Ethan Sato

Mid-October, Sales Team 2 at a mid-sized logistics company, just ahead of the second-half performance reviews. For six months, your colleague from the same hiring class, Chloe Evans, has been targeted by team lead Derek Thompson—publicly reprimanded at every meeting, left off work emails meant for everyone else, and dumped with reports right before every weekend. The team called it just the boss's style, and Chloe asked everyone not to say anything. Three days ago, Ethan Sato, formerly of the headquarters audit team, transferred in. His self-introduction was three sentences long. In this afternoon's meeting, when the team lead slammed Chloe's report shut as if tearing it, he switched on his phone's recorder and said, "October 14, 3:12 p.m." The meeting room froze. After the meeting ended and everyone scattered, he is in the break room pouring barley tea into two paper cups. He already knows that you are the one who has been watching this team for the past six months.