A Korean Office Worker Who Became a Nuisance Villainess in a Zombie Story - Chapter 193

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

This dream is a drama.
Pretty color grading, beautiful sets, killer OST—a Korean romance drama.
The genre is romance.
I’m certain of it.
Because.
‘Our Office, which looked like a building from the 1980s, has transformed into some kind of model home….’
Each desk even has only one monitor. A tiny one at that.
They must have arranged it that way so the actors’ faces wouldn’t be obscured.
“Did you hear? Cyprus the intern is apparently the Chairman’s nephew.”
“Oh my, so that makes him a cousin of Department Head Praha?”
My teammates, openly whispering as if work didn’t exist.
‘Where did they sell the messenger app that everyone’s huddled together gossiping like this? Aren’t you supposed to be working?’
Even the dialogue is terrible….
Anyone can see there’s a ‘Department Head Praha’ and a ‘Cyprus intern’ at a Korean Company, so why isn’t anyone pointing it out?
Don’t they realize those names are strange? Why are they all naturally saying ‘Department Head Praha’ like it’s normal?!
And furthermore!
‘Yujein’s hair is still pink!’
Our Company is conservative!
But there was something even more absurd.
“Assistant Manager Yusara, you certainly have big dreams. First you were hitting on Intern Cyprus, and when that didn’t work, now you’re going after the Department Head….”
“Trying to get tangled up with the owner’s family no matter what….”
Listening to my teammate’s crisp whisper right in front of me, I laughed hollowly.
‘So I’m the villain again, huh.’
I won’t even get into why I became a villain again.
But can a mere assistant manager pull off being a villain against the owner’s family?
Could I possibly be a chaebol too? So I rummaged through my phone, but found no evidence anywhere that I was a chaebol.
‘An assistant manager going head-to-head with the owner’s family with nothing but her bare hands in this harsh world. That’s me.’
Even for a dream, this is sloppy. I clicked my tongue and set my phone down on the desk.
My earlier worry about forgetting Excel when I returned proved pointless—this K-drama Company has barely any actual work to do.
It seems the job consists of everyone just placing a coffee cup at their desk and gathering to mutter ‘Did you hear?’, and then asking ‘Did you hear that?’ again while washing hands in the Bathroom.
A cushy Company.
The only downside, though.
I looked down at my body.
Until just moments ago, I was definitely wearing formal business attire appropriate for the Company atmosphere.
But when I came to my senses, I was wearing a dress instead.
A design that clung to the curves of my body.
An off-shoulder knit dress.
Ha ha ha. I came to work wearing an off-shoulder.
Ha ha ha ha. Ha ha. An off-shoulder. Me.
I came to work wearing an off-shoulder….
I… hahaha…
‘I need to wake up soon.’
At this rate, I might have to show up to work tomorrow in a crop top.
I rested my chin on my hand.
‘What exactly am I supposed to do here?’
This is a K-romance drama, and I’m the villainess.
Yujein over there, fidgeting and acutely aware of my presence, Cyprus clinging to her side, and Praha inside—invisible to me.
So I’m supposed to interfere with their love triangle?
How?
Just pull out some kimchi and slap her across the face?
Order 1kg of kimchi through dawn delivery, stuff it into a bag, and commute on the Line 9 express?
The kimchi won’t burst on the way to work, right? They don’t call it the ‘9’ Line ‘express’ because ambulances are on standby, do they?
Let’s say I somehow pull it off.
Then what?
If I get fired for slapping someone with kimchi, do I get unemployment benefits?
‘Look, a deputy director who values her paycheck can’t play the villainess…’
“Yujein, I’d like to see you for a moment.”
Just then, the Department Head’s Office door opened and Praha called for Yujein.
The team members, who had been chattering away without doing much real work, quickly urged Yujein to go, pushing her back.
Cyprus naturally stood up and followed her.
The three of them entered the Department Head’s Office, and all the team members’ eyes turned toward me.
They stared at me blatantly.
“…”
At this point, I felt like I should burst through the Department Head’s Office door and cause a scene.
The timing seemed perfect for exactly that.
I stood up abruptly to meet their expectations.
“What is this…”
I looked down bewilderingly at the high heels I was wearing—red soles, a heel at least 10 centimeters high—and straightened my clothes.
‘This blasted off-shoulder.’
I cursed inwardly as I passed the multifunction printer and headed toward the Department Head’s Office.
“…What?”
A colleague from the adjacent team walking down the Corridor caught my eye.
A severely wrinkled shirt, an employee badge turned backward on their back, matted hair.
They walked along bumping into walls on both sides, dressed as if they’d forgotten about personal hygiene entirely. The way they swayed unsteadily was strange, like someone who’d been drinking.
‘What’s wrong with them?’
Do slovenly people like that appear in K-romance dramas too? I stopped before opening the Department Head’s Office door and stared.
The closer they came, the stranger they looked…
“Hey!”
Just then, the adjacent team’s team leader, who had been carrying an armful of copy paper from the other direction, tapped their team member’s shoulder.
“Hey! Why are you here? I told you we have a meeting in 30 minutes—go prepare. What happens if you’re still here?”
“….”
“Did you buy the coffee? Don’t tell me you thoughtlessly grabbed eight cups of hot drinks again?”
“….”
“I only drink Abara. If all you have this time is hot coffee, I’ll just pour that damned hot coffee straight into your mouth….”
“….”
“Hey, are you listening to me?”
“….”
“…Are you hurt somewhere?”
“Ugh….”
“What’s wrong… Why are you sweating so much?”
The team leader from the adjacent team, whose expression had turned uneasy, grabbed the team member’s shoulder. Was something really wrong?
“If something hurts, just say so. Why aren’t you wearing a mask? If you infect me, I’ll die….”
In that instant, the team member who had been making gurgling sounds while turning their neck suddenly bit down hard on their team leader’s hand.
“Aaahhhhh!”
At the scream echoing from the Corridor, everyone seated in the Office turned to look this way in unison.
“Aaahhhhh! Aaaahhhhh!”
“Grrgh! Kyaaahhh!”
Insane!
No time to think. I shoved both the screaming team leader and the team member now tearing at their leader’s throat into the Break Room and slammed the door shut.
Crash!
Blood sprayed from inside the Break Room in the nick of time.
“Kyaaahhhhh!”
A beat too late, screams erupted from the people around me.
By then, I had already dragged chairs and a multifunction machine (a prop for filming, completely hollow inside) in front of the Break Room door to block it.
“What’s happening?”
“What?”
At the deafening screams, three people burst out from the Department Head’s Office.
My eyes met Praha’s furrowed gaze immediately. In that same motion, I dragged a cabinet and water cooler bottles to finish blocking the door.
“Aaahhhhh!”
The horrific screams continued without end.
“Yusara, what on earth is….”
I watched as Praha instinctively shielded Yujein behind him, along with Cyprus, and simply shrugged.
“I think it’s a zombie. No—it’s definitely a zombie.”
“…What did you say?”
Without responding, I pointed at the Break Room wall.
The expressions of the three people hardened as they saw the blood spattered across the translucent wall.
“A zombie…you say?”
“Like the zombies from dramas and movies?”
“Yes.”
“That doesn’t make any sense….”
“That makes sense. If only it had shown up in front of me.”
“….”
“Don’t worry. I’ve already resolved the immediate problem.”
Crack!
“Aaah! Ugh!”
Leaving behind the Break Room with its still-unsettling sounds, I returned to my desk and kicked off my shoes.
I abandoned the high heels I’d never worn except during my job interview and slipped on my slippers instead.
I opened the lid of the tumbler sitting in front of my PC and gulped down the water inside.
The people who’d been whispering moments ago stared at me with slack jaws.
Making eye contact with each of them one by one, I delivered the familiar line.
“Everyone, snap out of it. It seems the genre of this drama is about to change from here on out.”
From an office romance story centered around the Department Head, an intern, and an employee to a zombie thriller.
[Characteristics of K-dramas as Seen by K-office Workers (2)]
They often blend genres.
Zombie + melodrama.
Revenge + romance.
Romance + zombie?
(If I mess up even once here, Mascarpone won’t let me off easy, seriously….)

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————