The Raid Teams Merge (2)

The base of the new raid team, born of the merger between Time River and Hwarang, sat in the heart of Ilwonbon-dong — a broad bowl of hills ringed by mountains.

The place Hwayeon and I arrived at was far too vast, and far too tall, to be called a building. The photos had shown two towers, but standing before it I found two more of the same height, each twenty-four stories. Four towers, then. And each one, on height alone, was twice the Time River Building.

"Wasn't it supposed to be only two?"

"The angle of the photos must have thrown you. Four towers. One building would be cramped for two raid teams, so one tower will house the Time River and Hwarang offices, and the other two will go to Business Support. They have the most people, and they'll need the room to store byproducts."

A building... Well, the team's name had already been settled as Grand Blue, so I supposed I ought to call the place the Grand Blue Building.

The four towers were linked by skybridges at every third of their height, beginning at the seventh floor, so crossing between them looked easy enough. The complex rose where two eight-lane roads met. There were no crosswalks; in their place, tall, sturdy pedestrian overpasses had been raised to make coming and going simple, and the underground parking entrances were split across convenient approaches. The traffic flow looked excellent.

The surroundings were a little barren, but this was a mixed-use complex anyway. Leisure facilities, a shopping mall, and a big-box store for daily needs would fill the first through sixth floors, so it hardly mattered. Even if they didn't, a downtown formed on its own around a major raid team. Once Grand Blue's founding ceremony was over — no, even now, judging by the shabby buildings nearby already roped off with no-entry tape — development was clearly about to begin.

The mouth of the wide, deep garage had a transparent automatic door that looked extremely sturdy. Beside it sat a guard post, and outside that, two young guards in black uniforms stood waiting. They hurried over to check the car and everyone in it.

"May I have your name?"

"This is Jung Seoha, Grand Blue's designated Boss. With him, Yoo Hwayeon and Flandre Evans. Two others."

"Ah! F-forgive us!"

The two scrambled back, folded into a full ninety-degree bow, and shouted it. It was a little much. I was about to tell them not to bother — then I glanced at Hwayeon, and since she said nothing, I kept my mouth shut too.

The transparent door soon opened, and the car slid inside without a sound. In the rearview mirror, the two guards were still bent at the waist, not so much as twitching.

"Pretty good builds and uniforms, for guards stuck at a parking entrance."

"Yes. When we expanded and relocated, we acquired a mid-sized security firm and posted them at the key points of the building. Not only them. We hired a cleaning company we can trust, and staff to manage the building itself. Building management alone is over two hundred."

"So they're not agency temps. I heard places like this usually just take dispatched labor, but you hired everyone outright."

"The building is already running as a raid team facility, and for the sake of confidentiality it's better not to use outside people. Which is why all of them belong to Grand Blue's Business Support Division."

Franc, listening from the back seat, clapped her hands as if it had clicked.

"To raise their loyalty to the company, then?"

"Yes. A raid team's building holds a great deal of sensitive information. Other teams may plant spies to extract it, or try to turn our people."

"So you hired the lot of them to head off poaching and intrigue before it starts?"

Hwayeon answered as she eased the car down into the garage.

"Correct. Even so, those who mean to change their minds will change them. Still better than making no preparations at all."

"It's going to be the greatest raid team in the world, so we ought to lay the foundation properly, for what's ahead. Must have been hard on you, Hwayeon."

"General Affairs did the hard work. I only reviewed the papers and gave approval. I'm only sorry to Siha, who has been coming in every day even though it's vacation."

Trust my sister to have a hand in everything.

The first basement level was divided into zones, and the easiest spots to reach even had signs posted. Assigned parking, already decided.

And yet — parked beneath the plate for Director of Integrated Management was my sister's van?

Ah. So that's the Integrated Management Director post Director Lee Hyeryeong mentioned.

Hwayeon pulled the car into the space marked First Boss.

"...The Second Boss is the Hwarang Boss? That uncle?"

"Yes."

"And the Master — is that what they meant earlier, by Boss-designate...?"

"It's you. When the two teams merged and took a new name, we debated what to do about the ranks, but it was settled simply, on Siha's suggestion. Grand Blue itself was made for you. Of course you're at the very top."

"Haa... I'm getting kind of nervous."

Boss of a major raid team, with hundreds of ability users and thousands of employees under me... Can I actually do this?

"Trust us, the ones holding you up. If it's you, you'll do fine."

"I believe in you as well, Seoha!"

"Yeah."

We got out and headed for the elevator, and the two of them traded this and that as we went, but the weight on me kept growing, and I had no mind to join in.

My throat felt dry. First Boss and Second Boss, was it. They wouldn't stick every member of the old teams under one boss or the other and stir up a fight, would they? Hwayeon seemed mindful of that much, at least.

Combat ability users alone numbered 397, and if you added the ones assigned to living support, it came to nearly nine hundred. Below them, once you counted Business Support and General Affairs backing the ability users' fights, Grand Blue's staff well exceeded three thousand.

And that wasn't the end of it. Time River owned several byproduct-processing plants, a firm that repaired and maintained ability users' equipment, a factory for disposable goods, and under those a host of companies taking on subcontract work. Hwarang was probably the same.

Count everyone making a living through Grand Blue, and their families with them, and it came to the scale of a small city district.

Their livelihoods — and on top of that my own family, including the two lovers smiling and talking beside me — the responsibility sat on me like a stone.

I gave the still mostly empty first through sixth floors a rough once-over, then rode up the office tower. Thanks to the elevator's transparent shell, the people working inside were plain to see. We reached the thirty-second floor and stepped out, and there was my sister in a wide conference room, mid-meeting with twenty-four employees.

Was that the trend now, making office walls entirely of glass so you could see straight in?

I was taking in the still-unsettled clutter of the office when she broke off the meeting, came out of the room, and ran over.

"Seoha~! You're here?"

"Yeah. Looked like you were in a meeting. Is it all right to just walk out?"

She raised a hand and waved to Hwayeon and Franc as well, then caught my hand and dragged me toward what looked like her office.

Twenty-four people had been in that conference room, all standing at stiff attention. Their eyes kept flicking my way. They already seemed to know who I was. When my sister gave them a small wave, they returned to the desks that were apparently theirs and got back to work. Come to think of it, it was past six. They weren't going home?

"I told them to take a short break. It was about time to rest. You came to look around the building?"

"Yeah. Looked around a little. Place is huge."

"Right? The penthouse on the top floor of the residential tower next door is yours. Dad, Mom, and I will be on the floor below, and Hwayeon will be on the thirty-eighth. The rest of the furniture and household things all come in tomorrow, so you're not going off to live on your own, are you?"

Huh? Startled, I turned Spatial Perception on the top floor of the residential tower she was pointing to outside the window — and an absurdly lavish space opened up before me.

Hardwood floors? The walls and furniture ran mostly to white and brown, but rather than gloomy the place was steeped in old-world elegance. There was even a space that might have been a balcony, or a terrace, or a garden for all I could tell. Living somewhere like that would take an obscene amount of money... Oh. Right. I did have plenty of money.

We stepped into my sister's office, done all in white, and sat. She brought out drinks, set one down in front of me, and looked thoroughly pleased with herself.

A sulk was coming on, I could feel it. Pushing all of this through without so much as asking me... Not that I disliked it, exactly.

I said it with a pointless bit of spite anyway.

"I like the training ground under Madam's estate, though, so moving out is..."

"Wha—?! You've got your own space now, and your training ground is right next door. The safety problem and the training-site problem are both gone, so stop imposing on Auntie and get out here. You've got the house you wanted. No need to keep trekking back and forth, is there?"

So getting me over here was her real goal.

She looked at me with her eyes blazing, as if to say there was nowhere left to run, and it took the wind right out of me. Since when had she been planning this? If I said I was leaving the estate, Yeongeun would probably cling to me in tears... Even so, I couldn't think of a decent answer for my sister, and while I was hemming and hawing, Franc spoke.

"Then we ought to tell Madam today. Lady Siha — have the upper floors all been sold?"

"No. Of the top five floors of the residential tower, two are still ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠open."

"Then might we allocate one of them to Madam? Over this past month she has doted on Seoha so. If we simply up and left, she would be terribly hurt. Even a gift..."

What is Franc trying to say? I looked at her, puzzled, and Hwayeon, as if meaning to help, started in as well.

"She is right. We have no intention of putting the residential tower's purchase rights on the open market, so granting Madam a floor would not be a bad thing. Nor would it hurt for word to get out that the President resides in this building. What do you think, Siha?"

"Hmm... We're not giving it away free, are we?"

"Of course not. She's wealthy. We should take everything we're owed."

Watching my sister and Hwayeon scheme to wring money out of Yeongeun, I was left speechless. More than that — the fortieth floor was my home, and my parents and sister would live on the thirty-ninth?

"Mom and Dad and you are moving to the thirty-ninth? What about the old house?"

"This will be the safest place, so we should move here. The house we have now is too well known. It's no good to live there anymore. We've decided to relocate the hospital, too. It's set to use the fifth through tenth floors of Business Support Building 1."

"That's good, then. If it's here, it'll be safe... Wait. Hold on. Are we allowed to just use the Grand Blue Building however we feel like?"

"The hospital's going into a business support building? What about wards and all that? Patients would be roaming everywhere."

"It won't be for profit. Treatment will be limited to raid team staff and their families. Security isn't a problem either, if an access key restricts people to designated floors. We'll make it so no one can wander around without one."

"We meant to put a hospital in a set section from the start. This building itself belongs to you, after all."

Hwayeon said it as she picked up the bottled drink my sister had brought over. True enough — Dad was a capable doctor with a bit of a name, more than fit to be the attending physician for a major raid team... Huh?! This building was mine?!

I got curious about how they'd handle the hospital's income and upkeep, but my parents and my sister had probably sorted that themselves. I waited until the explanation wound down, then asked.

"This building is mine? What does that mean? Can a minor even own a building?"

"Yes. Various laws are involved, but the name on it is yours, Seoha."

Wasn't that a little too much of a family shop...? And what had I even done, to have a building like this registered in my name?

"Phase Stones."

"Ah."

As if she'd read the thought, my sister whispered it, and hearing her, I understood. That would be more than enough.

"Anyway, I'll expect ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠you tomorrow. I have to get back to the meeting, so take your time with the rest, and if you're curious about anything, ask Hwayeon~."

With the talk more or less done, she fluttered a wave and headed back to the conference room. She seemed to think I'd agreed to come home; her face had gone bright. My sister, honestly...

Seeing her return, the employees poured back into the conference room after her.

We got on the elevator again and rode up to the fortieth floor. A single floor was only about half the old ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Time River Building, but in total area one tower came out a little larger than the Time River Building itself. And there were four of them, so even taking a whole floor to myself... Whoa. The view was unreal.

"Damn. You can see the Han River from here."

At something like two hundred meters up, all of downtown Seoul lay spread below. On a clear day, Mount Bukhan would show, too. I was pressed to the glass, taking it in, when Hwayeon laughed behind me.

"This is your office."

"...Do I have to do paperwork, too?"

Having watched Director Lee and Hwayeon at their papers, the thought sat a little heavy.

"Aside from the truly important things, there will be almost none. Most of it will end with General Affairs and Integrated Management, and whatever falls outside that, Boss Park Jiwoong and I will sign off on. My office is right below us, on the thirty-ninth, and the Hwarang Boss is on the thirty-eighth under that. Director Lee Hyeryeong has the thirty-seventh, and Siha the thirty-sixth. Remember it."

Thank god. I'd gotten spooked, thinking I'd have to push as much paper as Director Lee.

I half-listened to her explanation as I looked around the office, and my heart started to thump.

Mine. My office. There was something bewitching in the sound of it.

The whole floor had been finished in solid wood, so aside from the windows every wall was wood panel, the floor was wood, and the furniture was all amber-brown hardwood. It felt like standing inside a great tree. So this was where I'd work?

Something in my chest was genuinely stirring. Franc was looking around as well, her face so bright I could tell she liked the place. The layout felt similar to Hwayeon's office in the Time River Building, so there was something familiar in it, too.

I went around behind the massive hardwood desk, sat in the boss's chair, and looked up at Hwayeon — and a grin kept slipping out.

"Do you like it?"

"Yeah. Everything feels kind of stirred up, but I like it."

After that we looked over the big byproduct storehouse in the business support tower and my place in the residential tower, then headed for the estate in Bangbae-dong.

That night, when I told Yeongeun — late getting off work — about the move, she sank to the floor with a look of despair, as if the sky had fallen in.

"Telling me to stay here all by myself is too cruel. So this is what you meant by punishing me?"

Eyes brimming, whimpering, she looked so much like an abandoned puppy that I moved to soothe her at once — but Hwayeon stepped in front of me first, caught Yeongeun by the arm, and pulled her up.

"You are aware, I trust, that it is better for Seoha in a great many ways to remain at Grand Blue now."

Yeongeun, who had been wearing a blank, devastated look, let out a long sigh, trudged to the sofa, sat, and put on a face ready to cry.

"That may be, but... do you have any idea how cruel it is, giving someone happiness and then taking it away?"

"...The penthouses on the thirty-sixth and thirty-seventh floors are still empty. We cannot simply let anyone in, so we are leaving them for now. If you are late, the Hwarang Boss or Director Lee Hyeryeong may take one."

For an instant she went perfectly still. Then, as if she'd caught the hook, Yeongeun narrowed her eyes and glared at Hwayeon. Hwayeon took the look as if it were nothing, her face deadpan, and just watching the two of them set my nerves on edge.

"Then how about building a house in Seoha's training ground? There's land to spare, so while we're at it, we build a mansion grand enough to call a palace to mind, and all of us live there together! I hear Choi Soohan wants to serve Seoha, yes? Attach Juhan to her, have him train her as a butler, and the place can be managed too. Wouldn't that be lovely?"

"And what do you intend to do with this house?"

"Tidy it up and sell it, I suppose? I do like this house, but I have no wish to live apart from our Seoha over a building."

"Please consider your present station. This is not a matter to dismiss so lightly. Above all, you and I are established as mother and daughter. Do you not think living together, under these circumstances, would be unreasonable?"

"And what is wrong with a mother-in-law and her son-in-law living together!"

The air felt ready to catch fire, so I decided this was the moment to step in. I moved between Hwayeon and Yeongeun and cut them off.

"If we build a grand mansion, living together itself won't be a problem. Bring my parents in too, and talk like that will dry right up. But not right now. Building a place like that has to wait until I've at least reached B-Class, and come of age."

"But whyyy."

She truly didn't want to be parted from me. She pouted, looking as if the tears might spill any second.

"Because I'm a man, too."

No one spoke.

At my words, color rose in all three women's faces.

"Yeongeun, you move to the thirty-eighth. Hwayeon, don't stay on the thirty-eighth — live with me on the fortieth. That way, when Yeongeun comes and goes from the fortieth, no one else will think it strange. I'll handle my sister's fuss myself. Understood?"

"Y-yeah."

"...Understood."

I'd spoken a little firmly, and somehow all three of them had gone the color of a ripe persimmon. Yeongeun forced a bright face, let out an exaggerated laugh, and opened her mouth.

"A little bit of a shame! Your parents will be on the thirty-ninth, so we won't be able to be as shamelessly affectionate as we are here, will we?"

I'd been waiting for her to say it. I let out a short laugh, brushed her cheek, and answered.

"Honestly, we've been living too much like animals. On our days off, the second we opened our eyes we were rolling around in bed, weren't we?"

"I liked it, though... Did you not, Seoha?"

"I did. I like it so much I want to stay in your arms and never leave. But isn't living like that something we can do all we want once we're older? Right now, I have to get stronger. Strong enough to wreck the bastards who came at me — and there's someone I mean to grind under my heel myself."

As I spoke, Franc started to look somehow off. She'd been sitting beside Yeongeun without a word, gazing up at me with a dazed expression, and her face was flushed enough that a flicker of worry went through me. Yeongeun, hearing it from my own mouth, set both hands on her knees and turned a heated gaze on me, while Hwayeon looked away, her face red, out the window beyond the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠living room.

...The air had gone strangely charged.

I went back to my room to do my schoolwork, but the three lovers stared blankly toward my door for a moment, then descended to the parlor below and began to talk in whispers. I was working, and I was mindful of this thing called privacy, so I didn't especially read what they were saying by lip-reading — but by the time the homework was nearly done, I found I was reading their lips without meaning to.

What was the problem, and what duty?

The three put their heads together, met one another's eyes with looks full of resolve, and nodded.

I worked the tablet, submitted the homework to my teachers, and stepped outside — and Franc flinched and rose. Hwayeon and Yeongeun quickened their steps into the bathroom and started washing up, while Franc sashayed over, kneaded my shoulders, rubbed her breasts against my back, and wore a knowing little smile.

That night, it proved a little difficult to satisfy the three lovers, whose bodies had grown strangely hot.

Seriously weird... What are they plotting?