Chapter 35: Escaping the Company

“Hehe. Is there nothing else? Nothing you need? It’s fine if there is something else. Of course it is.”

A greasy breath slowly emerged from inside Executive Director Gu’s abdomen, as if trying to conceal the crisis from a few moments ago.

Keeping my head lowered, I looked up cautiously.

My body remembered perfectly how the entire atmosphere of the room had frozen when I asked about dimensional entities.

But sometimes it is more effective to drop a single hint in front of someone like him than to explain something a hundred times to Assistant Manager Son.

‘Although it’s possible that Executive Director Gu is also forcing himself to hold back internally.’

But this was really.

Really important.

I didn’t know why, but if I was a valuable employee, perhaps they could at least remove one restriction to improve my work performance?

I closed my lips once.

And then spoke carefully, as if refusing to swallow those words again.

“…There is something I do need.”

Moon Ara stared at me.

This time, her inverted left eye did not move.

Rather, her gaze was calm.

Executive Director Gu shifted his suit slightly, as if expecting something.

“Very well, go ahead. Tell me anything. Even a human concern is fine. Very human, in fact.”

I set my coffee cup on the table and spoke quietly.

“It’s just that… my apartment and the company are… connected.”

Silence.

The moment I said those words, it felt as though both Executive Director Gu and Moon Ara had stopped at the same time.

Even the time inside the room seemed to freeze for a moment.

“I can’t go outside. So… I wanted to ask whether there’s any way to… go out.”

Only after I finished speaking did I realize it.

That might have sounded incredibly stupid.

‘Did I screw up again?’

Without realizing it, I tightened my fingers.

And then I heard something collapse.

“Pffft… HAHAHAHAHAHA!”

The enormous figure dressed in a suit burst into laughter.

“HAHAHAHA! HAHAHA! AJAJAJAJA! Now this is truly human! Very human, indeed!”

Beneath the table, the body hidden inside the suit swelled, trembled, and laughed.

The vibrations of enormous internal organs seemed to shake his entire body.

Executive Director Gu was laughing with the mouth attached to his abdomen.

Explosive laughter.

Hysterical laughter.

He even seemed happy.

Beside him, Moon Ara lightly covered her mouth.

And she was laughing silently.

“Did you really miss the outside world that much?”

“Yes. To be honest… a little.”

Moon Ara looked away and lowered her head.

It was obvious she was still smiling.

Executive Director Gu continued laughing for quite a while before adjusting his suit and speaking.

“My, how rude of me. Very rude. Forgive me for laughing. I’m truly sorry.”

I nodded and replied.

“It’s alright, Executive Director.”

At that moment, the bubbling sound coming from his abdomen stopped abruptly.

The luxurious atmosphere filling the office instantly turned cold, as if the place had been exposed to a vacuum.

Executive Director Gu slowly leaned his torso toward me.

The empty collar of his suit completely filled my field of vision.

“Employee Jeong Haeil. Actually, the reason I insisted on calling you here wasn’t only because of the reports. I also had something I needed to discuss with you. Of course I did.”

His voice was much lower and clearer than before.

To the point that it felt as though the mouth inside his abdomen were whispering directly into my ear.

“Employee Jeong Haeil. Recently. Recently, tell me. Have you had any strange nightmares? Or seen something resembling a monkey in a corner of a hallway? And if not that… have you desperately made a wish to someone? A wish. Yes, exactly that. A wish.”

Suddenly?

Was this some kind of surprise ideological interrogation?

Something like asking me whether I knew more than a hundred species of insects.

I held my breath and frantically searched my memories, but found nothing that fit.

After a brief moment of thought, I calmly shook my head instead of rushing into a lie.

“…No. Nothing like that has ever happened to me.”

Silence.

Something inside Executive Director Gu’s suit twisted for a long time, as if verifying the truthfulness of my answer.

Finally, the tension filling the room slowly dissipated, and he settled back onto the sofa.

“What a relief. Such a great relief. Truly.”

He let out a small satisfied sound before continuing.

“Employee Jeong. Listen carefully. Our company is a very, very large place. Beneath the CEO are Executive Director Ahn and Executive Director Ho. And in the past there was one more person as well. But not all of them are as merciful as we are. Certainly not.”

He paused for a moment and glanced at Moon Ara.

She remained staring at her teacup with a blank expression.

“Especially the people on Executive Director Ahn’s side. They’re quite aggressive. Very aggressive, in fact. Be careful of Director Won, who works under him. A talent as pure as you would be excellent prey for someone like him. You must be careful. Very careful.”

Executive Director Ho.

Executive Director Ahn.

And Director Won.

Yet another level of conflict within the strange ecosystem known as Limited Company Where the Dead End Up with Ghosts.

I memorized those names while swallowing nervously.

More names that I needed to remember was never a good sign.

“I’ll keep that in mind, Executive Director.”

Gently stroking his abdomen, he continued speaking.

“Very good. If you haven’t yet had contact with Executive Director Ahn’s people, then going outside shouldn’t be a problem. Humans need to see sunlight in order to live. If they don’t see it, they wither away. They wither away, without a doubt.”

Moon Ara raised her glass again and calmly moistened her lips.

Her eyes remained serene.

And the corners of her mouth were still slightly raised.

“Of course, basic outings are possible as long as certain conditions are met. You must carry company products with you at all times, and extended absences unrelated to work are restricted. But going out for a while to get some fresh air is a right granted to human employees. And since you’ve already received a prototype, you meet the requirements. You meet them perfectly.”

Executive Director Gu nodded.

“However, if you stay outside for too long, Manager Moon may end up coming to retrieve you with the entire Security Team. So be careful. Very careful.”

I reflected on his words.

‘I can go outside.’

Just that fact.

Just that alone.

Already made me feel as though I could keep living.

I slowly exhaled and lowered my head.

“Thank you very much, Executive Director. And thank you as well, Manager Moon.”

Moon Ara looked at me and nodded.

“Let’s go out now. Sunlight helps humans produce serotonin and vitamin D.”

I was startled.

“Right now?”

Could it really be that easy to go outside?

After everything I had seen in this company, I was convinced that any outing would require complex procedures such as applications, approvals, waiting periods, and observation.

But Moon Ara lowered her gaze slightly and revealed a gentle, almost dreamlike smile.

“Yes. Right now.”

Those words instantly lightened the weight of the entire room.

More than her words, it was her expression.

Her voice was slow and calm, like that of someone who had appeared in a dream.

And her movements conveyed the certainty that she could tear down the boundary between reality and the impossible at any moment.

Executive Director Gu shifted his strange body again and nodded.

“Perfect. Perfectly fine. If Manager Moon is guiding you, then anything can be trusted. Of course it can.”

And he gave a heavy clap.

“Today has truly been delightful. A human conversation. It has been wonderful. So wonderful that it has filled my stomach. Completely full, in fact. An excellent delicacy.”

“Then I’ll take my leave, Executive Director.”

“I also enjoyed this conversation very much. It was very enlightening.”

I replied quickly and stood up.

As the strange displays of goodwill and the peculiar emotions they had shown me mixed together in my mind, I never imagined that I would actually see sunlight again so soon.

Moon Ara was the first to stand.

As always, her movements were silent and fluid like water.

And that unnatural beauty glided smoothly toward the hallway.

Just as I was about to follow her, Executive Director Gu’s deep farewell echoed behind me.

“Go breathe as much fresh air as you want. After all, human beings need to smell the outside world from time to time. Of course they do.”

That voice was still that strange sound of flesh and memories resonating inside a suit.

But for some reason, at that moment, it sounded sincere.

Clack.

The door to the Office of Executive Director Gu, Head of the Product Production Division, opened silently.

Moon Ara stepped out first.

And the moment I crossed the threshold behind her, I felt as though I was moving a little farther away from the “inside” of the company and closer to the “outside.”

The hallway stretched on long and monochrome, as always.

The lights flickered softly at regular intervals.

We walked in silence.

Executive Director Gu’s strange laughter gradually faded into the distance.

In its place, only Moon Ara’s footsteps and the beating of my heart slowly moved toward the elevator at the end of the corridor.

“……”

Even after we entered the elevator, I said nothing.

Moon Ara didn’t speak either.

But that silence felt strangely warm.

‘Outside.’

That word kept circling in my mind.

Was I really going to be able to leave?

Would there still be a sky above us with a real sun?

At the end of the hallway, the elevator doors opened with a brief arrival chime.

Moon Ara’s white braid shone like a silver thread beneath the elevator lights.

I slowly stepped in behind her.

And then the doors closed silently.

There was no music inside the elevator.

No buttons, either.

Only a quiet silence.

“Let’s have lunch and take a walk before we come back.”

Moon Ara said softly.

“Do you like that?”

I nodded silently.

For now, that was enough.

As a slow breath filled the elevator, without any clear sensation of gravity or direction.

Clack.

The doors opened silently, without even a voice announcing that they were opening.

And beyond them, an explosion of light flooded the space.

In a way that was impossible to comprehend.

The city appeared before us.

***

Sunlight pouring down in waves.

Hot exhaust brushing against my cheeks.

The deafening horns of automobiles.

The noise of crowds.

It was downtown Seoul on a completely ordinary afternoon.

Even the sticky summer humidity felt like it was blessing me.

Genuinely grateful even for the polluted air, I inhaled so deeply that it felt as though my lungs might tear apart.

“……I feel like I’m alive again.”

I raised my head and looked up at the sky.

The suffocating beginning of summer in a hot, sticky city.

But it was a clear and undeniable reality.

The breeze brushing against my cheeks.

The heat traveling from the ground into my feet.

The roar of automobiles.

The shrill cries of birds.

Everything was real.

A feeling that prevented me from forgetting that I was still human, no matter how many days I spent surviving inside that absurd company.

I filled my lungs with air once more.

I didn’t care about cigarette smoke or vehicle exhaust.

“Haaaa…”

Moon Ara let out a soft laugh beside me.

Covering her mouth with the tips of her fingers.

As always.

Reserved.

Dreamlike.

“Do you like it that much?”

I nodded vigorously.

“Yes… I like it very much. Very.”

That was the only way to describe that moment.

I like it so much.

The asphalt.

The trees along the street.

The shadows.

The street vendors.

The everyday conversations people spoke without thinking.

I slowly took a step forward.

People crossing at traffic lights.

Office workers leaving a convenience store with iced coffee.

Someone walking while cursing into their phone.

“……It’s Seoul.”

Literally.

It was Seoul.

The center of a sweltering city at one in the afternoon on an ordinary day.

As if I were enchanted, I took a few more steps forward.

“……”

When I happened to turn around, the elevator we had come out of had disappeared.

There was nothing there.

The place Moon Ara and I had left only moments ago was now nothing more than a gray concrete wall covered with torn old advertising posters.

I stared at the empty space in silence.

And then.

‘……Well, I guess that can happen too.’

That was what I thought.

I wasn’t even surprised.

Because I had grown far too accustomed to being unable to distinguish which parts of the company were real and which were an illusion.

I looked at Moon Ara.

She was still there.

Her white hair shone faintly beneath the sunlight.

Even among the crowd, her existence felt strange.

Anyone could tell she wasn’t a normal person.

And yet, at that moment, she seemed incredibly natural.

She noticed my gaze and smiled slightly.

“Do you like sushi?”

“Yes…”

I nodded.

Sushi.

They sometimes served it in the company cafeteria.

But it had been a very long time since I had eaten sushi at a normal restaurant in society.

If I could reclaim even for a moment the feeling of being human, even instant noodles and a rice triangle would have been enough.

Right now.

This was more than enough.

Walking beneath the sunlight.

Feeling the heat reflected from the asphalt.

The weight of the light falling from the sky.

And the city air reaching the tip of my nose.

I looked at Moon Ara as she walked beside me.

Her white braid swayed lightly.

And her bright white eyes—especially the left one, that inverted eye—definitely did not belong in this city.

No.

Perhaps it was the city that did not belong with her.

People with shirts soaked in sweat.

Shoulders drooping from exhaustion.

People walking with mobile phones in their hands.

Among all of them, Moon Ara looked like a work of art that had been artificially placed into the scenery.

And yet.

No one looked at her.

More precisely.

No one saw her.

It wasn’t intentional indifference.

It was as if the information itself was missing.

‘They can’t see her?’

I discreetly turned my head and looked around.

Even when someone passed close enough to brush against her braid, not a single person gave her a glance.

Among the entire crowd on the street, nobody looked at her.

It did not seem like deliberate indifference.

It seemed as though they were simply incapable of perceiving her existence.

A chill ran down my spine at that disconnect from reality, and I slowed my pace.

That was when Moon Ara, who had been walking a few steps ahead of me, slowly turned around.

“I have something I need to discuss with you.”

Her voice was low.

So soft that it seemed to blend into the air and disappear.

“Something?”

I asked naturally.

She stopped.

I stopped beside her as well.

Moon Ara slowly turned her body to face me.

Her braid slid gently over her shoulder.

And beneath the sunlight, her white eyes glimmered faintly.

She smiled.

A smile slightly deeper than usual.

But it was still that dreamlike expression whose emotions were impossible to interpret.

“Would you like to work under me?”

For a moment.

My mind stopped.

The sunlight was still there.

The wind as well.

Pedestrians continued walking.

But that single sentence instantly crushed every sound of reality.

Moon Ara brushed a strand of hair aside with one hand.

As if it were nothing important.

As if she were merely making a casual suggestion before lunch.

Her eyes were still smiling.

But I was unable to move.

Gradually, the sounds of the city began to fill my ears again.

The horns.

The voices of people.

The hot wind.

Unable to say a single word in response, I simply stared into her completely white eyes.

And at that moment, I felt as though the entire city was holding its breath while waiting for my answer.