“Believing that we can right one small wrong, even if we can’t change the world – that’s the kind of coup I’m talking about. A moral coup.”

In South Korean writer Won-Pyung Sohn’s 2025 novel , translated by Sean Lin Halbert, a group of four “office allies” manages to get the boss fired. The boss, in addition to being mean to his juniors, freely passes air and picks his teeth in the middle of conversations. His uncouth ways are not just offensive to the lower downs but also hypocritical – why is decorum and respect reserved only for the higher ups, when the interns and junior employees work just as hard?

Jihye, a 30-year-old “extended intern” at Seoul’s Diamant Group, is in an administrative role at the group’s Academy that offers fluff courses on soft skills that promise to give an edge to its students by making them better suited for the corporate world. Those who sign up for the courses are on the verge of giving up, while those who teach the courses are grifters and frauds. The Group, not too interested in being ethical, hires rapists and cheats, and even influencers with no real skills to “teach” at the...