NOVEL NEXT Chapter 75
“Who the hell exposed me?”
Lee Seo muttered to herself, alone in the conference room.
Honestly, she had never imagined someone would expose her.
“Hye-ri didn’t tell anyone, so it couldn’t have been her. Was it Jeong-hwa? Or Se-young? Or Yoo-bin? There are too many suspicious people, I can’t figure it out.”
As Lee Seo thought about the list of possible suspects, she soon shook her head and sighed.
“Whoever did it, that’s something to look into later… Right now, I need to find a solution.”
She looked at the door where the Team Leader and Department Head had gone, but no brilliant ideas came to mind.
Frankly, she didn’t even know what she had done wrong.
Is it a problem for an employee to talk badly about their company or disliked superior on social media?
Even kings get cursed behind their backs when they’re not around, so what exactly is the issue here?
As she thought about it, the initial anxiety of being caught gradually disappeared, replaced by anger.
No, so what now?
Without the dirty heterosexual male preference illustrations I drew, the game couldn’t have been made.
You want to cut them?
How many illustrations did I draw?
Can you replace my position?
As she thought this, the last bit of anxiety she had completely disappeared.
Fine, when the Team Leader comes back, I’ll go out there confidently.
I didn’t do anything that wrong, did I?
Just as she had resolved this in her mind, the Team Leader, Department Head, and that Jihojin Department Head she had so harshly criticized entered the conference room.
***
When the interrogation finally began, Lee Seo, who had looked so troubled earlier, was now staring at me confidently.
It seemed she had decided to take a firm stance.
“…What is it?”
Like someone determined to do it properly, she crossed her arms and looked up at me with a bitter expression.
It seemed she intended to show that she was fundamentally different from Hye-ji, who had cooperated willingly…
“We’re talking about the defamation and spreading of false information about me and my games through a hidden SNS account.”
“While I do feel morally sorry about cursing the Department Head online, I think it’s inappropriate to pressure me like this when it wasn’t done in a public space.”
Lee Seo looked at me as if she truly didn’t know what she had done wrong, with her usual expression.
At that moment, heavy sighs came from the people standing on either side of me.
“I must have misjudged this person.”
With that comment from Director Cho, the office atmosphere grew even heavier.
Lee Seo, unable to bear it, asked Director Cho.
“Sorry, Director. Could you tell me what I did wrong? Even if we let my talking behind your back slide, did I say anything wrong besides that?”
“…The defamation and fabrication about another department’s game, Reverse Arcadia?”
“Honestly, I don’t see any fabrication in my evaluation of that game. It’s a game that prolongs its existence by sexualizing underage girls. Director Jihojin, honestly, aren’t you ashamed of the game you created?”
“Goodness…!”
As I stopped the Team Leader from 3rd Department who seemed unable to hear any more, I replied.
“Say everything you want to say.”
“Hah, I knew I couldn’t anyway. Let’s start with Girls’ Memorial, shall we?”
After I set the stage, she began spilling everything she wanted to say.
From talking about the sexualization of children, using skins as examples to say we made money in an uncouth way,
To the famous line that the character intimacy stories were cheap stories based on gaslighting,
It was full of golden lines that could make someone sound like a radical feminist.
While Lee Seo talked, the Team Leader from 3rd Department and Director Cho seemed to be half losing their minds,
But Lee Seo, who had already immersed herself in her own world, seemed completely unaware of the surrounding situation.
The first thing that came to mind after hearing all of Lee Seo’s arguments was this:
“Did her mental age stop growing at late teens?”
Putting aside the shadowboxing about sexualization in 2D where there’s neither victim nor perpetrator,
I couldn’t possibly tolerate talking down and devaluing the product I created and presented to customers by calling it uncouth or based on gaslighting.
Just as I wondered what to say, I glared at Lee Seo who slightly avoided my gaze.
Seeing that, controlling my anger, I began.
“Let me clarify something you seem mistaken about… The company is not a place for you to realize your self-actualization or preach your ideology.”
“What? What do you mean?”
“The outfits used for skins are uncouth, the intimacy stories are cheap stories mired in gaslighting—are these not all subjective assessments from Miss Lee Seo?”
“That… that is naturally an objective judgment!”
“Objective according to whose standards? The Bluebird users’ evaluations?”
As I talked, anger rose without my realizing it, making my words sound sarcastic.
Realizing that I was being sarcastic when she heard that, Miss Lee Seo flushed and shouted.
“Stop being sarcastic…!”
“I’m not being sarcastic, I’m just stating facts. Ultimately, don’t customers judge the objective value of items we have to sell them? How were the users’ reactions the same as what Miss Lee Seo said?”
“That’s because the game is male-oriented and the users are men…”
“Of course, as a male-oriented game made for men, it’s obvious that men’s reactions are the benchmark.”
“Even so, it’s problematic to use the reactions of Korean men lacking in gender sensitivity as the benchmark…”
At this utterly disappointing response, I audibly sighed, glaring at Miss Lee Seo.
“Still not understanding, do you know where Miss Lee Seo’s salary comes from?”
“T-That should obviously come from the company…”
“Then do you think the company’s money grows on trees?”
“Of course, the company earns money…”
“Then who are the main customers of Enson GT where Miss Lee Seo works?”
“That…”
Miss Lee Seo, who had started to answer out of frustration, seemed to realize something was off and closed her mouth.
Seeing that, I continued, looking at Miss Lee Seo with a disappointed expression.
“The company is a place to get paid and work, not a place to ignore customer needs and preach your ideology. People usually learn not to be this stubborn in school.”
This last sentence was one I said, fully expecting to be cursed by Miss Lee Seo who was clearly angry.
Still retaining some rationality to know she shouldn’t curse, she tightly shut her bright red face.
Seeing that, I no longer felt the need to continue talking and stood up from my seat.
I had already said everything I needed to say to Miss Lee Seo, and it was now time to consider practical measures.
***
With that, I dragged Director Cho and the Team Leader from 3rd Department to the rest room terrace.
To help the two lost souls clear their heads by getting some fresh air.
The two people who had been dragged to the terrace looked like their souls had left their bodies from the level of shock they had experienced.
After seeing the ugly true nature of a colleague they had spent over three years with, this was understandable.
While I had already been prepared through my experience of seeing all sorts of things before the reset, it was different for these two…
Still, there was something that needed to be addressed, so I cleared my throat to bring the two back to reality.
“First, I understand both of you are shocked, but we need to consider realistic countermeasures.”
At this, Director Cho was the first to come to his senses.
“Countermeasures?”
“Yes. We can’t let things stay as they are with her returning to her duties, can we? And there’s also the issue of the user reactions.”
“That’s true…”
“If this had been like the previous scandal involving an outside contractor, we could have ended things by terminating the contract and redoing the illustrations, but in this case, it’s a regular employee…”
With the reality of the situation, the three of us all sighed deeply.
All of us here were aware of the strength of the Labor Standards Act.
Unlike in America, the fact that we couldn’t fire someone even after such a major incident was incredibly frustrating.
Just as the three of us were deep in thought,
A phone call came in, revealing Su-yeon’s familiar voice.
[Hojin, are you available to talk right now?]
“I am. President.”
[There’s been a major incident with one of the employees on the PC Game Development Team, right?]
“There is one employee…”
[Interesting. Can you have that employee come up to my office?]
“Yes, I’ll bring them up right away.”
[Not that. Have the employee come up alone.]
For some reason, Su-yeon’s voice felt icy.
“I understand.”
After the call ended, everyone focused on me.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
Instead of Director Cho, Team Leader from 3rd Department answered with a shocked expression.
“Is the rumor true that the director’s smartphone has a direct line to the president?”
Though he didn’t say it, Director Cho also seemed curious.
Facing their curious gazes, I led the two away without giving any other answer.
“Well, we can talk about that later. Let’s handle the urgent matter first.”
***
When we returned to the conference room, we immediately sent Lee Seo up to the president’s office.
About an hour later,
The Lee Seo who came down to the conference room looked completely different from the confident person who had defiantly stood up to us before.
Her confident expression of what she did wrong had become deeply wrinkled, and her eyes were moist, as if she had been crying.
‘What happened in the president’s office?’
Since it definitely wasn’t the kind of atmosphere where an outsider like me should start talking, instead, our closest colleague to Lee Seo, the Team Leader of 3rd Department reluctantly stepped up to ask,
But Lee Seo only glared at us with a resentful gaze before running out of the conference room.
That was the last time we saw Lee Seo at Enson GT.
Later, when I asked what had happened in the president’s office, Su-yeon smiled wryly and gave a rather simple answer:
“People who lead double lives often have dirty pasts.”
…It wasn’t information I particularly wanted to know.