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That afternoon, the anonymous community app used by office workers—CS Design Lounge—was set ablaze by a short but impactful post.
It came just after Yoonwoo had left the company.
[CS Design Lounge]
Subject: What’s going on with the office atmosphere?
Author: Why’s everyone so tense since this morning? No one’s talking, everyone’s on edge… I came back from lunch and it’s still like walking on thin ice;; Is there something I missed?? Even the CEO and Team Lead Seo are both MIA??
Comments
Anonymous 1: Whoa, OP, you took the morning off? 😂 You missed a legend of a morning.
Anonymous 2: Yep, total storm blew through earlier today.
Author (Anonymous): What the heck?! Tell me already, I’m dying from curiosityㅠㅠㅠ
Anonymous 3: The CEO and Team Lead Seo broke up. And he resigned. For real.
Author (Anonymous): ?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!? Are you serious???? Weren’t they together for, like, 8 years??? What happened???
Anonymous 4: Yeah, no joke. This morning Team Lead Seo sent out a company-wide email saying he was resigning (Reason: personal matters), then packed up and left immediately. Totally clean break. His face was stone-cold—scary AF…
→ Anonymous 3: And apparently he didn’t just clear out his desk—someone saw him dragging a small suitcase. People were whispering that it looked like he was moving out of his house, too.
Anonymous 5: Holy crap… what about Project A?! The client presentation is next week! Wasn’t Team Lead Seo basically handling it all solo???
→ Anonymous 2: Right?! We just finalized the design draft—who’s going to finish it? That client’s super picky too. We’re totally screwed…
→ Anonymous 3: This is nuts. Isn’t it irresponsible to resign a week before the deadline?
→ Anonymous 8: But doesn’t that kind of breakup suggest something huge happened? Team Lead Seo didn’t seem like the type to just bail. He probably had his reasons.
Anonymous 1: What about the CEO? How did he react?
→ Anonymous 4: That was even creepier. He just sat in his office. Didn’t even look at Seo when he left. Totally indifferent. Seems like things ended really badly between them.
→ Anonymous 6: Weren’t they together for 8 years?! And he just lets him leave like a stranger? Are Alphas always like that?
Anonymous 5: Honestly, this was bound to happen. How can an Alpha and a Beta last 8 years? I’m surprised they even made it that long.
→ Anonymous 2: Exactly. No matter how much the CEO liked him, instincts don’t lie. Pairings between different secondary genders never end well.
Anonymous 6: Honestly though, it’s kinda satisfying lol. Team Lead Seo always had a stick up his ass because he was dating the CEO. Barely spoke to the rest of us, acted all high and mighty.
→ Anonymous 3: Yeah, he was good at his job, but super cold. If you didn’t meet his standards, he’d just brush you off. People used to say he was riding on the CEO’s coattails.
→ Anonymous 7: I actually liked him though… Sure, he seemed cold, but he took care of his team. Brought snacks during late nights, covered for people when problems came up. Didn’t say much, but he got stuff done.
Anonymous 2: Still, breakup or not, just quitting via email right before a major client presentation is straight-up irresponsible. He should’ve seen it through. Now it’s everyone else’s problem.
.
.
.
Author (Anonymous): But seriously, what caused the breakup? Did they just grow apart? Or did the CEO cheat?
Anonymous 4: Guys, I saw something wild the other day.
→ Anonymous 2: Spill. I’m dying here 222
→ Anonymous 1: Yeah, hurry up!!
Anonymous 4: A few days ago after work, I saw the CEO driving off with this super young and pretty Omega. He even opened the door for them and was all attentive. The whole vibe was… intimate. He looked super sweet—was smiling the whole time, looked totally smitten.
→ Anonymous 6: No way?! For real? Who was it? A celeb?
→ Anonymous 4: Never seen them before, but they were seriously good-looking. Totally had that elegant Omega aura.
→ Anonymous 5: Wow… Alphas really are something else. Eight years down the drain, just like that.
Author (Anonymous): So Team Lead Seo really just got dumped… that’s so sad…
→ Anonymous 6: Sad? Nah. It’s just like people say—Alphas and Betas don’t mix. In the end, he found an Omega “more his type,” lol.
Anonymous 2: Anyway, what do we do about Project A… We’re dead. Wonder if the CEO’s gonna step in and clean this up.
Anonymous 9: Y’all got way too much time on your hands. Back to work, people.
And just like that, the once-envied, sometimes resented office couple’s dramatic breakup was reduced to juicy gossip behind the safety of anonymous keyboards.
With a single email, Yoonwoo ended eight years of his life and quietly packed his personal belongings into a small box.
He ignored the whispers and avoided all eye contact as he stepped into the elevator with a blank expression.
A few coworkers glanced over with pity, but he didn’t meet a single gaze.
As he crossed the lobby and walked out through the familiar automatic doors of CS Design, he was no longer an employee of the company.
And no longer Cha Joowon’s partner.
The glass doors slid shut behind him, the company logo fading from view—like his past eight years had been sealed behind them forever.
He didn’t look back.
He didn’t know where to go.
His feet wandered aimlessly through the city noise.
His mind was blank, as if emptied of all thought, and his chest felt heavy, as though a massive stone was weighing it down.
The happy-looking faces of passersby under the blinding sunlight only made him feel more wretched.
He needed somewhere—anywhere—to escape from this painful reality.
As he walked with no destination, he stopped in front of a motel with a worn-out sign.
He had no idea where else to go, and he didn’t have the strength to take another step.
He entered the motel mechanically and asked for the cheapest room available.
When the owner asked how long he’d be staying, he blankly replied, “A month.”
He had no real plan—it wasn’t like he could hide here forever.
He just said the first time frame that came to mind.
The owner asked for his ID, and without a word, he pulled out his resident card from his wallet and showed it.
The owner gave him a puzzled look at his empty, lifeless eyes, but he didn’t care.
The room assigned to him was at the very end of the hallway—the most secluded one.
When he opened the door, a wave of disinfectant and old dust hit him.
Stains of unknown origin spread across the wallpaper, and the windows were so thick with dust he could barely see outside.
A faint sewage smell rose from the bathroom.
Everything about the place seemed to mirror the state he was in.
The small room held only a worn bed, a tiny table, and a TV.
Yoonwoo shut the door and locked it.
He shoved his suitcase into a corner and slumped onto the edge of the bed.
Then he stared blankly at the stained wallpaper opposite him, as if it might offer him some kind of answer.
For the next two weeks, Yoonwoo barely left that narrow, dark motel room.
Cut off from the world, he lived simply because he couldn’t die.
His sleep was erratic, and he never truly rested.
He spent most of his time in a hazy state, unsure whether he was awake or dreaming.
When he felt hunger, he’d sip on a canned drink from the hallway vending machine or force down a convenience store rice ball.
Even when he did eat, it tasted like sand.
Despite the emptiness in his stomach, he constantly felt the urge to vomit.
Washing, changing clothes—it all felt pointless.
He wore the same clothes for days.
His body began to emit a sour, unbearable stench, even to himself, but he didn’t care.
Time lost its meaning.
The air in the room grew thicker and more stifling.
Inside him, it was a barren desert.
The sadness, anger, and resentment had all passed.
Only a deep, cold emptiness remained.
He didn’t want to feel anything.
He didn’t want to think.
But against his will, fragments of memories would suddenly surface—the hotel room, Joowon’s cruel words at the officetel, the pitiful image of himself reflected in all of it.
Whenever that happened, he pulled the blanket over his head and covered his ears.
The solitude felt suffocating.
He felt utterly, completely alone in this world.
And yet… the fact that no one was looking for him, that no one seemed to worry about him, gave him a faint, twisted sense of relief.
Occasionally, his phone buzzed in his bag.
Sometimes the screen showed “Kang Seoyeon sunbae,” and sometimes it was an unknown number.
But Yoonwoo never even picked it up.
A part of him wondered if it might be Joowon.
Still, he ignored every call.
He didn’t have the energy to answer, let alone speak to someone.
He had severed all ties with the world.
And like something already dead, he let time simply pass him by.
That very afternoon, after days of silence, the stillness outside his room was suddenly shattered by a loud, relentless knocking.
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