Chapter 250: An Egg Striking a Rock
"Is this going to be okay?"
A young man dragged a chair over with a scraping sound and sat down, looking at the middle-aged woman.
"Hard to say."
"She'll be fine."
A man covered in tattoos answered in a gravelly voice to the middle-aged woman's muttering.
The assembled people had no apparent commonality whatsoever.
There was someone who looked as gentle as a saint, and conversely, someone who looked like they'd never done a legal thing in their life.
They had only one thing in common.
The Gangseo Branch Response Team.
"But you said she lost her memory."
"Not only does she have no memory of us, but... she remembers the friends who died in the line of duty."
Eileen's gaze surfaced in all of their minds.
A gaze as if she were seeing them for the first time.
A gaze that seemed both bewildered and wary upon being told they were on the same team.
"I never knew the Team Leader could look at someone like that," muttered the saintly-looking man.
The man with the rough appearance clicked his tongue. "Tch."
"Don't forget. The Team Leader may be more experienced and have better judgment than us, but she's younger than we are."
"...That's true."
"Even if age isn't everything, life experience is different from work experience."
After a brief silence, the woman stood up and slapped both men on the shoulder.
"It's fine. Don't worry."
The two men looked up at the woman, and she smiled.
"The Team Leader might lose her way, but she's not the type to choose the wrong path."
"See? I told you."
"Right. If it's our Team Leader, she'll definitely find the right way."
"Soon, she'll come back to us and tell us everything's okay."
"Yeah. And when she does, all we have to do is welcome her with open arms."
—BANG!
At that moment, the door opened and Eileen walked in.
Smiles bloomed on the three people's faces.
"Team Leader!"
"I made some amazing instant coffee again—"
Eileen merely nodded at the three of them and strode off purposefully somewhere else.
"Team Leader?"
Soon, she pulled a pistol from her desk drawer.
A pistol that fired rubber bullets.
What does she plan to use that for?
The three looked at Eileen with puzzled expressions.
"...Look at that," the rough-looking man said, tapping the saintly-looking man's shoulder.
His face was filled with terror.
"It's the HR Team..."
"Huh? The HR Team? You've got to be joking..."
The man who had been speaking with a laugh froze mid-sentence.
Five people were standing outside the door.
"Th-the HR Team..."
The saintly-looking man's voice was filled with fear and wariness.
The HR Team.
The team rumored to be favored by the Branch Head.
A team said to be composed of monstrous personnel who handle both paperwork and field operations simultaneously.
A living legend within the office-worker ranks, boasting combat prowess on par with the Isolation Team.
A team that had carried out top-secret missions and, rumor had it, returned unscathed from battles against hostile Management Bureau entities.
Above all, a team infamous for every single member having a terrible personality.
"Why is the HR Team here...?"
"You don't think they're here to harm the Team Leader, do you...? Because she lost her memory or got caught up in an anomaly..."
Had they heard their voices? The man standing at the front let out a sigh deep enough to sink the earth.
Did we upset them?
Did they hear us?
They looked at the HR Team members with expressions full of caution.
The black-haired woman, meeting their gaze, smiled and waved.
Seeing her wave and smile like that, she didn't seem to have such a bad personality.
"She's damn pretty, though, for real."
"Shh, if she hears you, you're dead."
The woman reached out to stop the muttering, rough-looking man and turned her gaze to Eileen.
After pocketing two rubber bullet pistols, Eileen put on a bulletproof vest and walked out the door.
"Let's go."
"There's really no need—"
"If we're doing it, we're doing it."
She cut the man off with a firm voice and closed the door.
—Squeak... BANG!
As the door closed, the three looked at each other.
"What's going on?"
"I don't know."
"The Team Leader will be okay, right...?"
Unease appeared on their faces.
"Sh-should we go?"
"Maybe we should go in a little bit...?"
"Let me prepare myself mentally..."
Of all days, for this to happen on their day off.
Mentally wrestling with themselves, they began gathering their equipment.
*
Watching Eileen walk confidently with her pistol holstered, I secretly sighed.
This is how it all started.
"You keep saying 'HR Team, HR Team,' but they're just office workers, right?"
Eileen looked at the three of them and spoke.
The three tilted their heads.
"Well, they are office workers, right?"
"That's true."
"You call people who type like eagles 'office workers'? You should be grateful I haven't killed you."
At Yu Daon and Jang Chae-yeon's words, Song A-rin glared at them with fierce eyes.
"...I've been doing better lately."
"Don't make me laugh. You're worse with computers than the black-haired one over there."
"..."
Jang Chae-yeon bit her lip, looking frustrated.
It was true that Jang Chae-yeon wasn't as proficient with computers as Yu Daon.
Whether Yu Daon was a fast learner or Jang Chae-yeon was a slow learner was unclear.
"Anyway..." Eileen trailed off and looked at us. "Kim Jae-heon isn't talent meant to stay here. If he came to the Response Team, he could do much better."
At her words, the three stared blankly at Eileen.
"It's not like we're pushovers anywhere we go."
Then, Jang Chae-yeon stepped forward as the representative of the three and looked at Eileen.
"No."
Eileen raised her head and looked at the three.
"If you don't believe me, I'll prove it."
And that's how we ended up in the current situation.
The condition Eileen set was simple.
The winner of the fight takes him.
We fight three times; whoever wins twice gets to take me.
My own will wasn't factored in anywhere, but I had no particular intention of participating anyway.
"Unnie... This really doesn't seem right..."
"...I said it's fine."
Park Ye-eun was standing beside Eileen, her face full of worry, shuffling her feet anxiously as she looked at Eileen.
Eileen's gaze briefly drifted toward Park Ye-eun before shifting away.
"..."
I looked at Park Ye-eun.
Her face looked much better than yesterday.
After visiting Eileen, I had talked with Park Ye-eun. Her expression had been so poor, after all.
What I said to her then was...
'Don't worry.'
All I could give her was a promise.
Placing a hand on Park Ye-eun's shoulder, I bent my knees slightly to meet her eyes.
'We can make new memories, and we can re-implant impressions.'
Perhaps the current Eileen was her true self, or maybe the desperate state of mind of someone who has lost everything.
Family dead, comrades gone.
'You can be her family. I'll help too.'
It seemed like it would be a good thing for both Park Ye-eun and Eileen.
Hearing my words, Park Ye-eun stayed still for a moment, then let out a soft chuckle.
'What, are you going to be her dad or something?'
'At my age, having a daughter like you would require committing a crime, and even that's impossible. Call the Team Leader "Dad."'
'Do you want to break up a family? That'd be bigamy.'
Park Ye-eun, laughing like that, looked better than before.
And now.
"Unnie, you're really going to die..."
"...Why do you keep scraping away at my pride like this?"
"No, I'm not scraping it... I'm serious..."
Park Ye-eun's desperate pleas fell on deaf ears, and eventually, we all found ourselves standing in the training room.
"Who's coming at me first?"
Eileen checked the straps of her bulletproof vest and spoke in a calm voice. As soon as she finished, Jang Chae-yeon stepped forward.
Eileen drew her gun.
"What are the conditions?"
"...The referee will decide."
Jang Chae-yeon looked at me as she spoke, and Eileen's gaze also turned to me.
"Fine. Let's have the referee stop the fight if it seems like someone can't continue, or decide the winner afterward."
"Yes, I'll be the referee."
I've learned one thing from my time in the HR Team.
Just go along with it. This is just a bit of a happening anyway. We're all just out here skiving off work and leeching our paychecks. Yeah. That's the right way to think about it.
Jang Chae-yeon stretched, and Eileen drew her gun.
"Counting now."
The two faced each other.
Tension filled the air.
"One."
Eileen gripped her pistol as if ready for rapid fire, and Jang Chae-yeon extended one hand.
"Two."
A hair-trigger situation.
"Three!"
As I shouted "Three!", Eileen drew and fired her gun.
—BANG!
A deafening roar, unbelievable for a rubber bullet, erupted as the bullet was fired.
And then, the bullet stopped mid-air.
Jang Chae-yeon was staring at Eileen, her hand still outstretched.
—Thud...!
As she swung her hand, the rubber bullet fell to the floor and rolled away.
Eileen gripped her gun again. Jang Chae-yeon let out a low sigh and waved her hand as if swatting a mosquito.
"Eeek...!"
Immediately, Eileen's body lifted into the air and flew far away.
—THUD!
Eileen's body tumbled to the floor.
Jang Chae-yeon looked down at her expressionlessly, then turned to me.
Under her gaze that seemed to ask, 'Well?', I had no choice but to raise my hand and speak.
"...Victory to Ms. Chae-yeon."
"...Sorry."
Jang Chae-yeon looked at me and apologized.
"For dragging you into something pointless."
"...No, it's fine. Really."
Yeah, let me just leech my paycheck a bit too.
"..."
Eileen gritted her teeth and got up from the floor.
"...Next."
Her gaze turned to Song A-rin and Yu Daon.
Meeting that gaze, Song A-rin let out a deep sigh and brushed off her hands.
"Then I'll—"
"I'll go. If A-rin does it, it'll be too easy."
And so, Yu Daon stepped forward, blocking Song A-rin.
"...Suit yourself."
"...It's not that easy, you know?"
Eileen gritted her teeth as she looked at Yu Daon, who gave a bright smile.
"Is it okay if I just knock you out? Or, um, would you like to use real bullets?"
"Real bullets are prohibited."
"Ah, sorry...!"
Yu Daon flusteredly looked at me, and Eileen watched her with a disgusted expression.
Meanwhile, Song A-rin shrugged and came to stand beside me.
"Maybe it's for the best."
"Huh?"
"Even if I won, it'd be a dirty victory. That's how all mental-type ability users are. Winning by using cheap mental manipulation and all."
She sighed and leaned against the training room wall.
"If you beat them in a physical fight, they break. Even the black-haired one knows that."
"..."
"Well."
"You two get along surprisingly well, don't you?"
"Shut up."
Ignoring Song A-rin's curse, I looked at the two.
"Your weapon?"
"I don't have one?"
"Don't you need one?"
"Nope."
Yu Daon answered confidently to Eileen's question. Eileen drew her gun.
A slight tension flowed through the air.
—BANG!
A gunshot rang out.