21. Lightening the Load
[Yoo PD, you worked hard! When you come up to Seoul, don’t go anywhere right away and stop by my office for a moment…]
“I’m sorry, Chairman. I’m in a hurry right now!”
Chairman or whatever, there was something more urgent right now.
“I’m here!”
The moment he forcefully threw open the front door, the delicious smell of doenjang-jjigae came wafting out.
The nation’s hero, wearing an apron, welcomed him with a bright smile.
“Oppa, you’re here? The meal is all ready, so if you wait a moment… Eek!”
Yoona could not finish what she was saying.
Taeyeon had come over and pulled her into a tight hug.
“…!”
At the sudden skinship, her heart pounded hard and both her eyes widened.
Then the following voice reached her ear.
“Ah. I finally feel like I’m healing.”
“…”
For the first time, she felt as though she were dealing with a young boy who only had a large build. There were no sweet words of love, nor anything like a cool event or a present, but this man’s feelings reached her more deeply than ever before.
Yoona, who felt motherly affection for Taeyeon for the first time, gently hugged him and patted him as she said,
“You worked hard, Oppa.”
At that moment, the question of whether it tasted good had no meaning at all.
Because Taeyeon was expressing it with his whole body.
From personally going grocery shopping to fully displaying the cooking skills she had learned from her mother, it had by no means been an easy process. But seeing the result right before her eyes, she could not have felt more proud and happy.
Taeyeon asked Yoona, who was smiling brightly.
“Aren’t you going to eat?”
“I’m full, so…”
“Should I eat it?”
“Huh?”
“If you’re not going to eat it, I’ll eat it.”
Taeyeon took Yoona’s rice and side dishes wholesale and once again wiped them out in an instant.
At this point, she could not help asking one thing.
“Didn’t you eat properly while you were there?”
“There wasn’t food this delicious there.”
It did not seem like a prepared line, but the words he tossed out casually came to her with a strange sense of pride.
After finishing the meal like that, Taeyeon said,
“I feel like I can live now.”
He looked at Yoona with the happiest face in the world.
At that gaze, and that expression, Yoona also became the happiest person in the world.
Then one thing Taeyeon muttered without thinking,
“I want to live like this for the rest of my life.”
made Yoona’s heart beat faster.
‘What does that mean?’
The moment she checked his expression, Yoona realized a new fact.
‘He’s testing me!’
What followed was proof.
“If we get married, will I always be able to eat delicious food like this?”
Her mind went blank.
‘How should I answer?’
The answer Yoona gave was…
-Dinner has to be made by you, Oppa.
Late at night.
On the way back after seeing Yoona home, Taeyeon could not hold back his laughter and burst out loudly.
‘As expected, there’s no need to hesitate anymore.’
Now that the moment had come to lighten one big load, it seemed he could begin preparing in earnest.
A proposal.
‘I think I can proceed with it smoothly.’
He realized it after being apart from her for a while.
‘I want Yoona to always be beside me.’
She was shy and pretended to be blunt, but in truth, she was caring and pure.
He wanted that kind of woman to always stay by his side.
And he also wanted to become that kind of existence for Yoona.
‘After the large-scale update ends and I step down from the producer position, I should take at least about half a month of free time.’
It was an idea he had after listening to the advice of the AD couple, Hong Minseok and Lee Youngae.
‘I heard the Manhattan Sky Lounge is that romantic?’
He planned to propose at that very place the couple had introduced to him.
‘To do that, I’ll have to wrap things up properly, won’t I?’
At a company that handled online games, “crunch mode” was something inseparable.
Here, crunch mode meant repeatedly working overtime and special shifts to meet a deadline. In short, giving up daily life entirely and going all-in on nothing but work.
Testing, and if they discovered a bug, recreating the exact same situation, finding the cause, fixing it, then testing again.
Yes. For game and software developers, crunch mode was something that followed as naturally as breathing.
“But this time, I won’t be doing crunch mode.”
“…!”
The developers in the meeting room looked shocked.
Because according to their common sense, it was something that could not happen.
“Do you think it’s impossible?”
The developers only watched his reaction and could not answer.
I spoke calmly.
“It can be done.”
Right now, many people did not spend their given work hours only working.
They smoked, chatted, went to the bathroom, drank water, went to the cafeteria to get a little fresh air, made phone calls, browsed the web, or watched YouTube……
If all the time lost to things like that were added up, the time they actually spent concentrating on work probably would not even reach four hours.
“All you have to do is not slack off during work hours and work hard.”
After saying that much, I gave a small laugh.
“Even if I say it like this, it doesn’t really feel relatable, does it? So I prepared this.”
He handed out file binders by team.
“Until the update, the work that every one of you has to handle each day is recorded here in detail.”
The employees who looked through the contents could not hide their shock.
The work schedules had been laid out in detail for each individual.
And what this meant was one thing.
‘No way, every employee’s work…’
‘Does he have a perfect grasp of it?’
‘Even the art and programming work?’
The planning team lead stammered as he asked,
“Did you know how to do art and programming work too?”
“If you’re a game director, you should have the ability to handle every kind of work by yourself. Isn’t that common sense?”
“….”
The planning team lead, who had been designated as the next director, could not say anything. Because for him, it was something impossible.
Taeyeon spoke with a calm face.
“AD-nim. Planning Team Lead. Programming Team Lead.”
“Yes!”
The three heads of each team answered.
“Starting today, confirm that the work is perfectly finished by five o’clock, bring me the checklists, and report to me. You know what that means, right?”
It meant that the deadline for the daily work schedule was five in the afternoon.
“Let’s work on time and leave work on time.”
Taeyeon swept his gaze over all the employees, who could not even breathe properly from the tension, and ended the meeting.
“Dismissed.”
A suffocating work atmosphere began.
‘There will be no crunch mode.’
‘We work on time and leave on time.’
It was as though the words Taeyeon had spoken in the meeting room were spreading throughout the entire studio.
Taeyeon also spent more time than usual handling the work assigned to him.
Seeing the general director handle work assigned to him in greater quantity than theirs, perfectly, regardless of field or difficulty, the employees felt both admiration and a sense of crisis.
‘I’ve never seen a director like that before.’
‘It’s not bravado. He really has a perfect grasp of every task needed to make a game.’
Planning like this was impossible with only a rough understanding.
‘Do you have to be at that level to become a general director?’
‘So you need that much skill to receive major investment and make your own game!’
Not everyone here had entered the field because they wanted to make their own game. There were also many people who had ended up here somehow, joined to make use of their major, or simply treated it as a job and went to and from work.
But among them, there were also people who purely wanted to become PDs or directors and make their own games.
To those people, the rising star of recent days, developer Yoo Taeyeon, was a good model.
A man with the qualities of a star developer.
Until just a few days ago, they had thought that they too wanted to walk such a glamorous path as developers.
But now that they were witnessing his work ability properly at this moment, they realized just how complacent their thinking had been.
There was an overwhelming difference in their understanding of game development, accumulated ability, and experience.
The sight of him quietly but swiftly handling work and sharing it was simply awe-inspiring.
Five o’clock in the afternoon.
“Begin the daily work schedule completion reports.”
Taeyeon’s voice drove the tension higher.
“…….”
The team leads looked at each other with flustered faces.
Taeyeon shouted,
“Hurry up and report your work!”
There was a reason they had hesitated.
‘I expected this, but….’
There were not many people who had finished their work on time.
‘Still, it’s impressive that there are people who finished.’
After quickly remembering their names, he said,
“I’ll give you exactly thirty minutes starting now, so finish the remaining work within that time and report. Let’s leave on time. Understood?”
“Yes!”
The atmosphere, which had been like walking on thin ice, began moving breathlessly again.
“Those who finished their work, don’t worry about what others think. Go home.”
Exactly six o’clock.
At Taeyeon’s shout, people began leaving one by one.
Afterward, Taeyeon went to the remaining people one by one and asked,
“How much more do you have to do?”
He presented solutions to problems that would not be resolved, and for simple testing and correction work, he took some of it himself and shared the load.
“This part is just a simple checking task, so continue it tomorrow. Go home today.”
He did not force them to finish every bit of their daily work. It was not a problem that needed to be pushed that far.
After he sent everyone home like that, it was seven in the evening.
‘If I hurry, I can arrive on time.’
Lately, Taeyeon and Yoona had developed a taste for late-night movie showings.
First of all, there was the advantage that the two of them could use a spacious theater cozily by themselves. Since there were no people, it was also easier to concentrate.
They ate at the restaurant Yoona had reserved and watched the movie she had booked.
By the time the movie ended, it was a little past midnight.
While going down to the parking lot, they did not run into even a single person.
Only after getting into the car did she take off and toss aside her hat and mask.
“The movie was really fun, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah. I didn’t know romantic comedies could be such a fun genre.”
He had never had a movie hobby to begin with, and on the rare occasions he watched one, it was always an action movie or a superhero film. Taeyeon had never once thought of watching a romantic comedy.
But the movie he watched with his girlfriend today was quite fun and refreshing.
Was it because the movie was fun?
‘No. Just doing something together with Yoona is enjoyable in itself.’
It seemed like it would be good to make more new hobbies together.
‘I enjoy it too, but…’
“Later, let’s go visit the arboretum that appeared in the movie. I really want to go!”
“Sure. Let’s do that.”
Because she was happy.
Perhaps because he had gained a vitality he had not had before, he felt like his work efficiency at the company had greatly risen.
No, it probably was not just his imagination.
“I heard the Nexple Plus employees have been going around praising you here and there lately, PD-nim.”
“They were saying it’s a shame that once the update ends, they’ll have to part with you too, PD-nim…….”
Because he was hearing things like this.
As the update day actually drew near, various situations unfolded.
“Um… would I perhaps be able to follow you, PD-nim? I don’t mind whether it’s the Pantheon studio or the Project D studio, either one is fine…”
People came to ask about being transferred.
“It’s not that I dislike the planning team lead, but… I’m worried whether Monster Eater can remain the same after you step down, PD-nim.”
People who felt anxious and regretful.
Nexple’s head of development, Director Son Youngsang, even said this.
“The rumor has spread everywhere that once this update is over, you’ll be leaving Monster Eater, and the users are also very anxious. Can’t Yoo PD just keep taking care of it? If it’s really too hard, just one more year…”
“I have to make my own game now too. I can’t keep holding on to someone else’s game forever.”
But no matter the situation, Taeyeon did not waver.
He simply looked ahead and ran like mad.
At last, the finish line for the position of Monster Eater’s general director drew near.
“We’re starting the update!”
That day, Taeyeon remained at the studio with the programming team lead.
He planned to stay up all night and watch the update be completed.
Nine o’clock the next morning.
“We’re opening the server!”
The update had been completed, but they still could not relax. That was because they had to monitor user reactions and confirm whether the update had truly been applied without any problems.
He had stayed up all night and was out of his mind, but he had to maintain tension all day long.
Exactly six o’clock in the evening.
“Let’s go home now!”
There had been minor issues, but no critical problems had occurred.
It was proof that the first large-scale update had been completed safely.
“You worked hard!”
“PD-nim, you really worked hard!”
The Nexple Plus employees applauded Taeyeon.
Taeyeon responded with a smile and thought to himself,
‘At last, I’m lightening one big, heavy load!’
With this, his connection to Monster Eater was over.
Without even the slightest trace of regret or lingering attachment, Taeyeon left the Nexple Plus studio feeling completely refreshed.
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