The numbers continued to fall.
[59:27]
No one else was watching the clock.
Someone laughed near the copier, short and brittle. A drawer slid open. Paper was stacked back into a tray that no longer mattered.
"Is the power out?"
"My phone still has signal."
"Try turning the main breaker off and on."
Siwoo did not move from his desk.
The glass remained on the floor. No one cleaned it yet, but everyone walked around it as if it were a spill rather than a wall that had existed minutes ago.
A woman crouched beside her computer and unplugged the monitor cable. She plugged it back in. The screen stayed black.
"It's not booting," she said, half to herself. "Maybe the server room tripped."
Another employee checked the light switch twice.
The lights were already on.
Director Choi stood near the hallway speaking on his phone.
"Yes. Yes, a window broke… No, not cracked. Broke. Completely… I don't know from where. Can you send someone to check the exterior?"
He paused, listening.
A woman near the window brushed her sleeve. Small clear fragments fell onto the floor. She frowned at her hand. A thin line of red appeared across her palm.
"…there may be minor cuts," he added. "Nothing serious."
Someone handed her tissues. She stared at them for a moment before pressing them against her skin.
"No, no one needs an ambulance."
His gaze crossed the office while he said it and moved past Siwoo without stopping.
The air conditioner hummed again, but the temperature did not change.
He watched a paper on a nearby desk.
The corner lifted slightly.
Then settled.
No one else reacted.
Two employees began discussing insurance procedures.
"Does this count as workplace damage or building damage?"
"I think building management handles the exterior."
The radio remained silent.
Not off.
Silent.
The LED indicator was still lit.
Near the hallway, a man was putting on his jacket.
"I'm just going downstairs to see what happened outside."
Another person picked up her bag. "I'll come too."
Director Choi lowered his phone. "Wait. Let's confirm first."
Neither stopped walking.
Siwoo watched them enter the corridor.
For a moment the office almost resembled a normal morning again.
Someone managed to restart a computer. The startup chime sounded ordinary.
"Probably pressure difference."
"Maybe something hit the building."
"We should just go home today."
Siwoo did not follow them immediately.
He looked once more at the broken window.
The outside street was normal. Cars moved through the intersection. A pedestrian waited for the crossing light.
Nothing suggested the moment had been important.
Then the elevator chime rang.
His ears tightened instantly.
The sensation struck without warning.
The same pressure as before the glass shattered.
His vision narrowed.
Not darkness.
Focus.
He turned toward the hallway.
He did not decide to move.
He was already moving.
Halfway to the corridor he saw the indicator.
5
The doors were open.
The chime ended.
Too clean.
Elevators always carried another sound after stopping. A faint vibration through the floor. A settling hum.
There was nothing.
The air inside the cabin did not move. The fluorescent reflection on the metal wall was perfectly still.
His eyes moved to the gap above the doors.
No draft.
His chest tightened.
Everything looked correct.
The details were not.
Three coworkers stood in front of the elevator. Another lingered several steps back near the corner of the corridor, watching but not committing.
The man closest to the control panel shifted his weight and stepped into the doorway, his heel landing on the elevator floor.
The number said 5.
The building did not.
There was no time left to explain anything.
"Don't."
The word left his mouth before he reached them.
They turned.
"What?"
Siwoo stopped a few steps away.
"…please use the stairs."
They stared at him.
"Why?"
He could not answer.
The elevator waited behind them, silent.
The pressure in his ears deepened.
Saying the correct thing was not enough. People only move when the cost of ignoring you becomes greater than the cost of believing you.
He had only seconds to decide how far he was willing to go.
"…it's not safe."
They waited for the explanation that did not follow.
"Because of the glass?"
"We're just going downstairs."
A hand pressed the call button again.
The chime sounded.
The indicator still read:
5
The doors remained open.
"Please use the stairs."
"Siwoo, what's wrong with you?"
The man began to step fully inside. His weight shifted onto the elevator floor.
The sensation sharpened instantly.
Too late.
Siwoo grabbed his sleeve and pulled him back.
"Hey—!"
"What are you doing?!"
The man stumbled out of the doorway, irritated more than alarmed. "Are you crazy?"
"I said don't get in."
"Then explain it!"
He couldn't.
Every reason required time, and time was exactly what did not exist.
Another coworker frowned. "He's panicking. Just go around him."
She reached past Siwoo and pressed the button again, trying to close the doors manually.
The elevator did not respond.
The indicator flickered.
5
5
5
His ears rang.
The man Siwoo had pulled free tried to step around him again. "Move."
Siwoo placed himself directly in front of the entrance.
"Use the stairs."
"Why?!"
He opened his mouth.
Nothing came out.
Because the truth was impossible to say.
A hand pushed his shoulder.
"Stop blocking it."
The pressure peaked.
If he waited for permission, the moment would pass.
He turned and pulled the red handle beside the stairwell.
The fire alarm erupted through the building.
Everyone froze.
"What did you just do?!"
The scream of the alarm filled the hallway.
Then—
A violent metallic crash thundered through the shaft.
The floor jumped beneath their feet.
The elevator doors rattled hard against their tracks.
One of them reached forward and pressed the call button repeatedly.
Silence followed, swallowed by the alarm.
No one moved.
The man Siwoo had grabbed stared at the doors.
"…I was about to step in."
Another voice answered quietly, "We were next."
"Elevators don't just fall," someone said, but no one sounded certain.
Someone pressed the call button.
No response.
The display remained unchanged.
5
No one looked at the elevator anymore.
They were looking at Siwoo.
Not with relief.
With unease.
Through the open office doorway, the wall clock was visible again.
The second hand moved.
The numbers beneath it changed.
[52:14]
The counting had continued.