Even If We Get a Little Rough
"……."
"Hehe…."
"Why on earth is our dear employee here in the middle of the day, bothering me…? I have work to do, you know? Team Leader or not, I've got plenty on my plate — and thanks to a certain someone, my paperwork just got heavier."
"Is that so!"
I answered the sorry woman who could do nothing but stare at me and sigh, wearing the biggest smile I could manage.
It felt like I'd become some smug little brat perched in a position of overwhelming superiority. Of course, given that my actual height was roughly in that ballpark, it was nothing more than messing around — but teasing the boss who was always dumping work on me was, I had to admit, genuinely fun.
"…Haa. Charlotte. What is it you actually want? Could you just tell me already?"
"Can't I play a little longer?"
"…I have work to do."
"Hmm."
Well, fine. Interfering with someone's work was honestly a pain, and having been an ordinary office worker myself until just a few days ago, I understood that all too well.
"Could I have the Association President's phone number?"
"…Huh?"
So I just asked for it point-blank. That was the whole reason I'd come into the office on a day I didn't even have to show up, and it wasn't the kind of number you could just look up. Saran was a B-Class hero, sure, but I doubted she had a personal line to the President. The Team Leader, on the other hand, was a retired hero — and a team leader, no less. I figured if anyone on our side had even a sliver of a chance, it was her.
"What for?"
"For work. There's a favor I'd like to ask of the Association President. I don't think anyone below her level could actually do it."
"……I've got a feeling you're plotting something weird."
"Hehe."
Weird, she says. Being slandered like that, I couldn't help but think the Team Leader was discriminating against short women. I genuinely had no idea she'd treat me like some little prankster, some smug brat, some filthy little gremlin, just because I didn't even clear five feet. It was so absurd I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
Even so, I pressed on.
"Ehhhn~ Team Leader! Hand over the Association President's phone number! Grant me this, grant me that! Permit me to browse hero photos on community sites during work hours! Display beastfolk-hero photobooks around the office!"
"…I'll text it to you. Now be a good girl and get lost."
"Hehe. Thank youuu."
Maybe it was because a few days of not coming into the office had finally put my energy and my health back to normal. I was in such a good mood I couldn't help running my mouth. It was a joke, sure — but I also very much meant the part about handing the number over already.
At any rate, the Team Leader sent me the Association President's number without any fuss, and the moment I had it I bolted out of the building. I placed the call on the way home.
The other party was, of course, the Association President. I could have just asked for the number over text, honestly — but I'd wanted to drop by and say hello to the Team Leader anyway. And now I had the number, so everything was moving along nicely. If the President granted what I was about to ask, it would move along even more nicely.
"Ah — thank you!"
I'd dumped a lot on her all at once. I was a little surprised the Association President agreed so readily… but in the end, what mattered was that she'd said yes. That alone was enough.
I wanted to hang up right there, march straight over to Baek Eun-hwa's house, and force her into rest mode — but she was my superior, and hanging up on a superior first was the kind of thing that earned you a few well-deserved punches to the philtrum.
And with that, the call ended.
How to put it. It wasn't that big a deal, and yet it felt like an enormous one… but anyway. I had just forced a woman who had no intention of resting whatsoever to take a break — and I did not head straight to Baek Eun-hwa's house.
For one thing, the Association President would need time to actually wipe her schedule. For another, I was planning to make her rest mindlessly and thoroughly for a full week, which meant I had some preparations of my own to take care of. I also needed to tell Saran and Batori that I'd be busy for the next few days and probably wouldn't be able to see them.
I still hadn't told either of them that I'd become a Special Agent — an employee who only did work-from-home and field visits — or that I'd been assigned to Baekyeou, an A-Class hero. There was the matter of confidentiality, of course… but she was an A-Class hero. It had to be handled discreetly in any number of ways, and since that was precisely the nature of my current post, it wasn't a problem.
"……."
"Hehe."
A few hours later, I arrived at Baek Eun-hwa's house. She opened the door wearing a distinctly sour expression — and there I stood, smiling, with a bottle of liquor in one hand and a soft, fluffy cushion in the other.
"Shall we have ourselves some fun?"
"…Haa."
"But first, could you maybe let me in? This liquor is pretty heavy."
"I don't see why I need to let you in just because you decided to show up carrying things of your own accord…."
"Ah — my arms… they hurt…."
"…Good grief. Come in."
And so I made my entrance into her house once again. It was an ordinary home. Ordinary today, too. Maybe it was because I'd already taken stock of how she kept the place last time… if anything, the atmosphere had grown even more comfortable, the rooms more familiar. She was wearing a plain training jacket from one of the world's most famous sports brands. It was all so ordinary it was almost startling.
"So…. Are you planning to stay here for the entire week?"
"Would that be a problem?"
"Of course it would be……. Haa…."
"I am your Special Agent, after all. I put a few things together because I wanted to help you, Eun-hwa. Is a week really too much to ask?"
"……."
I waited for her answer. I wasn't fishing for sympathy — I'd just said it plainly. The look on Baek Eun-hwa's face as she stared at me, apology and irritation occupying it at the same time, was a little funny. She had such a serious personality… the stubborn, inflexible kind, quite unlike Saran.
"…Do whatever you want. It's not as if I can work for a week anyway, thanks to a certain someone."
"So it's a vacation?"
"…I suppose. A vacation is a vacation, even if I was forced into it."
"These things happen. I got kicked out of the office by the Team Leader today, myself."
"…Did you really?"
"No? About half of that was nonsense."
"…….."
At any rate, she now had nothing to do for a week. I was the one who'd arranged it, yes — but I'd carved out this time and built this schedule specifically to deal with her problems.
I stuck the liquor in the freezer, more or less, and tossed the pillow toward the sofa and the bed. And then….
"…There's nothing special here."
"Well, I was literally just planning to rest. All I wanted was to help you rest the right way — comfortably."
"…Haa."
So we simply rested. I dragged Baek Eun-hwa over, sat her down on the living room sofa whether she liked it or not, and turned on the TV. I had no idea what kind of programs she liked, so I pulled up a streaming service and picked a movie that looked decent enough… and that, truly, was all we were doing.
"Movies are more fun than you'd think. We're still in the early part, but… if we take it slow, I think you'll enjoy it."
"Alright."
"It's only about two hours, but the feelings you trade back and forth in that time can be pretty substantial. It makes you think about a lot of things."
"…That's true."
"It'd be a waste to spend a rare vacation all stiff and boring, wouldn't it? And afterward, you'll be eating meat and fried food to your heart's content, right…?"
"…That's true too."
In the end, there was not a single reason the A-Class hero Baekyeou shouldn't be sitting here resting with me. All she had to do was stay quietly at my side and watch a movie in peace. I was simply trying to help her rest more comfortably in this situation — to coax even the smallest smile onto her face.
And the first step toward that was…
"By the way, this sofa is incredibly soft. I bet we could jump around on it and get up to something intense, and it'd be just fine."
"Please don't say weird things."
"Yes ma'am."
Getting at least a little closer to her, for starters?