PASSION Chapter 5 Part 1

Chapter 5 Part 1

[Yuuji]PASSION Volume 2

They called that Saturday morning the crocodile's tears.

Those who had been tormented by duties day and night throughout the week—having to stay sharply alert and tense even outside regular hours—couldn't rest on weekends either.

Usually they could freely go out from Friday evening until Sunday evening, but that Saturday they couldn't even leave designated areas without permission, let alone go out. Because training would resume from Saturday afternoon.

They were at least allowed to rest Saturday morning to store up some energy, but after being worked to exhaustion without rest through Friday night, they ground their teeth at the instructor's seemingly merciful words "Rest in the morning and gather in the afternoon."

"When training starts in the afternoon, why don't we pretend to make mistakes and tear out the instructors' throats first?"

"To go for an instructor's throat you'd have to deal with both the instructor and the Officer following them... If one would be tough enough, can you handle both at once?"

"That's true. Then shall we form teams? I'll take the instructor, you take the Officer."

"Alright. Which instructor should we target?"

"The European bastards' instructor of course!"

The men who were sprawled on mattresses in the free sparring room without exercising spent time chatting about such trivial things.

Three hours remained until assembly time. Among them crying out in agony every time they checked the time—only two hours left before assembly, only one hour of comfort left—Tae-ui sat curled up hugging his knees.

Though he had wanted to lie comfortably in his room reading books or solving puzzles—something that had rubbed off on him living with Moller—for those few hours, he ended up sitting here after being dragged along by Tou who shared his room.

Thinking similar conversations were probably passing among the European branch members sitting some distance away, Tae-ui looked at them one by one with deeply puzzled eyes.

When Tae-ui quietly sighed, Yuan Ho who was lying beside him tossing and turning asked what was wrong. Tae-ui went "Hmm" and spoke seriously:

"Just had a thought. Though UNHRDO is considered an organization of incredible talents from the outside, these men are UNHRDO branch members... Like Carlo over there sticking his hand in his trunks scratching his crotch, or Tou showing opium addict tendencies fidgeting since morning because he's out of cigarettes, or Qing the hardcore fan—in our country we call such people 'fangirls'—still sniffling every night holding photos of Mae Yeon-bang asking why she left him behind... People outside would be appalled if they knew."

"Hmm... Now that you mention it, our branch does seem quite serious."

"But seeing the other side isn't much better makes me somewhat relieved."

Tae-ui nodded toward a group of European branch members gathered by the opposite wall. They were playing just as disgracefully. Among them were guys playing flasher, guys who got stepped on by a flasher in their sleep and jumped up to hit the wrong person, and even guys in a corner fiddling with hwatu cards—not even playing cards—from who knows where.

He recalled his uncle's words that there would be no need to worry about finding work after leaving here. Rather, the worry would be choosing where to go.

Deceiving all those companies by passing off such men as talents for money, this was truly a fraud organization... Tae-ui looked at them with white eyes before turning away.

But thinking about it, those guys were better. Though somewhat shocking, from an employer's perspective they would be successful if they just did their assigned work well without causing problems. The issue was producing guys who couldn't be controlled by employers and had serious personality problems.

For example...

Tae-ui started to recall something but quickly shook his head. He had almost thought about someone there was no good in thinking about. Keep thinking about such guys and a person would become gloomy.

"Ah-- Rest time is almost over. Need to head out soon. Time for another round of running around is approaching. Ugh, this is when having one smoke before going would make things go well."

The future opium addict spoke while restlessly pacing before flopping down beside Tae-ui. Tae-ui looked pitifully at Tou who was chewing on a match in his mouth instead of having cigarettes.

"Does chewing that taste like cigarettes?"

"Do you think it would? Ugh... Just one cigarette, no, I won't even ask for that much, just wish I had even a butt someone smoked and threw away. Just one puff."

Tae-ui felt it would definitely get him beaten if he mentioned now that he had thrown away the cigarette he took from Tou earlier without properly smoking it while it was still long. He felt sorry.

"Wonder if any European branch guys have cigarettes. Hey, if you notice any European branch guys who smell like cigarettes during training later, let me know. I'll just grab and shake them down for cigarettes."

The structure of how threats and extortion happened within the branch seemed visible. Tae-ui looked at Tou with white eyes before turning away. He would have to buy him some nicotine-free cigarettes later.

Tae-ui scratched his head while checking the time. Not much time remained until the 1 PM assembly. He loosened his neck by tilting his head side to side while asking no one in particular:

"But about pretending to make mistakes in training and taking out the instructor's neck, is that allowed?"

"Well, it's basically indiscriminate sparring. Come to think of it, this is your first time. The rules are simple. If you catch someone, you just beat them. Of course if you get caught, you just get beaten. If you don't want to get hit, shake them off and run away. The time is divided in two, with pursuers and pursued switching. The pursued can only defend. Attacks are only allowed for the purpose of shaking off the attack team and escaping. That's all. But because the rules are simple, that many more accidents happen. Actually, the clause about being able to counterattack to shake off attacks and escape means you can counterattack anyone attacking you. Then it's only a matter of time before it becomes random dogfighting."

"What's that? Then can't you just hide in a corner until time runs out?"

"If you get caught while hiding you'll definitely get beaten, so running is better. Well, if you're confident in hiding properly you could hide, but the space is limited."

Tae-ui looked incredulously at Tou answering him. Though he couldn't tell if something so brutally simple could really be training, Tou and the others' expressions were quite serious.

"No joke, you better be careful. Take it lightly and you'll really be in trouble."

Carlo muttered while lying down some distance away. Tae-ui glanced at him.

He seemed to understand what they meant. As they said, when rules are simple games naturally become dangerous. Moreover, even those rules sounded extremely dangerous just hearing them. Either run away unconditionally, or catch those running and beat them unconditionally.

"If you can't shake them off and escape in time you could get beaten to death."

Tae-ui clicked his tongue while muttering. It was half a joke, but Qing nodded solemnly.

"With bad luck, yes. Plus if where you get hit is bad you could just die. Hmm... and in your case you need to be extra careful. You've earned the hatred of the worst guy of all."

"..."

He seemed to know who that worst guy was without asking. Though that man had said until yesterday he wasn't in the mood to fight with him, you never knew. His mood might have changed today. That man seemed to live quite according to his whims.

"You have to be careful because guys often come out doing vicious things to people they didn't like using this opportunity. Plus though hopefully none among us would, sometimes even teammates try to settle grudges targeting this time. It's really brutal."

When Qing spoke clicking his tongue, Alta beside him answered with flashing eyes "On the other hand, if there's someone you hate, you can get one hit in during this chance." Tae-ui silently prayed for that unknown target of Alta's grudge.

Almost a week into training, yet he still couldn't quite grasp this brutal and vicious atmosphere. People were carried out injured from big and small accidents every day. Someone had already died. Things defying common sense were happening casually on this small island.

"I have to get out somehow in half a year, otherwise I feel like I'll really go crazy."

Tae-ui sighed while muttering to himself. What he should fear most about this situation was that. No matter how strange a situation people are thrown into, they naturally become accustomed to it with time. It happens while not even realizing they are gradually being dyed by that situation.

Everything had pros and cons and this place undoubtedly had its advantages, but the disadvantages were too severe.

"Seems you're not getting it, so let me tell you—that video we saw during Combat Field Analysis before joint training started. That was edited footage from weekend training."

Tou spoke beside him. Tae-ui started muttering "What video..." before his face hardened.

That was it. Those bright red marks that had left scattered traces there. That vivid and intense color was unforgettable.

"You mean killing people so casually is the training we're about to do? Though it feels ridiculous calling it training."

When Tae-ui clicked his tongue while muttering, Tou shrugged.

"Not quite. That was because that guy was crazy, actually even if you hate someone who isn't the sworn enemy who killed your parents, you wouldn't beat them to death. Sometimes people die by accident, but deliberately killing people almost never happens. The key is not meeting crazy guys."

Hearing Tou's words, Tae-ui half understood. True, no matter how much you hate someone, normally you wouldn't think of killing them unless something was seriously wrong. Even without experience, people instinctively know the weight of murder.

...By that logic, what terrifyingly deep grudges must that guy have accumulated to have people lining up to kill him even at the cost of their own lives.

Tae-ui's mouth turned bitter. Well, in life there could appear people you want to kill even throwing away everything you have. Though a life without that would be a happy one.

"Hey, time's up. Shall we head out?"

"Ah, right. Let's meet alive."

When Carlo spoke while getting up first, the other men answered while rising from their seats.

Though Tae-ui wanted to just stay there without getting up, finding the hell waiting after getting up too depressing, he had no choice but to get up almost being dragged as Tou grabbed his wrist and pulled him up from beside him.

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