How to Die in the Office Labyrinth - Chapter 1

WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B

◈ How to Die in the Office Labyrinth ◈

Chapter 1: The Last Question

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"If it were possible to turn back time, what would you do, Seon Yu-han-ssi?"

It was the final question of the interview.

A little odd and flippant for a question from one of the most well-regarded companies in the country, but I didn't blankly ask them to repeat it, and I didn't smile awkwardly.

If it were possible to turn back time, what would you do?

It was the most famous question passed around in hushed circles about Jaelae Group's hiring interviews. Maybe the most important one.

"For this question alone, we promise in the name of 'Jaelae' that no answer you give, Seon Yu-han-ssi, will count against you. Of course, a strong answer will earn you points accordingly."

No answer could cost you points, but a better answer could earn more of them. An honest chance to make up for any stumbles.

Not that anyone knew what counted as a strong answer.

"If I could turn back time."

What mattered was that my present and my future hung on this question.

"I would..."

And that the answer lay in the past.

* * *

"Ah."

I got turned around for a moment and missed the elevator right in front of me.

I'm pretty sure we made eye contact. You could've held it for me.

Anyway, today had been a bad day all around. The interview included.

Was I going to fail?

The salary here, though. If they'd just take me, I could work here until my bones gave out.

Ha. I started to let out a long sigh, then remembered I was still inside the building and shook my head.

Never mind.

It was already over. Nothing I could do about it now.

Maybe catch a movie on the way home.

3:33 PM.

Too early to just go home.

And if I did go home, I'd probably spend the rest of the day glumly picking apart everything I'd said in the interview.

"...Huh?"

What's this.

Where the cellular signal icon should have been at the top of my phone screen, which I'd pulled up to buy a movie ticket, there was an "SOS" notice instead.

Why did my data just cut out?

The moment I pressed the restart button.

Tick.

The ceiling lights flickered, then all went dark at once.

A blackout?

Poor people working here.

I stared at the four elevator panels showing no numbers at all and thought less about the people who'd need rescuing from inside, and more about the ones whose work had just ground to a halt.

I'll have to take the stairs.

I turned and headed for the emergency stairwell.

Only the third floor anyway, no trouble making it down to the lobby.

But what's going on with this, seriously.

I checked my phone again. Still the "SOS" notice.

Losing service in the middle of a city like this meant something had happened to the cell towers nearby.

A fire, maybe. Or...

Maybe a labyrinth had appeared.

If a nearby transmission tower or utility pole had been damaged in the process, that would explain why the building lost power.

Still, it was the middle of the day, so it wasn't particularly dark.

This building had a hollow center, a rectangular courtyard shape with all four sides enclosed.

Sunlight came through the windows not just in the offices along the outer walls, but into the inner corridor as well.

I found myself pausing to look down through the corridor window to the first floor.

At the center of it was a lush green garden.

A massive maze garden, one that looked like nothing but a wall when viewed from below, beautiful only when seen from above.

Bang!

Just as my mind started to drift, a thunderous crash rang out from somewhere behind me.

Boom, crack, crash, bang!

Enormous impacts, like something slamming again and again hard enough to shake the entire building.

Crack, thud!

On instinct I sprinted for the emergency exit and threw myself through the door.

"Whoa--"

And missed a step.

* * *

1. Do not run on the stairs.

* * *

"If it were possible to turn back time, what would you do, Seon Yu-han-ssi?"

"Pardon?"

I blinked, dazed.

The Interview Administrator was smiling gently.

"It seems like you really weren't familiar with this question, Seon Yu-han-ssi. Most people already know it when they come in."

It's not supposed to be shared, technically. The Interview Administrator added that with a small shrug.

"Anyway, let me ask again. If it were possible to turn back time, what would you do, Seon Yu-han-ssi?"

What?

What just happened?

What is happening right now?

Deja vu?

Or did I fall asleep mid-interview and dream something?

"Seon Yu-han-ssi?"

"Ah, yes. I, if something like that were possible..."

* * *

"Thank you."

I bowed politely and stepped out into the corridor in a half-daze.

Somehow I'd managed to pull out the answer I'd prepared.

But I'd stumbled over my words, flustered as I was.

Had I been visualizing too hard?

Bad enough that my imagination kept going even after the interview ended? In such an ominous direction?

I must have been more nervous than I thought. My body felt stiff and heavy.

I rubbed the back of my neck for no particular reason and positioned myself in front of the elevator.

5... 4... 3... Ding!

"The doors are opening."

Lucky. I made it just in time.

I made eye contact with a man already inside and gave a small nod in greeting.

A stranger, but you never know how life might bring people back around.

"The doors are closing."

Wait.

Something felt faintly off, and I stole a glance at the man beside me.

A stranger...

Or was he?

Hadn't we made eye contact somewhere?

Just now, no, before that, no...

At the beginning?

Clunk.

The number panel went dark, and the elevator stopped.

"Hm? What's this."

The man beside me, who had been checking his reflection in the mirror, looked up.

He glanced once at the black panel, then at me.

"D-did it stop?"

His voice cracked a little, rattled.

"Yes, it seems like--"

"--What the. Why isn't it responding."

Tap-tap-tap-tap.

I stood and watched as the man frantically mashed the yellow emergency call button.

"Oh, come on. What's wrong with this thing? My phone's not working either."

This doesn't feel right.

I took out my phone at his words. Sure enough, the top of the screen read "SOS."

No way.

"Huh?"

Clunk, creak.

"Oh! It's moving again. Thank goodness. Right?"

Moving?

No. No.

It's not moving.

This is...

"Wh-whoa? Is it just me or is the speed--"

This feeling.

Like riding a roller coaster that's just crested the top of the track, that pause, and then it starts to move again, every hair on your body standing on end.

Bang!

The crash that had sent me running for the emergency stairwell.

Boom, crack, crash!

That had been the sound of an elevator falling.

* * *

2. Do not take the elevator.

* * *

"If it were possible to turn back time, what would you do, Seon Yu-han-ssi?"

"Ti-"

I nearly said "feet."

"...me. If I could turn back time."

I clenched my fist and opened it. My whole body felt like it was buzzing.

"I think I need to, well, observe the situation here for a moment..."

"Hm, could you explain a little more about what you mean by that?"

Because it feels like time actually got turned back, so I need to observe the situation!

I barely managed to swallow the urge to shout that.

At a minimum, I needed to figure out whether I was in a situation where I should go into the company, or into a hospital.

Well, if going to a psychiatric hospital was what it took to fix this, that would be a relief.

"Seon Yu-han-ssi. Are you all right?"

After calling my name several times with no response, watching me just sit there shaking with my mouth clamped shut, the Interview Administrator seemed more concerned than annoyed.

"I think it would be best to wrap things up here. There's a clinic on the fourth floor, so if you're feeling quite unwell, please do stop by."

The Interview Administrator gestured for me to head out, but I didn't want to leave.

Even if it tanked my score and I failed the interview for bad conduct.

That had to be better than rolling down a flight of stairs or going down with a falling elevator.

Please let this be a dream. A delusion. An overly vivid imagination. Please let me be a patient with a clinically significant impairment in reality perception.

"If you're having trouble standing on your own, I can hel--"

Silence.

Then darkness.

I stared blankly around the empty interview room.

The Interview Administrator was gone.

Where had they gone?

Where was I?

[3:33｜SOS｜87%]

I sat in the chair and stared dully at my phone screen.

Bang!

Before long, a sound reached me. Not familiar exactly, but no longer new either.

Boom, crack, crash, bang! Crack, thud!

Six times in total.

There were six elevators in total.

Four had been grouped together, and one of them was the one I'd ridden.

The other two must be for emergencies.

But did a power outage cause elevators to fall?

The odds of an elevator falling were nearly zero.

The safety systems were designed that well.

The kind of movie scenario where you're inside an elevator and the whole car just drops, that didn't happen in real life.

Right. It shouldn't have.

"Ha..."

I sighed like I wanted to sink through the floor.

At least so far, no absurd accidents had occurred, like tipping backward out of my chair and snapping my neck, or the ceiling caving in on top of me.

If I stayed here, would nothing happen?

And if so, how long did I need to stay?

All around me, quiet.

Not a sound.

I didn't like the silence, so I filled my head instead.

Seon Yu-han-ssi, what made you apply to our company? Well, because it's the most well-known firm in the industry and it pays well. What made you apply to the Red Thread Liaison Department? Because I'm an indecisive little coward who can't do anything on my own. What would you say is your greatest strength, Seon Yu-han-ssi? A survival instinct that lets me read a room like a rat and outlast anything like a cockroach. If the interests of your assigned Red Thread were to conflict with the company's interests, what would you do as an agent, Seon Yu-han-ssi? Move in whatever direction makes me more money. Is there anything you'd like to ask us? Yes, actually. Why is my life like this.

Squeak, squeak.

I had no idea how long I'd been sitting there.

A sudden sound made me look up.

Squeak, squeak, squeak.

The specific, unpleasant sound of a damp shoe sole dragging against a smooth floor.

Someone was in the hallway.

Squeak, squeak.

The footsteps approached until they were right outside the interview room door.

I held my breath.

Knock knock!

I didn't answer.

Knock knock knock!

"What time is it?"

I shot up from my seat.

A child's voice.

"What time? No clock out here."

A kid who spends a lot of time online, maybe. But why would a child be here? Oh, right, didn't this company have an on-site daycare?

I was thinking that and about to open the door when:

"Don't know the time. What time is it? Want to know the time."

Something felt off about that bright, childlike voice coming through the door.

"Clock is inside. What time? What hour and minute?"

I pressed my lips together and put my ear to the door.

"Can't read a clock? Little hand is the hour. Big hand is the minutes. Is there a hand even smaller than the hour hand? That's the seconds. I know how to read a clock."

The height.

The height was wrong.

It was a child's voice, one that at best might reach my waist, maybe not even that.

"What time? There's a clock inside."

I slowly lifted my gaze.

Toward where that bright, cheerful voice was coming from.

"I'll read it for you. How many minutes?"

The voice of the child on the other side of the door.

"What hour and minute is it right now?"

It was coming from somewhere up above.

As if its head were nearly touching the ceiling.

"I'm coming in."