The relationship between Jung Sijun and Special Team 4 Team Leader Kang Haemun wasn’t very good. That’s probably why these bastards talked about it more openly.
The atmosphere of a team tended to be influenced by the team leader. But being caught by the subject of that gossip was a separate problem.
“…”
The heart of the Esper who had run his mouth carelessly and been caught by the person in question was pounding like crazy.
When he subtly raised his eyes just to read the atmosphere, Jung Sijun, who had unluckily made eye contact, slowly pulled up the corners of his mouth and smiled as if to show off.
‘Fuck.’
He looked like a model, so his smile could have looked quite plausible, but he felt like he’d never forget that smile for the rest of his life. Maybe it would even appear in his dreams for a while.
The guys who entered Gates with Jung Sijun all said the same thing without exception. That Jung Sijun’s smile gave them chills.
There weren’t as many occasions to enter Gates with team leaders from other teams as one might think, so he couldn’t understand exactly what that meant.
However Jung Sijun smiled, a smile was a smile. Anyway, they make such a fucking fuss. He’d thought that, but now he could understand what those words meant.
“Team Leader, we were just… I’m sorry. Really, I’m sorry.”
He jumped up from his seat and bowed his head deeply. He hoped it would end like this, but it didn’t seem like it would be smoothed over that easily. The wavelength floating in the air was still hostile.
His breathing was constricted by a sense of crisis stemming from primal instinct, as if he would be attacked not by a monster but by him at any moment.
“Why should my guide still be called a public good by you bastards?”
Jung Sijun kicked his shin with the toe of his combat boot.
It looked like he kicked lightly without putting force into it, but the Espers’ centers of gravity shifted forward sharply as if they’d been hit with a hammer.
“Kugh…! We’re really sorry!”
“And what’s this ‘public good’ vulgarly applied to a person, fuck. Huh? You sons of bitches.”
“We made a mistake.”
“You casually attach such a fucking shitty nickname, so it reaches my ears and I end up using it without realizing. What are the kids going to learn watching? Huh?”
Jung Sijun began to properly chew out the Espers from another team.
If it were someone else, it would be an act that could escalate into a big problem since they were from different teams. But the problem was that the subject of the act was a person who didn’t give a damn about such things.
The Espers working at the Awakened Center were a hodgepodge society with various cultures complexly mixed.
Some described it as being like the life of a gangster’s underling, while others said it wasn’t much different from military or athletic training camps.
In other words, while the rank system had the form of a company, this was a place where this degree of hazing and beating occurred nonchalantly without issue.
“Ugh.”
“We’ll correct it.”
Without a properly established hierarchy and with a soft mentality, one could never survive inside a Gate.
There was a time when the rules and atmosphere had become quite lax due to criticism that the Esper system was excessively unreasonable. But most of the Espers from that era were dead inside Gates.
The rules applied to Center Espers were an order written in the blood of the dead by those who survived the Gates. The standards of ordinary people only applied in ordinary companies.
There was nothing you could do with Espers trained harmoniously in Gates where monsters not yet properly identified poured out from all directions. Unless it was child’s play.
“…Park Changjin, Seo Wonmo.”
The voice reciting their names after somehow reading the name tags attached to their chests was terrible.
The two Espers rolled their eyeballs. What happened to the bastards who got marked by Jung Sijun without exception? It seemed like they rolled around like dogs and kept requesting transfers to regional centers.
“When someone calls you, huh? You should fucking answer.”
“We’re sorry!”
“…We have nothing to say even with ten mouths!”
“How can a person have ten mouths, you bastard. Just don’t fucking say things that aren’t even words. Do I look free enough to play word games with you?”
If he wasn’t free, would he barge into another team’s break room to give them hell?
Even though he thought that inside, it was they themselves who had made a big verbal slip, so they didn’t even have grounds to complain. They could only prostrate themselves flat and beg desperately.
“We’re sorry!”
“Is it right to fucking call someone else’s guide like that?”
“We’re sorry, Team Leader!”
“Don’t just say you’re sorry, don’t you have anything else to say?”
“…”
“This fucking Center, even when attaching nicknames, always attaches fucking ones. What’s this ‘Dog Behavior,’ ‘Public Good’ for a person? Huh?”
While silently enduring Jung Sijun’s hazing, the Special Team 4 Espers felt wronged.
He himself called Yoon Kihyun that too. It’s not like it’s ‘romance when I do it, affair when others do it’ or something. Fuck.
What’s rank worth that they have to get hazed like this by a young guy? But none of those present showed such signs.
If they didn’t like it, they could just storm out and leave the Center. Yet the reasons they couldn’t do so varied, but one thing was certain: they were fucked.
Special Team 4’s Team Leader was entering the break room with the door wide open, looking like he’d eaten shit.
“Hey, why are you guys like… Team Leader Jung, why are you doing this here?”
Jung Sijun whipped his head around. That creepy smile was still hanging on the face of the guy with plausible outer skin.
Special Team 4 Team Leader Kang Haemun frowned without realizing it. Whenever that bastard smiled like that, something always went wrong.
“Perfect timing. Team Leader Kang.”
“What on earth is going on?”
“I was passing by and heard some really fucking shitty talk, so requisition these two bastards for today.”
Jung Sijun pointed with his chin at the two Espers who had been giggling until just moments ago. Kang Haemun only moved his eyes, gesturing to his team members to explain the situation.
Everyone awkwardly avoided his gaze. Not one person said a word as if glue had been applied to their lips. If it had been an unreasonable complaint, those lips would have been flapping long ago.
“I don’t know what Team Leader Jung heard, but…”
When Kang Haemun cautiously began, Jung Sijun rolled his eyes and muttered.
“These bastards were calling Team Leader Yoon Kihyun a ‘public good.’ He’s already quit so he’s not a Center person anymore, and he’s going to be my personal guide soon.”
“…”
“Isn’t this the same as thinking of me as fucking nothing?”
“…Team Leader Jung.”
“The more I talk, the shittier I feel. So what, will they be requisitioned?”
It was a tone almost half threatening. Kang Haemun silently looked at his team members.
Their eyes were wavering. He seemed to hear a silent outcry begging him to cover for them.
But this was his team members’ fault, so there was nothing he could do. If they were going to gossip, they should have at least closed the door. He had no choice but to nod silently.
***
He felt like shit.
After receiving a promise to requisition the two Special Team 4 members, Jung Sijun walked through the Center corridor. With his fierce expression, people avoided him without anyone saying a word.
Public good. The more he chewed on it, the more fucking terrible and vulgar the connotation was.
Of course, he had called Yoon Kihyun that with his own mouth, but hearing Yoon Kihyun being called that from other people’s mouths felt like shit.
He had apologized to the person in question and even given settlement money, but those guys hadn’t, right?
‘No, fuck. This Center being fucking terrible started from here.’
Jung Sijun ground his teeth and rolled his eyes back. It felt stuffy as if a large rock was placed on his chest.
Called to a meeting on a trivial subject, in the conference room he attended, he only heard the rambling of stagnant old men before the meeting ended.
When the Guide Headquarters Director, whose face had turned somewhat dark, sneakily approached and whispered, it was hard to hold back from just beating him up.
‘Team Leader Jung, how did you meet with Yoon Kihyun-ssi and work things out? I heard you applied for an access pass as a personal guide.’
‘So what?’
‘Hey. Don’t open your eyes so scarily. By any chance, did he show any signs of wanting to come back to the Center?’
To brazenly spout such a question when there was something he’d heard from Yoon Kihyun.
Hearing the Guide Headquarters Director’s shameless question was absurd. If this was what experience or the ways of a working adult meant, he never wanted to acquire such things in his life.
‘Why should I tell you that?’
Jung Sijun chuckled, recalling Yoon Kihyun’s gaze as he coldly snapped at him. He’d clumsily tried to imitate it, but it seemed to work better than expected.
Continuing to think about Yoon Kihyun in his head, he rummaged through his pants pocket looking for his phone.
Are you busy?
Jung Sijun typed a message into the chat window he’d pinned at the top of his messaging app. After quite some time, a reply arrived.
Yoon Kihyun-ssi
Did the access pass come out?
Instead of answering whether he was busy, Yoon Kihyun simply asked back about the matter at hand. Most of the conversations they had were like this. He seemed to be a pragmatist who hated long-winded talk and detested pointless rambling.
Jung Sijun felt his mood, which had been at its worst, gradually improving as he exchanged messages with Yoon Kihyun. He answered Yoon Kihyun’s question and added content to carry out a thought that arose in a fit of anger.
It’s coming out tonight And can I send more settlement money?
