PASSION Chapter 5 Part 10

Chapter 5 Part 10

"... We'll be staying together for the next ten days?"

Tae-ui muttered slowly. He had no prior experience in solitary. Meanwhile, this man was said to have been in solitary before. He would know about solitary better than Tae-ui at least. Like whether rooms once assigned could be changed mid-way-.

"Didn't you just say it yourself? That it looks like we'll be staying together for a while."

"Hmm- well I did say that but-"

As Tae-ui mumbled vaguely, there was a sound of Ilay laughing beside him.

Tae-ui sighed and leaned against the wall. He grew depressed again. Well, it would be stranger to feel calm being locked up alone in the same space with someone who had killed four people - counting those killed before, the number grew countless.

"But I didn't expect you would come in. What's your crime? Let's see... the crime of displeasing?"

Ilay spoke after seeming to think for a moment. Though Tae-ui thought sulkily to himself that of course someone with experience in solitary would guess that well, he didn't want to simply nod confirming it was the crime of displeasing as it felt like exposing his branch's shame, so he spoke gruffly:

"Aiding and abetting. Though I don't know whose crime I supposedly aided."

Come to think of it, this guy was the one who ultimately committed the crime, yet his aiding and abetting charge was for the dead ones. Though that too felt somehow unreasonable, he had no way to voice it. Ilay laughed.

"Aha. Indeed the crime of displeasing."

"..."

Since it couldn't quite be called completely heard, Tae-ui closed his mouth. Then, exercising a bit of loyalty to the branch - though he actually had none whatsoever - he showed the attitude expected of Asian branch members:

"Things must run healthily and transparently in the European branch."

"Haha, birds of a feather - how could one branch under the same organization be uniquely different?"

Ilay denied it with a laugh. This man was giving answers quite unlike a European branch member.

Well, he didn't seem like someone who would feel belonging anywhere. Come to think of it, hadn't he floated alone even among European branch members? Though that was considerably due to others avoiding him for his personality issues, at least as far as Tae-ui could tell, this man didn't seem like he would feel belonging or loyalty to where he was assigned. Well, he had calmly killed his own branch members too.

"I heard the most deaths in joint training history was six people, so this time barely fell short of that mark."

"Mm, that's right. It was definitely five who died this time."

Tae-ui stared blankly at Ilay speaking so casually as if about others' business. Perhaps because of the darkness, his face looked even more vicious. Later when he got out of here, he would have to ask his uncle whether it was really one person who killed those six people in that training with the most casualties. Somehow, he felt this might not be the first record of five people dying by one person's hand.

"Killing about five people shouldn't be explainable as self-defense... You're quite intense."

Whether he had some incredible backing, or the judges were afraid of revenge - probably the latter - even thinking again, just brief solitary confinement seemed too light a punishment.

Though Ilay must have heard Tae-ui's whisper, he gave no answer. He just smiled silently. Then after a pause, he answered:

"I've been around here quite long. There are probably instructors who've been at the branch shorter than me. I roughly know how the organization runs too... That's why."

Tae-ui frowned and tilted his head. He pondered those words that seemed like an answer yet not for a moment, but couldn't quite understand. Then he suddenly realized. This man too was tiresome to deal with, not lying yet not telling the truth either.

I really hate smart madmen. You never know what they'll do and they cause trouble hard to handle. Yet they always make sure to leave themselves an escape route.

To grumbling Tae-ui, Ilay suddenly asked:

"By the way, what time is it about now?"

"Hm? Ah- since I was handcuffed from morning, got thoroughly interrogated by officers one more round before entering solitary and came straight here, it should be about lunchtime."

Tae-ui spoke recalling the clocks he had glimpsed while going around the officers' rooms. As he said that, the morning's memories flashed by like a panorama. He suddenly felt tired.

Really got possessed by bad luck. What's with all this.

Though he had thought it many times, nothing had been satisfactory since coming here. Everything seemed to keep getting subtly twisted. Perhaps the one thing he liked was meeting Shin Lu.

Suddenly remembering, Tae-ui quietly gripped the pager in his pocket. After fiddling with the quietly sleeping pager, he took it out to look. There were no new messages.

"Radio waves don't reach here."

Ilay spoke watching what Tae-ui was doing. Muttering "lunchtime," he got up and took out a wooden box with handles from the shelf mounted on the wall.

While openly showing his disappointment at hearing radio waves didn't reach, Tae-ui put the pager back and watched Ilay rustling with something while opening the box, though objects were barely distinguishable in the darkness.

"Come help me here."

After briefly watching Ilay who demanded quite authoritatively given the content of his words, Tae-ui got up. Then he felt his way along the dark wall to his side. Though he had to sit down briefly swallowing a groan after stubbing his toe on a protruding rock on the floor along the way.

"Couldn't they make this damn prison a bit brighter? My eyes will degenerate before getting out of here. Damn it."

As he cursed while clutching his toe, Ilay laughed and said:

"You see better once you get used to it. It feels more like eyes evolving. Just wait a bit longer."

"If they evolve any more, I'll go blind the moment I get above ground."

Tae-ui grumbled while approaching him. Then sat beside him and looked into the box that was hard to see, perhaps because his eyes weren't yet adjusted. He could see several plastic containers faintly reflecting light from the dim bulb.

"A medicine box?"

He muttered while picking up and shaking a plastic container. Beside him, Ilay took out another bundle and unrolled it lengthwise. Looked like bandages. So it was indeed a medicine box.

"Why suddenly a medicine box? I didn't hit my foot that hard."

Tae-ui said that while taking the bandages Ilay handed him. Ah, right, he muttered. Come to think of it, this man was injured.

When the cluster exploded, his right shoulder was the only place that took the shotgun blast while dodging. He recalled how blood had kept streaming from just the right shoulder even amid dried blood from others splattered all over his body.

"So you get hurt too."

Tae-ui spoke as if finding it curious. Ilay, who had been taking out a medicine container from the box, briefly paused then stared piercingly at Tae-ui. Somehow he seemed to be making a very strange face, but it was too dark to see, which was regrettable. Though perhaps it was fortunate not to see it.

"What do you think of me?"

"Well... I think of you as I've seen and experienced."

"Aha, as you've seen and experienced. But I don't remember treating you viciously."

He seemed aware that he treated others viciously. Though Tae-ui had thought he either didn't know or pretended not to know even that, perhaps he had a bit of conscience.

Vicious scenes of him flashed through Tae-ui's head like a magic lantern. He had even been present twice when he killed people. But thinking again, it did seem Ilay had never actually treated Tae-ui harshly.

After pondering deeply, Tae-ui muttered calmly:

"The day before yesterday when I ran to the martial arts room, you asked if I had come seeking you for the same business as them."

Ilay was silent for a moment. After a slight pause he answered "Ah, that's right." Tae-ui asked again in the same calm tone:

"If I had said yes then, I could have fully experienced your vicious side too."

After adding like a self-mutter that not just experience it, he probably wouldn't be able to talk like this now, Ilay laughed.

"Don't you think it's foolish to make assumptions about past events that didn't happen?"

"Though it may not be practically helpful, it can let you look at the current situation from a different perspective."

"My, Tae-ui. Do you dislike me?"

At Ilay's words mixed with laughter, Tae-ui frowned and closed his mouth while looking at him.

That kind of talk was closer to Ilay than Rigrow. Having that thought, Tae-ui shook his head. Either way, both were that man. They weren't separate individuals that could be divided.

"Hmm. That's a difficult question to answer. But thinking about it, considering the sides you've shown me so far, wouldn't it be much easier to dislike than like you?"

"Hmm. That too is a difficult question to answer."

Ilay spoke with a bitter smile. His exposed shoulder where he had pulled aside his clothes was wrapped in bandages. His hands were skilled at unwrapping the bandages. The technique of someone who had done it alone many times.