THE PEN
The story starts with a close-up of a notebook lying on a table.
Ten names are written neatly in a column.
Then a hand holding a pen writes "Pen" beside six names and "Pencil" beside the remaining four.
Without any expression, the person calmly crosses out the four names marked "Pencil."
The face reveals—a man wearing spectacles. His expression is cold, emotionless, and unsettling.
---
He is the CEO of a large company. Intelligent, disciplined, and highly respected. His company has several vacancies, and from hundreds of applicants he personally selects the six people whose names he had marked with "Pen."
They are hired as his assistant manager, secretary, executives, and other important employees.
At first, everything seems normal.
Gradually, the employees realize something is wrong.
Their boss demands absolute perfection.
A tiny typing error.
A misplaced file.
A late report.
A slightly misaligned document.
Every mistake receives an extreme reaction.
He humiliates employees, forces overtime, throws objects in anger, and creates an office where everyone lives in constant fear of making even the smallest mistake.
Before joining, every employee had unknowingly signed a three-year employment contract, making it difficult for them to leave.
Months pass.
The office slowly turns into a prison of perfection.
---
One day, the CEO asks his assistant manager and secretary to wait at his house while he leaves for some work with another employee.
Alone inside the house, they begin talking.
"He isn't strict..."
"He's obsessed."
As they look around, they notice one locked room with a warning written outside:
DO NOT ENTER
Curiosity overcomes fear.
They unlock the door.
Inside hangs six dolls from the ceiling.
Each doll has the photograph of one of the six employees attached to it.
On another wall is a large board.
Photographs of all six employees are pinned carefully.
At the center is a sheet of paper.
Beside every one of the six names is written a single word:
Pen
Terrified, they photograph everything and immediately rush to the police.
---
The police raid the CEO's house.
The room is exactly as described.
The man offers no resistance.
Instead, he calmly sits on his sofa, relaxed, almost amused.
The officers continue searching.
The search extends to his office.
Every desk is perfectly aligned.
Every pen is arranged identically.
Every file is measured with impossible precision.
The entire office reflects the same disturbing obsession.
Among old belongings, the police discover records from his school days.
There, hidden inside old documents, is the truth.
Years ago, while filling out one of the most important entrance examinations of his life, he accidentally shaded the wrong digit of his roll number.
He realized the mistake only after the results were declared.
One tiny human error permanently changed the course of his life.
From that day onward, he became incapable of accepting mistakes—his own or anyone else's.
---
Back in the interrogation room, an officer notices the paper listing the employees.
"Why have you written 'Pen' beside these six names?"
The man laughs...
He picks up a pen from the table and slowly rotates it between his fingers.
Then he quietly says:
"They always told us..."
"Life is written with a pen."
"A mistake written in pen can never be erased."
"So why should mistakes exist at all?"
The room falls silent.
