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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Xrecker
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3rd Floor, Earth Defense Alliance Seoul Branch Headquarters.
The five members were busily preparing for their upcoming duel.
“Double-check your suits, and make sure you’ve memorized the meeting notes. Keep reviewing them on the way.”
Red, the youngest but also the team leader, oversaw the preparations, and the members diligently followed her instructions, conducting final checks.
“Energetic as always, I see.”
“We have to be to win.”
Pink, finished with her preparations, playfully punched Red’s shoulder, and Red smiled.
Red and Pink had become closer than ever. Neither had anticipated that their previous conflict would actually bring them closer, but it had, and they could now converse comfortably.
“Working after this, too?”
“No, I’m taking today off for tomorrow’s work.”
They chatted as they put on their helmets and boarded the elevator to the underground parking lot. Their improved relationship had started to influence the other team members. While there wasn’t a sudden shift in their dynamic, the atmosphere during meetings and deployments had become more relaxed.
As they walked towards their motorcycles in the parking lot, a van pulled in. People started piling out.
They were dressed in colorful suits, members of another team belonging to the Seoul branch. Hunter Killer, with their internal conflicts, wasn’t exactly on good terms with the other teams. They just exchanged cursory glances and continued towards their motorcycles.
“Oh, Hunter Killer heading out?”
A man in a navy blue suit, having removed his helmet, approached them, trying to act friendly, but the Hunter Killer members ignored him and started their engines.
He was Indigo, the leader of Team Guerrilla, a team composed entirely of men, unlike the all-female Hunter Killer team. The Hunter Killer members didn’t have a high opinion of him.
“Want to hang out with our team after you’re done?”
He was known for his wild lifestyle and had been disciplined countless times for his misconduct. Recently, he had apparently assaulted a civilian at a bar but had gotten away with just paying a settlement. While he had received a relatively light punishment because he was a superhuman, it had significantly tarnished the image of superhumans in general, even if it was just a minor incident for Indigo himself.
Pink, seeing the unlikeable Indigo approaching, flipped him off. Taken aback, he stopped in his tracks. Team Hunter Killer, ignoring him, rode off.
The Hunter Killer members, who had been in a good mood until they reached the parking lot, were now annoyed. While they hadn’t explicitly discussed the image of superhumans or their personal struggles, they all shared a dislike for Indigo, who was constantly tarnishing their reputation.
“Why does he keep bothering us? That jerk.”
Team Guerrilla, not just Indigo, had a bad reputation within the Seoul branch. They caused a lot of trouble and didn’t have a good track record. Yet, they were still part of the Earth Defense Alliance because superhumans were scarce.
Globally, Spacetroe outnumbered superhumans, so they were always in short supply. They couldn’t afford to dismiss active members, especially with the current situation. There were other superhumans who hadn’t been deployed yet, but they were too young, so they couldn’t rely on reinforcements.
“Just ignore him. He’ll get tired of it eventually.”
Red tried to soothe Pink, who was clearly annoyed by Indigo’s advances.
Actually, Red disliked Team Guerrilla the most. They were the reason behind the proposal to reassign Hunter Killer’s achievements. The branch manager had planned to send Team Guerrilla in place of Hunter Killer for one of the duels, but Indigo’s assault on a civilian had thwarted that plan.
“Are there only men like that in the world?”
Green’s uncharacteristic comment surprised everyone, and the members, except for Yellow, burst out laughing.
“Hahaha, that bad, huh, Green?”
Pink laughed the loudest, then calmed down and shook her head, as if refuting Green’s statement.
“Don’t worry. There are plenty of good men out there. Like Red’s boyfriend.”
“What?!”
Red, startled, turned her head mid-ride.
“Eyes on the road.”
“Boyfriend? What are you talking about?”
Red turned her attention back to the road and asked Pink about her comment, and Pink tilted her head, feigning ignorance.
“Don’t you have one? You’ve seemed happy lately, so I thought you might have a boyfriend.”
Was it that obvious?, Red thought, breaking out in a cold sweat inside her helmet. She coughed, trying to change the subject.
“No, a boyfriend? I don’t have time for that.”
While she did have a boyfriend, she wasn’t ready to admit it. They’d never discussed personal matters within the team, and introducing her first ever boyfriend felt strangely embarrassing. It felt like she’d gotten a boyfriend just to show off, and if she were to introduce him, she wanted to do it properly, to someone she was close to. Of course, she hadn’t considered whether her teammates fell under that category.
“Stop talking nonsense and focus.”
Embarrassed, she raised her voice at her teammates, and Pink smiled, seeing Red’s inability to hide her feelings.
“I’m sorry!”
I’d made a big mistake today. As the duel began, I’d been too focused on observing Red and Pink together, a sight I only saw during duels, trying to gauge their dynamic. My lapse in focus disrupted our teamwork and contributed to our defeat.
“That’s unusual. A making a mistake.”
My teammates were more surprised than critical, since I rarely made mistakes, which made me feel even worse.
We discussed the duel in the cramped van as usual, but the focus wasn’t on my mistake; everyone just talked about their own experiences.
“You never space out. Why were you standing there?”
I was talking to the teammates sitting near me and couldn’t tell them I was distracted because I was observing the enemy, so I made up an excuse about not feeling well.
“If you’re not feeling well, you should rest!”
Ruche, who’d been crying in the passenger seat, turned around at my voice and snapped, her voice still thick with tears.
“And when I asked to be excused from surveillance duty so I could focus, you said no!”
Feeling unjustly accused, since I was the only one juggling two jobs, I retorted,
“Taking a day off and being excused from duty are two different things! Do you want to skip work and get paid less?!”
“Do they pay you extra for surveillance?!”
The other team members laughed at our bickering, and Ruche and I fell silent, embarrassed.
“You’re getting scolded a lot lately, A.”
“She’s always nagging me.”
I’d never seen the other team members argue or raise their voices with Ruche. I figured I was a special case, but I didn’t know why.
“You also, back then…!”
Ruche turned around to say something, then glared at me and faced forward again.
“If you’re going to say something, finish your sentence.”
“Forget it! You wouldn’t remember anyway, you blockhead.”
“Blockhead? That’s harsh!”
While it was true that I didn’t remember some things that had happened in recent years, how could anyone remember everything? It was natural to forget minor details, even from the previous day.
The van filled with laughter again, and my teammates called me “Blockhead A” until we reached headquarters.
“How’s the surveillance going?”
One of my teammates asked as I came out to the lobby after changing.
They all knew about my surveillance assignment. They’d expressed sympathy when I first got the assignment, but their expressions had clearly conveyed relief that it wasn’t them.
“If it was going well, do you think I’d be in this state?”
Of course, they didn’t know the details of my mission, and having experienced the lack of results from my Red surveillance, they didn’t expect much from my current assignment.
“What are you guys doing?”
Ruche, in civilian clothes, came out to the lobby and asked, and we held up our canned coffees, silently conveying that we were taking a break.
“Ruche, when are we having our team dinner?”
It had been a while since our last team dinner. I looked at Ruche, thinking it would be nice to have some fun, and she looked up in thought.
“It’ll be a bit difficult this week.”
“Why? I heard it’s going to rain this weekend. Pajeon and makgeolli would be perfect.”
“It’s going to rain?! I was going to do laundry!”
Ruche exclaimed, annoyed by the unexpected news. I hadn’t checked the weather and took out my phone to look at the forecast.
Seeing that it would be sunny until Saturday and rain on Sunday, my first thought was that the café would be less crowded. Then I wondered why I even cared about the café and just as I was thinking that, I received a text message.
It was from Yu-ra, a picture, to be precise.
She’d sent a picture of a cat on the street, presumably on her way home, saying she was happy to see a cat.
“…”
I replied with a noncommittal “Cute” and put my phone away.
“A, how’s the Pink surveillance going? Any progress?”
“If there was, I would have reported it.”
Ruche glared at me at my blunt, obvious reply, and I avoided her gaze. I expected another lecture, but she didn’t say anything else.
“I heard another team also had a duel today before we went out.”
“Yeah, Team 2. I just met with their team leader.”
We were Team 3 of the Spacetroe Seoul branch, and there were four teams in total. The number of teams wasn’t important. Regarding duels, each team had at least one duel per week, but it was rare to have two duels in one day.
There wasn’t any particular reason; the schedule usually only allowed for one duel per day. It wasn’t a problem, but it was unusual, so I was curious.
“Team 2’s leader is great. He has a good personality.”
I’d known him for a while, and he was known for his good nature within the Seoul branch, so it was a casual, factual comment, but Ruche’s expression darkened beside me.
“Are you saying that for my benefit?”
“No, it was just a random comment.”
I swear, it was a completely thoughtless remark, not intended to be a dig at Ruche.
“Yeah, right! Team 2 has great results, gets good funding, and their team leader has a great personality!”
This was going to make Ruche sulk for weeks. If I had to choose between her crying and sulking, I’d choose crying any day. Her sulking was relentless.
“And I have a terrible personality, can’t produce… results… results… sob…”
And the worst was when she sulked and cried. We’d lost the duel again today, and I later learned that Team 2 had won decisively. Ruche, having just met with their team leader, was already feeling a sense of inadequacy, and my comment had added fuel to the fire.
“Hey, help me out here…”
I tried to get help from a nearby teammate, but he’d already made his escape, leaving me alone with Ruche, who was glaring at me with tears in her eyes.
“That’s not true! You have such a great personality, Ruche! We just need to improve our results, and I made a mistake today. You didn’t do anything wrong!”
I seemed to be making a critical error every time I met with Ruche lately.
I wanted to see Yu-bin and get some comfort, but I ended up spending two hours consoling Ruche.
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