March Novel (Completed) - Chapter 60

“When…”

A voice that trailed off awkwardly escaped him. Sehwa cleared his throat a few times in embarrassment.

“When… did you arrive?”

The gaze clinging to his face was persistent. The distance was excessively close. So close he couldn’t avoid it. Sehwa, searching for somewhere to look away, finally dropped his gaze vaguely to the vicinity of Gi Taejeong’s neck.

“A little while ago.”

And only after fixing his head in that direction did he realize it wasn’t a good choice. From this angle, the slow ripple of Gi Taejeong’s Adam’s apple was clearly visible every time he opened his mouth. It was just a body part doing what it was supposed to do, but watching that natural movement somehow led to improper thoughts.

“Lieutenant Na will come early tomorrow morning. The military doctor I mentioned before.”

Chief Warrant Officer Choi had informed him of this when he arrived at the quarters. They had decided to get a basic examination first, and if further measures were needed, they would consider them slowly. He had thought it would be similar to when Second Lieutenant Park drew blood on the first day, since it was being done at the quarters instead of a hospital, but it wasn’t. Chief Warrant Officer Choi said that was a simplified version, and this examination would use different equipment.

“What, h-huh…!”

He was about to ask what kind of equipment they had to find out, but Gi Taejeong suddenly shoved Sehwa’s face into his chest. It was a sudden attack, and he had no time to prepare. His forehead throbbed as if he had hit a stone.

As he rubbed the throbbing area, something firm slid beneath his reclining cheek. It was his arm. The man’s hand, which had gripped his nape earlier, was now casually wrapped around his waist. Sehwa, flustered, just blinked rapidly. He stayed still like that for a long time, just still. This looked exactly like… burrowing into Gi Taejeong’s embrace, didn’t it?

He finally dared to move when sweat began to trickle down his spine. He subtly raised his head and saw that Gi Taejeong’s eyes were closed. His forehead, revealed by his swept-back hair, and the line of his jaw were unbelievably exquisite. Who would believe that this man, who exuded an air of nobility and idleness, was an orphan from a detention center? Sehwa pondered over the stories Chief Warrant Officer Choi had told him for a long time, so long that if his memories were a paper book, there would be fingerprints at the end of the pages.

Sehwa, who had been blankly staring at Gi Taejeong’s face, then stirred restlessly with a heavy sigh. He was hot and uncomfortable and couldn’t bear it any longer.

“I’m too hot… I’ll just take off my outer clothes.”

He even tried talking, just in case, but the other person remained silent. Sehwa carefully took off the outerwear he was wearing. No matter how careful he was, his body couldn’t help but stir, but thankfully, Gi Taejeong showed no reaction.

Sehwa slipped out of the pile of clothes he had shed like a discarded skin and turned over in the opposite direction. After struggling to push the fallen outerwear far away, he finally felt a bit better. It was full spring in the 5th district. The weather was too warm to be wearing the clothes he had put on in the still chilly 4th district.

“Should I take off everything?”

Sehwa’s movements, which had been stirring, abruptly stopped at the low voice from behind him. Wasn’t he asleep?

“No, I’m just a bit hot… I was trying to put this away…”

“So.”

A large hand suddenly plunged inside his top.

“If you’re hot, you should take it off.”

“No, no. I’m not hot anymore. I’m really fine.”

His body temperature was so hot, yet the sensation of the hand on his skin was only cool. His whole body instantly shriveled at the hand that gently stroked him from his lower abdomen to below his sternum. Sehwa squeezed his eyes shut. He thought, “So this is how it’s going to go, after all.”

He held his breath for as long as he could, then finally exhaled, making his breathing unstable. Sehwa simply hunched his shoulders as much as possible, steeling himself for what was to come. But even though a considerable amount of time passed, the man’s hand remained still on his stomach. It didn’t knead his thin belly skin teasingly, nor did it move languidly to suggest other actions. Instead, he felt something touch the back of his head, behind his back. He wasn’t sure what the situation was, but he could tell that Gi Taejeong was tightly embracing his curled-up body.

The man’s voice scattered above his head. It was mixed with his exhaled breath and not clearly audible, but it seemed like he was telling him to go to sleep. Only after a considerable amount of time passed did Sehwa relax his stiff muscles.

For the first time, he saw Gi Taejeong’s sleeping face. It was the first time he hadn’t heard harsh words in bed, the first time he wasn’t naked in front of him, and the first night they lay together without sex. Sehwa glanced at Gi Taejeong’s arm, which was supporting his head. Sleep had long since fled. All Sehwa could do was trace his long arm with his gaze. Sweat seeped damply into the gaps between their touching skin.

He had told Gi Taejeong he was fine, but in truth, he was still hot.

“You’re not dizzy, are you?”

Lieutenant Na said the blood collection was finished and put a band-aid on his arm.

“Have some snacks. You must be hungry.”

With no reason to refuse, Sehwa rummaged through the basket on the table. What he picked up was a large, heavy chocolate bar, like a gold ingot.

“Actually, the most important test results are not immediately available.”

“Which ones?”

“It’s similar to a genetic analysis. Based on these results, I plan to track down Mr. Lee Sehwa’s parents.”

It was as Chief Warrant Officer Choi had said. Lieutenant Na Dae-po introduced herself as Na Soyeon, and Sehwa pretended not to know and simply replied, “Oh, really?” Lieutenant Na spoke to Sehwa in a relatively bright voice, but her demeanor wasn’t entirely soft or gentle. It was precisely the level of kindness a doctor shows a patient, and Sehwa felt more comfortable with her clear boundaries.

“Please rest for a moment. I’ve sent a call, so the Brigadier General will be here soon.”

While Lieutenant Na handled the equipment, Sehwa, with the chocolate in his mouth, looked out the window. Gi Taejeong’s quarters were a two-story detached house. The military quarters he had seen on the news were apartment units. It seemed that officers got detached houses.

The house… well. It was white and black. No other impressions came to mind. He knew it was built with good materials and filled with expensive furniture… but that was all. In that it didn’t feel like a home, it wasn’t much different from the House’s fake office.

Just looking at the garden showed it. A spacious front yard was covered with neatly trimmed grass. Given that the water-soaked grass was uniformly cut, there was clearly a groundskeeper. But other than that, there was nothing. No flowers, no trees, no stones, just emptiness.

The gate, rising as if from the empty lawn, was breathtaking just to look at. On either side of the sturdy gate, which seemed impenetrable even by a tank, equally formidable walls proudly displayed their grandeur. Above the walls, lights flickered at close intervals, and whatever they were, they were clearly terrifying. Either electric shockers or surveillance devices. Moreover, tiny cone-shaped sticks, the size of a finger, protruded from either side of the glowing red spheres. Slowly rotating, they looked as if they would fire something at any suspicious object. It was a bleak sight that intimidated even innocent people.

“Not yet?”

Like an ambush, the door burst open, and Gi Taejeong suddenly stormed in. Sehwa choked on his chocolate and coughed. He was startled. He had just been internally criticizing the house for being so much like its owner… How did he know to come in at that exact moment?

“The general examination results will be available soon.”

He was dressed casually, like when they went to the barbecue restaurant. Water droplets dripped from his uncombed hair, wetting his shoulders. He seemed to have just exercised.

“Hmm, then… Mr. Lee Sehwa?”

At Lieutenant Na’s call, Sehwa also awkwardly sat down opposite Gi Taejeong. Suddenly, the man’s gaze went to the chocolate in his hand. Sehwa, feeling unnecessarily embarrassed, quickly lowered his eyes. All he could see was his crooked mouth. Was he smiling? No, was he sneering?

Sehwa unconsciously swallowed a rising sigh. The strange night before came to mind as he looked at Gi Taejeong’s jaw and neck. When he woke up in the morning, the spot next to him was already empty. If not for the ruffled sheets, he would have thought it was a dream. Gi Taejeong, who had done nothing, was surprising, but his own iron nerves, which had slept soundly in his arms, were equally perplexing. He had clearly been extremely nervous, just swallowing saliva… When had he fallen asleep?

What was even stranger was Gi Taejeong’s lack of reaction to seeing him. He had expected him to be sarcastic. “What were you imagining to be so frozen?” 

“The person giving the rice cake isn’t even thinking of it, but you’re so suggestive,” 

“You trembled so much but slept soundly…” There were so many immediate points of contention, yet the man who seemed to live for teasing him acted as if nothing had happened. It was just… strange. It was as if Gi Taejeong considered sleeping in the same bed his natural right and daily routine.

He didn’t want to attach unnecessary meaning, but this was… definitely different from sex, wasn’t it? It was completely different from occasionally eating meals facing each other. This, rather, this was…

“First of all, regardless of the test results, Mr. Lee Sehwa’s constitution appears to confirm Brigadier General Gi Taejeong’s speculation.”

“Ah… yes.”

Thanks to Lieutenant Na’s timely opening, he was able to shake off his idle thoughts. Gi Taejeong seemed completely unfazed, but Sehwa felt awkward, almost ticklish.

“There was a person who showed similar patterns in a previous chemical experiment, Mr. Lee Sehwa.”

Lieutenant Na handed Gi Taejeong a tablet. Most of the subject’s records had been lost, but she had found passages that allowed them to infer the situation.

“Perhaps that person is one of Mr. Lee Sehwa’s parents?”

Perhaps because he had already heard similar things from Gi Taejeong, it wasn’t that surprising. So, the being who created and gave birth to him really did exist. That was all. If his specific identity were revealed… if he could at least know their name, would it feel real then?

“…Lieutenant Na, about this document.”

Gi Taejeong seemed uninterested in their conversation, staring intently at the tablet. He frowned, as if he had found something he didn’t like.

“Is there a problem?”

“…No, just continue for now. We’ll talk about this separately later.”

“Yes. I heard that Mr. Lee Sehwa took drugs for quite a long time.”

“It’s not that I took drugs, more like I just tasted them…”

“Even so. If you count the accumulated amount, it won’t be small, will it? It’s true that Mr. Lee Sehwa’s body filters out harmful substances and even detoxifies them, but the criteria by which his body makes judgments are difficult to clearly define. In such a situation, having been exposed to drugs for a long time, it has become even more unpredictable in the future.”

Still, since there hadn’t been any major problems so far, wouldn’t it be okay? As if Lieutenant Na had read Sehwa’s carefree thoughts, she quickly added an explanation.

“It’s not something to take lightly. Suppose Mr. Lee Sehwa caught a cold and took medicine. Let’s say he also took a few nutritional supplements to recover quickly. In this case, Mr. Lee Sehwa’s body might reject all the medicine as harmful and only accept some of the nutritional supplements.”

“But things like that…”

“Oh dear. I used a cold as an example, so it might not feel real… Then let’s take appendectomy as an example. You’d need anesthesia for surgery, right? But what if Mr. Lee Sehwa’s body judges the anesthetic or a simple therapeutic agent as harmful and rejects it?”

Then his appendix would burst, and he could die without even being able to undergo that simple surgery, Lieutenant Na warned him.

“Then… couldn’t I just wear a patch in that case?”

“The patch the Brigadier General used on Mr. Lee Sehwa is a top-grade item given only to soldiers, specifically those engaging in combat. Commercially available ones are much inferior. No, I wonder how many hospitals even have proper patches in the first place.”

Lieutenant Na warned in a stern voice that she wasn’t joking.

“From now on, you’ll have to calculate every move in your daily life. Because you don’t know what judgment Mr. Lee Sehwa’s body filter will be made.”

She wasn’t joking, she said, earnestly urging him never to get sick again, not even a cold. What was strange was that while she was giving the warning, her unwavering gaze was directed at Gi Taejeong. As if telling him, not Sehwa, to keep it in mind.

“I know you’ve already heard about the constitution from the Brigadier General. But the reason I’m emphasizing it again is…”

Lieutenant Na glanced at the examination device again and slowly began to speak.

“Have you felt anything different lately? Like being extremely sleepy, or having unusually severe mood swings, or your skin stinging unbearably even with a slight touch of clothing, or a particular food being exceptionally disagreeable…”

Gi Taejeong’s hand, which had been tapping the tablet screen lost in thought, abruptly stopped.

“Well… I was tired, but…”

His mood had certainly been erratic lately. And he definitely slept more… But wasn’t that more a matter of circumstance than being sick?

“I don’t know. I don’t think there were any strange symptoms.”

Gi Taejeong’s sudden appearance had violently shaken Sehwa’s world. It was natural to have many thoughts when his entire daily life had been turned upside down, and since he was confined and couldn’t do anything, just sleeping soundly didn’t seem like a strange symptom either.

“Then that’s fortunate. Men tend to show much more sensitive reactions.”

Reactions? What reactions? Sehwa tilted his head, not understanding what he had heard.

“Men are more sensitive?”

“Yes. For now… it appears to be between 5 and 6 weeks. Other values are too unstable, so we’ll know more after an ultrasound, but…”

“Ultrasound?”

As the conversation kept going off track, Lieutenant Na stopped explaining and stared at Sehwa.

“What’s 5 weeks? Am I sick somewhere?”

Lieutenant Na let out a long “Hmm,” then handed Sehwa the printed test results. As if telling him to confirm it with his own eyes.

“Mr. Lee Sehwa, you’re pregnant.”