PASSION Chapter 2 Part 3

Chapter 2 Part 3

From his middle-height build but somewhat darker skin tone and subtly narrower bone structure, he didn't seem to be pure Han Chinese but perhaps had some minority ethnicity mixed in.

The young man who had been watching Tae-ui with an interested but not excessively curious gaze tapped his chest a couple times with his index finger and said:

"Tou. Tou Qing Ren."

"...Jung Tae-ui. You can call me Tae-ui."

"Tai... ok."

Though the pronunciation was subtly different, Tae-ui stayed quiet since it seemed pointless to try correcting it.

"Did you transfer from another branch? Or are you completely new?"

"Just joined. Seems transfers between branches and members are common."

"Not that common, but not that rare either. You seem pretty polished for a newbie, what were you doing before? You weren't working at some corporation, were you?"

"I was unemployed."

Though Tae-ui answered seriously without laughing, Tou seemed to take it as a joke and laughed loudly.

"Well, as long as you're not from the European branch, it doesn't matter. Welcome."

Tae-ui lightly shook the hand Tou extended and tilted his head slightly.

"Seems like you're on pretty bad terms with the European branch."

Though he had heard it from his uncle, for the first words to be 'as long as you're not from the European branch,' this was a bit much. Wonder if the relationship is as bad as between our platoon and Lieutenant Kim's damned platoon back then.

"Pretty bad terms? Ha, you'll find out at the start of next month. The European branch bastards are coming here for joint training from next month. Let me tell you, if there are any particularly annoying bastards, you can secretly bury one or two. Everyone in our branch will help."

His tone was too serious to be a joke. Seems slightly worse than between our platoon and Lieutenant Kim's platoon.

"That's some touching camaraderie."

"Well, we have to help each other."

Tou laughed cheerfully and got off the elevator that had just stopped. Tae-ui followed him out. And was quite surprised.

Fifth basement floor. Before them stretched a long white corridor. That corridor with carpet muffling footsteps was vastly different from the ground floor they had just been on. He hadn't expected such a clean and proper space to exist underground beneath that crumbling abandoned building above.

"Why, surprised?"

Tou grinned as if this wasn't the first time seeing such a reaction.

"Did you imagine a damp basement crawling with rats and cockroaches with cobwebs everywhere?"

Though he hadn't imagined anything quite that terrible, he couldn't say it was completely wrong either.

"Is the BOQ on this floor?"

When Tae-ui spoke while following behind Tou who was striding down the quite long corridor, Tou turned to look at Tae-ui and smiled as if understanding, "Ah."

"So you were a military officer. Which military were you in?"

"..."

"No comment? Well, that's fine. Everyone has things they don't want to talk about. Here we call it private quarters rather than BOQ. Three to a room. But the private quarters are one floor down. This floor has things like the free training room, library, multimedia room. Most recreational facilities for free time are on this floor."

"I'd like to put down my luggage first."

Tou seemed amused by Tae-ui saying this while carrying just one not-so-large Boston bag, and took the bag from Tae-ui's hands almost forcefully while smiling broadly.

"Really? Then I'll carry it for you. First build some good relationships with people. Hm? We'll be sharing life and death together from now on, so shouldn't we break the ice?"

"..."

"It's free time after 5 PM so everyone's probably doing their own thing now, but most people will be in the free training room."

Though Tae-ui wanted to first put down his luggage and check out the room he'd be staying in before meeting those colleagues who would share life and death with him, he silently followed Tou who was walking ahead carrying his bag. Perhaps this was the natural order of things here.

But one thing was comfortable. The point that except for the total of nine superiors, everyone else was an equal colleague.

Though they might look down on him for being new, if they were fundamentally equals, it would be easier to move around. Plus, though surely a joke, it seemed okay to kill off one or two.

...Though he was more likely to be killed than do the killing. Just have to be careful.

Even at military academy, his grades in weapons basic training and field adaptation had been neither particularly good nor bad, just average.

If he didn't have the confidence to defeat all approaching enemies, it would be best to just stay quiet and inconspicuous while carefully preserving his life for half a year before leaving.

While turning a couple corners in the corridor, he could see where the multimedia room and library were. He also spotted a simple food vending machine in one corner. They occasionally passed by people, but no one paid them much attention. Though there seemed to be some awareness of an unfamiliar face as they glanced over, it was just basic wariness.

"Though it's the Asian branch, seems it's not only Asians."

When Tae-ui muttered after a Westerner passed by and they had walked a few steps, Tou made a motion of turning his head.

"It's like that everywhere. Whatever branch you go to, various races are mixed. Being the Asian branch just means it's in Asia, not that it only accepts Asians. Still, proportionally this place has more East Asians compared to other branches or headquarters. Half are East Asian."

While saying this, they reached the free training room they were heading for.

When they entered through the iron doors that seemed twice the size of normal doors, a space about the size of a regular gymnasium spread out before them. The facilities weren't actually that different from a gymnasium either. Except for a few more vicious-looking training equipment that caught the eye.

There seemed to be 40-50 people in the training room doing various exercises. Among them were some gathered in groups of three or four chatting, and some who seemed to be simply lying down sleeping, but most were hanging on exercise equipment as if trying to build basic physical strength.

"For free time, they sure are diligent being here in such numbers."

"If you don't want to die, you should try to build up even a grain more strength before next month too. Though there's only two weeks left anyway. If you fall to the European branch bastards' hands, I'll kill you first."

Tou who had jokingly shown his fist looked around the training room then walked toward where seven or eight men were gathered. Though they were gathered, they were doing their own things at appropriate distances, but it was close enough to tell they were one group with some commonality.

Tae-ui nodded internally. These must be members of the same team. And presumably, Tou approaching them was also on the same team.

They too were aware of Tou and Tae-ui approaching them. One by one they stopped their exercises or conversations and turned their attention to them. Or more precisely, to the unfamiliar face of Tae-ui.

"Tou, you went out saying you'd smoke but did you forget your cigarettes or something."

"Yeah. How strange for that guy who chain smokes at least three cigarettes minimum once he starts to come back so quickly."

Though the men speaking with snickers had their gazes fixed on Tae-ui. Not just their group, but other men nearby were also casting curious glances.

"He's new so I was told to take him and build good relationships. So I brought him. Our team's new member."

While Tou exchanged a few words with them, Tae-ui casually looked around.

The age range was generally mid-20s to early-mid 30s. The youngest-looking one in the corner had probably just stopped being called a kid, and the older-looking man doing ab exercises over there might be pushing 40 if you rounded up. Late 20s seemed most common.

Though physically those in their 30s couldn't match those in their 20s, combat technique isn't determined by physical strength alone, so age probably doesn't matter much.

As Tou had said, half were East Asian with the rest being white and black. Though he couldn't tell about the whole, at least among those currently in here, there seemed to be slightly more black than white. However, it was hard to divide them so clearly, as quite a number appeared to be of mixed blood even at first glance.

Whether they all built up their bodies constantly training because they didn't want to die or not, regardless of height their bodies were quite good... Fortunately or unfortunately, there was no one who matched Tae-ui's type. Though that could be considered unfortunate too.

Never mind, even if there was someone he wanted to clash with who matched his taste during his half year here, it would be troublesome. Better to live quietly without incident and leave.

"Ahem, Tai? Twenty... five or so?"

One of the men sitting on stacked mats leaning against the wall jumped down and approached. Behind him the men snickered, and Tou who had briefly introduced Tae-ui stepped back a couple paces.

Tae-ui looked at the man approaching from the front. And with his ears he listened to the surrounding sounds and atmosphere.

It wasn't bad. Those laughs and curious gazes contained no hostility or mockery. Those were sounds of people enjoying a minor event. You couldn't say there wasn't some goodwill mixed in.

The man examining Tae-ui with an playful smile was tall for an East Asian. Now that he looked closer, he might be mixed race. ... This guy must be the leader.

Tae-ui gave an internal bitter smile. Whether here or there, societies formed by men had similar aspects. One of those was that they always sought a leader among their colleagues.

It wasn't that they openly appointed a leader. Perhaps because their meager pride couldn't handle it, on the surface there was no ranking.

However, dig deeper and there were always heads and tails within. Some whose same words would get more people's agreement and willing compliance, others who often received criticism without anyone agreeing - that's how it was.

Perhaps it was human nature rather than just male nature, but Tae-ui had no way of knowing what women's societies were like. He didn't particularly want to know either.

"And you are?"

Tae-ui smirked and jerked his chin at him. The man pointed at himself and shrugged.

"Me? Carlo Sagisawa. I'll be thirty in seven months. Anything else you want to know?"

"Yeah. Are you cracking your knuckles and loosening your ankles because of me?"

Carlo burst out laughing. Whether habit or threat, he had been cracking his knuckles while approaching Tae-ui and after stopping in front of him had slowly been loosening his ankle and neck joints, but now he spread his hands and grinned.

"No, no, I was just about to exercise. Why, scared? Though you don't look particularly scared."

"I'm actually quite different inside than I appear."