ALL NOVEL Chapter 42
Yu Da On didn’t sleep and left.
To be honest, I stopped her. It was bothering me.
Song Ah Rin? What was she going on about? She just brought a basket of fruit, lectured us a bit, and then disappeared.
The day after being discharged, I headed to a nearby pub with Yu Da On after work to keep the promise she made during the Mountain God incident.
“Did you hear about the volunteer activity?”
Yu Da On emptied her glass in front of me while blinking.
“Volunteer activity? Is it that time already?”
“Uh, do you know?”
“Yes, I do.”
Officially, since it’s a public enterprise, or maybe just a characteristic of K-companies, the Management Agency goes for volunteer activities once or twice a year.
I remember when I first joined as a newbie, I went for a volunteer activity, and we were delivering coal back then.
“What are we doing this time? Delivering coal again?”
“Um…”
Yu Da On pulled out her smartphone and squinted as she began reading.
“They say the Isolation Team, Management Team, and Security Team are usually busy with their own work, so they won’t participate in the volunteer activities.”
That’s unsettling.
“So what about us?”
“The Human Resources Team… let me see… Ah! They’re going to an elementary school!”
A sigh involuntarily escaped my lips.
An elementary school volunteer must be educational, I thought. I distinctly remember the Finance Team went last year.
But I had to ask something more important.
“Is the Team Leader going too?”
“Uh, the Team Leader took the day off that day.”
Thinking back, that person took time off every time there was a volunteer activity.
I wasn’t sure if they had taken time off the year before, but…
“Can I take time off too?”
“With the volunteer activity coming up soon, I think the internal system won’t allow vacation requests to go through.”
“Dammit!”
That’s right. Our company was one of those trashy places where you had to announce your vacation a month in advance.
If it weren’t for my hospitalization, I would have applied.
“Don’t worry too much! Nothing like what happened at the workshop will happen again, right?”
“I feel like it might.”
I don’t think of myself as a person who attracts accidents.
But I started to suspect that the Management Agency had a knack for sending us to places where accidents seemed likely.
“Then, we can just solve it! We’re good at that!”
Yu Da On confidently declared, clenching her fist.
“I hope you consider the ups and downs we’ve faced along the way before jumping to any solutions.”
“With Jae Heon around, what’s there to worry about?”
With a nonchalant expression, Yu Da On poured more drink into my glass as she replied.
“As long as Jae Heon is here, we—I mean, I’m not worried.”
“I’m worried.”
“Don’t you worry, Jae Heon.”
Shouting “Cheers!” Yu Da On lifted her glass, and I clinked mine against hers.
With the sound of our glasses colliding, she flashed a bright smile.
“I’m here, right?”
“That’s reassuring.”
Though it also applied to Jang Chae Yeon and Song Ah Rin, I had always entrusted my life the most to Yu Da On.
“That’s all I need.”
With a smile, Yu Da On tilted her glass again.
“Just don’t drink too much.”
“Of course! I’m good at managing myself.”
*
“Ugh… Jae Heon…”
“You said you manage yourself well.”
At my comment, Yu Da On sat there swaying, unable to respond.
Her upper body was wobbling like she was dancing.
“Alright, let’s go quickly.”
“…I don’t want to…”
I supported her under her armpit, lifting her with a red face as she was being all emotional.
Thinking back, it was just like that time during the Human Resources Team gathering when Song Ah Rin wasn’t around; I had forgotten again.
Grunting as I helped her along, maybe she had regained some sense, as Yu Da On sleepily looked at me.
“Jae Heon?”
“Did you wake up, Da On?”
“…”
She stared at me for a while before lowering her gaze.
“Are you sober now?”
“…”
“Da On?”
“…”
Looking expressionless at the floor, Yu Da On finally blurted out one sentence.
“Why are you being so nice to me?”
“Excuse me?”
“Do you want something from me? I feel like I can’t give you much.”
What an unexpected question.
From what I sensed while being with Yu Da On, she surprisingly had a very low self-esteem.
I guess it was different from the silent Jang Chae Yeon and the loud Song Ah Rin.
How should I answer this?
After a moment of thought, I decided to reply honestly.
“What would a coworker want from each other?”
We’ve come too far to count cost-benefit.
If I had just spent my time as a human resources office staff without a hitch, I would never have said such things.
But far too many things had happened.
And the person who started this journey with me was Yu Da On.
“Besides, Da On, you’re also good to me.”
“Well…”
Yu Da On opened her mouth and then closed it, quietly accepting my support.
After that, while I helped her into a taxi, Yu Da On didn’t say another word.
*
Eventually, the day of the volunteer activity arrived.
“Wait, are we really supposed to do a volunteer activity so soon after returning? Seriously?”
“If your side was any more split open, it would have just been the three of us going. What lousy luck.”
I ignored Song Ah Rin’s teasing and boarded the Management Agency bus.
Even though it was called the Management Agency bus, it was merely a tourist bus that said [Fun Tourist Tour] on it.
“Wow. So many people.”
“It’s mandatory attendance. Except for those on vacation.”
Moving through the cramped bus with our belongings, I could see many office staff faces.
What they all had in common was that they looked genuinely exhausted.
Were there no one who looked fine?
As I habitually scanned the names above people’s heads, something caught my eye.
“…?”
I noticed something peculiar.
It was a man.
He wasn’t skeletal, but he was very thin.
He looked around my age, and his unfocused eyes stared off into the distance.
This seemed like a trait common to all Management Agency employees, so it didn’t stand out, but if I had to describe it, it was a sense of unease.
There was something different about him compared to regular people.
Naturally, my eyes looked above his head.
[Name: Kim Wan Woo]
[Age: 28]
[Traits: – ]
[Talents: – ]
[Background: 326]
[Weakness: You have already been warned.]
My anxious feeling returned, and as I lowered my gaze, it was as if he had predicted I would look at him, and that man was staring at me intently.
His vacant gaze bore into me, and I couldn’t help but look away.
I walked past the man and took a seat in the back with Song Ah Rin. In front of us were Jang Chae Yeon and Yu Da On.
“…Do you know that guy?”
“Who?”
I pointed at the man who had looked at me earlier, and Song Ah Rin squinted to see him.
“…Oh. I know him.”
“How do you know?”
“He’s similar to you. When he was at a different branch, there was an accident there. He was the only survivor that time, they said.”
“…”
“They say he’s really lucky or has good instincts; he can sense what’s about to happen.”
I turned my gaze back towards the man.
He sat there with unfocused eyes.
What did the numbers in the background mean, and what did being warned signify?
“A Management Agency worker… wouldn’t harm another Management Agency worker, right?”
“If you’re looking to resign, that might not be an issue.”
Let’s be careful.
I reminded myself again, turning my gaze to the window.
“Are you alright?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“Good. Be careful next time.”
“I’ll make an effort.”
Song Ah Rin rested her chin in her hand and gazed out the window with me.
“But are we really not on the Isolation Team?”
“I told you, we’re not. The Isolation Team went to suppress a newly discovered Containment Object downtown today. Do you want to join them?”
“I’ll pass.”
While wasting time chatting with Song Ah Rin about pointless things, the bus slowly headed out of town.
[For factory labor volunteer activities, the Finance Team, please disembark.]
[For feeding the Containment Object, the Marketing Team, please disembark.]
As the bus made stops, members corresponding to each team got off, and finally, Kim Wan Woo, the man we needed to keep an eye on, also got off with his team members, leaving only the four of us on the bus.
As a strange atmosphere lingered,
[For volunteer activities, the Human Resources Team, please disembark.]
As the bus came to a halt, a mechanical voice echoed from the speaker.
“Shall we go?”
As soon as we disembarked, the bus quickly drove away.
Yu Da On looked at me expectantly.
“Will a bus come to pick us up after the volunteer activity?”
“Yeah. It will probably arrive after a day.”
“A day?”
“I heard that’s how it normally works.”
Interestingly enough, when we delivered coal, we also stayed overnight at the homes of elderly people.
I looked at the elementary school in front of us.
It was a small elementary school. Not closed down, but it didn’t seem like it had many students either.
They say it’s an era of low birth rates; it might just be a sweet volunteer opportunity after all.
As soon as we entered, we were welcomed by a good-natured man.
“Well, well, welcome! I heard you’re here for volunteer work.”
“Yeah, well. That’s right.”
As if it was the norm, the other three stepped back, and I was left to be the spokesperson again.
“Welcome. Just the other day, the caretaker caught a bad cold… We need someone to cover the night shift for a day or two.”
“Excuse me?”
Wait, if it’s an elementary school volunteer, it must be educational volunteer work, right?
I turned around to look at the other three, and they all had equally bewildered expressions.
“Um, we thought we were going to teach the kids…”
“Hm? What we were informed is…”
The man fumbled through his pockets and pulled out a paper.
[Our personnel will assist with various tasks.]
It was a paper stamped with the Management Agency logo, which only employees could recognize.
I recalled Yu Da On’s words.
‘They said we were volunteering at an elementary school.’
Isn’t it common sense that volunteer work at an elementary school would be educational?
“It’s fine. Just take care to lock the doors at night and keep an eye out for suspicious people.”
With a friendly smile, the principal spoke, and I could only turn my head to look at Song Ah Rin, mouthing my question.
‘We can’t escape, right?’
‘Do you think we could?’
With her icy response, I could only nod awkwardly, wearing a forced smile.
Whatever strange things might happen, at least I could roll with it now.
I had even brought a gun just in case, and Song Ah Rin and Yu Da On also had their firearms, so we should be able to manage somehow.
*
“…Damn it.”
I quickly raised my hand to open the door.
What had been looking down at me now needed to be looked up at.
– Pitter-patter!
I heard something running down the corridor.
I quickly hid in the cleaning supplies cupboard and peeked outside.
Something on four legs entered through the classroom door.
With long hair, it had a little girl with black hair tangled in its hair, and after frantically looking around, it soon dashed back outside.
I strained to look through the crack, but I couldn’t see anything. The translucent window that had been over my head was nowhere to be found.
Since I gained this ability after the entrance exam… that could be possible.
As I emerged from the cleaning supplies cupboard to scan the classroom, I soon spotted a mirror.
In the mirror, a child with a tired expression stared back at me.
“…I’m doomed.”
As I muttered, the child reflected in the mirror echoed my words, letting out a deep sigh.