Chapter 33
A Turf War
“I figured you’d need to eat to keep your strength up.”
This man’s name was…
“Do you never wear glasses?”
“Contacts are more convenient. Glasses can break, too.”
Jeong Dohan raised the corners of his mouth in a playful smile.
Now that I looked at him again, his whole demeanor was so different that it seemed strange I had ever confused him with Jeong Dohyeon.
Jeong Dohyeon wore horn-rimmed glasses and let his permed bangs hang over his forehead.
Jeong Dohan wore no glasses, and his bangs were swept back, revealing a scar across his forehead.
Dohan casually sat down across from me and struck up a conversation.
“I heard you had a pretty rough time cleaning up that Grade 5 ghost story. Haebin told me.”
“Is Ms. Haebin all right? She hit her head pretty hard.”
“She’s always been hardheaded, so she’s fine. She woke up before you did and even stopped by our office because she was bored.”
Dohan dipped a piece of grilled salmon in a cream-colored sauce and answered through a mouthful of food.
So she woke up before I did.
“Does the amount of time people sleep after returning from a ghost story vary from person to person?”
“Yeah. I think it depends on how badly you were injured and things like that. You’ve been constantly busy ever since joining the company, Hanmu. Maybe all that exhaustion finally caught up with you.”
That made sense. The last few days had, in fact, been the most grueling days of my life.
“It felt harder than Hwaae High School.”
“Haha, you mean that orientation? The Team Leader couldn’t stop praising you. Honestly, I’m curious too. What exactly made our Team Leader take such an interest in you?”
“All cleaners basically do the same—”
As I tried to offer an appropriately modest workplace response, someone passing behind me shoved me with the corner of their tray.
“Aw, shit. What rotten luck.”
“Let’s go. We should throw these trays out and get new ones.”
What was wrong with these rude bastards?
Modern people tended to smooth things over even when conflicts arose. That was especially true when the other person was a coworker they would keep running into.
“Aren’t you going to apologize?”
Of course, I was the type who said what needed to be said.
They weren’t my clients or my bosses. Why should I hold back?
“Excuse me? Me? What did I do?”
“Seriously? Why are you picking a fight with someone who was just sitting here?”
This wasn’t school, yet they had childishly struck first with a cafeteria tray and were now pretending they knew nothing about it.
At that moment, Dohan, who had a fork between his lips, gestured at the pair with his chin.
“Hey. This guy isn’t a Dog. Knock it off.”
I hadn’t expected those words to accomplish much.
Surprisingly, they were extremely effective.
“Ahem. And here I thought you were a son of a bitch.”
“We’re so sorry. It was a misunderstanding.”
One of them pulled out some napkins and diligently wiped my back, while the other bowed.
Why had their attitudes changed so completely?
“Were you referring to me?”
“Yes. You aren’t wearing a uniform. You’re a Tiger, right?”
Could they be groveling because they thought I was a Tiger?
Thinking back on Kang Dochae’s arrogance, that seemed likely.
What a ridiculous bunch.
“No. I’m a cleaner.”
“Oh, the Support Team?”
“The Cleaning Team.”
I handed them the ID card I had kept in my pocket. After examining it, the pair tilted their heads.
“It’s true. So what does the Cleaning Team do?”
“We clean. It’s right there in the name.”
“Ah. Right. Cleaning is necessary.”
The man among them snickered and tossed my ID card back onto the table.
“Well, it suits you. The Cleaning Team—a dog.”
“Hey. Am I invisible to you?”
What a way to treat someone right to his face.
Dohan tried to remind them of his presence, but the short-haired man did not even look at him.
Instead, he openly looked down on me.
“If you came all the way here, I assume you have some desperate goal of your own. But you won’t get any scraps by sucking up to that lot.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean you gain nothing by playing happy families in this company.”
“Have fun with the Dogs. See you tomorrow morning—if you’re still around to see it.”
The woman with long, light-brown hair tied back winked at me before they left the cafeteria.
On the backs of their uniforms was the image of a rat with its head held high.
“Just ignore them. They’re always like that.”
“It’s fine. I dealt with plenty of unreasonable people in my old job.”
“What did you do outside?”
“I was a cleaner.”
After giving him an answer I had no reason to hide, I began eating.
This much was practically cute.
Not that it didn’t irritate me, but there was no reason to rise to the bait. They weren’t opponents I could do anything about right now, anyway.
Dohan watched me calmly eat and scratched his head.
“Sorry. I only came to grab a meal before work, and I ended up making you run into them.”
“I take it the Dogs and Rats don’t get along?”
“No. Our performance records are similar, so they’re always trying to keep us in check. It’s not like we’re the type to take it lying down, either.”
So they were the typical sort who bullied the weak and cowered before the strong.
Come to think of it, I vaguely remembered running into a Rat in the hallway before. They had been pretty obnoxious then, too.
“They treat every team other than the Tigers like that. They’re even worse when they consider someone beneath them, and the Cleaning Team is brand-new on top of that.”
“…So it wasn’t because I was a cleaner?”
“Well, that was probably part of it too. Haha.”
As expected, working life was not all sunshine and roses.
At least they weren’t on the same Disposal Team. Getting noisily dragged into their problems would have been a pain.
“By the way, Mr. Dohan, what do you keep looking at?”
“I’m about to show you something entertaining. Ah, here they come.”
“Jeong Dohan!”
I turned toward the nearly malicious shout and saw the pair from earlier coming back, their faces bright red.
“You knew, didn’t you?”
“Hm? I have no idea what you mean. Oh, I heard one of the ghost stories assigned to you went up a grade. From Grade 4 to Grade 3.”
So a ghost story’s grade could rise.
More importantly, Dohan really knew how to get under their skin.
I watched his unruffled smile and took a large bite of sweet-and-spicy fried chicken in place of popcorn.
Perhaps she found that irritating, because the woman glared at me.
The man ignored me and unleashed his anger on Dohan.
“I heard they sent you a request for support. Don’t you know we already did all the work and set the table?”
“How am I supposed to overturn a decision from above? Besides, this happened because you screwed up. You should’ve done a better job.”
“That’s our problem. If you had any conscience, you’d back out!”
“Why should I care? It’s your fault for handing us a fully prepared meal. Would you have turned it down if you were in our position?”
To sum it up, the Rats and Dogs of the Disposal Team were rivals.
But something had gone wrong with a ghost story assigned to the Rats, so a support request had been passed along to the Dogs.
The Rats were furious because they had already put work into it.
A turf war, then.
I should have stayed in my room. Why did I insist on coming out for a meal and getting caught between them?
Having no desire to become the shrimp crushed in a battle between whales, I shoveled food into my mouth.
“We’d rather get support from the Cleaning Team than accept help from you!”
The woman whirled around and pointed her index finger at me.
“Cough!”
Why were the sparks flying in my direction?
“Oh, right. I heard the Cleaning Team goes into the field too. Sorry I didn’t recognize you earlier.”
“That’s too much. Don’t you know the Cleaning Team was only recently formed? He hasn’t even been with the company for a month.”
I wanted to stand behind Dohan and wave a cheering stick.
Keep going. You’re doing great.
Yes, exactly. I was a new recruit.
“True. But I heard he’s talented enough that the company scouted him. That means he’s at least Tiger-level, doesn’t it?”
Me?
Was it really okay to rate me that highly?
I suppose it was half true, but I wouldn’t go that far.
“We don’t trust you people. If entering that ghost story with you only leads to another ‘accident,’ wouldn’t the Cleaning Team be a better choice?”
At the man’s matter-of-fact declaration, Dohan slammed his fist against the table.
“That’s low. Seriously, that’s pathetic. You think a rookie can’t have an accident? You think he can’t die?”
“Jeong Dohan, you’re hilarious. Didn’t everyone here join knowing they might die?”
The woman’s cold retort silenced the room.
Her eyes fixed on me as if demanding an answer.
I didn’t join with that much resolve.
I only joined because I was told I’d be killed if I refused.
Bzzzt—
Right. This bastard.
[Completion Requirement: Help the Rats clean up a Grade 3 ghost story.]
[Penalty for Failure: Death]
Damn it.
I thought we’d been getting along lately.
No? Was I the only one who thought that?
No matter how much I resented it, there was no changing the stubborn mind of this thing, which craved the residue produced by my cleanups.
Greedy pig.
I took a deep breath inwardly, set down my spoon and chopsticks with a sharp clack, and looked the woman straight in the eye.
“I’ll do it.”
“Of course you will. I’ll speak to our Team Leader myself. Let’s go, Seo Gitae.”
After the Rat duo left, Dohan grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me.
“Hanmu, are you all right? No one’s threatening you, are they?”
I was being threatened.
How was I supposed to explain that?
Holding back tears on the inside, I decided to preserve my image, at least.
“I’m curious about what cleaning a Grade 3 ghost story will be like. I think it’ll be manageable.”
Even as I said it, I thought I sounded insane.
“Wow, Hanmu. You really are out of your mind.”
Dohan seemed to agree.
Myeong Haebin shrieked.
“So you suddenly agreed to support another team?!”
“…Yeah.”
“They only changed their target because they think we’re pushovers!”
“I know.”
We were back in the vacant lot…
No, the Cleaning Team’s office.
A few pieces of furniture had appeared while I was gone: a round table and two chairs. Haebin said she had raided the neighboring team’s office for them, which probably meant they had come from the Dogs’ office.
“Forget that it’s Grade 3—the Rats are seriously bad news!”
“Are they really that awful?”
“They’re incredibly selfish. They’re completely obsessed with their performance record! The instant the Rabbits disappeared last year, they seized their place on the Disposal Team and—”
“Hmm.”
The achievement chart that could grant wishes.
The more contribution points—or performance results—you accumulated, the faster you could fill it.
That was probably why they had chosen me instead of the Dogs. When it came to protecting their own performance record, the newly formed Cleaning Team was a safer choice than their rivals.
“And that’s not all. They have the highest death toll of any Disposal Team! If you get on their nerves, they’ll kill you if that’s what it takes to secure their own results!”
“Well, it hasn’t been finalized yet.”
Bang!
The door to our office flew open with a tremendous crash.
“Is our manly man Hanmu in here?”
“Hyung, please. Stop barging into other people’s offices and causing trouble.”
It wasn’t only Jeong Dohan. Jeong Dohyeon was with him as well.
He was looking at Dohan the way someone might regard a deeply embarrassing family member.
I would probably have reacted the same way.
“What is it?”
“I came to tell you that the news is official. You really are coming along to support us.”
“Senior, you said it hadn’t been finalized yet!”
“It was finalized just now.”
Haebin shouted angrily, but I felt even darker inside.
Now that the app had updated my completion requirement, I was in trouble whether the assignment became official or not.
“It can’t be helped. Since we’re going, let’s show them what our team can really do. They’re in for quite a surprise. They must have looked down on us because we’re the Cleaning Team, but they’ll regret it!”
She really was quick to accept things.
“If you can’t avoid it, enjoy it” suited her perfectly.
She did not stop there. Haebin began packing equipment into a new cleaning bag.
However, Jeong Dohyeon cautiously placed a hand on her shoulder.
“Ah, Ms. Haebin, about that…”
With an awkward smile, Dohyeon handed Haebin and me a leaflet.
“You and I can’t go with them this time.”
“Why not?!”
“The capacity is already full with the two Rats, my brother, and Hanmu.”
It was a jet-black bi-fold leaflet.
The cover was disturbingly cold and thick for paper, with a texture almost like leather. Printed across it were the words:
『Human Exhibition: On the Boundlessness of the Human Body』
Number of Visitors Allowed: 2–4
Don’t tell me this was the ghost story we had to enter.
What the hell was with that title?