#130
Woohyun was silent on the other end of the line. Normally he would have cursed, but his quietness made Eunhong think he might be trying to show humility, forcing him to swallow a sneer. He wondered why he hadn’t seen this side of Woohyun clearly before.
“I don’t pity you, An Woohyun. Do you pity yourself? Self-pity should have its limits.”
– I said put Lee Jaeha on the line, I’m not interested in what you think.
“You’re used to me doing whatever you ask, right? How can you talk about feeling sorry for me when you’ve always thought of me as beneath you?”
– Don’t regret it later. You always choose the easy path…
“Actually, I see now that you are pitiful, An Woohyun. You’re pathetic.”
Even in this extreme situation, Woohyun was looking for Jaeha rather than Eunhong, the person from whom he should be seeking forgiveness. He simply couldn’t accept that Eunhong was the decision-maker. Talk to Jaeha? It was truly impossible not to laugh, and Eunhong couldn’t help but let a laugh slip into his final words.
“Don’t torture yourself by comparing yourself to others. Take care and be well. I hope you live your own life instead of always blaming others.”
When Eunhong moved the phone away from his ear, he could barely hear the unintelligible curses coming from the speaker. He ended the call and blocked the number. From now on, he truly intended to do as he had told Jaeha—give his best only to those who gave him honest feelings in return.
***
It happened without warning. It was an ordinary morning like any other, without omens—no restless sleep from bad dreams, no broken cups.
Since they had thrown a big welcome-back party for Eunhong on Monday, the graphics team atmosphere was like a funeral home. Everyone was moaning about how they were dying, while Eunhong, who had filled his stomach with carbonated drinks, was the only one feeling fine.
“Where are you going, AD? Can’t we all go to the cafeteria together? I think some photosynthesis might help clear the alcohol…”
“I don’t know, the CEO called for me.”
Seo Heeseung tried to stop Shim AD, who had suddenly stood up. He warned her not to mess around and disappeared toward the elevators with an unsteady gait. As soon as Shim AD was out of sight, the others began dropping comments in languid voices.
“Do you think our project is going to be terminated?”
“What rank were we last month?”
“Outside the rankings. Stop making it obvious you don’t play your own game.”
“What are you talking about… I regularly pay with my own money, not just the company’s cash.”
“It’s stagnant players like you that keep new users from coming in. Stop it, just stop. Didn’t they tell us not to kill users?”
“Wouldn’t you want to kill some elementary school kid who calls you a cash-spending loser?”
“Just screenshot it and report them. Why kill them? They’re budding flowers…”
“I’m telling you, they’re shutting down the service. The CEO must be trying to plug the money leaks, snap!”
Only voices were exchanged over the partitions, with no one visible. That was because everyone had their heads buried on their desks.
Eunhong was in the middle of laughing and adding a comment or two to the chatter when his phone on the desk began to vibrate. Thinking it was an unknown number, he rejected the call without consideration, but as soon as he did, more calls kept coming in from different numbers.
By the fifth consecutive call, Eunhong began to sense something was wrong.
Shim AD, who had descended from the elevator and opened the secured glass door, beckoned to Eunhong. Heeseung, seeing him, once again sang about going to the cafeteria, but he didn’t even answer, which seemed concerning. Eunhong felt an oddly anxious feeling rise suddenly. He flipped his still-ringing phone face down on the desk and followed Shim AD into the hallway.
As soon as they entered a corner that wasn’t visible from the office, Shim AD pulled Eunhong’s arm.
“Do you know a community site called Graphicas? Are you active there?”
“No? Isn’t that Japanese? I can’t speak Japanese…”
Eunhong was particularly weak with languages. Despite being a game enthusiast for over ten years, Japanese was still his Achilles’ heel. He frowned at the sudden question, thinking it wasn’t something to be dragged out for as if some disaster had occurred.
“But why do you ask?”
“A post raising suspicions about you has been uploaded there… claiming that you habitually steal amateur works.”
When Eunhong’s eyes widened, Shim AD hurriedly added:
“Of course, we know it’s nonsense, but articles have spread everywhere without fact-checking. It’s spreading across all kinds of communities at such a speed…”
“What articles… what exactly is the content?”
“The main point is that the posting dates of similar images on an amateur’s personal page… are much earlier than when you revealed your artwork. Dozens of images comparing them to our game artwork have been uploaded. It seems our company name was also mentioned in the articles. I think you became a target because of the attention from winning the Han Jung competition. The CEO received calls to verify…”
Ha, shit… Shim AD, rambling incoherently, scratched his unkempt hair vigorously out of frustration.
“Hey, this isn’t what I think it is, right?”
“An Woohyun?”
When Eunhong calmly spoke the name that Shim AD had suspected but couldn’t bring himself to say, he sighed even more deeply and rubbed his head as if he wanted to pull all his hair out.
“Hey, ah… shit… anyway, let’s get you out of here. Go home.”
At Shim AD’s words, Eunhong instinctively approached the window to look outside. Looking down through the small ventilation window at the end of the corridor, he saw that people who appeared to be reporters had gathered outside. It was unmistakable with people holding large black cameras and vehicles with broadcasting station names filling the alley next to the building.
“I-I’ll take you. Let’s go to the parking lot and escape in my car.”
Shim AD was more flustered compared to the coldly composed Eunhong. He grabbed Eunhong’s arm and pulled him into the office, continuously muttering for him to quickly pack his bag and promising to help him escape safely.
The rumors seemed to have spread within the team in no time, as everyone was stirring with gloomy expressions. As soon as Eunhong and Shim AD entered the partition area, Yoo Junseok jumped up and angrily shouted:
“This is ridiculous! We all watched him work stitch by stitch—what kind of nonsense is this?”
On Junseok’s monitor was the original community site where the suspicions had been raised. Despite being a Japanese site, there were frighteningly many Korean comments, so many that scrolling seemed endless.
On the amateur’s personal page, early design sketches and illustrations for recently released items were posted with dates much earlier than the official release dates. Cleverly, Japanese signatures and concept notes were added to the images, fueling the suspicions.
Even the drawing submitted to the Han Jung competition, which had become the center of attention, had been posted step by step from sketch versions with timestamps long before it was revealed to everyone.
“It seems they updated it privately like a diary, then made it public and reported it to the news.”
Seo Heeseung carefully added in an unusually serious tone. Though her point made sense and everyone present agreed, because of the posting dates, to outsiders it clearly looked like Eunhong had stolen the work. Even the CEO had immediately suspected his own employee, which said it all.
Gil Dong-wook asked incredulously:
“Why would someone do this? What’s there to gain?”
“…Don’t try to understand the actions of a crazy person.”
“Ha… look at this madman adding comments as if he drew these himself. He’s really been planning this meticulously for a long time?”
Eunhong’s face turned pale. Initially, he’d only suspected Woohyun because it would be hard to explain the source of the files otherwise, but seeing the handwriting in the scribbles made it even more certain this was his doing, making Eunhong’s head spin.
“He’s a crazy psycho…”
Even within the team, everyone seemed to suspect the same person. Someone’s small mutter struck Eunhong’s ears like thunder. The team only whispered among themselves since they didn’t know the details of Eunhong and Woohyun’s relationship, but Eunhong could clearly understand what everyone was thinking.
While An Woohyun was the one who committed this insane act, Eunhong was the one who had freely given him access to his computer. If he could steal the watches Eunhong treasured, files wouldn’t be any harder. Eunhong couldn’t escape responsibility for being careless with his files. The only excuse he could think of was that he never imagined the files would be used for such a purpose.
Amid the silence, Eunhong’s phone on the desk buzzed again. With dozens of missed calls already registered, another unknown number appeared, making the phone vibrate as all eyes turned to it. Before Eunhong could stop him, Gil Dong-wook picked up the phone and answered.
“Do you verify facts before publishing articles and making contact? How did you get this phone number? Who are you affiliated with? What’s your name?”
Eunhong barely managed to retrieve his phone from Dong-wook, who was screaming that they would sue, and turned it off. Though he tried not to show it, Eunhong’s hands were trembling. He felt lost about how to resolve the situation.
Amidst the commotion, Eunhong suddenly sensed Jaeha’s scent and turned his head.
Wearing a dark suit and the tie Eunhong had picked out for him that morning, saying it was pretty, Jaeha was looking down at him. Eunhong blinked in surprise at the appearance of someone he never expected to see in this space. As if telling him to pull himself together, Jaeha lightly tapped Eunhong’s cheek with his finger.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
