They say that after using it… you have strange dreams every night. Dreams where someone is staring at you. And apparently, you start craving raw beef tartare all the time. Isn’t that weird?”
“What is that supposed to be? An ad campaign for raw beef tartare?”
Another employee laughed it off, but Assistant Manager Park remained serious.
“No. I heard this from someone. You know how the ingredient ratios for our products are determined? Apparently, humans don’t decide them. There’s a rumor that they mix them according to whatever ‘it’ tells them to do in the underground laboratory.”
Silence descended over the room.
It.
Was that what they called the thing that came from the Rift?
And more importantly, did the employees actually know about such a thing, albeit secretly?
“That’s an interesting imagination.”
Kim Hyeon was the one who broke the stunned silence.
He swirled his wineglass and smiled languidly.
“Still, nothing in this world comes for free. If you want to turn back time and regain your youth, you have to pay an equivalent price.”
His words sent a chill through everyone.
But the employees hurriedly tried to lighten the atmosphere, nodding along.
“That’s right. It is expensive, after all.”
“How do you think about it, Harang?”
Suddenly, Kim Hyeon’s attention turned toward Harang.
“What do you think the secret behind our product is? I feel like you might have a different opinion from everyone here. After all, unlike the others, you grew up in an orphanage.”
Harang was dumbfounded by how casually the man had exposed someone else’s private information.
He froze for a moment and blinked.
Then, in order to calm the anger burning inside him, he picked up the beer in front of him and drained it in one gulp.
“I… don’t know much about cosmetics.”
Harang turned his head and looked straight at Kim Hyeon.
“But I have heard a story at the orphanage you specifically mentioned, Team Leader. It’s somewhat similar to this situation.”
“Oh! Let’s hear it!”
The employees had flinched when Kim Hyeon first mentioned the orphanage, but now they hurriedly applauded and encouraged Harang, seemingly desperate to revive the atmosphere.
We want to hear it. We’re really curious.
Their pitiful encouragement continued.
Kim Hyeon also rested his chin on one hand, his eyes sparkling with interest.
“Long ago… there was a god of the moon.”
Harang began the story in a quiet voice.
“The god loved humans and descended to the earth. Then he gave people the gifts of eternal youth and happiness. He did that by slowly tearing pieces from his own body and giving them away. They say that anyone who possessed a piece of the moon would neither grow old nor fall ill.”
“How romantic.”
A female employee sighed in admiration.
But Harang shook his head.
