A month had already passed since he had joined.
Today marked the start of yet another day. Over the past month, Jaegyeom has changed quite a bit. Once awkward in his greetings with the team members, he had come to exchange them naturally.
"Jaegyeom, you're here?"
"Welcome, our youngest member."
"Hello."
After greeting them, he confidently strode to his seat.
Like other office workers, the first thing Jaegyeom did upon arriving at the office was turn on his computer.
As they say, even a dog, after three years at a temple, could chant a sutra, and Jaegyeom, who had never used a computer before, now seemed to embody the demeanor of a professional office worker.
This was thanks to Kang Yibin, who took every spare moment to sit jaegyeom down and teach him one-on-one. She started with the basics-turning the computer on and off, moving the mouse, accessing the internet. Now, they've advanced to typing practice.
Recently, Jaegyeom had mastered the most basic
"position practice" level in the typing program. After familiarizing himself with the layout of the consonants and vowels on the keyboard, he had begun "word practice" and "short sentence practice"
simultaneously. His average typing speed was around 20 characters per minute. It was a substantial improvement.
After focusing on typing practice for a while, his neck and shoulders began to ache. Constantly switching his gaze between the keyboard and the monitor left him with a stiff neck. Although it was a hassle to massage his neck and shoulders regularly, Jaegyeom diligently kept up with his typing practice every day.
"Oh, you've improved a lot."
Kang Yibin complimented, watching him practice typing from behind. Jaegyeom felt a swell of pride.
While he lacked a strong desire to learn or any academic ambitions, his body, which no longer aged, had an impressive capacity for absorbing new skills.
Once he started learning something, he picked it up quickly.
"Then let's try writing an email today."
Today, they planned to have him draft a business email for the first time. Although he had written incident reports a few times, this was his first attempt at composing an email, having never had a reason to send one before.
His task was to request some basic medical supplies by email.
The combat-oriented Exorcism Department, to which Jaegyeom belonged, was prone to frequent injuries.
Since they often sustained minor to major injuries during missions, they kept a stock of basic supplies for minor injuries and low physical conditions, as they couldn't go to the infirmary for every little thing. The previous batch had been used up recently, so they needed to send a request to the Purification Department's manufacturing lab in advance.
"Jaegyeom! Come sit here for a minute."
Kang Yibin called him over to sit in her chair. After logging into the company's intranet and entering his employee ID, she guided him to the team's shared email. She started explaining the email composition process step by step.
"For the recipient... go to the address book, see
'Purification Department Manufacturing Lab'? Click that with the mouse to add it. Then, in the body, greet them. State your request and the reason. Got it?"
Jaegyeom nodded.
"You've written reports, so you can handle this! Don't be nervous. If you're unsure, just look at this. It's an email I wrote. For the greeting and format, follow what I've written here."
Kang Yibin printed out a copy of one of her old emails and placed it on his desk as a reference.
"When you're done, let me know. I'll review it and attach the file before sending."
"Yesh."
After finishing her instructions, Kang Yibin left for the break room, saying she would grab a drink. She figured it wouldn't be too hard, as Jaegyeom only had to write a brief email. Jaegyeom straightened his posture, his hands hovering resolutely over the keyboard.
Tap, tap, tap...
"Hello... This is... Exorcism Department, Team 1..."
Jaegyeom murmured the words aloud as he typed.
One common trait among beginner typists is focusing only on moving forward, with little attention to what they've already typed. Even so, he was doing his best.
He kept glancing back and forth between the reference and the screen. Though his email was filled with spacing and spelling errors, he wasn't too worried since Kang Yibin would review it. Doing one's best with the resources available was what mattered.
Jaegyeom bravely typed on. Pressing the large keyboard keys was quite enjoyable. Unlike the tiny keys on a smartphone, this was much more convenient. He even managed to add a few extra details after some thought, completing the email.
Finished.
With his tense shoulders finally relaxed, Jaegyeom took a deep breath, waiting for Kang Yibin to return and review his work. Stretching his legs under the desk, he gave a long stretch-only for his shoe to catch on the monitor cable, making the screen suddenly go black.
"Huh?"
Jaegyeom was flustered. He clicked the mouse repeatedly and tapped the keyboard keys, but the monitor screen remained black. Had it broken just as
he'd finally finished the email? Stunned for a moment, Jaegyeom sought help from Go Junhyung, who was sitting across from him.
"Manager Go, the computer just suddenly turned off."
"Huh? Suddenly?"
Manager Go stretched his head over and looked at the main unit.
"The power's on... maybe it's a cable issue?"
He asked Jaegyeom to step aside for a moment, reached behind the monitor, and fiddled with something. The monitor lit up again.
"All set?"
Jaegyeom breathed a sigh of relief as if a decade of his life had just been saved. After thanking Go Junhyung, he looked at the monitor to check if his email was still
there.
- Your email has been successfully sent.
"..."
Jaegyeom squinted and leaned in close to the monitor.
The email... had been sent successfully?
He must have accidentally pressed something while randomly clicking the mouse and keyboard, and it had sent the email. With a blank expression, jaegyeom scratched his cheek. Although his face seemed calm, he was actually quite flustered. At that moment, the automatic door opened, and Kang Yibin returned, cheerfully humming with a can of drink in hand.
Jaegyeom awkwardly stood up.
"Um... Manager Kang..."
"Hm?"
"Um, well... about the email."
"Oh? Ah, yeah! You finished it? Let me check."
"It... seems to have sent by itself."
"..."
Kang Yibin blinked a few times, and her face stiffened.
"What?!"
A chill ran down her spine. She rushed over, pushed Jaegyeom aside, and grabbed the mouse. Sitting in the rolling chair, Jaegyeom was gently wheeled to the side.
Kang Yibin quickly checked the sent mail folder. Sure enough, the email had been sent.
Kang Yibin was in despair. If she had known this would happen, she would have left the recipient field blank!
She had made a mistake by pre-filling the "Purification Department Manufacturing Lab" in the recipient field while teaching Jaegyeom how to write an email.
The head of the Purification Department's manufacturing lab was a middle-aged man in his fifties, known for his strict adherence to formality and etiquette, and he had a notoriously fiery and picky personality. He was infamous within the main office for harshly reprimanding his subordinates for even the smallest mistakes. Considering whom they were dealing with, Kang Yibin's mind went blank. She recalled her own experience as a rookie when she sent an email incorrectly and received a severe scolding
Kang Yibin slumped forward onto her desk, banging her fist on it.
"No way!"
The team members, looking puzzled, approached.
"What's wrong?"
"What happened?"
They crowded around, peering at the monitor.
Subject: [Pursuit Department]; Team 1 Request for Basic Medical Supplies
The team members were stunned by the overwhelming subject line.
"..."
"..."
With wide eyes and a shocked expression, Pyo Jiho spoke up.
"..Pursuit? Pursuit Department?? The Pursuit Department???"
Pyo Jiho stared at Jaegyeom as if to confirm he was seeing things correctly. Meanwhile, Kang Yibin groaned, her body still slumped over the desk. Not only had they failed to attach the file listing the requested medications and quantities, but the ominous subject line suggested the content might be equally disastrous.
Finally, Go Junhyung, sensing the mood, cautiously spoke up.
"Is there any way to cancel... the sent email?"
Before he could even finish, Pyo Jiho responded plainly.
"It's an internal email, so cancellation isn't possible."
"Of course, it isn't. Just thought l'd ask..."
Go junhyung, who'd tried to lighten the mood with an empty remark, quickly shifted his expression to a more serious one, nodding in understanding. Just then, the automatic door opened, and Chief Yoon, who had briefly stepped out, returned. Seeing the team members crowded around Kang Yibin's desk, he raised an eyebrow.
"What are you all doing there?"
Pyo Jiho whispered to Chief Yoon.
"You sent an email by mistake?"
Upon hearing the situation, Chief Yoon glanced at Jaegyeom and said, "Let me see." Draping his tie over his shoulder, he took the mouse in hand. The team members scattered to give him space as he bent over, clicking through the emails.
Subject: [Pursuit Department]; Team 1 Request for Basic Medical Supplies
Hello. This is Kim Jaegyeom from Exorcism Department Team 1.
1. We greatly appreciate the support of your department.
2. Our team's basic medical supplies are gone. My team eats snacks every day and two days ago our team's Manager Go bought some Myeongmul Hotdog (food name) from Maengrang Hotdog (store name) and ate it and hurt his mouth with skewer. So Manager Go drank the last bottle of medicinal water we had, and was like, "Hey, we're out of medicinal water now," and that's when we realized we have non left. So I wanted to get more medicinal water but Manager Kang told me to write a mail because we need to write a mail to get a lot of meidicial water at once. I wrote the mail but, Manager Kang said she will attach the file. So please review the attached file and gett back to me.
Thank you :0
From Kim Jaegyeommdskfnjkn;
Chief Yoon stared silently at the screen for a while, as did the other team members. With his face close to the monitor, he finally pointed to a part of the text and spoke up.
"And what's with the colon and zero next to 'Thank you'?"
"Oh, Yibin always ends her emails with a smiley face.
Looks like Jaegyeom tried to do the same, but couldn't find the letter 'D,' so he just chose a similar-looking
character," Pyo Jiho replied analytically.
"Ah..."
Yoon Taehee nodded, as if he understood. A brief silence fell over the group.
After a long pause, Chief Yoon broke the silence, turning to Go Junhyung.
"Manager Go, so is the injury healed?"
"Yes... huhu..."
Go Junhyung, who'd suddenly found himself in an awkward spotlight, hung his head, his face slightly flushed. He had never felt this embarrassed in his life.
At that moment, Kang Yibin spoke up in a calm tone.
"Jaegyeom, just out of curiosity, why did you mention the hotdog?"
"Well. you told me to explain the reason for the request."
"Then what's with the parentheses?"
Jaegyeom hesitated for a moment, then replied with a somewhat sulky expression.
"..So that they wouldn't confuse which part was the store name and which was the food name."
Does that even matter? The team members couldn't help but facepalm.
"You're very thoughtful," said Yoon Taehee, smiling as he casually put his hands in his pockets.
"Well, it's not as disastrous as I feared..."
Just how disastrous did they expect it to be? The team members wondered. In fact, Yoon Taehee was simply relieved the email didn't contain any profanity. He nodded approvingly as he looked at the monitor, arms crossed.
"At least you made an effort to follow the proper format. For a first attempt, it's not bad."
All eyes turned to him, admiration clear on their faces.
He was indeed a generous supervisor-praising instead of scolding, truly a broad-minded person, they thought. But just then, Yoon Taehee's smile gradually faded, and he turned to the team with a serious expression.
"Does anyone know how to hack a server?"