WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Natty
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◈ Black Badger ◈
Chapter 77: Happy Halloween! (1)
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I said I would look over my upcoming schedule and get back to them.
I checked my overdue messages and tidied up around me. A package had arrived from one Elder and a message from the other. I did not remember giving either of them my address or contact information.
Of course, there was no point asking how they knew.
Just as promised, Eric Earhart had sent me a box of cigars.
The moment I smelled them, I knew they were expensive cigars. Naturally.
There was also a note written in elegant handwriting.
[I look forward to working with you, Prometheus.]
I set the note aside and checked the message from Yekaterina.
It had come from a blocked number, but I knew at once it was from her.
[Come to think of it, I was late in thanking you for training one of my people so well.]
She meant Lee Seung-hyeon.
I sighed and closed the message window. I would have to speak with Lee Seung-hyeon separately someday. I had trained Lee Seung-hyeon and all of his colleagues together, so we had never been particularly close.
But now that things had turned out this way, I should speak with Lee Seung-hyeon at least once.
There was a lot I wanted to ask.
Sighing again, I checked my other messages.
Ricardo had sent a short one.
[Mission planned for late November.]
There was a bigger gap than I had expected.
It was strange to have a definite date at all. Until now, this job had felt like work only came up when trouble happened. Was something scheduled to go wrong in late November, or were they planning to deal with a problem that had already arisen then?
I would find out when the time came.
After arranging a lunch appointment in the group chat with Tom and Hessi, I wandered around the cabin. Once I had finished everything I needed to do, the heavy realities I had been trying not to think about came rushing in. I paced around for no reason, trying to calm emotions that felt ready to explode, until eventually I gave up.
I burrowed into bed and began to cry.
Ray.
Ray, I'm sorry.
* * *
Yoon did not say much when I showed up for morning exercise with my eyes swollen red.
That was one advantage of having a senior partner. He was emotionally detached, which made him easy to deal with in certain weird ways.
No matter how wrecked I felt, my weekday routine returned. I stayed in the dormitory and trained at set times.
I practiced shooting.
Unlike swordsmanship, the lessons followed the book.
Yoon was not particularly kind, but he was not emotional either. He was becoming a much better senior partner than I had expected, and he quickly noticed the change in me.
“More sensitive?”
I had been suffering from the gunshots coming through my ear protection, and I nodded at Yoon.
“Ever since I got Jaeyeon's injection, my senses have opened up.”
“I intend to open you up someday. When would be convenient?”
“Because it sounds like you mean it, please don't ask that so seriously.”
Of course, my senior partner probably always meant it...
I tried hard to ignore reality.
Fortunately, it did not seem like Yoon intended to cut me in half anytime soon. He said he had found a research topic that interested him besides me lately. I did not ask what it was, since I probably would not understand even if he explained it.
I ate lunch and dinner with Tom and Hessi all week.
They said they had gone through some incredible experiences of their own.
Together with Angela, Kal, and several other seniors, they had turned what had been C Zone into D Zone. Apparently, the area nearby was where Ye-hyeon had earmarked for the next territorial expansion.
I remembered the conversation at Choi Je-seok's manor about territorial expansion being slower than usual.
“I wish the three of us could have gone together.”
“Yeah. It sounds like next time, all three of us will be scattered in completely different places.”
“I heard it is rare for new recruits to go on the same mission.”
Tom answered as I bit into my sandwich.
Tom's distinctive red curls and freckles were unchanged.
“During the first year with a senior partner, you're too busy going around with different seniors under your partner's direction.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yeah, but they say there is no other time when you can get this close to people as during the one-year probationary period.”
Hessi swallowed a sandwich stuffed with nothing but ham and joined in.
It seemed Angela and Kal had given them that advice. Hessi took a long drink of Coke, then raised a pinky.
“So let's make the most of days like this, when we only have training and no missions. Basketball after dinner?”
“Hmm... okay. But I'm playing guitar tomorrow.”
“Oh, you play guitar? Let me hear it tomorrow.”
Tom nodded, looking a little embarrassed by my question.
Unless we had a mission or special plans, we always ate lunch and dinner together. Except on weekends. Hessi and Tom usually went to see their families then.
I stayed alone in the dormitory or cabin and played games. When my eyes got tired, I put down the console and went over my memories until grief swallowed me again. If I managed to escape the heavy self-loathing and sense of loss, I searched the internet and studied the world.
That was how I passed the time until the end of October.
The week of my appointment with Shu, and perhaps Walker.
The appointment was on the last day of October.
* * *
The sky was high and clear.
On the day of the appointment, I was going to the game shop in the slums before evening. I was supposed to meet Shu in the headquarters reception room shortly before lunch.
Since it was October 31, I saw people in costumes on the street.
There were not many yet, since it was still broad daylight. The few people I had seen disappeared once I entered headquarters. I wandered through the quiet building and arrived at the reception room early.
There, I ran into Ska making coffee.
Why was he here?
Ska looked back at me as I stood frozen halfway into the reception room, then grinned.
“You look all right.”
“Ah, yes.”
I bowed my head.
“Thanks to you.”
After closing the reception room door, I slowly walked inside.
Ska watched me approach without a word, one hand in his pocket. He was dressed in a neat suit again today. The expensive fabric was pressed without a wrinkle, and his watch matched it as naturally as if they had come as a set.
He was not wearing a tie, though. Was he about to finish work?
“What brings you here on a weekend?”
The Assistant asked as he picked up a paper cup.
He had beaten me to the question I wanted to ask. I slipped my phone into the pocket of my baseball jacket and answered readily.
“I have an appointment with Shu Diamond.”
“Shu?”
Ska repeated, a faint smile on his lips.
“Looks like she's treating you to a meal?”
“Yes. Since she's my direct superior, she said she would treat me once. Our schedules finally lined up today.”
I did not mention that Walker might join us for dinner. He probably was not curious enough to ask that much anyway.
Still smiling faintly, Ska nodded.
“Good. It is good to get close with other Badgers. Sooner or later, you end up going on missions together. With that in mind, shall we have a meal together too?”
“Pardon?”
The sudden offer made me make a stupid sound.
“A meal together?”
“Yes. If possible, before you go on that mission with Ricardo. If I remember correctly... it is in late November, right?”
“Yes, that's right. Late November... Before late November?”
“I am free next Friday evening.”
Why was he suddenly doing this?
Of course, I did not have the courage to ask. Looking a little pale, I said that next Friday evening would absolutely work.
If my mood had not been so low because of my recovered memories, I would have answered, “Even if I had no time to eat with you, Assistant, I could make time.”
Just like that, I made an appointment with my superior.
Ska watched me enter it into my phone in my haggard state and chuckled softly.
“You don't have to be so uncomfortable. Technically, you're older than I am.”
Oh.
What an efficient way to comfort me and say, I heard your story.
I blinked several times and raised the corners of my mouth.
“I'm still getting used to that fact.”
“Just make sure you only get used to it around the three members of the leadership and Yoon.”
That elegantly conveyed that only those four were supposed to know.
I nodded obediently.
I was about to ask what the Assistant himself was doing here on a weekend, but the sound of the reception room door opening cut off my question.
Was that Senior Shu?
“Shu...”
No, it was not.
The person who entered was a little taller than Shu.
About Ami's height, then.
A giant pumpkin rested on the person's shoulders.
“A pumpkin?”
An enormous orange pumpkin with familiar shapes cut out for eyes and a mouth.
“A pumpkin head?”
“It is a jack-o'-lantern.”
Ami's voice came through the holes in the pumpkin.
I let out a small laugh as I looked at the motionless pumpkin. Ska chuckled too, then took his hand out of his pocket.
The Assistant gave the first review.
“Cute.”
Well, look at him.
“Come to think of it, it is already Halloween. I have candy, so come over here.”
This guy was definitely popular with men and women alike.
But before pumpkin-head Ami could move, the reception room door flew open.
At last, Shu came in. But she was not alone. Ro entered ahead of her. The senior wore his usual comfortable striped shirt and faded jeans.
The curly-haired man had been striding inside when he spotted Ami and abruptly stopped.
“What is this?”
His thick brows rose as he stared at the pumpkin head.
The pumpkin did not move or answer.
Ro, who had also stood still and silent, raised a fist and lightly tapped the pumpkin.
Tap.
“Peanut? Is that you, Peanut?”
“Ah.”
Ami's voice leaked through.
“Don't.”
Ro kept at it.
Every time, Ami told him to stop. But Ro did not look like he had any intention of listening. Tap. He lightly tapped the pumpkin head again, smugly going, “Hello? Hello?”
Ami got annoyed.
But her warnings did no good.
The curly-haired man tapped the pumpkin again.
Tap.
“Where did you get something as big as you to wear?”
“Don't.”
“You think putting on a pumpkin makes you a peanut?”
“Don't.”
“Nope.”
Tap.
Should I stop them?
I was considering it when Ami exploded.
“Stopppp!”
This was fucking hilarious.
I happily watched Ami suddenly snap and start beating Ro up.
Thud! Thud! Wham! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
The reception room filled with tremendous impacts. Ro hurriedly leaned his upper body back and took up a defensive stance.
“Damn, that hurts! I said it hurts!”
The senior shouted as he blocked Ami's fists with his forearms.
But Ami did not stop. The jack-o'-lantern-headed Badger mercilessly battered Ro with both fists.
Thud! Wham! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
Rhythmic punching sounds.
A few minutes later, Ro was the one who suddenly lost his temper.
“Damn it!”
He thrust out an arm, yanked the pumpkin off, and threw it into a corner.
“Ah! My pumpkin!”
Fortunately, Ska caught the pumpkin safely.
But Ami and Ro started throwing real punches now. Since it was a fight between Badgers, tremendous impacts echoed through the reception room.
Crisp sounds rang through the clean space.
No one was surprised.
This must happen often.
Shu arced around them as she approached me. Ska leisurely went over to stop them.
I looked down at the senior who had stopped in front of me and smiled faintly.
“Senior.”
“Just call me Shu.”
My immediate senior, Shu Diamond, had naturally blond hair dyed pink underneath and wore a light purple sukajan jacket.
“We probably aren't that far apart in age anyway.”
That was probably not true.
Still, I nodded readily. Shu stared up at me as I agreed, then silently turned her head. I had felt it from our first meeting, but this person did not have much expression either. Still, it felt different from Yoon's dryness.
Shu simply seemed extremely calm. She seemed introverted, but not shy.
“Let's take the bus. I don't really like driving.”
“Ah, yes. I don't mind either way.”
“Would it be okay if we stopped by my place first?”
Hmm?
Both Ska and I were surprised by the unexpected remark, but Shu only walked toward the reception room entrance with her usual sleepy expression.
She had nearly reached it when she glanced back at me because I was not following.
“I left something behind.”
If that was the case.
I said goodbye to the seniors who remained and left the reception room.
I followed the two-toned-haired senior to the bus stop.
* * *
Shu's home was in the busiest part of Center Core's commercial district.
It was a small studio apartment on the second floor. The room stood at the end of a metal staircase that looked as if even a Badger would break their neck and die if they fell from it. There was a studio apartment in a building that did not look residential no matter how hard I looked.
The moment she opened the door, pastel and neon colors filled my vision.
Posters covered the walls. Decorations sat on top of three monitors. Five or six hoverboards stood beside the narrow entrance. Inline skates. Colorful shoes. Plush toys lay on a sky-blue blanket.
There was a game console in one corner.
The moment I saw the game console shining in the corner, I nearly fell to my knees.
“That...”
I could barely get my voice out.
“Senior, that is...”
“Ah.”
Shu made a calm sound after seeing what I was pointing at.
She watched the game console glowing brightly in the small room for a moment, then nodded.
“Yeah. I like retro games.”
Retro games?
That was a game Ray and I used to enjoy.
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