August 9th, 2026
HR flags her badge at the morning entrance — the soft red 'review' light, the kind that has appeared on only two staff in three years, both gone within the month.
What happened
HR flags her badge at the morning entrance — the soft red 'review' light, the kind that has appeared on only two staff in three years, both gone within the month. She is told the flag is administrative and routine; Im stands at the security desk watching the light blink, and the watch is the point. She surrenders her master key for re-carding and is issued a single-floor temporary card that does not open the 17th-floor linen closet, the system visibly closing around her. At 3 p.m. Suite 2104 calls down by name asking for Park Seo-yeon specifically to bring up a wine; when she arrives with the bottle, the guest is a woman she has never seen, fully undressed behind the door with a robe held open at the throat, asking 'did you find what I left for you?' Yoon Se-ra is in the corridor when Seo-yeon exits, taking notes on her phone. Decision: she leaves the wine on the floor outside the suite and does not enter.