Chapter 1. Signs

Chapter 1. Signs

Drip-drip, then a downpour.

“I had a feeling this would happen… What should we do? Looks like it’s going to rain quite a bit.”

It was the day of the company picnic, gathered under what everyone thought would be a bright spring sky.

From early morning, all the employees had gathered, breathing in not fresh air, but fine dust, playing dodgeball and foot volleyball.

A day meant for various sports, followed by a barbecue.

Contrary to the weather forecast, it had been windy and gloomy since morning, and by lunchtime, the rain finally started.

‘If this keeps up, I hope the afternoon schedule gets canceled…’

“Taesik, even with the rain, a glass of soju with some samgyeopsal… Ahhh, that’d be amazing. Let’s clean up quickly, grab a drink, and head home.”

“Yes, Director. I’ll finish tidying up here and then go.”

Jinsu, my best friend and a Director at our company, said he was leaving first and headed towards the large tent set up in the corner.

Was it telepathy?

My mood brightened slightly at the thought of going home early to play games.

There’s an RPG called Lost Stone.

It offers vast content, so if I put my mind to it, I could play all day. It’s my favorite game.

On weekdays, I usually only log in late in the evening, so I’m always pressed for time, only managing to complete the minimum daily tasks before logging off.

‘If I log in early, what should I do first? I’d love to chat more with my clan members.’

My clan forms raid parties and runs raids before dinner.

I’d always coveted the rewards from those raids.

I decided to ask if I could join them today and looked around.

‘Alright, I should hurry and clean up so I can go. But when did these bastards all run off?’

They were already seated in front of the barbecue.

I spotted the two employees from our team, all two of them, far off inside the tent.

The rented lawn field was still littered with various balls, nets, and miscellaneous items like ice chests, all left abandoned.

‘Ah, these bastards only took themselves. Back in my day, if there was a superior… No, no, stop with the ‘back in my day’.’

“Team Leader Kim! Ugh, that smell. Please stop smoking. Why does it seem like you’re always smoking whenever I look for you?”

This woman, Assistant Manager Choi Seonyoung from the General Affairs Department, seemed to only seek me out when I was smoking.

She wore training clothes over leggings, her hair tied back tightly.

Even without makeup, she exuded the aura of a beautiful model, making her the face of our company.

“Seonyoung, why are you here?”

“I came to help you, Team Leader. I knew you’d end up cleaning up alone again. You won’t be called an old fogey for making people clean up after themselves, you know? Don’t worry about it too much.”

“Haha, I get it. But there’s not much left, so you go on ahead, Seonyoung. I’ll just finish this cigarette and head out quickly.”

“You don’t have an umbrella. Let’s just go together.”

Last year, I once asked Seonyoung why she thought I was an old fogey.

Since then, she often tells me what’s acceptable and what makes me seem out-of-touch.

She’s only two years younger than me.

We’re both in our thirties, but anyone would think she was much younger.

In fact, purely based on appearance, she might seem much younger.

Seonyoung works out a lot and takes good care of herself, so she looks like she’s in her twenties.

Still, she’s from the same generation as me, the cartoon generation.

‘But why are they lying down?’

Two male employees and one female employee inside the large tent were lying on the bare ground.

The men seemed to be from Sales Team 2, and the woman was a new hire from General Affairs.

Kids these days, always lacking stamina.

How much did they even run this morning?

Still, lying on the bare ground was too strange; it made me wonder if they’d gotten cramps.

“Seonyoung, did we play dodgeball for too long earlier? It looks like three employees are down. It’s raining, why are they lying on the bare ground like that?”

“I don’t know? I’m fine, though? Young people these days are so frail.”

“Something’s off… Are they not feeling well? Oh, thanks for holding the umbrella over me. The company car is in the parking lot, so let’s move them there first and then go.”

We gathered the various odds and ends we’d used that morning and headed for the parking lot.

Rainy days have a distinct smell.

The scent of city asphalt, the smell of rain, and other smells that are hard to precisely describe.

Even the urethane-coated parking lot floor has a unique smell on a rainy day.

But this wasn’t that smell.

“Doesn’t the smell seem a bit strange? This isn’t the parking lot smell. What is this smell… It’s a bit metallic, like blood.”

“Team Leader! I only smelled samgyeopsal, and now I’m hungry! Let’s go quickly.”

“Heh heh. Right. It just seemed strange. A bit like blood. Let’s hurry and get some samgyeopsal.”

Seonyoung thought to herself that Team Leader Kim Taesik had a dog’s nose.

A woman might have a metallic smell during her period because of the sanitary pad.

She figured it was because they were standing a little closer as he held the umbrella over her.

Feeling embarrassed, she needlessly hurried Taesik along and quickened her pace.

We were on our way back from the parking lot to the lawn field with Seonyoung.

A blue tent was set up on the opposite side of the lawn field from the parking lot exit.

The company employees would be gathered there, grilling meat.

‘Huh? What is it? It was clearly a solid blue tent.’

The solid blue tent was now stained and splotchy.

And all the employees who had been lying down were now standing.

‘Are these people already drunk? Why are they making such a fuss?’

As I walked a little further, I heard people screaming at the top of their lungs.

I also saw several employees grappling with each other.

“Tsk… Something’s a little off.”

“Huh? What is?”

Suddenly, my heart began to pound rapidly.

The loud sound of rain and shouts gradually faded into the background.

Then, I saw an employee clutching his throat and collapsing in slow motion.

Another employee was crawling forward, his leg bitten by a female employee.

It was a prone crawl, reminiscent of combat training, stirring up trauma from individual combat drills.

‘My eyesight was 1.5 in the left eye and 1.3 in the right, wasn’t it?’

This was truly strange.

The scene unfolding in the tent felt unreal.

Amidst the chaos in the tent, I spotted Jinsu, who had left earlier.

Jinsu’s father is the CEO of my company. Jinsu took over the management of the company from his parents, who had returned to farming.

His father had stepped back from day-to-day operations, so Jinsu was effectively the CEO.

But why was he being shoved to the ground by an employee?

This was definitely an abnormal situation.

“What the hell. Seonyoung, stay here for a second.”

I stepped out from under Seonyoung’s umbrella and began to run through the rain.

Running in the rain, my sense of reality seemed to return.

The screams of people grew loud in my ears again, and the sizzling smell of samgyeopsal filled my nose.

‘That smell from earlier…’

It was that metallic, bloody smell again.

The scent of blood.

Amidst the strong smell of samgyeopsal, the smell of blood began to register.

It felt like time, which had stopped, was flowing again.

The sounds that had been blocked rushed in all at once, disorienting me.

The scene in the tent, which had felt like watching a movie screen, now became terrifyingly real.

The series of surreal sights threatened to short-circuit my brain.

‘Snap out of it.’

I ran, desperately trying to keep my thoughts coherent.

First, I had to save Jinsu.

With the momentum of my run, I kicked the employee who was on top of Jinsu.

The employee’s head twisted at an unnatural angle from my kick.

‘Ah? I didn’t mean to kick that hard. He’ll be okay, right?’

Seeing him try to get back on his feet, it seemed I’d avoided a charge of involuntary manslaughter.

Assault and battery, perhaps.

But if I had left him alone, Jinsu’s throat would surely have been torn out.

I didn’t know if a judge would believe me.

“Taesik, behind you! Behind!”

Jinsu’s urgent shout made me turn around.

What met my eyes was a snout stained crimson.

The new female employee from General Affairs, who had been lying down earlier, was charging at me, her mouth wide open.

‘Three gold crowns on her molars… Must have cost a pretty penny. But why is her mouth so wide open?’

Graaaah!

She came so close I could feel her ragged breath, and she tried to smash her lips against mine without warning.

I was truly startled.

Instinctively, I grabbed the female employee by the collar and shoved her aside.

‘This is the reach advantage.’

When watching combat sports, they always showed the fighters’ reach before a match.

Didn’t that mean reach was crucial in a fight?

If my arms had been just a little shorter, I would have ended up in a lip-lock with the new hire.

“Jjin, what the hell? What’s going on? Why are people acting like this all of a sudden?”

Without realizing it, I’d called Jinsu by his nickname in front of everyone from the company.

Was it because I was flustered?

No, this was beyond flustered; it was absurd.

To witness three subordinates committing insubordination.

And since it was physical, it was truly absurd.

“I don’t know. Three employees said they felt dizzy and suddenly collapsed. But a little while later, they got up making strange noises, and then this madness started.”

Grrr…

“I think I heard those strange noises too. Are you okay? Can you get up?”

“Uh, yeah. I think so.”

The employee whose head had twisted at an odd angle earlier charged again.

I put my weight into my front foot, kicked him squarely in the solar plexus, and turned away.

I needed to get out of here.

This was clearly abnormal.

I was certain this wasn’t a situation I could handle.

“Jinsu, let’s head to the car first.”

“The other employees… they’re already running? Let’s hurry too. Those guys are all fired once they come to their senses.”

“Their jobs aren’t the problem, you idiot. We might get fired from this life! Hurry up. Why are you so slow?”

I felt a threat to my life, something I never usually experienced.

I urged the slow Jinsu on and started running quickly.

In the direction we were running, I saw Seonyoung coming towards us.

“Don’t come! Back! Run back! To the car in the parking lot!”

Today was the second Monday of May.

It was the day of our company picnic, and the day I assaulted two company employees.

And it would probably be the day our company went bankrupt.

The strange omen that arrived with the rain began to drastically change the reality I had known.