Editor’s Survival Guide - Chapter 86
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Editor’s Survival Rules Episode 86
ep15. Edit! National Museum of Korea! (2)
What is the most incorrect interpretation of the phrase ‘Let’s finish the meeting first’?
1. Don’t talk nonsense during the meeting.
2. I have no interest or concern in that topic.
3. I’ll let it slide once, so shut your mouth.
4. Shall we meet separately after the meeting to discuss this?
It wasn’t even a difficult question.
But that researcher boldly chose the wrong answer.
“Section Chief, so about that…”
“…”
When that researcher came looking for Kwon Mu-seop again, the Research Department people were already moving in groups toward the Research Building.
The researcher who had left the group was trembling as he spoke.
“I… I promised to definitely pass along the number…”
Kwon Mu-seop just looked at the researcher bothering him with disbelief.
He was male and looked to be still in his twenties.
And he was so frail that he might die if Kwon Mu-seop hit him like he did Cha Si-eon.
Kwon Mu-seop seemed even more troubled because of this.
If some hot-blooded guy had rudely challenged him, it would be easier to subdue him.
But when some innocent lamb was pestering him without malice, he couldn’t scold him or hit him.
Moreover, Yun U-jeong, who was grinning beside them, seemed to have no intention of helping the section chief anymore.
Kwon Mu-seop smiled bitterly at this total chaos.
Then he spoke as if teaching a slow student.
“Sir, you know our regulations, right?”
“Yes…”
“Just follow those regulations, please.”
“Section Chief, this person is really a good person…”
“Thanks for caring, but really, it’s fine. I’ll politely decline.”
“You, you never know. It might really be fate…”
“Then I would have figured it out myself, right?”
“Still…”
Kwon Mu-seop sighed as he looked at the strangely persistent researcher.
Then he spoke again with a still-smiling face.
“I don’t have the luxury for that. You know our situation, right?”
“That’s going to change now…”
“Change?”
“When the Special Zone stops this time, the situation will be very different… Then the Field Department won’t be in emergency mode like now…”
“…”
At the researcher’s words, the smile disappeared from Kwon Mu-seop’s face.
It wasn’t hardened with anger, but rather seemed dazed.
“Then gradually returning to normal life… wouldn’t that be okay…”
“Ha…”
Kwon Mu-seop, who had looked surprised, burst into laughter again.
Mixed with a sigh, with an expression of mixed emotions.
“Right. You’re right about that too.”
Kwon Mu-seop muttered to himself and laughed a few more times.
Then with a strangely relieved face, he extended his hand.
“Then give it to me for now.”
“Huh?”
“Give me the number.”
At Kwon Mu-seop’s words, not only the researcher but all of us were surprised.
On the other hand, Kwon Mu-seop looked quite pleased.
“Of course it’s difficult right now, but I’ll try contacting her once after this person goes home later.”
“Huh? Oh, uh, yes…!”
At Kwon Mu-seop’s acceptance, the researcher hesitantly held out a note.
But when Kwon Mu-seop grabbed the other end of the note, the researcher started holding on without letting go.
Even when Kwon Mu-seop pulled the note a couple of times, it was the same.
“Now what?”
When Kwon Mu-seop asked what was wrong, the researcher still holding the note muttered with an anguished face.
“This person is still in her early thirties.”
“Is that so?”
“…”
“So?”
“Section Chief… you’re in your late thirties…”
“…You’re making that an issue now?”
Kwon Mu-seop looked incredulous again and pulled the note.
Then the researcher squeezed his eyes shut and held on.
As a result, only the innocent note got crumpled, and Kwon Mu-seop shouted with a forced smile.
“What exactly do you want to do with me!”
“Huuk…!”
The researcher was almost sobbing in terror.
Nevertheless, seeing him hold onto the note and endure, we realized.
They say there are three things a person cannot hide.
Poverty, coughing, and love.
That person likes Subject 26…
The struggle continued for a moment like that.
In the end, it was Kwon Mu-seop who gave up on the note.
Of course, if he wanted to take it, he could have twisted the wrist and snatched it.
But Section Chief Kwon Mu-seop wasn’t particularly desperate for that number.
Meanwhile, that researcher, already deeply in love, was carefully holding the note he had barely protected to his chest.
The conclusion seemed clear.
It seemed this researcher had realized his true feelings: ‘I tried to fulfill her request, but I really couldn’t do it.’
Using Section Chief Kwon Mu-seop as a stepping stone, no less.
No, but what did our section chief do wrong…?
Perhaps thinking similarly to me, Yun U-jeong got upset and intervened.
“Sir, what are you doing right now? There’s a limit to how much we’ll tolerate. Is our section chief your friend?”
“That’s not it…”
“Talking nonsense during an important meeting. We were being nice and letting it slide, but now you chase us here and what is this! Does the Research Department treat superiors this way? Is there no hierarchy there?”
“I’m, I’m sorry…!”
The researcher was almost crying at Yun U-jeong’s scolding.
At that pathetic and pitiful sight, Yun U-jeong clicked her tongue and added.
“And people should be honest. Why are you using someone else as an excuse when you have feelings yourself? If you’re that concerned, go and speak up honestly!”
It would have been better not to say that…
“Do… do you think that’s right?”
The researcher suddenly brightened up and looked at Yun U-jeong earnestly.
“…No, don’t do it. Don’t do anything. We’ll just hear that the subject ran away because of some confession. Absolutely don’t do it.”
Yun U-jeong also seemed to realize her mistake and warned with a serious face.
The researcher became dejected again.
The Research Department is really not easy…
While working at the Management Bureau, you can often hear complaints about the Field Department.
‘Field Department people are so scary’ or.
‘Field Department acts like they’re the only bosses’ or.
But look.
Above the Field Department is the Research Department.
Yun U-jeong spent a long time explaining why researchers shouldn’t confess to observation subjects.
The researcher nodded sadly and returned to the research building, and we all sighed together.
Once the situation settled, Yun U-jeong chuckled at Kwon Mu-seop.
“You held back well, Section Chief. You looked like you were about to explode twice.”
“I almost got really angry when he talked about age.”
“Making age comments really crossed the line. Our section chief became like this while protecting the country.”
“What do you mean ‘became like this’…?”
“By the way, what was that guy’s name earlier?”
“Go Eun-geon from Analysis Team 5. I’ll give him a warning through Acting Manager Oh.”
“No, Si-eon. Just leave it. If we mess with him carelessly, the sunfish might all die.”
Look.
Even after being toyed with by a low-ranking Research Department member, the Field Department executives gathered and were busy reading the room.
This is the dignity of the Research Department that stands above the Field Department.
And Kwak Jae-gyeom, who couldn’t join that conversation, came over to me and whispered quietly.
“Hyung, isn’t Rescuer 26 the biggest victim right now?”
“…”
I think so too, but let’s just stay quiet.
“Anyway, when we should be on high alert, this nonsense…”
Yun U-jeong clicked her tongue again.
Though she enjoyed Kwon Mu-seop’s predicament, separately from that, she seemed displeased with that researcher’s loose-screw attitude.
On the other hand, Kwon Mu-seop spoke with a strangely brightened face.
“It seems the Research Department is already talking about what comes next.”
“Exactly. Why are they getting excited already?”
“But doesn’t it feel good?”
“Feel good?”
“Just a few months ago, it felt like we’d be doing this forever, but now they’re even getting excited. Isn’t this quite a change of times?”
“Ah, I’m just worried about jinxing it.”
Yun U-jeong also seemed to read the mood, belatedly adding in a softened voice.
Then Kwon Mu-seop answered with a hearty laugh.
“I don’t think we need to worry too much. I’ve been having really good feelings lately.”
Kwon Mu-seop said that while looking at me.
“It’ll definitely work out well.”
With eyes full of expectation.
Section Chief Kwon Mu-seop really looked like he was in a good mood.
Just a few days ago he was yelling and catching Cha Si-eon, but now he’d returned to being a kind neighborhood hyung as if that never happened.
I didn’t dislike this warm atmosphere either.
But for some reason, I couldn’t smile back.
Far from smiling back, for the first time in a very long while…
Throb-
…I felt stomach cramps.
* * *
The execution date for the Special Zone closure experiment was decided.
June 3rd.
Ten days from now.
During that time, I focused on physical training.
Even that was just to the extent of loosening up my body and managing my condition, without overdoing it.
I had finished my morning exercise and was resting briefly in the lounge.
“Otter Agent!”
A bright voice echoing from the entrance.
It was Ha Yu-ju.
Yu-ju came running over bouncing like a child on a picnic and stood behind me.
Swoosh-!
Then she suddenly unrolled a measuring tape and measured my shoulder width.
“…Why are you naturally measuring someone else’s body?”
“Hehe.”
“Don’t make anything weird.”
“I won’t make anything weird.”
“Don’t make anything anyway.”
“…”
“…What are you going to make?”
Yu-ju looked up at me with pitiful eyes, and I surrendered without lasting even a few seconds.
Then Ha Yu-ju smiled brightly again and showed me her tablet.
“Something like this! A victory photo zone!”
There was, ugh…
I groaned with my hand on my solar plexus.
“That is weird…”
“If you don’t like this, I have other designs too!”
Ha Yu-ju showed me a new image, but to my eyes it was all the same.
That image was what’s called a ‘birthday cafe.’
You know, where they fill a cafe-like space with a specific celebrity or character and have fans come to hang out.
She was implementing exactly that kind of thing with an otter character.
The most shocking thing was the life-sized otter standee placed in the center.
And behind it was this slogan:
☆The Otter Has Stopped☆
Ah, ah…
“We couldn’t properly celebrate during ‘Ant Hill.’ So we decided to make up for it double this time. When people come, we’ll hand out otter-shaped cookies too. Want to see a cookie sample?”
“…If you’re going to put up an otter standee anyway, why did you measure my shoulder width?”
“You said we couldn’t use your photos. So I wanted to at least match the size.”
Even thinking about it three times, it was incomprehensible.
No, more than that.
“Where are you going to do this?”
“Here.”
When I asked in horror, Ha Yu-ju confidently pointed to the lounge.
“I got permission from the section chiefs. The section chiefs like our activities too.”
Not section chief, but section chiefs.
At the news that even the higher-ups had collectively agreed, my stomach started churning again.
I felt cold sweat running down my neck and hurriedly shook my head.
“No, what if you make all this in advance and don’t get the results you want?”
“Agent, these things are usually prepared in advance and then you decide whether to use them based on the situation. If you prepare after getting results, it’s too late.”
“That’s right!”
“Don’t say weak things!”
Then a voice chimed in from the other side of the lounge.
It was other agents from the Field Department who had been listening to our conversation and glancing over, wanting to act familiar with me.
At that spirited cheer, even passing staff joined in and let out cheers.
I was left speechless by the avalanche of cheering.
Those people were murderous just last week.
As if nothing had happened, it became lively and bustling again.
As if dying from a sense of defeat was something from the distant past.
The atmosphere at the Management Bureau now was almost like the eve of a festival.
Yes, compared to those times that felt like walking on thin ice, now is much better.
I definitely think so too, but…
Throb-!
Separate from that, my stomach pain was getting worse and worse.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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