Chapter 253
Chapter 253
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Bond
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I think of the Gangbuk Branch Director.
Greed.
That sticky touch and strangely unpleasant face still lingered in my memory.
"How did you know?"
I look at Jang Chaeyeon, not caring that the food is getting cold.
"...I'm going to ask about your memories."
In response to my question, Jang Chaeyeon turns the tables and looks at me.
"By any chance, how far do you remember?"
"What do you mean by 'how far'?"
"Have you ever thought something felt off?"
"Chaeyeon, it's hard for me to understand if you keep beating around the bush like that."
At my words, Jang Chaeyeon makes a troubled face and closes her eyes.
"When I think about my sister, I feel this sense of wrongness."
"Wrongness?"
"Try picturing someone's face."
Jang Chaeyeon looks at me.
"If I told you to picture my face, would you remember it?"
"...Yeah."
"...What about Song Arin's face, or Yoo Daon's?"
"...Yeah."
They're people I was just working with a moment ago.
"No way... You don't remember faces or something?"
"No."
Jang Chaeyeon slowly shakes her head.
"I told you about my sister's ability, right?"
Jang Chaeyeon's sister's ability.
"Wasn't it changing faces?"
"It's a bit more nuanced if you dig into it, but yeah, you can think of it that way."
Jang Chaeyeon slowly nods.
"But that's where I noticed something weird."
"Weird?"
"..."
Jang Chaeyeon wiggles her lips a few times before opening her mouth.
"The sister in my memories was always different."
"What do you mean?"
Jang Chaeyeon lowers her head.
With a bitter expression, she continues.
"Some days she'd show up as a grandma, others as a five-year-old kid, just to startle us. It wasn't like she was trying to prank us or anything—she just didn't want to be remembered as one specific person."
"Why?"
"Because you'd get attached."
Jang Chaeyeon says it like it's obvious.
"Once you get attached, people make bad judgments. It could put you in danger, or someone else."
"..."
It's a bitter story.
In the Management Bureau's field work, getting attached means you're close to death.
And yet, for teamwork and survival, you have to stick with the same people for a long time. That's ironic, if anything.
"By any chance, is that why you act so brusque sometimes? To avoid getting attached?"
I say it with a bit of teasing to lighten the mood, and Jang Chaeyeon nods.
"...Really?"
"Yeah."
For real?
All that behavior just to avoid attachment?
As I stare at her in shock, Jang Chaeyeon avoids my gaze and mutters.
"...Of course, I've lived like this for so long that I'm used to it now."
"No way... Even when Arin says you sometimes change..."
"..."
Jang Chaeyeon nods.
"Back then, she was the quiet one instead."
"..."
Quiet Song Arin and lively Jang Chaeyeon? At least, I can't picture it in my head.
"Anyway."
Jang Chaeyeon brushes off my words and continues, speaking faster than usual. Is she embarrassed?
"I don't remember my sister's other appearances."
"...Is that the only reason?"
"I've talked to others about it too."
She'd been discussing it with other people without me knowing.
I cross my arms and listen intently to Jang Chaeyeon.
"Song Arin said she doesn't remember that time either. I even checked if hypnosis was involved, but she said those memories weren't touched."
"What about Daon?"
"She says she doesn't remember the people from the hospital well."
It's like only the vague parts got taken.
As I furrow my brow, Jang Chaeyeon looks at me.
"Anything you can't remember lately?"
"...Something I can't remember..."
Do I have any lost memories?
Even if I did, how would I know? That's the point of 'lost' memories.
As I'm thinking that,
-Shwaaa!
The manual slips from my pocket, making a loud noise as it flips open.
[Office Manual]
[KO - If you suspect you've lost memories]
1. If you're unsure of your own memories, look for any notes you've made.
2. If you haven't made any notes, look for a sense of wrongness. Your ancestors cultivated that sense for times like this.
3. If you don't feel any wrongness, carefully comb through your memories. Has anyone or anything around you disappeared recently? And have you forgotten about it?
I read the manual and sink into thought.
Notes. None.
Sense of wrongness... I close my eyes and focus, but nothing comes up.
Disappeared items or people... Items or people...
"Nope, nothing."
If I had to say, my little sister is gone, but that's too vividly etched in my memory to count.
"...That's weird."
Jang Chaeyeon furrows her brow deeply and mutters.
"Got it. Just in case, think about it carefully."
"I will."
I need to talk to the Branch Director. Their relationship didn't seem great.
"Alright, then I'll get go—"
"Where do you think you're going."
As I start to stand, Jang Chaeyeon grabs my hand tight.
The chill of her hand snaps me back to attention.
"...Why?"
Why hold on? I look at Jang Chaeyeon curiously, and she tilts her head toward the table.
"You need to eat."
"Oh, you didn't call me here just to tell me that?"
"I called you here to cook for you. This was just a bonus."
Food comes first, huh.
At Jang Chaeyeon's words, I sit back down, eat, and think.
Gangbuk Branch Director. What the hell is a branch director even trying to do?
"Savor the food when you're eating."
"Yes, ma'am."
It's delicious.
*
After finishing the meal with Jang Chaeyeon and stubbornly refusing her offer to stay the night, I head to the Branch Director's office the next day.
The Branch Director is sorting documents.
"Kim Jaeheon."
She glances up at me.
"You can't just barge in on the Branch Director like this. I do have responsibilities—"
"It seems like the Gangbuk Branch Director ate something of ours."
"I'll rip that crazy old man's mouth off. Follow me."
The Branch Director shoots up and starts walking.
"No, are you really going?"
"I warned that old man. I said if he indulged his gluttony, I'd tear his jaw off. And he touches my branch's people? That's a declaration of war. Declaration of war."
The Branch Director grinds her teeth and strides ahead.
Her eyes wide open, she looks seriously pissed.
"Wait, then we'll need to take a plane too—"
"No time for that."
The Branch Director slams her desk—boom!—pressing a button that makes it split open.
"We're going this way."
"What about the others—"
"I'll have my secretary send an email."
The Branch Director has a secretary, huh.
I follow slowly behind her.
The Branch Director walks briskly.
The underground bunker scenery I haven't seen in a while comes into view.
I fought a returner here, ready to die.
The reason was kinda ridiculous, though.
To think that was all on my mind after becoming a returner.
"Oh, right—how's Kim Wan-woo's condition?"
"Kim Wan-woo, you mean."
At my words, the Branch Director pauses.
"Ah, not now. It might get eaten."
"Eaten?"
"You'll see when we get there."
She says that and resumes walking.
I follow the Branch Director.
Soon, she stops in front of a massive iron door.
No handle or button in sight again.
Does the Branch Director have a special key?
"Hup...!"
Before I can finish the thought, the Branch Director grabs the massive iron door with both hands and starts prying it open.
-Kreeeak... creeeak...!
It opens with a horrific screech.
"Come on, hurry."
Then she looks at me, the door open just wide enough for her arms.
"Ah... yeah..."
"Quick, quick. I'll get in trouble if we're caught."
Not her arms hurting—it's about not getting caught, so hurry.
I duck under her arms and pass through, and the Branch Director slowly slips out.
Boom! The door closes.
"Follow me."
She starts walking like a storm again.
She climbs the same stairs from her office, striding up,
-Boom!
And forces the door open.
I peek into the room—it's identical in design to the Branch Director's office.
All branch directors' offices are the same, huh.
"...Well, now."
I turn at the gravelly voice. An old man clicks his tongue, looking at the Branch Director.
"You're making a real announcement coming here."
"Hey, Kim Pil-su."
The Branch Director strides over and grabs the old man's chin.
"I told you—if you touch my branch's people, I'd rip your jaw off. Did I or didn't I?"
"Even in old age, you're so hot-blooded—"
"You want me to really do it?"
The Branch Director yanks the old man's chin, and he lightly slaps her arm.
"Alright, alright. Let go."
The Branch Director glares, then releases him. The old man rubs his chin and looks at me.
"You noticed, huh?"
"No."
"HR pegged you as someone to watch out for, and here I am, getting old."
With a tsk, Gangbuk Branch Director Kim Pil-su sighs and looks at me.
"I ate it because I needed to."
"...Needed to?"
"Yeah."
"Not for personal gain?"
"It was part of a deal, too. But it doesn't harm the Management Bureau."
"It could harm them."
The two start pointing fingers at each other.
"...You ate it—like, actually ate it?"
As the conversation starts heating up, I hold out my hand to stop them and look at the Gangbuk Branch Director.
"I did."
"..."
Ate it.
If I recall Jang Chaeyeon's words, concepts or memories.
Does Greed eat things?
"What I ate."
"You don't need to know. And you, missy—you should figure it out if you think about it."
"...I should know?"
The Branch Director furrows her brow, and as I watch her, I recall recent events.
No big changes.
"..."
Ah. There was one.
Lately, we've been—precisely Yoo Daon, Jang Chaeyeon, and Song Arin—fighting more often.
Did that start after we came here?
"...I get it."
At my words, both look at me.
"...You get it?"
"Quick on the uptake."
The Branch Director's eyes widen, and the Gangbuk Branch Director grins at me.
"What you ate was..."
Fighting, discord. And jealousy.
"Our bond."
"I didn't eat that."
The Gangbuk Branch Director replies sharply.