Black Badger - Chapter 372



Only Noblemtl

372. Christmas Side Story – Each of us is 18 years old

Yehyun, 18 years old.

He spread out the Christmas cards on the table.

There were five chapters. He had spent an hour in the bookstore choosing them. They were mostly simple and the colors were calm.

Yoon looked down at the card with an expressionless face.

“I’m going to just throw it away without even reading it properly this time anyway.”

Ami ran over and punched Yoon in the arm.

“ah.”

“That’s the wrong answer.”

Ami, 10, saw Yoon sitting cross-legged.

“An unsocial answer.”

“You didn’t say anything wrong, did you?”

“But you shouldn’t answer others like that, Choi Yoon.”

Ye-Hyeon laughed bitterly.

The room was warm enough. They were gathered in Ye-Hyeon’s room with peace of mind. As every year, Seung-Hyeon left money behind and disappeared without a word around Christmas time.

Lee Seung-hyun usually returned after 26 days.

Around the 27th or 28th.

Yoon made a face that said he couldn’t understand.

But now that it was time to graduate from high school, Ye-Hyeon wasn’t surprised anymore.

He looked down, fiddling with the sleeves of his uniform.

“Just pick one. You can see things like this better than I can.”

“They’re all similar.”

“Honey, I like the snowman drawing. A snowman!”

“Ivory one?”

“that’s right!”

“Thank you. Then I guess I’ll do this.”

“Do you read the contents?”

Yoon picked up a Christmas card with a cute snowman engraved in silver foil in the middle.

“You always find it in the trash anyway?”

Ami punched Yoon in the shoulder again.

Yoon quickly turns his head towards his younger sister.

As the siblings stared blankly at each other, Ye-Hyeon looked down at the Christmas card.

“… I don’t actually know if I read it or not. I might have read it all and thrown it in the trash.”

His voice got smaller and smaller.

Yehyun fiddled with the ivory snowman card, then gathered the other postcards into one and put them aside.

“And now that I’m moving to the US soon… I still want to say thank you. You even paid my expensive tuition… .”

“My brothers are going to America….”

Then, Ami, who had been clenching her fists, also became gloomy.

“I can’t believe it….”

“I’ll come often, Ami. I’ll contact you every day. Your second brother won’t hit you in the head or anything like that anymore, right?”

“huh.”

“If anything happens, you have to tell Yoon or me right away. Remember what we promised?”

“huh.”

“And then the tteokbokki started.”

“and!”

Amy jumped up and ran out of the room.

“I’ll get it!”

“Huh? Hey, you’re not here yet!”

“Leave it alone.”

Yoon tried to stop Ye-Hyeon from getting up from her seat in embarrassment.

“If it’s not there, they’ll come in on their own.”

Yehyun blinked and sat back down.

And I saw a classmate on the other side, looking down and playing with his cell phone. Yoon was completely absorbed in something. And Ye-Hyeon seemed to be reading a paper that was difficult to understand.

Ye-Hyeon, who had now become accustomed to this appearance, smiled faintly and muttered that she would like to borrow your fountain pen.

“Or so.”

Yoon answers without even raising his head.

Ye-Hyeon naturally nagged at Yoon, saying that it was better to look people in the eye when talking to them, as she pulled Yoon’s bag towards her.

I open Yoon’s bag to take out the pencil case.

Ye-Hyeon was determined.

“…Yoon?”

“why.”

“Do you smoke?”

Yoon raised his head.

The inorganic high school student looked into his opponent’s wide-open eyes.

“ah.”

“ah…?”

“Oh. I started recently.”

He responded as if he had tried the game.

“Because it’s boring.”

Yehyun picked up a pack of cigarettes from her bag.

I quickly grabbed the object and jumped up. But I couldn’t throw it away. That’s because Yoon was running towards me.

Two high school students started fighting over a pack of cigarettes.

However, the person who was actually trying to get the cigarettes back had no expression on his face.

The one trying to take it away had a sad look on his face.

Yoon said.

“Yehyeon. Hand it over. Are you telling me not to steal other people’s stuff and then acting like a hypocrite?”

“Don’t smoke! Who starts smoking because it’s boring?”

“Here. It’s not illegal. I was born in January, so it’s been a while since I’ve smoked a cigarette.”

“To your parents-.”

Ye-Hyeon, who opened her mouth, made an expression as if she had belatedly realized that the siblings’ adoptive parents were not very interested in them.

Yoon raises one eyebrow proudly.

Yehyun chewed her lips and spoke again.

“To my father-.”

“Lee Seung-hyun won’t care if you smoke.”

Yoon pointed out calmly.

“Would a person like that even blink an eye at me about whether I smoke or not?”

Ye-Hyeon remained frozen for a while without moving.

He came to his senses only after a little girl came running into the room.

Ami went straight towards Yoon.

The child swung his fist.

“ah.”

“That’s a bad word!”

Ami shouted, raising her eyebrows.

“Hurtful words!”

“Are you actually pointing that out?”

“…Actually, it’s because I’m intelligent, Yoon.”

Ye-Hyeon, who came to her senses late, answered with a bitter smile.

“I told you. Pointing out the truth so bluntly could hurt someone. … No. Let’s talk about that another time.”

“Okay. Give it back.”

“no.”

“Oppa! I forgot to add cheese to the tteokbokki!”

“okay?”

Yehyun looked back at Ami in confusion.

“What should I do? Should I buy it outside?”

“No. I bought some cheese last time and put it in the fridge here.”

Ami responded calmly, turned around, and walked out of the room again.

“I want to take it out.”

Although embarrassed, Ye-Hyeon followed the little girl, saying she would take it out herself.

And they finally succeeded in eating cheese topped tteokbokki that day.

I also managed to write the 8th Christmas card and place it on Seunghyun’s desk.

Fails to stop Yoon from smoking… .

That’s how Yehyun’s 18th Christmas passed.

The carefully chosen card, tteokbokki, and cheese added late.

An empty house and a warm floor with the heating on.

Except for the pack of cigarettes found in the backpack, it was nothing out of the ordinary, a little lonely and peaceful.

***

“Ricardo.”

Ricardo, 18 years old.

The man was looking at Ricardo with tearful eyes.

“please.”

The rough man’s hands were tightly bound behind his back.

“Have mercy on me. It’s Noel.”

The green eyes were dry.

Ricardo himself was a bit surprised at how dry it was. Now he didn’t even feel betrayed.

That’s worth it.

He’s been through so much on his way here.

The long war.

During the two years of war, Ricardo lost much.

Family is a representative example.

After losing his family, he lost faith in the world. His hometown. His friends. But he knew he was lucky.

His father died, but the things his father had created brought him back to life.

His father’s friends, whose faces he had known since childhood, stepped forward to protect Ricardo.

They accepted him as a temporary measure in the organization and continued to respect his opinions. Thanks to them, Ricardo was able to come to the United States.

The safest land at present.

It was all thanks to their grace that I neither starved nor got beaten on my way here.

However, in the process, Ricardo came to understand his father.

The third man who betrayed his family, including Ricardo, is now on his knees before his eyes…

“You choose, little Sordi. He tried to sell you, your father’s son.”

The Glock was resting against the temple of the floating man.

“This guy is just as bad as the last one. What are you going to do? The mercy of Christmas? Or the price of betrayal?”

“Sordi, Sordi. Please….”

“It’s your choice, Sordi.”

An old friend of my father’s said,

“This time too.”

Ricardo didn’t think long.

From the beginning, he already noticed the betrayal.

A sharp nature can be both poison and medicine.

Thanks to his nature, he was not dragged away by his father’s enemies and died a miserable death, but it became increasingly difficult for him to trust people.

At the same time, the psychological resistance to deciding to condemn began to diminish.

My father must have been like this too.

Carols ringing outside the building.

Clear bell sound… .

“I learned that betrayal is unforgivable….”

Ricardo answered with a faint smile.

“Here is my answer, Elias.”

“What a smart little boy.”

Elias, my father’s old friend, smiled.

“You raised your son well.”

Taang!

A brisk gunshot is heard amid the carol.

What happened on a day not long after the heavens closed.

***

Scar, 18 years old.

He was running around the house trying to avoid the slippers his mother had picked up.

“No, Mom, Mom!”

He shouted, snatching the bottle that had fallen from the shelf he had been holding and setting it down in the corner.

“I’m sorry! I said it was a mistake!”

“It was a cake I made in 3 hours!”

“I’ll go out and buy one!”

“Michael!”

The woman, with slippers in one hand and a whipped cream-covered whisk in the other, kept running.

“Michael! Look what your son has done since he came home after two weeks! On this holy Christmas, instead of sitting quietly on his butt and eating the cake that his mother lovingly prepared, he mashed it like peanuts! Oh, Lord!”

“Oh, Mom, I’m sorry I only came in two weeks. But I did make a lot of money!”

“I can feed and support someone like you all by myself!”

The woman managed to grab Scar by the nape of his neck.

Scar makes a terrified sound.

But there was no mercy. She struck the back of her giant son, who was crouching, with her palm.

“Don’t work! Don’t work! Don’t work! Study!!”

“Oh, Mom! It hurts!”

“Stay home!”

She shouted, spraying whipped cream into the air.

“Do you think I can’t do your father’s share too?!”

Eventually, Scar shared some of the surviving cake with his mother.

A peaceful dinner after a tumultuous night. They showed off their deliciously scented Christmas food to a photo of their father, Michael Owen.

It was the third anniversary of Michael Owen’s death.

Michael, a soldier, was killed in the First World War.

A family reduced from three to two people.

But they did not fall down in frustration.

They had a merry Christmas in their own way.

A carol sounds faintly outside.

A siren that can no longer be heard.

It was a night where I could forget the problems that had piled up.

After eating and cleaning up a huge amount of food, the two of them lazily lay down on the sofa and fell asleep while watching a drama.

Christmas in the warmth.

***

“Why did you join the army already?”

The senior asked, lighting a cigarette.

“And why are you still here in the military on Christmas? Don’t you have a home to return to?”

Karl Doe, 18 years old.

Karl Doe, who was organizing his personal belongings, raised his head.

He looked at his senior with blue eyes.

Then he nodded.

“yes.”

“Orphan?”

“Now, yes. Both my parents died in the war. Both were soldiers.”

“ah.”

The senior raised his hand and patted his back.

“You’re that kind of kid, too.”

The sword did not answer.

I just stood there silently next to my senior, who was smoking a cigarette without saying a word.

He had nothing special to say. He had always been a quiet child.

The army that came in a few months ago is a good fit.

I liked the simple life. I also liked the regular life. My mind was free of distracting thoughts and I was able to sleep well.

It also feels good to be following in the footsteps of my beloved parents.

And a feeling of belonging.

If nothing else comes up, I’ll probably stay here for the rest of my life.

Carl waited calmly for his senior to finish smoking his cigarette.

There was no need to wait long. The senior, who had soon put away the electronic cigarette, placed his hand on the crown of Carl’s head.

“Let’s go. They’re serving a special meal.”

“yes.”

The sword answered.

“Eat lots.”

This time I just nodded without making a sound.

Normally, it would be a behavior that would be criticized. But the senior didn’t complain about it. He just walked to the restaurant, praying that it wouldn’t be a shabby special like last year.

Carl followed him, smiling faintly.

First year of enlistment.

The war was over and he was settled.

And he was getting over his loss.

A Christmas that isn’t so terribly lonely anymore.

Carl Doe had a peaceful Christmas in the military.

***

“dad!”

Barbie shouted as she ran down the stairs to the second floor.

18-year-old Barbie getting ready to go to a party.

She ran through the spacious mansion, holding a pearl necklace.

“dad!”

“Oh, what’s wrong, Sugar?”

Claudio Winter emerges from the kitchen wearing an apron.

“Didn’t you say you had an appointment today?”

“Please put this necklace on me!”

Barbie flipped her blonde hair over her shoulder, exposing her neck.

“My pearl necklace! Hurry up! It’s too late!”

“Oh, then.”

Claudio approached her elegantly and helped her put on the necklace.

“As much as you want.”

The necklace was locked in one try.

Claudio, who had completed his daughter’s mission, gave his daughter a small kiss on the cheek as she exclaimed, “Thank you, Dad!”

Bobby also smiled wryly and kissed Claudio on the cheek.

“I’ll be back!”

“Be careful.”

The man smiled kindly and saw his daughter running out of the house.

Barbie Winter runs like an antelope in 10cm heels.

Claudio watched his precious daughter slide into a black sedan driven by one of his subordinates.

He kept his eyes on the departing car and spoke to his subordinate who was standing guard next to the front door.

“Keep a close eye on them to make sure those trashy guys don’t get involved and do anything stupid.”

“yes.”

The subordinate replied.

“Don’t worry.”

Could that be possible?

No matter how many guards he has, he will always worry about his daughter’s safety.

But it’s also the parents’ job to trust and let go. Claudio smiled faintly and closed the door as he went inside his house.

In the living room was his lovely wife waiting for his cooking.

He plans to enjoy Christmas his own way.

“Merry Christmas, Barbie.”

Claudio whispered quietly as he entered the kitchen.

“Merry Christmas.”

He started icing the cake.