Hated Love

10. Damn It

Time for König to snoop around and learn some Andrea lore. He's not gonna like the answers to his questions. A reminder that Italics mean inner thoughts.

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König has a strange moral compass. He isn't willing to check Andrea's file, seeing it as an invasion of her privacy, especially with her rank. But he's not above going around and asking her men for information on her.

After training, he walks up to Santos, her second-in-command, and pulls him aside. If anyone is gonna know Andrea's life story, it might just be him. 

"The General is a strange woman." He starts.

"No shit." Santos snorts.

He narrows his eyes at him. "I need to know her history. Why is she the way she is?"

Santos' eyes narrow slightly at that. "She's an open book. Always has been. Why don't you ask her yourself?"

He's dodging. "I doubt she'd give me a straight answer. Not with how she seems to make it her life's mission to mess with me at every turn."

Santos has to admit that it's a fair assumption, but totally wrong. "She's been serious before. You've seen it during your stay. Hell, she was even angry yesterday. The General will give you a straight answer."

Now he's annoyed. "I'm not asking her, I'm asking you. Her right hand man. What do you know of her past?" He asks sternly.

It's tense between the two for a few seconds before Santos speak. "What do you want to know?"

König doesn't miss a beat. "Where is she from?"

"America. Her family is from Latino America, though. Caribbean."

He doesn't believe him. "I've never heard her speak spanish."

"She does, fluenty."

"Her name is pretty American to me."

"Have you bothered to check what her last name is?" Santos counters, raising an eyebrow.

Idiot. "... what is it?"

"Perez." Santos answers, crossing his arms.

... damn it. "What's her full name?"

"Andrea Juliana Perez." 

"How old is she?"

"32."

"Family?"

"Disowned."

What. "What do you mean disowned?" König asks, being caught off gaurd by that answer.

"She left her family, wants nothing to do with them." Santos explains.

"Why? What did they do?"

"Lots of shit. Her father was a psychologist, single father. He didn't have sons and raised her how one would raise a boy. Sure, it made her tougher, but it made her sensitive to a lot of things." Santos sighs as he recalls the story, knowing that it isn't easy to accept the fact that the General was brought up so harshly.

"What do you mean sensitive? She's the toughest person I know. The bannter between you all alone is enough for me to doubt you with good reason." The Colonel counters, having a hard time believing it.

"Yeah, how do you think she got that tough skin? She wasn't born that way. Boys are raised to learn to scrap for themselves. Her father made sure she was prepared for the toughest shit life has to offer. Hard to find anything hurtful when your own father tormented you psychologically."