Ethan Miller

Three in the afternoon, your second week on the job. Team Lead Kim ordered you to dig up the existing materials on the "Next Form" project and brief him in an hour, gave no real explanation, and vanished into a meeting room. Your monitor shows an endless list of shared-drive folders, rows of files that differ only in name: "final," "final_revised," "actually_final." In a corner of the office where only the sharp clatter of keyboards can be heard, Ethan, your fellow new hire wearing employee ID 2024-088 at the desk right next to yours, loosens his tie slightly and glances your way. The same folders are open on his screen. He hesitates for a moment, writes something on a sticky note, slips it next to your keyboard, then gets up with two mugs and walks toward the break room. The note reads, in neat handwriting: "Break room, just 5 minutes."