Chapter 1
The sound of heavy, ragged breathing brushed past my ears.
I couldn't even tell if it was mine or the breathing of the people I was with.
A thumping heartbeat tightened my chest painfully.
Kang Ye-ra, who was standing in front of me, pointed toward the opposite end of the hallway and shouted urgently.
“Over there!”
I turned my head, following the tip of her finger.
A man with bloodshot eyes was glaring at us and running our way.
Beneath cloudy eyes covered in burst capillaries, I could see his mouth smeared with glistening blood.
A thick drop of blood dripped from his chin with a thud.
Before the red liquid could hit the floor, I hurriedly turned around.
“Run!”
Along with Manager Kim’s shout, we all ran toward the emergency stairwell entrance at once.
Manager Kim was the first to reach the iron door of the entrance.
Without hesitation, he pushed the door open and ran into the emergency stairwell.
Running after him, I swallowed a shocked groan at the sight of the iron door.
Bloody handprints were messily stamped on the iron door, which was painted grayish-blue.
From the hallway to the inside of the stairwell, thick drops of blood that dotted the hallway floor were also visible.
“Jihyeok-nim!”
At Kang Ye-ra's urgent cry, I squeezed through the gap in the emergency door before I could think any further.
With me being the last one, the door closed with a thud.
The man let out a sharp, eerie scream outside and kept slamming his body against the fire door.
I felt constant impacts through my back as I leaned against the fire door.
Standing there blocking the door, we held our breath and exchanged terror-filled glances.
How did it end up like this?
A question I had been asking since the very first moment, yet one that had no answer, passed between our eyes.
To find an answer that could not be confirmed, I tried to organize my jumbled thoughts and took my memories back to the morning the incident began.
.
.
“Jihyeok-ssi, are you okay? You look tired.”
At the worried voice, I looked up from the monitor.
Deputy Head Jeong Mi-gyeong, who had an easygoing appearance and a plump build, was looking at me with eyes full of concern.
Deputy Head Jeong, who said she had two sons in their twenties, was an exceptionally kind boss to the interns.
Saying she hoped her own children would go to a company that took care of them this much when they became interns, she occasionally gave small tips or took us to a cafe to give us a chance to catch our breath.
Knowing it was sincere concern, I held back my sleepiness and forced a smile as I replied.
“Yes, I didn't sleep well last night because of the mosquitoes.”
It was a lie.
I hadn't slept a wink last night preparing for today's presentation.
Because I had heard repeatedly from my seniors how important the market analysis presentation in the first month of the internship was.
Perhaps because of that, every time I closed my laptop and lay down last night, I thought of something to revise in the presentation materials, and I stayed up all night.
“Oh dear, are there mosquitoes already? It seems to have gotten a bit hotter lately, but they've come out early.”
Deputy Head Jeong spoke with her eyes wide open.
At that expression, which showed she didn't doubt my words at all, I hurriedly agreed.
“Yes, indeed. Maybe it's because of the weather, but they're a bit early this year.”
“I should probably buy some mosquito repellent for our house soon.”
As Deputy Head Jeong, who had given a bright smile, was about to continue speaking, Manager Kim, who was walking from over there, raised his hand and called her.
“Oh, Deputy Head Jeong! Let's talk for a moment.”
Deputy Head Jeong Mi-gyeong momentarily frowned slightly, but she soon replied with a bright smile.
“Manager, are you coming back from getting some fresh air?”
Manager Kim answered half-heartedly, pointing a finger toward the ceiling.
“Uh-huh, I’m just on my way back from upstairs.”
He was a well-known heavy smoker in the company.
It was an ambiguous answer, leaving it unclear whether he had been to the rooftop to smoke or to meet with a superior.
“Have you thought about what I said last week?”
At Manager Kim’s question, Deputy Head Jeong lowered her voice slightly and pointed toward the empty conference room.
“Yes, actually, I was going to talk to you about that, but you weren't at your desk earlier...”
Soon, their voices faded, perhaps as they entered the conference room and closed the door.
“Is it because of today's presentation?”
At the sudden whisper, I jerked my head around to find my fellow intern, Kang Ye-ra, standing there with a steaming white mug.
With a tall stature reminiscent of a model and a face that looked cold at first glance, she was the person I was closest to among the interns thanks to her easygoing personality.
She was 25 years old, the youngest among this batch of interns.
I heard she had successfully landed the job after her very first interview following university graduation and joined as an intern.
I was about to give her the same lie I told Deputy Head Jeong Mi-gyeong, but I changed my mind.
“...To be honest, yes. If I get a low evaluation this time, I'll have to go back to being a job seeker.”
As I replied with an awkward smile, Kang Ye-ra nodded.
She lowered her eyes with a feigned somber expression and replied in an even lower voice.
“I was so nervous about it that I barely slept last night, too.”
“Really? You don't look like it.”
At those words, Kang Ye-ra tilted her mug slightly to show me the liquid inside.
It smelled like coffee, but it was a deep black color that looked almost viscous.
“I put four sticks of Ka-X in. I have to hold out with caffeine, at least. Caffeine and makeup.”
“That's a good idea. I should go to the pantry and make some coffee, too...”
Just as I was smiling and replying to the playfully speaking Kang Ye-ra, a sharp, irritable typing sound—click-clack, click-clack—reached my ears.
I glanced toward the source of the noise.
As expected, I saw a pair of eyes glaring coldly at me from beyond the monitor.
It was Gu Hyeon-woo, a fellow intern who had joined Marketing Team 1 along with Kang Ye-ra.
In fact, Gu Hyeon-woo was largely responsible for Kang Ye-ra and me becoming closer than the other interns.
Since he meddled in every little thing and picked a fight over everything, the remaining two of us were able to form a tighter bond.
Accustomed to the situation, I quickly looked at the bottom corner of the monitor.
[9:02 AM].
Without me realizing it, it was past nine o'clock.
“It's work hours.”
I whispered softly to Kang Ye-ra.
Checking the time on the monitor, Kang Ye-ra leaned down slightly, hiding her face below the partition so she wouldn't be seen by Gu Hyeon-woo.
Then, she frowned slightly as if to express her dissatisfaction with him.
Shortly after, Kang Ye-ra spun around and returned to her seat.
Even after she left, Gu Hyeon-woo's stinging gaze directed at my face showed no sign of disappearing.
As I focused on the monitor for a long time to avoid his gaze, drowsiness gradually washed over me.
Eventually, unable to fight off the sleep, I nodded off a few times before snapping back to my senses and sitting up straight.
Beyond the partition, I saw Gu Hyeon-woo's face looking at me as if I were pathetic.
I stood up from my seat, rubbing my face with my thin hands.
I didn't feel confident I could wake up without splashing some cold water on my face.
Perhaps because work hours had just begun, the restroom was empty.
After turning the faucet all the way to the cold side and washing my face, I reached my hand out to the side.
Whoosh.
My wet hand swept through the air.
I roughly wiped the moisture from around my eyes with my hands and looked toward the paper towel dispenser.
The dispenser was empty.
Water was still dripping from my face.
With no other choice, I trudged over to a restroom stall, locked the door, and pulled out some toilet paper.
I closed the toilet lid, sat down, closed my tired eyes, and began to wipe the moisture from my face with toilet paper.
.
.
.
—Beep, beep, beep.
I woke up from a light sleep, startled by the low, unpleasant disaster alert sound.
Just when did I fall asleep?
I hurriedly checked my phone screen.
I let out a sigh of relief seeing the numbers on the screen.
At most, not even five minutes had passed since I entered the restroom.
I threw the wet toilet paper in my hand into the trash can and shook my head to chase away the drowsiness.
I hadn't intended to fall asleep, but I must have dozed off for a moment when I closed my eyes.
A sleep of barely three minutes, far from driving away fatigue, only added weight to the drowsiness already settled on my eyelids.
Pressing my throbbing forehead with my fingers, I checked the contents of the disaster message on my phone screen.
[If a person acting suspiciously is spotted near Gangnam Station, please do not approach them and report to 112. Blurred focus, staggering gait, continuous groaning, etc.]
“Why for something like this...”
Just as the rest of the sentence, ‘...would they set off a disaster alert?’ was about to slip out of my mouth.
I heard the sound of the restroom door opening with a whoosh.
Worried I might be gossiped about for killing time in the restroom stall, I turned off my phone screen and hurriedly stood up.
After tidying my appearance, I placed my hand on the door latch to head out.
However, I soon paused and froze at the strange sound coming from beyond the door.
“Grrr... Geu-euu...”
I heard a sound that seemed like phlegm boiling, as if someone was unable to spit out something that had risen to their throat and was forcing themselves to swallow it.
Did they drink last night?
I had no choice but to take my hand off the handle.
I intended to wait for the person outside to enter a stall.
Judging by how loud they were being, they didn't seem to know anyone was inside.
Meeting face-to-face now would only be awkward for both of us.
But even after waiting a long while, I didn't hear the sound of a stall door opening or closing.
All I could hear was the sound of feet dragging along with that still bizarre ‘grrr’ sound.
Are they standing in front of the sink?
Eventually, I gave up waiting and opened the door.
There were only about ten minutes left until the interns' presentations.
Who on earth is it that drinks their fill from Tuesday morning and makes such groaning noises?
Wondering if it might be someone I knew, I headed toward the sink and shifted only my eyes to check the person.
A middle-aged man in a neat suit was standing crookedly a short distance from the restroom entrance.
I couldn't tell who he was at a glance.
Is he from another team?
There was no way that I, an intern just one month into the job, would know every employee on the same floor.
Just in case, it would be better to greet him first.
I lightly bowed toward the man as I walked to the sink.
At that moment, the man suddenly faltered and leaned as if he were about to collapse.
Startled, I reached out and grabbed the man's arm.
“Are you okay?”
Without answering, the man, whose head was hanging low, gripped my hand that was supporting him.
I felt pain because he gripped it excessively hard, but I was more concerned about his condition.
“Are you not feeling well?”
The moment I asked, the man's fingernails, which were touching the back of my hand, dug into my flesh.
Then his other hand firmly grabbed my forearm, and his wide-open mouth lunged toward that arm.
Terrified by the sudden situation, I pulled my arm back hard and shook off the man's hand.
The man's fingernails, which had already dug into the back of my hand, tore away my flesh as they came off.
I swallowed a sharp gasp at the stinging pain.
The next moment, in the very spot where my arm had been, his teeth clashed together with a loud “snap!” sound.
Because I had pulled my arm away with force, I couldn't catch my balance and staggered back a couple of steps.
And I shouted out toward the man who was slowly raising his head a moment later.
“W-What do you think you're doing right now?”
At that moment, I made eye contact with the man who had fully raised his head.
As if a thin film were layered over his cornea, his cloudy irises flickered back and forth as if trying to find my location.
From his open mouth, the “geu-geuk” sound I had heard inside the stall continued to pour out.
Thick droplets of saliva dripped down the corners of the man's mouth.
The sight of him lunging with his mouth wide open again seemed slow, like it was in slow motion.
The moment one of the man's feet left the floor, I dove into the nearest stall.
Locking the door immediately was a movement that was half instinctual.
BANG!!
As if the man had thrown his body against it, the door shook violently with a thunderous sound.
Wh-what is that person, anyway?
Did he just try to bite me?
It was a relief that I was blocking the door with my back pressed tightly against it.
Otherwise, something like the latch screwed into the thin panel would surely have been ripped off in an instant.
From the impact just now, my entire back, which was pressed against the door, throbbed.
A stabbing pain continued from the back of my hand, which had been deeply gouged by the man's fingernails.
Blood flowing from the wound dripped onto the restroom floor in spots.
Even though the sound of the man pounding on the door continued loudly, the sound of my heart beating was heard clearly, as if echoing in my ears.