March Novel - Chapter 6

Aphrodisiac? Sehwa unconsciously tilted his head. If torture was the goal, there were plenty of more effective drugs. He could think of over ten off the top of his head. Well, the man probably knew that and wasn’t deliberately using an aphrodisiac.

In any case, the instruction itself wasn’t difficult. The problem was his thoroughly battered body. Whether he licked it with his tongue or inhaled it through his nose, he needed to get his hands on that glass plate to do anything. His limbs trembled so much, like a newborn animal, that even sitting up was difficult.

Gi Taejeong’s foot, in his line of sight, pivoted at an angle. With one leg bent, he tapped the floor with his toe in a regular rhythm, as if keeping time. He seemed to be gauging the angle for another kick if he moved sluggishly. What the hell did he want him to do? He knew he wasn’t in a state to move. When he glanced up in despair, Gi Taejeong just smiled sweetly.

His vision kept blurring, so he blinked to try and focus, and tears streamed down his cheeks. It was just… physiological. He definitely wasn’t crying because he was scared and miserable. But Gi Taejeong seemed to interpret it differently. He chuckled, then ambiguously gestured downwards with his chin, as if giving him a break.

Sehwa bit his lip to hide a sigh. Beyond his pride being hurt… his gesture only added to his confusion. If he looked at him like that, what was he supposed to do? What did he want? He grumbled inwardly, when suddenly, a thought struck him: perhaps his gaze had a meaning. As he instinctively looked in the direction his eyes were drawn, his head naturally bowed.

Sehwa’s eyes, which had been blinking calmly, suddenly sharpened. So he wanted him to lie down like a dog and lick it, right now. Sehwa wanted to punch his past self, who had been mesmerized when he first saw Gi Taejeong. He was worse than the perverts who promised double the money if he slept with them.

“I don’t know if you’re quick-witted or not.”

“……”

“So, are you going to do it or not? I feel like I’ve said this twice already.”

His body flinched again at the soft voice pouring down from above. Okay. I’ll do it. I said I’ll do it. Sehwa mumbled timidly and bent his body. When he was bent over, the pain seemed less than when he was sitting, but his knees kept poking his sore spots, making him break out in a cold sweat. It was a mysterious and irritating pain, much like the man in front of him.

Anyway, that was his problem, and if he were the kind of person to consider such things, he wouldn’t have ordered him to do this in the first place. Sehwa bowed his body as instructed and brought his face close to the plate. After all, his fingers, already stained with blood and saliva, couldn’t pick anything up. He pressed his face as close to the glass as possible and extended his tongue to lightly lick the powder. As he did so, he glanced up at Gi Taejeong, as if asking if this posture, like a dog licking a man’s dick, was what he wanted.

“Good job.”

It was an unwelcome compliment. The added “pretty” was better left unsaid. Sehwa mumbled and swallowed the powder clinging to his tongue and the roof of his mouth. Even if he wanted to identify what it was, his mouth was all torn up, and his nosebleed hadn’t stopped, so all he could taste was the metallic tang of blood.

“The others too.”

He poked the glass plate with the tip of his tongue. Sehwa, who habitually ran his tongue meticulously over the back of his teeth, the roof of his mouth, and the inside of his cheeks, suddenly felt something strange and examined his body. He had unconsciously straightened his body, which had been awkwardly hunched over until now. He could also feel his nasal cavity, which had been damp with blood, slowly drying. Strangely, the pain seemed to have lessened a bit.

Before he could even express his thoughts, a new glass plate was placed on the floor. This time there were four types, all white powders. Not wanting to hear any nonsense, he ate them all without a word before Gi Taejeong could even say anything.

After that, another plate was placed, similar in composition to the first one he had eaten. Sehwa carefully rolled his tongue, even frowning. As the bleeding stopped and the pain subsided, he could gradually distinguish the tastes. These were definitely new to him, and they weren’t aphrodisiacs.

“Oh. Didn’t get hard, did it?”

Is he messing with me? Sehwa slowly started to get up.

“…It must be a drug only used in the military.”

“That’s right. It’s very useful during operations.”

Gi Taejeong nodded, saying that having one’s insides crushed during combat was no big deal.

“There are better drugs in the unit, but this is all I have right now. Still, you feel better now, right?”

Is he giving me a disease and then a cure? Sehwa was dumbfounded, but he tried his best not to show a disrespectful expression. It was exactly as he thought. He had wondered why he was doing such bothersome things, but now Gi Taejeong was showing off to him. Literally, giving him a disease and then a cure, showing that he could push him to the very end. So, he should listen well.

Since he had shown him how he could toy with him, he figured the real point would come now. And that he really shouldn’t displease Gi Taejeong from now on.

“Then this?”

He unconsciously hunched his shoulders. Learned fear washed over him, but he didn’t have time to be completely consumed by it. This time, Gi Taejeong himself held up the plate, urging him to taste it. His posture, kneeling on one knee and holding the glass with both hands, looked almost like a proposal.

Sehwa hesitated and leaned his upper body towards the glass plate. It was an awkward posture, neither fully prostrate nor properly seated. He thought he could just pick it up with his hand now, but since he was holding it out like this, it seemed he wanted him to keep licking it. Sehwa, unable to hide his discomfort, pecked at it with his tongue like a bird, tasting it.

“…Ah, this is definitely an aphrodisiac. From left, Gahara, Carona, Sering.”

“Sering?”

“It’s slang. There are a few weaker versions made by refining Carona, and it’s the most popular one among them. It’s good for mixing with alcohol, and it’s relatively less addictive…”

He mumbled and swallowed the rest of his sentence, “So it sells well.” Gi Taejeong’s gaze, piercing his face, was burdensome. Had his chattering about a familiar topic annoyed him? Embarrassed, he lowered his eyes again, and he tapped his forehead with his bent index finger. He also seemed to be smiling faintly at him. What, why is he suddenly touching me so gently? Sehwa, feeling somewhat awkward, rubbed the spot where Gi Taejeong’s hand had touched.

Alternating between the whip and the carrot was a common tactic used to tame suckers sold off to pay debts. It was obvious, but its effectiveness was guaranteed. Sehwa’s feelings were exactly like that now. After being kicked repeatedly by Gi Taejeong and even spitting blood. Just minutes ago, he had been trembling, certain he would keep him alive only to torment him. But at his seemingly charitable touch, his heart began to soften, even if just a little. This is why they say uneducated people are useless.

“I thought I was just taking you around to have some fun, but you’re actually quite…”

Sehwa’s brows instantly furrowed at the contradictory sentiment. It was harassment no different from what the house guys did, but hearing it in his pleasant voice made it feel a little different. Somehow, it felt more embarrassing and shameful. It was as if he was deliberately choosing vulgar expressions… Ah. Is he perhaps self-conscious about his appearance? Well, he was too handsome for a soldier. Maybe that’s why he was acting so deliberately vulgar.

“I’m sure you weren’t just a porter carrying drugs by offering your body.”

“……”

“Lieutenant Kim, ever ask you to mix drugs in various combinations?”

“That’s…”

“Yes or no.”

He held him so tightly that his jaw felt like it would dislocate. Gi Taejeong’s breath was so close it reached his philtrum.

“You’re young, but you’ve only learned bad things, always trying to time your bets.”

As if to snap him back to reality, Gi Taejeong slapped his cheek with the back of his hand. It was more of a touch than a hit, but perhaps due to his past experiences, his frightened body reflexively collapsed.

“Being stupid is fine. You’ll learn it all after a few beatings anyway.”

The large man’s hand swept through the doctor’s bag with a rustle and pulled something out. It was long and black, looking exactly like an electrical wire. Was he going to strangle him now?

“But hesitating and weighing whether to stick with this side or that side. That’s not okay.”

“What is this….”

“Did you say anesthetics don’t work well on you either?”

As if to mock his ominous thoughts, Gi Taejeong tore the plastic packaging with his teeth. What was that? Masking tape? Electrical tape?

“The military is a place where all sorts of people gather, so there are people with constitutions similar to yours.”

Gi Taejeong peeled off the adhesive backing and wrapped the mysterious black line around his neck. Because he hadn’t neatly secured it, the sealed end dangled long, making it look like he was wearing a leash.

“Wait, this…”

Perhaps annoyed by his fumbling and scratching at the line around his neck, Gi Taejeong roughly gripped Sehwa’s wrist. He held both of Sehwa’s hands with just one of his, yet he didn’t waver at all.

“It’s troublesome if a wounded person needs emergency surgery during combat and anesthetics don’t work on them.”

No way. Sehwa’s eyes widened, and Gi Taejeong winked, as if to say, “Your guess is correct.”

“While you’re wearing that patch, you’ll be able to accept any drug well. Of course, the dosage will need to be adjusted compared to a normal person.”

Gi Taejeong’s fingers suddenly entered the gap of his parted lips. The powder clinging to his fingertips was spread thinly across the roof of his mouth.

“Ugh, ahh…!”

Sehwa, recalling what those drugs were, thrashed his head wildly, but pushing Gi Taejeong away with force was impossible from the start.

“They say if you want to experience the essence of modern medicine, come to the military. It’ll work incomparably better than what’s available at a public health center.”

A scream, neither a cry nor a plea, escaped him.

“Your skin is sensitive.”

Gi Taejeong clicked his tongue and gently touched the scratch near his eye. It seemed to be a wound from his glasses flying off during the earlier beating. His touch was too light for comfort and too serious for a joke.

“You must have really wanted something like this. At the very least, you’ll have to get dental treatment without anesthesia, won’t you?”

That… was true. It was one of the reasons he coveted a resident ID for the city. He had heard that even at a public health center there, all sorts of medications for unusual constituents were readily available. Outside the city, within the “Hwan,” people like him could only obtain necessary items illegally, and even meager ones were said to be as expensive as a room.

So, since he had grown older, Sehwa’s wish had remained constant: please, may his wisdom teeth not rot. If his stomach were pierced, he would give up everything, but for a toothache, he felt he would desperately want to find medicine. Would it be too sad if he incurred more debt just because of a wisdom tooth? So…

“I gave you an expensive patch for free. Instead of thanking me, you’re trying to hit me.”

Gi Taejeong, who had been looking at Sehwa’s face as if admiring it, stood up as if he was done.

“Wash him and make him look presentable. Especially that mottled stuff on his face, clean it off completely.”

“Yes.”

“Wait, just…”

“You’ve taken good medicine, so your insides should be reasonably okay…”

He was suddenly seized by the hands of approaching soldiers, handcuffed, and pulled up. His arms were just held like luggage. But as soon as another person’s body heat touched him, his lower abdomen began to boil.

“Gahara, Carona, Sering… was that what you called them?”

His breath caught in his throat. Something exploded and surged from deep within his navel. It was a pain completely different from the violence he had just endured, a throbbing agony Sehwa had never experienced before.

“Hmph… ugh, this… this is strange…”

“Yes, it is strange. You sold drugs that make people piss themselves, you knew that.”

Perhaps because his senses were heightened, even the brush of fabric against his skin felt like a sharp needle. It was so agonizing that he couldn’t understand why anyone would willingly snort such things.

“Hmph, ugh…”

Gi Taejeong smiled, stroking Sehwa’s mottled eyes with a pitiful expression. The dampness made the pressed wounds sting.

“If you do bad things, you have to be punished. Don’t you agree?”