The very night I escaped from the Mermaid Grave—
I was able to meet Director Ho immediately at the usual Fox Counseling Room’s waiting area.
And…
“Goodness, you must have had a rough time, Soleum-nim! Don’t worry about the bodily tissue that was harvested from you. I’ll recover it right away.”
“…Yes. Thank you.”
The conversation was wrapping up much more smoothly than I’d expected…
‘Is it really this easy?’
Honestly, even though it wasn’t my fault, and this wasn’t even a routine report, just the fact that I was having an emergency meeting with a director at my rank was enough to make me break out in a cold sweat.
But Director Ho listened to my story with great interest, and even clapped his hands in delight.
“So that’s why the Disaster Management Bureau’s support team ended up coming all the way to company headquarters.”
Shit.
“Ah, I’m not complaining to you, Soleum-nim! It’s just… they’re such a hypocritical group, all surface and no substance… I instinctively feel uncomfortable getting too close to them.”
“……”
And this from someone who planted a corporate spy in there?
And honestly… personality-wise, aren’t they on a completely different level compared to Daydream Inc.?
‘Shouldn’t our company at least pretend to have some self-awareness…’
It was almost bizarre, the level of revulsion he showed toward the Disaster Management Bureau.
“If my personal feelings made you uncomfortable, I apologize, Soleum-nim.”
“Not at all, sir.”
In any case, the conversation itself flowed smoothly, and Director Ho brought things to a gentle close.
“In any case, please don’t worry about this sort of issue. If anything comes up, just let me know anytime!”
And then…
“Is there anything else that’s bothering you?”
I’d been waiting for this.
‘…The mood’s not bad right now.’
And we were alone.
You have to ask while you can. As I poured some more hot water into Director Ho’s green tea, I spoke.
“It’s not exactly discomfort, but… there is something I’m concerned about.”
“Please, speak freely.”
Director Ho nodded with an expression that said, ‘I’m so sorry you have a concern.’
So I explained.
“There’s a Darkness I need to enter as soon as possible.”
“……”
About Cheerful Theme Park.
I didn’t specifically mention the blue mascot there, but since getting ‘marked’ by strange beings during ghost story explorations was pretty common, Director Ho would have easily understood the situation.
“I nearly died, but when I promised, ‘I’ll come back next time’, it let me go.”
My follow-up explanation made sense too.
At the time, I’d still been working for the company, so naturally I thought I’d be able to re-enter ‘Cheerful Theme Park’ whenever necessary. But after things turned out like this, I couldn’t get in anymore.
‘You’re the one who assigned me this spy job.’
And from what I knew of Director Ho’s personality, this level of request would be no problem.
“Cheerful Theme Park, huh…”
Director Ho beamed.
“Don’t worry. I’ll arrange for you to be able to visit as quickly as possible!”
As expected.
“Thank you. I was really worried that if I couldn’t get in within a month or two, personal complications would make it impossible for me to keep doing my job…”
I nodded seriously.
“Thanks to your help, Director, I’ll be able to focus on my work without worries.”
So please make it happen within a month.
If not, I might drop dead, spy or not.
I trust that message got across.
“Of course. It’ll be ready soon. Don’t worry.”
He was so refreshingly decisive in matters like this, and it was comforting.
Because he’s competent.
‘Maybe… he’s actually not a bad boss at all, as long as you don’t hit his berserk button…’
Maybe the only reason I’ve had a hard time is that I was always assigned to jobs that made me dance on that crazy button…?
For the first time, I could relate to what the Section Chief from the review team once said: ‘Director Ho is actually a pretty decent superior.’
“Thank you.”
With that, the emergency report began to wind down.
Director Ho would soon say he had to head back in and get up from his seat, and I was about to see him off and get ready to leave quickly.
“Oh, by the way, there’s something I wanted to ask you…”
As he was just about to stand, Director Ho looked gave me a scrutinizing gaze.
“You haven’t been using the Fox Counseling Room, have you?”
“……”
Uuugh.
“If you use the counseling room, you don’t have to worry about running into other employees. I’d really like you to use it actively and heal your contamination and psychological trauma.”
Like hell I will.
‘No matter how I look at it, this place feels like it’s connected to you…!’
Just look at how the place is always coincidentally on break whenever I come to make a report.
At this point, I could believe Director Ho pays commissions to the counselor to steal information from the employee sessions.
One thing’s certain. This space—this ghost story—is definitely under Director Ho’s authority.
That’s exactly why I’d been deliberately avoiding the Fox Counseling Room.
‘It’s just too awkward.’
Even though the last time I had a session there, it was actually very helpful.
And besides, the Elder had just burned away all traces of my contamination, so I probably don’t even need to go now.
But since I couldn’t say any of that out loud, I just nodded my head.
“Yes. I’ll try. But, this space, including the Fox Counseling Room, is still a Darkness, and that person isn’t a real counselor, so…”
I was about to finish by saying, ‘I’ll keep that in mind.’
“But it’s real.”
“…!”
“It’s a ‘real counselor’.”
Director Ho’s usual gentle tone disappeared.
A voice, flat and almost emotionless, came out.
“Because he’s a Darkness, he’s even more strictly bound by the professional code of a counselor. He knows exactly what he’s doing and has the pride of a true expert.”
“……”
“So I just want you to know, you can trust the Fox Counseling Room’s doctor!”
“…Yes.”
“And… he’s been very concerned about the state of Client Kim Soleum, too.”
“……”
Tap tap. Director Ho patted my shoulder in encouragement.
“Then, I’ll be heading in. See you again at the next regular report, Soleum-nim!”
“Yes, Director.”
And with that, the emergency report ended.