While the head greeted the employees, the senior came straight towards me.

“Yoon junior, have you seen the post on the community?”

“A post?”

Due to the morning’s whirlwind activities, I hadn’t even opened the broadcast station app. As I reached for my phone to check, the senior handed me his.

“Look at this. It’s shocking.”

I read the post on the phone screen that he handed over.

The post by an ID named Anonymous 1 mentioned that during my probation, I went on a trip to the villa with Jae Ha.

[She took a trip with CEO Seo for a week during her probationary period. Everyone knows about her parents’ current state. If it were me, I’d be at my parents’ sickbed taking care of them. Isn’t she just crazy about men? -Anonymous 1]

The post, uploaded during lunchtime, already had hundreds of comments.

Below the main post, I noticed a reply.

“Someone has posted a clarification on your behalf, but this is still infuriating. Who is this lunatic spreading such nonsense?”

Senior Young Jun said, referring to the reply.

The reply, clarifying that the writer was from the same news team, detailed how I had been visiting my sick parents all along.

‘This must be Jung Min.’

Jung Min, who I remembered smiling and complimented for her good writing skills, came to mind.

People who read Jung Min’s clarifying post were now criticizing the original poster.

‘I don’t want to be troubled by such scandals anymore.’

‘It would be best to stop spreading baseless rumors.’ There were various reactions. I handed the phone back to the senior.

“Who’s pulling pranks like this? It’s not even from another department but our own programming department?”

“Exactly, who could it be?”

Senior Young Jun vented his frustration towards Anonymous 1, whose identity remained unknown.

Given the post mentioned being from the programming department, it was highly probable that it was someone from our department.
The department head approached, sensing the unusual atmosphere between the senior and me.

I was curious about who had posted such an absurd article.

Feeling that such incidents might continue to occur, after much contemplation, I called for the department head.

“Department head.”

The department head, who had been silently observing the situation from beside me, met my gaze.

“Could you request the IT department to track the IP of Anonymous 1? Since it’s an internal community, I believe it’s feasible.”

There were audible gasps from around, seemingly surprised by my bold move.

The department head looked at me for a moment and then nodded.

He called one of the programming department staff members over.

“…Alright, connect with the IT department and ask them to come up to the programming department.”

The person who posted probably hadn’t expected me to go to such lengths.

They must be panicking by now.

My gaze caught the eye of a junior sitting not far away.

Kim Ana, the announcer who was notably close with Seo Rin, seemed increasingly uneasy.

‘It’s you.’

As the surrounding programming department staff saw the rumors about me being clarified, their faces turned colors.

But I was certain, looking at Kim Ana, whose face was turning pale.

She must be Anonymous 1.

I approached Kim Ana, who was sitting on the sofa, clutching her trembling hands, and staring at her phone.

She kept looking at her phone, which was continuously ringing with notifications, and slowly raised her face.

“Department head, I don’t think we need the IT department.”

I took the phone from her hand and checked the contents.

As expected, the post deletion window was open on Kim Ana’s phone.

“Senior, it wasn’t me! I’m also a victim!”

She waved her trembling hands in the air.

Kim Ana looked at me, her face suggesting she was on the brink of tears.

“I met Seo Rin during lunch. She said she ran out of battery and asked to borrow my phone for a moment. I never imagined she would do this!”

“…”

“Really! Right? You all saw I went to meet Seo Rin?”

She hastily asked her peers who were sitting on the sofa with her.

The colleagues hesitated for a moment and then nodded at me.

“Yes, Kim Ana said she was going to meet Seo Rin.”

Murmurs mentioning ‘Seo Rin’ erupted in various corners of the programming department.

She stirred up the company with her wedding news, and now she’s causing such controversy.

‘She’s gone to the extreme, hasn’t she?’

Seo Rin must have felt cornered after being expelled from the disciplinary committee and with Jae Ha’s rebuttal article being published.

But even if Seo Rin did it, it doesn’t negate the actions of my junior.

Kim Ana had always been at the center of the rumors surrounding me.

“Kim Ana. Even if Seo Rin did it, it doesn’t erase all that you’ve done, does it?”

“What are you…”

“I know you’ve been the most diligent in spreading rumors about me.”

I whispered to her so that only she could hear.

“You know about screenshots, right? Deleting it doesn’t make what you did disappear.”

“…”

“You’ve been busy spreading rumors about me, but now you’ll be busy clarifying them. You should clean up the mess you made.”

Staring into my unwavering gaze, Kim Ana’s lips quivered.
The atmosphere in the programming department grew cold after it was revealed what Kim Ana had done.

I was concerned that this might only serve to fuel more negative rumors about me.

The department head approached me amidst all this.

“Sigh, it’s truly troubling to have such an incident occur in the programming department. You must’ve gone through a lot, Anchor Yoon.”

He looked at me with sympathetic eyes.

The department head was probably aware of the uneasy situation I was navigating among my colleagues.

“Yes, I’m just relieved that the misunderstanding has been cleared up now.”

“Calling it a mere ‘misunderstanding’ might be too light. It was rather malicious. Everyone, please focus.”

At the word ‘malicious’, Kim Ana flinched noticeably.

The department head, with a cold stare directed at her, turned to the other employees.

“I’d appreciate it if personal sentiments remained personal. The moment you voice them, someone hears it, leading to victims like Anchor Yoon.”

“…”

“When baseless rumors are taken as facts, the one who ultimately gets hurt is the victim, right? I consider everyone in our programming department as family. I wish none of my team members would get hurt due to pointless rumors. So, let’s be careful with each other from now on.”

I was overwhelmed, not expecting the department head to step in and address the issue so directly.

After finishing his statement, as if acknowledging my hardship, he patted my shoulder a few times and then left the office.