THBPC 03

3. I want to resign

“Let’s quit.”

Now I was certain this wasn’t a dream or hallucination.

“Even if it feels overwhelming, this is the right choice.”

Any sane person wouldn’t want to work in a company filled with monsters, no matter how good the conditions were.

68 million won salary or whatever—nothing is worth more than my life.

“How am I supposed to say this…?”

Deciding to quit was surprisingly easy.

But actually opening my mouth and saying it was completely different.

Especially when the boss was a monster.

“Hoo…”

I let out a breath inside my mind and stayed tense.

When would be the most natural moment to say it? Should I slip it into casual conversation? Or say it seriously with a straight face?

If I say I’m quitting, will those seven mouths all bite me at once?

Even deciding which face to look at while speaking in front of fourteen eyeballs was confusing.

One face was watching the news, one reading a newspaper, one sipping coffee through a straw, and one glancing at me.

Thinking about timing while staring at that was meaningless.

I couldn’t delay anymore.

This was an unavoidable situation. An impossible situation for a human.

If I don’t speak, I die broken. If I speak, I die torn apart by monsters.

At least I could die with the satisfaction of saying I did my best.

I stood up and walked toward Section Manager Myeon.

The uneven breathing from multiple faces sounded like a chaotic noise.

When I stood beside him, the swivel chair slowly turned toward me.

More precisely, some of the seven faces turned.

“What is it, employee Jung?”

The most normal-looking, most human-like face spoke.

I answered calmly, sincerely, and honestly.

“I want to resign.”

The air froze instantly.

The seven faces turned toward me one by one.

Suspicion, disappointment, anger, mockery, fear, curiosity, and emptiness.

All those emotions passed through me.

In the heavy silence like a storm before it breaks, the final expression of Myeon’s faces converged into one emotion.

Displeasure.

“…You said resign?”

There was no room for misunderstanding.

I felt like I had already crossed a line.

I wiped the sweat forming again and forced my trembling lips to stay still.

“I’m sorry. I think I need to quit.”

“From your first day? You haven’t even finished onboarding or training yet…”

“I’m sorry. Something urgent came up. I just got a call.”

“A call? Family issue?”

One of the faces asked.

I couldn’t tell which one it was.

“Yes. I received news that my mother collapsed due to illness… her condition seems serious.”

It was a lie.

I didn’t even remember what my mother looked like.

A brief silence followed.

One of Myeon’s faces nodded.

“A family matter… I understand. What a pity. You were a rare talented newcomer.”

Strangely, they were accepting it too easily.

All the faces looked genuinely regretful.

Then Section Manager Myeon calmly took a small card from his desk drawer and handed it to me.

“The HR office is on B3. The elevator won’t go down there normally, so use this.”

The card was metallic.

There was nothing written on its surface.

But the moment I touched it, a cold chill ran through my skin.

“Thank you…”

As I bowed my head, all seven faces smiled.

Some stretched their mouths to their ears, some narrowed their eyes, some showed their teeth.

It was the first time all of them looked friendly at once—and it felt deeply wrong.

Basement 3

Clack.

When I opened the office door, the hallway was silent.

“What… why is it so quiet?”

I tried to stay calm and stood in front of the elevator.

I placed the card against it.

The doors opened quietly.

Even though I didn’t press any button, the elevator began descending without vibration.

Something kept tapping at my skin from the inside.

“This is fine. I’ll just resign and go home. This is just a nightmare… or an illness.”

The elevator doors opened.

Unlike the bright office floor, B3 had no light.

Or rather, there was light—but my eyes couldn’t interpret it.

It felt like I was perceiving it through sensation rather than sight.

The floor was damp.

My steps made wet, sucking sounds.

On the walls, instead of “HR Office,” there were blurred ink-like shapes spreading across them.

When I reached the door, someone was already there.

The figure noticed me and jerked its head up in panic.

“D-don’t come!”

It was a woman.

She wore a suit, but several buttons were missing and her knees were scraped white.

The only thought I had was:

‘There are people?’

I stopped.

Is that a person in front of me?

It definitely looked like one.

I bit my lip hard.

Pain spread through me.

At least I confirmed this wasn’t a dream.

I carefully observed her condition.

Trembling skin, dilated pupils, shoulders shaking from hyperventilation.

By fragmented medical knowledge, she was clearly overwhelmed by fear.

Meeting another human-like being in a company full of monsters should have been reassuring, but she was not in a state to share that feeling.

“Please calm down.”

I spoke in a low, steady voice.

Her head slowly turned toward me.

“A-a person? A real person? You’re not… sent by those monsters too, right?”

Her voice was hoarse, dry saliva clinging to her lips.

It was easy to imagine what she had gone through to get here.

“Yes. I’m human. I came here to resign from HR.”

The moment she heard the word “resign,” tears burst from her eyes.

She grabbed my pants and started crying loudly.

“Haa… I-I thought I was alone! I thought I was the only one! In the hallway… a monkey… a monkey in a suit… it greeted me…”

She couldn’t finish.

She gasped as if her throat was blocked.

That alone was enough to understand.

She had seen the same things I had.

‘Lee Ji-hyun.’

Her name tag hung crookedly on her chest.

She was in the same situation, but not in the same condition.

“At least that’s good. We both made it here. Maybe we can both resign, Ji-hyun.”

“Good? We can get out? Really? No… I didn’t come here like you… that monkey… it took my contract and sent me here! I stamped it! It forced my finger down!”

She rubbed her index finger violently against her shirt.

The skin was torn and bleeding, but she didn’t seem to feel pain.

Neither did I, in a way.

There was fear, a pounding heart, cold sweat.

But something felt fundamentally wrong.

“You should report this… police… labor office… this is human rights abuse… kidnapping…”

Her voice trembled.

Then it happened.

A disturbing sound, like fingernails scraping a metal door.

The HR office door slowly opened.

“Next. Lee Ji-hyun.”

The voice was not a voice.

It was more like metal grinding together.

“A-ah…”

She couldn’t even scream.

She stood frozen, then staggered forward like a puppet being pulled by invisible strings, disappearing into the darkness.

I stood there thinking something else.

About my lie.

“My phone has a security app installed so I can’t contact anyone…”

That was installed by Section Manager Myeon this morning.

And my phone had received no calls since then.

“A family matter… I understand…”

He knew.

From the beginning, he knew I was lying.

Then why did he let me go?

Was he feeling pity?

Or was it just inconvenient to deal with me?

A rookie who quits on the first day—and he didn’t even react seriously?

Before I could reach any conclusion, a voice came from inside the room.

“Jung Hae-il, please come in.”

I slowly stepped forward.

And at that moment, the air stopped.

HR Office

This was not an office.

The entire space was drenched in crimson.

Walls, ceiling, and floor—all stained with blood.

What should have been desks were masses of flesh with organs spilling out.

And at the center…

A massive shape sat like a throne.

A baby.

At least it looked vaguely like a human infant—but deeply distorted.

Its skin was slimy and wet.

Thin tentacles replaced hair.

It had four eyes—one on the forehead, one inside its mouth.

Its mouth was wide open, soaked in blood and pus.

It smiled.

Chewing on its own fingers, dripping fluids.

I couldn’t move.

My legs wouldn’t respond.

My throat burned.

My body refused to process what I was seeing.

But my eyes wouldn’t close.

As if forcing me to remember everything.

“Jung Hae-il.”

A voice came.

Somewhere in the room.

Human, but not human.

I couldn’t turn my head.

Its presence pressed down on me.

“Where is Lee Ji-hyun?”

I asked carefully.

The creature burped loudly.

Something churned inside its stomach.

Then it vomited.

A lump of flesh hit the floor.

Among the shredded remains was a white shirt collar and a half-melted name tag.

“She resigned.”

That sentence sank into me like ice deeper than the basement.

My back was soaked in cold sweat.

I finally understood.

“Oh… resigned…”

The monster’s voice was sweet.

Familiar.

As if it had repeated that word many times.

It liked the word.

It treated “resignation” like an offering.

I couldn’t move.

“Then, Jung Hae-il.”

It called my name again.

Slowly, I looked up.

Four eyes locked onto me.

Not just looking.

Judging.

Measuring whether I could be eaten.

“Why did you come here?”

The voice scraped through my ears like a rusted blade.

I forced myself to breathe.

I placed a hand on my chest.

And opened my mouth.

“I…”