PASSION Chapter 4 Part 16

Chapter 4 Part 16

Rigrow readily accepted the writing materials. Soon the rustling sound of pen flowing like water began.

Tae-ui recalled his uncle's words about "ten handwritten copies for the helper too" and pushed aside thoughts about the additional burden that would pile up for himself. There were times and situations where you wanted to make someone suffer even at your own expense.

Let's see how you like it. And let's try to reduce our meeting time.

Indeed, Tae-ui thoroughly understood now why his colleagues had been making a fuss about building up stamina and strength in preparation for joint training since he first arrived on this island.

Though saying a day felt like a thousand years would be an exaggeration, it was about fifteen times more tiring than usual training.

When training with colleagues from the same branch, he could at least approach sparring with the basic belief that his opponent wouldn't truly try to harm him. But now he had to stay tensely alert even for the most trivial sparring. There were too many guys with plans to break an opponent's arm or so under the excuse of a training accident clearly written on their foreheads.

He couldn't even relax during break times. Since they shared rest spaces, he always had to stay alert in case rocks might fly from somewhere, or worse, someone might shoot an air gun.

The only time he could rest comfortably was after finishing regular hours and returning to his room, after entering and locking the door. Even then, if he left the room to go to the bathroom or toilet, he had to either avoid or deflect the sparks of conflict scattered everywhere until the moment he returned.

Finding even that bothersome, Tae-ui had stopped by the bathroom on his way back right after finishing regular hours, and collapsed onto the bed as soon as he entered the room. He wasn't even comfortable in his room, having to bear Moller's resentful gaze.

Yes, I was wrong, I was wrong. That damn Colt, I'll empty my bank account later and buy you hundreds…

Tae-ui muttered internally while sprawled on the bed. Even speaking aloud was tiring.

While sending chilly breezes, Moller was still absorbed in his puzzle, and since Tou had gone to the bathroom and wasn't returning, he was probably either accepting or creating sparks of conflict somewhere. That stamina to endlessly cause large and small conflicts every day without getting tired was really admirable.

"Hey, you got a page."

Moller's sulky voice reached Tae-ui's ears as he lay half-asleep on the bed. Tae-ui just lifted his head groggily to glance at the pager thrown on the desk before burying his face in the pillow again. He was too tired to even check it. But after a moment, Moller's voice came again.

"Hey, another one came."

"...Where's it from?"

As Tae-ui muttered curses wondering who was paging him when he was dead tired, groaning his question, Moller picked up the pager and checked the number. Then he said casually:

"It's 114."

"114... Why is directory assistance looking for me..."

"What nonsense are you talking about. Looks like there's a message too, check it."

Moller threw the pager. The small device landed exactly beside Tae-ui's pillow. Tae-ui half-opened his eyes while lying down to glance at the pager. Seeing the blinking light below the display, there seemed to be a message as he said.

Too tired to check anything. Probably just some notice about submitting something or some cautionary period or such...

114, where was 114? Room 14 on basement level 1? What was there again? Ah, the instructors' rooms were there. And Support Staff. If it was 14, among Support Staff the lowest...

Tae-ui's eyes flew open as he jumped up. When someone who had been lying like a corpse suddenly sprang up, Moller who had his nose buried in a magazine nearby looked back startled.

"The youngest Support Staff would be Shin Lu."

"Huh? Y-yeah. Why suddenly?"

Moller asked while clutching his chest. His face said what kind of sleep talk was this.

Without thinking to answer, Tae-ui quickly checked the message.

As he thought, it was from Shin Lu. The message content was simple. Just telling him to take care of his health. Though Tae-ui's face was all grey even at that unremarkable message, his expression darkened when he checked the second message.

'Then see you on the weekend. Have a good night.' Weekend. That word reminded him. Come to think of it, he hadn't told him yet that they couldn't meet on the weekend. He hadn't had time to go to the office and hadn't run into Shin Lu by chance either.

"Should... tell him... that I can't go..."

Tae-ui muttered gloomily. Then he stared blankly at the internal phone placed at his bedhead. He briefly hoped that some tremendous circumstance might arise canceling weekend training, giving everyone free time, but if such a situation arose, naturally neither Shin Lu nor he would be able to take a leisurely walk.

"...Ah."

Tae-ui clicked his tongue and jumped up. Moller looked at him strangely while clutching his puzzle magazine.

"I'm going to see Shin Lu for a bit."

Tae-ui said briefly while putting the pager in his pocket and heading for the door. Though he could call to tell him, this seemed like something he should say face to face.

"Shin Lu? He won't be in the office now since it's after hours?"

"Then I'll just go to his room, what's the problem?"

"During joint training, members are prohibited from basement level 1. Since private meetings with instructors are forbidden. Support Staff rooms are on basement level 1 too."

Moller's words muttered as if saying what stupid thing are you saying hit the back of Tae-ui's head. Tae-ui paused then turned to look at Moller with wide eyes. Moller frowned as if saying didn't you know?

No, he had known. But he had forgotten.

Right. Seeing Shin Lu privately would be difficult without contacting him in advance.

Tae-ui pondered briefly. But since he had already decided he should go see him, the desire to see him welled up strongly. ...Still should go see him. No good would come from telling him late and suddenly breaking the appointment.

Tae-ui waved lightly to Moller and left the room. Though Moller called out "Hey, wait!" he pretended not to hear.

From the moment he stepped outside, the stinging air pricked his skin again, but there wasn't any major problem. He had no intention of provoking first, nor of responding to provocative words thrown at him. Though they tried picking fights as he passed by without reacting, no one went so far as to forcibly stop him. Though words like "Tch, coward" came from behind him, he would gladly hear such words a hundred times if it meant avoiding unnecessary fights.

His feet stopped habitually in front of the elevator, but realizing he shouldn't leave a record of going to basement level 1, he turned toward the stairs.

Though he was now used to going up and down six or seven floors by stairs without trouble from doing it so often, these stairs had quite high steps. The steps that stretched out seemed about twice the height of normal stairs. Naturally the floor height was considerable too, with the ceiling visible far above.

When he had asked why on earth the building was designed this way, his uncle had smiled and said casually: 'For exercise.'

"Uncle, we don't need exercise from this when daily life itself is training."

Tae-ui grumbled to his uncle who couldn't hear him as he climbed the stairs. Whenever he had something to grumble about, he would first pour it out at his uncle whether he could hear or not. That helped settle his mind.

Reaching basement level 1, there was an unfamiliar sign on the iron door. No Entry Except Residents.

If you didn't live on this floor - in other words, members stay out.

Tae-ui ignored it and opened the door to enter. Though he had worried the door might be locked or someone might point a gun saying "No entry" the moment he opened it, that wasn't the case.

Standing in the basement level 1 corridor, Tae-ui scratched his head at the same laxness as usual in restricting entry, with just a sign posted. Was it left to members' conscience? This wasn't a school - they had to trust what they could trust.

Since very few people stayed on basement level 1 originally, even walking around freely rarely led to running into others. Tae-ui started walking leisurely but paused. Come to think of it, this floor - not just this floor but the whole building - had recording cameras scattered everywhere.

"... Are they going to find people in the recordings later and punish them?"

Tae-ui sighed "Hmm."

But he wondered if that would really mean anything, since he roughly knew where the cameras were located. If he knew, other members probably did too. One could walk only in the cameras' blind spots.

However, thinking again, he would inevitably leave blind spots when entering an instructor's room. Naturally he would be caught on record. Plus there might be cameras he didn't know about.

Tae-ui fell into brief contemplation. Should he just go back? He could talk by phone anyway.

But though his head knew that would be wiser, his feet were already walking down the corridor. Ah, whatever. It would be good if they caught him and put him in solitary. How bad could prison facilities be anyway?

Tae-ui headed for Shin Lu's room. He hadn't gotten lost again since first getting lost here. Fortunately he had a sense of direction that didn't forget paths he had taken once.