My Company Is Black

#011

“The public shower is on the second floor. Please clean up a bit in this waiting room, and I’ll bring you a change of clothes and towels.”

The factory manager was anxious, fearing he might look bad in the eyes of the chairman’s son. Then again, if Hwi-kyung had accidentally splashed water on the executive director’s face, he would probably choose to regress without hesitation.

As soon as Gyo-ha entered the employee waiting room, he casually started to undress. He removed his outer clothes, vest, and dress shirt without hesitation.

“Aren’t you going to undress?”

“…I’ll change in the shower room.”

“You’ll be cold.”

Gyo-ha, having removed his top, reached out to Hwi-kyung. Hwi-kyung clenched his molars to avoid screaming. This open-minded American-influenced bastard…

Inadequate conditions: Your superior undresses you without permission.

While the notification window made it sound indecent, Gyo-ha was just carefully removing Hwi-kyung’s jacket. It was difficult to remove wet clothes alone, so this could be considered an act of kindness.

But Hwi-kyung was frustrated with Gyo-ha. Ugh, don’t come so close with your top off. It’s uncomfortable!

“Mr. Executive Director.”

“Yes.”

“I’ll undress myself.”

Finally, Hwi-kyung quickly pushed Gyo-ha away. He could tolerate everything else, but he couldn’t stand his superior approaching him shirtless. He’d rather freeze to death in his wet shirt.

Gyo-ha backed off at Hwi-kyung’s refusal. Just then, the factory manager arrived with towels and change of clothes, looking puzzled at the awkward atmosphere between the two.

“I’ll leave the towels and clothes here.”

“Thank you.”

“Oh my, this new employee is a bit clumsy… He’s a diligent kid, but he keeps making mistakes like this. Of all people, to the executive director…”

“It’s okay, these things happen.”

“I’ll make sure to talk to him properly.”

Gyo-ha picked up a dry towel, saying not to scold the employee who made the mistake too harshly. The factory manager, who had been bowing repeatedly, brightened up when he saw that Gyo-ha didn’t seem bothered.

“Well then, gentlemen, please freshen up and come out!”

Hwi-kyung, about to head to the shower room with clothes and towels, glanced at Gyo-ha again. He was surprised that Gyo-ha wasn’t angry after suddenly being doused with cold water. The many superiors Hwi-kyung had experienced weren’t usually so generous.

Inadequate conditions: You peeked at your superior’s naked body.

Ah, I didn’t peek!

Hwi-kyung quickly turned his head away. This damn notification window. The stupid regression system couldn’t do anything other than identify black companies.

Thanks to Hwi-kyung fleeing to the shower room, Gyo-ha was left alone in the employee waiting room and picked up a tracksuit of suitable size. The notification window that Hwi-kyung hadn’t closed was clearly visible to Gyo-ha.

“He said he was uncomfortable, but he still looked.”

Gyo-ha hung Hwi-kyung’s wet jacket on the back of a plastic chair. It probably wouldn’t dry properly like that, but he couldn’t keep holding it in his hand either.

The real regression person he had dreamed of was quite shabby compared to Gyo-ha’s imagination. To have regressed thirteen times and still be so timid. He must have really just lived working all that long time.

He recoils when approached even a little, and gets uncomfortable when I pretend to be interested. It was clear he had a personality that couldn’t take jokes as jokes and seriously rejected them. Gyo-ha felt better each time he learned something new about Hwi-kyung.

I’ll stick to him so he can’t regress again. Whether he likes it or not, I’ll stay by his side and sneak peeks at his notification window too.

Unaware of Gyo-ha’s plans and thoughts, Hwi-kyung sneezed loudly in the shower room. Despite setting the water to warm, cold water poured from the showerhead.

As Hwi-kyung was hit directly by the cold water, he inwardly cursed his superior, Lee Gyo-ha, the root of all evil. Just you wait. I’ll definitely quit being a temporary secretary.

* * *

However, it was always Jung Hwi-kyung who collapsed first.

Hwi-kyung ended up catching the flu due to consecutive cold showers and unexpected overtime work. The cause was not being able to get a flu prevention shot because there was no internal medicine clinic open for night treatment nearby. Since it was impossible to prove that he got sick during work hours, it couldn’t be processed as an industrial accident.

It had been a long time since he had been this sick. Hwi-kyung had been healthy enough to never catch minor illnesses before starting work at the company. Since getting a job, he had been constantly weak like a typical office worker.

Hwi-kyung barely managed to call in sick early in the morning. It was fortunate that today was Friday. If he recovered over the weekend, he wouldn’t have to waste a day off on Monday.

Thinking that far, Hwi-kyung felt a bit miserable. People who are alone when sick tend to become emotional easily. Jung Hwi-kyung buried his face in his pillow and cried. He was planning to visit his grandmother on the weekend, but this useless body wasn’t helping…

What’s so fortunate about it being Friday when I’m dying sick? How dare you think that? After thirteen regressions, you’ve become a slave to the company, defending the five-day workweek. He thought he was crazy. What good is it to be sick over the weekend? It’s the world that’s wrong for making people feel guilty about taking sick leave.

Inadequate conditions: You are dissatisfied with the five-day workweek.

The system window, oblivious to Hwi-kyung’s physical condition, tactlessly displayed a new window. He didn’t even bother to look properly at the “dissatisfaction with the five-day workweek” window, as it was one he saw periodically every Monday.

Was it the third company, or the second? He recalled a superior, whose face he could no longer remember, complaining that people these days are too dissatisfied with the five-day workweek. They used to work on Saturdays in their time, how ungrateful not to appreciate having two days off on weekends.

Hwi-kyung, having studied modern history, knew well enough that there was a past where people had to work every other Saturday. But that and this were always separate issues.

Working all week and resting for just two days on the weekend, and having to be grateful for being sick during those two days? It’s impossible not to be dissatisfied. What gratitude, my ass.

Anyway, that level of dissatisfaction wouldn’t trigger a forced regression. It took ‘black’ incidents like embezzlement of over 6 billion won, direct workplace sexual harassment, group bullying, or more than 137 instances of unpaid overtime or forced consecutive weekend work to trigger a forced regression.

Small incidents could accumulate to enable forced regression even without a major ‘black’ event. Even now, just a year into his job, Hwi-kyung could move on to the fourteenth cycle if he wanted. It was possible for Hwi-kyung to choose regression by his own will, even if it wasn’t a forced one.

However, Jung Hwi-kyung rarely chose to regress voluntarily. Except for the first couple of cycles, he endured as much as he could.

What good would it do to run away just because things were a bit unpleasant? Ideal companies don’t exist in reality. A company with good welfare, no people problems, and respect for work-life balance? It’s better to believe unicorns exist.

Living as a salaried worker is inherently difficult. Humans are fundamentally unfaithful, so given even a little freedom, they tend to slack off like seaweed soaked in water. In that sense, accommodating employees was a double-edged sword.

Jung Hwi-kyung knew this fact. He had experience working for a company with good welfare and guaranteed on-time departures. But that company soon implemented massive personnel reductions. It was inevitable. When people received salaries without producing results, everyone started to slack off.

After that, Hwi-kyung stopped caring much about welfare or company atmosphere when looking for a new job. If one thing was good, another was bad. It was better than everything being bad, but a company where everything was good couldn’t exist in this world.

[I’ve processed your sick leave.]

[Get plenty of rest.]

[Be careful of seasonal colds.]

Despite it being only 5 AM, Manager Kang Moon-chul had already replied.

This kind response must be because it was the first time Hwi-kyung had taken sick leave. If Jung Hwi-kyung started getting sick a few more times, such kind replies would stop coming.

When one person takes a day off, others have to take on that person’s work. Kang Moon-chul was fundamentally kind-hearted, so he wouldn’t say much for a while even if his junior slacked off due to illness. But what if it kept happening?

‘Well, wouldn’t it be better to come in? Sick leave is unpaid, you know.’

‘You know there’s a performance evaluation before the end of this month, right?’

‘I think you should have a sense of responsibility. It’s not like other employees don’t get sick.’

‘If you’re going to die, die at the company. As an office worker…’

Repetition and experience rapidly wore Hwi-kyung down.

Now, even without looking closely, he could automatically anticipate how people would react. How work would pile up, who would be held responsible, what kind of system window would pop up because of this…

Some might say it’s not a big deal to just get certifications and find a job through regression, it’s not like he’s saving the world. But unfortunately, Jung Hwi-kyung was an ordinary human. His mental strength was above average, but not robust enough to be unbreakable.

Hwi-kyung no longer cried at his grandmother’s funeral. He had already cried a lot. He didn’t react much even when feeling the absurdity of situations, and even in painful moments like now, he thought about what needed to be done rather than feeling sorrowful.

His head was dizzy and his stomach was churning. Nevertheless, Hwi-kyung staggered to his feet. The world spun every time he tried to get up, perhaps because he had caught a severe cold.

To recover quickly, he needed to make some soup and take medicine. If not that, he should go to the hospital for an IV drip. A 30-minute vitamin IV would probably stop the world from spinning.

If all else failed, he’d have to go to the emergency room. Thinking this, Hwi-kyung buried his face in the bathroom sink. Can’t be sick. Can’t struggle. He might regress again at this rate.

His grandmother is still alive. Although his salary is higher than his peers, after hospital bills, rent, and utilities, his living expenses are limited. No emergency room. A new ‘no’ popped up in his mind. Too expensive.

It was a problem that he had put the money he earned in the early cycles into stocks instead of savings. To think that bold investments based on knowing the future would lead to this result.

It wasn’t time to withdraw the money invested in stocks yet. I should have stuck with winning the lottery. If I get to the next cycle, I’ll make winning the lottery once a routine…

“Ugh.”

His solar plexus hurt, and nausea rose. Hwi-kyung quickly grabbed the toilet and vomited. Having eaten nothing, nothing came up. He needs to go to work normally on Monday. So he should get up quickly…

Jung Hwi-kyung lost consciousness, collapsed on the bathroom floor.