Chapter 59 - Return and Change (2)

Jin Silver was missing.

They said they had combed every inch of the subway. Apparently, they had gone back several times even after I was taken to the hospital.

They had found everything I had seen. The tunnels Jin had dug. The lettuce, romaine, and chicks he had raised.

But there was no trace of Jin Silver.

Ami tried to comfort me.

"It's not your fault."

Riccardo also told me to stop making everything about myself.

"How could that be your fault?"

Easier said than done. I tried not to show the cold sinking feeling in my gut or the shame washing over me.

Strangely, the feeling wasn't unfamiliar. The shame of having shamelessly survived alone through an ordeal.

My seniors probably knew this feeling well, too.

The shame was the worst of it.

Ami and Iho did their best to comfort me before leaving. Even Richard Green offered something like reassurance on his way out. He said things wouldn't have been much different even without me there, and that his questions could wait until I recovered.

So he wasn't going to let it slide.

In any case, those three left, leaving Riccardo and Yun behind. I'd expected Riccardo to go with them.

The green-eyed man rested his chin on his hand and looked down at me in silence. Then he smiled.

... Why that ominous smile, sir?

"Hilde..."

"Yes?"

His smile widened at my answer.

This was ominous. I had a bad feeling about it.

My senior watched me tremble in fear, then broke the silence.

"I'll be supervising your next mission..."

What?

I blinked several times, and Riccardo's smile deepened. He grinned at my stunned expression.

"Get well soon... I'm counting the days..."

"... Until what?"

"Hmm?"

"The mission? Or me?"

His eyes curved into slits. Smiling with his eyes narrowed to crescents, he spoke slowly.

"After all these years in service, do you think I'd still get excited about a mission?"

Good God.

What an elegant way to say he was going to work me like a fucking dog. Mouth hanging open in horror, I watched him rise as if he'd said all he needed to say.

He strolled out of the room with a smile.

How could he drop a bomb like that and leave so cheerfully?

Why was I going on my next mission with him? My very own training officer was standing right beside me.

Yun didn't leave. Only after Riccardo had gone did he turn his gaze to me.

"Hey."

"Yes, sir."

"I've got a few things to tell you."

"Then I'll take the bad news first."

Yun looked at me expressionlessly.

"It's all bad news."

Oh, why? Jin Silver going missing was more than enough bad news already.

I stared tiredly and sullenly at the man beside me, in his obsessively well-ironed shirt.

He stretched out his right leg and lazily dragged over a three-legged stool, then sat down. True to form, he got straight to the point.

"First, Jaeyeon found out immediately that you were back inside the core. Do you know how many days you were asleep?"

"No. One?"

"Two."

"How did Jaeyeon find out? It's only been two days."

"That's just how that bastard is."

Yun spoke calmly, his voice evenly coated in hatred.

I tried once again to remember Jaeyeon, and failed. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't recall him. Yet the moment I heard Kyle's name, I had remembered his face.

Handsome features and ebony-black hair. Eyes full of confidence. A voice that commanded a crowd.

I had a lot to ask Yehyeon.

Yun spoke.

"Do you know how I found out?"

"Sorry? No."

"There's a cabin going up."

I didn't understand.

I stared silently at my training officer's neat features. His cold, dry eyes, which had been fixed on some point in space, rolled toward me.

"Your cabin."

"My cabin?"

"The one in front of our house."

"The one that was in front of the commander's house?"

"Yes."

"Wasn't that destroyed?"

"Jaeyeon's having a new one built for you."

What?

I sat in stunned silence. I had so many questions that I didn't know where to start.

Perhaps Yun couldn't be bothered to speak first, because he said nothing until I broke the silence.

I finally managed to gather my thoughts.

"You're saying there's a new cabin being built across from the commander's house right now?"

"Yeah."

"How do you know Jaeyeon's behind it?"

"There was a personally written message."

Yun pulled his phone from his pocket and held it out to me.

I looked at the photo on the screen. It showed the site the weather-altering creature had swept through, the place I had gazed at so forlornly from inside the Lamborghini.

Now it was full of construction equipment and workers. In one corner of the worksite stood a wooden sign.

A message was written on it in red, as if someone had scrawled it with a crushed lipstick.

[A Welcome-Back Gift for Hildebert Taleb♡]

What the fuck? What was with the heart?

"The building really is being constructed in your name."

"What the... Can they even do that without my consent?"

"You're not clueless, are you? Most laws don't apply to this one."

I became aware of the tracking device implanted beneath the skin of my finger.

The conversation in the senior leadership's office came back to me. The words Yehyeon had spoken in that weighty voice.

Outside the office, there were ears everywhere.

I was perceptive enough to understand what lay beneath those words. An ageless body and extraordinary healing, supposedly privileges exclusive to Black Badgers. Who wouldn't want those?

I looked at the photo on Yun's phone for a long time.

"What should I do when it's finished?"

"I'll have to think it over with Yehyeon. I'll let you know when we've decided. Just be aware of it for now."

"Yes, sir. That's not the end of the bad news, is it?"

"Nope."

My training officer, born incapable of sympathy, answered flatly.

I quietly returned the phone to its owner and braced myself for the next piece of news. I was getting somewhat used to the world rushing at me like this.

Until my memories came back, I would probably keep getting swept along. However much I'd learned, there was still so much more to learn, and all the while my forgotten past was pursuing me at a terrifying pace.

Steeling myself, I asked him to give me the next piece of news.

"You've been invited to Forden's social gathering."

Who was Forden?

My expression asked the question, and Yun answered.

"The chairman of Cureus. The one you rescued."

"Oh, the building owner?"

"Yeah."

Then my training officer frowned ever so slightly.

"Choi Ami, Yehyeon, and I are going too."

"Do I have to go?"

Why invite me? I'd heard Yun was the adopted son of some major corporation's chairman. Ami was his biological younger sister, so she must have been adopted with him. And Yehyeon was, well, a celebrity who defined a generation.

But unlike those three socially prominent people, I was an ordinary Badger. There was no reason to invite me.

Besides, didn't he think I'd abandoned him?

Yun sighed.

"It would be in your best interests to go."

"Oh. It's that serious?"

"It's a gathering for a select few. I'm not telling you to network your way to success. I'm saying that if you don't go and Forden decides to be petty, your life will get difficult. Understand?"

"Yes. That's really dirty and underhanded. Why invite me in the first place?"

"We won't know for certain until we go."

My training officer sighed a second time. Then he swore as naturally as breathing.

"Now I've got to look at those fucking bastards' faces again."

"... Will there be people you don't like?"

"Yes. The whole family's coming, too."

Yun rolled his cold, irritated eyes and grumbled.

"The A-Tech chairman's family will turn out in full force. I wouldn't go if Yehyeon and Ami hadn't asked me to."

Apparently, he wasn't on very good terms with his adoptive family.

I didn't have the nerve to pry. Instead, I listened carefully as Yun gave me the date and location of the gathering. Unfortunately, it was in two weeks. I would likely be discharged by the end of this week at the latest, so I couldn't even use my injuries as an excuse.

My training officer efficiently supplied plenty of other information, too. The dress code, where to buy clothes, keywords to search online. And what I needed to do next.

In the short term, that meant getting Samuel's permission to leave the hospital.

Yun told me to contact him once I'd done that. He wouldn't disturb me while I recovered.

After delivering those words without inflection, he slowly stood up.

Seeing him about to leave, I hurriedly leaned forward.

"Yun."

"What?"

I had a message to pass on.

Medical staff bustled through the hallway.

Surrounded by a density of people I'd already grown used to, I revisited the memories that had kept surfacing during our conversation. The cool breeze brushing through my hair. The smell of underground air seeping deep into my lungs.

The sound of the train running along the tracks.

The man who had sprung to his feet in an unnatural movement, as if he'd sensed something. The way he'd strode away, then looked back with a smile. The words he'd spoken as he smiled.

The sound of an explosion.

Sifting through those memories, I spoke.

"Do you have the head of HR's number?"

Yun's brow furrowed.

Why did my training officer dislike the head of HR so much?

His scowl didn't ease even as he gave me the number. I thanked him and saved it, stealing glances at his face.

Such a sulky expression.

"Why do you dislike the head of HR so much?"

I couldn't contain my curiosity.

Yun's brow furrowed further.

"Why do you need his number?"

"I have a message to pass on to him."

His evasion was suspicious.

But he never did answer. He left the hospital after telling me not to get up to anything pointless.

A shame. I'd find out someday.

As I texted the head of HR, I resolved to find the right person to ask.

Would Ami or Yehyeon tell me if I asked? Not that I knew whether I'd have the courage.

In any case, I arranged to meet the head of HR.

* * *

Kang Zhu visited my hospital room the following evening.

I had just been moved to a private room. I thought I was ready to be discharged, but Samuel had thrown a fit (["Are you the doctor? If you're going to act like this, do the operations and examinations yourself!"]), so I was spending my time bored in the silent room.

Heshy and Tom were outside the core, and my seniors weren't visiting because they didn't want to disturb me. All I did was search for Forden and A-Tech on my phone.

That was when Zhu arrived, looking as if flowers might bloom behind him, as always.

"You did well, Hilde."

He approached with light steps and sat in the chair beside my bed.

"How are you feeling?"

"Very well. I think I could leave the hospital right now."

"Really? That's a relief."

Dressed in casual clothes, Zhu smiled brightly. I stared at his outfit in puzzlement.

A gray sweatshirt? Why wear a gray sweatshirt to work?

After wondering about his clothes for a moment, I remembered it was seven thirty.

Right. He'd said he got off work at four.

You have it rough, Commander...

I observed a brief moment of silence for Yehyeon. Once it was over, I met Zhu's smiling eyes.

He had a gentle, kindly face. In casual clothes, he really did look like a university student.

Looking at this superior who never let anything throw him off his stride, I spoke.

"Sir."

"Yes, go ahead."

"Have you heard about Jin Silver?"

Bitterness tinged Zhu's eyes.