When I had just graduated from college, I thought every company was the same.
Of course, common sense told me that big corporations were extraordinary, but I believed every company beneath them was more or less the same.
As the eldest of three siblings, I was impatient. Impatient to get a job quickly and become independent.
So I believed that as long as I found any job at all, I would have fulfilled my duty.
I got hired immediately after graduating.
It was a company in the capital region with fewer than twenty employees.
I had no dreams, and no wish to make good use of my major. As long as a company paid me properly, I was fine with anything.
“Choi, you really shouldn’t go to a company recommended by a professor. It’s not even a big corporation—it’s a small business.”
“The professor said it has high potential for growth. He told me I just need to grow together with the company.”
“That’s just flattery. If you really go there, you’re going to suffer a lot.”
The company I currently worked at was a place my professor had recommended when I was about to graduate with my bachelor’s degree.
People around me tried all kinds of things to talk me out of it, saying you should never go to a company recommended by a professor.
But because of the condition that I could start immediately after graduation… I couldn’t hear a word they said.
“Making money was never supposed to be easy. I’m fine.”
“What are we going to do with our Chihuahua…”
“Don’t casually call me Chihuahua.”
For the first three months after joining, I thought I was rather lucky.
My friends were suffering through the job hunt, while I had already become a proper member of society.
Going to work made me feel so admirable and cool.
That was true for exactly three months.
Yes, exactly when my probation period ended.
Looking back, there were so many warning signs…
Warning signs telling me to run away from that place right now, before it was too late…
“You’re telling me there really was a shaman sitting in on your interview?”
“Not a shaman—a physiognomist…”
“Hey, come here and listen to this. They said Chihuahua even had her face read during her interview!”
My interview story became a topic my department chewed over and picked apart for years.
By now, even the freshmen knew that I had interviewed at a gukbap restaurant and that a physiognomist had been sitting among the executives.
Still, the physiognomist had said many good things.
Apparently, I was overflowing with luck in my relationships with people?
“You attract benefactors well, and overall, yours is a face that draws fortune. Your fate is one of self-made success, and it is the face of someone who can turn a ditch into a river from wherever she sits. So put her somewhere she can talk a lot.”
“Then we should put her where people are hired. She’ll pick good talent and grow the company big.”
In any case, thanks to the physiognomist’s bizarre praise, the company’s boss decided to hire me on the spot.
When I joined, I was assigned to a hastily assembled management support team, and naturally, it was a one-person department.
I received the handover from the boss’s wife, who had been handling the related work in the meantime…
And so, from the day I joined until now, I had to handle everything for the company’s household on my own—HR, accounting, general affairs, and all the rest.
For four whole years, no less.
The time it took me to properly come to my senses was four years…
It took me four years to realize that this company was the infamous black company, what the internet calls a dogshit company!!
They said I had great luck with people, but the professor who plugged me into a company like this was a curse, not a blessing, wasn’t he?
“Assistant Manager Wawa, where are the plastic bags?”
The moment I woke from my thoughts, the sickening reality of the office spread out before my eyes again.
“Goodness, Manager, how long has it been since Choi became team leader, and you still call her assistant manager? Team Leader Chihuahua. Oops, my mistake. Team Leader Choi, did the Boss really say that’s all there is for the holiday gifts? Is that really true?”
“Team Leader Kim! If you come late, all the kitchenware will be gone. Didn’t Madam tell you to make sure to bring back the dish soap?”
“Wait! Everyone with less than three years at the company, hands off the shopping bags! The only thing you’re allowed to touch is the styrofoam box! Just take some fruit!”
Naturally, the company I worked at had no such thing as holiday gifts.
It was an annual custom to open the gifts that came in from outside and divide them into bags to take home.
And more gifts were addressed to me than to the Boss.
The kitchenware, too, had been sent by a client who found out I personally washed the employees’ cups every morning…
The boxes filled with fruit and the supplements were all sent because people said my complexion looked dark.
“What’s the use of a team leader for a one-person team? Assistant Manager Wawa, gift certificates—are there no gift certificates? I saw you go to the Boss to get gift certificates approved not long ago.”
“There are, but… They’re thousand-won gift certificates. Would that be all right? The Boss said five per person is the maximum.”
“Five certificates, so five thousand won?”
“Yes… But if you take the gift certificates, you can’t put anything else in the bag. The Boss said to choose only one of the two…”
I blankly watched Manager Park’s receding back as he left, then silently finished what I had been doing.
A pen in one hand, and on the desk, a job application I had printed at home.
Because writing it on the company PC would leave records, I planned to write it on paper first and then copy it over at home.
That’s right. I was going to change jobs.
As the physiognomist had said, the company had developed a great deal during the four years I worked there.
It filed many patents, its clients increased, and its sales grew greatly in turn.
It was all thanks to capable ‘former’ employees.
Each time passionate, skilled, and sharp people stayed for a while and then left, the company took one leap forward.
If they had kept coming to work, a mid-sized company or even a listing might not have been far off.
The important thing was that every single one of those aces had left without exception.
“The reason I endured this long was all because I liked the people. Especially because of you, Choi.”
“Who would make a company like this their lifelong workplace? Still, thanks to you, Assistant Manager, I got to spread my wings a little before leaving. Let’s definitely meet again. I’d like to work with you again.”
Even as sales grew, salaries were frozen, and the promised performance bonuses were always glossed over.
Because of the boss’s miserly attitude, some employees who just habitually came to work still thought our company was poor.
“Choi, just take this as advice from an older sister who cares about you. Change jobs. There’s no answer here. It’s because you’re too good to waste. Wherever you go, you’d do really well and be treated better.”
With the resignation of an employee I had been close to, the scales finally fell from my eyes.
“Ask for a raise, and if they don’t give it to you, leave without looking back.”
The boss didn’t grant my request, and I ultimately decided to change jobs.
White is the paper, black is the writing.
Writing a resume for the first time in years, my stiffened brain didn’t work well.
As I wrote with the sounds of employees fighting over the distribution of holiday gifts as background music, the paper had somehow filled with plausible content.
‘Will there be a company that accepts a career like this? Though the people who quit all said anywhere would be better than here…’
Even if I barely passed the document screening, I was worried about the interview.
‘Hello, I’m Gong Choi. The work I handled at my previous company was… everything.’
“Hey, Chihuahua.”
‘I even cooked breakfast at the company every morning. Thanks to that, I can make most kinds of soup… Is this a bit much?’
“Chihuahua! What are you thinking about so deeply? Aren’t you going to take your gift?”
I was startled and hurriedly messed up the documents.
I hadn’t been caught writing my resume, had I?
“Huh? Ah… the gift. You can just take my share, Division Head. I’m fine. I’m a bit busy with the accounting…”
Judging by the reaction, fortunately, it didn’t seem I had been caught.
As I tried to put the resume into my bag, I suddenly noticed the name field had been filled in.
Chihuahua.
It seemed I had unconsciously written down exactly what the Division Head called me.
For a moment, irritation surged up and I wanted to tear it apart, but since I was going to copy it over anyway, I left it alone.
It was almost time to leave work.
I killed the remaining time watching the people still squabbling over dividing the holiday gifts.
Tick-tock.
When the minute hand of the other company’s founding anniversary clock on the wall pointed exactly to twelve, I rose from my seat.
“Huh? Assistant Manager Wawa, leaving right on time?”
“Ah… something urgent came up.”
For four years, I had never once left work on time.
The boss thought the longer you stayed at the company, the better you worked.
Normally, I would have left according to the ‘Boss’s time,’ but now that I was about to quit, there was no need to bother.
“I’ll be heading out first.”
Even though it was a perfectly natural thing, it felt like such a huge deviation to me that I felt a tiny bit guilty.
The bus I always had to wait ages for arrived just as I left the company, and I even got to sit down on the way.
I had a feeling today was going to be extremely lucky.
“Wow, this is the first time I’ve seen that shop open.”
A shop I had only ever seen closed, because by the time I got off work, it had always already finished closing.
Thinking I might as well stop by, I was about to take out my wallet from my bag when the resume I had carelessly crumpled in popped out of the bag.
There wasn’t a breath of wind, but strangely, the resume that escaped my bag flew far away as if fleeing.
“Ah, where are you going!”
Embarrassed that someone might see, I tried to quickly retrieve it, but the resume drifted a little farther, just out of reach.
This strange chase continued to the end of the alley, and finally, just as I was about to catch it.
“…!”
A hole suddenly appeared in midair, and the resume slipped right into it.
“What, what…? Am I seeing things because I’m tired?”
I was so startled that I froze in place, and then a voice came from beyond the hole.
A strange voice with tremendous resonance spoke.
“I’ve received your resume. I’m hiring you.”
Before I could even grasp what was happening, a huge hole opened beneath my feet.
Below was a pitch-black void where nothing could be seen.
“Ahhh!”
The next moment, I plummeted into that void. It happened in an instant, with no time to avoid it.
