Chapter 149
Chapter 149
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: 149. One Stroke of Military Strategy
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There were plenty of ups and downs even before the two of us could finally set off.
A prime example: the people who really didn't want me sharing a meal with her.
"Really going?"
Yoo Daon grabs my sleeve.
"You've had drinks with Daon and even slept over at her place."
Yoo Daon stands there like she's at a total loss for words, then quietly steps back after hearing me.
"You slept over and drank at their places. Why not ours?"
"I'm the one who always passes out when I drink with Chaeyeon."
"So what?"
"If I pass out, it's a hassle for Chaeyeon."
Her gaze turns toward me.
"..."
"..."
"No."
"Later. Let's do it later."
I hurriedly wave her off as she speaks softly under her breath, then turn to Song Arin.
She's standing at the door with her bag in hand, already prepared at some point.
"Not going?"
"I'm going."
I nod and follow behind her, then glance back at the two of them.
"See you tomorrow."
"Yeah."
"If you get dragged into a dream again like last time, it'll be hard to track you down!"
With their send-off, we step out the door.
"...Where to?"
"The bar near the office."
"...Not there."
"Hm?"
"How about my place?"
"..."
I stare straight at Song Arin.
Our eyes meet, and she hurriedly looks away.
"No, bars have too many ears around. We're Management Bureau people."
"...I'll go to the house."
"W-well, you think I'd do something weird to you?"
Song Arin rushes on with her words.
I walk alongside her, lost in thought.
I have a lot I want to ask, and a lot I need to apologize for.
We walk on in silence.
I look at Song Arin walking ahead of me.
The shortest of the three.
Come to think of it, she never ate much.
Yoo Daon was the one who ate well, Jang Chaeyeon moderately.
Song Arin always just picked at her food.
She'd take a few bites and claim she was full.
"...Why do you keep staring like that?"
Lost in such trivial thoughts, Song Arin turns around, glaring at me with furrowed brows.
"Sorry."
"...I didn't say sorry."
She mutters and starts walking ahead again.
She stayed in front of me the whole way to her place.
*
"...So."
She tilts her glass and looks at me.
"What's the reason you called me out?"
"A few things."
Her behavior at the office, and just general curiosity about Song Arin as a person.
"We've never really opened up to each other, have we?"
"...Opened up."
Song Arin mutters, running her finger along the rim of her glass.
"You."
"Hm?"
"Have you ever really opened up to anyone?"
"Yeah."
I have friends.
Probably.
"I see."
Song Arin mutters, fiddling with her glass.
"I haven't."
"..."
She mutters, and I recall the words I'd heard at her place.
"No one to open up to?"
"...Drink."
She doesn't answer and holds out her glass to me instead.
"I need to be in my right mind to talk too."
"Don't I need to be?"
"You're the one listening to my nonsense. You gonna go blabbing it somewhere in your right mind?"
Drink, Song Arin mutters, pouring another round.
No choice but to take the glass, and we start drinking together.
How many glasses in?
Her cheeks are flushed red as she looks at me.
"...I have no one I can let my guard down with."
"I see."
"..."
"..."
"Nothing to say?"
Song Arin stares straight at me.
"Uh. Well. You're still young."
"You mocking me?"
Song Arin sighs and downs her glass.
"But aren't we doing okay?"
"..."
Song Arin looks at me, tosses back a shot, and nods.
"Yeah. You guys are better."
"Right?"
"..."
Song Arin looks at me.
"Still, you get to see the real me."
"The real you?"
It can't be that she doesn't show her real self to others.
"...I just hate living in constant fear."
"...Arin."
"No. Sorry. Let's change the subject."
Song Arin mutters, stroking her glass.
"I'll tell you this later."
"Okay."
"Got questions?"
Questions.
"Yeah."
"Go ahead."
Song Arin looks at me.
"Something I've been curious about since way back."
"What."
"What exactly happened between you and Chaeyeon back then?"
"...Yeah. Figured you'd ask eventually."
Song Arin sighs and sets her glass down.
"I was originally on Containment Team."
"When?"
"When? Right after joining, straight to Containment."
"How old were you?"
"Middle school. White Hair was high school."
Song Arin mutters, turning her gaze out the window.
She was looking outside, but her eyes seemed fixed on some distant past.
"We were the rookies back then."
"Wasn't putting middle and high schoolers on Containment the problem to begin with?"
Even if the Management Bureau was short-staffed.
"We both wanted to go."
"..."
I think of those who joined willingly.
Ailin, or Park Ye-eun.
"Right."
Song Arin nods, reading my expression.
"White Hair and I both lost family."
"...What kind of incident?"
She looks at me at my question.
"Never wondered?"
"Hm?"
Her gaze pierces me.
"Why are all the branches only in Gangseo, Gangbuk, Gangdong, Gangnam?"
"..."
"Why does Australia, bigger than us, have just one branch?"
Song Arin folds her fingers as she continues.
"Why so many branches crammed on this tiny scrap of land? Why monster branch chiefs in each? Why divide them by rivers? One would suffice."
"...Wedges?"
"Wedges too, sure."
Song Arin folds another finger and nods.
"This little landmass doesn't need this many people. It's overkill."
"...No, what, there's no monster in the river or anything..."
"..."
Song Arin's gaze bores into me,
and a chill runs down my spine.
"...Really?"
"Really."
"Damn, why don't I know about it?"
"I'll flip it on you."
Song Arin blinks and looks out the window.
"How do you know?"
"Well, I'm immune to mental attacks..."
"It might not be mental."
I recall the branch chief holding that stick.
"...Then how do you know, Arin?"
"I'm a victim."
Song Arin answers matter-of-factly.
"Huh?"
"Because I have to get revenge."
Her gaze out the window is so dark,
"..."
it doesn't seem like her at all.
"Someday I'll track it down and kill it."
"Details..."
"Can't say now. Against regs, and I shouldn't tell you anyway."
Song Arin sighs deeply.
"Then Chaeyeon too..."
"Yeah. Don't ask her. She's still sensitive about it."
Song Arin nods.
"Anyway, we were on the same team. I... well, my abilities were too niche for Containment, so I transferred out."
"Transferred?"
"Hypnosis sounds omnipotent, but it's useless in a lot of spots."
Song Arin mutters with a self-deprecating smile.
"Truth is, I'm the most useless in HR Team."
"Not true."
She always backed up my thoughts and helped exactly when needed.
"There's a difference between minor help and clutch help. If a sword's falling on you, you'd call Black Hair or White Hair. Not me."
"..."
"See. Right?"
She gives a self-deprecating laugh.
As I watch it, I pull out the words I'd prepared.
"I'm sorry."
"...Huh?"
Song Arin blinks at me.
"I wasn't thinking of you at all last time."
Looking back, every word might've been a dagger to her.
"No. No need to apologize."
"That's not it."
"You didn't say anything wrong."
Before Song Arin can smirk and continue.
"No."
I cut her off firmly.
"..."
Song Arin's expression hardens.
Song Arin is incredible. Her situational judgment is top-tier in HR Team, and in crises, she's the smoothest at sharing ideas.
She knows her talents and limits perfectly, and can still push forward.
"I think of you as..."
-Clunk.
Something falls in her room.
Song Arin's head snaps toward it,
"Sorry."
and she hurries over to the sound.
Where her steps lead.
"..."
The room where she'd hung the painting.
Our prior conversation flashes through my mind.
Should I stay put?
Just as doubt wells up, there's a click, and she opens the door.
Before I know it, I'm following behind her.
"..."
Under the orange lamplight, she touches the fallen painting.
Amid countless glowing figures.
"...Not torn."
Only one person, cloaked in shadow, stands alone in the center.
And just like the painting, she hangs it with her back to the light.
The title glows gold.
[One Stroke of Military Strategy]
"...What. Told you not to come."
Song Arin mutters, looking at me.
"Arin."
"...What."
Our eyes meet, and she looks at me.
"Can I ask one thing?"
"...Sure."
"This painting."
I point at it.
"...There's more people."
It was definitely the painting of glowing figures surrounding her.
Just... more glowing people.
Song Arin looks at me and smiles softly.
"Would there be?"
She covers it with cloth.
"You're imagining it."
Her smile is so fleeting, it's downright scary.
As I move toward her,
a translucent window pops up on the painting behind.
[Name: One Stroke of Military Strategy]
[Age: Created Yesterday]
[Specialty: Crescendo]
[Talent: None]
[Background: If you believe your own life is melted into it, then life too is art.]
[Weakness: Erase the light.]
-Click!
The house lights went out.