Humanity Protection Company

Illustrations: None.

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It had been a few days since they came down from the mountain.

Lee Yeonwoo, groaning in pain, walked to a barbecue restaurant located in a corner of downtown Sangpyeong.

His limping steps finally brought him to a stop in front of the restaurant.

The door was wide open, and the rich aroma of grilling meat wafted out. Swallowing his saliva, Yeonwoo swung his cast-covered hand and stepped inside.

“Welcome! How many people?”

The owner, who had a hideous scar on his face, greeted him with a broad smile. A frightening visual.

Avoiding his gaze, Yeonwoo turned his head this way and that, looking around the sparsely filled tables.

“We’re having a company dinner here tonight—”

“Hey! Rookie! Over here!”

A loud voice echoed from a corner table. The burly team leader waved his thick hand.

Sitting at the same table in casual clothes, Choi Jae-min and Yoo Ji-yoo each raised a hand or nodded in acknowledgment.

Yeonwoo quickly walked over.

“Hello, Team Leader, seniors. Jae-min, too.”

“Oh, it\'s the first time seeing your face in person, right? How\'s the injury?”

The team leader pulled out a chair while keeping his eyes on the cast.

Yeonwoo sat down, waving his cast-wrapped arm back and forth.

“Thanks to resting for a few days, I\'m fine.”

He had indeed spent the last few days resting in his small gosiwon room. Given his injuries, going to work was out of the question.

Of course, despite the rest, his overworked body still screamed with muscle pain.

“Yeah, you need to rest well if you want to work long. So there are no aftereffects.”

At that moment, the grim-looking owner brought a large tray with side dishes.

Placing kimchi, scallion salad, and bean sprouts down, the owner smiled brightly while glancing at Yeonwoo.

“Ah, are you the new employee?”

“Ah, yes.”

“I’ll be seeing you often then. They always have their company dinners here. Want a soft drink or something?”

“Forget that. Just bring us some soju.”

Yeonwoo showed discomfort at the excessive attention, and the team leader ordered nonchalantly. The owner quickly left and brought soju, a gas burner, a stone plate, and thick pork belly sprinkled with coarse salt.

“Enjoy your meal, and call me if you need anything.”

The owner moved to another table. Ji-yoo, familiar with the task, lit the gas burner and placed the meat on it.

Sizzle- Sizzle-

The sound of meat cooking.

The delicious sound like a rain shower, along with the smell of meat, rose up.

Yeonwoo, who swallowed his saliva, snapped back to reality and took chopsticks and spoons from the utensil holder with one hand. As the youngest employee, he planned to set the table.

However.

Clatter, clatter-

His trembling hand, like he had a tremor, made the utensils clatter noisily. The muscle pain hadn\'t subsided yet.

“Mister, give them to me! I’ll do it.”

Silently handing them over, Jae-min placed the chopsticks and spoons in front of each person, distributing the stacked soju glasses one by one.

A soju glass was also placed in front of Jae-min himself.

Ji-yoo, who was grilling the meat, narrowed her eyes.

“What? Planning to pour cola into that?”

“No. I\'m going to drink, too.”

Jae-min met her gaze boldly.

Ji-yoo raised her hand, then realized she was holding tongs and scissors and fell into thought. Should she hit him on the head with the scissors?

At the menacing look, Jae-min pushed his chair back, moving away.

“No, listen to me.”

“Go ahead. If you can\'t convince me, I\'ll stab you with this.”

“Listen.”

Jae-min pulled his chair closer and looked at Ji-yoo, Yeonwoo, and the team leader. Then he lowered his voice.

“Last time, we almost died.”

“So what? That\'s it?”

“No! Listen to the end. Last time, we survived somehow, but the investigation team\'s job is like that. Usually, there\'s no problem, but if we mess up once, we\'re dead.”

“….”

In the noisy meat restaurant, silence fell over their table. Ji-yoo silently flipped the meat. Jae-min continued to speak.

“We were lucky this time. But what about next time? There might not be a next time. And in this job, the risk is always there. So I want to drink. Because we made it through.”

Click-

The team leader silently twisted open the soju cap. The soju bottle pointed towards Choi Jae-min.

“Fine, let him drink. It\'s okay to drink in front of adults. It\'s also a good opportunity to learn how to drink.”

“Yes! Thank you!”

Jae-min respectfully raised his glass with both hands. He seemed to be copying something he saw on TV, being overly polite and filling the glass to the brim with soju.

Yoo Ji-yoo watched with a bitter expression, then put down the tongs and took the glass when the bottle came to her. Lee Yeonwoo did the same. As he lifted his glass with his good hand, the team leader paused for a moment.

“Can you drink right now?”

He glanced at the cast. Yeonwoo nodded.

“A few glasses should be fine. If anything, it might help me heal.”

“Haha! That\'s right! You know something!”

In the meantime, the meat was perfectly cooked. Ji-yoo cut the meat into bite-sized pieces with scissors.

“Cheers!”

“Cheers!”

The team leader raised his glass high. The four glasses met in the center of the table and then parted.

“Ugh! It tastes f*cking awful!”

Jae-min turned around completely and downed his glass, then hurriedly turned back and grabbed three pieces of meat, dipping them generously in ssamjang before eating them. Ji-yoo, looking exasperated, said a few words.

“Drink slowly. Don\'t cause any trouble.”

“How can I drink a lot of this? It’s ridiculous. Why do people drink this saying it’s good?”

“Haha!”

Amid the cheerful clamor, Yeonwoo struggled to make a wrap.

Using his good hand, he placed fresh lettuce on a side plate, added a spoonful of warm rice, put on some ssamjang-covered pork belly, and added a clove of garlic.

As he was about to stuff the wrap into his mouth, the team leader rummaged in his pocket and took out a small glass bottle, placing it in front of Yeonwoo.

“Rookie. Keep this.”

Munch, munch-

Yeonwoo, chewing, looked at the glass bottle.

The small, brown glass bottle had no label or paper on it and looked like a digestive or hangover remedy. Inside was a clear liquid.

The team leader spoke softly.

“There’s no reward for this job. You know why, right?”

“…Yes.”

Swallowing the wrap with a gulp, Yeonwoo responded in a choked voice, and Ji-yoo bowed her head slightly.

They had been scolded by that commander, learning their mistake.

Destruction of anomalous entities, setting fire to habitats. The possibilities they almost erased with their own hands.

The team leader hit the table with his spoon, cursing the higher-ups.

“Damn bastards. Is this a humanity-protection company or an anomaly-protection company? They call this a mistake. Anyway, instead of a reward, our investigation team got a few memory erasers. What I’m giving you is one of those.”

“Is this the memory eraser?”

Yeonwoo picked up the memory eraser and shook it a few times. The clear liquid inside sloshed normally. He turned his gaze to the team leader.

“But why are you giving this to me…?”

“It’s like a resignation letter. Ji-yoo already has one.”

The team leader poured himself another drink, watching the soju flow.

“Keep it with your resignation letter, and drink it when you retire.”

“Ah.”

Ji-yoo nodded in agreement. Yeonwoo carefully put the glass bottle into his pants pocket.

They ordered more pork belly and emptied several more bottles of soju. As the night grew later, their once-sober faces turned red with drunkenness.

After eating all the fried rice made with chopped pork belly, kimchi, and bean sprouts, the team leader stood up.

“Let\'s go. Look at this guy, drunk.”

“Aaaah. I think I can drink more? I\'m not drunk!”

Jae-min flapped his arms, slurring his words. He could barely control his own body. Ji-yoo smacked the back of his head.

Smack-!

“I told you to drink just a little, didn’t I?”

“I only drank a little!”

“This is driving me crazy. What do we do with him?”

“Let\'s just drag him out for now?”

While the team leader settled the bill, Ji-yoo and Yeonwoo grabbed Jae-min by both arms and dragged him outside. His feet scraped the ground, and Jae-min found it amusing, giggling as he went.

“Wow!”

“Goodbye!”

The grim-faced owner smiled and saw them off, while the team leader pulled out the company card and handed it over. The owner accepted it and asked curiously,

“Did you enjoy your meal?”

“It’s a barbeque restaurant; if the meat isn’t good, there’s a problem.”

“Haha. So the meat was fine?”

“Why, is business not good?”

The transaction was completed. The owner returned the card, and the team leader put the card and receipt into his wallet, asking casually,

“Except for a few regulars, new customers aren\'t coming. Even the regulars are dwindling. I’m worried about how I\'ll make a living if this place goes under.”

A response filled with concern.

The team leader listened silently, then laughed and gave some blunt advice.

“You’re worried about making a living. Man, you’re lucky to have worries like that.”

“Haha. Really? My wife says the same thing, wondering why I worry so much.”

The owner laughed. The team leader shook his head and stepped out through the open door. A farewell greeting sounded from behind.

“Goodbye!”

Avoiding the glowing sign, the team leader went to the dark smoking area and pulled a cigarette from his pocket. The click of the lighter’s flint striking.

As the flame flickered to life, the voice of a man who had once been an investigator like him echoed in his mind.

‘Hey. I can’t do this anymore. Every day is hell. It’s not just the work.’

‘Will I survive today without any issues, will some crazy people attack, will my city be destroyed? Will the Earth suddenly end tomorrow?

How is living with these kinds of worries any way to live?’

‘I just want to live like normal people, only worrying about making a living.’

The colleague who had endured ten years as an investigator with him drank the memory eraser and moved on to a normal, non-anomalous world.

The investigator, who lost ten years of memories, became the owner of a bbq restaurant, met a life partner, got married, and lived a normal life, worrying about making a living, just as he wanted.

The team leader took a deep drag from his cigarette. He let out a sigh-like curse, exhaling smoke into the sky.

"You bastard..."

As he reminisced, the team leader suddenly smirked. Up ahead, investigators were causing a commotion.

“Huuuuh! I’m, I’m sorry I left you…!”

“Arm! Arm! Arm! Ouch!”

“Get a grip! Get a grip!”

Jae-min clung to Yeonwoo, who screamed and tried to escape, while Ji-yoo struggled to pull Jae-min away.

People who never knew when they might part ways.

The team leader watched them until he finished his cigarette.