A Rat on a Wheel
After wrapping up her time with her counselor, Charlotte, Batori returned to her studio apartment laden with countless shopping bags.
It was a studio far smaller than Charlotte's place, which she had visited before—the kind of truly wretched one-room that only a college student would live in. But even a place of that caliber served as a perfectly ordinary little nest for the dokkaebi girl.
The moment she opened the creaking door, the tiny one-meter-square entryway and the entire apartment visible at a glance filled Batori with the same bitterness as always. The shopping bags in her hands, however, washed at least some of that bitterness away.
"...Hehe."
A day she'd expected to end with nothing more than an ordinary conversation with her counselor had become something entirely special. Unlike usual, Batori wore a smile as she began organizing the mountain of clothes. She pulled them from their wrapping, gave each one a quick size check, and hung them on hangers one by one—and still the smile wouldn't leave her face.
"Heehee..."
Outside, she was far too shy to let anyone see her smile so easily. But here in her little nest, she could be so much more at ease. And every single one of those clothes catching her eye made her heart flutter, filled her with joy, and naturally drew a smile to her lips.
It felt as though she, who had never been acknowledged by anyone, had become someone special. Ever since she'd first started using the Association's Welfare Bureau services, Batori had been feeling that through Charlotte with aching intensity.
"Miss Counselor... she smiled so beautifully."
She slowly pictured Charlotte, who was just a little taller than herself. That pretty platinum-blonde hair, those eyes even prettier than jewels, and on top of that, a wonderful woman who—unlike Batori herself—was positive and full of confidence.
They were only a year apart, twenty and twenty-one, and yet Charlotte was wholesome, normal—a career woman who even had a great job at the Hero Association. She wore pretty, stylish clothes. Someone who always approached people first, struck up conversations, offered help—kind and gentle. And yet, when she needed to be firm, she could be firm...
"...She's amazing, yeah."
An amazing person. That was how Batori assessed Charlotte. If Charlotte herself had heard that, she would surely have been pleased while also protesting that it was far too generous an assessment—but Batori wasn't the type to say it to her face, so there was no problem.
"I'll wear this one... tomorrow."
At any rate, once Batori had neatly finished organizing the clothes she'd started the moment she walked in, she slowly stood up. The room was so small that even with her short arms, she could reach most things with just a little stretch—and what Batori grabbed was her phone.
"...A message."
A message that she'd gotten home. A message that she was truly grateful for today. And various other messages besides—Batori's typing speed as she sent them all to Charlotte was remarkably fast. Unlike when she talked face-to-face, her texts were composed with surprisingly swift fingers and a bright, cheerful tone. Charlotte, reading them, would probably find the contrast absurd.
"Hehe..."
But Batori was simply happy.
After finishing her texts, she immediately stripped off her clothes and headed for the bathroom-slash-toilet located right by the front door. It wasn't square, wasn't rectangular—more like a triangle, the space narrowing the farther you went in. The moment you opened the door, a toilet sat on the left, a sink directly in front of it, and you washed yourself via a hose connected to the sink—a thoroughly miserable setup in every respect.
"Hehe!"
But Batori had been so happy today that she didn't even pout like she usually did. She didn't sigh over how inconvenient the bathroom was. She simply thought that tomorrow, too, she would work hard at her hero activities—for Charlotte. For the counselor who always praised her, affirmed her, and treated her so well.
"Hwaaaah..."
I always think this, but every time I hop on the hero fan communities in the wee hours... I get this feeling like my self-control is about to go right out the window. All kinds of images you can't easily find during the day get posted, and if you start browsing them one by one, before you know it it's the crack of dawn. Plus if you wait just a little longer, you might get to see some of the really heh heh pictures, so it's hard to stop.
"I'm so tiiired..."
Anyway, thanks to that, I was pretty exhausted. The time after I came home from hanging out with Baby Horns yesterday wasn't the problem. It was lingering around in bed and staying up late that left me pretty tired.
And after I finally got up, there was a single message from Saran on my phone.
And that was it. So the reason I'd gotten up early had completely evaporated. But going back to sleep would mess up my sleep schedule, and besides, even though I was tired, I didn't actually feel sleepy.
"...Maybe I'll just drop by the office."
The option I landed on was one I wouldn't normally pick. After all, all I'd do at home was poke at a report a little, browse the internet, and sit around like I was on summer break in high school.
...Well, back then I was in an orphanage, so I couldn't spend time at home this comfortably.
Anyway. I was tired, but I decided to just go out. Personally, doing something felt more comfortable than spending the whole day at home, and I had to meet Saran in the evening anyway.
I washed up, threw on some ordinary clothes, headed out, took a little over a ten-minute walk, and picked up coffee along the way...
"Team Leader, working today too?"
And immediately went to find the Team Leader and teabagged her. I mean, it's not like I wasn't working either, but there's a pretty big difference between working from home and actually coming into the office, right? Plus, unlike me, the Team Leader wasn't assigned to individual heroes—she had to manage the entire Welfare Bureau staff.
"...What's this about, first thing in the morning?"
"I came to tease you, of course?"
"......"
"Pffft."
Until recently I'd been in the exact same position, but anyway, I was working a lot more comfortably now. Smiling, I handed the Team Leader one of the coffees I'd bought.
"Work while you drink this. Your favorite—vanilla cream frappuccino."
"...Thanks. So? You really just came to hang out?"
"Yep."
"......"
"I don't really have anything to do. I do have to meet one of my assigned heroes today... but that's scheduled for around evening, and I've been so busy lately I barely stop by the office, right? Just dropping in for the first time in a while."
The moment I handed over the bribe, her expression softened, and I dragged over a nearby chair and sat down at her desk. It wasn't quite official work hours yet, so we could chat like this. In about thirty minutes she'd have to start actual work in earnest... and teasing her would get a lot harder.
"Whew... Okay, so how's work going lately? That... that person, is it going well?"
"Ah..."
Well, I hadn't set foot in the office for several days. Asking about how things were going was only natural. And what the Team Leader was asking about was, of course... bound to be about Baek Eun-hwa.
She was on friendly terms with Saran personally too, but there wasn't really any reason to bring Saran up. With Baek Eun-hwa, though, even if I were the director myself, I would absolutely have asked the same question.
I mean, she was an A-Class hero. Baekyeou. Incredibly popular, famous, someone who seemed like she should have had absolutely nothing to do with our department. And in the current situation, she was the only A-Class among all the heroes the Association was managing.
"Hmm... It's going reasonably well, I guess?"
"Really? That's a relief. I was genuinely shocked when it first came up, but seeing it work out somehow... you really are our team's ace."
"Well, I wouldn't go that far. It's not like things are going amazingly well yet."
"The fact that it's working out at all is something. She's not just anyone—she's that person."
"That's..."
Well, she had a point. Even without knowing Baek Eun-hwa's personal circumstances, she was that kind of person. So even the fact that things were coming together little by little, slowly, was enough to call it smooth sailing, wasn't it? After all, among the heroes I was currently assigned to, she was the most recent one I'd met, and aside from spending a week at her house, nothing much had happened yet.
"Hmm, how about you lately, Team Leader? Your official Welfare Bureau ace is gone—you holding up okay?"
"Getting by just fine, as usual."
"Oh..."
"Setting aside how well you handle the heroes' problems, you only have three assigned heroes. If things started falling apart just because one person was gone... that'd be a problem in itself, wouldn't it?"
"That's true. I was just asking to be polite."
Chatting about this and that really was nice. Showing up at the office first thing in the morning might have been a bit of a nuisance, but meeting the same people on a daily cycle made me feel just a tiny bit... restless? A life of just repeating the same things over and over, like a rat on a wheel—that was something I personally couldn't stand.
"Ah, right. We got word from HR this time..."
"HR?"
"Apparently the higher-ups are planning some kind of project again? I haven't heard the details myself, though..."
"They're planning a project all of a sudden?"
"How would I know? Team Leader or not, I'm not exactly on the Association's board of directors."
"Hmm..."
I see. They'll just cook up some pointless thing again. I was thinking that, about to listen to what the Team Leader said next, when—
"...An emergency alarm?"
"...What is that?"
Without warning, an emergency alarm had begun to blare throughout the Association.