WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Natty

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◈ Black Badger ◈

Chapter 72: A New Turn (2)

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Going to the game shop was always welcome.

But why Senior Walker...? He did not seem like the sort who played games.

I was briefly confused, then quickly pulled myself together.

Thinking about it rationally, there was no reason Senior Walker could not enjoy games. Everyone was equal before games.

I should thank Shu for asking and say I would definitely go. It was not urgent, though, so I decided to answer later and looked up.

No matter how I thought about it, pound cake was the wrong answer.

“How about fruit? Shine Muscat grapes? Or something classic, like apples?”

“Oh, for crying out loud, you little punk.”

Samuel turned to look at me with a tsk.

“Look at you, never listening. You woke up without a cent, yet you keep trying to buy me things.”

“You must not know. I made a fortune this time.”

“Huh?”

I told the doctor about finding Martin and getting thirty million won.

Samuel listened with wide eyes, then burst out laughing the moment I finished.

“Hey, you’re adapting well enough.”

“Yes, thanks to you.”

“Since Black Badger was founded, you’re the first person I’ve seen become a Badger in such a bizarre way. I’m glad you seem to be doing well.”

What?

Since it was founded?

“Have you been here since the beginning?”

“Huh? You didn’t know?”

Samuel looked as surprised as I was, then snorted as though it made sense.

The doctor, who looked to be in his mid-forties, shoved one hand into his lab coat pocket.

“Looks like Yoon never told you?”

“No. Not at all.”

“That brat never talks enough, even when it matters.”

Yoon was a brat?

It was a word that did not suit my senior partner at all. Even at the A-Tech household, I had never thought Yoon seemed young. He had been the youngest of the men in that family, too.

Ah, Yoon had promised to tell me about his past.

He had made that promise while we were killing time at the social gathering. He said that if I was curious, he would tell me various things besides the fact that he had been adopted at twelve.

And Ye-hyeon had said he would tell me everything, too. It stung to think of all the conversations I had missed.

If not for Jaeyeon, everything could have happened peacefully. Thinking of what had happened before I lost my memories, I frowned.

Still, I did not lose track of the conversation.

“Doctor, if you don’t mind, how old are you?”

“What’s with the honorific ‘age’? Just say ‘age,’ punk. I’m about nine years older than Yoon.”

Good grief.

“Are you a Badger?”

“Physically, yes. You can think of me as a case similar to John Mueln. I insisted on refusing an enhanced body transplant during the First War, but I finally gave in during the Second War. I was only going to work as a doctor, so I still don’t understand why they gave me an enhanced body.”

I stared blankly at the grumbling doctor.

That meant Samuel had been in his mid-thirties when the war broke out. He must have clearly seen the war begin and survived through the rapidly changing world.

I had definitely been here before the war. But I did not remember the war. I did not remember that it had ended, either.

What had I been doing then?

As I sank into thought, Samuel, who had been tapping at his tablet, turned to look down at me.

After a short silence, he asked, “You were brought in with Ye-hyeon. Looks like you got mixed up with the guy who regularly turns Ye-hyeon into rags. Things had seemed better for the past few years.”

“This has been happening for a long time?”

When I asked in alarm, Samuel let out a sigh that was effectively an answer.

I could not speak for a long time. I knew well how violent and cruel Jaeyeon could become. Right. Jaeyeon hated everything, including themself. But as far as I remembered, Jaeyeon had never fixated on hating just one person like this.

Even if there had been someone like that, they would have died quickly.

Ye-hyeon must have been fated for the same end, but Colton's intervention must have stopped Jaeyeon from killing him. Something had definitely happened after Lee Ye-hyeon became Commander-in-Chief.

Samuel looked at me as I sat there in shock and let out a heavier sigh.

“I don’t know what kind of person they are, but don’t get too deeply involved. If you’re already involved, be careful.”

“What about the Commander-in-Chief?”

“He was discharged yesterday.”

That fast?

When my eyes widened, Samuel snorted.

“You slept for two whole days. Didn’t you know?”

“What? I slept that long? I felt completely fine.”

In fact, aside from the injury to the back of my head and my right shoulder, I was supposedly healthy.

Samuel briefly explained my condition, then said I could be discharged within a few hours. This was the first time I had been told I could leave the hospital immediately, and a smile spread across my face.

He clicked his tongue at my obvious delight.

The stubborn doctor left the room without telling me what he liked in the end, telling me that Yoon had come every day for the past two days, so he would probably come today as well, with his back catching the autumn sunlight that cast warm square patterns on the bed.

*　　　*　　　*

Yoon came to find me with incredible timing.

He was not especially surprised to see that I was awake. Without unnecessary words, my senior partner put me in the car and headed to his house. Since I could not train properly with my injured right shoulder, he said he planned to take care of tasks that did not require physical work.

I did not ask what those tasks were. I would find out when we got there.

Instead, I asked another question in the car.

“Do you know what Samuel likes?”

Yoon gave a concise answer.

“Alcohol.”

“Ah. Does he like liquor or something?”

“He can drink anything.”

He could really hold his liquor.

Thinking I should get him liquor or wine, I felt around for my phone with my left hand.

First, I slowly replied to everyone. I told Shu I would definitely go, asked Tom and Hessi to set a date for dinner, and let the other seniors know that I was awake and fine. Once I finished replying, I opened a search engine and looked up alcohol that would make a good gift.

But before I could choose anything, the car stopped.

We had arrived at a familiar place.

Ah... The cabin was finished.

“Are you going to blow that up?”

“I gave it some thought, but it seems better for you to just live there.”

Why?!

When I whipped my head around in alarm, Yoon spoke calmly.

“We inspected it thoroughly, but there was nothing unusual about it.”

“Don’t you think the fact that Jaeyeon built it is unusual in itself?”

“That’s true, but there’s no guarantee that tearing it down would make things go well, either.”

That was a sensible answer.

Jaeyeon was the kind of person who could throw a fit over us daring to demolish the cabin they built for me. If we did not tear it down, at least the cabin would remain until it collapsed.

I looked at my senior partner in despair, then sighed and surrendered to reality.

Yoon roughly patted my left shoulder as I muttered that I understood.

“Cheer up. Giving up quickly is much better.”

“I’m depressed, so please send me home.”

“That cabin is your home now.”

Instead of going to my home, the cabin Jaeyeon had given me, I went into Yoon's house.

Even then, I did not know why Yoon had brought me back here. But I had become quite accustomed to his unexplained actions by now. I was familiar enough with this enormous house that when Yoon seated me on the sofa and disappeared, I relaxed and enjoyed the soft cushions.

Until my senior partner returned carrying a thick book.

“Here.”

“...What is this?”

He held it out so suddenly that I accepted it by reflex.

There was still no explanation, but he must have handed it to me to look at, so I turned the pages without hesitation.

The moment I opened the purple hard cover, I realized it was not a book but an album. Photographs, which looked as though Ami had neatly arranged them, filled the pages.

I stared up at Yoon with my mouth hanging open.

“Can I look?”

“You said you were curious.”

Good Lord!

I did not know why he was showing me such tremendous kindness, but I would gladly accept it.

Without refusing his unexpected kindness, I immediately opened to the first page.

Then I burst out laughing as soon as I saw the first photograph.

It was striking from the start. Pasted to the very first page was a photo of Yoon, who looked about ten, holding a tiny Ami with a sullen expression.

“Did you already have that expression when you were ten?”

“What would have been different?”

Yoon gave an indifferent answer and stretched out on the sofa opposite me.

“I listened to people even less back then.”

I happily looked through the photographs.

Photos of Yoon and Ami as children. Just as he said, my senior partner had almost no expression in the pictures. When he did, he was either frowning or sulking.

His lack of movement seemed not to have changed, either....

Meanwhile, Ami was often blurred in the photos, probably because she moved around so much.

Most of the childhood photos showed Yoon going after Ami. Four-year-old Ami running hard toward somewhere. Twelve-year-old Yoon chasing after her. Five-year-old Ami falling down. Thirteen-year-old Yoon sighing. Six-year-old Ami eating ice cream with it smeared all over her face. Fourteen-year-old Yoon shooting her a look of utter disbelief.

Choi Hyun-jun and Choi Hyun-young appeared occasionally, but not often. Choi Hyun-seok did not appear at all. It seemed Choi Hyun-seok truly hated his adopted siblings.

It was painfully obvious that Choi Hyun-young only doted on Ami. Choi Hyun-jun seemed to keep a suitable distance.

For a while, cheerful photos of only those four continued.

Then a familiar face suddenly appeared.

“Ye-hyeon!”

Ye-hyeon and Yoon wore the same school uniform.

“Did you attend the same high school?”

“Yeah.”

My senior partner answered dryly.

I looked at Ye-hyeon, who seemed gentler and younger than he did now, and Yoon standing beside him. The photo had been taken in summer. Behind them was a bleak schoolyard with rusty horizontal bars, and they wore white short-sleeved summer uniforms. Yoon held a Capri Sun in one hand.

Ye-hyeon held an ice cream cone, and the wrist holding it was darkly bruised.

The pleased smile on my face vanished at once.

“Did Lee Seung-hyeon hit him too?”

“How do you know Lee Seung-hyeon?”

Yoon asked sharply.

Come to think of it, my senior partner did not yet know that I had met Lee Seung-hyeon before.

When I looked up with a caught-off-guard expression, a faint crease appeared between Yoon's brows.

But he did not question me immediately.

He looked at me with dissatisfaction, then waved a hand.

“Forget it. I was planning to deal with all that later anyway. Keep looking.”

I did not know what he meant, but I obediently followed his words.

Now there were five familiar faces. The photos continued in chronological order as those people appeared and disappeared. A photo of Yoon, Ami, and Ye-hyeon standing together. A photo of Ami going out with friends her age. A photo of Yoon pointing at a computer screen and explaining something to Choi Hyun-jun.

Then came a photograph of Yoon looking down with a faint smile at Ami, who was crying as though her heart had been broken.

He wore a green uniform.

“What is this?”

“When I was in the military.”

“The military? Then when Ami was this young, the First War...”

“I was in the military twice.”

Why?

When I looked at him in confusion, my senior partner's brow furrowed.

For some reason, Yoon suddenly seemed to be in a bad mood. He spat out, “I don’t want to remember it, so shut up.”

“Yes. I don’t know what it is, but I’m sorry.”

The next page.

I lowered my head and focused on the photographs again. After that, there were not many pictures of Yoon. I watched fondly as Ami grew up with her round eyes.

Ami holding Choi Hyun-young's hand as they went shopping. Ami playing badminton with friends while wearing gym clothes beneath her school uniform skirt. Ami holding out a birthday cake to Choi Hyun-jun, and Ami running toward Yoon as he walked over in uniform.

As I looked through those photos, I soon reached the last page.

But I could not close the album.

The moment I turned to the last page, my body stiffened by reflex.

Tucked into the final page was a printed photograph. It showed not a person, but a round portal, black as though it would devour every bit of light around it.

There was no telling what might lie beyond it.

“Now that you’ve finished looking, it’s time to talk about you, Hildebert.”

I remained frozen on the sofa until Yoon's lazy voice reached my ears.

“If you take something, you should give something in return.”

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