Black Badger

People’s eyes turned toward me.

Pretending not to notice the prickling stares, I set down my whiskey glass.

“Did it splash?”

Good thing I’d been turning my head while drinking.

I pulled out a napkin and wiped the table.

“Sorry.”

Ricardo and Jonathan silently reassured me that the whiskey hadn’t splashed on them.

Jonathan took the napkin out of my hand, and Ricardo waved his hand at me as I started checking my jacket.

That’s fine, but...

“Friend?”

Of course he couldn’t just let it go.

“Old friend?”

“Yes! We both did online schooling due to circumstances, and we became friends then.”

“Oh!”

Chen suddenly yelled loudly.

I had been very deliberately ignoring all the noise, so my head snapped toward him by reflex. Since I was sitting at a table pushed into a corner, I could see the entire year-end party hall at a glance.

Most people were looking at me.

“So that’s why you were staring at the TV like you were possessed back then?!”

Chen had stood up entirely.

“You were totally glued to the F1 award ceremony back then!”

“Was I?”

Kairos glanced at me, turning toward the fingertip Chen was pointing with, and gave a bright smile.

Don’t look this way, you bastard.

“That makes me happy.”

Don’t say things that can be misunderstood by other people.

“But didn’t you ask if he was really that famous a racer?”

“Yes... we’ve known each other for a long time, but I didn’t know Jack was an F1 racer.”

“Huh? How does that make sense?”

“You’re telling me you were friends, and you didn’t know Blackjack was an F1 racer?!”

Chen blinked in confusion, and the senior named Dante looked outright offended.

Only Kairos laughed boldly under everyone’s eyes.

You can laugh right now?

“It’s perfectly possible. I was always the one more interested in Hildebert. Hilde never really cared about my job.”

“Hey. You never told me.”

People collectively recoiled and stared at me like, ‘How could you.’ I felt wronged.

Is this favoritism or what.

But the seniors didn’t accept my objection.

“Wow. That’s seriously too much.”

“A love so painful wasn’t love at all....”

“Kinda cool though? An F1 star player being all lofty and untouched by attention from his own friend.”

“Blackjack! Be friends with me too!”

“Taleb! Be my friend! Let’s hang out as a trio with our Blackjack!”

“But didn’t he follow him here? How could he not know the former job of the friend he followed into becoming a Badger?”

“No.”

The senior sitting next to Dante threw out a remark that stabbed me unfairly.

I turned my whole body toward the hall and defended myself.

“He took the Black Badger recruitment exam without saying a word to me, sir. He didn’t tell me anything.”

“Would’ve been embarrassing if I failed.”

Kairos flashed a grin.

Several huge senior men muttered about how they might fall for him....

Get a grip, all of you.

They did not.

“Shit, hey, that can happen! Every time they met they probably just got drunk together, what conversations would they have had!”

“Yeah! Welcome, Blackjack! I’ll be the first to buy you dinner, so keep your schedule open!”

“I’ve cherished Hildebert so much till now... you remember, right Hilde? Huh? You remember? Our wonderful last supply mission?”

“Shut up. I even did a construction mission with him. We used the same shovels.”

“Hey, Taleb is a celebrity now~. Maybe more famous than Blackjack. Might be hard to even make plans with him.”

“I see him in the cafeteria every day though.”

“That part is true.”

“Taleb, didn’t you eat at the cafeteria yesterday and the day before too?”

“Yes. The cafeteria food is good.”

“Your taste buds are really....”

KWAANG!

Ricardo muttered in disbelief, and suddenly someone slammed a hand down on the table.

It was Richard Green.

Been a while, sir.

The surroundings went quiet instantly. Everyone’s focus shifted to Richard Green.

Is this okay with the leadership still here?

Of course, Richard Green didn’t care about the leadership’s eyes.

“You joined Black Badger for such a trivial reason?”

Kairos wasn’t flustered.

“I wanted to stand on the front line with an old friend.”

“Do you even know what it means to stand on the front line.”

“I’m prepared.”

A fellow redhead showed a smile of a completely different feeling.

“I may not understand now, but I’ll work hard to learn.”

“Who’s your mentor?”

Green crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes.

A hand shot up into the air over the suddenly-quiet hall.

Ami swallowed her chicken feet and yelled:

“Me!”

The seniors made bizarre noises.

The chilled party hall heated up again. Cheers burst out from tables all around. Reactions were all over the place — envy toward Kairos, envy toward Ami, wondering if the Personnel Director had lost his mind....

Even in the explosion of reactions, Ami and Kairos kept their own pace.

Anyway, thank God the attention shifted from me to Ami.

I let out a sigh and turned my head.

“Sorry. Your glass was empty.”

“Forget it, just drink comfortably~.” 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Even hearing that, you can’t completely drop your guard.

As I refilled the empty glass, I prayed for this year-end party to finish safely. That this mistake would be smoothed over, and we’d get through the rest without trouble, peacefully.

***

“So that’s when you spewed that lie.”

The two seniors who had called me over had gone home.

As the party peaked, the leadership left, and Jonathan started dropping silverware, Ricardo signaled that he’d be heading out. He said he hated getting drunk enough to lose control — he only drank until the buzz was pleasant.

Very him.

Ricardo left with Jonathan, who could at least still walk.

Ric will get him home fine. After seeing them to the elevator, I joined another table. I planned to stay until Kairos got free from the seniors.

At the moment, I was trapped at Jason Trevain’s table.

Life.

“For someone who pretended not to know anything about Yehyeon’s videos, how is your footwork exactly the same as his, huh?”

“Sir. As I’ve said repeatedly, I really didn’t know.”

I was giving Jason the same explanation for who knows the how-many-th time.

“I don’t know what the person who taught me swordsmanship used as reference. I really never watched the videos. Didn’t even know they existed. Truly.”

“Shit, how does that make any sense.”

“But he didn’t even know his friend was an F1 driver, right?”

Chen snickered while chewing buttered fries.

“Maybe he was an extreme shut-in? Like an outcast or something.”

“There’s a limit to lacking common sense.”

Trevain’s frown didn’t ease.

He stared at my bitter smile, then tilted his head.

“Not drinking?”

“I’ll drink.”

I downed the vodka overflowing in the cup.

Some spilled while I drank, and curses flew immediately — how dare I spill booze poured by a senior, didn’t I know company-bought booze had to be licked off the table if it dripped.

I didn’t mind if they kept pouring, just please don’t tell me to lick the table.

While thinking that, I took the new glass — and someone approached behind Trevain.

“Jay. Why are you riding the rookie that hard?”

...Jay?

“Send the kid off and come pour for me.”

“Ria.”

Jason Trevain’s voice shifted subtly.

I stared openly at Trevain looking up at the senior named Ria.

The atmosphere feels... strange?

“Kid, go~.”

The seductive beauty resting a hand on Trevain’s shoulder smiled at me.

“The guys over there want to drink with you. Go mingle. Give us some space. Let’s drink next time?”

“Yes.”

A good person.

She had been the first Badger to speak to me during introductions. We’d brushed past each other at last year’s year-end party, but never had a real conversation.

Come to think of it, last year she also shut Chen up with one sentence before walking off.

I stood up immediately, not missing the chance, and bowed.

“Thank you.”

As I slipped away from the table, a line reached my ears — and I froze.

“They used to date?”

“Ages ago.”

“Holy shit.”

What the hell.

Jason Trevain is handsome and skilled, sure, but... how could someone with that personality have dated someone with such a normal one?

Still reeling, I sat at the table that beckoned me over.

“Hey!”

Dante and two men I didn’t know, plus Leeho, were seated there.

Dante yelled the moment I sat down.

“Have you ever ridden in Blackjack’s car?”

“Excuse me? Ah, yes. I have.”

“What brand was it.”

The man next to Dante asked seriously.

I met his sharp gaze with discomfort.

“I think it was a Ferrari.”

“Holy shit!”

“God I’m jealous.”

“Let’s be close from now on.”

Dante, who looked like nine out of ten people on the street would mistake him for a gang member, stuck out his hand toward me.

I awkwardly took it.

The two seniors next to him also extended their hands.

“Cheon Lin.”

“Karsten.”

“...I look forward to working with you.”

After shaking hands with the seniors overflowing with enthusiasm to get close to Kairos, I accepted another drink.

They wanted childhood stories about Kairos. I focused on describing his personality. That, at least, I didn’t need to lie about.

How the hell did this guy get this famous.

I sweated trying to make everything line up. Only once the three seniors started discussing F1 among themselves did I finally exhale a small sigh and pretend to listen.

Until Leeho, silently knocking back soju, threw me a question.

“Didn’t you say you didn’t have your memories?”

He’d aimed the question so only I could hear.

Thankfully, I didn’t spit out the alcohol. This time I managed to swallow it.

I gulped down the soju and gave a bitter smile.

“I did, but I’ve remembered everything now.”

“Yeah? So how’d your memories get blown out?”

“I still don’t know the cause. Maybe I was under extreme stress....”

“Ah.”

Leeho made a sound of understanding.

“That can happen. Happens pretty often.”

Thankfully, he didn’t dig deeper.

Muttering that I must’ve had a hard time too, he lightly tapped my back.

I gave a faint smile at the senior who, as always, looked tired today as well.

This person really is full of affection.

I used both hands to pour soju into the glass he’d set down.

“Let me offer you one.”

“Oh. Sure.”

The man who’d been picking up a piece of raw sweet shrimp with his chopsticks set the shrimp onto his plate.

He took the soju bottle from my hand, filled my glass, then examined my face.

“Damn, you really drink well. You still look totally fine?”

“Yes. Well... I’m still comfortable.”

“You’re gonna get your name added to the list of the year-end party’s last survivors.”

We tapped our soju glasses in a toast.

“Hasn’t changed since Walker.”

“Who drinks the best?”

“The general consensus is Samuel Han and William Walker.”

So Samuel and Walker can drink better than Richard Green or Ska Owen.

That’s surprising.

While I was quietly processing that, Leeho added something even more surprising.

“There’s a dark horse.”

“Sir? A dark horse?”

“The Personnel Director.”

...What?

“You never heard the details of how Walker joined?”

“No, sir.”

“He lost after taking the Personnel Director’s drinking challenge bait.”

“...What?”

Is this real?

“Back then Walker, who was a problem-solver, went head-to-head with the Personnel Director and ended up collapsing first. The Personnel Director took Walker’s fallen hand and pressed it onto the contract. That’s how he got caught with no escape.”

“You’re serious?”

What kind of primitive recruitment method is this, something that shouldn’t even happen in an empire?

“He could sue and they wouldn’t have any excuse.”

“So the next day Walker broke into the Commander’s house. Apparently even punched a hole in the wall.”

“You’re exaggerating, sir.”

“Ami says it’s true. All three of them were home at the time, and Yun and the Commander thought Walker was an illegal enhanced-body owner.”

“What.”

I was so dumbfounded I couldn’t speak.

I froze for a moment processing this enormous ‘fact’ I’d just learned.

Then I turned my head toward the Personnel Director.

The bewitching man who, even during wartime, supposedly never stopped dating.

His face right now was red as a beet, wobbling as he tried to stay on his feet.

“He’s totally drunk.”

“Don’t be fooled.”

Walker’s ominous voice came from behind me.

I flinched and slowly raised my head.

The frightening senior was looking down at me.

There is no one in Black Badger who looks as intimidating as this man.

“It’s all an act.”

“That? That’s an act, sir?”

“That deceitful bastard pretends to be as drunk as he wants whenever he wants.”

Walker sat in the empty seat beside me, poured whiskey into his beer glass, and downed it.

“Be careful, kid. That guy lies way better than you.”

Well then.

I didn’t argue. I didn’t make excuses. I simply gave a bitter smile and poured whiskey into his empty glass.

“It’s true that I lost my memories.”

Walker snorted and drank what I’d poured. It seemed he wasn’t going to interrogate me right this moment.

Maybe he’ll never interrogate me at all. Maybe he doesn’t care. Either way, I was grateful enough that he didn’t demand that I explain every contradiction right here and now.

He has sharp instincts, and the old spider (the Commander) had called me in earlier — he must’ve suspected something for a long time.

Is he just letting it slide, then...?

Well, even if he buried my past for me, I was curious about his.

I opened my mouth to ask whether the story Leeho had told was actually true.

At that moment someone called my name.

“Taleb!”

I blinked and turned my head.

“Blackjack says he’s gonna follow your pick!”

“Sir?”

What pick?

“First ride!”

The seniors around Kairos shouted brightly.

“He says he’ll give the very first seat to whoever you choose!”

Kairos, that bastard, is drunk.

I clicked my tongue softly and looked at my fellow redhead. His face wasn’t flushed, but his eyes were a little unfocused. Looking down at the table with a smile and a glass in hand, Kairos’s eyes showed heavy sleepiness.

I need to get him out of here.

As I stood up, a barrage of pleas from the seniors hit me.

“I’ll buy you a full-course meal, Taleb! Pick me!”

“Hey, remember our bond, right? Our last supply mission was great, wasn’t it, huh?”

“Taleb. Remember when we dug together? Next time I’ll do all the digging. I won’t disappoint you.”

“Kid. I bought this limited-edition game that just came out, I can lend it to you. I waited three hours in line. Reviews are insane.”

“White-haired comrade! Let ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) us keep the loyalty of the white-haired!”

“What white-haired, you lunatic. You have light gray hair.”

“How about choosing the three-month cafeteria free-pass? That’s me. My ID card.”

“I’ll make sure you don’t even lift a finger on the next supply mission!”

“I’ll buy you fine dining!”

“I’ll take you on a fighter jet!”

Ami shot to her feet and shouted.

Why are you joining this chaos.

The people next to Ami booed loudly, yelling that as his mentor she could ride anytime, so she shouldn’t be greedy.

But Ami, buried among broad-shouldered male juniors and barely visible even when standing, just looked at me with big sparkling eyes.

Cute.

There’s no helping it when she looks like that.

How do I possibly refuse those eyes?

And besides, Ami’s taken such good care of me till now—

“Hilde.”

Bobby crossed her legs elegantly and lifted her chin.

“I can call my father and have him find the president of that Lexic place or whatever it is you like.”

I went to Bobby and dropped to my knees.

I took the hand she offered with both of mine and lowered my eyes.

“Please call me your minion.”

Explosions of protest. Badgers standing up in outrage.

I ignored every one of their voices.

Bobby covered her mouth with the back of her hand and laughed triumphantly.

“Hohohohoho!”

Those delicious noodles.

Please let me eat Lexic noodles again.

***

I got Kairos out of the year-end party.

Ignoring the people yelling after us, I hoisted my fellow redhead over my back. Bowing nonstop and apologizing, I made my way out of the hall.

Kairos stayed quiet on my back until we reached the sleeping room.

Only after I set him down and told him, “Good work. Sleep now,” did he finally speak.

“I’ll never lose you again.”

I looked at my fellow redhead with his eyes closed.

Then snorted.

“Sleep.”

I covered him with a blanket and left the sleeping room.

When I returned to the hall, I started running after Ami, who was sprinting around the place. She was so fast it took some effort to catch her.

“Hey, peanut! Stop running around, you’re making me dizzy!”

Ro shouting.

With Walker’s help I finally caught her.

Holding the squirming senior at my side, I walked out of the hall.

“I want more drinks!”

“Yun is waiting for you.”

I gently coaxed the round-eyed senior as I walked toward the labs.

“Have a drink with your family.”

With bloodshot eyes Yun came out of the labs and picked up Choi Ami.

Thanking me, he headed down to the basement parking lot. We split ways, and I returned to the hall.

Past midnight, the top floor had grown fairly quiet. They’d tried to clean, but the tables were still messy. People were sprawled everywhere.

I shoved the people too drunk to function into the sleeping room and cleaned the hall.

After one round of cleanup, only the survivors remained.

Richard Green, William Walker, Samuel Han, Shu Diamond who hadn’t taken a single sip of alcohol.

And Ska Owen, who joined late. These must be the “last survivors” Leeho mentioned.

I gave Ska a faint smile as he told me I’d worked hard.

“You should go rest too.”

As I came inside, Ska looked back at me and said,

“We’re calling people tomorrow to clean anyway.”

“Yes. Thank you. Then, I’ll—”

That moment the door to the hall flew open.

Seniors whose faces I recognized but whose names I still didn’t know came in.

The seniors I’d beaten up together with Hesh and Tom in the training yard long ago.

“Hey. Taleb.”

One of them, face flushed and swaying, gave me a crooked grin.

“Your ex-girlfriend showed up?”

“...Sir?”

What is he talking about now.

Whose ex-girlfriend.

My ex-girlfriend?

I don’t have an ex-girlfriend.

No way... it better not be Jaeyeon—