The Name on the Empty Pallet

Baek Gijun could not fold the termination notice. Folded, it became a threat. Unfolded, it became evidence. In the end he set both papers on the workbench. The termination notice and the work stoppage request sat side by side.

Seojin did not read the termination notice with her own name on it right away. She looked first at the blank fields on the work stoppage request. Reason, requester, manager's action, wage handling. Of the four fields, only wage handling was printed in small type.

Waiting time during a work stoppage may be treated as unpaid.

Han Sua read the line out loud. "May be treated as. Who decides that?"

Baek Gijun answered. "The contract between the company and the vendor."

"Then today the manager decides."

"I don't get to decide that on my own."

"I've heard that a lot. But once a person becomes a pallet, somebody decides on their own just fine."

Baek Gijun had no answer to that. Beside the workbench, the empty pallet had a label on it. Empty Pallet 1. Under the barcode, small text was hidden under dust. Doyun put on gloves and wiped the dust away. A name came into view.

Choi Mijeong.

The date underneath was last month. Delivery status: retrieval complete. Item: pallet. But on the left side of the label, a fragment of a day laborer's entry QR code was stuck on. A person's name and an item label overlapped on the same sheet.

"Was there a missing person report last month?" Seojin asked.

Eunchae searched right away. "No official missing person report. There was a call from the family asking about her. It only stayed as a consultation record. Name, Choi Mijeong. Logistics center day laborer. Status, contract ended."

Han Sua said, "If a person disappears, does that count as quitting?"

Baek Gijun frowned at the label. "Ms. Choi Mijeong was recorded as an unauthorized absence. That's what the vendor reported."

"Did you check it, sir?"

"There was a shipping incident, and a pallet went missing that same day. The vendor said the person quit too..."

"The person and the pallet disappeared together."

Seojin did not write down Han Sua's words as they were. Instead she wrote: name label Choi Mijeong, retrieval complete, contract ended, pallet loss, same date.

In the bottom right corner of the label was an edit code. Small letters and numbers were stamped there.

SM-RD-06.

Seojin did not call Miran right away. She did not write that it matched S.M. either. She wrote: edit code SM-RD-06 confirmed, author unconfirmed. Even so, her hand slowed.

Baek Gijun looked at that note. "Is that Team Leader Seo's code?"

"Not confirmed yet."

"Then why not just call and ask now?"

"An answer over the phone isn't evidence. And asking the question can influence how the case unfolds."

Doyun pulled the empty pallet away from the wall. A faint square mark remained on the floor. Inside the mark was a small fragment of a barcode. When he held the scanner close, the screen lit up.

One more person than inventory.

Adjusted pallet awaiting shipment.

The workers stepped back. Kim Munsik rubbed at the clock-in stamp on the back of his hand, but it wouldn't come off. Raman covered the QR code on his vest with his hand. Park Seonyeong walked toward the work stoppage request.

"I'll sign. Even if it's unpaid."

Nguyen Thi Lan said, "If it's unpaid, there's no money for food tomorrow."

Han Sua wrote that down. "Put that in too. Cost of the work stoppage. Food money, transportation, risk of losing the contract."

Seojin created a real cost field in the attachment. Wage loss, transportation, disadvantage in vendor recontracting, disposal of refrigerated goods, penalty for shipping delay. Once the costs were written down, Baek Gijun's expression changed. A paper that had only held the company's losses now carried people's losses alongside them.

"If I write that the company covers all of it, that's a lie." Baek Gijun said.

"Then write down what's confirmed and what isn't, separately."

Baek Gijun picked up his pen. Confirmed: request to recognize work stoppage waiting time. Unconfirmed: method of wage payment, disadvantage in vendor contract, client penalty. He wrote the word request and stopped.

Han Sua said, "Not request. Guarantee."

"I can't guarantee that."

"Then write down whatever's within your authority, and note who it goes up to for the rest."

Baek Gijun wrote a second line. Baek Gijun, field operations manager at Daon Life Safety, will submit a request to the company for paid treatment of day laborer waiting time due to this work stoppage, and if payment is not made, will notify the reason and the responsible party in writing.

It wasn't enough. Still, it was better than a blank field.

Doyun pressed the emergency stop button. This time Baek Gijun didn't stop him. The conveyors halted one by one. Only the sound of the refrigerated warehouse fans remained. The 93 percent shipping rate on the display board blinked, then changed to work stoppage received.

The scanner rang one last time. Under the Empty Pallet 1 label, one more name surfaced. Beside Choi Mijeong, Kim Munsik, Raman, Park Seonyeong, Nguyen Thi Lan, and Han Sua all tried to attach in a row.

Seojin held the attachment's list of responsible parties up to the scanner. The names were entered not as item labels but as work stoppage requesters. The scanner screen froze. The number of subjects on Empty Pallet 1 dropped from five to one. Only Choi Mijeong's name remained.

"Ms. Choi Mijeong still hasn't come back." Eunchae said.

"I know."

Seojin did not remove the label. Removing it could turn the status into retrieval complete. She decided to preserve it with the pallet intact. Baek Gijun had a manual lift brought in instead of a forklift. Two workers stood by as witnesses. Han Sua still hadn't taken off her vest. Until the work stoppage report was fully filed, the temporary loading and unloading record remained active.

After Choi Mijeong's name came up, no one said right away that she was dead. On sites like this, the faster that conclusion got drawn, the faster people got lost. Seojin divided Choi Mijeong's status into three fields. No missing person report, family inquiry consultation on record, name on the pallet label.

"Do you have the family's contact information?"

Eunchae said, "The consultation log only has the last digits. Viewing the original requires authorization."

Baek Gijun took out his phone. "I'll ask the vendor's owner."

"Speakerphone, recording, and limit the scope of the questions."

This time Baek Gijun didn't argue. The vendor's owner didn't remember Choi Mijeong at first. Then, when told the date the pallet went missing, he remembered.

"Ah, her. We recorded it as unauthorized absence. Couldn't reach her."

"Did you notify her family?" Baek Gijun asked.

"She wasn't even our employee, how would I know her family. There was no emergency contact in the day labor app."

Han Sua opened her mouth, then closed it. Seojin wrote down that moment. Emergency contact field blank, no family notification. The blank field had pushed a person out again.

On the scanner screen, retrieval complete showed up next to Choi Mijeong's name. Seojin did not read the words retrieval complete as a resolved disappearance. It was the status of an item's retrieval. The person's status was unconfirmed. She wrote that distinction in bold in the attachment.

Baek Gijun signed the manager's action field on the work stoppage request. He wrote his name, then his title. Baek Gijun, field operations manager at Daon Life Safety. Underneath, he added one more line. Empty Pallet 1 shipment held, no movement until the person's name is confirmed as separate.

"Holding the shipment means a penalty." He said.

"Write that cost down too."

Baek Gijun made a field for the estimated penalty. He didn't know the exact amount. If he didn't know, he had to write that he didn't know. Estimated penalty unconfirmed, client notification required. Han Sua wrote next to it in her own handwriting. Risk of worker nonpayment unconfirmed, notification of payer required.

The two unconfirmed items sat on the same sheet. For the first time, the company's losses and the workers' losses appeared side by side.

Even after the conveyors came to a complete stop, Doyun did not close the door. Closing it could push the workers inside back into a waiting state. He left the door open and accepted the heat loss. The refrigerated warehouse's temperature rose two degrees. Baek Gijun frowned at the number, but he didn't tell him to close the door.

Park Seonyeong asked, "Can we clock out now?"

Seojin didn't give permission right away. Clocking out by scan was still risky. Instead she made a joint clock-out confirmation form. The worker themselves, a coworker witness, the manager, an outside recorder. Four fields. She started with Kim Munsik. Raman wrote his name slowly, and Lan double checked the order of her surname and given name.

The scanner tried to read the name tags, but this time there were no barcodes. Just paper and handwriting. A record the system couldn't swallow right away.

Baek Gijun stood in front of the time clock. "Scan one at a time, and say the result out loud. If it fails, don't scan again."

Kim Munsik scanned. The screen froze for a moment, then showed clock-out held. But beneath it was a new line.

Joint confirmation attached.

Raman, Park Seonyeong, and Lan all got the same result. It wasn't clock-out complete. But it wasn't clock-in maintained either. The state that would have kept them working into the next day had been cut off.

On Han Sua's app, temporary loading and unloading still remained. She looked at Baek Gijun. Baek Gijun changed Han Sua's registration on the manager screen to temporary observer error. The 0 won in the wage field didn't disappear. Instead a reason was attached. Objection filed against unpaid registration.

"If you object, does money come out?"

"Not yet."

"Then it's not over."

"No." Baek Gijun said. "It's not over."

That admission was recorded too.

The vendor's owner said there was no emergency contact for Choi Mijeong, but Eunchae cross referenced the last digits from the consultation log with the account holder record in the day labor app. The account holder was Choi Mijeong herself. The receiving bank was still on record. Contacting the family was still impossible, but at least there was now a way to check whether the name of the person who received the wages matched the name on the label.

"We're not viewing the full account number." Seojin said.

Eunchae answered. "Just the last digits and the account holder name. The last payment date was the 14th of last month."

Baek Gijun heard the date and checked the date the pallet went missing. It was the same day. He went to rub his face with his hand, then stopped. There was dust on his glove.

"There's an incident report for the shipment that day."

"Bring it."

The report was short. One pallet retrieval delayed, worker unauthorized absence, shipment normalized complete. The responsible party field only had the vendor foreman's name. The Daon confirmer field was blank.

Han Sua said, "There's another blank field."

Baek Gijun stared at the report for a long time. "I wasn't on site that day."

"If you weren't there, is it fine for it to stay blank?"

"No."

He attached a note dated today next to the blank Daon confirmer field. Post hoc confirmation required, Baek Gijun. It wasn't a signature rewriting the past. But it was the first step that didn't leave the blank field as it was.

The scanner couldn't read the note. There was no barcode. So the note was safe for the time being. Seojin wrote that down too. A handwritten note without a barcode is not immediately classified. Its long term preservation is unconfirmed.

After the joint clock-out confirmation was attached, the people on Team B still couldn't go straight home. The shuttle outside the center had already left. Calling a taxi would cost each of them more than ten thousand won. Baek Gijun asked about running an extra shuttle, and the security office said there was no driver available. Han Sua added that answer to the cost list too.

"If you can't get home, it's not clocking out."

Baek Gijun paused for a moment in front of the warehouse, then took out his corporate card. "I'll pay for the taxi fares up front and bill the company. If it's rejected, it's my own expense."

"Write that down." Seojin said.

Baek Gijun wrote it. Field operations manager advance payment. Company approval unconfirmed. Possibility of personal expense. Both good will and calculation sat in that sentence together. Which suited Baek Gijun.

Kim Munsik wiped the clock-in stamp on the back of his hand with a wet wipe while waiting for the taxi. The blue ink didn't come off completely. Raman put his name tag in his wallet without folding it. Lan didn't return her QR vest. She said she'd take it with her as evidence. Baek Gijun left the return bin open and only took the confirmation form. An order where people left before things did had barely been made.

Only after even the taxi call records had been kept did the people held back from clocking out leave the center. The security gate first read Kim Munsik as clocked in again. When security guard Jang Yeongsik reached for the manual override button, Seojin stopped him.

"Write down the reason for the manual override before you press it."

Jang Yeongsik entered into the gate log: exit after joint confirmation of work stoppage. Only then did Kim Munsik's name stop growing longer on the clock in list. Even the exit door needed a record.

Outside the gate, Kim Munsik called home. He couldn't explain much, and only said, "I'm coming now." He didn't mention dropping his kid off at daycare. Seojin didn't write down the contents of the call, only noting that contact with family was possible after clocking out. Privacy had been restored, but the public record needed to stay minimal.

Baek Gijun tried to put the taxi receipts in the same envelope as the pallet evidence. Seojin separated them. "The cost of getting people home and the leads on the disappearance don't go in the same envelope." The cost preservation file and the pallet preservation file were split apart. Not mixing them was part of the solution to this case too.

On the back of the empty pallet was a delivery address. Doyun shone his flashlight on the letters that had been hidden under dust and plastic wrap.

Records Coordination Office, Seongan City Public Safety Response Agency.

The recipient field was blank.