March Novel - Chapter 4

…You? Flower?

Was he talking about him just now? Sehwa blinked, unable to choose an appropriate response. He said it so calmly that the meaning of his words only registered a little later. You. Famous flower… Compared to the vulgar talk of the house members or customers, it was a call so cringeworthy that his face flushed, and perhaps because of that, it felt even more insulting.

“Oh, our Director Gi is still young, isn’t he? You shouldn’t judge people just by their looks.”

The boss clicked his tongue loudly and glared at Sehwa.

“I was going to keep him around a bit longer and send him to a good place, but look at how he’s acting now that he has someone to rely on…”

“A good place, you say.”

The man, Gi Taejeong, repeated the boss’s words in a flat voice. In just a few words, he seemed to have grasped Sehwa’s situation, no, his entire life up to that point. Sehwa, as always, kept his eyes downcast. …Soon. Even the most tedious humiliation eventually comes to an end.

“I’ll assign him to you because Director Gi specifically requested him, but don’t touch him. He’s someone who recently got lucky by hooking up with a military official. It’ll be a headache if a lieutenant-ranked person gets involved.”

“I see,” Gi Taejeong said, flicking the cigar he was holding. The almost new cigarette butt rolled across the foul water. Perhaps worried that filth might get on his esteemed superior, one of the men standing behind him quickly retrieved the trash.

Sehwa, who had been intentionally spacing out, subtly frowned for a moment. What was that? The gesture of extending a foot, bending at the waist, and picking something up. That action, which anyone could perform… somehow felt very alien.

Sehwa slightly lifted his bowed head and looked behind him. He hadn’t noticed it at all before, as his attention had been focused on Gi Taejeong, but the creases in the pants of the “dajji” standing behind him were unusual. Even if they had just been made and put on right there, the creases wouldn’t have been in the same place, in the exact same form.

He seemed to be a con artist on a rather large scale. Given how disciplined his subordinates were… were they mercenaries, perhaps? Even gangsters, who loved to show off their hierarchy, couldn’t mimic that kind of precision. Just by their disciplined movements, they seemed like soldiers.

“Ah…”

A… soldier.

A gasp, close to astonishment, escaped Sehwa’s lips as he unconsciously recalled a word.

“You son of a bitch…! Hey, March Boy! Are you going to be stupid on Director Gi’s first day of work? Get your act together!”

Sehwa belatedly realized his mistake and bit his lip hard, but he had already let out a foolish sound. The boss pounded his chest as if his insides were bursting, spewing low-quality curses, but he couldn’t even hear them.

A soldier… Yes, that man was a soldier. When Lieutenant Kim met him, his subordinate soldiers acted exactly like that. The precise angle of their hands when folding umbrellas, the way they bent and straightened their bodies when picking up the cigar… He wondered why he hadn’t noticed it sooner.

Cold sweat trickled down his spine. Gi Taejeong’s mouth, barely visible in his vision, was already curving into a crooked smile. As expected. He seemed to have gained some certainty from his reaction just now. Sehwa needlessly stroked his neck, concealing his greatly trembling Adam’s apple, which was agitated by tension. What had the boss said earlier? Had he asked to be assigned to him from the beginning?

It was too late. There was no escaping it. He had come knowing everything. That suspicious man wasn’t a con artist trying to scam the boss. He had infiltrated with the intention of catching him, who had distributed drugs with Lieutenant Kim.

“Then, let’s keep the introductions brief… Could I ask you to show me to the office?”

Gi Taejeong, who had approached Sehwa unnoticed, put his hand around his waist. It was a smooth, slippery action that didn’t suit his fair and handsome face.

“I have a lot of questions.”

His long fingers tickled his waist. Whistles and chuckles rippled from all directions. It was a much louder mockery than usual, as if they wanted to erase the memory of their own tension when Gi Taejeong first appeared. Of course, the man in front of them had created that atmosphere. When someone who looked like a religious painting acted vulgarly, the impact was much greater.

The man’s hand, gripping his waist as if telling him not to escape, kept tightening. On the surface, it looked like playful teasing, but it was a terrifying grip that felt like it could tear bone and flesh apart at any moment. His playful gaze swept over Sehwa’s forehead, beaded with sweat, and his frantically trembling eyelashes. It was terrifying. Both his immense strength, which was more than just “strong,” and his ability to disguise so that it seemed casual to others.

“You’ll help me well from now on, won’t you?”

“Hmm?” he prompted, his voice gentle. Sehwa squeezed his eyes shut. Every time his body swayed, pushed by Gi Taejeong’s force, black foul water swirled around his ankles. Despite his efforts countless times, his shoes and even his trouser legs were completely soaked. It was as if to mock Sehwa, who had struggled to live a little differently, to be a human rather than a flower.

**

“It’s cleaner than I thought? For an illegal extension.”

Gi Taejeong kicked the office floor with his shoe. It was a place reserved for customers who spent a lot of money, so its condition was definitely good. He didn’t know if it was real, but the floor was marble, not cheap tile, and the wallpaper was new. It was also thanks to the boss, who had spent money on it these past few days, perhaps not wanting to be intimidated by outsiders. Even so, it was only a few vulgar items, like furniture with gold trim, that didn’t stray far from gamblers’ superstitions.

Sehwa stood stiffly at the entrance, his eyes darting around. During the not-so-short walk from the warehouse to the house office, Gi Taejeong hadn’t spoken a single word to him. He just seemed busy scanning the unique interior, as if trying to understand something.

When would he start talking? His heart felt like it would burst. He hadn’t been this scared even when he infiltrated other houses as a spy… He would rather he just start interrogating him quickly. He felt like it would be more comfortable if he just yelled at him to confess everything he knew, threatened him, and beat him.

“Excuse me.”

Knock, knock. After a polite knock, the door opened. It was the man who had picked up the cigarette butt Gi Taejeong had discarded earlier.

“General.”

The man bowed respectfully and offered a tablet. General? Huh… It seemed they had no intention of hiding their identities anymore. No, perhaps they never had the intention to begin with.

“Wait outside until I call you.”

“Yes. I’ll prepare.”

By the way, how high is a general? It seems like a high-ranking person. It was a rank he rarely heard, so Sehwa diligently racked his brain, pretending to count the patterns on the floor. He knew approximately what a lieutenant was. Above lieutenant were first lieutenant, captain… and then…

“Just four ranks above me, and you get the head of state.”

As if he knew exactly what he was thinking, Gi Taejeong gently informed him.

“A lieutenant is six ranks below me.”

You, son of a bitch… Sehwa gritted his teeth.

“For your information, my personal adjutant is a lieutenant.”

Sweat beaded and streamed down his jaw. Knowing what a lieutenant meant, literally, knowing that a lieutenant was a high rank. It didn’t mean he was accustomed to such high-ranking officials or truly grasped their status.

But that man, at his age, had a lieutenant as his personal adjutant? The head of state was only five ranks above him?

“I wondered why your face looked like that…”

A large hand suddenly reached out and covered his cheek.

“What did you put on?”

Smooth, cool skin rubbed against his skin, which was thickly covered with spray.

“A few different… tanning… sprays…”

His voice trembled miserably. It was as if he was advertising himself as a suspicious person to anyone who saw him.

“Tanning spray.”

It seemed to be a habit. Calmly repeating what someone else had said. It was an impressive ability, if anything. With just that, Sehwa, shrinking back, replayed what mistake he might have made to this man.

“Ugh… hmph…!”

His thumb, which had been pressing various parts of his mottled cheek, suddenly invaded his mouth. Sehwa, his heart shriveled to its smallest, startled and trembled at such a small act of violence.

“I’ve roughly told you who I am. And judging by your reaction earlier, you seem to have guessed why I specifically chose you…”

“Hmph…!”

A firm hand, which must have held guns or knives more often than spoons, glided across the roof of Sehwa’s mouth.

“Then you also know that if you behave, it will end without pain. Right?”