A trip to a game store was always welcome.

But why on earth was Walker coming...? He didn't strike me as the gaming type.

I was briefly thrown, but soon came to my senses. Thinking about it rationally, there was no reason Walker couldn't enjoy games. All people were equal before gaming.

I'd have to thank Shu for asking and say I was definitely coming. It wasn't urgent, though, so I decided to reply later and looked up.

No matter how I looked at it, pound cake had been the wrong answer.

"How about fruit? Shine Muscat grapes? Or something classic, like apples?"

"Oh, you menace."

Samuel turned toward me with a sharp hiss of disapproval.

"You just refuse to listen, don't you? You woke up without a penny to your name. Why do you keep trying to buy me things?"

"You hadn't heard? I recently made quite a lot of money."

"Huh?"

I told the doctor how I'd found Martin and earned thirty million won. Samuel listened wide-eyed, then burst out laughing the moment I finished.

"Well, look at you. Settling in just fine."

"Yes, sir. Thanks to you."

"I've never seen anyone become a Badger in such a bizarre way since we were founded. Glad you're doing all right, though."

What?

Since they were founded?

"Have you been here since the organization was founded?"

"Huh? You didn't know?"

Samuel looked just as surprised as I was, then snorted in apparent understanding. The doctor, who looked to be in his mid-forties, shoved one hand into his coat pocket.

"Guess Yun didn't tell you?"

"No. Not a word."

"That young punk never talks enough, even when he needs to."

Yun, a young punk.

The words really didn't suit my training officer. Even among the A-Tech family, he hadn't struck me as young, despite actually being the youngest of their men.

Oh, right. He was supposed to tell me about his past.

He'd promised while we were killing time at the gathering. He'd said that if I was curious, he'd tell me more later, beyond the fact that he'd been adopted at twelve.

And hadn't Yehyeon promised to tell me everything, too? It stung to think of all the stories I'd missed out on.

If not for Jaeyeon, it all would have happened in peace. I frowned, recalling what had happened before I lost my memory.

But I hadn't lost track of our conversation.

"If you don't mind my asking, Doctor, how advanced in years are you?"

"Advanced in years, my ass. Just ask how old I am, you little punk. I'm about nine years older than Yun."

Good heavens.

"Are you a Badger?"

"Physically, yes. Think of me as a case similar to John Mühlen. I stubbornly refused an enhanced-body transplant during the First War, but they finally wore me down during the Second. Still don't understand why they bothered giving me one when all I do is work as a doctor."

I stared blankly at the grumbling doctor.

That meant he'd been in his mid-thirties when war broke out. He would have witnessed its beginning with clear eyes, and survived the rapidly changing situation.

I had definitely been here before the war. But I couldn't remember the war. I couldn't remember it ending, either.

What had I been doing then?

While I was lost in thought, the doctor turned from tapping at his tablet and looked down at me. After a brief silence, he asked,

"You were brought in with Yehyeon. Got mixed up with the bastard who regularly beats him to a pulp, did you? I'd thought things were getting better these last few years."

"This has been happening for a while?"

At my horrified question, Samuel let out a sigh that was as good as a yes.

I was speechless for a long time, even though I knew very well how violent and cruel Jaeyeon could be. Yes. Jaeyeon hated everything, including himself. But as far as I remembered, he'd never hated one person with such persistence.

Even if there had been someone, they would have met a swift end.

That surely would have been Yehyeon's fate too, but Colton's intervention must have prevented Jaeyeon from killing him. Something must have happened after Lee Yehyeon became commander.

Samuel watched me reel from the shock and gave a heavy sigh.

"I don't know who the bastard is, but don't get in too deep. And if you already have, be careful."

"What about the commander?"

"Discharged yesterday."

That was quick?

My eyes widened in surprise, and Samuel snorted.

"You've been asleep for two days straight. Didn't you know?"

"Whoa. I slept that long? I was perfectly fine."

In fact, I was apparently healthy now apart from the injuries to the back of my head and my right shoulder.

Samuel briefly explained my condition, then cleared me to leave within a few hours. It was the first time I'd been told I could go home right away, and a smile spread across my face.

He clicked his tongue at my undisguised delight.

The stubborn doctor left without ever telling me what he liked, saying that Yun had come both days and would come today as well. The autumn sun shone on his back, painting warm squares on the bed.

* * *

Yun came to see me with impeccable timing.

He wasn't particularly surprised to find me awake. Without wasting words, my training officer bundled me into his car and drove toward his house. Since my injured right shoulder kept me from training properly, he said, he intended to get everything that didn't involve physical activity out of the way.

I didn't bother asking what that meant. I'd find out when we got there.

Instead, I asked a different question in the car.

"Do you happen to know what Samuel likes?"

Yun's answer was concise.

"Booze."

"Aha. Does he like spirits?"

"He'll drink anything alcoholic."

So he could really put it away.

Deciding to get him spirits or wine, I felt around for my phone with my left hand.

First, I slowly worked through my replies. I told Shu I was definitely coming, suggested to Tom and Heshy that we pick a day for dinner, and let my other seniors know I'd woken up in one piece. Once I'd finished replying, I opened a search engine and looked up alcohol that would make a good gift.

But the car stopped before I could choose anything.

We had arrived somewhere familiar.

Ah... The cabin was finished.

"Are we blowing that up?"

"I've thought about it, and I think you'd be better off just living there."

Why!

I whipped my head toward him in horror. Yun spoke calmly.

"I inspected it thoroughly. There's nothing unusual about it."

"Don't you think the fact that Jaeyeon built it for me is unusual enough?"

"True. But there's no guarantee tearing it down will make things better."

A wise answer.

It would be entirely in character for Jaeyeon to fly into a rage, demanding how I dared demolish the cabin he'd built me. If I didn't tear it down, at least I'd have a cabin until it collapsed.

I stared at my training officer in dismay, then sighed and surrendered to reality.

As I muttered my agreement, he gave my left shoulder a rough pat.

"Chin up. The sooner you give up, the better."

"I'm depressed. Please let me go home."

"That cabin is your home now."

Instead of going to my home—the cabin Jaeyeon had given me—I went inside Yun's house.

I still didn't know why he'd dragged me back here. But by now, I'd grown quite used to his unexplained actions. I'd become somewhat familiar with this vast house, too, so even when he sat me down on the sofa and disappeared, I simply relaxed and enjoyed the soft cushions.

Until my training officer returned with a thick book.

"Here."

"... What's this?"

He thrust it at me, and I took it reflexively. He still offered no explanation, but presumably he'd handed it over for me to look at, so I opened it without hesitation.

The moment I opened the purple hardcover, I realized it was an album, not a book. Inside were photographs that looked as though Ami had neatly arranged them.

I looked up at Yun, my mouth hanging open.

"May I look?"

"You said you were curious."

Good Lord!

I had no idea why he was showing me such tremendous kindness, but I would gladly take it.

Rather than refuse this unexpected kindness, I went straight to the first page.

And burst out laughing at the very first photograph.

It made an impression right from the start. Pasted onto the first page was a picture of Yun, looking about ten, holding a tiny Ami with a sullen expression.

"You've been making that face since you were ten?"

"Why would I have been any different back then?"

Yun answered indifferently, stretching out on the opposite sofa.

"I did listen to people even less."

I happily studied the photographs.

Childhood pictures of Yun and Ami. Just as he'd said, my training officer wore practically no expression in any of them. When he did, he was either scowling or looking sullen.

His tendency not to move much seemed unchanged, too...

Ami, meanwhile, often appeared as a blur, presumably because she moved around so much.

Most of the childhood photographs featured Yun going to catch Ami. Four-year-old Ami running determinedly off somewhere. Twelve-year-old Yun chasing her. Five-year-old Ami falling over. Thirteen-year-old Yun sighing. Six-year-old Ami eating ice cream, getting it all around her mouth. Fourteen-year-old Yun giving her a withering look.

Choi Hyeonjun and Choi Hyeonyeong appeared occasionally, but not often, while Choi Hyeonseok was nowhere to be seen. He seemed to have loathed the adopted siblings.

It was painfully obvious that Hyeonyeong doted only on Ami. Hyeonjun seemed to keep a moderate distance from them both.

For a while, the cheerful photographs featured only those four.

Then a familiar face suddenly appeared.

"Yehyeon!"

Yehyeon and Yun were wearing the same school uniform.

"You went to the same high school?"

"Yeah," my training officer said dryly.

I looked at Yehyeon, younger and even gentler-looking than he was now, and Yun standing beside him. The picture had been taken in summer. A bleak schoolyard with rusted pull-up bars, white short-sleeved summer uniforms. Yun held a Capri-Sun in one hand.

Yehyeon was holding an ice cream cone, and the wrist of that hand was covered in livid bruises.

My fond smile gave way to an involuntary frown.

"Did Lee Seunghyeon hit him, too?"

"How do you know Lee Seunghyeon?" Yun asked sharply.

Come to think of it, my training officer still didn't know that I'd met Lee Seunghyeon before.

As I looked up, caught off guard, a faint crease formed between Yun's brows. But he didn't press me right away.

He gave me a dissatisfied look, then waved a hand.

"Never mind. I was planning to deal with all that in one go later anyway. Keep looking."

I didn't know what he meant, but obeyed.

Now there were five familiar faces. They came and went as the photographs progressed chronologically. Yun, Ami, and Yehyeon posing side by side. Ami going out with friends her age. Yun pointing at a computer screen and explaining something to Choi Hyeonjun.

Then came a photograph of Yun looking down with a little smirk at Ami, who was sobbing as though her world had ended.

He was wearing a green military uniform.

"What's this?"

"When I went into the military."

"The military? Then the First War started when Ami was this young..."

"I served twice."

Why?

I gave him a puzzled look, and he scowled. For some unknown reason, his mood had suddenly soured.

"I don't want to remember it, so shut up," he spat.

"Yes, sir. I don't know what it is, but I'm sorry."

Next page.

I lowered my head and returned my attention to the photographs. There weren't many of Yun after that. I smiled fondly as I watched round-eyed Ami grow up.

Ami holding Choi Hyeonyeong's hand as they shopped. Ami playing badminton with friends, wearing her gym clothes under her school uniform skirt. Ami presenting Choi Hyeonjun with a birthday cake, and Ami running toward Yun as he approached in uniform.

Looking through those photographs, I soon reached the last page.

But I couldn't close the album. The moment I'd turned to that final page, my body had instinctively gone rigid.

The print tucked into the last page showed not a person but a round portal—a pitch-black portal that seemed ready to devour every scrap of light around it.

There was no way to tell what lay beyond.

"If you're done looking, it's time for your story, Hildebert."

I remained frozen on the sofa until Yun's languid voice struck my ears.

"Give and take. That's how it works."