Akira (5)
"...Akira?"
Just as I was thrown off by Iris’s sudden move to seize my wrist and drag me away, a black-clad woman burst in out of nowhere. The moment I saw her face, I blurted her name in a dazed voice.
"...Why are you here?"
I wasn’t the only one caught off guard, apparently, because Iris asked with a strangely tense expression.
Akira’s face was twisted with irritation as she answered, absentmindedly winding a strand of hair around one finger as though this were all a terrible nuisance.
"Well, I’ve got a pretty useful informant on my side. I heard you’d gone to Korea."
"...An informant?"
"You don’t need the details. Anyway, why don’t you let go of the leader’s hand now? It looks a little... suspicious from the outside."
"..."
At Akira’s words, Iris eased up on her hostile stance a little and quickly looked around.
Following her gaze, I glanced over the surroundings too.
"Ah."
I was met by the eyes of numerous people all focused on us.
The strange tension that had suddenly erupted in the once-quiet café had drawn everyone’s attention.
That kind of scrutiny was unbearable, so I hurriedly tapped Iris on the shoulder to signal her.
"Um, Iris? Can you let go of my wrist now? It’s starting to hurt..."
"...I’m sorry."
Only then did the pressure in Iris’s grip finally loosen. Freed at last, I took a step back and rubbed my stinging wrist.
The skin around it had gone ghostly white from how hard she’d been holding on.
"There are too many people here. Let’s move somewhere else and finish talking."
Confirming that I was free, Akira turned first and headed for the exit, tossing the words back at us over her shoulder.
"..."
"..."
I looked at Iris in silence, and she stared back at me with a stiff face.
After that brief exchange of looks, we quietly followed Akira out of the café.
Ignoring the looks people gave us as though they were witnessing some ugly domestic violence scene, we quickened our pace.
.
.
.
.
.
By the time the sun had slipped past the city skyline and painted the sky red, I was walking down the street with my old comrades in a silence so uncomfortable it felt hard to breathe just standing there.
Whether by coincidence or because she knew what she was doing, Akira, who was walking ahead of us, led us toward the park near my place.
Toward the very same park where I’d first met Iris.
The park in the late afternoon was fairly quiet.
Probably because it was a small park tucked between residential streets.
How long did we keep walking like that?
Thud—
"...?"
In the open space of the park, Akira suddenly stopped, and we, who had been following behind her, stopped as well.
Was she planning to talk here?
I looked around, but the only thing in sight was a stray cat sprawled in the grass, lazily baking itself like a loaf of bread.
There wasn’t even a single bench, so it certainly wasn’t the kind of place suited to a comfortable conversation.
"Hey, Akira...?"
I was just about to voice my confusion to Akira, who stood with her back to me.
"Bite down hard, you damn menhera bitch."
"...!"
Only if she hadn’t suddenly spun around and thrown a punch.
"What the f—"
My body twisted on instinct to dodge the fist, but contrary to what I expected, Akira’s punch wasn’t aimed at me.
Crack—!
"Kuh..."
"Iris?!"
Akira’s fist smashed into Iris’s forearm as she raised both arms to guard, and the impact seemed heavy enough to make Iris grimace and stumble back quickly.
"Where do you think you’re—!"
"!"
But Akira immediately closed the distance, rushing in with a flurry of punches.
Caught off guard, Iris missed her chance to counter and could only scramble to evade and block the attacks.
What the hell was going on here?
For a second I wondered if Akira was just messing around, so I studied her face closely—but it was the look of someone genuinely pissed off.
"Akira! Stop it! What are you doing all of a sudden?!"
Thinking I should at least stop the fight, I shouted as I ran toward the two of them.
But the pair, already far too worked up, either didn’t hear me or didn’t care, because they only kept exchanging brutal blows.
Fists and fists collided, flesh slammed against flesh, and each impact rang out with a deafening boom that seemed impossible to come from human bodies.
Attacks with enough force to kill an ordinary person if they got caught in the middle were flying back and forth without pause.
For a moment I hesitated, pinned down by the ferocious pressure radiating from the two of them.
Crack—!
"Kuh...!"
"Iris?!"
Just then, Akira was forced back after taking a sudden uppercut from Iris, who had been on the defensive the whole time, and the state of the two of them finally came clearly into view.
Iris’s face, struck several times by Akira’s fists, was flushed red, and her clothes were a complete mess.
Akira wasn’t in much better shape either: her lip had been split open by one of Iris’s punches, blood was running down, and the hat she’d been wearing had been knocked off at some point and was rolling around on the ground.
If I left them alone like this, it was obvious someone would end up seriously hurt.
"So that’s how you want to play it?"
"..."
Sure enough, after a brief breath, Iris and Akira both returned to fighting stance.
Determined to stop them somehow, I hurled myself between them and shouted.
"Everybody, stop!"
"...!"
Paang—!
Their fists stopped just barely inches from my face.
I’d almost taken a clean hit, but that wasn’t what mattered right now.
"Both of you calm down and back off. What kind of disgrace is this in a public place?"
"Leader, that’s..."
"Quiet. You’ve made a racket right on the doorstep of a residential area, so don’t even think about making excuses."
"...I’m sorry."
I snapped at Iris and Akira in the same curt tone I’d used back in Cerberus Squad days.
Fortunately, both of them seemed startled by my sudden intervention, because they didn’t rush each other again to trade punches.
After silencing Akira before she could try to explain herself, I walked over to Iris, who was covering her bright-red face with her hand.
"Let me see your face, Iris."
"..."
"Show me. Hurry up."
Since she seemed embarrassed to show me her face all swollen from getting beaten up so thoroughly, I urged her again, and at last she reluctantly lowered her hand.
Her skin was red, but thankfully nothing was torn open.
It had been sheer luck that she’d come away with only this much against Akira, who had been one of the top close-quarters fighters in Cerberus Squad.
I poked Iris’s cheek with a finger, making the dejected girl flinch, then turned toward the main road.
"I’m going to the pharmacy, so both of you stay here and wait. If you fight again while I’m gone, then you’d better be ready to get beaten by me too."
"...Understood."
"...Yes."
"Haa..."
At their weak replies, like puppies left out in the rain, I let out a small sigh and headed for the nearest pharmacy.
A little ointment for Iris’s bruises and a bandage to cover Akira’s split lip would be enough.
.
.
.
.
.
After the storm had passed, Iris and Akira, once again reduced to silence, squatted quietly in front of a flowerbed and waited for Seong-hyeon to return from the pharmacy.
Only a few minutes had passed since he left, but because of the uneasy atmosphere hanging between them, it somehow felt as though time had slowed to a crawl.
"Hey, menhera."
"...?"
It was Akira who finally broke the awkward silence that had followed the fistfight.
Hesitating as though she didn’t quite know how to ask, she soon looked at Iris with a serious gaze and spoke.
"You didn’t lay a hand on the leader’s body, did you?"
"...What are you talking about?"
For a moment, Iris hesitated at the unexpected question, then forced herself to act calm while ignoring the sting of guilt.
Akira watched her suspiciously and continued.
"I mean, I heard some crazy menhera bitch like you was living with the leader. Who knows—you might’ve gone all hungry-for-sex and pounced on him."
"Don’t say stupid things."
"What were you trying to do when you dragged the leader out of the café earlier?"
"...!"
For an instant, Iris felt like she’d been struck right in the weak point and sucked in a sharp breath, desperately searching for an excuse, but Akira, who had been watching her quietly, spoke faster.
"Obvious, isn’t it? Our leader is so pure when it comes to women that he’d never notice you trying to seduce him. So you, with your head completely gone, were probably going to drag him off and screw him like a dog."
"Shut up."
At that crude and naked wording, Iris frowned and shot Akira a sharp glare.
With shadows falling across her face and a red glint flashing in her eyes, she looked almost frightening—but Akira met her stare without flinching.
"Listen, menhera. The leader’s probably so pure he can’t even tell how gloomy and low you really are."
"Shut up."
"If I just let you stay at his side like this, one day you’ll probably dirty him with your own hands, won’t you?"
"...What are you even trying to say?"
Because Seong-hyeon had ordered her to hold back, Iris barely managed to suppress the urge to throw a punch and asked the question instead.
Akira smiled brightly at her.
"Starting today, I’m moving in with the leader too. Until the day you go back to France, I’ll be staying there the whole time."