Evil Organization’s Extra Mr. A

[ 23rd Chapter ]

Earth Defense Union Seoul Branch Headquarters, 3rd Floor.

Five members were busily wrapping up their pre-deployment preparations before the confrontation.

“Check your suits for any abnormalities and make sure you remember what we discussed. Keep thinking about it even while we’re on our way.”

Red, the youngest but the leader of the team, was checking on her teammates’ preparations. Upon hearing Red’s words, the other members diligently completed their final checks.

“Looks like everyone is full of energy today?”

“That’s how we win.”

Pink gave Red a pat on the shoulder after finishing her preparations, and Red smiled in return.

The relationship between Red and Pink had recently become closer than ever. Neither of them had expected that after a single conflict, their distance would narrow so quickly, allowing them to have normal conversations.

“No plans after we finish today?”

“Not today. I’m going to take it easy because of something tomorrow.”

As they chatted, they picked up their helmets and headed down to the underground parking lot via the elevator. The two’s behavior began to subtly influence the rest of the team. While everyone wasn’t suddenly becoming friendlier, there was a noticeable ease in the atmosphere during meetings or deployments.

When they arrived at the underground parking lot and started walking toward the spot where the HunterKiller members parked their bikes, a minivan entered the parking lot. People started getting out one by one from the parked van.

The people exiting the minivan were wearing various colored suits and were part of another team within the Seoul Branch, similar to the HunterKiller Team. Given the poor dynamics within the HunterKiller Team, it was unlikely that they had good relations with other teams. They simply acknowledged each other with a glance and headed towards the bikes.

“What? So HunterKiller is heading out now?”

A male figure in a navy suit who had just exited the van tried to chat amiably, but the HunterKiller members ignored him, not even acknowledging his presence as they started their bikes.

This man, Indigo, was the leader of Team Guerrilla, which consisted entirely of males, unlike the all-female Team HunterKiller. The HunterKiller members did not hold Indigo in high regard.

“Think we should play around with our team once we’re done?”

Indigo was known for his reckless lifestyle and had been disciplined multiple times for causing incidents. Recently, he had assaulted someone in a bar but only paid compensation, which seemed to be the end of it. Although Indigo might have considered it a minor issue, it significantly tarnished the image of hyper-humans within the branch.

Seeing Indigo approaching, whom she found distasteful both physiologically and behaviorally, Pink flipped him off. Startled, he stopped his approach. The HunterKiller team ignored him and rode away on their bikes.

Up until they got to the underground parking lot, the HunterKiller team had felt good, but now they felt bad. While they hadn’t discussed the image of hyper-humans or their own experiences, they knew they didn’t like Indigo, who was damaging the reputation of hyper-humans.

“Why does he always have to talk to us? That jerk.”

Apart from Indigo, Team Guerrilla was not well-regarded in the Seoul Branch. They had caused many incidents and weren’t particularly successful. However, they could still operate under the Earth Defense Union due to the scarcity of hyper-humans.

Globally, the number of Spacystros far exceeded that of hyper-humans, making every hyper-human valuable. It was too early to dismiss anyone currently active, even though there were some unassigned hyper-humans, most of whom were too young.

“Just ignore him. He’ll get tired eventually.”

In response to Pink’s comment about feeling bad because of Indigo, Red tried to comfort her.

Actually, Red was the member who most disliked Team Guerrilla. The previous incident involving the manipulation of results was related to Team Guerrilla. Originally, the plan was for Team HunterKiller to skip one deployment and for Team Guerrilla to fill in, but due to Indigo assaulting a civilian, this plan never came to fruition.

“Is there really no other man in the world besides him?”

Everyone was shocked by Green’s statement, who usually didn’t say bad things about others. Except for Yellow, the rest burst into laughter.

“Haha. If Green thinks so poorly of him, he must be quite a mess, right?”

Among them, Pink laughed the hardest, then calmed down and shook her head in disagreement with Green.

“Don’t worry. There are plenty of good men in the world. Like Red’s boyfriend.”

“What?!”

Startled by Pink’s comment, Red turned her head while riding her bike.

“Look ahead. Look ahead.”

“Boyfriend? What are you talking about?”

Following the signal to look ahead, she turned her attention back to the front and asked Pink what she meant.

“I thought you’ve been looking good lately, maybe you got a boyfriend.”

Had it really been that obvious? She thought as she sweated inside her helmet and interrupted Pink to stop her from continuing.

“No, boyfriend? Why would I make something like that up?”

Even though she had a boyfriend, she hesitated to admit it outright. She had never shared such personal details with her teammates, and introducing her first boyfriend to others felt embarrassing to her. It felt like she was bragging, and if she had to introduce him, she wanted to do it properly to someone close. Of course, she hadn’t defined who exactly those close people were.

“Stop with the nonsense and focus everyone.”

Feeling embarrassed, she shouted at her teammates, and seeing Red, who couldn’t hide her emotions well, Pink smiled.

“Sorry!”

Today, she made a big mistake. While entering the confrontation, she noticed Red and Pink first, and she could only confirm their simultaneous presence during confrontations. This distracted her from gauging the atmosphere, leading to a disruption in teamwork and contributing to today’s defeat.

“What a mess. Ay always makes mistakes.”

Since she usually didn’t make mistakes, her teammates were more surprised than blaming her.

In the cramped minivan, they discussed the confrontation, but her mistake wasn’t the main topic. Each member talked about their own concerns.

“You never space out like this. Why did you stay quiet there?”

She had only conversed with the nearby teammates and couldn’t explain that she couldn’t observe the enemy at that moment. Instead, she lied that she wasn’t feeling well.

“If you’re not feeling well, rest!”

Luche, sitting in the passenger seat, turned her head sharply upon hearing her voice and shouted with a voice still choked with tears.

“You said you’d let me focus on surveillance, but you wouldn’t allow it!”

Being the only one handling two jobs, she felt unjustly treated and raised her voice.

“There’s a difference between leaving and taking a day off! Would you want to lose pay?”

“Would you get paid extra for surveillance?”

The sound of laughter filled the car as the team members watched them argue, and Luche and she stopped fighting.

“You always get scolded the most, Ay.”

“Everyone always gives me a hard time.”

She hadn’t seen the other team members arguing or raising their voices before. She felt she was a special case, but she didn’t know why.

“Didn’t you do the same to me before!”

Luche turned her head again and looked at her before turning back to the front.

“If you’re going to speak, finish what you started. Why did you stop?”

“It’s fine! You won’t remember anyway since you have a wooden head.”

“What do you mean by wooden head?!”

While she couldn’t recall a few recent events, she didn’t think anyone could remember everything. People often forget trivial details from yesterday.

The car was filled with laughter again, and until they reached headquarters, they called her ‘rocky-Ay.’

“But how was the surveillance success?”

After changing clothes and coming to the lobby, one of the team members asked her.

Everyone knew she was on surveillance duty. When she first took on the task, they all expressed sympathy, but their expressions clearly showed relief that she wasn’t the one doing the tough job.

“Would we be in this state if it had succeeded?”

Of course, she didn’t know the specifics of how it was progressing, and after experiencing the lack of results during the first Red surveillance, the team didn’t expect any information to come from surveillance.

“What are you doing?”

Luche, in casual attire, came to the lobby and asked them, and they silently conveyed their intention of drinking the canned coffee they were holding.

“Miss Luche, when are we having a company dinner?”

Come to think of it, it had been a while since they last had a dinner together. Feeling the mood for a fun gathering, she looked at Luche, who also looked up in thought.

“This week is a bit tough.”

“Why? It’s supposed to rain over the weekend, and it’s perfect for eating pajeon with makgeolli.”

“Rain on the weekend?! I was planning to do laundry!”

Hearing the sudden news about rain, Luche raised her voice in frustration, and since I hadn’t checked the weather for the weekend, I pulled out my smartphone to check it.

Seeing that it would be sunny until Saturday and then rain on Sunday, I immediately thought that Sunday would be slow at the cafe. As I pondered how I ended up worrying about the cafe, a message came in.

It was a text from Yura, specifically a photo.

It seemed she sent a picture taken of a cat on the street on her way home, and the message was simply about how cute the cat was.

“…….”

I replied appropriately and put my phone back in my pocket.

“Ay, how’s the Pink surveillance going? Smooth?”

“If it was smooth, I would have reported it already.”

Luche glared at me with an angry look, and I avoided her gaze. I wondered if she was going to nag again, but today she didn’t.

“But didn’t another team have a confrontation before we left today?”

“Yeah. Team 2. In fact, I just met the Team 2 Leader.”

Our team was Team 3 of the Spacystro Seoul Branch, and there were four teams in total. The number of teams wasn’t particularly relevant, but regarding confrontations, teams typically conducted one confrontation per day, and it was rare for there to be two confrontations in a day.

There was no particular reason for this; it was just the schedule. It wasn’t unusual, but it was somewhat surprising.

“The Team 2 Leader is nice. He has a good personality.”

They had known each other for a long time, and the Team 2 Leader was famous for being pleasant within the Seoul Branch. This was a casual remark based on facts, but Luche looked displeased when she heard it.

“Are you saying this for me to hear?”

“No, just a casual remark.”

I swear, this statement was just a spontaneous thought, not intended to target Luche.

“Right! Team 2 has great results and gets good support, and the Team Leader has a great personality!”

This was something Luche had been upset about for weeks. If forced to choose between crying and being upset, I’d always pick crying because the aftermath of being upset is terrible.

“I don’t have a good personality, and I can’t… achieve… results… sniff sob!”

And the worst part is being upset and crying. Our team lost today, and later we learned that Team 2 had won spectacularly. But Luche, who had just met the Team 2 Leader, was already feeling a sense of loss, and I added fuel to the fire.

“Hey, help me…”

I tried to ask for help from a teammate nearby, but when I regained my senses, they had already run away, leaving me alone with the glaring Luche.

“That can’t be true! Miss Luche is so nice! We just need to perform better, and I made a mistake today. You didn’t do anything wrong!”

Lately, whenever I meet Luche, I seem to make mistakes that I can’t handle.

I want to meet Yubin soon to get some healing, but it took me two hours just to soothe Luche today.