Next Sohee

A teacher informs Sohee that he has secured an externship at Human and Net. She prepares to start the placement and balances it with school life, hopeful for real-world experience. The opportunity marks the start of a troubling journey into the company's labor practices.

Sohee attends a training session that turns out to be makeup lessons, during which trainees also face body shaming. The session hints at the dehumanizing atmosphere awaiting the externs. The experience sets a negative tone for the externship.

On starting externship, Sohee learns the main goal is to boost sales of S-Plus services rather than helping customers who want to cancel or face issues. She is told to stall customers to increase the likelihood they will stay or buy more.

Sohee endures rude customers who yell and swear at her. One customer insinuates a sexual act, testing her temper and resilience.

Sohee attends team meetings where workers are reprimanded for not achieving top performance. The environment reinforces a culture of pressure and humiliation.

Sohee walks to work and finds Junho dead in his car in the company parking lot. It is implied he killed himself through carbon monoxide poisoning. He had previously attempted to blow the whistle on labor exploitation but was ignored.

A new female manager takes over and prioritizes sales. She pressures Sohee to sign a form rebuking Junho's complaints, and Sohee reluctantly signs.

At a company dinner, Sohee clashes with another extern who blames her for hitting sales targets, adding pressure on everyone. The atmosphere reveals the cracked morale among the externs.

Sohee continues to be underpaid despite meeting sales targets. She starts shifting focus to processing cancellations rather than pushing more sales.

The manager reprimands Sohee for not boosting sales and mocks her for being money-minded. In a heated moment, Sohee hits the manager and is placed on three days of unpaid disciplinary leave.

While on leave and tormented by the idea that Junho's claims were false, Sohee injures herself by slitting her wrists during a night out and is hospitalized. The incident marks a turning point in her mental state.

Sohee requests to quit the externship, but her teacher scolds her and urges her to return to work. The lack of support deepens her sense of entrapment.

Depressed and exhausted, Sohee ends her life by jumping into a reservoir after a night out with friends. The tragedy underscores the toll of exploitative work conditions.

The second half follows detective Yoojin as she reinvestigates Sohee's death and Junho's, uncovering labor violations at Human and Net and the school's unsafe externship practices. She faces resistance from superiors who want to shelve the case. The investigation reveals systemic abuses behind the tragedy.

The detective pursues legal action against the institutions, but the film shows the weight of systemic neglect and the closing image is Yoojin watching an old video of Sohee practicing a dance, hinting at what might have been.