That night, the air at Cafe 'Sum-pyo' refused to mix until the end.
The remark Yoon Mi-ra threw while lightly touching Da-yeon's cookie plate—"Hard to manage."
What that single phrase left in the cafe was not the scent of coffee, but an afterimage like a thin blade.
Jin-woo saw it, smiled to hide the fact that he saw it, and briefly saved Da-yeon with the fact that he smiled.
The problem was, this kind of person plants the 'knife once pushed in' into the same spot next time.
The air at Cafe 'Sum-pyo' after work was far from its usual coziness. It felt as if the precarious hiss of an espresso machine just before the pressure exceeds the critical point and explodes was filling the entire space.
The 'bean tasting event' prepared by Da-woon was actually a pretext with a good facade. In reality, it was an emergency blood transfusion prescription for Da-yeon, who had been ground down all day in the giant juicer called the company. It was Da-woon's crude way of caring, trying to cover the bruises of the heart with the savory scent of coffee.
But the moment the uninvited guest Yoon Mi-ra squeezed into that crack, it became an 'extension of office politics' over it. Whether it's a company dinner or an event, the essence is ultimately a fight for 'marking territory.'
As soon as he opened the cafe door, what rushed into Jin-woo's nose wasn't the scent of coffee.
It was an artificial floral scent sharply tearing through the savoriness of freshly roasted beans and the sweet warmth of cocoa. It was Yoon Mi-ra's perfume.
Perfume is originally a device to package a person attractively, but today's Mi-ra was scattering the smell like a beast proclaiming territory by spraying pheromones.
"Oppa, here!"
Da-woon, in combat readiness inside the counter, waved her hand exaggeratedly.
Jin-woo nodded slowly and entered, and Da-yeon followed carefully behind him like a sinner. Da-yeon was always like that. Not 'entering' a space, but like a person seeking 'permission to stay' while reading the room.
Mi-ra squeezed into that minute gap very skillfully.
As if a hacking tool was digging into a security vulnerability.
"Oh my, the atmosphere here is really good. Like a hidden hideout."
Mi-ra scanned every corner of the cafe like a real estate appraiser, then took the seat next to Da-yeon so naturally.
Da-woon slammed her cup down with a blatantly "That's not your seat" expression, but Mi-ra smiled brightly without taking damage, as if she was surrounded by a firewall.
"Wow, Ms. Da-woon. Your coffee brewing skills are exceptional? You must have good dexterity like your brother. Are the genes superior?"
"Brother? Who is Mi-ra's brother."
Da-woon shot back with an expression bitterer than an espresso shot.
"If my brother is Mi-ra's brother, am I Mi-ra's sister? Stop talking nonsense twisting the genealogy. Just drink your coffee. It tastes bad if it cools."
Even at Da-woon's thorny words, Mi-ra shrugged her shoulders lightly. Then, pointing at the chocolate cookie plate in front of Da-yeon with her slender finger, she threw a remark.
"I don't think Ms. Da-yeon should eat things like this. You're the style that swells easily, right? I noticed it goes straight to your face if you eat salty or sweet things. Must be hard to manage."
That remark was an explicit 'labeling' directed at Da-yeon, packaged as worrying about the cookie.
You are a kid who can get fat. You are a kid who can't be managed. You are a kid I need to point out things to.
If the opponent is defined like that, the person on the receiving end misses the timing to refute and ends up censoring themselves.
Typical initial code of gaslighting.
Da-yeon's complexion turned pale like a monitor blue screen in an instant. It was a precision strike from Mi-ra that burst out while Jin-woo went to the restroom for a moment. Da-yeon bit her lip and gripped only the hem of her skirt on her lap tightly. To the point her fingertips turned white.
Da-woon's eyebrows twitched. It was just before curse words popped out of that mouth.
At that moment, the small bell on the door rang cheerfully. Tinkle.
"Attendance!"
It was Jin-woo.
As soon as he entered, he read the cool current inside the cafe at once. Faster than system logs was the sense of reading the killing intent (salki) of a person cutting another person.
Jin-woo whistled as if nothing was wrong, approached Da-yeon's side, and slid the problematic cookie plate to a side where Mi-ra's hand couldn't reach.
Very naturally. So naturally that it rather became a clear warning saying "Don't touch."
"Uh-huh, our Ms. Mi-ra."
Jin-woo's voice was light as usual, but inside his smiling eyes, it had sunk coldly.
"A new recruit already taking care of others' health, very 'devoted' indeed. Your nosiness is the size of the Pacific Ocean. But Ms. Mi-ra, do you know that? Ms. Da-yeon isn't swollen, she's pleasantly plump (bok-seure-oun). Ms. Mi-ra is too sharp, I feel like I'd get pricked if I stay next to you. A total human cactus."
Mi-ra's mouth corner hardened very minutely, like a pixel breaking.
But in the next moment, she laughed again. Not a disarming laugh, but a mechanical smile 'forcing a mismatched puzzle piece in.'
"Aha… Chief, you really save people with words. Such a witty person."
"I don't know about saving, I do it to live too. Survival instinct, shall we say."
"Then I have to live too. Subcontract life… they say it's not easy? I heard you have to ride the right line to live."
It was words thrown like a joke, but they grazed Jin-woo's nerves like a thin razor blade.
A new recruit on her second day using the word 'subcontract life' so naturally?
Usually, before uttering that word, one has a mental breakdown for a month, feels unfair for two months, and resigns oneself for three months.
That is not a learned word. It was an embodied word.
Jin-woo deliberately burst into hearty laughter and lifted his cup.
"Ms. Mi-ra, subcontracting is originally like this. Only the coffee scent is comfort, the rest is all quotation sheets. Are we even 'Eul' (Beta)? Maybe 'Jeong' (Delta)?"
"I like quotation sheets. Watching numbers is fun. They fall perfectly into place."
Mi-ra's eyes sparkled with peculiarity.
Jin-woo had to distinguish whether that sparkle was excitement or the certainty of a hunter confirming a target.
Only then did Da-yeon exhale the breath she had been holding. But ironing the crumpled heart doesn't happen just by breathing. It's just applying tape for a moment before it completely shatters.
Jin-woo pressed the 'force quit' button hurriedly before the temperature of this seat became more dangerous.
"Da-woon, take Ms. Da-yeon home safely since she went in and out of a mental thresher today. Put her in a taxi."
"Oppa, I'll take care of it."
"I ordered you to take care of what you'll take care of."
Da-woon packed Da-yeon's bag, and Da-yeon glanced at Jin-woo once as she got up. Her lips moved as if she wanted to say something, but eventually swallowed it.
Jin-woo added while packing his outerwear.
"Since Ms. Mi-ra is going the same direction as me, I'll walk her to the station. I need to trim some cactus thorns on the way."
Mi-ra followed obediently without refusing.
So obedient that it was rather more ominous.
The night air was colder than the day, and the streetlight elongated the shadows.
Walking Mi-ra to the station, Jin-woo ceaselessly made 'words.' If silence flowed, he felt something would fly into that gap and stick.
"Ms. Mi-ra, what's your perfume? Is it Chanel No. 5 or Pesticide No. 1? It suffocates people."
"Isn't the Chief suffocating not because of the perfume… but because you're nervous being next to me?"
"No. I really have a headache because of the chemical reaction. I'll bill you for headache medicine."
"Liar. Chief, you're good at lying. You seemed to be a 9th dan in slyness."
"Not lying, but an office worker's essential survival skill. Let's call it social skills."
As Jin-woo giggled, Mi-ra laughed too.
Then Mi-ra stopped walking right in front of the crosswalk. The signal turned green, but she didn't move.
"Chief."
"Hm? Not crossing?"
"Ms. Da-yeon… likes you, right?"
Without even a curveball, a 160km fastball flew in.
Jin-woo blinked 0.1 seconds late.
"Ms. Mi-ra, analyzing logs too deeply again today. Don't write fiction."
"I like looking deep. If it's shallow… I can see everything, so it's boring. And Chief, you didn't seem to dislike Ms. Da-yeon either. Are you taking care of her out of pity, or is she really your type?"
Mouth smiling but eyes not smiling at all, a typical predator's expression.
Jin-woo clicked his tongue inwardly.
'This isn't simple jealousy or dating counseling.'
The purpose was too clear. A method not asking about 'feelings for the opponent' but holding and shaking the 'weakness of the relationship.'
When bringing a person down, the most effective thing is not emotion, but touching guilt and secrets.
"Ms. Mi-ra."
Jin-woo deliberately made his voice light.
"Is your hobby digging into colleagues' emotions? If it's the same hobby as mine, that's trouble."
"Ah, caught."
Mi-ra laughed.
"But Chief… there's one more thing you got caught on."
"What."
"Chief, you pretend to let everything flow with words… but your way of drawing lines is very practiced."
"I have to draw lines so I don't get hurt."
"No."
Mi-ra took a step closer. Too close.
"Lines… are drawn like that only in war."
Jin-woo felt like he heard his heart drop with a 'thud.'
Nevertheless, he smiled. A smile was his shield.
"War my foot. I'm a person fighting against overtime."
"That war is crueler."
Mi-ra waved her hand.
"See you tomorrow, Chief. Don't be surprised if I appear in your dreams."
"Yeah. Please don't appear in dreams. I get sleep paralysis."
Mi-ra threw a meaningful remark as she went down the subway stairs.
"Quiet things… are what you can't stand the most, Chief. You seem like someone who finds it fun only when something explodes."
Jin-woo remained alone, staring at Mi-ra's receding back.
The street neon signs shook as if spreading.
That night, even after returning home, Jin-woo sat in front of the turned-off monitor for a long time without even washing up.
His face reflected in the black screen was unfamiliar.
An ominous intuition flowed down his spine that an invisible spiderweb was being woven very densely and secretly around him.
And the premonition that the hand holding the spool of that spiderweb—might be closer than thought, right at the desk next to him.
Next day.
The masquerade at the cafe ended, but the stage called the company was crueler.
A single word from last night, one glance, things like a 0.3-second stopped breath all became 'records' and floated in the morning air.
As soon as Jin-woo arrived at the office, he turned on the monitor out of habit.
Pretending to go make coffee, he opened the security log file. The words Min-su spat out with cigarette smoke yesterday hovered like tinnitus.
'The logs coming down from the main contractor are too precise. This wasn't run by a machine.'
Being precise doesn't mean high completeness.
It means 'intention' is mixed in.
Traces carved deliberately by a person spending time become precise.
And those traces always whisper like this.
—I am watching you.
Jin-woo observed Team Leader Cha's movements. The Team Leader was grumbling again as he stirred mix coffee and entered the meeting room.
"Ah, seriously main contractor jerks! Abuse of power has limits! Sending log re-verification every other day! Am I a criminal? Huh?"
Good.
The day the Team Leader curses the main contractor is the day the Team Leader becomes our side for a moment.
It means surveillance becomes lax.
Jin-woo immediately opened the hidden black command window.
And attempted to access the end of the main contractor server 'slightly' through the bypass path, aka 'dog hole,' that Min-su taught him.
Slightly.
Really slightly.
Level of just sticking an eyeball through the door crack without knocking.
But—
An area that should have been normally 'Access Denied,' impossible to even approach usually,
was open very minutely.
A door that shouldn't be open,
was open too prettily as if seducing him to enter.
Jin-woo's eyes sank coldly.
The finger placed on the keyboard hesitated.
'This isn't a mistake.
The port isn't open… it's a door left open on purpose.
Is it a honeypot?'
The moment he tried to go one step deeper,
a very small hexadecimal number blinked at the bottom right of the screen.
Session renewal timing.
Originally, it should shake with random numbers.
But it was constant.
Like a metronome,
too regular and artificial.
'Someone… was waiting for me to enter.'
Jin-woo placed his hand on ESC instead of Enter.
He didn't increase the access depth. Instead, he scanned the surrounding packets.
And—the conclusion he hated most, but expected, was output on the monitor.
[User_Activity_Log_Collection : ON]
The main contractor, under the plausible pretext of 'strengthening subcontractor security,' was sucking all terminal logs of subcontractor employees in real-time.
It wasn't a simple work check.
Messenger app usage time, document viewing order, mail reading speed, keyboard input rhythm, entry gate movement path…
All of that was combined into one giant graph, monitoring every move of individuals.
It wasn't security, it was surveillance.
Jin-woo's lips twisted very minutely.
"Crazy…."
The moment he swallowed the curse inwardly—
A terrifyingly bright voice from behind hit his ear.
"Chief, are you looking at something interesting? Let me see too! Letters are just going up on the black screen?"
It was Mi-ra.
There wasn't even a footstep when she approached.
Jin-woo switched the screen in 0.01 seconds.
Minimized the command window, and simultaneously double-clicked the 'Cat Folder' prepared on the desktop.
And spun the chair around, smiling with the world's most unfair and sly expression.
"Ah, you startled me! Ms. Mi-ra. My heart almost dropped. I was looking at cat photos on the desktop right now. Look at this guy's belly fat. It was so cute my heart 'Sim' (Deeply) 'Kung' (Thumped) just like Ms. Mi-ra's beauty."
"Tch, liar."
Mi-ra tilted her head slightly.
That expression was exactly the same as the one measuring Jin-woo in front of the crosswalk last night.
"When you lie, Chief, the corner of your right eye goes up very slightly."
"That's Ms. Mi-ra's misunderstanding."
"No, habit."
Mi-ra took a step closer to the monitor.
"Habits remain in logs."
Jin-woo was smiling, but his palms were sweaty.
This woman isn't simply hitting on him.
Observing, catching patterns, finding weaknesses.
In other words.
'Analyzing' a person.
"Ms. Mi-ra."
Jin-woo spoke lightly.
"If a new recruit is this diligent, a section chief like me will have his seat taken."
"I have no intention of taking it."
Mi-ra laughed.
"Instead… I have to verify."
At that one word, Jin-woo's spine went cold.
Verify.
That word was a common word in the company.
But the 'verify' coming from Mi-ra's mouth right now wasn't the company's verify.
Verification used when treating a person like an account.
Verification seeing a living human as 'connection status.'
Jin-woo was certain at that moment.
Yoon Mi-ra is not an emotional intruder,
but a system intruder.
Skipping lunch, Jin-woo hid himself in the emergency exit stairs.
And called Min-su.
"Min-su-ya, it's me. The hole is pierced. The main contractor jerks, they are just sucking our logs in real-time."
[Park Min-su]: See. What did I say. That wouldn't be simple surveillance.
A moment of silence.
Min-su's voice lowered.
[Park Min-su]: And be careful. Your team's new recruit Yoon Mi-ra. Her resume is a bit strange. It wasn't specs to enter a subcontracting company.
"To what extent?"
[Park Min-su]: To put it bluntly, a feeling of 'a person who shouldn't have entered has entered.'
Jin-woo gripped the railing tight.
His knuckles turned white.
"Then… it might be that she didn't enter, but pretended to enter."
[Park Min-su]: That's what I mean. And more importantly—
Min-su paused for a beat.
[Park Min-su]: She's not just sticking to you. Right now, she's sticking to Da-yeon too.
Jin-woo inhaled sharply.
He looked down below the stair window.
On the sidewalk below, Da-yeon was walking toward the company building.
And behind her, Yoon Mi-ra was following closely like a shadow.
Jin-woo smiled bitterly and muttered.
"The logs aren't tangled… the board was set up."
The office air conditioner noise sounded like the pulse of a giant machine today.
Jin-woo felt he now had to fully awaken the senses hidden behind the mask of the sly Section Chief.
Looking at his silhouette reflected in the window, he muttered very softly.
"Today, not attendance verification… but I'll have to verify intrusion."
And.
Even though he didn't turn on the monitor,
as if someone displayed a sentence in front of his eyes,
very short letters were embedded in Jin-woo's mind.
Verification Complete.