Black Badger - Chapter 346



Only Noblemtl

346. Sasha (2)

Lee Seung-hyun’s life was filled with violence.

Ever since I can remember, he’s been fighting. With older kids at the orphanage. Or with the orphanage administrators.

Sometimes it was a struggle for food, and sometimes it was a struggle for sleep.

Or sometimes it was just a struggle to win the struggle.

Anyway, he had been fighting someone since the time he remembered.

That was the way of life that Seunghyun Lee knew.

Fortunately, there were also things he was better at than others.

“A terrible baby.”

The people in the agency were furious at him for sticking his teeth out and attacking them even after being beaten hard.

“How did someone like that get mixed in?”

I don’t remember much about my life before I met Sasha.

All I could remember was that I was running around like an animal for food and warmth. There was nothing particularly pleasant about remembering it, so I didn’t regret the hazy memory.

Sometimes I just remember the warmth I felt when I gave food to children who were smaller than me.

It was a faint warmth, but… .

“uh?”

However, Seunghyun Lee later came to accept my whim of occasionally helping out foolish children.

I was just thinking that I should stop giving affection to weak children who would quickly get sick, get beaten up, or die for reasons I don’t know.

At a time when he had thought he should stop caring about anything except his own personal safety, Seunghyun Lee met Sasha.

A girl with pure white skin and unkempt light brown hair.

She had just entered the orphanage and had the personality to die within a year.

“Where did my lunch go….”

The sight of him muttering to himself absentmindedly was shocking.

The luxury of eating lunch slowly was not tolerated here.

“My bread.”

But the kid who came in yesterday or the day before didn’t seem to be aware of that atmosphere, and even if he did, he wouldn’t be able to deal with it.

“My bread?”

A girl who is loitering around an old, run-down restaurant.

Seunghyun Lee, who couldn’t stand to watch anymore, sighed and approached her.

“hey.”

“uh?”

The girl looked back at him with big eyes.

“Your bread isn’t here.”

“why…?”

“Someone must have stolen it. When you receive it, put it in your mouth right away. Don’t leave it behind or hide it in case you don’t receive it.”

“Steal it?”

The other person said with his blue eyes wide open.

“Who? Why?”

He added that he looked at me as if to ask me why I was asking such a stupid question, but I ignored him and just opened my mouth.

As if he remembered it too late.

“Are there times when you don’t receive it?”

Surprise appeared in his blank eyes.

“why?”

Then he looked at Seunghyun closely and asked.

“Then aren’t you hungry?”

After seeing Seunghyun’s empty hands, he lowered his eyebrows.

“You didn’t get it either? Should we go and tell our elders that you didn’t get it?”

… This won’t work.

This was Lee Seung-hyun’s first thought when he saw Sasha.

***

A girl who lived a life loved by her parents but ended up in this rotten place.

She was so smart, pretty, and easy to get attached to.

Lee Seung-hyun found out about that fact on the second day.

Could it be because I gave the bread I stole to the employee on the first day?

The next day, when he opened his eyes, the girl was looking for him.

“uh!”

As I was walking to the front door, a girl suddenly popped out from somewhere.

Lee Seung-hyun looked back at her briefly before putting his shoes on.

But the girl ran towards him without even putting on her shoes as he opened the front door and tried to go out.

“There it is!”

“There is no morning.”

“really?”

Eyes opening wide again.

After I snorted and turned around, she looked startled and reached out her hand.

“That’s not it.”

She grabbed Seunghyun’s clothes tightly.

“Thank you for yesterday!”

Seunghyun stared at the girl.

But the girl did not let go of her own clothes.

“What is your name?”

Instead, he smiled meekly and pointed at himself with the hand that was not holding the hem of his clothes.

“I am Sasha.”

Seunghyun let out a deep sigh.

There were quite a few kids who acted like this. Kids who thought they would fall asleep if they were next to me. Or kids who were so thirsty for affection that they wanted to be noticed by anyone.

The former turned their backs as soon as a problem or opportunity arose, while the latter died easily.

The causes of death were varied. Children who originally had no guardians tend to be approached by all sorts of people.

This orphanage was a hotbed of corruption and violence, so it wasn’t surprising that anything happened.

I think I was a bit shocked at first.

Now, far from being surprised by the sudden deaths around him, he had reached the point where he despised the weak who had died.

This one was so uselessly pretty I wondered if it would last a month.

It’s better not to give affection.

He grabbed Sasha’s hand and pulled it away.

And then he walked away with brisk strides.

The girl followed.

I never looked back, but he kept talking to me from behind, so I couldn’t help but notice.

“Tell me your name.”

The running speed was strangely fast.

“Tell me your name!”

Unlike yesterday when he was absentmindedly searching the kitchen, his running was frighteningly fast.

Lee Seung-hyun knew that his physical strength was exceptionally good. It was his only favorite aspect of himself and his survival strategy.

I never thought I would fall behind in anything that involved physical strength.

Until Sasha caught up to him.

“Tell me your name….”

Sasha, who had been chasing him at incredible speed and grabbing his clothes, muttered with a sullen expression.

“You don’t want to tell me?”

It doesn’t seem like you’re even that out of breath.

How is it so fast?

“Do you regret giving me bread yesterday?”

Seunghyun, who had been checking Sasha’s condition, thought for the first time that she might survive.

“Next time I’ll give you half of my bread… ”

Don’t you think that if you just teach them the rules, they’ll be able to escape from this and that?

“So, let go of your anger… and let’s play together. And tell me your name.”

“Lee Seung-hyun.”

So Seunghyun answered.

He continued, looking at the building he was about to go to.

“Aren’t you on your way back?”

Sasha made a dumb face.

Lee Seung-hyun… slightly regretted his judgment that she might survive.

***

Sasha was fierce.

She was neither aggressive nor sensitive. She even thought that everyone was basically good. Lee Seung-hyun, who had to go to the library with her on the day she told him her name, was startled when she said with a bright smile that she and So-and-So looked like good people.

Only after pouring out a bunch of frustration telling her to come to her senses instead of reading the book did Sasha finally come to terms with reality.

But that doesn’t mean his cruel side has disappeared.

After that, Seunghyun Lee carried Sasha around for a while.

It wasn’t intentional. Sasha followed him around like a baby bird seeing its mother for the first time. No matter how fast she ran, she would eventually catch up to her. One day, she got up early and left first, and the next day, she was dozing off in the hallway. It was unbelievable.

So at some point, Seunghyun Lee gave up on running away and changed his course to focusing on imparting knowledge to Sasha.

He wasn’t a good student.

Even though I was annoyed and asked what on earth my messy hair was, it didn’t change the fact that I didn’t clean my hair at all, and that I kept procrastinating before and after the weekend distribution time when I had to run out faster than anyone else.

The only consolation was that the running was really fast.

The fact that he had memorized all the things he had told me to memorize so that I could come to my senses was amazing.

So, he quickly escaped the moment the violence poured out.

“What should I do with this?”

Sasha was also strangely tearful.

“You look so sick….”

If you grow up in a normal family, would you be so shocked and saddened by all this violence?

Although he was puzzled, Seunghyun thought that her fuss was not bad to hear.

He brought a wet rag to his swollen, blue wrist.

“I told you not to go down that alley.”

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry… I thought it would be okay if I ran quickly and got past.”

“How can you run faster than a grown man?”

“Hey, let’s go and ask for some medicine. If I go, won’t you give me some?”

“I told you to wake up. It’ll get better if you leave it alone, so don’t make a fuss.”

As it turned out, the Russian girl who was born and raised in Korea was so insensitive that I couldn’t turn her off.

Even without that, her exotic appearance catches people’s attention.

Seunghyun looked at his wrist and saw the woman crying, thinking that if he hadn’t arrived on time this time, he would have been in big trouble.

A life that’s always on the edge.

But I’m still holding on.

In the future, if I just show you the direction, won’t you follow me with quick feet?

I didn’t want to see the children I had shared bread with disappear in an instant.

“Sasha.”

When I called his name, Sasha looked at me with big eyes.

“Why? Should I call an ambulance? Or should I call the police?”

“Hold a sharpened pencil in your hand and sleep.”

As soon as I hear a scream, I will run to the women’s quarters.

“Poke him in the eye and then run along the path he tells you.”

One day she did just that.

And that day, Seunghyun ran into the women’s dorm and crushed the head of a man who was seven years older than him.

That’s how they survived.

Until Catherine came to visit.

***

“Please take me with you.”

He was hiding near the car of an outsider who claimed to be a reporter, and as soon as the daycare center staff left, he pushed Sasha in front of the reporter.

“please.”

The pale woman smiled faintly.

The people who came with her seemed a little surprised.

Still, he stubbornly stood in front of the car.

He bent down and did not move until he heard the answer.

Sasha, who was holding on tightly with her right hand, writhed and struggled as if she was about to cry.

“I don’t want to go!”

So what, you’re going to leave here as a corpse?

“You said we’d go together! You said we’d go together!”

Now Sasha couldn’t keep up with Seunghyun Lee in running.

They were in their teens, and Seunghyun Lee was growing up quickly. He did odd jobs here and there and used the money he earned to buy food.

Because I shared food with Sasha, she also grew taller.

However, he couldn’t keep up with Seunghyun’s growth rate.

It just became too pretty to be useless.

I wish it weren’t so pretty.

Seunghyun Lee looked at Sasha every day and thought.

In this environment, beauty only added to the difficulties of life.

Sasha struggled to refuse to go and eventually started crying.

“Well, I told you that if you just played well, I’d stay by your side… ”

She cried sadly like a kindergarten child.

“If you’re going to go, let’s go together. If we don’t go together, I don’t want to go either…”

“great.”

A person who appeared to be an interpreter stepped forward.

He looked straight at Seunghyun, who was growing up.

“If it were only female students, I don’t think we could pull it off.”

The sense of relief I felt at that time.

And the emptiness left in my heart when Sasha finally left.

It was only that day that Seunghyun Lee realized that the girl with the brown, medium-length hair had become the meaning of his life.

For the first time in my life, which was only about survival, I had a goal.

Lee Seung-hyun still didn’t know how to feel or give something like this.

Still, I thought Sasha was like a warm ray of sunshine in the middle of winter. Sometimes, just her presence made me feel glad that I was sent to this maggot-like orphanage.

Sasha was a girl who slept comfortably in the sunlight of the library, even though all the evidence before her eyes screamed that her life would not be smooth.

Lee Seung-hyun wished she could sleep peacefully like that forever.

Just like it has always been.

We will continue to make it possible for this to happen in the future.

I made a promise to myself as I watched the reporters’ car moving away.

***

It was a lot of work, but he finally got what he wanted.

Seunghyun left the orphanage, joined the special forces, and went back to see Sasha.

When they met again when she was 19 years old, she ran to him as if nothing had changed from before.

Curly brown hair and pure white skin.

Despite his fierce personality, he still runs surprisingly fast.

“Hyun-ah!”

The emptiness that could not be filled with just calls and messages disappeared in an instant.

“Seunghyun! Lee Seunghyun!”

He remembers everything about that day.

Brown hair that was scattered in small pieces in the sunlight.

A winter where the white breath I exhaled was beautiful.

***

Not long after, Seunghyun Lee met Hildebert Taleb.

A man with pumpkin-colored eyes and snow-white hair that falls to his waist.

Even though no one could tell who he was, the soldiers instinctively knew that he was a high-ranking official.

He was someone whose ruling position fit him like a tailored suit.

There is no room for error in the leisurely gait.

He walked leisurely towards the selected soldiers.

After looking through the trash cans of different nationalities, he slowly opened his mouth.

“From now on, I will teach you.”

There was no explanation or greeting.

“Relax.”

Seunghyun didn’t use the expression “idiots” for nothing.

Those chosen were the most outstanding soldiers from each country’s military, and they were all confident, perhaps even arrogant, and had high self-esteem.

The story is that they gathered people who, despite being part of an organization called the military, were not particularly afraid of power.

Despite the fact that the man in front of them seemed extraordinary, they did not meekly accept instructions from someone they did not recognize.

“Who are you?”

A man who appeared to be from Ireland broke the silence first.

“Are you giving us orders?”

A white-haired man with a faint smile.

A gaze flowed from her yellow eyes as if staring at the youngest who had just entered the house.

Several people got angry and swore at that look.

Then the white-haired man burst into laughter.

“You’ve gathered a bunch of real losers.”

Seunghyun knew that the remark wasn’t an insult, and the other soldiers knew it too.

“Okay. If I knock down all of you who came at me together, your tempers will be somewhat satisfied.”

“You’re talking nonsense.”

The guy with the blood vessel between his eyebrows hissed threateningly.

“Do you want to come out after being stuck in the hospital for a month?”

Seunghyun didn’t like those words either.

Not one-on-one, not two-on-one, but dealing with everyone here at once.

Pride is the law of hastening the order.

I’ve gathered a group of guys who have never lost a fight.

Seunghyun thought that he should go back and hit the author in the neck while the other guys were foolishly rushing in.

So we need to make them realize their limits… .

Boom, boom!

That thought was shattered five minutes after the match began.

That day, Seunghyun felt the limits of his talent for the first time in his life.