Black Badger

I should have checked who it was before waking them up.

I cursed my own stupidity.

I should have remembered that the Supreme Commander lived in this house too. How could I have just barged into my superior's home and woken them up like this? It was the height of rudeness.

I quickly lowered my eyes and apologized.

"I'm really sorry."

"What for?"

Ye-hyeon muttered with his head down and eyes closed.

He looked half-asleep to anyone watching. The sight doubled my guilt.

I kept blaming myself and apologized again.

"For waking you while you were sleeping. I'm sorry. Please don't mind me and go back to sleep."

"Okay."

Ye-hyeon replied in a groggy voice and flopped back onto the sofa.

Silence returned in an instant. I watched the man lying there with his eyes closed and carefully backed away.

I decided to just quietly slip into the guest room by the entrance like this.

"Huh."

Ye-hyeon's previously closed eyes half-opened.

"But why are you here?"

"Oh."

I froze in place, having been backing away like a thief.

I glanced at my boss, who was staring blankly at the ceiling, before answering.

"Well, Yoon told me to use the guest room. He said the house would probably be empty. I didn't know you'd be here. I'm sorry. I was already imposing...."

"Is there a problem at the Old Building?"

My boss sat up again. I felt like I was dying of guilt.

Ye-hyeon lifted his pale body and pressed the corners of his eyes with his hand.

I chose my words carefully.

"There's no problem at the Old Building, but I had a small issue with Senior Mullen. So...."

"Mullen?"

Ye-hyeon's eyes widened.

His already large eyes grew even bigger.

"John Mullen?"

"Yes. It's because I did something foolish. It's nothing, so please don't worry about it."

"Did he say he wanted to experiment on you, and you said okay?"

Was he a ghost?

I stared at my boss in bewilderment.

"How did you know?"

"I had a feeling that's what happened."

I knew I shouldn't lie in front of this person.

Ye-hyeon slowly got up from the sofa. His white shirt and black pants were all wrinkled. It looked like he'd slept on the sofa. But my boss didn't seem to care. He walked slowly through the living room with sleepy eyes.

I couldn't bring myself to move from my spot.

Ye-hyeon shuffled diagonally across the living room before he stopped and looked at me.

"Have you eaten dinner?"

I hadn't, but I was scared that if I answered honestly, he'd offer to make some.

But before I could respond, Ye-hyeon said,

"Judging by your face, you haven't."

I really knew I shouldn't lie in front of this person.

Ye-hyeon shuffled off again. The sound of his bare feet on the clean floor echoed through the living room. His gait screamed off-duty. Everything about him was just so relaxed.

Was this what they meant by gentle to the point of being bland?

The pale man wilted his way across the spacious house and opened the fridge door.

With his head buried in the fridge, he asked,

"What do you like?"

"No, Commander. I'm really fine."

"I haven't eaten either."

"Then I'll order something."

"Yeah. Order whatever you want. The card's on the dining table."

Yoon. I wished he would come back soon.

I gauged my boss's intention that anything would do and ordered sashimi after some thought. I tried to pay with my phone, but I was blocked by Ye-hyeon's firm insistence on using the card from the table.

Unable to argue further, I quickly ordered from the sashimi place he recommended. One full sashimi set, estimated arrival in 30 minutes.

"I'm going to sleep a bit more. Make yourself comfortable."

Ye-hyeon headed back to the sofa with his eyes half-closed.

I nodded and dashed into the guest room.

The moment I closed the door, I let out a sigh of relief at being alone. The place where I'd stayed that chilling night when the cabin was wrecked. Still, having been here once before, it felt somewhat familiar.

In the dim blue darkness, there was a chair and a simple bed.

I walked quietly to the chair and sat down.

Without turning on the room light, I checked my phone.

People who'd gained some freedom over the weekend had sent messages.

[Cohort Chat / Hesi: I'll bring all the game packs from home this week, so let's retry next week!]

[Cohort Chat / Tom: Have a safe trip back to your family home. Hilde, I pray you escape the stalking unscathed....]

[Cohort Chat / Tom: I don't know why she only does it to you.]

[Ro: That guy's at it again?]

[Restricted Caller ID: You seemed to have completely forgotten about it?]

What was this?

I looked down at the message from the Restricted Caller ID.

The notification screen on my display. The last message stood out as odd.

What? Was this from the same person who sent that crazy message last time?

But last time, there was a number. An unknown one, but still.

Probably different people. The previous owner of this number must have had issues.

Frowning, I tapped the notification. There were several messages from the restricted number.

[Restricted Caller ID: You really forgot everything?]

[Restricted Caller ID: No way, after what you did.]

[Restricted Caller ID: Ah, you probably haven't forgotten it all. You remember something, right?]

[Restricted Caller ID: Or not?]

[Restricted Caller ID: You really forgot everything?]

[Restricted Caller ID: Really?]

[Restricted Caller ID: Fuck]

[Restricted Caller ID: At least you shouldn't do this to me]

[Restricted Caller ID: Remember, you lunatic!]

Who were you?

Who the hell were you? Did we know each other?

Reading the suspicious, impulsive messages alone left me stunned.

It gave me chills too. No matter who sent them or why, the sender clearly wasn't in their right mind.

This was too weird.

Should I change my number?

It was probably not meant for me anyway. But the fact that I had amnesia made it feel unsettling. If these kept coming, I should mention it to Yoon or Ami.

Anyway, there was nothing I could do about it now.

I closed the mysterious message window and started replying to the normal ones.

Trying to recall what the unknown person had shouted about forgetting, as I sat fiddling with my phone, the clear ring of the doorbell jolted me to my feet.

To keep my boss, who was deep asleep on the sofa, from waking, I rushed to the front door.

*

"There's banana pudding."

Sadly, Yoon was late, leaving me to eat sashimi alone with my highest-ranking superior.

Ye-hyeon, who had been sleepily munching on the sashimi, suddenly spoke up.

"Have some later. It's good."

"Huh, yes. Thank you."

"How's Yoon?"

I nearly spat out my miso soup.

The unexpected question sent a chill down my spine. His expression suggested his switch was still off, but he was still my Supreme Commander.

I gently set down my chopsticks.

"Better than expected."

Ye-hyeon blinked his large eyes once.

The man staring at me smiled faintly after a moment.

"That's a relief. It sounds like an honest answer."

"Yes. If I said it's great, you wouldn't believe me, so I answered honestly."

"Good job."

"Yes. And we're really getting along better than I thought. I don't know what Yoon thinks of me, but it was Yoon who first suggested I try using a sword...."

"A sword?"

Ye-hyeon's chopsticks, which had been heading for the halibut sashimi, stopped in mid-air.

My own chopsticks, about to pick up some salmon nigiri, froze too.

Was he surprised? It looked like Yoon hadn't reported it separately.

We stayed locked in place, staring at each other for a while. Ye-hyeon broke the stillness first. He kept his gaze fixed on me while casually moving his arm.

I resumed eating as I watched my superior, recalling the memory from a month ago.

That video.

The one that had earned him the title of hero of turbulent times. The video everyone had seen. The person who had faced the Tier 10 creature in it now sat in front of me, slowly picking up a piece of halibut sashimi.

I watched Ye-hyeon swallow the sashimi before breaking the silence.

"Commander."

"Yeah?"

"I saw that video."

The switch flipped on.

The change was quite visible. The posture of the person who had been sluggishly eating sashimi straightened in an instant. Eyes free of any sleepiness. No more shuffling; his chopsticks clacked firmly on the table.

An inscrutable gaze.

Ye-hyeon waited until I spoke next.

Looking into his deep, battle-hardened black eyes, I said,

"By any chance."

"Yeah. Ask comfortably."

"By any chance, that creature...."

There were so many things I wanted to ask that my mind spun.

But in the end, the question that bubbled up from the tangled mess in my head wasn't whether I was the Tier 10 creature, or if he knew something about me.

I asked this:

"Do you know why that creature hesitated?"

What emotion had passed over it?

A fleeting moment of emotion that I might not have caught if I hadn't focused all my attention. It had pooled in Ye-hyeon's eyes and vanished, so intensely that I couldn't bring myself to ask follow-ups.

Even though he hadn't given a clear answer to my question.

"Did you start practicing the sword after seeing that video?"

"No. When I first went outside, Yoon suggested I try using a sword. I saw the video because others mentioned it.... Oh. Yoon definitely knows how to use a sword, but he said it's not enough to send me out, so no plans to go out for a month, and since then, up to today, I've only sparred indoors."

"Good job."

Which part exactly was he praising?

I was puzzled but didn't ask this time either.

Ye-hyeon looked down with a thoughtful expression. Then, picking up a piece of tempura with his chopsticks, he quietly added,

"Let's spar sometime later."

"Ah, yes. It would be an honor. Yoon did say that if I surpass his sword skills, I should ask you for a spar. Not sure if that future will come, though."

"It will."

Ye-hyeon said something encouraging—or whatever it was.

Then, after staring at the round shrimp tempura for a while, he added,

"If you beat me with swordsmanship, I'll give you that sword."

The Supreme Commander spoke in a pensive tone.

The shrimp tempura caught between his chopsticks split in half with a snap.

"The sword from the video. I have it."

I couldn't find words to reply for a long time.

We ate dinner in prolonged silence. Until Yoon, who had successfully shaken off John Mullen's stalking, returned home with a refreshed expression.