Acting (3)
Lee Sera had always kept her face expressionless.
Ever since she was very young. Ever since her mother died.
She had lived as her father's doll, a stand-in filling the empty place her mother left behind.
And a doll had no need for anything like emotions.
That was why expressing them had never come naturally to Lee Sera.
"...Sera?"
"Oh, sorry."
And yet, her eyes wavered, ever so slightly.
A shadow had clearly fallen across her face.
Her pupils contracted, and her heart began to pound.
Why?
"Judging by your reaction, I'm guessing you didn't know, Sera?"
"...No."
Lee Sera answered in a hushed voice.
No way. That can't be right.
Officer Park Haneul smiled warmly and held out her smartphone.
A group chat.
With trembling eyes, Lee Sera scanned the list of names in the chat.
High-ranking agents appeared in a long column, and among them was the Commander's name.
And the Commander had left a message like this:
There was no mistaking it.
She had grasped the situation before anyone else and taken action.
A reasonable, sensible response.
All so that no more malicious rumors or falsehoods about Yerin would spread.
She had stepped in to handle it, even though it was late at night.
...Then why?
The question gnawed at her.
Why had she said what she said to me, then?
Why?
After handling everything this well...
"Thanks to the Commander, the initial response was incredibly fast. We managed to take the video down before it spread too far, so it's a relief."
Lee Sera checked the community site where Yerin's video had been posted.
[Post deleted]
The post had been wiped away cleanly.
And it wasn't just that one.
Nowhere among the community's posts could she find a single ugly word about Yerin.
...Of course it's like this. Obviously.
Yerin hadn't actually done anything terrible in the first place.
All she'd done was use an irritated tone. That was it.
The real villain here was whoever wrote the original post trying to drag it into public view.
But.
Lee Sera's heart denied it desperately, even as her head knew the truth.
Who it was thanks to.
The very person who had never once been of any help.
It was because she had stepped out in front and given the orders.
...Which meant that, in the end, the whole thing had ended as a mere hiccup only because the response had been so swift.
Lee Sera's pupils trembled faintly.
Toward the Commander, who had acted so decisively for Yerin's sake...
I, I...
The moment Lee Sera's expression turned strange, Officer Park Haneul cut in.
"Sera, there's no need to worry so much. Yerin's in class right now, completely oblivious to all of this. We've already identified the original poster, too."
How...
Lee Sera wanted to ask, but she already knew the answer.
It was an answer that didn't need to be dragged out into the open.
...The Commander.
It was thanks to the Commander.
"The Commander really outdid herself this time. Does she do PR management even after hours or something? Anyway, thanks to her, this looks like it'll blow over without a scratch."
Just then, the phone rang on Park Haneul's desk.
"...Yerin's agency? Ah-ha. Oh, yes. No, no, this is just what we're supposed to do... All thanks to the Commander, really. Yes, yes, understood."
Officer Park Haneul answered the call with a bright face, then turned back.
"The agency's CEO couldn't stop singing praises about how fast the initial response was, apparently? So, Sera, you too — this time at least..."
Sera.
The rumor that she had thrown a fit at the Commander had already spread through every corner of the Security Bureau.
So Officer Park Haneul trailed off, stealing wary glances at her.
"Right."
Lee Sera murmured and nodded.
I need to... look at the Commander again.
After leaving Division 6 and stepping back into the elevator, Lee Sera slammed her forehead into the mirror.
Hard enough to leave a red bruise blooming on her brow.
Because she had no other way to express the tangled storm inside her.
"...Why."
If the Commander had just said a single word to her, none of this would have happened.
Something as simple as: I already handled it.
Don't worry about it.
It's already been taken care of.
If she had only said that much...
Hey. You worthless freak.
She hadn't meant to touch on the Commander's deepest wound.
So why had she said it?
Lee Sera remembered it with perfect clarity.
Exactly what the Commander had shown her, face to face.
Why should I?
Those sharp, frigid eyes.
That indifferent expression.
No — worse, the corners of her mouth curling faintly upward, as if to say serves you right.
It had been an expression laced with mockery.
With that face, the Commander had remained perfectly composed.
Malice packed in, brimming to the very top.
As if the matter had nothing whatsoever to do with her.
As if it were, if anything, a sweet piece of comeuppance.
And with the most delighted face imaginable, she had held up that note.
Why should I?
In that moment, she hadn't been able to bear it.
She couldn't forgive it.
So she had simply acted exactly like the Commander.
Viciously.
She had wanted to carve into the Commander, with these very hands, exactly what her place was. What she was worth.
"..."
Lee Sera slowly looked down at her own hand.
— 25th floor.
Even after the elevator reached its destination, Lee Sera stayed rooted to the spot for a long while.
Staring blankly at the hand that had seized the Commander by the hair.
This time, at least...
Truly.
She had been in the wrong.
Lee Sera hated the Commander blindly, unthinkingly.
But that didn't mean she had no conscience.
"...I've decided."
The Commander was always spiteful toward the Units.
Sabotaging everything they did, deliberately choosing the things they hated most.
Mocking them openly whenever a mission failed or the numbers came in bad.
Repeating, over and over, only the words that sank into people's hearts like a blade.
That was why she hated her.
Intensely.
"But."
Today had been different.
The Commander had done her absolute best. Genuinely.
From any angle, there was no argument to be made against it.
And yet, what did I... do?
She had glared at that Commander like a lunatic.
And hurled words too filthy to repeat.
Thud.
Lee Sera dragged her heavy feet to a stop in front of the command office.
Bzzz—
The moment the door slid open, the Commander came into view.
Ugh... nngh.
There she sat in her chair, moaning softly, one arm clutched tight against her side.
Her face was dead pale, and her whole body shook like a leaf in the wind.
Flinch.
Lee Sera couldn't hide her alarm.
...Did no one.
Did no one come to help her?
Anyone could see, at a single glance, how much pain she was in — and no one?
Truly, no one at all?
Lee Sera glanced around the office.
Nobody paid the slightest attention.
Everyone sat at their own monitors, fingers clattering away at keyboards, occasionally trading half-hearted laughs at some inane joke.
"Hh... ugh... nngh—"
Not one of them spared the Commander a thought.
As if it were perfectly fine to just leave her like that.
Gulp.
Lee Sera swallowed dryly.
This was... a bit much.
Even if it wasn't her place to say it.
But.
But still.
Lee Sera walked slowly toward the Commander.
An unpleasant, sticky feeling crawled up from the soles of her feet and consumed her whole body.
What was she supposed to say?
Which words?
That this whole affair had been a misunderstanding.
And that what had just happened was born of that same misunderstanding.
...But.
Commander.
You were also massively in the wrong.
After acting like that all this time, trying to change your attitude now just reeks.
...No.
She couldn't say that.
Lee Sera's very soul was screaming at her.
What she had to say now was an apology.
That she had misunderstood, just now.
That she was sorry.
Those were the words she needed to say.
Then, mid-step, her eyes met the Commander's.
Her heart hammered so hard it felt ready to burst from her chest.
And in that instant.
"..."
The light in the Commander's eyes changed, in the space of a breath.
From the eyes of someone grimly forcing down her pain, groan after groan —
to something unmistakably
tinged with loathing.
Huh...?
No. Something was off.
It was definitely the same look the Commander always wore — brimming over with hatred, with insecurity, with every other ugly emotion, fixed on her.
She was certain of it.
The Commander was, after all, stunningly beautiful.
Whatever she did, it imprinted itself easily on memory.
Lee Sera remembered every glance, every expression, every last gesture.
So why.
Why, only right now —
did the Commander look so utterly pitiful?
She had never once thought such a thing before.
But the Commander right now looked like someone wearing layer upon layer of clothes that didn't fit.
In other words —
acting.
...It couldn't possibly be.
But the furrow of her brow.
The way she packed loathing into her eyes.
For just the tiniest sliver of a moment, Lee Sera felt...
that she was performing it.
There's no way that's it, though.
Lee Sera gathered her courage.
She would charge straight through the wall that had just risen in front of her.
Without quite meaning to.
"...Um, so."
Wearing an awkward smile, she approached the Commander slowly.
Maybe I should just... ask her.
Was there some circumstance you couldn't help, all this time?
...No.
That wasn't what she needed to say right now.
The apology.
A heartfelt one.
That for this, at least — for this — she had been wrong not to look into things properly.
That she was sorry for the things she'd said.
...And asking whether her side was really injured or not.
Those were the words. Those, and nothing else.
Who could say?
Maybe this would be the turning point — the moment her relationship with the Commander, sliding toward its worst, finally righted itself.
They had both wronged each other, so becoming close overnight was a stretch...
But even so.
Lee Sera steeled herself.
She swallowed her pride.
She extended her hand toward the Commander.
"I'm sor—"
As of 10:23, a B-Rank alert has been issued for Seongdong District.
At the exact moment Lee Sera tried to say the words I'm sorry —
a red alert shrieked to life, and sirens began wailing from every direction.
The alarm that announced an Angel was about to appear.
"Lee Sera, currently on the premises: proceed immediately to the Heliport. I repeat. Lee Sera, currently on the premises: proceed to..."
It seemed she was the one being deployed.
B-Rank.
No easy challenge. One that might demand her life.
...And yet.
Lee Sera's gaze locked onto the Commander.
Onto the Commander, whose eyes had gone wide at the words
B-Rank.