Chapter 186: A Woman's Enemy Is... (8)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 186: A Woman's Enemy Is... (8)
Question: What is the most appropriate way to handle coming home to find your oldest female friend and your girlfriend in a hair-pulling brawl?
The answer is to shut off the water main that’s spraying everywhere from a severed pipe.
“A! Watch out! You don't know what this bitch might do!”
Ignoring Seira’s shout as she gripped Yubin’s hair, I opened the cupboard under the sink and turned the valve.
“Oppa! Do something about this bitch!”
Watching the two of them openly display their hostility, already calling each other "bitches," I felt a wave of hopelessness about how to handle the future.
“What?!”
As they screamed while still clutching each other’s hair, Seira glared at Yubin.
“Can you both just calm down for a second?”
Despite the room being such a disaster that I didn't even know where to start looking, I didn't panic. In fact, I was calmer than anyone else in the room.
Part of it was the thought that I shouldn't add to the chaos, but mostly, I felt that cooling the atmosphere was the top priority. Besides, looking at the state of my house—where not a single thing remained intact—I was honestly getting a little annoyed.
I grabbed the hands of the two women who were still locked in their hair-pulling match. Since neither was in a state to listen if I told one to let go first or for both to let go simultaneously, I figured the best way was to force them to release with my own hands.
“Both of you, relax your grip.”
“You let go first.”
“You attacked me first! You let go!”
Even with me holding their hands, neither had any intention of letting up. Instead, they continued their power struggle, looking as if they’d never let go until the other did.
“You’ve both already broken the rules. Nothing good will come from fighting more, so let go of each other’s hair first.”
The only thing I could do right now was calm them down. I didn't know what had happened before I arrived, but the two had run into each other in my home, and through a series of events, they had reached this point.
Even if I wanted to soothe them, I had no way of knowing what they were thinking without knowing the lead-up. However, the way they glared at each other and the strength in their hands suggested they had no intention of stopping.
If I left them like this, they might keep fighting until tomorrow morning. If that happened, there wouldn't be a single thing left standing in my house.
Actually, it was already such a mess that it was harder to find something that wasn't broken. The thought that I needed to move out as soon as possible naturally crossed my mind, and when the two showed no signs of calming down, I felt a surge of irritation.
“Ah!”
“Ow!”
I let go of their hands and simultaneously rapped both of them on the head.
Only then did they finally let go. They clutched their heads and looked up at me, and I looked back at them alternately with a cold, annoyed gaze.
“Look at the state of this house.”
Perhaps they hadn't realized their surroundings while they were fighting, because Yubin and Seira belatedly looked around the room and saw the carnage they had wrought.
The sink faucet had been sliced off, spraying water everywhere and soaking the floor, and the bathroom door was smashed to pieces.
The table and the sofa had both been carved into chunks, unable to escape the trajectory of the swords the two had been swinging. Their blades, which they must have been brandishing quite vigorously, lay discarded in a corner.
Seira didn't know about my current situation. Since Luche knew, I thought a confrontation like this would happen with Luche first, but an unexpected meeting between Seira and Yubin had occurred instead.
I had an obligation to explain the situation to Seira, but more than that obligation, I was worried about what to do with my wrecked apartment.
“See?”
Looking at the absolute shambles of the room, the two women, whose heads had finally cooled, remained silent. Since they seemed to have calmed down for now, I thought it best to try and have a quiet conversation, so I went to sit on the bed.
“!”
At that moment, the bed—its legs already broken—collapsed completely. I, who had been trying to sit down, tumbled to the floor along with the ruined furniture.
“A!”
“Oppa, are you okay?”
Startled by the sudden collapse of the bed, the two women, who had been cautiously watching me, rushed over to help me up. The moment they got close to each other, they started glaring again.
“Oppa got hurt because of you!”
“How is this my fault?! And who are you to keep calling A 'Oppa' anyway?!”
Seira’s voice was trembling slightly. I assumed it was because she couldn't understand what was happening.
Realizing that every move I made created an opportunity for them to bicker, I decided to just stay still.
“Stop fighting!”
Since the tension was rising again, I raised my voice, figuring that speaking softly wouldn't get through to them anymore.
“…Sorry.”
Yubin apologized to me first and reached out a hand. Reflexively, I took her hand, stood up, and sat down on a patch of floor that was relatively clear of debris.
“Can you explain the situation?”
First, I needed to know what had happened before I arrived. When I demanded an explanation, Seira pointed at Yubin as if she’d been waiting for the chance.
“That bitch trespassed.”
Offended by the pointing, Yubin slapped Seira’s arm away. Then, she pointed her own finger at Seira and spoke with sharp eyes, as if she had plenty to say herself.
“This bitch attacked me first.”
And Seira, refusing to back down, slapped Yubin’s arm away in return.
I roughly understood the circumstances. Yubin, who was supposed to meet me today, couldn't get a hold of me and came to my house to wait, where she ran into Seira, who had come for some reason of her own.
Seira, having no way of knowing why Yubin would be in my house, assumed she was an intruder and attacked immediately. While the two were facing off, oblivious to the fact that they were destroying the entire apartment, I had arrived.
“Are either of you hurt?”
Regardless of the reason, the fact remained that they had acted against the rules. As long as the people gathered here kept their mouths shut, this could be handled quietly, so I checked to see if they were injured.
Seira and Yubin checked themselves over and confirmed they were fine. Aside from being covered in water and dust, there were no visible wounds.
“I’m fine. And I’m sorry. For making such a mess of your place.”
At Yubin’s bowed apology, I looked around the room once more. I had been thinking about moving, but instead of taking my time, I’d have to move the schedule up.
The repair costs were going to be significant, but I had to be satisfied with the fact that neither of them was hurt.
“……What is this?”
When I gently took the hand of Yubin, who had sat down cautiously beside me, Seira furrowed her brow and looked between us as if she couldn't comprehend the sight. Now that things had come to this, it was impossible to get through the situation without telling Seira the truth.
“Why do I have to explain anything to you?”
Yubin showed blatant hostility, seemingly having no desire to talk to Seira, who had attacked her without a word.
“Yubin.”
When I called her name while holding her hand, she seemed to realize that the situation couldn't be resolved emotionally. She dampened her sharp aura and fell silent.
The more she did that, the worse Seira’s expression became. A single phrase—"she's my girlfriend"—would explain everything, but it was so difficult to say those simple words to Seira, whom I had known for so long.
“I was worried because you wouldn't answer no matter how much I called. What is this? Why are you and Red on such good terms?”
“He didn't get your calls because his smartphone was turned off.”
Yubin answered Seira’s question before I could.
“Did you call?”
“Yeah. But it said the power was off, so I called Blue.”
It seemed they had been in contact after I left Su-ah’s house.
“Blue? What? You know Blue too?”
“It’s not just Blue. Oppa is dating all the members of Hunter Killer.”
While my mouth was clamped shut, Yubin dropped the truth without warning. I knew I had to say it, but being told like that before I was mentally prepared left me flustered. Seira froze the moment she heard Yubin’s words.
Because Yubin had explained it with a rational attitude after assessing the atmosphere, Seira couldn't even lash out emotionally. I pressed my hand to my forehead and looked down.
But I couldn't keep my mouth shut forever. Since Yubin had cleared the hurdle I found most difficult, it was my job to explain the rest so Seira could understand.
“Yubin… It’s just like Red said.”
Since she likely only knew their codenames and not their real names, I used Yubin’s codename so Seira would understand.
“It’s been a few months. I was assigned to surveillance duty, and after various things happened, we started dating. It’s the same with the other Hunter Killer members.”
The day might come when I’d have to explain the exact process, but for now, the fact was that we were dating. It was important to give a rough explanation of how it happened so Seira would know.
“Dating? With all five members of Hunter Killer? You?”
I answered Seira’s stunned question with a nod rather than words. My gaze didn't waver, and as she looked into my eyes, Seira’s expression hardened even further.
“Surveillance duty? I never heard anything about that.”
“That’s because it was an order Luche gave only to me. To quietly monitor them and see how things were.”
“That pint-sized brat.”
Whether out of anger or a sense of injustice, Seira cursed Luche with a scowl, her clenched fists trembling.
“Until then, my only mission was quiet surveillance. I didn't approach them with the intention of dating.”
“I told you specifically not to let him do anything! And she said she wouldn't give you any major work.”
I had been stressed by Seira’s words, and the day I expressed that, the terror incident occurred. After that, Seira hadn't told me not to do anything, so I hadn't thought about it for a while. But it seemed Seira hadn't only said those things to me.
“That again?”
I wasn't exactly in the mood to hear that calmly. Even though Seira had apologized to me, it didn't mean she could keep saying those things.
When those words I didn't want to hear came out of Seira’s mouth again, my brow furrowed. Even though I spoke with a hint of annoyance, Seira shouted at me with tearful eyes, as if she still had more to say.
“Because you always focus only on what’s right in front of you without thinking about the consequences! How many times have you been hurt because of that? You’ve almost died several times, so I told you to be careful!”
I couldn't say a word. I was startled by Seira’s shouting, but I was even more shocked by the words themselves.
I’m always slow to realize things. It’s not intentional, of course; it’s just that when I’m doing something, I focus so much on that one task that I fail to notice my surroundings, so I learn things later than others.
And because of this personality, I had indeed faced danger many times, just as Seira said. Seira had often told me not to cause trouble since long ago, and because she was always the one cleaning up after me, I thought she was just telling me not to make her life difficult.
What Seira was worried about wasn't the cleanup she had to do, but me—the person who would focus on one thing and charge ahead without regard for his own safety.
Around the time I thought I had come to know her quite well after being together for so long, our ranks were separated.
A distance had grown after that, and I had assumed her attitude had changed because our ranks were different. But I had never thought there was a problem with Seira’s change in attitude. I thought I knew Seira well.
But Seira had never changed. I realized that while she used to control me from right beside me in the past, she might have just been watching over me from a step back now.
The determination I’d had to explain things so she could understand vanished instantly upon learning Seira’s true feelings, and I fell silent again.
Unlike before, when I thought I could just explain things because I knew her, I now felt as if no words could possibly explain anything to her, since I had been so ignorant of the person who had watched me from the closest distance.
Sensing the heavy atmosphere, Yubin looked back and forth between Seira and me before letting out a short, “Ah,” as if she had realized something herself.
When my wandering gaze landed on Yubin, she was looking at Seira not with a sharp glare, but with a look filled with complex emotions.
“Oppa.”
“Yeah?”
“I’m sorry, but could you give us a moment? I want to talk to her alone.”
I worried they might fight again, but the atmosphere didn't feel like Seira and Yubin would clash the moment I stepped away.
I wanted to ask what she wanted to talk about, but looking into Yubin’s red eyes, I couldn't bring myself to ask.
“Yeah. Okay.”
I stood up, grabbed a coat from the closet, put it on, and headed out.
Until the moment I opened the door and left, Seira didn't look at me, keeping her head bowed toward the floor. All I could do now, with a heavy heart, was step aside for a moment so Yubin and Seira could talk.