Episode 3: Gray Office and the Necktied Minifigure

Episode 3: A minifigure wearing a gray office and tie The Marketing Team 2 office on the 20th floor of Brick Corporation's headquarters was like a colorless, tightly controlled concentration camp. The floor was covered with endless dark gray 2x2 plate bricks, and the partition separating the employees' seats was made of pale light gray bricks measuring 6 studs wide and 4 studs tall. Eye-chilling white LED light poured down from the fluorescent light brick on the office ceiling, illuminating the gray monitor tiles and plastic keyboards on the desk as if sterilizing them. ‘Crack, crack, crack…’ … .'

The sound of dozens of minifigures tapping their keyboards incessantly filled the quiet air. There was no laughter, no music, no human warmth. Only the dull sound of the giant gear wheels of the modern capitalist bureaucracy, which enforces perfect standards of efficiency, productivity, and zero error, was heard. Twenty-nine-year-old assistant manager Do-yoon Han was sitting upright in front of the desk in cubicle ‘B-14’, his designated seat. As soon as he sat down, he looked down at the torso of his navy blue suit, as was his habit. Next to the red tie printing on the chest, there was a very small black plastic injection residue (burr) stuck to the border of the white paint on the shirt collar. Doyun used the sharp edge of his C-shaped right hand to gently scrape off the fine plastic dust. 'Tuk.'

When the dust fell off, the neat and flawless tie line finally regained its full appearance. I didn't know that working life was a series of difficult disguises, brushing off these trivial dusts and maintaining the perfection of appearance. The office worker minifigure's fate was to always maintain a smooth shine on the outside, like a new product that had just been ejected from a mold, even if the inside was completely black and ash was flying. The cubicle maze on the 20th floor of Brick Corporation was a topography of strict hierarchy. In the best-lit spot near the window, 16x16 independent rooms for executive offices and team leaders were placed, and in the noise area near the hallway and bathroom, narrow 6x6 chicken coop-shaped partitions for employees and assistant managers were densely packed.

Doyoon's seat, B-14, happened to be right next to the copier brick. The hot toner heat and fine plastic dust emitted every time a paper tile was printed would fumigate Doyun's face all day long. On the desk partition fabric board, private memo tiles that Do-yoon had collected over the past three years were pinned.

‘Reduce your credit card value to less than 1.2 million won this month,’ ‘Acquire OPIc IH for English Conversation,’ and the 2x2 family photo tile I took with my family on my college graduation day. Those simple notes were the buoys of Doyun's soul that kept him from getting lost in the vast sea of ​​gray cubicles. The ergonomic limitations of minifigures were most severely tested at cubicle desks. A two-point support structure that does not allow you to bend your back, and only allows you to bend your legs to 90 degrees around the pelvic pins and rest them on the chair. If you stare at a monitor with your lower body pressed against a hard plastic floor for 8 hours a day, the lubricant inside the hip joint pins will dry out, creating a creaking friction sound.

Doyoon got up from his chair once an hour and stretched his neck joints. Unlike humans, minifigures had the unique anatomical privilege of being able to rotate their heads 360 degrees left and right. 'Squeak, squeal.'

Every time I turned my neck around, the stiff static electricity and fatigue accumulated on the plastic cervical stud seemed to be relieved. Doyun's appearance, swinging his arms up and down like a windmill and loosening his shoulder joints, looked bizarre at first glance, but the other assistant managers beyond the cubicle partition were also stretching while looking at the wall with their heads turned 180 degrees. We were all little Pinocchios in the city, cutting and twisting ourselves to fit a standardized mold. However, the obsession for life contained within those stiff joints was tougher and stronger than any other flexible creature in the world.

The acoustic texture filling the Marketing Team 2 office was the white noise of highly refined labor. Someone tapped cheerfully on the mechanical keyboard, and the assistant manager sitting next to me pressed the low-noise red keyboard in a fluid manner. From the copier brick, the sharp sound of rollers spitting out 60 paper tiles per minute, along with the sound of static electricity sparks intermittently. The sound of an extension phone ringing throughout the office.

'Ring—! 'This is Assistant Manager Han Do-yoon of Marketing Team 2.'

‘Yes, Chief. I just received an invoice from last week's order via email!

There were dark circles under the eyes of the deputies who clicked on mouse tiles with both hands while holding the receiver between their ears and shoulders. This orchestra of noise was the heartbeat of the company, breathing like a gigantic organism. Each minifigure was just a small, helpless part, but the huge noise made by the parts interlocking like gears was a huge driving force of reality, rotating hundreds of millions of won in capital every day and feeding the entire city. ‘Thump, thump, thump…’ … .'

Heavy footsteps were heard from across the hallway. This was the appearance of Manager Park Man-soo, the absolute power of Marketing Team 2 and the embodiment of nagging. Manager Park, fifty-two years old, had a gray bald head with sparse hair and was wearing a head piece with thick silver glasses frames printed on it. In his hand, as always, he held a 1x1 transparent magnifying glass brick, and as he wandered between the cubicles with his arms crossed, his eyes looked like a hyena hunting for prey. “Hey, Assistant Manager Han.”

Manager Park suddenly poked his head through Doyun’s partition. Doyoon reflexively stood up and straightened his back to 90 degrees. “Yes, Chief! Good morning!”

“What a freezing good morning. I’m talking about the 3rd quarter online promotion plan you posted yesterday. When I looked through a magnifying glass, I saw that the brick spacing on the payment line was off by 0.1 millimeter. I was told to unify the font size to 9 points, but there were two 8.5 point tiles mixed up. You’ve been an assistant manager for 3 years and you still can’t meet even one standard properly? This is why our team is losing out in performance to Marketing Team 1, do you know?!” Manager Park's harsh words flew out along with a drop of saliva (1x1 transparent mini stud) and hit Doyoon's forehead. Doyoon bowed his head with his hands clasped together politely. “I’m sorry, Manager. I will correct it immediately and repost it.”

“Tsk, tsk... It looks like your mind is already in the bean field because it’s payday today, right? Get your mind straight. The managing director will come in during the 10 o’clock meeting, so make sure you get the corrected copy before then. If you’re even one minute late, I’ll take a pay cut from your salary today!”

Manager Park stomped into his office, waving his magnifying glass in the air. The bathroom, measuring 4 studs wide and 8 studs tall, in the corner of the office was the office workers' only outlet and emotional trash can. Next to the water purifier brick, an acrylic container was filled with yellow 1x1 cylindrical instant mixed coffee sticks. Doyoon tore off the perforated line of the yellow stick with his fingers and put it into the paper cup brick. Sugar, cream, and cheap instant coffee granules piled up at the bottom of the cup. While pouring the hot water brick and stirring the coffee with the peel of the torn stick, the sweet and savory scent of mixed coffee filled the narrow brewing room.

Assistant Manager Choi, a fourth-year student who was scrubbing the sink next to him, sighed and poked Do-yoon in the side. “Assistant manager Han, when your salary comes in at 11 o’clock today, you have to first make up the negative balance from last month’s account. I discussed it with my wife yesterday, and she said that my baby’s kindergarten fee will increase by 100,000 won starting next month. My salary is not going up, but I don’t know why my outgoings are rising like bricks.”

“That’s right, assistant manager. I also broke out in a cold sweat this morning when I realized my bus card balance was low.”

Simple complaints from office workers sharing a cup of mixed coffee. It was not high-quality espresso that soothed the bitterness of life, but the warm sympathy of colleagues melted in a 100 won cup of yellow mixed coffee. Manager Park Man-soo was once a living legend at Brick Corporation. He joined the company in 1999, right after the foreign exchange crisis, and when the company was on the verge of bankruptcy, he ran barefoot to wholesalers across the country and sold out all of their plastic toy inventory. However, over the past 25 years, the company has rapidly changed into the era of cutting-edge artificial intelligence and digital marketing, and veteran managers, trapped in the success equation of the past, have already become old-timers and obstacles to the growth of their juniors.

The real reason why Director Park was obsessed with the 0.1 millimeter line spacing while holding a magnifying glass was actually a desperate defense mechanism to hide his helplessness in understanding the complex structure of digital data and algorithms. Doyoon was also vaguely aware of that fact. Therefore, while I was angry at the manager's harsh words, I could not completely erase my feelings of pity for the senior generation, who were being left behind and creaking like old parts. As Manager Park disappeared, Manager Jisoo Kim crept up from the cubicle across from him and placed a small can of beverage brick on Doyun's desk.

Energy drink tile with gold cap on red background. “Are you okay, Assistant Manager? You’ve been drained from all the nagging from Manager Park since the morning, right?”

Jisoo whispered with upturned eyes. Doyoon chuckled and picked up an energy drink. “It’s okay, Jisoo. It’s not something you’ll have to deal with in a day or two. Threatening a pay cut is number 18 in Director Park’s repertoire. All you have to do is get through the 10 o’clock meeting safely.” Doyoon turned around in front of the monitor and placed both hands on the keyboard tiles. His fingers began tapping the keyboard at the speed of light. 'Ta-ta-ta-ta-tak—tap, tick!'

The table spacing that was off by 0.1 millimeters was adjusted again, the 8.5-point font was replaced with 9-point bold, and the curve of the sales graph was replaced with a 3D bar brick. Simple repetitive labor that is boring and meaningless. However, in every stitch of this mechanical work, the labor values ​​of the most honest office workers who have to survive each day were contained. 8:59 AM. The second hand of the large electronic clock brick hanging on the office wall pointed to 58 and 59 seconds. And finally, the moment the digital number changes to [09:00].

A miracle happened. The red tie printing parts that Do-yoon carefully cleaned every day were imbued with his mother's tearful love. Three years ago, when he was a job seeker, Do-yoon failed dozens of document screenings and his self-esteem plummeted to the bottom. Finally, the night before the final executive interview at Brick Corporation, my mother had bought this dark red silk tie part for Do-yoon from Brick Shop, a small custom shop in the alley of the market.

‘Doyoon, red is the color that chases away evil spirits and brings victory. Don't be intimidated in front of the interviewers, but show them what a solid and honest young man you are.'

The trembling of that day when my mother's wrinkled hands clicked the tie part into the back of Doyun's neck. That red tie was not just a plastic decoration, but a mother's eternal prayer and guardian who supported her son's back anytime and anywhere. Before heading to the conference room, Doyoon pressed the tie on his chest with his right hand. His mother's warmth spread through his palms and throughout his body, instilling courage into his shrinking heart. The Excel sheet floating on Doyun's computer screen was the most elaborate prison created by modern capitalism.

A maze of numbers tightly packed in horizontal columns from A to Z and vertical rows from 1 to 5000. The VLOOKUP function, INDEX-MATCH function, and complex Pivot Tables were intertwined like a spider web. If one number is entered incorrectly, the entire formula emits an error (#VALUE!) and a red warning window appears. Doyoon pressed the shortcut key without hesitating for 0.1 second.

'Ctrl + C, Ctrl + V, Alt + H + O + I.'

His hand movements on the keyboard were dazzling and precise, like a pianist playing Chopin's Etude. The data that was scattered on the screen was arranged in an orderly manner and reborn as a perfect bar graph and line graph. That's what labor was like. A noble craftsmanship that brings order to chaos and carves out a compass that points the direction of the company from a pile of meaningless numbers. Doyoon secretly felt joy as he watched the report being completed at his fingertips. At 10 a.m. sharp, the door to the conference room on the 20th floor opened and Director Kang, with a sharp look, took his seat at the head of the oval conference table.

Manager Park Man-soo was shaking his fingers in a cold sweat, while Do-yoon turned on the beam projector brick and displayed the presentation slides on the screen. [Digital innovation promotion strategy for the third quarter of 2026 - Presenter: Marketing Team 2 Assistant Manager Han Do-yoon]

Doyoon's calm and clear voice began to resonate in the quiet conference room. It was not a simple list of numbers. Lifestyle changes of customer minifigures, mobile platform inflow channels, and even ways to increase brand loyalty through emotional marketing. Doyun weaved the data he had been analyzing all night long over the past three weeks into storytelling, like an elegant movie. Managing Director Kang, who was scanning the slides with his arms crossed and a critical eye, slowly began to loosen his eyebrows. The moment the presentation ended, Managing Director Kang put his pen down on the table and nodded softly. “Assistant Manager Han, your presentation was excellent. The spirit of the customer is alive in the numbers. Manager Park, leave full authority to Assistant Manager Han as the main director of this project. We will also increase the budget by 20%.”

“Ah… four! Managing Director! Assistant Manager Han prepared so diligently, haha!”

Director Park bent down and put his mouth to his ear. Behind Doyoon, who was leaving the conference room, Jisoo smiled brightly while secretly giving a thumbs up. It was a complete victory. A huge fanfare of joy was resounding in the hearts of youth who had overcome prejudice and oppression with their own skills. 'Weeeeing—click!'

Along with the sound of the office air conditioner motor running, strange waves of light began to emerge from beneath Doyun's feet. The gray 2x2 floor tiles, which had been dull and gloomy, began to become colored with waves of colorful primary colors, centered around the spot where Doyun's toes touched. 'Srrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!'

Red, yellow, blue, green. The most primitive and pure LEGO original bricks in the four basic colors spread out in all directions like falling dominoes, engulfing the gray office. The light gray bricks of the partition were transformed into refreshing lemon yellow bricks, and the dull desk monitor emitted a dazzling aqua blue neon light. Doyoon jumped up from his chair and looked around. A bright glow of vitality was spreading across the faces of fellow minifigures. The eyes of the assistant managers who were rubbing their sleepy eyes began to shine brightly, and the shoulders of the managers who were drinking coffee in the bathroom began to dance.

Everyone knew. 9 o'clock meant that there were only two hours left until 11 a.m., the scheduled time for salary deposit. A magical moment when the boring and colorless gray hell transforms into a dazzling theme park with the energy of the festival that will come in just two hours.

“Wow… look at the floor.”

An exclamation burst from Doyun’s mouth. Every time he took a step, colorful plastic light bubbles bounced from under the soles of his feet. It wasn't just a hallucination. Even in a cold workplace dominated by capital, the pure excitement of humans waiting for compensation for their labor was a miraculous filter that transformed the bleak reality into art. Lego's four basic primary colors—bright red, yellow, blue, and dark green—were derived from the Neo-Plasticism of Piet Mondrian, the master of modernist art in the mid-20th century.

An array of the purest, most intense and uncompromising primary colors. At the moment when the gray everyday life became colored with primary colors, the energy of color transmitted through Doyun's retina explosively stimulated the secretion of dopamine in the brain. The red tile symbolizes the passion that makes the heart beat, the yellow tile symbolizes the warm innocence of childhood, the blue tile symbolizes rational clarity, and the green tile symbolizes rest that moistens the dry soul. What the number called salary gives to humans is not simply a monetary value. It was a license to the minimum freedom and dignity to escape from the standardized gray slavery and color life in the colors one wanted.

Doyoon stood tall on the dazzling primary-colored floor, realizing with his whole body that his existence was by no means an expendable item in this gigantic universe. As 10:30 a.m. passed, the air in the Marketing Team 2 office was filled with tension, like a tightly pulled bowstring. Everyone's eyes were alternating between the digital clock at the bottom right of the monitor and the smartphone tile on the desk. 10:45, 10:50, 10:55. As the 11 o'clock hour approached, the sound of tapping on the keyboard became noticeably quieter.

Manager Kim nervously pressed the ballpoint pen spring 'click, click', and Manager Ji Soo opened a messenger window and sent a real-time broadcast to Do-yoon. [Director Jisoo Kim: Assistant Manager, there are 5 minutes left. I feel like my heart will explode.]

[Assistant Do-yoon Han: Calm down. I think you can hear Manager Kim of the accounting team pressing the enter key up to here.]

In the secret messenger line between departments, reports from colleagues in other departments were already pouring in in real time. ‘They said the HR team hasn’t arrived yet!’, ‘I heard it was recorded on Sales Team 1’s Assistant Manager Kim’s account?!’, ‘No, that’s a travel expense settlement!’

A company-wide collective countdown that takes place twelve times a year, only at 11 a.m. on the 25th of every month. It was the most gruesome and yet most heart-warming festival of solidarity shared by Korean office workers. Everyone was holding their breath, waiting for the promised 11 o'clock sharp when the bank account door would open wide. Doyoon puffed out his chest and straightened his red tie. I was no longer afraid of Manager Park’s nagging. Neither the boss's verbal abuse nor 0.1 millimeter of oppression could ever trample on this dazzling primary-colored energy. He firmly inserted the completed plan printout tile into the folder. There was clear text printed on the top of the cover. [2026 3rd Quarter Big Leap Marketing Strategy Report - Written by: Marketing Team 2 Assistant Manager Do-yoon Han] “Manager! The revised version has been completed. I will submit the approval now!”

Doyoon shouted in a confident voice and knocked on the door of the manager’s office. Inside the manager's office, a startled sound was heard as Manager Park dropped his magnifying glass. The colorful primary-colored tiles laid beneath his feet were blessing his expedition like a red carpet. The stage of youth where they break away from their gray daily life and walk as the protagonist themselves. The film's cameras were just beginning to roll their lenses toward the most dynamic highlight sequences. Beyond the office window, the skyscrapers of Gwanghwamun and Sejong-daero were shining golden in the majestic sunlight.

Tens of thousands of car bricks running on the road, and thousands of fellow minifigures crossing the crosswalk. Everyone was quietly doing their part in their respective positions, illuminating the city's huge circuit. Doyoon returned to his desk and leaned back deeply in his chair. The smile on his lips was sparkling like a plastic part that had just been delivered. In the huge movie set called life, we were all confident main actors who endured our own hardships. The time was approaching 10:58, and the reels of the huge projector sleeping in their hearts were slowly getting ready to spin.

The fateful film was running powerfully toward the moment when all the darkness would end and dazzling lights would pour down on the screen. It was the greatest and most beautiful movie that all ordinary office workers of this era live in their hearts. Now, it was time to proudly say my first line to the spinning film.