Flushing Out the Fake (2)
"Still having trouble with your walking?"
A kindly voice, the kind you'd use on a small child.
"Then I guess I'd better walk you to kindergarten."
Baek Sa-ra looked down at the fox-faced man she'd toppled, her gentle face matching that gentle voice perfectly.
The man stared blankly up at her, then forced out a laugh. He rose to his feet as if it were nothing at all — and Baek Sa-ra stuck out her foot and tripped him again.
Thud!
This time he fell forward.
The fox-faced man froze where he lay, face-down on the mat. When the silence stretched on, Baek Sa-ra turned to his crew.
"Your friend's having trouble walking. Aren't you going to help him?"
At her lilting, smiling question, the crew hesitantly hauled the man back up — and Baek Sa-ra drove her heel into the back of his knee, dropping him a third time.
Crash!
The man collapsed helplessly once more.
He'd landed on a soft mat, so it probably didn't hurt. But his dignity, his pride — those had been crumpled past repair. He probably wanted to die.
And sure enough, the face that had been all oily smiles flushed a furious red.
Even so, he didn't lunge at Baek Sa-ra. He simply endured it, lying there as lifeless as a frog in the presence of its natural predator.
Baek Sa-ra, for her part, went on studying the man with unblinking focus.
Like a snake deliberating over exactly how to swallow the prey before it.
Just as the air had frozen over into a sheet of thin ice, a tall man took hold of Baek Sa-ra's arm.
It was Han Ji-soo, who had come along with her.
"Senior."
"Mm, I know."
"You need to head over there too."
As Han Ji-soo held her back, he gestured toward the fox-faced man. At that, the man and his crew sprang up as if they'd been waiting for the cue and fled the training hall.
Once their humiliating exit had left the surroundings quiet, Han Ji-soo called out in every direction.
"Sorry for the disturbance, everyone! Please carry on!"
His apology sent a murmur through the training hall — scattered laughter, jeers, complaints. With that, the operatives dispersed back to their own routines.
And then there was me and Jae-gyeom, the other instigators of this whole affair, whispering to each other in mild embarrassment.
"Jae-gyeom, what just happened here?"
"Baek Sa-ra being Baek Sa-ra, that's what."
"She's coming this way."
"Smile, hyung. Just smile."
Baek Sa-ra, conqueror of all she surveyed, walked toward us with Han Ji-soo in tow. When she drew near, Gwak Jae-gyeom greeted her with a beaming grin.
"Noona, welcome, weeeelcome—!"
His dedicated smile did not last long, however, because Baek Sa-ra smiled sweetly and seized his cheek, pulling.
"Jae-gyeom, how can you be laughing right now? Your partner is yours to look after."
"Ah, noona, if staff members fight each other, there's disciplinary—!"
"When did I ever say we fought? I'm telling you that if someone makes a mistake, you should gently advise them not to do it again."
Right, of course. Baek Sa-ra didn't fight anyone. She merely caused a man who'd been standing perfectly fine to fall flat on his face three times in a row.
Calling that "gently advising" makes the editor in me want to scribble a correction in the margin, but... no. I'll just keep quiet for now, before Jae-gyeom's suffering spreads to me.
I looked away from Jae-gyeom and gave Han Ji-soo a nod.
Han Ji-soo, who'd been caught in the explosion at the Hospital that Hunts Humans, had recently been discharged and was in rehab. Without the mask, he had a gaunt face and monolid, sanpaku eyes — a young man whose expression looked sleepy one moment and razor-sharp the next.
"That guy from earlier — Yeon Ga-ram, from Control Team 4."
Han Ji-soo said this while trading an eye-nod with me.
"He loves his hierarchy games and he's got a serious inferiority complex, so just ignore him. He got salty because the agent who helped you was picked as a top performer, that's all."
"Whoa, seriously, that's why he picked a fight? Is he insane? Where does he get off at his age?"
Gwak Jae-gyeom, having escaped Baek Sa-ra's grasp at some point, was fuming. He really shouldn't have.
Baek Sa-ra laughed like it was the most ridiculous thing in the world and pressed her thumb firmly into his temple.
"What good does getting angry about it now do?"
"Ow, noona...!"
Gwak Jae-gyeom collapsed onto the mat, wheezing — and, ah. For some reason, the afterimage of Baek Sa-ra from the Hospital zone flickered through my mind.
The way she'd grabbed an orange jumpsuit by the collar and pressed down on wounds. The way she'd poured out a soft, unhurried stream of verbal abuse until her target finally broke down in tears.
Baek Sa-ra's remarkable conduct was clearly in full effect here as well.
As I watched in quiet terror, Baek Sa-ra turned to me with a small smile.
"Hello, Mr. Otter."
"Ah — yes. Hello, Baek Sa-ra-ssi."
"How are you feeling today?"
"I'm feeling fine, but..."
"But?"
When I let the sentence trail off, Baek Sa-ra tilted her head. So I glanced sideways toward the entrance where that crew had fled.
"I was just wondering if this might come back to bite me later."
"It's fine. They picked the fight first, after all."
"Still, I'd hate for you to get dragged into something over me."
"Starting something with you, Mr. Otter, is the same as starting something with me."
"I'm sorry?"
"I'm your assigned instructor, remember?"
Oh. That's what she meant.
I nodded along to Baek Sa-ra's smiling explanation.
I was currently receiving basic training from Baek Sa-ra. By all rights I should have been suffering under a psychopath named Cha Si-eon, but Baek Sa-ra had suddenly volunteered for the job, and Manager Kwon Mu-seop had given me the choice. They're both excellent instructors — pick whichever suits you best. So I picked Baek Sa-ra.
The official reason: Response Team 3, where Cha Si-eon belonged, specialized in firearms. Exploration Team 1, Baek Sa-ra's team, were specialists in close-quarters operations inside special zones, deployed into every kind of situation imaginable. Given my current circumstances, the exploration team style was the better fit... which, honestly, was an excuse. I just didn't want to be worked to the bone by Cha Si-eon. Yep.
According to Jae-gyeom, Cha Si-eon's pride took quite a hit when I chose Baek Sa-ra — but well, that's none of my business, is it.
Anyway, that's how I ended up with Baek Sa-ra. And just as I'd hoped, she turned out to be an excellent instructor.
It was only faintly unnerving because of what she'd said with a smile on our very first day of training.
—I'm going to teach you how to value your life.
—The man who saved mine seems awfully careless with his own.
Ah. Right. So that's why she'd seemed to be biding her time ever since the Warehouse-Mart zone. Apparently that scolding over dinner last time hadn't been enough for her.
"So next time, Mr. Otter, I'd like you to handle things firmly too. That's how I get to keep my dignity, you see."
Baek Sa-ra concluded with an angelic smile, at which Gwak Jae-gyeom looked back and forth between the two of us with deeply wounded eyes. A face that said: why am I the only one getting chewed out?
Sorry, man. Couldn't protect you there.
"Shall we start today's training, then?"
Having finished her pleasantries, Baek Sa-ra clapped her hands lightly. I got ready and took my stance — and then something entirely unexpected came out of her mouth.
"First question. In that situation earlier, what could you and Jae-gyeom have done?"
"I'm sorry?"
"You were about six meters from those men, and all three of them had their guards down."
Documentation of workplace harassment and securing witnesses... would that count as an acceptable answer?
As I stood there blinking, Baek Sa-ra glanced over at Han Ji-soo.
"Ji-soo, want to try?"
"Close the distance naturally, then strike the middle man's jaw or a vital point, immediately extend to engage the man on the right, and leave the left one to you, Senior Baek Sa-ra."
"Good answer. If you're not confident in a counter, you can also wait for the moment they turn away and strike from behind instead. The key is not giving the enemy any opening to respond."
Teacher, aren't we moving through the syllabus a little fast?
"Mr. Otter, what happens if you do that out in society?"
"You get a police interrogation, or fired from your job."
"Exactly. But there's no police inside a special zone. So feel free to fight with a clear conscience."
I gave a dry laugh at Baek Sa-ra cheerfully delivering the most chilling advice imaginable.
"Would I really end up fighting other people that often?"
I murmured it in sheer bewilderment — and instantly regretted it.
Fighting other people? I didn't even need to ask.
It had happened more times than I could count already. At the Railroad Station with a Blaring Siren. At the Hospital that Hunts Humans. At the Comprehensive Stadium Where Corpses Run. I had stood off against other human beings with my life on the line — and every single time, someone had died in my place.
The only zone where I hadn't fought another person was the Warehouse-Mart — and only because the environment there had been hellish enough on its own.
Realizing I'd said something idiotic, I braced myself for the criticism. But what came back wasn't a pointed rebuke. It was an unexpected counterquestion.
"How far does a person count as a person?"
"I'm sorry?"
When I failed to grasp it right away, Baek Sa-ra repeated herself, her face utterly guileless.
"The people who cut other people into pieces and traded them for money — are they people?"
The voice was genuinely curious. And in an entirely different way, I found myself at a loss for words.
"They rub shoulders with their comrades while doing the dirty work, and then, when the tide turns against them, they sacrifice the least useful ones first. Are those people?"
The question ran deeper than I'd expected, and I couldn't answer readily. Baek Sa-ra studied me for a long moment, then broke into that pretty smile again.
"If things like that count as people too — then shouldn't we be fighting, every single moment, as a matter of course?"
Fweeee—
A warm gust of air smacked me right in the face. It took a moment for my eyes to find their focus, but when they did, I saw Gwak Jae-gyeom aiming a hair dryer straight at my head.
"Old man, wake up. If you fall asleep here, your mouth's gonna dry out."
Fresh out of the shower, Jae-gyeom grinned down at my completely spent body. That noise finally jolted me back to my senses. Ah, right. I showered after training and now I feel like I'm about to pass out.
I forced myself up and walked like a newborn giraffe. Behind me, Jae-gyeom clicked his tongue.
"Geez, if this wipes you out, what are you gonna do? And for the record, Sa-ra nouna went easy on you again today."
"That was her going easy...?"
"Big time. Just wait until you see Sa-ra noona putting Ji-soo hyung through his paces sometime. You'll be like, 'Oh. She was an angel to me.'"
"Baek Sa-ra-ssi is seriously a different person when she's working compared to normal..."
"Different? How so?"
Jae-gyeom asked back as if I'd said something baffling. So I answered matter-of-factly.
"She's nice to me normally."
"Wow. So this is what terrifying favoritism looks like."
"What?"
"Hyung, Sa-ra noona is just a person who talks in a soft, gentle voice. She is absolutely, categorically not a nice person. She's only being this kind to you."
What was that supposed to mean?
This time it was my turn to wear a this-is-the-first-I've-heard-of-it expression. Jae-gyeom shook his head slowly and went on.
"Hyung, back when you got dragged into the Hospital zone — our team leader never told you Exploration Team 1 was in there, right?"
That's right. I'd cursed that topknot-wearing bastard out silently for it, too.
"He did that because he was worried you'd get hurt by Sa-ra noona."
"What?"
"Look, it's a good thing Sa-ra noona saw you saving Lee Sol at the Railroad Station and remembered it fondly, because otherwise it could've been dangerous for you. Honestly, none of us had ever seen noona act that warmly toward anyone before. You were the first."
It could have been dangerous?
...No. It actually was dangerous. Already. I remembered how close I'd come to being sacrificed to Baek Sa-ra, and shut my mouth without a word.
But Jae-gyeom apparently mistook my silence for disbelief, because he protested, wounded.
"It's true, I swear! When I first got hired, the very first warning the seniors gave me was to stay away from Baek Sa-ra. You know why?"
"Why?"
At my question, Jae-gyeom hesitated for a moment. Then, looking a little pale — as if merely remembering it frightened him — he answered.
"Because if Baek Sa-ra takes a liking to you, even men get their period."
What kind of nonsense was that?
Well. This was the Special Zone Management Bureau, after all. A dark world where the ghost stories never ran out.