Work Text:
Cordial pleasantries were being exchanged in the early morning with the sun barely peeking out from over the horizon.
The weather forecast had declared today to be one of an perfectly agreeable kind, the temperature not too hot, the sky not too overcast, and the humidity at a comfortable level.
Yet here they all were, trapped by the mutual snare of corporate governance inside a dull and dreary conference room.
"My, how long has it been since the last time we met Director Cheong! You look as youthful as always, would you mind sharing the contact of your talented surgeon?" Boisterous Lead Auditor Kim Jeong Nam boomed as he shook Director Cheong Dallae's offered hand energetically. "I see Director Ho will not be joining us this time round?"
"Yes, of course, I will pass the information to you after the meeting." The blue-haired director played along genially as a stiff smile stayed plastered on her lips. "Unfortunately Director Ho had some urgent matters to attend to and couldn't be here with us today. He expresses his most sincere regrets."
"How fortunate of him to not be stuck here today! Haha!" He jested warmly, unaware of the inner turmoil that was plaguing her. "Hope he comes back unscathed!"
"Indeed, he would greatly appreciate your well wishes. Shall we continue with the audit review?" The duo turned their attentions to tedious work based processes and dove right in without further ado.
Sound of papers being flipped, the clicking of a mouse, and laptop keys clacking filled the air as each team clarified on this issue and that matter.
A flurry of wild rumors had swept through the internal departments of Daydream when Segwang Special City had been released from its bindings and all residents trapped within as a sacrifice freed to return to their normal lives. Accusations of how Daydream had collaborated with the Cheerful Research Institute to become responsible for such a situation occurring were vehemently quashed by the PR department, instead of waiting for the gossip to slowly die off organically.
People were expendable and also easily replaceable after all.
The squads responsible for this situation had kept their silence despite the constant prodding from their fellow colleagues, and Director Cheong breathed a sigh of relief.
Good thing she had hired competent employees who could read the room, while those who couldn't were trapped in a contract or promptly disposed of.
Despite all the best efforts from that pesky invited otherworlder, Daydream Inc still stood standing proudly, continuing with their regular operations and farming more darkness essence to continue R&D from the research teams.
The amount of red tape she had needed to overcome in the founding of this company could not be underestimated, but through sheer spite and grit, she had prevailed, allowing Daydream Inc to become a global force to be reckoned with. The sprinkling of subtle bribery and manipulation would be a secret she brought to her grave.
Letting those arrogant full-blooded dragons who thought they could look down on her as a failure of a serpent who was unable to ascend. Who would have the last laugh in the end?
Sitting atop her throne, casual complacency had caused her to let her guard down. She would not let that happen a second time. Now she would have to lay low, bide her time, and consolidate her power once more.
Fuming and scheming inside of her office as the aftermath settled, she wrecked havoc on the cabinets and broke her chairs, tables, awards, anything she could get her hands on.
How refreshing. Her pleased eyes swept over the carnage she caused until there was a hesitant tap on the door. An unlucky member of the Finance department stepped through the cracked door frame with intense trepidation and a large stack of documents in hand.
"Director Cheong, it's almost time for our annual external audit review, would it be possible for you to please take a look at these forms?"
Her resulting glare was so ferocious that staff member fainted dead on the carpeted floor immediately, a flurry of papers scattering everywhere.
Rookie auditor Lee Si Woo stifled another yawn, adjusting his glasses as he went through the stacks of papers heaped on the table and sipped at his cup of steaming barley tea which had been set out at each occupant's side.
Personally, he would have much rather preferred to be at home listening to VTIC's latest release on repeat while chugging an iced americano, lounging in his comfy bed, playing Mobile Legends.
But the universe rudely intruded on his relaxation time.
His boss had hastily called him in last minute on his off day to assist when a more seasoned colleague called in urgently sick. The desperation leaking out from the phone call was palpable and he unwillingly agreed to cover his position for this particular assignment.
A typical experience for any new hire, always at the beck and call of the higher ups.
Daydream Inc was a wildly successful cosmetic pharmaceutical company who dealt with many politicians and the upper rungs of society. The main headquarters looked like a perfectly average kind of construction, 30 floors with a variety of office spaces for the number of hired employees.
They had previously toured their offsite production facility to verify quality control and manufacturing processes with little issue.
The stringent standard set by the government was followed exactly, no problem found on the compliance aspect.
It seemed like it would all be smooth sailing from here on out.
Little did he know his lofty dreams to go to bed at a reasonable hour would soon be smashed into tiny pieces and danced upon in an endless sea of liabilities and reports.
There was a light rap on the door to the conference room.
After a brief pause, a shaky petite brunette wearing an animal mask adorned with small horns entered carrying a tray of iced coffees.
Was this some kind of strange corporate requirement? Was that a goat depicted on the mask?
He had never been very good at identifying animals. His mind was generally occupied by numbers and also how to win the lottery for the next VTIC fansign event.
Noting that down mentally, he noticed how Lead Auditor Kim paid it no mind but continued his intense discussion with Director Cheong.
A sharp look was shot the employee's way by said Director. She stopped in her path to place the drinks on the table and waited for further instructions.
"Admin said to bring these to you," A trembling voice carried through the room as chatter came to a lull, all eyes turned on that individual.
"Is that so? Alright, thank you, please leave them here." The director gestured casually at an open space in the room.
The employee resumed her assigned task with an air of dull resignation.
Si Woo could almost feel the much needed caffeine flowing through his veins again, he shifted in his seat, ready to grab a cup.
"Ah!" A shriek escaped as she tripped over her own feet and the coffee went flying everywhere.
The spilled brew seeped onto all the documents and open laptops, even hitting some of the unfortunate staff who were sitting in the direct line of fire.
The poor employee frantically spewed sorrys, bowing her head and then sprinting out of the room to fetch a cleaning staff.
"Should we take a much needed break now?" The expression the director sported was thunderous as she stood up, completely drenched, liquid dripping from the strands of her hair. "I sincerely apologize on behalf of my careless employee."
"Y-yes, let's do that." A hasty compromise from both parties was reached and the session was temporarily adjourned, everyone scrambling to save their electronics.
With the documents reprinted and everyone freshened up to the best of their ability, they were ready to start the audit processes again.
Nonetheless, a pungent mix between cleaning chemicals and stale coffee still lingered in the room, the office chairs remaining slightly damp despite the air-conditioning trying its best.
"Could you explain these figures here for the fiscal period? They don't seem to match." Si Woo tapped at a circled portion on the financial report.
"Oh yes, here I have the files for this issue, please look here," a nondescript audit member handed him a stacked sheaf of documents.
"Thank you very much." Settling back in, his back shot up from the chair almost immediately after.
Upon closer inspection, the papers were scribbled on in red crayon and seemed completely nonsensical.
Glancing back up, he startled and noticed the seat beside him was now empty.
Was the lack of sleep from last night getting to him? Shaking his head to get rid of the fuzziness, he took a second look at the papers that had transformed into confidential company records on illicit slush fund expenditure.
His eyes popped open, all semblance of sleepiness fleeing his body, and he flagged the documentation to Lead Auditor Kim discreetly.
Director Cheong's eyes widened in response, she had hidden those documents securely in her locked desk, never to see the light of day! Why were they here?
Scrambling to justify an explanation, she spun an outlandish story but the damage had already been done.
Lead Auditor Kim shook his head and filed away the documentation into his briefcase.
"Not to worry Director Cheong, we will handle it, no problem!" A reassuring hand clamped tightly onto her shoulder as she resisted the urge to snatch and throw that entire briefcase into the Han river.
This couldn't possibly get any worse.
Between a series of common explainable mishaps like the wifi in the conference room going down intermittently, the PA system suddenly playing loud music (explained as a maintenance testing issue), the projector connection failing, the fire alarm going off twice, and her account being locked when she tried to log in.
The situation did somehow manage to get worse!
Cheong Dallae's hair was going to turn white then fall out from the stress. Her teeth were gnashing so tightly the molars were being ground down from the pressure.
She could feel a migraine brewing in her temples.
Were these lowly employees collaborating to sabotage her?
How dare they?
"Oh... You want to review the CCTV footage of the premises for an audit?" A gray haired man chewing languidly on a pink donut with colorful sprinkles, seated at a desk situated in the basement of the building murmured.
His half-lidded eyes shifted to glance at the Director who had a painful death promised in her eyes if he didn't comply with the request.
With a mouth full of pastry, sprinkles decorating his lips, he continued mumbling, "Yes, of course, of course, why don't I call Officer Park to guide you? He should be available right now."
A chipper brown-haired young man donning the signature navy blue security uniform popped in from one of the closed office spaces, waved cheerfully at them after the intercom system had paged him in for assistance.
The group walked past a series of shut doors in a dimly lit corridor, making casual small talk all the while.
"Pretty spooky layout for an office basement, don't you think?"
"You think this is spooky? You should check out the lower floo- Oops, you didn't hear that from me."
"Haha you are such a jokester young man! How long have you been employed here?"
"Ah I used to be part of a different department, then I ended up being transferred here due to unforeseen circumstances..." His visage fell dramatically and he looked like he might burst into tears at any moment.
"I'm very sorry to hear that, maybe you'll manage to transfer again..? Such a competent fellow like you will surely rise in the ranks once more!"
"No, I'm signed in to a lifelong contract as a permanent part of the security team." The dour expression on his face didn't change as he heaved a loud sigh. "Don't think I'll get the chance to resume normal office work ever again."
"..? Does the company acknowledge the validity of such contracts?" Confusion was written all over the lead auditor's face as Director Cheong's fists clenched behind her back.
Si Woo made another mental note of the situation, these notes were starting to pile up. Was there actually a dark hidden secret behind the success of this prestigious company?
Director Cheong's manner had smoothed over to placid and tranquil while no one was looking. "I'll let my team know to look further into this. Please rest assured we will deal with it immediately."
"Hello! Welcome to the Research and Development team! How can we be of assistance today?" A man bordering his early 50s wearing a white lab coat, missing a pinky, and an eager gaze in his eyes greeted them as soon as they stepped through the doors. His team was huddled in one corner, surrounding one particular piece of equipment, chatting among themselves.
A variety of different lab equipment was proudly put on display and he walked them through the research processes, gesticulating wildly, moving from a simple centrifuge to the blast chiller.
He was explaining the function for each bit of machinery in great detail until the director cut him off tersely mid-sentence.
The spark in his eye was quashed, his lips stopped moving, and he hunched over from the chastising he had received. It was rather unnerving to have an older individual bow down to a younger employee.
"W-well, it's certainly a good thing for an employee to be so excited about work, wouldn't you agree, Director Cheong?"
"Hm, I suppose you do make an excellent point Auditor Kim." Her eyes swept back to survey the still cowering man. "By all means, please do continue Team Lead Kwak, I'd love to hear more."
"N-no, it's quite alright, I have taken up enough of your time already. I couldn't possibly..." He refused to raise his head and meet her gaze, quailing under the pressure.
"..."
"... If that's the case, shall we move on?"
Strolling through the office spaces, Si Woon noticed the strange disparity between employees, where some were wearing animal masks but some weren't.
However, all of them avoided looking directly at their group.
A mix of hushed whispers trailed after them when they left. Did a mere pharmaceutical company really need so many employees to run efficiently?
Stopping in front of one of the offices, Director Cheong knocked and entered the room.
"This is Team D, one of our employee groups." She introduced them to a few individuals who were currently engrossed in whatever was being displayed on their monitors.
They turned their attention to them unwillingly, offering shallow nods of acknowledgement as they left their seats to approach them.
Doing a double take, the rookie auditor stared hard at the cluster of desks located in the corner of the room, his glasses sliding down his nose.
Was that the login details of a personal intranet account taped directly to the corner of their monitor? It was in plain sight for anyone who walked in to see.
Additionally, the text was written in large bold letters for easy viewing pleasure.
Another monitor was left unlocked and the screen pulled up to a shady intranet page showcasing product listings for sale zoomed in at 200%.
He swapped considering looks with the audit team. And added yet another tally to the growing list.
Director Cheong didn't notice their brief exchange and gestured for them to shake hands.
A video blared suddenly, cutting into their introduction, "Welcome to Daydream Inc, you might think that we are just a simple pharmaceutical company but in actuality we ar-"
One brief flash of two cute mascots speaking appeared on the screen before the tablet playing the footage was snapped clean in half.
Looking up at the muscular white haired male and then back down at the shattered remains of the former piece of technology in his grasp, the team had no words to address the absurdity of the situation.
"Sorry." Offering his free hand to the group and no further explanation, everyone politely declined the opportunity of greeting this particular individual who appeared unpeturbed by the rejection.
"What was that video which played earlier?" Si Woon couldn't help but satiate his burgeoning curiosity.
"Oh, that's just our orientation video to show to new personnel, I think it's confidential though, would it be possible to show them Director Cheong?" The other blue haired individual sporting a hawk mask addressed the silent director casually.
"Yes, that video contains proprietary information of our company, I will need to clear it with our IT department before the footage can be released for viewing." She replied with gritted teeth.
It had been a long, grueling, but interesting day to say the least. Si Woo could confidently say he learned quite a lot.
Director Cheong personally could not wait for the day to be over.
The sun was now starting to sink below the horizon.
As she ushered the thoughtful auditors out the front doors, her employees gave them a wide berth like repelling magnets, chatter about what was happening outside reached her ears.
She was just waiting for the other shoe to drop.
And drop it did.
Standing right outside the entrance were an alarming number of employees holding up signs, banners, one had a megaphone blasting at max volume.
"We demand safer working conditions from Daydream!"
"Down with unfair workplace practices!"
"Daydream is a corrupt enterprise!"
"Increase our wages! Compensate us fairly!"
There was also an excited white haired lady handing out detailed flyers listing all the company's supposed misdeeds to any gawking onlookers.
The entrance to the company was now lined with an array of funeral wreaths.
A truck with her face plastered on it smoothly stopped on the road which had a message titled, "Step down now Director Cheong!"
At that very moment, the fire alarm in the building went off for a third time that day.
"..."
"I will look into this personally."
Their concerned looks were not assuaged as they made their way back to the audit company office with even greater hesitation.
Online Message Board
[About Daydream rumors]
- Lololol, that daydream is so screwed
- Ikr, they're toast, shouldve bought and sold the stocks before the dump
- They always looked so shady...
- Fr though, how did they become so successful to begin with, it stinks of corruption! ><
- They should quit while they're ahead lmao.
- Their products were really effective though...
↪ Get out of here you corpo shill
Breaking News!
Shocking Daydream Inc Fiasco!
An unbelievable scandal has rocked the previously thought to be unstoppable Daydream Inc.
Multiple allegations have emerged from anonymous but verified sources regarding the company's unjust workplace practices and processes. Evidence has been provided and a lawsuit may be filed against the company.
The company has declined all requests to comment on this situation.
Following the release of this news online, the stock prices of Daydream have tanked dramatically, leaving many investors worried that the company may be at a financial liability.
➡ Click to read more.
AUDIT RESULT FINDINGS
Pending further investigation by the executive board.
Daydream Inc is subject to future corrective action and addressing of potential breaches in security.
Substantial financial penalties or halting of all production activities may be imposed if the deadline for review is not met.
The audit team would like to formally request a more in-depth analysis of the company's proceedings at a later date after the new documentations have been submitted.
Her eyes scanned the browser in front of her.
Rubbing a hand over her face, she desperately wanted to uproot the entire building, throw it straight into a catastrophe rivaling that of Mermaid's Tomb, and leave it to rot.
She really could not stand audit season.