March Novel (Completed) - Chapter 38

“Why… are you doing that?”

“Oh, it’s nothing much, but.”

He said it was nothing, but Gi Taejeong grabbed Sehwa’s ankle and pulled it down.

“It just feels a bit strange.”

It didn’t seem like anything… Sehwa unconsciously clutched the hem of his top. It was a habit he had developed because Gi Taejeong constantly opened his gown.

As if the talk of using it as lodging was true, fortunately, the bunker also had indoor clothes. He had showered as soon as they entered, unable to bear his appearance, but he was despairing because there seemed to be no clothes, not even a gown. Should he just go out wearing only underwear? He was seriously contemplating this when, as he rummaged through the shelf to get a towel because his foot was bleeding too much, he noticed the neatly folded indoor clothes beside him. They were even new, still in plastic packaging.

‘I didn’t think he’d find it.’

Seeing Sehwa’s beaming face, steaming from the shower, Gi Taejeong clicked his tongue as if it was a shame. It was fortunate that he didn’t have to be naked until Lieutenant Park came to pick him up, but he was still cautious because he wasn’t wearing underwear. After all that hardship, he probably wouldn’t try to have sex… But you never knew. Gi Taejeong had never once moved as Sehwa expected.

“What Kim Seokcheol fed you wasn’t drugs.”

As if scolding Sehwa for thinking about sex, Gi Taejeong looked only at the sole of Sehwa’s foot with a businesslike attitude.

“I did eat it while transporting it…”

“So, the drug that the bastard wanted to make wouldn’t have been made only of drug components, would it?”

Gi Taejeong mumbled, looking at the sole of Sehwa’s foot, which was beginning to smooth out, unlike earlier when the flesh was tattered.

“That’s true, but…”

If anyone saw the manufacturing process, they wouldn’t easily touch drugs. Tar, poison, blood or skin of dead animals, unknown chemicals, medical waste that hadn’t gone through clinical trials… Those things were boiled and crushed, then inhaled or injected into veins. It was impossible for the body not to be ruined by eating such things. That’s why Lieutenant Kim sought Sehwa’s help, saying he wanted to create a safer yet incredibly effective pseudo-drug. It must have been after he had transported marijuana and methamphetamine to Lieutenant Kim’s clients a few times.

“What exactly is your constitution? Do bad things accumulate in your body, but you don’t feel it, or does your body detoxify itself?”

“W-Well…”

Hearing Gi Taejeong’s words, Sehwa also became curious. It was a part he hadn’t been conscious of until now… and there was no particular reason to distinguish it. Even though he had dabbled in all sorts of drugs, volunteering as a transporter since childhood, he had never been seriously ill because of them. Come to think of it, when Gi Taejeong put the patch on him, he certainly reacted to the aphrodisiac, but the drug components he had taken just before didn’t suddenly surge and reverse through his veins.

“Considering I’m still alive and well, isn’t it not a big problem?”

“Well… I’ll have to check when we get back.”

“W-Why? Is something wrong?”

“It’s not normal.”

Gi Taejeong looked at the sole of his foot with a serious expression, and Sehwa also tensed up. He thought he had a perfect constitution for making a living doing this… Was there a problem he didn’t know about?

“It’d be a big problem if you only get wet easily and can’t get pregnant.”

“Huh?”

Could he please stop talking about pregnancy? Gi Taejeong’s hand, pressing various parts of his sole as if gauging the injury, lightly touched his toes, and instantly traveled up to his heel and ankle. Sehwa thought that being with this man right now was more dangerous than his own constitution, which had never had problems in his life.

“Why are you doing this…?”

He absolutely couldn’t bring himself to accept Gi Taejeong’s dick. It was too big, too difficult… and most of all, he didn’t have the energy to endure his lewd jokes. In this state, if he heard Gi Taejeong’s nonsense, he felt like he would cry ugly tears. When he weakly twisted his body, surprisingly, Gi Taejeong easily released his hand.

“Your ankle is weak.”

Gi Taejeong laughed like a wicked pimp, saying, ‘You won’t be able to run away well, will you?’ Sehwa instantly felt a chill and pressed himself against the back of the sofa, and Gi Taejeong deliberately pulled and released his foot, playing with him.

“Uh, didn’t you say… he’d come to pick us up soon? That, Lieutenant Park…”

As he desperately brought up another topic to change the atmosphere, Gi Taejeong gave him a pass and moved back.

“We’ve safely entered the bunker here, and secured the goods… so confirming that the situation there is completely resolved is the priority.”

Gi Taejeong replied that the shelter situation might take more than half a day. Sehwa, nodding as if understanding, suddenly thought that Gi Taejeong’s tone had changed a little from before. He still teased idly and only said what he wanted, but… somehow. Although it was rougher and cruder, the feeling of harassment had largely disappeared. When he used to call him “sweetheart” all the time, it felt like he didn’t even see him as a human, but now he seemed to regard him as a subordinate he could treat comfortably. Of course, this was just Sehwa’s thought, but still…

Sehwa huddled with his knees drawn up, wiggling his toes that were red from Gi Taejeong playing with them. So. Since they seemed to have gotten a little closer… could he ask what Gi Taejeong’s intention was when he called his name earlier? Of course, Gi Taejeong probably hadn’t thought anything of it, but he had never called him by his name before, even though he knew it…

“How did you know?”

“Huh?”

Sehwa, who had been waiting for an opening to speak, was startled, and Gi Taejeong narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

“S-Sorry… I was thinking about something else for a moment. What did you say?”

“How did you know you had a non-addictive constitution? You must have realized it after trying the drugs, and several times at that.”

Ah… he was asking why he had dabbled in drugs. Sehwa carefully recalled the first time he had touched drugs.

“I didn’t do it because I wanted to… I was just born into a place like this…”

In his childhood, when he couldn’t even count his age on ten fingers, he foolishly envied the stories of his older brothers and sisters. Their families went bankrupt, they were scammed, they were depressed and somehow dabbled in gambling, they were preparing a business, they just liked to party and lived recklessly… He envied them sharing stories of what kind of life they lived outside the house, and how they ended up in this state, while drinking. The dark shadows that fell whenever they closed their eyes, tired and lonely, somehow looked cool.

“My last name is Lee. There’s no special reason for that either. They say it’s Lee because I was born in 2-won… And Sehwa, they say that name was given to me by a Hwatu player, to grab a really strong Hwatu card.”

Sehwa had no such stories. He had no life outside the house to miss, no memories. When he opened his eyes in a warehouse-like place, the day began. He’d eat leftovers, watching others, and if there was work to do, he’d obediently follow and do it. He didn’t remember the details, but the debt collector of that house said he couldn’t kill Sehwa because he was too young. He had a lot of money to recover, but his body hadn’t grown enough, so it was difficult to take organs or anything.

“I was just waiting to die like that… but somehow, an opportunity came. An opportunity to be a transporter.”

It was a simple task, they said: swallow a round candy-like thing, then eat the given medicine and throw it all up. Other children hesitated and tried not to make eye contact with the adults, but Sehwa bravely raised his hand. He hated that the older boys in his room beat him and spat on him every day, so he wanted to be away from them for at least a day.

“After I succeeded a few times, the adults wouldn’t touch me. I got beaten less, and they gave me a lot of warm food… it was good. So I kept doing it, and well…”

One day, he swallowed a round object as he usually did, but an adult belatedly made a fuss. They said the packaging was wrong, that it needed one more packing but they didn’t know. Everyone clicked their tongues, saying that the child had swallowed the outer wrapper still coated with the drug, so they were going to have a proper funeral today… But surprisingly, Sehwa didn’t die. Such incidents repeated several times, and he realized his constitution was a bit unusual.

“…It’s just a pathetic story like that.”

Perhaps he was tired. As he spoke, he unconsciously got caught up in his own story, rambling on about things he hadn’t been asked. Gi Taejeong said nothing, just stared blankly at Sehwa.