The night at Cafe 'Sum-pyo' deepened, but the air within it refused to mix.
The scent of warm cocoa brought by Da-woon bloomed once over the counter, only to be pushed aside by the provocative perfume exuding from Yoon Mi-ra. Does it make sense for a scent to step aside? Jin-woo thought that, at least for tonight, it was possible. Some people enter by changing the rules of the space. Mi-ra was exactly that type.
"Unnie, drink this. Your hands are cold."
Da-woon wrapped both her hands around Da-yeon's. Da-yeon squeezed back, trying not to lose that grip. As if the moment she let go, today's gathering would shake to its foundation.
Jin-woo only fidgeted with his coffee cup. Stroking the lukewarm wall of the cup with his fingertips, his gaze fixed outside the window.
Why I am sitting here, who I am with, what the topic of today's conversation was.
Such things were not important.
What was important was.
Where the 'log' of this gathering right now would remain.
Mi-ra sat with her legs crossed and scanned Jin-woo once. Scanning is originally an act done with eyes, but from this woman, 'certainty' came out before her gaze.
"Chief, it's really fascinating. You're so sly at the company, but outside… you're a bit quiet?"
"If I were sly outside too, that would be a sickness."
Jin-woo lifted his cup and smiled.
"And I hate going to hospitals."
"You hate hospitals? Then I should make you healthy."
Mi-ra laughed. Her tone was joking, but her eyes were not.
Hearing that, Da-woon slammed her cocoa cup down. Tak.
"Wow, what's with that tone? Oppa, did you learn talk like this? Is there a 'Dating Education' course at the company too?"
"Hey, Da-woon. If you do that in front of a guest…"
"Guest? If she's a guest, what is Unnie? Unnie is our family."
Da-woon cut her sentence short. Mi-ra hesitated for a moment. She wasn't lacking tact; rather, she was so quick-witted that she instantly knew those words were drawing a 'boundary line.'
Da-yeon couldn't lift her head.
If she lifted her head, she felt she would meet Mi-ra's eyes,
and if their eyes met…
She felt she would be caught struggling to protect something.
Jin-woo translated this current into 'work.'
That was the way he had lived.
"Da-woon, didn't you say you're doing a bean tasting event tomorrow? You told Ms. Da-yeon to come too, right?"
Da-woon looked at Da-yeon and nodded immediately.
"Yeah. If Unnie comes… I'll make something really delicious."
"Good. Then Ms. Mi-ra should come too."
Jin-woo said it as if it were nothing.
Mi-ra raised an eyebrow slightly.
"Me too?"
"Yeah. Since you're a team member."
Jin-woo spoke too naturally.
He brought out the word 'team member' like a shield.
Mi-ra curled up the corners of her mouth.
"Sounds good. I like teamwork."
At that moment, Da-yeon's breath shook very slightly.
Teamwork.
That word is a safe word, but for Da-yeon, it was a dangerous word.
Because everyone who enters the fence of a team feels like they have the 'same qualification.'
Jin-woo noticed that shake.
He noticed,
but pretended not to know.
Pretending not to know was Jin-woo's specialty,
and pretending not to know was his survival method.
That night, even after returning home, Jin-woo couldn't fall asleep easily.
In his dreams, complex security logs scattered like mirror shards.
And within those shards, the word 'Glass' (Yuri) was always mixed in.
As soon as he woke up, he headed to the bathroom out of habit.
In front of the mirror.
His hand went up, then stopped.
Jin-woo soon turned his gaze and just tied his shoelaces tightly.
The mirror was there today too,
and his face was scheduled to be reflected there today too.
Not being able to look even while knowing that,
was not because he avoided it…
but because he feared he would collapse if he saw it.
Next morning.
Morning sunlight shattered on the road to the subway station, but Jin-woo's head was already anticipating the damp air conditioner breeze of the office. The sequence of countless 'verifications' that would begin the moment he accessed the system.
Returning to that daily life was like a satellite orbiting a set path.
If the orbit deviates even a little, an alarm rings somewhere.
And when the alarm rings.
People come running.
Jin-woo thought while listening to the sound of the subway doors closing.
'Who… will shake my day today?'
The answer was fast.
As soon as he entered the office, the air had changed.
It had turned from 'dampness' to 'stinginess.'
The way the person named Yoon Mi-ra adapted to the space called the office was closer to occupation than adaptation.
Two days since joining.
In those two days, Mi-ra had already grasped Team Leader Cha Do-il's coffee preference.
She laughed and parried the Team Leader's remarks like "My coffee doesn't taste like beans, it tastes like determination,"
and matched perfect harmony with Yoon Se-jin's chatter.
And above all.
She persistently dug into Section Chief Kang Jin-woo's movements.
"Chief~"
Mi-ra's calling sound was almost an alarm. One that doesn't turn off.
"That re-verification file you mentioned yesterday, can I look at it together? I want to learn quickly."
Jin-woo replied while turning on his monitor.
"Learning is good, but the real core of our team is 'enduring'."
"Enduring?"
"Yeah. Enduring until clock-out."
"Ah~ That's my specialty?"
Mi-ra laughed and dragged her chair. Drrrk.
And.
She came right inside Jin-woo's partition.
The distance between Jin-woo's shoulder and Mi-ra's shoulder was barely 5cm.
An intrusion far exceeding the physical distance allowed in the public space of an office.
Jin-woo said without taking his hands off the keyboard.
"Ms. Mi-ra, logs aren't seen with eyes but read with the head. If you come too close, your eyes will go bad."
"Oh my. Chief, are you worried about my eyes?"
"No, worried about my monitor."
"Gasp. Hurt…."
Mi-ra clutched her chest like acting, then laughed immediately.
"Then I should come closer to look. Since I need to check the monitor's condition."
Simultaneously with those words,
Mi-ra's fingertips slightly grazed Jin-woo's arm.
Tuk.
Really lightly.
But that lightness was more dangerous.
Because people are shaken more often by small contacts than large ones.
Da-yeon's hand, watching that scene from the front, trembled.
Da-yeon stood in front of the copier, forgetting even what she was doing right now.
More than the heat of the copy paper, Mi-ra's laughter was searing her chest hotter—
No,
more painfully.
Da-yeon bowed her head deeply.
She hesitates ten thousand times even to hand a cup of coffee to Jin-woo,
but Mi-ra was striding into Jin-woo's world in just two days.
The prison named 'Timidity' felt exceptionally narrow and cold today.
It was then.
Yoon Se-jin glanced at Da-yeon and whispered.
"Ms. Da-yeon, are you okay? Your face is pale."
"Ah, no… I'm okay."
Da-yeon laughed weakly.
The word 'okay' was always like that.
A word used when not okay.
Lunch time.
Jin-woo went up to the rooftop alone as usual.
Not to avoid people, but to avoid 'records.'
Because the office is a place where even a trivial word turns into a record.
Whether it's laughter, a sigh, or a gaze.
But there was already someone on the rooftop.
A man pressing down a black cap and tapping on a tablet PC.
Park Min-su.
Jin-woo's best friend.
And a human surviving in this field with ghost-like intuition.
"Hey."
Min-su spoke without even lifting his head.
"Kang Jin-woo. Why are your logs so dirty these days?"
Jin-woo threw a canned coffee next to Min-su and sat down.
"What's wrong with my logs? They're clean enough. Even if a subcontractor Section Chief's logs get dirty, what comes out but dust."
"If it's dust, that's fortunate."
Min-su spun the tablet around to show him.
"Yesterday, a strange access trace was captured on the 'Sum-pyo' side. Rather than access… it was probing."
"Does cafe Wi-Fi leave logs too?"
"It does. For people who did the same work as you and me, everything in the world is a log."
Jin-woo's hand paused for a moment.
"Did Da-woon tell you."
"Yeah. Said 'a fox came'."
Min-su laughed low, then retracted his laughter.
"But the fox isn't the problem."
Min-su's gaze lingered on Jin-woo's chest pocket.
There lay Jin-woo's worn wallet.
Min-su knew that inside it, there would be a photo of 'Choi Yu-ri.'
"You still avoid mirrors."
"…That."
"That is a sickness."
Min-su was firm.
"Thinking about Yu-ri, it's time to stop."
Strength entered the hand Jin-woo used to grip the canned coffee.
The sound of aluminum crumpling was heard.
"Min-su-ya."
Jin-woo spoke low.
"Do you think if glass (yuri) breaks, it can be put back together?"
"It can be put back."
"I don't see it that way."
Jin-woo pretended to smile. With a face where pretending to smile was scarier.
"What became powder… sending it away in the wind is politeness."
Min-su sighed.
"Politeness my foot. You'll die because of your politeness, rascal."
A moment of silence.
The rooftop wind passed between the two.
Jin-woo turned his gaze.
"But… not that for today."
He tapped the tablet toward Min-su and said.
"The company side, isn't it strange?"
"What?"
"The re-verification request coming down from the main contractor. It's too precise. Not just 'passing the buck'… but a feeling of trying to verify something."
Min-su's eyes narrowed minutely.
"Verify?"
Jin-woo nodded.
"Yeah. A feeling that someone… is verifying me."
Min-su laughed shortly.
"You have a face contemplating whether to utter the word 'Phantom' or not right now."
"I'm just a subcontractor Section Chief?"
"Right. Subcontractor Section Chief… why are you so sensitive?"
Min-su tapped the tablet again and said.
"Got it. Although it's words you hate, I'll dig into your background a bit. The way our company is running, I also saw it as not ordinary."
Jin-woo stood up from his seat.
"Park Min-su."
"What."
"Thanks."
"Don't do cringey stuff. Instead…"
Min-su lifted his head.
"Sort out the women around you first. Or else you'll really explode from system overload."
Jin-woo twisted up the corner of his mouth.
"If it overloads, just reboot."
"Humans don't reboot."
Min-su's words were not a joke.
Afternoon.
When Jin-woo returned to his seat, a pretty memo was attached to his desk.
[Chief! I'll treat you to something delicious this evening. Refusal is refused! - Mi-ra -]
Jin-woo picked up the memo,
then put it down as it was.
And at that moment,
Da-yeon's eyes shook.
Da-yeon approached Jin-woo with a face as if 'if not now, I can never say it.'
Her lips opened and closed several times.
Her fingertips trembled.
"Uhm… Chief."
"Hm?"
"Today… Da-woon said at the cafe… new beans… tasting event…."
Da-yeon trailed off.
As if scared the world wouldn't hear because her words were too small.
Jin-woo looked alternately at the memo and Da-yeon,
then smiled like a sly snake and peeled off the memo, stuffing it into his pocket.
"Ms. Da-yeon."
Jin-woo's voice became a little softer than usual.
"If it's a tasting event, it's free?"
"…Pardon?"
"They say you drink lye if it's free, so coffee is a blessing."
Jin-woo shrugged his shoulders.
"Let's go to Da-woon's place after work. Ms. Mi-ra… I'll tell her nicely."
Only then did a small light return to Da-yeon's face.
That light was the kind of light Jin-woo wanted to protect.
Too small,
and therefore more precious.
But.
Watching that scene from behind, Mi-ra's eyes narrowed sharply.
Mi-ra hung a smile on her lips,
but pressed the ballpoint pen in her hand hard.
'Ah, that intern girl… subtly gets in the way.'
Mi-ra approached Da-yeon and smiled kindly.
A smile so kind it was scarier.
"Ms. Da-yeon is going too? That must be nice."
"…Yes, I…"
"Shall I go too? Since it's a bean tasting event."
Da-yeon's mouth hardened slightly.
Jin-woo inserted his words in between.
"Ms. Mi-ra, for today… rest a bit. The first week is about stamina."
"Chief, I have good stamina."
"Because you have good stamina, you should rest more. If it's excessive, you collapse the next day."
Jin-woo's tone was joking, but his eyes drew a line.
Mi-ra instinctively read that line.
And laughed.
"Alright. I'll listen to the Chief well."
It wasn't the face of a person who would listen well,
but the face of a person who would remember the words well.
The clock sound announcing quitting time was heard.
The office air conditioner breeze was cool,
but the density of emotions between people was taut like a pressure cooker.
Jin-woo looked into the logs on the monitor again.
And suddenly, discovered a very minute 'misalignment.'
Metadata of the re-verification request email.
Sender server path.
Normal.
Too normal.
Between those normals, a very small…
gap like an 'empty 0.3 seconds.'
Jin-woo stopped his fingers.
This is not work—
It's someone's interference.
Jin-woo looked at the numbers on the monitor and muttered very quietly.
"The algorithm… has started to touch me."
The logs of that day would still be categorized as 'trivial daily life.'
Cafe tasting event, new recruit's offensive, intern's trembling, friend's advice.
But Jin-woo knows.
The system always starts like this.
At first with small interference.
After shaking a person's heart,
into that shaken crack…
it pushes in the real knife.
Over Jin-woo's shadow,
records of another interference began to stack layer by layer.