March Novel - Chapter 5

Sehwa, flustered, struggled with all his might. Gi Taejeong shushed him and patted his back, as if comforting a pet.

“Act smart. Unless you want to be torn apart alive.”

His index and middle fingers simultaneously invaded his mouth. It was so firm and rough, as if he had shoved a gun, not just fingers, into his mouth. It was the opposite of a comforting touch. Gi Taejeong pulled out his thumb, now wet with saliva, and firmly pressed and held his chin. He was so strong that it felt like his jaw would be pierced through.

“Ugh, oh… hmph…!”

His face was smooth and handsome, but his body felt like it was carved from stone; no matter how much he thrashed, he didn’t budge. What he was doing now was no different from perverted customers. The ones who, high on drugs, would grope him, asking how wide his mouth could open, or how much he’d charge to suck them.

“Hmm… a little different from what I expected.”

His index finger, bent like a hook, tapped various parts of the inside of his cheek, as if exploring. Sehwa, drooling like an idiot, blinked blankly. Perhaps… perhaps this endless act wasn’t sexual harassment. There was something. The man had another purpose. At the same time, a strange sense of déjà vu brushed coldly against the back of his neck.

“Not here?”

His index finger pressed firmly on the space next to his molars. At the deliberate gnawing action, as if digging, his mind suddenly cleared. Ah. Yes. He understood. It was similar to the strange feeling he had earlier when he saw Gi Taejeong’s subordinate pick up the cigar.

If his guess was correct, Gi Taejeong was… checking. To see if he had hidden and transported drugs inside his body. If the body was used as packaging, traces would inevitably remain. Teeth would naturally shift from pushing powdered substances wrapped in plastic, and the space between the cheek and teeth would abnormally widen.

Gi Taejeong seemed to want to confirm how much could be transported if Sehwa’s body was a storage facility, or if he was still hiding something inside him.

And if he was groping his mouth for that purpose, then soon…

“I felt it earlier, but…”

Only after hearing the man’s muffled voice did he snap back to reality. He hadn’t realized it, but while he had been blankly trying to make his sluggish mind work, Gi Taejeong had also stopped his probing hand. He stared rudely at Sehwa’s face, then smiled faintly.

A silence pregnant with meaning hung in the air. Sehwa’s Adam’s apple, which had been calmly accepting his hand, moved greatly. And as if the sound of his swallowing was a signal,

“……!”

Without time to prepare, a fierce fist landed below his solar plexus. Gi Taejeong’s fingers were still in his mouth, so Sehwa couldn’t even scream. Annoyingly, he had spread his fingers cunningly, like scissors, so he couldn’t bite or chew his flesh to leave a mark.

“Should I call you slow, or quick-witted?”

Gi Taejeong patted his other hand, which was covered in saliva, and stepped back. A strange groan, “Keu-euk,” escaped him. His knees buckled involuntarily. He had been hit in the center of his body, but it felt as if all his ribs had shattered.

“I’m not exactly enjoying this either.”

But before he could vomit what was inside, a firm, shod foot kicked the same spot.

“But this is my job.”

He was kicked repeatedly like a soccer ball until his back hit the wall. His head rang as if it had split open.

“Sorry, darling.”

The kicks were sudden. Just when he thought he would kick again, he would just poke him with his toe. If he thought it wasn’t coming this time and tried to take a breath, he would then mercilessly gouge his thin belly. It was a monstrous strength that felt like it could pierce his skin with his toe. Sehwa, his eyes unfocused, looked at Gi Taejeong, no, at Gi Taejeong’s foot. He wasn’t sure if the bloodstain on the toe of his shoe was from his mouth or from piercing his internal organs.

“Oh, still okay?”

It wasn’t something to say to someone who had vomited so much they were spitting blood, but he understood what he meant. He seemed puzzled that even after probing his mouth and kicking his stomach repeatedly to make him vomit everything, there were no signs of him having been used as packaging.

At the same time, he shuddered. Transporting drugs inside the body was mostly done by those who were already addicted to the bone. Most of the drug users here also gambled. When debts piled up and they couldn’t sell their organs, they were used as transporters.

However, just by looking at the condition of his pupils, his fingernails, and the color of his lips, he should have known he wasn’t an addict. He had fully assessed the situation, and even knowing he didn’t carry drugs in his body, he was beating him to show off. To imply that he had some knowledge of drug transportation, to demonstrate how skilled he was at torture, and to make him submit out of fear.

“…There is.”

“What did you say?”

Sehwa’s hair was completely gripped in Gi Taejeong’s hand. His head was suddenly pulled up, making it feel as if his entire scalp would be ripped out.

“I can… distinguish most… drugs… not just narcotics, but pharmaceuticals.”

His limp fingertips trembled. Blood gushed from his nose and mouth in handfuls. But what dominated his mind more than injustice and anger was fear. He was used to being beaten. But reaching this state usually took being beaten by five or six people for a couple of hours. To become this disfigured after just a few kicks… His instinct, accustomed to violence, told him: This man can inflict pain far beyond what he had ever experienced, without batting an eye.

As that thought flashed through his mind, he instinctively prostrated himself. Gi Taejeong’s words about behaving obediently to die without pain were not a joke. And Sehwa wanted to live. He had always dreamed of living a humble but decent life, but if that was truly impossible. Then he only wished for a peaceful death.

“Darling, anyone can identify drugs. And I’m more inclined to trust machines than people.”

“I’m… not addicted.”

He couldn’t move his body, so he gestured downwards with his head, and he obligingly rolled up his sleeve.

“Where do you even get these?”

Gi Taejeong chuckled, as if his clothes were absurd.

“…It’s always been… my constitution. Anesthetics don’t work on me, and I can distinguish them even if I just taste a little…”

As always, he gave up easily. He decided to meekly kneel and beg for his life. But there was still a hint of stiffness in his words. Perhaps his habit of struggling to live a little differently hadn’t easily faded. A sudden laugh escaped him. He found his past self, just a few hours ago, dreaming of a 1st Star resident ID, ridiculous. He had harbored useless desires, yet deep down, he seemed to have resigned himself. That it would always end up like this. That the day he would be called Lee Sehwa, not Sakura, March Boy, or Redhead, would never come. That he would eventually roll in foul water and die a miserable death like this.

“And since I don’t get addicted… I also made them better than others…”

Gi Taejeong slowly stroked his chin, looking at his pale forearm, devoid of needle marks. The man, who had somehow extracted all the necessary information from his clumsy sentences, nodded and pressed a button on his watch. As if it had a call function, a man named Lieutenant Park and a group of men in black suits streamed into the office.

“Set up what you brought, Lieutenant Park.”

“Yes.”

“How long does a comprehensive blood test take if it’s not for rare disease identification?”

“If it’s not for rare disease identification, ten minutes should be enough.”

Gi Taejeong nodded. As if this wasn’t their first time, Lieutenant Park skillfully unfolded something like a doctor’s bag. Passing over instruments of unknown purpose, he pulled out a common syringe.

“There’s something I need to check, so bring out what you brought.”

Lieutenant Park nodded, gathering the blood-filled reagent bottle and the syringe. Meanwhile, a group of men, clearly soldiers, busily moved around the office. It was a skill, if anything, for so many people to move around without making any chaotic noise.

“It might be hard to believe, but I don’t like getting confessions through torture. There’s an easier way.”

Gi Taejeong tapped powder onto a thin glass plate. Two types were white, and one was a pale cream color.

“This is a pretty potent aphrodisiac…”

Meanwhile, Lieutenant Park had placed the glass plate on the floor, which had been cleanly wiped of blood.

“If you snort all of this and don’t get an erection, I’ll believe you.”