The man gave his own name, then somebody else's.
Darae did not put the second name in the recipient field. On the morning of day seventy-six after temporary handover, the person who had left the household gloves for repair came to Office 4. Workshop history and confirmed identifying features connected. Today required actual collection checks.
He was due at another work area soon. Could they simply record him as collecting on behalf of someone else? That was why he had mentioned his colleague. Sodam read the earlier explanation: his own property, intended as a gift, not yet given. Collecting somebody else's possession described a different present state.
“I'm going to send them,” he said.
Did he mean as owner or carrier? Darae asked. He looked briefly at the pouch. They had been his gloves; he had ordered repairs to give them to a colleague. He was not using another owner's authorization. Two names required two different questions before either could fill a box.
Verification took place beyond other visitors' hearing. Sodam connected the workshop request, physical features and receiving authority under the applicable procedure. Private identity details were not copied into a new package for Darae. Her assigned review concerned the actual links, not collecting every detail herself.
The man recognized the wrist patch. He had requested a matching fabric, but the workshop had another color; he had agreed to it. Sodam explained checking the turned lining without damage. He voiced no suspicion that someone had secretly exchanged his gloves. A different appearance had an ordinary, already permitted cause.
He pressed the right glove's fingertips and remarked on the worn inside. Sodam showed the repair scope: the work had not replaced every piece of fabric. He knew that and accepted its present condition. An old patch not made new did not make the object someone else's.
Before the return signature, Sodam read the actual items: one pouch, two household gloves. The intended recipient's name stayed outside today's receipt. This man would take them now; a later gift required another handover. She showed the difference on the same paper without delivering a long lecture.
An additional workshop reply appeared. Its job-sheet title still said return completed. Had it already recorded delivery to him? the man asked. Sodam explained the earlier carrier handover and mistaken inquiry closure. Necessary history remained beside today's actual personal receipt rather than disappearing under a cleaner heading.
He had once told his colleague the gloves were already sent because he had received that completed answer. Darae requested no submission of their private conversation. Today's correction concerned the actual item and workshop reply. Office 4 could not revise someone else's personal explanation in that person's place.
Sodam sent the current workshop worker the relevant reply. Original carrier handover and today's owner return were distinguished, the reopened inquiry connected. The workshop confirmed that the current search now displayed those states separately. It did not merely promise to change a word somewhere out of sight.
The man signed and put the pouch into his bag. Once it was secure, Sodam let go. Collection time and items entered the return record. The gloves had gone back to their owner. Darae did not declare them a gift yet; deciding their next hand belonged to his life outside this counter.
He did not leave immediately. Where could he post them to his colleague's work area? Darae connected him with an ordinary dispatch service, its receiving arrangements and permitted-item conditions. Leaving them quietly on a communal carrying rack was not another way to complete that service.
Sodam reached for an intake rest, then stopped. This was a dispatch inquiry about property its owner held, not a new lost-property intake. The man laughed: after only a few minutes, he would rather not lose them again. Darae returned the rest to its place.
The dispatch worker's next guidance time would make him late for his shift. Did they need to go today? Darae asked. No; returning to this part of the station after work would simply be inconvenient. She could hear the difference. Not every awkward schedule was an emergency requiring someone else's seat.
Dispatch provided its next receiving time and designated method. He chose to take the gloves with him and decide after work. Sodam did not report a delay. An owner could choose where to keep an object. Today's return intake closed with its receipt, regardless of what he sent later.
After he left, Sodam asked whether it was all right never to enter both names. One had been needed to verify today's receiving authority, Darae said. The other named someone who had not yet received the object. Collecting every name did not automatically make the record more accurate.
Sodam reviewed the initial note for unnecessary personal explanation under current standards. She followed retention and treatment rules rather than erasing entries at will. Darae made no additional copy in her own notebook. Checking a thing did not mean she had to keep it in her hand afterward.
Around lunch, a Narae supply-cargo acceptance message arrived. Darae was not aboard today's voyage. Sodam handled logistics within current scope; Mujin and assigned operators handled flight. Missing someone's company could not create a work seat. Darae linked the summary to its designated record.
Outside the dining room, Seo asked whether yesterday's gloves had gone home. Their owner had actually collected them, Darae replied. She added nothing about the future gift. Seo accepted the brief answer and chose another dish. Asking a colleague for news did not require receiving somebody else's private plot.
In the afternoon, the man contacted them again. He had asked his colleague, who was willing to receive the gloves by post. Darae did not search a private address on that report alone. Dispatch needed the recipient-provided route and its own current checks. He would follow the guidance already supplied.
The colleague had bought new gloves, he added. It sounded as though he wanted Office 4 to decide whether sending an old pair still made sense. Darae could not equate matching functions with matching feelings. The recipient could say what was wanted. The man laughed and agreed.
The new dispatch inquiry went to ordinary service staff. A lost-property number did not turn into a postal code. Sodam distinguished completed return from subsequent inquiry within her work scope. The actual gloves remained with their owner until dispatch staff received them. A new screen had not moved them.
Another visitor arrived asking whether workshop gloves were collected here. Darae remembered the morning's pouch, but first asked what guidance had brought this person. The workshop, it appeared, had broadened Sodam's reply into directions sending all completed repairs to the lost-and-found office.
Someone had shortened the sentence too much. This particular lost item can be checked at Office 4 had become repaired items are collected at Office 4. Darae did not send the visitor away with a verdict of misunderstanding. She checked the real collection place and staff so there would be no second wasted journey.
Sodam read the present notice with its workshop owner. A correction about one object's location had accidentally relocated every object. The worker corrected its scope and sent an update to relevant people who had already received it. Similarity to yesterday's completed problem did not make the two correction routes identical.
Darae thought she might have prevented this by explaining faster. She stopped. Sodam had asked the necessary questions and was correcting the new confusion. Sending every reply through Darae would keep the next worker on a permanent first day. She compared only the final sentence within her assigned review.
The visitor received the real repair-collection directions, with staff acknowledgment. Sodam did not merge that inquiry into a dispute about the returned gloves. Today's pair had reached its owner; the new problem concerned a workshop notice. Separating the categories made the next actions shorter.
Midshift preservation checks confirmed 7-B, card and packaging in place. Questions about S-6's three canisters and the isolated module went to designated custodians. Ordinary gloves and preserved evidence did not acquire the same treatment permissions merely because someone used the word return for both.
A habitat mail-delivery notice arrived through its normal receiving route. Residents no longer needed every message relayed by Raon's property desk. Darae resisted sending Haeseong today's glove story. Whatever he was doing there, it was not confirming the lesson she wanted her own day to teach.
Sodam brought next week's duty sheet. She wanted to check what she would handle alone and what needed senior review. Darae compared assigned intake, inquiries and preservation authority with her, rather than offering a vague permission to do everything independently. Unknown cases had actual people to whom questions could go.
“Everything will go well without me,” Darae began, then corrected herself. The present assigned work was confirmed within Sodam's scope. A promise that any possible event would go well was another burden. Sodam said she would ask when she did not know. Darae did not have to invent every question first.
Before evening, dispatch confirmed actual receipt from the owner. The pouch and two gloves were now with formal sending staff; transport and destination receipt belonged to the next schedule. Today's lost-property return was already finished. Darae secured the empty rest, leaving both names in the procedures that needed them.
She touched her own tag, then lowered her hand. Tomorrow she would be absent from ordinary intake for part of the day. The gloves now waited with dispatch staff for their next journey toward that second name, beyond her screen. Could she leave the receiving hand to its own work when she could no longer watch it?