Annoying Competitor

I regretted it as soon as I said it. The patrol officer’s complexion, which I thought couldn’t get any worse, darkened even further.

The Patrol Officer, Carla Daniel, remained silent for a long time before finally speaking.

“I didn’t have a close relationship with Glori-ah. Rather than a friend, she was a terribly annoying competitor, always.”

“I hated her. I despised how she was always shamelessly standing in front of me. Rather than a fellow human being, she just looked like an unlucky obstacle. I hoped she would get into a sudden accident and ruin a major test, or catch a serious illness and would just disappear from my sight, because I was so terrible and petty back then.”

“But when things actually went the way I wanted… well. At first, I was just happy and felt slightly uneasy, but the happiness didn’t last long, and instead, that small uneasiness I thought was trivial remained for a lifetime. Even though it wasn’t my fault, I might have been carrying a sense of debt in a corner of my heart.”

Her eyes were cloudy as she spoke, reminiscing about the past. It was probably the kind of story she couldn’t tell without the courage alcohol provided.

Where else would a Patrol Officer of the DCPD, who always had to be resolute, talk about such a personal history, her own vulnerable side?

Sometimes, no, more often than you’d think,

People tend to confess their intimate stories more easily to strangers than to people they know.

“Because of that debt in your heart, you couldn’t ignore the message asking for help.”...