Chapter 19: Pink, But Not a Slut (5)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 19: Pink, But Not a Slut (5)
All living creatures must cooperate with one another to survive. Humans, in particular, possess almost no means of defending themselves or protecting themselves from natural predators when cast out naked without tools. Therefore, they inevitably require cooperation and collaboration with others. Human society has always been built through the hands of many.
"Hey."
It was a quiet Sunday afternoon. There weren't many people, and the cafe was peaceful, but that didn't mean there was no work to be done. A truck had arrived at the back door with boxes of various ingredients. Since moving them was the kitchen staff's responsibility, I carried the load carefully, one by one.
"Hey."
I worked really hard. The only reason I have to describe it as "working hard" is that I was moving them all by myself. So, what was Pink—my fellow kitchen staff member—doing all that time?
"Hey!"
I called out loudly to Pink, who was staring at her smartphone screen with a look of utter dissatisfaction. She kept her eyes fixed on the screen and didn't give me even a shred of a reaction.
"I'm not deaf," she muttered.
I thought she was flat-out ignoring me, but she spoke in a low, heavy voice. I’d already sensed an ominous sign from her grumpy expression, but hearing her voice made me realize immediately that I shouldn't try to strike up a conversation right now.
"……."
Standing still, Pink tapped her screen to type a message. I didn't have the courage to go closer and look, so I just watched her from a step away.
"The supplies?" she asked.
"I moved them all."
She shoved her phone into her pocket and opened the storage room door. Looking at the boxes I had brought in, she began moving them to their proper places. Since her physical abilities were superior to mine, she easily moved heavy items that would have been difficult to lift alone by tapping into her superhuman strength.
"That's fast."
While I was genuinely admiring her work speed, Pink finished organizing in an instant, stepped out of the storage room, and let out a sigh thick with annoyance.
"What's with the deep sigh? You're going to make the ground sink."
"Do you know a group called Team Hunter Killer?"
Of course I knew them. How could I not? I've been dueling them every single week, including this week and the last.
"I know them. They're part of the Earth Defense Union, right?"
I didn't know why she was bringing up Hunter Killer when she wasn't even hiding the fact that she was a superhuman, but I decided to just give her a minimal response and listen to what she had to say.
"We were supposed to have a meeting this morning."
"A meeting?"
"Yeah. A meeting about what to do when we fight Spacetro."
We have meetings too. However, our meetings are only held among the executives, so a guy like me has no idea what's on the agenda. I had wondered, but I didn't realize Hunter Killer held meetings every time as well.
"And?"
This might be a good opportunity to gain some internal information. Even if it wasn't specific, I might get info on Hunter Killer's combat power or the strength of other teams besides them.
"I tell them every time that I have a part-time job starting in the morning on weekends, but they're giving me shit again for not showing up."
I had inferred to some extent through Yubin that the internal atmosphere wasn't great.
"Who is?"
More detailed information on that would definitely be helpful. If I played my cards right, I could find a weak point in Hunter Killer and exploit it.
"Red. Our team leader."
The person Pink was having trouble with was none other than Red—my girlfriend, Hong Yubin.
She had mentioned before, pretending it was a group project, that her team members weren't following her lead well. It seemed she had been talking about Pink.
"What did the team leader say?"
"The same old thing. Asking why I didn't show up for the meeting."
Pink's voice was sharp, clearly full of resentment toward Yubin. I hadn't heard the specifics from Yubin, but just hearing this, it felt like Pink was the one in the wrong.
"Do they think I'm skipping because I want to? I work this job every day; what am I supposed to do? I tell her, but she just won't listen to reason."
Yubin worked a part-time job every weekend too. In fact, she should be working right now. Even though she was on break, until recently, she had been balancing university and her part-time job while also working as a member of Hunter Killer.
"It's not like she's living in luxury and can afford to be picky. I'm barely scraping by day to day."
"I get that there's a problem, but just calm down for now."
Regardless of whether Pink was at fault or not, the priority was to calm her down since she was so sensitive. No matter what you say, if you speak while agitated, both the listener and the speaker lose track of what the conversation was even about.
I handed her a glass of cold water, which she downed immediately before continuing.
"Honestly, I'm not the only one who doesn't show up. Blue and Yellow skip all the time, but because I'm the youngest of the three who don't show up often, she's definitely picking on me because I'm an easy target."
It had already been three years since the current Hunter Killer team was formed. I didn't know if they had a connection before the team was formed, but either way, they had been seeing each other every week for at least three years. Hearing her speak so sharply, this didn't seem like a grudge that had formed overnight.
"She's the youngest one herself! Aside from having the best physical abilities, what else does she have going for her as a leader?"
It was a strange feeling to hear Pink talk about Yubin like this, especially since Pink didn't know I was dating her. However, seeing how emotional Pink was, I thought some information might slip out, so I kept a cool head and encouraged her to keep talking.
"So, do most of the team members miss every meeting?"
"I don't know. I can't go often because of work. Even the few times I did go, the whole team was rarely there."
Yubin goes to work at another part-time job on weekday mornings or afternoons. The lie she told me was that it was an administrative assistant job, but it seems that's when she goes to the Hunter Killer meetings. Seeing as she attends meetings every day except for duel days and Fridays now that she's on break, it seems only Yubin, who leads the meetings, and Green, who hasn't been mentioned, are the ones attending.
"We win every time anyway, so why bother with meetings?"
It didn't seem like she was this angry just because of the meetings.
This was just my guess, but based on what Yubin said when she spoke indirectly about Hunter Killer, it was highly likely that the atmosphere of the organization itself was negatively affecting the team members.
I could only assume that their frayed nerves, having nowhere else to go, were being directed at each other, leading to the current situation.
As Pink said, Hunter Killer's strength was so overwhelming that they wouldn't lose just because they didn't have a meeting. Of course, they might be flustered if we used an unexpected weapon or tactic, but Hunter Killer had always crushed the various methods we tried and claimed victory.
"Don't the other team members say anything?"
"I told you, I don't know. We don't even contact each other; we just see each other once on duel days. How would I know?"
Let's think about this rationally. Had they really been dueling with such deep emotional rifts all this time? My answer was a resounding "Absolutely not." The teamwork Hunter Killer displayed during duels was something that could never be achieved without mutual synchronization.
For instance, if Red suddenly called out someone's codename mid-battle, that person would immediately launch the next attack without hesitation, creating a seamless flow in Team Hunter Killer's offense.
If this was something that happened regularly, I could think of two conclusions. Either Yubin spoke while being more sensitive than usual, or Pink took it more sensitively than usual.
I didn't know the answer. And even if I asked, I didn't think Pink would tell me.
"Still, your team has been together for a long time, right? How about apologizing to each other and working it out?"
I had no obligation to smooth over the internal atmosphere of Hunter Killer, but if I left things like this, it would interfere with my job today. And if Yubin was also in a sensitive state when I went home, I didn't have the confidence to deal with it. I couldn't be sure if Yubin would come to my house after her shift, but we still had to keep in touch.
"Apologize? For what? She's the one who's wrong. I'm not apologizing first."
My pride was a bit stung by the fact that we had lost every time for three years to a team whose internal relations were this precarious.
For now, the information that the team's internal atmosphere was worse than I had guessed wasn't something I could use immediately, but it wasn't bad to know.
Since I didn't know their usual dynamic, the current tension might actually be resolved quite easily. Conversely, if the atmosphere became even more serious than it was now, it would definitely affect their teamwork.
That was one thing, but a strange feeling that had been nagging at me for a while wouldn't go away. It was a feeling I'd had from the moment the word "Red" first left Pink's mouth, and it was making my expression stiffen involuntarily.
"You said she's younger than you. As the older one, shouldn't you try to be more understanding?"
I didn't even realize my voice had dropped an octave, and Pink's sharp, piercing gaze turned toward me. Strangely, I wasn't afraid, and I stared right back into her eyes.
"Just because she's younger, I have to be understanding? She doesn't show any understanding toward me, and I'm older than her."
"Still. From what I hear, it doesn't sound like you've been perfect either. You should clear up the misunderstanding and..."
"Hey."
In my attempt to smooth things over between the two just to avoid the awkward situation I was facing, my own emotions had seeped into my words. The unpleasantness Pink was feeling was now directed at me through her voice.
"What's with you? Do you know Red?"
"It's not that I know her, but..."
My reason was blurring as my emotions grew stronger, and annoyance began to bleed into my voice, which had previously only held a hint of emotion.
"You don't even know her, so why are you taking her side? Fine, you don't have to take my side. But what does it have to do with you? Why are you taking her side?"
Hearing those words, I realized the cause of the stuffiness and unpleasantness I'd been feeling. I was annoyed that Pink was speaking ill of Yubin.
Even though we were in an adversarial relationship, Yubin was my girlfriend. Every time she went to a meeting, I received a text saying it would be hard to contact her during the day. And seeing how meticulously she worked at the convenience store, I assumed she was the same in Hunter Killer.
I felt unpleasantness toward Pink, who was getting angry instead of feeling sorry for missing meetings that Yubin—who was trying to lead the team despite members rarely showing up—was attending.
It was an enemy's problem, and naturally, it was better if things didn't go well for them. But because my girlfriend's work wasn't going well and the person who wasn't cooperating was even getting angry about it, I felt bad. My chest felt tight from a complex, indescribable mix of emotions.
"You're right, it has nothing to do with me. But just now, I had to move all the supplies by myself because you were busy looking at your texts. You caused me trouble, so what gives you the right to act like you did nothing wrong?"
"That's why I did all the organizing after they were moved!"
"We could have done that together too. You skipped the first half of the work and only handled the second half—do you think it's okay to just move on like that?"
At some point, having lost the direction of my emotions, I began to pour out my annoyance at her. It wasn't that I was dissatisfied with moving the supplies alone. In my mind, that wasn't really a problem.
It was also true that Pink had organized everything perfectly by herself. However, by mentioning something I hadn't been dissatisfied with, I ended up becoming dissatisfied with it.
"……Fine. Let's just work."
Pink, who had hesitated as if to say something, just went into the kitchen. When my sudden surge of emotion cooled down awkwardly, I felt a sense of futility. I realized that saying anything more would only lead to a fight, so I sighed and followed her into the kitchen.
The air, once turned awkward, showed no signs of returning to normal. We didn't exchange a single word and just worked until it was time to finish.
"A."
When I had changed my clothes and come out to leave, the Boss, who had entered the kitchen, called me.
"Can you work both the morning and afternoon shifts next Sunday?"
"Yes, I can. But is something wrong?"
I didn't have much to do on Sunday afternoons anyway, so coming in a bit early for one day didn't matter at all. However, I was a bit curious why she was asking a guy who had only been working there for two weeks to come in early.
"Yura has something to do next Sunday, so she can't make it. Someone from the evening shift will come in early to fill Yura's spot in the afternoon."
"Ah... I see."
If that was the reason, there was no real reason for me to come in early. My reason for working at this cafe was, after all, to keep an eye on Pink. While coming in early and monitoring her for a long time would be good, if I came in early and she wasn't there that day, it would be a day with no results for me.
But I had already said I would, and it was only for one day, so I decided to just do it.
Suddenly, I wondered what Pink—who hadn't spoken a single word to me for more than half of today's shift—was doing that she had to miss work. I hadn't heard anything specific from Yubin, so it didn't seem like something related to Hunter Killer.
I was looking at her when our eyes met, and we both looked away. The emotion that had flared up earlier had long since cooled, and the lingering silence felt uncomfortable. I wanted to end this situation soon, but since I didn't know what Pink was thinking yet, I couldn't bring myself to speak.
"…Go on."
"Oh, yeah."
In the end, unable to find the right words, we left each other with only an awkward goodbye and headed home.