Early morning.
Outside the window, the world was still gray. It was a time a bit too early for birds to cry, yet a time people were too accustomed to crying in.
There are sounds that can only be heard in such hours.
The low hum of the refrigerator, the ticking of the wall clock's second hand, and—the vibration of a cellphone.
The vibration wasn't kind like an alarm.
Bzzt, bzzt.
It was a rhythm that didn't say "Wake up," but rather, "Check this."
Section Chief Kang Jin-woo reached for the trembling phone by his pillow the moment he opened his eyes, but then stopped mid-air.
The moment he grabbed that thing, today would no longer belong to 'him,' but to the 'System.'
Jin-woo stared up at the ceiling from under his duvet and muttered very quietly.
"Ceiling, you're lucky. You just lie there all day, and nobody tells you to perform a 'Face Verification'."
Naturally, the ceiling didn't answer.
Instead, the phone shuddered once more, briefly.
The rhythm of the IT Team's notification was terribly precise. It wasn't a method to wake a person; it was a method to wake an account.
[IT/Security] Final Notice for Non-Compliant Personnel Regarding Strengthened Company-Wide Terminal Security Policy
Target: Section Chief Kang Jin-woo and 3 others
Content: If in-person authentication is not completed, groupware access will be blocked as of 11:00 AM today, and a statement of apology will be required.
Jin-woo smirked.
"Right. It's not that I woke up late… it's that my account woke up late."
He sat up and fished for his slippers beside the bed. As he dragged them onto his feet, he let out a sigh.
The house was quiet, but sometimes, a quiet house is more exhausting.
A space that says nothing forces you to talk to yourself.
Entering the bathroom, Jin-woo habitually stood before the mirror.
He was about to wash his face but hesitated.
The moment his own face reflected on the smooth glass surface, the inside of his chest felt damp.
He couldn't understand why he felt like crying for no reason, especially today.
Jin-woo couldn't look straight into his own eyes in the mirror and averted his gaze slightly.
Fidgeting with the metal rim of the mirror, he muttered so softly it was barely audible.
"This mirror… it is glass, right? Choi…."
The sentence, unable to spit out the name until the end, shattered between his lips.
Jin-woo shook his head violently and turned the faucet all the way up.
As soon as the cold water touched his face, he forced his mind to wake up.
Rubbing his face roughly with a towel, he tossed a remark toward the mirror.
"Jin-woo, face verification complete for today too. Attendance!"
The man in the mirror pretended to smile.
Jin-woo hated that he had become accustomed to that fake smile most of all.
The sound of closing the front door was always short.
Click.
With that single sound, 'Home' was pushed back, and 'Company' was pulled forward.
Looking at himself in the elevator mirror, Jin-woo adjusted his tie.
To be precise, it felt less like adjusting a tie and more like tidying up a "face that looks like an office worker."
The early morning air was cold, and even the atmosphere seemed to tighten around his neck, urging him to hurry to work.
There was already a line at the bus stop.
People stood with their own individual expressions, but they had one thing in common.
Faces going to get 'verified.'
Jin-woo blended into the line and plugged in his earphones. No music played.
He didn't press the play button.
Jin-woo had learned in society that there are earphones you wear just because you want to block your ears.
When the bus arrived, people moved all at once.
Jin-woo tried not to be swept away by the flow, but eventually, he was.
One step, two steps.
Sometimes, he had this thought.
'Am I walking… or is the system rolling me?'
The company lobby was brighter than usual.
'Brighter' was almost synonymous with saying the surveillance cameras were clearer.
The 'beep' sound heard every time someone passed through the entry gate was as sharp as the sound of a tag being punched into the ear of livestock entering a slaughterhouse.
On the way to the elevator past the gate, Assistant Manager Yoon Se-jin came running from afar, waving her hand loudly.
"Chief! Chief! Did you hear? The atmosphere in the HR team is no joke today!"
Se-jin was our team's 'Lively Translator.'
Her specialty was translating the stiff notices from the head office into "We're all dead today" and spreading it to the team members.
Jin-woo retorted immediately.
"Ms. Se-jin, isn't your voice too high-pitched for the morning? You went from Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol all the way to 'Sol.' 'Sol'-estly (Honestly), isn't it too loud?"
"Ah, Chief! Seriously! Can't we confiscate those dad jokes starting from the morning?"
Se-jin grumbled but stuck right next to Jin-woo.
To anyone watching, they looked like ordinary colleagues walking together.
But Jin-woo knew.
Laughter is a defense.
If you don't laugh, your heart dies first in this place.
As soon as they opened the office door, Team Leader Cha Do-il's emotions were already in an orbit on the verge of 'explosion.'
He was glaring as if to bore a hole through his monitor, and shouted the moment he spotted Jin-woo.
"Kang Jin-woo! You just got here? The IT team is calling and making a fuss. Why is your record missing? Our team score is going to get slashed!"
Team Leader Cha was short-tempered.
Jin-woo, unperturbed, slowly set down his bag.
"Team Leader, if you get angry from the morning, your blood pressure will rise by the 'Team' unit, which is dangerous."
Jin-woo lightly raised his palm and played innocent.
"I will go right now and see the end of this 'verification.' My name is Kang Jin-woo, isn't it? I'll go and 'Kang' (Strongly) 'Jin' (Suppress) the situation."
"Aish, that damn joke… Go quickly! I'm giving you 10 minutes!"
Jin-woo answered, "Yes!" and turned around.
Then, he glanced at the corner of the office.
There was the intern, Lee Da-yeon.
Da-yeon was hugging a stack of documents, shoulders hunched like a terrified cat.
Jin-woo tapped her desk as he passed. Just enough not to startle her.
"Ms. Da-yeon, straighten your shoulders. If you get a turtle neck, you'll become slow like a turtle and get off work late, you know?"
"…Ah, yes! I'm sorry… No, thank you, Chief!"
Da-yeon's voice was small, but within that small voice, Jin-woo felt a strange warmth.
Warmth can save a person… but it also makes a person weak.
Jin-woo knew that.
So he threw another joke.
Before it could get warm, he had to make it light.
"Good. Then let's leave work as a rabbit today, not a turtle. Rabbits… don't do overtime."
Da-yeon laughed awkwardly.
Seeing that laugh, Jin-woo felt uncomfortable for a moment.
'I joked to make her laugh… but she seems to be laughing to survive.'
Jin-woo checked his watch as he came out of HR after signing the papers.
Of the 10 minutes Team Leader Cha gave him, 8 had already passed.
An ordinary person would have sprinted back to their seat, but Jin-woo slowed his pace instead.
If you run, you stand out.
If you stand out, you get checked.
If you get checked… things happen.
He glanced at the end of the office hallway, toward the entrance where Team Leader Cha had his radar up.
As expected, steam of rage could be seen rising from the Team Leader's crown.
Instead of going straight into the office, Jin-woo hugged the empty file folder tucked under his arm tightly to his chest as if it were a 'top-secret document.'
Then, deliberately taking a detour toward the break room, he muttered just loud enough for a passing colleague to hear.
"Ah, I need to get the security policy log verified. Why is the procedure so twisted? I should report this to the Team Leader personally."
Hearing that voice, Team Leader Cha whipped his head around.
As soon as their eyes met, Jin-woo nodded with a very solemn expression.
"Section Chief Kang! Is it resolved?"
"Team Leader, this is deeper than I thought. The authentication log on the IT side is tangled, so I'm going to go confirm it on-site personally."
Jin-woo hugged the file folder tighter.
"10 minutes? If I finish in 10 minutes, I wouldn't be a Chief (Gwajang), I'd be a Chip (Gwaja - snack)? I'll be back soon!"
Taking advantage of the moment the Team Leader looked dumbfounded, asking "What? Chip?", Jin-woo threw himself toward the emergency exit stairs without looking back.
Slipping away like a snake was Jin-woo's specialty.
Running down the stairs two at a time, he caught his breath.
The moment the damp air of the office changed to the cool air of the stairwell, he finally felt alive.
Jin-woo stopped for a moment.
He gripped the steel railing with his palm. The cold sensation dug into his fingertips.
"Verification… verification…."
He muttered like a monologue.
For now, it's just the company's verification.
For now, it's just that level.
But Jin-woo knew that somewhere—someday—this word, verification, would return with a completely different meaning.
Like those days when he had to stake his life to 'verify' someone's sins.
He took a long, deep breath.
And then again, he moved his feet as if nothing had happened.