Chapter 18: Pink, But Not a Slut (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 18: Pink, But Not a Slut (4)
I didn't manage to glean any significant information from my Sunday part-time shift either. Aside from the feeling that my soul had been sucked dry by Pink’s frantic energy all afternoon, I hadn't gained a single thing.
I wasn't sure if she was the weird one or if I was, but one thing was certain: I couldn't get used to her complete lack of personal boundaries.
However, humans are creatures of habit, and by the following Saturday, a week later...
When I showed up for work and met Pink again, I found that I had already adapted to her sense of distance.
"Hey!"
I waved back at her bubbly greeting. Her energy was so high I wondered if she ever had a moment where she felt down.
"Yeah, hey."
"How was your week, A-ssi?"
"A-ssi?"
I stopped in my tracks, halfway through tying my apron at the sudden nickname. She looked at me as if wondering what the problem was, and I just stared back, unsure of what to say first.
According to my research, the term A-ssi was used in Korea’s past—the Joseon Dynasty—to address the daughters of noble families. Dictionary-wise, it was a respectful way to address a young woman, so it wasn't strictly reserved for those of high status, but it was a term rarely used in modern times.
"Yeah. Since 'A' is 'Ah,' you're A-ssi."
"Why does 'A' become 'Ah'? It's just 'A'."
"Don't sweat it. That's just how nicknames work."
I wasn't particularly fond of this baseless nickname. Usually, nicknames are given with some consideration for a person's actions or characteristics, but she had just decided on mine on a whim without any of that.
"If you're going to speak informally anyway, wouldn't it be better to just call me by my name?"
"It's not a common name, so it doesn't roll off the tongue."
I knew my name wasn't common among the foreigners one might encounter in Korea. I wasn't sure if it was used as a name globally, but based on my research, it didn't seem to be used much.
"Whether it's Mr. A or A-ssi, they both sound like swear words if you pronounce them too hard. Besides, why add 'ssi' if you're going to talk down to me?"
"Man, you sure complain about a lot of things."
She grumbled as she washed cups, and I stood beside her, drying the dishes piled in the sink.
"I'm not complaining, it's just weird."
"It's not weird at all~"
She had a talent for getting under people's skin by needlessly drawing out the ends of her sentences. I wanted to snap back, but knowing I couldn't handle the situation if a fist started flying, I decided to endure it.
"You don't have a girlfriend, do you?"
"..."
I was about to answer without thinking but shut my mouth. I did have a girlfriend, but admitting it would 100% lead to a troublesome situation. Given Pink's personality, the moment I said yes, she’d probably demand to see a photo, and if I didn't show her, she’d tease me, saying I was lying.
That was just my imagination, but even if that didn't happen, I couldn't tell Pink I had a girlfriend just in case. After all, my girlfriend was Red from Team Hunter Killer—Pink's own workplace.
"I don't."
"See? You don't have a girlfriend because you're so nitpicky about trivial things."
I had miscalculated. Even if I said I didn't have one, she already had her insults loaded. She even linked it to my behavior just now; it felt like a direct hit to the ribs. It was frustrating to be in a position where I had to say I didn't have a girlfriend when I actually did, but I exercised patience and let it slide.
"What about you? Do you have a boyfriend?"
I couldn't just keep taking hits, so I spoke up, hoping to deal some damage back.
"...Not right now."
"Right now?"
I didn't miss her slight hesitation. I focused on every word she said while doing the dishes, looking for an opening.
"We broke up recently, okay!"
She kicked my shin with the tip of her shoe. It wasn't the kind of strength she’d used to throw a customer out of the shop last week—it was just a normal level of force—but getting kicked in the shin still hurt.
"Ow, damn it!"
I almost dropped the cup I was holding, and the sound escaped my lips as a spinal reflex the moment I felt the pain.
"Why are you taking your breakup out on me?"
Perhaps feeling a bit embarrassed herself, she didn't even look at me, keeping her eyes fixed on the sink as she focused on the dishes. Feeling spiteful, I flicked the water from my rubber gloves onto her face.
Since she was wearing a mask again this week, she only felt the droplets that hit near her eyes, causing her to frown.
"So you want to go, huh? Did you already forget that I'm a Superhuman?"
I messed up. If she actually got serious and threw a punch, I’d be pulverized instantly in my current state without my suit. She probably wouldn't hit me with that much power here, but even if I was hiding my identity, as someone who fought Hunter Killer every week, her words were terrifying even if she meant them lightly.
"My apologies. I was out of line."
"Yeah. As long as you know, keep it up."
Seeing her triumphant expression as she nudged my side with her elbow made me want to give her a noggin-knock, but I realized that if I did, the thought of being pulverized by her hands would cease to be a mere imagination.
"But what have you been doing until age twenty-five without even dating?"
I turned my head to look at her at the clearly provocative remark. I wasn't actually twenty-five—I was older—and it sounded like she was asking what I'd been doing with my life up until my actual age without dating.
Above all, I had only said I didn't have a girlfriend now. I never said I had never dated in my life. Of course, it was true that I hadn't dated anyone before meeting Yubin.
Regardless, it was undeniably annoying that Pink, who knew nothing about my situation, had labeled me a "forever alone" virgin.
"Are you mocking me?"
When I glared at her with narrowed eyes, Pink looked genuinely flustered and raised her voice.
"No! I'm asking because I'm actually curious this time."
"What do you mean, 'what was I doing'? I was just working."
This was one of the few truths I could tell Pink, as I had to lie about most of my information. I had spent twenty years on Earth living quietly in hiding while continuing the duels, and even before that, when I was sailing through space or back in my hometown, I had lived a life of nothing but work. So, I had never dated.
"What about you? Why did you break up with your boyfriend?"
"Huh?!"
Since there were few truths I could tell about myself and I had no talent for spinning elaborate stories, I decided to turn the subject back to her.
Seeing Pink looking quite flustered, her hands kept washing the dishes while her eyes darted around.
"Personality... differences?"
"Why is that a question?"
The moment she looked at me, hissing like a sharp-edged cat, I looked away and continued with the dishes. Was I not allowed to ask more questions just because I was weaker? This was an injustice.
"If you don't even know the reason, that means you were dumped."
If she had a boyfriend until recently and they broke up, but she didn't know the clear reason, there was no other conclusion than her being dumped. However, Pink glared at me with sharp eyes as if denying my words. I made sure not to meet her gaze.
"I was not! I'm the one who dumped him!"
"You dumped him? Why?"
"That's... because I got bored!"
I thought her personality was unusually bubbly, but it seemed her mindset wasn't quite normal either. A woman who swaps out boyfriends because she gets bored... as someone who was experiencing his first relationship, it was a set of values I couldn't understand.
"Then you should have just said you dumped him because you were bored from the start. Why bring up personality differences?"
"It's none of your business."
As Pink said, it was none of my business. Whether she dumped him because she was bored or was actually dumped and was using "personality differences" as a cover.
If she was dumped, she was likely just making excuses to protect her ego, and if she did the dumping... while I didn't understand her values, I couldn't exactly speak ill of her. There are all sorts of people and all sorts of relationships in the world, so it's right to respect each individual's values to some extent.
"So, how many men have you swapped out because you got bored?"
"Huh?"
Pink's hands stopped. I wasn't sure if it was because it was a completely unexpected question or if she was busy counting how many men she had cycled through, but she stopped and stared at me. I turned to look at her too, my eyes still reflecting my dissatisfaction with the injustice I felt earlier.
"What? Am I not allowed to ask this either?"
"No, well... about 10 or 20!"
"Is it 10? Or 20?"
"2—20!"
The fact that she couldn't hide her fluster made it suspicious, but for now, since she claimed to have swapped out 20 men, I had no choice but to believe her. Still, wasn't 20 an unusually high number?
Pink was only twenty-five. Was she counting guys she’d only met for a day or two? If so, having twenty different boyfriends wasn't entirely impossible.
"That's a lot of swapping."
"Is it any of your business?! It's not like I'm going to date you. Unfortunately, you're not my type."
"Well, that's a relief. You're not my type either."
I replied by mimicking the sarcastic tone Pink had used, and the interaction ended with her kicking my shin one more time.
I should suggest to Luche that we change the surveillance target. If that's not possible, I need to find out the information as quickly as possible and get away from this woman.
*
"But aren't you afraid of Superhumans?"
The rush of customers had died down, giving us some time to rest. As we stood by the cafe's back door for a break, Pink, who had come out with her phone, spoke as if she found it fascinating that I treated a Superhuman so casually.
There wasn't anything particularly fascinating about it for me. To someone belonging to Spacetro, there wasn't much difference between an ordinary Earthling and a Superhuman. The only difference was that Superhumans were strong and beat the crap out of our team members during every duel. But after doing this for twenty years, it wasn't even scary anymore.
"What are you trying to say now?"
"Your tone implies that whatever I say is going to be weird."
We glared at each other with narrowed eyes. Since it was true that I had been quick to judge, I let out a sigh and spoke to her.
"Why? Do you want me to be afraid?"
"I wouldn't like that. One of the previous part-timers quit the moment they found out I was a Superhuman."
That was a reason I couldn't understand at all. While the perception of Superhumans had improved significantly compared to the past, not everyone viewed them favorably. The reason, of course, was that they were "different."
Even as times change, there are always people with prejudices, and those who vent their anger on innocent people. No matter how much the world improves or how diverse people become, there are certain things that never change.
In fact, even when visiting planets in entirely different galaxies, the creature known as "human" wasn't much different.
"That's that person. Whether you're a Superhuman or not has nothing to do with me."
From a surveillance standpoint, constantly being conscious of her being a Superhuman could create distance in our relationship, and if the distance grew, it would become even harder to obtain information. There was no need to go out of my way to do something that could make working in the same place meaningless.
Besides, the owner of this cafe and the other part-timers treated her without prejudice or discrimination despite knowing she was a Superhuman, so I just needed to blend into that atmosphere.
Pink seemed to find it a bit strange that I, someone she had only known for a week, had no prejudice against Superhumans.
Since my job was to monitor the members of Hunter Killer and not ordinary citizens, I didn't know the current social perception of Superhumans in detail. However, it seemed that even though twenty years had passed since Spacetro arrived on Earth, there still weren't many people without prejudice against Superhumans.
"You're really weird."
This was a moment where she could have said something nice, but the words that came out of her mouth rubbed me the wrong way.
"Weird? Me? If we're talking about being weird, you're twenty times weirder than I am."
At the very least, I considered my personality to be quite average by Earthling standards. While the criteria for an "average personality" are vague, I didn't think there was anything particularly standout or strange about me.
Of course, that was just my opinion, so I couldn't argue if someone said otherwise, but I still thought I was more normal than Pink, with her inexplicably high tension and her intense sociability that defied all boundaries.
"I'm not weird at all!"
I had a lot I wanted to say, but I gave up, figuring it would just be a waste of breath.
"Fine. Let's say you're not weird. You're not weird! Not weird at all!"
People tend not to notice the flaws in their own personalities. Some might, but the stronger the "color" of one's personality, the less likely they are to see their flaws as flaws.
I didn't know the flaws in my own personality either. I had never even thought about it. Pink was surely the same.
Moreover, with a personality as vivid as hers, even if I pointed out a flaw, she’d likely just let it go in one ear and out the other.
"Why you...!"
I dodged Pink's attempt to kick my shin again. No matter how much better her physical abilities were than mine, I wasn't about to let myself get hit by an attack coming from right in front of me.
After a bit of chasing and being chased, our break ended. As I headed back into the kitchen, I got smacked on the back of the head.