PASSION Chapter 5 Part 2

Chapter 5 Part 2

'Brother, take care. Don't worry about me.'

Tae-ui checked the message on his pager again. It had come in early this morning.

After returning to his room last night, unable to sleep, he had called Shin Lu after midnight. Though he worried about waking him if he was sleeping, fortunately Shin Lu answered in his usual voice.

Actually, he had nothing particular to say. After having that brief, unwanted conversation with Ilay—though it was too one-sided to call a conversation—he had just felt anxious. However, he couldn't pour out everything to Shin Lu and say 'Don't get close even if he approaches you. You have to look only at me.'

Come to think of it, he hadn't said anything to Shin Lu yet. Neither that he liked him, nor anything beyond that.

Though Tou had previously criticized him saying his actions were so obvious it made others embarrassed to watch, and though Shin Lu was surprisingly perceptive so he didn't think he wouldn't know, he hadn't said anything on the surface.

Tae-ui hesitated while holding the receiver.

Should he tell him now, that he liked him? But it wasn't something to say over the phone, and somehow telling him right after that brush with Ilay felt like conveying his feelings not from his pure will.

'By the way, that person earlier, is he close with you, Brother?'

While making vague conversation having nothing particular to say, Shin Lu suddenly asked about Ilay through the receiver. Though Tae-ui flinched briefly, having deliberately avoided mentioning Ilay, he soon answered readily:

'No, not at all. Though we've become familiar somehow... he's dangerous to get close to.'

So if he comes near you or appears nearby, try not to catch his eye as much as possible—Tae-ui continued indirectly. However, somehow Shin Lu seemed to be listening half-heartedly. His mind seemed to be elsewhere.

A subtly anxious feeling arose. Tae-ui himself knew the identity of that anxiety. Though he didn't want to admit it, it was anxiety about loss. That he might go to him.

That faint and vague anxiety remained unresolved when the call ended, and Tae-ui stared at the receiver with complicated feelings before pulling the blanket over himself.

After sleeping for a while and waking up, there was a message that had come in dawn. Telling him to be careful.

Seeing that short sentence made Tae-ui feel better. Knowing training would start this afternoon, he must have been worried about Tae-ui. Having someone worry about him sometimes provided a bigger support to his heart than expected.

Thanks, sending that brief reply, Tae-ui put the pager in his pocket. Then he would take it out to look at it whenever he had time, feeling a pleasant reassurance. Though of course it wasn't actually much help.

"Really now, they're coming at me like a pack of dogs so I feel like I'm the one being chased."

Tae-ui grumbled while tightening his shoelaces that had come undone again somehow. Earlier when they kept coming undone, he had completely untied them and carefully tied them from the start, but while crouched in the middle of the corridor doing that, a guy from the same branch who came running around the corner mistook Tae-ui for a European branch member and went "Ah! Found you!" then took a stance to strike, so Tae-ui kicked his ankle.

Even after that guy realized his mistake after falling and disappeared apologizing, similar things happened a couple more times.

"Everyone seems crazy... I must have fallen on some strange planet without realizing."

Tae-ui lamented quietly. Shouts of "Found you!" or "Stop right there, you bastard!" could be heard not infrequently from some distance.

Though they were teammates, honestly seeing such behavior, everyone seemed crazy. This wasn't even human hunting, he couldn't understand the intent of the training itself.

"Rather than physical training, it seems more like personality destruction training..."

Tae-ui walked slowly while spinning the club in his hand—though made of rubber, it hurt enough to knock you senseless if hit properly. Since positions would switch every hour anyway, it seemed better to save energy now for an hour later. Though Tae-ui wouldn't swing his club trying to catch and beat someone, that didn't guarantee others would pretend not to see him either.

"In an hour I'll have to run for my life... Wonder if there's anywhere to hide."

Tae-ui had been searching the branch building from top to bottom since earlier. Though the Asian branch side was currently in the chasing position, in an hour they would be in the opposite position, so he was looking for hiding places in advance for then.

However, no suitable places could be found. Though they could go anywhere in the branch building they normally used, they couldn't enter through doors leading to dead-end spaces. They could only run the corridors desperately. As exceptions, places with two or more entrances—like large lecture halls or sparring rooms—could be entered.

Wide spaces with multiple entrances were essentially open so you couldn't hide there, and corridors were the same. In the corridors tangled so complexly they might seem like a maze to newcomers, the possibility of encountering friend or foe around every corner was high, so everyone had to run always on edge.

"Damn. I wondered why they needed an unnecessarily large seven-story, 2000-pyeong building for about a hundred people to live in, but it was to use for this pointlessly violent training."

What a waste of budget, he grumbled while examining potential hiding places going up floor by floor starting from basement level 6. (Basement level 7 was solitary confinement so no one could enter from the start. Except those imprisoned for severely violating regulations.)

Though the building was this large and complex, once the restriction of not entering dead-end rooms was added, suitable hiding places were hard to find.

"Wonder if I could rip open the ceiling and hide there. Ah, time will run out at this rate. Tsk. If I don't run like hell for an hour I'll get beaten badly. Even if I claim I didn't hit any of you... it won't matter."

After getting beaten while being chased for an hour, maybe next hour I'll be running around swinging clubs with blazing eyes trying to beat those guys too, Tae-ui thought while climbing the stairs.

From basement level 6 with the men's rooms, basement level 5 equipped with facilities for spending most free time, basement level 4 which no one could enter being locked with an "Authorized Personnel Only" sign from the start, he passed straight through and went to basement levels 3 and 2 used for regular duties, and basement level 1 where instructors and Support Staff stayed and worked. Then the ground floor located under the rotting, crumbling roof.

Actually rather than chasing and being chased, it might be more accurate to see it as free sparring in a wide space. Though there was a difference in order of who attacked first or later, since you could take fights that came to you, it was closer to indiscriminate free sparring.

"Hmm, at this rate time will change without finding any good countermeasures... Nothing to be done. Just have to run next hour."

Tae-ui sighed and entered the bathroom to prepare for the next hour. Sometimes there would be fierce battles in bathrooms when people tried to hide there poorly. Even the bathroom Tae-ui entered now seemed to have had a fight recently, with wall tiles that had been fine until morning now shattered on one side. The building repair costs later would be considerable.

There were two or three men in the bathroom. Asian branch members from different teams than Tae-ui, so though he had never spoken with them, he recognized their faces. When Tae-ui opened the door and entered, they all glared at him fiercely but soon relaxed their tension recognizing him as from the same branch and continued their conversation.

"...Right. Only today."

"I'll drive that bastard in there somehow, then finish him inside."

This sight everywhere he went. Though he wasn't a white heron, such flocks of crows must still be rare. Today he had seen how many human butchers desperate to hunt humans.

What Tae-ui hated was clouding judgment within group atmosphere regardless of his own reason or experience. He disliked such behavior of going along with those raising their voices in the society around him without deep contemplation or thought.

However, he soon changed his mind. He couldn't carelessly speak of others' business. He couldn't assert that none of their close friends had died or been crippled at those guys' hands. Tae-ui didn't deny grudges with valid reasons. Besides, he had no right to act like a saint. When years of built-up anger finally exploded and he beat Lieutenant Kim, his mind had gone white and he had truly beaten him without restraint. Looking back now, it was fortunate he hadn't killed him.

He wondered what that once-hated bastard was doing now. But being a classmate, he was curious not having seen him for a while. Maybe he had developed some affection for him despite disliking him. ...Though he would absolutely hate to see him again.

Tae-ui went into a bathroom stall and sat down. Though he had no intention to relieve himself, he wanted to sit. Though he could go down to basement level 6 and sit on the sofas placed throughout the corridors, sitting there he would frequently encounter guys running around busily swinging clubs, and with bad luck he might get caught up in that and end up floundering among them too.

"If I can see that bastard get hurt, I'm willing to risk some danger. No, I'm fine getting hurt that much myself. I really want to see what face he'll make screaming, what face he'll make in pain."

"Since he always has that ice-cold expressionless face no matter what happens, I want to see if blood really flows under that face too. That unlucky European bastard."

Outside the bathroom stall where Tae-ui sat, those men from earlier were still talking without leaving. While unintentionally hearing their conversation—though he didn't think of it as eavesdropping since they were talking knowing he was there—Tae-ui felt once again the deep rift between the Asian and European branches.

Wanting to see the other person in a miserable state even at risk to oneself wasn't easy without extraordinary grudges. He was seeing so many dark sides of humanity since coming here.