The dead light flickered weakly back to life.
Dim illumination blinked irregularly through the storage room.
At that moment, the person Manager Nam thought of might have been his wife, the one who always took care of him and praised him as a wonderful family man.
Or perhaps his daughter, Nam Jua, the kind and diligent girl who never once talked back to her father.
Meanwhile, the person who had actually wanted to die because of him was standing right here.
The person who had already given up on life was standing right here.
And yet even now — even while feeling guilty for dragging an innocent wife and daughter into this and speaking in circles because he didn’t want to involve them — Kim Iwol knew full well that the people Manager Nam had tormented probably never crossed his mind even once.
That reality felt absurd.
And pathetic.
The thought that there should never be another employee like himself — someone forced to wait on a superior, thank them for their insults disguised as advice, obey every order, and kill off their own identity just to survive — was the only thing driving him now.
“Because you lived like garbage.”
The resentment lodged deep inside him poured out as though vomiting blood.
He crushed years of fury down and spat them at Manager Nam.
“...”
“Because of you.”
He needed rage powerful enough to swallow a person whole.
Something stronger than mere disgust.
Something that would carve an unsettling, terrifying memory into Manager Nam’s mind permanently.
So Kim Iwol stared at him without blinking.
Manager Nam had lived his entire life without understanding what hell it was to feel like everything in the world was your fault.
He had spent his whole life turning away from the fact that certain accusations could make someone feel like a sinner who deserved no right to exist.
But now he would learn.
The moment everything became irreversible.
The moment he lost his mother and could no longer stop hearing the word “karma” from the person who had foretold her death.
He would start wanting desperately to atone somehow for the countless cruelties he committed so casually he no longer even remembered them.
If only to avoid losing the family he still had left.
The slightest suspicious incident would make his heart plummet.
He’d tear at his hair wondering what he’d done wrong despite having no clear answer.
Just as Kim Iwol himself had done countless times in the past.
Self-surveillance consumed people.
It watched every movement.
Gnawed away at them until death.
A minor illness.
A narrow escape from danger.
The kinds of things that happened once or twice naturally in every family over the course of life—
for Manager Nam, they would all root themselves permanently as guilt.
When Kim Iwol stepped closer, Manager Nam instinctively retreated.
Kim Iwol slowly inhaled.
“I hope you don’t come to your senses too late.”
“...”
“The afterlife doesn’t care about age. People go there whenever their time comes.”
He gently took hold of Manager Nam’s trembling hand.
Then he placed the phone onto the damp palm.
“Be grateful to the people around you. Stop treating them horribly. Live like you’re repenting. Think of it as paying off the karma you’ve built up all these years.”
He wasn’t asking for much.
Just that the man live the rest of his life anxious and unstable to roughly the same degree Kim Iwol once had.
And if, someday, he truly reflected and became a better person, then all the better.
“And when you meet someone new, try treating them kindly.”
He genuinely meant it.
He sincerely hoped Assistant Manager Hwang and Senior Staffer Song would no longer spend every night drowning in overtime.
That the two of them could work there a little more comfortably.
Pressing the side button on the darkened phone, Kim Iwol lit up the screen.
A smiling mother and daughter beamed brightly in the darkness.
Young Nam Jua especially caught his eye.
“You never know. Someone standing at death’s doorstep might still turn around and come back.”
Like me.
If Kim Iwol had simply died back then, Manager Nam would’ve remained nothing more than a workplace bully.
But Kim Iwol had turned things back at the branching point.
As a subordinate employee, he considered that more than enough duty fulfilled.
You’ll never become the kind of superior I could learn from.
So at the very least, make choices you won’t be ashamed of in front of your daughter.
“I’ll be going now.”
Leaving behind the frozen Manager Nam, Kim Iwol walked back out into the brightly lit hallway.
It was the first time since meeting Manager Nam that he had ever left without bowing his head.
“Why the hell did taking one video take so long?”
“I had to film your part too, Jeho.”
When Kim Iwol joked lightly, Choi Jeho clicked his tongue in annoyance.
Still, the moment he stepped outside and saw the Spark members again, he immediately felt more at ease.
His head had felt ready to explode from being alone with Manager Nam.
Good thing he hadn’t come alone.
“What the hell happened to your clothes?”
Choi Jeho pointed at the wrinkled collar where Manager Nam had grabbed him.
Kim Iwol already had an excuse prepared.
“This? Fan service. I was reenacting the Great Robe Pulling War.”
“......”
Choi Jeho shut his mouth instantly.
Unable to swear because people were watching, the center resorted to self-muting instead.
Truly admirable.
At the dorm later, he’d probably reserve a solid hundred minutes of nagging.
While carrying props out alongside the staff, they ran into Assistant Manager Ahn in front of the elevator.
Even after Assistant Manager Ahn courteously offered to wait, the elevator was already packed.
Kim Iwol sent the members and staff down first.
In front of the elevator, only Kim Iwol, the remaining props, and Assistant Manager Ahn were left behind.
“Did filming go well?”
“Yes! The facilities were fantastic. We filmed really comfortably thanks to you. Thank you.”
“That’s good to hear.”
A polite exchange.
Then silence.
The elevator was slowly coming back up.
“Assistant Manager.”
“Yes? Come to think of it, did I ever introduce myself?”
“If you get a job offer somewhere else, take it.”
Kim Iwol spoke while staring straight ahead.
“They’ll value you more than this place does.”
“......”
“No matter where you go, people will welcome you.”
The elevator doors opened.
A staff member coming back for the props shoved Kim Iwol into the elevator first before hurriedly loading the rest of the equipment inside.
Holding the open-door button, Kim Iwol met Assistant Manager Ahn’s gaze.
The man looked stunned.
They would probably never meet again.
Today was the last time Kim Iwol would ever willingly set foot inside Hanpyeong Industry.
He bowed deeply.
“Thank you.”
For today.
For back then.
And for that day that had almost become his last.
The elevator doors closed.
He felt strangely relieved.
This episode of “An Era of Mission Failure Suffering” took place in an underpowered marketing department.
Their main business involved producing promotional brochures and company newsletters for the large corporation Yonggwang Enterprise.
In other words, they were basically the parallel-world version of Spark — the same people who had sat on the company newsletter to throw a tteokbokki party in the previous episode.
Demand for Spark’s office-worker skits — saturated not just with the soul of working adults but with the unmistakable scent of salaried employees — only kept growing stronger.
At first, Spark’s concept had been “bosses like that don’t exist.”
Gradually it evolved into office-worker acting built around slogans like “Employees are human too” and “There’s no such thing as a good company.”
And eventually...
[Concept: A realistic documentary vlog that looks like it would appear on some chaotic corporate YouTube channel]
...they reached the point of carrying out a nationwide emotional fraud project targeting Korea’s millions of office workers.
Recreating the vibe of a shitty company already felt cursed enough.
Now they’d nearly filmed a full reincarnation documentary too.
‘Please make sure to add subtitles clarifying that this is all acting and that workplace abuse and unfair contracts should absolutely be reported to the Ministry of Employment and Labor.’
‘I told you I got it already!’
Kim Iwol clasped Manager Chanyeong’s hands and pleaded earnestly.
Though he had died too early to leave behind any legal precedent through lawsuits, he had filmed this with the determination to sacrifice his body if necessary to leave behind the ultimate educational footage.
And the final result looked like this:
#. Tiny Office
Marketing Team 6 must finish the December company newsletter for the major corporation Yonggwang Electronics.
With the deadline approaching, the atmosphere inside the team is utterly brutal....
Back in the day, department managers pretended to read physical newspapers.
Modern department managers actively embraced digital technology instead.
They exploited T-shaped desk arrangements where nobody could see their monitors and checked stock and Bitcoin graphs the moment they arrived at work.
Department Manager Kim was no different.
Receiving greetings from employees as he entered the office, Kim Iwol sat down wearing an expression drained of all life and checked the KOSPI.
The blue downward graph became the state of his emotional condition for the day.
『Department Manager Kim Iwol: Assistant Manager Lee, what happened to the thing I told you to handle yesterday?』
Fortunately, Lee Cheonghyeon had taken the assistant manager role.
If it had been Jeong Seongbin or Kang Giyeon instead, Kim Iwol probably would’ve hesitated despite knowing this was all mutually agreed-upon comedy.
But his opponent was the god of over-immersion.
Half-hearted acting wasn’t tolerated.
Even before Kim Iwol arrived at work, Lee Cheonghyeon had already been acting as the quick-witted assistant manager secretly checking the KOSPI to predict the department manager’s mood.
Thanks to that, Kim Iwol could fully commit too.
『Assistant Manager Lee Cheonghyeon: We still haven’t received a reply from the vendor yet...』
『Department Manager Kim Iwol: “Haven’t received a reply”?! What, you’re just gonna wait until they answer? Did you leave your phone around to trade for candy?!』
Like a completely unreasonable human being, Kim Iwol exploded because there had been no response yet to work he’d dumped on them at ten o’clock the previous night.
The camera zoomed in on Lee Cheonghyeon’s clasped hands tightening with tension behind his back.
Kim Iwol clicked his tongue irritably and kicked off his shoes.
From beyond the partition, Park Juu stared at him with an expression that screamed absolute disgust.
The way he didn’t even bother hiding how miserable he was gave off the unmistakable aura of a seasoned section chief.
Every time the department manager cleared his throat once every three minutes and sighed once every five, Employee Kang sitting all the way at the end of the office straightened his back like a soldier under inspection.
At Hanpyeong Industry, employees became senior staff the moment they joined.
But Yonggwang Enterprise was a major corporation, so apparently it had a separate entry-level employee rank.
Honestly, they’d just ended up improvising ranks because there were six of them total.
Hard keeping an eye on the boss all the time, huh?
Sorry.
I hated being that kind of person too.
Still, instead of realistically spitting phlegm around the office, he’d sanitized the performance down to obnoxious throat-clearing for the sake of the members, staff, and viewers alike, so hopefully he could be forgiven.
Department Manager Kim’s tyranny continued relentlessly.
To Senior Staffer Choi, he pretended to be considerate by saying nobody made people fetch coffee anymore these days—
before immediately ordering him to go buy coffee.
『Assistant Manager Jeong Seongbin: Department Manager.』
『Department Manager Kim Iwol: Yeah, Assistant Manager Jeong.』
Even amid complete chaos, one person stubbornly stayed true to his character.
Assistant Manager Jeong Seongbin.
『Assistant Manager Jeong Seongbin: I came up with an idea.』
Pushing up his thick-rimmed glasses confidently, he handed over densely packed WebCell printouts done in 7-point font.
Every single box was highlighted fluorescent yellow.
『Department Manager Kim Iwol: Assistant Manager Jeong, uh... how long have you worked here again?』
『Assistant Manager Jeong Seongbin: Ten years, sir.』
『Department Manager Kim Iwol: In those ten years... have I ever once talked to you about readability?』
A long silence fell between them.
With lifeless eyes, Jeong Seongbin answered,
『Assistant Manager Jeong Seongbin: I don’t believe so.』
It was method acting so profound even the boomer department manager himself looked like he regretted not firing this bastard years ago.
The indispensable office freak every terrible workplace needed stood before them in the flesh.
Fuck, UA really had exposed him to too many villains....
Park Juu slowly shook his head.
Sensing the dangerous atmosphere, the assistant manager, senior staffer, and entry-level employee trio quietly began rising from their seats.
『Department Manager Kim Iwol: Nobody move.』
Moved by Assistant Manager Jeong’s spectacular performance, the department manager barked out an order.
『Department Manager Kim Iwol: Nobody here is going home tonight! Got it?!』
Official quitting time: 6:00 PM.
Current time on the wall clock: 5:50 PM.
Evening descended upon Yonggwang Electronics Marketing Team 6....
Viewers screamed in agony at the hopeless marketing team and the strangely middle-aged atmosphere for something that was technically idol self-produced content.
Everyone insisted they had never personally worked somewhere like that—
yet somehow had absolutely seen a company exactly like it before.
≫ The way everyone suddenly types at light speed the moment the department manager leaves for a meeting LMAOOOOOO
└ All five messages starting with “No but seriously”ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ If I were the department manager and saw Senior Staffer Choi’s messages I’d genuinely cry
≫ Assistant Manager Lee is literally writing curses in Notepadㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
Watching everyone immediately reduce their font size the second the department manager starts yellingㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ How many tabs does he even have open in Notepadㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ The random lunch menu candidates written in the middle killed meㅋㅋ I thought it was mine
≫ Section Chief Park’s glorious search history.jpg
Career transfer
Career transfer mistake
How to change jobs
Taking leave for interviews
When interview dates overlap
Two interviews in one day
Unused vacation payout calculator
└ Look at the tiny note in the planner saying “Unused leave payouts void if company encourages usage”ㅠㅠㅠ
└ Excuse me are you spying on my actual search history?
≫ Employee Kang run away
The department manager’s already hopeless
└ Giyeon RUN
└ Escape while holding Assistant Manager Lee’s hand vs. escape while holding Senior Staffer Choi’s hand
└ Rise through the ranks by joining Assistant Manager Jeong’s faction
└└ You’re actually Giyeon’s anti
≫ What exactly... did Kim Iwol swallow...?
Spit it out
Throw it back up
└ How does a trash department manager’s soul exist inside that face
└ Someone perform an exorcism please
└ I literally screamed out loud when he took off the shoes...... Iwol...... you said you’d only ever show Sparklers your cool side forever......
≫ I finally escaped from a shitty boss, so why is there another department manager here? Please explain yourselves.
└ ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ Didn’t think Spark would be this vicious. What a cruel idol group.
└ ㅋㅋㅋㅋThis is the angriest comment I’ve seen all yearㅋㅋㅋ
≫ No wonder employees sit on company newsletters and eat tteokbokki if they’re made like THIS
└ ㅋㅋ Yonggwang Electronics employees did nothing wrongㅠ
└ Sorry for calling the parachute hire rude...... little did I know the company newsletter itself was the rudest thing there......
The comments were funny.
But they were also a little sad.
If content like this resonated so strongly, that meant people had experienced similar things themselves.
Honestly, maybe it would’ve been emotionally easier if viewers could only say, “Did companies really used to be like that?”
‘Well... if everyone’s crying while laughing, I guess that counts as a save.’
Just as Kim Iwol was resolving that next time he would absolutely make something brighter and more cheerful—
“Iwol.”
“Yes, Manager!”
Manager Chanyeong called out to him.
“You told me before that if the assistant manager from Hanpyeong Industry ever contacted us, I shouldn’t block it and should pass the message along.”
Just as the manager said, Kim Iwol had warned them in advance after filming ended.
He’d been certain Manager Nam would come looking for him eventually.
“He says he absolutely has to meet you. Was this arranged beforehand?”
Kim Iwol’s prediction remained accurate to the very end.
After sending his mother off, Manager Nam came to knock on UA’s door of his own accord.
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