Chapter 75
“*Just which bitch exposed me?*”
Iseo, left alone in the Conference Room, muttered to herself.
Honestly, she had never imagined being exposed by anyone.
‘*Hyeli wouldn't have told anyone, so it can't be her. Jeonghwa? Seyoung? Yubin? There are so many bitches I suspect; I can't even guess.*’
Iseo, roughly recalling the list of women on her suspect list, shook her head and sighed.
‘*That's a problem for later, whoever exposed me... For now, I need to find a solution.*’
Pondering, she looked at the door where the Team Leader and Department Head had exited, but no clear solution came to mind.
Honestly, she didn't even know what she had done wrong.
Is it a problem for an Office Worker to badmouth his or her Company or a Superior he or she dislikes on SNS?
They say even kings are cursed behind their backs, so what exactly is the problem?
As she thought this, the anxiety she felt from being caught slowly faded, replaced by anger.
No, so what are they going to do about it?
This game wouldn't even be able to launch without the illustrations I drew, catering to the tastes of those disgusting *han-nam*.
Are they going to fire me?
How many illustrations have I drawn?
Can they even replace me?
As her thoughts reached this point, even the last shred of anxiety she had felt vanished completely.
Right, if the Team Leader comes back, I'll just walk out with my head held high.
It's not like I did anything *that* wrong, is it?
Just as she steeled her resolve, the Team Leader, the Department Head, and Director Ji Hojin—the very person she had been badmouthing—entered the Conference Room.
Once the interrogation began, Iseo looked at me with a defiant expression, as if her earlier dark mood had been a lie.
It seemed she had decided to put on a brave face.
“...What about it?”
Crossing her arms, she looked up at me, a venomous defiance in her gaze, as if determined to see this through properly.
Was she trying to show that she was on a completely different level from Hyeli, who had cooperated so readily?
“I'm talking about the defamation and spreading of false information about me and my game on your private SNS account.”
“I am morally sorry for badmouthing the Director on SNS when it wasn't even in a public space, but I don't think it's right for the three of you to intimidate me like this.”
Iseo looked at me with her usual expression, as if she genuinely didn't understand what she had done wrong.
Heavy sighs erupted from both sides of me at Iseo's demeanor.
“I really misjudged her.”
Department Head Jo's single remark made the Office atmosphere sink even further.
Unable to bear such an atmosphere, Iseo questioned Department Head Jo, almost challenging him.
“No, Department Head. So, what exactly did I do wrong? Honestly, even if I concede a hundred times that I was wrong for badmouthing the Director, did I say anything else that was incorrect?”
“...What about the defamation and fabrication regarding *Reverse Arcadia*, a game from another department?”
“Honestly, I don't see where my assessment of that game is fabricated. It's a game that exploits minor girls for sexual objectification, isn't it? Director Ji Hojin. Honestly, aren't you ashamed of the game you created?”
“Good grief...!”
I stopped the Team Leader of Team 3, who looked like he couldn't bear to listen anymore and was about to interject, and replied.
“Say everything you want to say.”
“Ha, you think I can't? Shall we start from *Girls Memorial*?”
Once I gave her the stage, she began to pour out everything she wanted to say.
From comments about Child Sexual Objectification, to citing Character Skin Costumes as examples of earning money in a vulgar way,
to the 'famous' declaration that the Character Bond Stories were low-class narratives based on Gaslighting.
They were truly 'gems' of statements that made it impossible not to call her a *Radical Feminist*.
The Team Leader of Team 3 and Department Head Jo, who were listening with me to Iseo's story, looked half out of their minds,
but Iseo, already absorbed in her own world, seemed completely oblivious to her surroundings.
After I listened to all of Iseo's arguments, the first thought that came to mind was this:
“*Has her mental age not grown past her mid-to-late teens?*”
Setting aside the *Shadow Boxing* about Sexual Objectification and whatever else in 2D, where there are neither victims nor perpetrators,
I absolutely could not tolerate her devaluing the products I created and presented to customers, by calling them vulgar, or her gaslighting.
However, as I pondered how to begin and stared intently at Iseo, she subtly avoided my gaze.
Seeing Iseo like that, I suppressed my anger and spoke.
“I'm telling you this because I think Ms. Iseo is mistaken about one thing... A company is not a place for Ms. Iseo to achieve self-realization or propagate her ideologies.”
“W-what did you say?”
“Character Skin Costumes are vulgar. Character Bond Stories are low-class narratives riddled with gaslighting. Aren't all these value judgments entirely Ms. Iseo's subjective opinions?”
“W-what do you mean... Of course, it's an objective judgment...!”
“An objective judgment based on whose standards? The evaluation of the *Bluebird Users*?”
As I spoke, anger surged, and I found myself speaking sarcastically without realizing it.
Iseo, hearing this, also seemed to sense my sarcasm, and her face flushed as she shouted.
“Don't be sarcastic...!”
“I'm not being sarcastic; I'm just stating facts. Isn't the objective value judgment of a product meant to be sold to customers ultimately made by the customers themselves? How was it? Were the *Users'* reactions the same as those in Ms. Iseo's story?”
“That's because the game is a *male-oriented game* and the *users* are men...”
“Naturally, since it's a *Male-oriented Game* made to target men, it's only natural that men's reactions become the standard.”
“Even so, using the reactions of Korean men, who lack *Gender Sensitivity*, as a standard is...!”
At her utterly pathetic reply, I openly sighed and glared at Iseo.
“It seems you still haven't come to your senses, Ms. Iseo. Where do you think your salary comes from?”
“W-well, from the Company, of course...”
“Then do you think that the Company gets money from the sky or by digging it out of the ground?”
“Of course, because the Company earns money...!”
“Then who are the main customers of EnsonGT, where Ms. Iseo works?”
“Well...!”
Iseo, who was about to answer in a fit of pique, soon realized something was off and shut her mouth.
Seeing her like that, I looked at Iseo with a pathetic expression and continued.
“A company is a place where you work for a salary, not a place to ignore customer needs and propagate your own ideologies. Most people learn in school that they shouldn't be so stubborn.”
Honestly, that last remark was made with the expectation of being cursed at by the thoroughly enraged Iseo.
but perhaps some rationality remained, as she simply kept her mouth tightly shut, her face beet red.
Seeing Iseo like that, I felt no further reason to speak and simply stood up.
For now, I have said everything I wanted to say to Iseo, and it is time to find a realistic solution.
***
And so, I dragged Department Head Jo and the Team Leader of Team 3 to the Break Room Terrace.
Someone was hoping the two dazed men would cool down and come to their senses.
The two men, dragged to the Terrace, looked so shocked that their souls seemed to have left their bodies.
It was understandable, given they had just witnessed the ugly true nature of a colleague they had worked with for over three years.
I, Before Regression having already seen all sorts of unpleasant things and received my 'vaccination', was less shocked, but these two hadn't done so.
Still, there was something I needed to say, so I cleared my throat to rouse them.
“First, I understand that both of you are shocked, but we need to think about a realistic solution.”
At my words, Department Head Jo was the first to snap out of it.
“A solution?”
“Yes. We can't just let her return to her duties like that, can we? And there's the Users' reaction to consider.”
“That's true...”
“If this were an Outsourcing issue like the previous controversy, we could have resolved it with a Contract termination and redoing the Illustration. But this time, she's a Full-time Employee...”
Faced with the daunting reality, all three of us let out a deep sigh.
Everyone gathered here knew the formidable power of the Labor Standards Act.
Unlike in America, the fact that there was no way to fire someone even after such a major incident was incredibly painful.
The three of us were putting our heads together, deep in thought.
I answered the incoming call, and Suyeon's familiar voice came through.
[Mr. Hojin, are you available to talk right now?]
“Yes, CEO.”
I heard there's an employee in the PC Game Development Team who caused a major incident this time.
“There is one, but...”
Interesting. Could you have that employee come up to the CEO's Office?
“Ah, yes. I'll bring her up right away.”
No, that's not what I meant.
“?”
Have that employee come up alone.
For some reason, I felt a chill in Suyeon's voice as she spoke.
“Ah, I understand.”
As the call ended, all eyes turned to me.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
In response to my question, the Team Leader of Team 3 replied with a surprised expression instead of Department Head Jo.
“Was the rumor true that the Director has a direct line to the CEO on his smartphone?”
Though he didn't say anything, Department Head Jo seemed equally curious.
Without giving a specific answer to their curious gazes, I immediately led the two of them.
“Well, let's talk about that later and go take care of the urgent matter first.”
***
Returning to the Conference Room, we immediately sent Park Iseo up to the CEO's Office.
About an hour later,
Iseo, who came down to the Conference Room, looked completely different from when she had defiantly challenged us earlier.
Her defiant expression, as if asking what she had done wrong, had turned into a deep frown, and her eyes were moist, as if she had been crying.
‘*What on earth happened in the CEO's Office...?*’
It was certainly not an atmosphere for me, an Outsider, to speak, so the Team Leader of Team 3, who was closest to Iseo among us, took the initiative and spoke to her
Iseo glared at us with eyes full of resentment, then rushed out of the Conference Room.
That was the last Iseo was seen at EnsonGT.
Later, when I asked what had happened in the CEO's Office, Suyeon chuckled and gave a rather simple answer.
“The more those bitches lead double lives, the shadier their pasts tend to be.”
...That was information I didn't particularly want to know.