March Novel (Completed) - Chapter 123

Interest bloomed on the faces of the elders watching. Sehwa stood firm, receiving all their sinister gazes, as if they had found a new amusement. “Use me instead of the child,” “Take me,” he repeated like a parrot.

“I request a brief recess.”

Gi Taejeong sprang up instantly, as if he had springs in his waist. A hand suddenly came under his knees, and then his body floated upwards. The man’s grip, tightening around him as if to leave no room for idle thoughts, was incredibly firm.

The courtroom door, an antiquated design that looked like it belonged in a history book, opened, and a state-of-the-art sensor, contrasting with it, scanned their two bodies as one.

“Who in their right mind would hear them say they’re going to take a newborn child and remain sane!”

Just before they completely exited, Sehwa heard Captain Oh Seonran’s hushed threat. He seemed more cautious than ever, as if he judged the content would not be good for Sehwa to hear.

“Director Cha, if your mouth is open, say what you just said again. What? Draw the child’s blood? And a child who’s still in an incubator?”

“Captain, as I said, that is a necessary procedure according to Brigadier General Gi Taejeong’s claim,”

“Why do you keep badgering an innocent person in a place meant to determine Lieutenant Kim’s guilt or innocence? Do you think it sounds good for a relative of Lieutenant Kim to say such things?”

“Captain Oh, please calm down a little.”

“Calm down? Do I look like I can calm down right now? Besides, wasn’t that drug manufactured by Lieutenant Kim arbitrarily pushing for ‘Harvest’? What will you use the by-product of a project that hasn’t even been approved for? What will you report to the higher-ups?”

“……”

“Hey, Director Cha. Why are you silent? You were driving him to death just a moment ago, weren’t you?”

The door slowly closed, and the voices that had been piercing his ears were sucked inside and disappeared.

The various ornate decorations on Gi Taejeong’s chest swayed before his eyes like a mobile. Stars and flowers and birds. The national flower is allowed only to soldiers, the symbol of the air force, and the insignia of a general. Probably Gi Taejeong’s everything and his life’s goals…

Sehwa closed his eyes. Perhaps because his capillaries had burst, there were several blotches behind his closed eyelids.

The medical office in the annex was much larger and more modern than the one he had previously used. As soon as the brief examination was over, Lieutenant Na and his subordinates subtly left, watching Gi Taejeong’s expression. In the space, which was exaggeratedly as large as a small stadium, only the sound of the IV drip echoed.

Sehwa’s dry lips constantly parted, and Gi Taejeong, with an expressionless face, checked the speed of the fluid flowing through the IV pole and tube. It was natural for him to be angry. He had repeatedly urged Sehwa not to say anything, to remain silent, but Sehwa had acted on his own…

Still… he didn’t make that bombshell announcement, telling them to take him instead of the child, because he didn’t know that. He knew Gi Taejeong would be furious, and he knew how long Gi Taejeong had waited for this day, but… he wanted to protect the child in any way he could.

Just as nothing was as precious to Gi Taejeong as his rank insignia, Sehwa desperately desired Haerim’s well-being. That was all.

“I told you to stay still.”

“……”

“I’ll take care of everything, so you just stay still, and don’t let those bastards’ nonsense get to you.”

“……”

“I brought you here after getting that promise, so why on earth…!”

Gi Taejeong, who was about to scold Sehwa for his impulsive behavior, realized his voice was quite agitated and subtly bit his lip.

“…I’ll say you fainted from shock and can no longer stay, so be aware of that.”

“Brigadier General.”

“Go back as soon as you finish the IV. I’ll have Lieutenant Park accompany you.”

“Br-Brigadier General…! Just a moment…!”

When Sehwa called out urgently, the man turned back. Surprisingly, his face was not filled with vivid anger. It was… if one were to interpret that expression, it was closer to concern for Sehwa.

“Th-that Director… anyway, that person said my child needed to be taken for confirmation, that… that…”

“……”

“Is that, perhaps, how it happens… is there really a possibility…?”

Gi Taejeong placed both hands on his hips and stared at the floor for a moment. He didn’t seem to be holding back anger, but rather deliberating on how to explain it to Sehwa.

Regardless of his own messy and tangled feelings, Sehwa could now roughly discern the man’s true intentions just by him closing and opening his eyes. Before, he couldn’t guess what that person was thinking at all, but at some point, it became possible.

“That’s not an issue to be discussed here, and… ha, I won’t let it happen in the first place, so don’t worry about it.”

“Then it’s a topic that will be discussed elsewhere, cough, someday… is what you mean.”

“I said it won’t happen.”

How could he believe that? Sehwa shook his head and blindly grabbed Gi Taejeong’s sleeve.

“Then, rather… if you take me from the beginning, they won’t turn their eyes to the child…”

“Lee Sehwa!”

“It’s true, my body is really unusual, so if the people who take me become interested in me, they won’t care about Saessak, no, Haerim anymore,”

“Yes, that’s exactly the problem.”

Gi Taejeong’s Adam’s apple moved significantly, as if he was suppressing surging anger.

“The fact that your constitution is unusual, and that the person who gave birth to you was also a test subject for a similar reason… that’s the biggest problem.”

A constitution that no drug affects, or more precisely, filters out harmful substances from the body. Hadn’t Lieutenant Na mentioned it before, saying it was a material that the military would drool over? Of course, as long as Gi Taejeong was there, they wouldn’t be able to arbitrarily drag Sehwa or the child into a laboratory, but even suffering from such anxiety would be poison to the physically and mentally weak Lee Sehwa.

“None of that… matters…”

“It matters to me.”

“Brigadier General.”

“No.”

“……”

“This is a no. Don’t even think about stepping forward again.”

What filled his empty eyes was distrust. There was no room for resentment or hatred. Sehwa seemed to hear nothing. He couldn’t bring himself to utter his recent catchphrase about writing a contract, and simply hung his head.

Seeing him unconsciously rubbing his chest, he seemed to be feeling suffocated. Or suffering internally. Or both…

Gi Taejeong loosened the tie that was constricting his neck. He felt stifled too.

“You were a director-level player, weren’t you?”

“……”

“So why are you swayed by such shallow tricks? You know it’s a deliberate provocation.”

Sehwa, who had been staring blankly at his own feet, chuckled softly. It was a candle-like laugh that seemed to extinguish effortlessly with just a breath.

“Back then… I had nothing to protect.”

He had countless things he wanted. Food to eat his fill, a citizen ID card of a 1-star resident, a clean house under his name, even if small, enough money to pay off all his tiresome debts… But he didn’t cherish those things like his life. He had never thought about protecting them so that no one could take them away, so that nothing could harm them.

“Before…”

Looking at the same pure white bedding that had covered his body on the day he learned of Gi Taejeong’s lies, his tongue moved on its own.

“…even when I saw the Brigadier General, I had such thoughts.”

“……”

“Back then, truly…”

His voice kept getting choked, and his words trailed off. Still, Sehwa didn’t cry. He simply quietly reflected on a hot and warm past. Admitting that he liked Gi Taejeong and deciding to accept the child were big decisions made after much contemplation. And once he made up his mind, he loved passionately, as if there would be no other time.

As if there would be no other time… Was giving his heart away like that the problem? Is that why it hurts so much?

“Why… am I like this?”

Why did we become like this, you and I?

“You don’t understand… and you’re tired of me… being like this, aren’t you?”

“……”

“Indeed… Since he’s known as the Brigadier General’s child, you wouldn’t easily hand him over to others… considering your reputation…”

It was a short-sighted thought, and saying “I’m sorry” would have been worse than saying nothing.

Now, Sehwa no longer believed any promise unless it was justified. He strangely lowered himself, and couldn’t find his value except in caring for the child.

Gi Taejeong had been harsh, he had hurt Sehwa by bringing up the child he wanted to protect so much, he had realized his methods were completely wrong only after almost losing him once… That’s why he was trying so hard to be normally kind these days. But now, Sehwa couldn’t even hate him freely and just suffered like that.

Gi Taejeong looked at Sehwa’s hand, sprawled on the sheet, with a devastated heart. The veins, like leaf veins, were incredibly thin and delicate. His skin was so pale it was indistinguishable from the white bedding. He wasn’t this thin before. You weren’t this pale before…

“…What are you thinking?”

Swallowing what kept rising hotly within him, he placed his own hand over Sehwa’s neatly arranged fingers.

He wouldn’t let go. He couldn’t let go.

‘You once harbored such blind feelings for me, too, didn’t you? Just as you do for the child now, there was a time when you wanted to protect me, too. So just bear with it a little longer. Stay by my side. Endure until all the bad things are diluted and you like me again. Then, perhaps, someday the same feelings as before might sprout.’

“I won’t get angry, tell me.”

“…There will definitely come a day when the Brigadier General gets tired of me… and if my body is in this state… I’ll be even more useless…”

“……”

“Then, what should I do…? How can I prevent Haerim from hearing such scary things in the future…? I was worrying about that…”

Ah…

“But… now that I’m Captain Oh Seonran’s adopted son, it’ll be okay, right?”

Ah, ahh. Gi Taejeong let out a small sigh. Nothing was reflected in Sehwa’s eyes, which were aimlessly cast somewhere in the medical office. It was as if a black curtain had fallen.

Watching Sehwa mumble incessantly like a madman… Gi Taejeong decided to admit it. It was already over.

This was the building. The place where Sehwa learned all the lies he had casually told, and where a greatly shocked Sehwa collapsed, bleeding…

Crying uncontrollably, clinging to straws, wanting to hear the truth one last time that day, ignoring his plea to be honest, and always glossing over it as if he didn’t know… Everything about this beautiful, precious, and cherished person was shattered. Gi Taejeong had broken it all.

He belatedly realized he cherished that brilliantly sparkling heart, that beautiful thing… but no matter how much he flailed, he couldn’t hold onto the fine sand slipping through his fingers. It only made it disappear faster.

He had completely ruined it, beyond repair, yet he stubbornly clung to Sehwa. ‘Let me be by your side,’ ‘Let me see the ocean with you,’ ‘I want to hear you say “our family of three,”‘ ‘Smile at me again like before…’ He had such shameless and futile fantasies. He begged the always gentle Sehwa, ‘Can’t you look at me just this once again?’ Again, arbitrarily, cruelly.

“Sehwa!”

His throat was stinging, and he couldn’t even swallow properly, when Captain Oh Seonran burst through the door without knocking. His neck was red, as if he had been raising his voice just before.

“Captain. I have something to tell you.”

“…What is it?”

“Could you spare me a moment?”

Captain Oh Seonran, who had been about to ignore him as if he were of no concern, nodded inadvertently, sensing something unusual in Gi Taejeong’s complexion. He looked at Sehwa, who was sitting diagonally on the bed, with worried eyes, then followed Gi Taejeong into the hallway.

“Why. Is something wrong with Sehwa?”

“Rather than that…”

Gi Taejeong stared blankly at the gray door of the medical office. Then, as if suppressing something, he suddenly gritted his teeth. The muscles in his lower jaw protruded, and a vein pulsed in his neck.

“Brigadier General Gi Taejeong?”

At that moment, Oh Seonran saw a moist glint in Gi Taejeong’s eyes and thought, ‘No way,’ pulling his chin back. Was he crying? He blinked his eyes wide in disbelief, but Gi Taejeong, with his usual arrogant face, as if mocking his misconception, stared back at him.

“…If I let go of Sehwa, if I give up all parental rights to the child.”

“……”

“Then will Captain Oh Seonran become the guardian of the two of them in the future?”