Problem. Upon returning home, what is the most appropriate way to handle it when my oldest female friend and another female friend are fighting by grabbing each other’s hair?
The correct answer is to turn off the water supply by closing the pipe that is spurting water after having its head cut off.
“Hey! Be careful. I don’t know what this one might do suddenly!”
While Siera was shouting and grabbing Yubin’s hair, I opened the cabinet under the sink and closed the water pipe.
“Older Brother! Can you stop these two?”
Seeing the two of them already calling each other derogatory terms and showing hostility towards each other, I felt lost about how to proceed from here.
“What?!”
Yelling while grabbing each other’s hair, Siera glared at Yubin.
“Calm down first, both of you.”
I wasn’t panicked inside the chaotic room where I didn’t know where to start looking. Instead, I was calmer than anyone else in the room.
I thought that causing a ruckus here would be inappropriate, but I believed that calming the atmosphere was the most important thing. Moreover, every time I looked at the messy state of the house, I felt a bit annoyed.
I grabbed the hands of the two who were holding each other’s hair. Telling one to let go first or telling them to let go simultaneously wouldn’t have been effective since they weren’t in a state to listen. So, I thought letting go with my own hands would be the best method.
“Both of you, relax your grip.”
“You should let go first.”
“You attacked first! You should let go first!”
Even though they were held by me, neither of them had any intention of relaxing their grip. On the contrary, they continued to assert that they wouldn’t let go until the other did.
“Both of you have already broken the rules. Fighting more won’t help, so just let go first.”
The only thing I could do now was to calm them down. I didn’t know what had happened before, but the two met at my house, and through a series of events, we reached this situation.
Trying to calm them down, I couldn’t understand what they were thinking since I didn’t know the process that led to this point. However, their glaring eyes and the firm grip showing they wouldn’t let go.
If this continues, they might fight all night. If that happens, nothing will be left in my house.
No, the house was already in such a mess that finding something intact was difficult. The idea of moving out quickly came to mind, and seeing that the two couldn’t calm down at all, I felt frustrated.
“Aah!”
“Ayaya!”
Then, releasing the hands that were grabbing each other’s hair, I pinched both of their heads simultaneously.
Only then did the two release their grip and hold their pinched heads, looking up at me with cold, unrelenting eyes. I looked back at them alternately.
“Look at the state of the house.”
It seemed that Yubin and Siera hadn’t noticed the surrounding situation while fighting because they looked around the house late and realized the damage they had caused.
Water gushed out from the sink due to the cut-off faucet, flooding the floor, and the bathroom door was smashed. Tables and sofas were scattered with pieces from the trajectory of the swords wielded by the two. Their swords, which they had swung vigorously, lay in a corner.
Siera didn’t know about my situation. I thought Luche would come faster, so I expected this meeting between Siera and Yubin to happen sooner, but unexpectedly, their confrontation occurred first.
I had the duty to explain the situation to Siera, but worrying about how to deal with the wrecked house took precedence.
“Did you see?”
Looking at the mess, the two were speechless. Since they seemed to have calmed down a bit, I decided to try a calm conversation and sat on the bed.
“!”
At that moment, the broken leg of the bed collapsed, and I fell to the ground along with the bed.
“Hey!”
“Older Brother, are you okay?”
The two, who were watching cautiously, seemed surprised as they rushed to help me up. As they got closer, they looked at each other again.
“It’s your fault that older brother got hurt!”
“Why is it my fault?! And who are you to call me ‘older brother’ like that?”
Siera’s voice trembled slightly. I thought she might not have understood the current situation.
Since every move they made led to a fight, I decided not to move and stay put.
“Stop fighting!”
Realizing that raising my voice would be necessary since speaking softly wouldn’t work anymore, I raised my voice.
“…Sorry.”
Yubin apologized first and extended her hand. Reflexively, I grabbed her hand and stood up, then sat on the floor among the chaos.
“Can you explain the situation?”
First, I needed to know what had happened before I arrived. Asking for an explanation of how things had come to this point, Siera pointed at Yubin as if she had been waiting for this moment.
“She broke into my house.”
Yubin pushed away Siera’s hand, which was pointing at her, and pointed back at Siera, indicating that she had something to say. She looked at Siera fiercely and said:
“She attacked me first.”
Siera knocked away Yubin’s arm, clearly not wanting to lose.
The situation was roughly understood. Yubin, who had a scheduled meeting with me, came to my house because she couldn’t contact me and waited there. Siera, who had no reason to think Yubin would be in my house, assumed she had broken in and attacked her immediately. The two were in a standoff, unaware that the entire house was in disarray, when I arrived home, leading to the current situation.
“Are either of you hurt?”
Regardless of the reason, they had both broken the rules. Since the problem could be quietly resolved if everyone here remained silent, I checked if they had any injuries.
After examining themselves, Siera and Yubin confirmed that they had no injuries. Apart from being covered in water and dust, there were no visible wounds.
“It’s fine. And I’m sorry for making a mess of your house.”
Looking at the house again after Yubin’s apologetic words, I realized that I needed to speed up my plans to move out. Repair costs would be high, but I could only be satisfied with the fact that they weren’t injured.
“…”
When I gently held Yubin’s hand beside me, Siera frowned, looking puzzled as she alternated her gaze between me and Yubin. Given the situation, it was impossible to avoid explaining everything to Siera.
“Why do you need to explain to me?”
Seeing no intention of talking to Siera, Yubin showed clear hostility.
“Yubin.”
Calling her name while holding her hand, I realized that the situation couldn’t be resolved emotionally and closed my mouth, lowering my tone.
The more I did this, the worse Siera’s expression became. A simple statement like “girlfriend” would end the explanation, but it was too hard to say even after knowing Siera for a long time.
“I was worried when I couldn’t reach you no matter how many times I called. What’s going on? Why are you close with Red?”
“My phone was off.”
Yubin answered Siera’s question before I could, responding to her inquiry about the missed calls.
“Did you call?”
“Yeah, but it said the power was off, so I contacted Blue instead.”
It seemed there were communications after I left SuA’s house.
“Blue? Who’s that? Are you friends with Blue too?”
“Not just Blue. My older brother is dating all the HunterKiller members.”
Without warning, Yubin blurted out the truth when I was speechless. While it was true, I was caught off guard, and Siera stopped listening as soon as she heard Yubin.
Seeing the atmosphere, Yubin explained calmly, preventing Siera from reacting emotionally. I buried my face in my hands and lowered my head.
However, I couldn’t remain silent forever. Since Yubin had solved the hardest part, it was now my responsibility to explain to Siera.
“Yubin… It’s true, as Red said.”
To make Siera understand, I used Yubin’s codename instead of her real name.
“We’ve been together for a few months. We started dating during a surveillance mission when various things happened. The same goes for the other HunterKiller members.”
Although I might explain the exact details later, it was crucial for Siera to know that we are dating and why it happened.
“Dating? With five HunterKiller members? You?”
Siera asked with a stunned look, nodding silently. Her eyes showed no hesitation, and Siera’s expression hardened as she looked at me.
“Surveillance mission? I never heard of that.”
“That’s because Luche gave me that order alone. She told me to monitor quietly and observe the situation.”
“The rat.”
Siera grimaced and cursed Luche, her clenched fist trembling.
“Until then, the mission was just to monitor quietly. There was no intention to approach for dating.”
“You explicitly told me not to let anything happen! And you said there would be no trouble.”
Hearing Siera’s words, I felt stressed, and the stress led to a terrorist incident. After that, I hadn’t thought much about it because Siera hadn’t told me not to do anything. But it seemed Siera hadn’t told me that alone.
“Again?”
I couldn’t take it lightly. Although Siera had apologized, it didn’t mean I could keep saying those things.
Hearing the words I didn’t want to hear again from Siera, my eyebrows narrowed. Despite the slightly irritated tone, Siera’s eyes were red, and she looked at me with tears, shouting.
“You always focus on what’s in front of you without thinking about the consequences! Haven’t you gotten hurt multiple times? I warned you to be careful!”
I couldn’t respond. Not only was I startled by Siera’s shouting, but I was also surprised by what she said.
I’m often slow to notice things. It’s not intentional; when I focus on one task, I fail to check my surroundings, so I realize things later than others.
Because of this personality, I’ve experienced many dangerous situations, as Siera often warned me. She frequently said not to cause trouble, but I thought she meant she didn’t want to clean up my messes.
Siera was worried about me not considering the consequences and focusing solely on one thing without protecting myself.
Thinking we had known each other for a long time and understood each other well, our ranks changed.
After that, a distance grew between us, and I thought it was because our different ranks had affected our attitudes. But I never thought Siera’s change was a problem. I believed I knew Siera well enough.
However, Siera hadn’t changed at all. Maybe, instead of controlling me right next to me, she had taken a step back to watch over me.
The feeling to explain Siera’s true intentions to make her understand vanished, and I closed my mouth again.
Having known her closely, I thought that explaining it would be enough. Now, however, I felt that no words could describe the situation adequately.
Noticing the tense atmosphere, Yubin alternated her gaze between Siera and me, seeming to sense something and briefly exclaiming, “Ah.”
Lost in thought, when my gaze turned to Yubin, she was looking at Siera with a complex mix of emotions, not a sharp gaze.
“Older Brother.”
“Yes?”
“I’m sorry, but can you give us some space? I want to talk to her alone for a bit.”
Worried they might start fighting again, I didn’t feel that Siera and Yubin would clash again if I stepped away.
I wanted to ask what they wanted to discuss, but seeing Yubin’s reddened eyes, I couldn’t bring myself to ask.
“Okay.”
She nodded and stood up, taking a coat from the closet and stepping outside.
Before leaving, Siera kept her head down, looking at the floor without meeting my eyes. All I could do was step aside, feeling uneasy, to give Yubin and Siera some space to talk.
