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  Just then, the automatic doors slid open with a crisp beep. The rhythmic click-clack of high heels echoed through the silent room with confident precision. Jin-woo reflexively turned his head toward the sound.

  In that instant, the paper cup in his hand slipped from his fingers, hitting the floor with a dull thud. Coffee splashed across his shoes, but he didn't even notice.

  "Hello! I’m Hwang Seo-hee, joining the Technical Support Team as of today! I look forward to working with you all!"

  The red tracksuit was gone, replaced by a sharp, tailored navy suit, but that piercing, clear voice and the confident gaze were unmistakable. It was her. The 'Egg Woman' from the mart. Seo-hee scanned the office with a hawk's eye until her gaze locked onto Jin-woo’s.

  Her pupils dilated in pure shock.

  "Wait... You? Mister? The Egg Guy?!"

  Every head in the office snapped toward Jin-woo. The silence was deafening. Jin-woo scratched the back of his neck, letting out a hollow, awkward laugh.

  "Well... looks like my office login today is starting with a 'Critical Error'."

  The gears of fate had begun to turn again—this time with an algorithm far louder, more chaotic, and more unpredictable than anything Yoon Mi-ra could have ever designed.

  "Egg Guy? Chief, do you actually know her?" Se-jin asked, his eyes wide as saucers as he looked back and forth between the two. The rest of the staff leaned in, their ears practically twitching with curiosity. Jin-woo coughed loudly into his hand while grabbing tissues to wipe up the spilled coffee.

  "Uh, it was just a... brief 'Egg-counter' at the mart over the weekend. Just a passing glitch in the matrix. But Ms. Seo-hee, this isn't exactly a place for tracksuit cart racing, is it?"

  Seo-hee recovered quickly from her shock, standing before Jin-woo with her signature boldness. However, her eyes held a flicker of doubt: Is this slacker really my superior?

  "I’m just as shocked as you are! I never dreamed the guy blocking the ramen aisle would be my mentor. And don't worry, Chief. I don't lag when I'm on the clock like some people do at the grocery store."

  She slammed her belongings onto the desk next to his, claiming her territory. Team Leader Cha waddled over, patting Seo-hee on the shoulder with a fatherly grin.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  "Haha! Look at this! Our Ms. Seo-hee! The main contractor sent us a real treasure. You know our company might be 'subcontracted logistics' on paper, but we’re the core hub for their entire network security, right? Chief Kang here can be a bit prickly and lazy, but he’s got skills. Learn well from him."

  The peace lasted exactly five minutes.

  Before Team Leader Cha could even finish his sentence, the office alarms blared. Sirens wailed from the speakers, and red 'TRAFFIC OVERLOAD' warnings began to plaster every monitor in the room.

  "Chief! The logistics entry data is looping! The main server is about to blow! It looks like someone intentionally tangled the command lines!" Se-jin shouted frantically, his face pale.

  As Jin-woo reached for his keyboard, a thunderous typing sound erupted from the seat next to him. It was Seo-hee. Her fingers were flying across the keys like a concert pianist playing a furious etude.

  "Chief, you block the main artery! I’ll create a detour and dump all this junk data into the trash bin!"

  Jin-woo froze for a split second. The method Seo-hee was using... the logic, the speed, the daring improvisation... it was identical to the defense techniques Yuri used to love. As he stared at her in shock, Seo-hee smirked at her monitor without looking away.

  "What? You thought I only knew how to buy eggs on sale? I’ll have you know I took first place in the Main Contractor’s Security Competition!"

  Jin-woo smirked, a genuine spark returning to his eyes. He refocused on his screen. Thanks to Seo-hee’s perfect support, he had the breathing room to trace the source.

  "Alright, let's cook this."

  Jin-woo’s fingers danced. He synchronized with Seo-hee’s rhythm instantly. With a final, heavy strike, he slammed the 'Enter' key.

  [System: Threat neutralized. Data restored.]

  The sirens died, leaving a heavy silence in the office. Jin-woo wiped the sweat from his brow and stared at Seo-hee. She beamed back at him, giving him a triumphant thumbs-up.

  "How was that, Chief? Am I 'So-high' (Seo-hee) on your radar now? Well, with a name like Seo-hee, I guess I'm always standing out!"

  Jin-woo stared blankly at her terrible pun before bursting into laughter. unlike Mi-ra’s toxic ambition, Seo-hee’s bright, healthy energy was beginning to tap on the frozen walls of his heart.

  Bzzt. Bzzt.

  Suddenly, his phone vibrated on the desk. It was a text from the nurse in charge of Yuri’s ward. Jin-woo casually picked it up, expecting a routine update.

  [Nurse]: Mr. Kang Jin-woo, Yuri’s vitals are different today. I think her finger moved—just a tiny bit.

  Jin-woo’s eyes shook violently. The world around him seemed to stop. Along with Seo-hee’s arrival, the clock that had been stopped for three years began to tick at a furious pace.

  The mouse dropped from Jin-woo’s hand. After three long years... Yuri’s time was finally moving. His breathing grew ragged as the office noise faded into a distant hum.

  "Chief? Are you okay? You look pale," Seo-hee said, reaching out to touch his shoulder, her smile fading into concern.

  Instead of answering, Jin-woo shoved his chair back violently. Screech! There was no sly smile, no corny joke. Only a raw, desperate urgency burning in his eyes.

  "Team Leader! Something came up, I have to go. Mark me for a half-day... actually, fire me for all I care!"

  He bolted out of the office before anyone could respond. Normally, he hid his identity by taking the subway, blending in with the crowd. But today, he didn't have a second to waste. He ran to a dark corner of the basement parking lot to a black sedan covered in a thick layer of dust. It was his 'real' wheels—tuned for maximum output and hidden away for just such an emergency.

  Screeeech—!

  The smell of burning rubber filled the air as the car shot out of the garage like a bullet. Jin-woo’s hands were slick with sweat against the steering wheel.

  ‘Yuri-ya, please... just a little longer. Oppa is coming.’

  His heart hammered louder than the engine roaring at 7,000 RPM. He practically threw the car into a space at the hospital lot and didn't even wait for the elevator, sprinting up the emergency stairs three at a time.

  He threw the ward door open to find Yuri bathed in the afternoon sunlight. The nurse checking her charts turned in surprise. Jin-woo approached the bed, gasping for air, his chest heaving.

  There it was.

  Her pale, slender finger was trembling—just a tiny vibration, as if responding to a long-awaited call. He wrapped his trembling hands around hers, falling to his knees. Hot tears fell onto her cold skin.

  Back at the office, the chaos had settled, but curiosity remained. Seo-hee walked over to Jin-woo’s empty desk. On the screen he had failed to log out of in his haste, the logistics security logs were still visible.

  "He really left in a hurry... What was so urgent?"

  She reached for the mouse to close the windows. But as she minimized the log, something else caught her eye.

  "What is this...?"

  Hidden at the bottom of the screen, beneath layers of dummy files, a tiny window was running a complex process. It wasn't a standard security tool. The code was elegant, aggressive, and terrifyingly familiar to a top-tier hacker like her.

  It was a sophisticated 'Ghost Program' monitoring a 'Forbidden Zone' deep within the main contractor’s main server—a place no one, not even the Director, should be able to touch.

  Seo-hee’s fingers hovered over Jin-woo’s keyboard. Her curiosity winning over her ethics, she entered a few query commands. Instantly, the real data he had hidden began to spill out like a waterfall.

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