March Novel (Completed) - Chapter 71

“Ah…”

Sehwa realized he had been unconsciously biting his lower lip and slowly released his upper teeth from the tender flesh. Then, as if nothing had happened, he averted his gaze beyond the bar.

“Then what is it?”

Gi Taejeong, who had suddenly come closer, kept asking. His high nose bridge pressed against Sehwa’s soft cheek. His damp breath, his liquor-soaked lips, tickled various parts of his face.

“Or what is it, I said?”

“It’s fine… Really, it’s fine.”

Of course, it was a lie. He still desperately craved cherries. A moment ago, he thought he could substitute them with other fruits, but now he only wanted cherries. Even though he had only tasted them once, just recalling that memory made his mouth water. But…

“It’s late anyway… and I don’t think it’ll digest well, so I’ll eat it tomorrow.”

Sehwa pretended as if nothing was wrong. He put on a calm expression, as if he was truly fine, as if it wasn’t that urgent.

As Gi Taejeong repeatedly asked what he wanted to eat, his expectations kept swelling. Like cotton candy growing larger as it spun in a machine. That fluffy feeling was only sweet, and only harmful. Yes, just like cotton candy.

If he honestly confessed what he was craving right now, he kept having absurd fantasies that Gi Taejeong might somehow get it for him. It was enough that he would send someone with him tomorrow so he could go out and pick out whatever he wanted to eat. Since he could now go out without awkwardly wrapping patches around himself, he thought that was something.

Even if his relationship with Gi Taejeong had softened a bit, it didn’t seem like his attitude towards him would change significantly in the future.

Gi Taejeong was Gi Taejeong.

Moreover, he was an Air Force brigadier general living in the 5th district. Regardless of the man’s usual character, the social status gap was too vast. Such a relationship couldn’t last long. Once the Lieutenant Kim matter was resolved and the House was cleaned up, the frequency of him seeking Sehwa out would gradually decrease. There were countless people sparkling like jewels in the 5th district from birth, so why would Gi Taejeong bother with a lower-class person like him?

He liked him. Gi Taejeong. He liked him even while resenting him, and he liked him even while distrusting him. Even though it was a murky emotion mixed with impurities, it was true. So, instead of honestly acknowledging his feelings, Sehwa decided not to dream of even the smallest thing with him.

He was already immune to this much kindness. If, after everything was over, Gi Taejeong’s feelings cooled and he started treating him carelessly again… just imagining it made his heart ache already. So he wouldn’t wish for anything, he would just like him like this. Waiting for his feelings to wear out at some point. That way, even if the end came, he wouldn’t be too hurt. He had to prepare for when he would be left alone again.

“It’s okay, really. I’ll go buy it tomorrow.”

When he softly added a “thank you,” he gently kissed him. His head was twisted, and their lips were deeply intertwined. Sehwa closed his eyes. From now on, whenever he suddenly craved food like this, he thought he could just recall the indifferent Gi Taejeong of some past time.

Sehwa suppressed the childish baby’s plea for cherries, cherries. Thinking that he never wanted to go back to how things were before, it truly became bearable.

“Let’s put Lieutenant Kim’s family aside. He’s an officer, isn’t he? An officer. If he were just an enlisted man, what would be the problem? We could just execute him.”

“What’s an officer got to do with it? Is that some kind of almighty shield? Is an officer above military law? This man is saying something dangerous!”

“No, what I mean is…!”

The conference room was a mess. Gi Taejeong observed the farce unfolding before him with a bored expression. It was a meeting forced by the elders, who thought it would look better to at least set some groundwork before the court-martial began.

Of course, Gi Taejeong had no intention of compromising, no matter what they babbled about. His conditions had been clear from the start.

Lieutenant Kim’s permanent deprivation of status, and Lieutenant Kim’s family, who had fully supported the project, also withdrew from military-controlled medical projects.

Furthermore, his merit in uncovering an incident that could have escalated into an international dispute was to be recognized with a promotion of at least one rank, and the military achievements of Lieutenant Park and his subordinate officers were also to be acknowledged.

Finally, soldiers from the detention camp were to be allowed to exercise voting rights in court-martials as elders, just like ordinary soldiers, even after discharge.

If even one of these demands was not accepted, he intended to push through with military law. If that happened, Lieutenant Kim would be executed, at best. His family members, who had foolishly handed over classified documents and unauthorized medicine just to boost their idiot son’s morale, would not be able to escape responsibility either.

So, today’s meeting held little meaning for Gi Taejeong. He already guessed that he wouldn’t gain anything, but would only listen to the old men’s useless barking. Yet, he made no excuses and deliberately showed up because there was something he wanted to confirm with General Oh Seonran.

The day he checked Lee Sehwa’s constitution at the official residence, the data Lieutenant Na had given him to read had some suspicious aspects.

First, there were multiple signs of tampering with the records of the person presumed to be Lee Sehwa’s parent. And it wasn’t an attempt to delete existing content, but rather an effort to restore deleted information. It wasn’t anything grand, mostly trivial personal details, but that made the document even more suspicious to Gi Taejeong.

Why bother resurrecting something like this? The sloppy finishing couldn’t be explained unless there was an urgent situation comparable to wartime at the time. Even a casual glance, not just through the computer system, showed that this document had been quite conspicuously tampered with. And only one person’s data.

Moreover, only that experimental subject, who seemed to be related to Lee Sehwa, was classified as being under the responsibility of General Oh Seonran, or Colonel Oh Seonran at the time. It was hard to explain, but Gi Taejeong trusted his instincts in such moments. There was definitely something more. A hidden story that shouldn’t be overlooked.

So he had instructed Lieutenant Park to investigate this matter thoroughly, and separately, he had tried to create an opportunity for a private meeting with General Oh Seonran today. But the important person was absent, and he was forced to watch useless idiots spout nonsense for over an hour.

Damn it, if I had known this, I would have taken Lee Sehwa shopping. How much more amazed would he be to see the dazzling department stores of the 5th district? If I teased him, asking what was so good about it, he’d say “It’s not,” dragging his words, but his round cheeks would puff up and his large eyes would blink.

It felt like he was always doing Master Sergeant Choi a favor. Last time, when they came from the 4th district to the official residence, only that bastard saw Lee Sehwa’s expression and how amazed he was.

Gi Taejeong stretched his neck and looked up at the ceiling once, then abruptly stood up. Lee Sehwa had woken up late, and he had just received a report that he had gone out. If he moved by helicopter now, they might be able to go grocery shopping together.

“Hey, hey? Gi Taejeong, where are you going!”

The old monkeys, who had been shouting at each other, finally turned to look at him.

“I have a lot to do, so I must be going.”

They were all people who had achieved nothing on their own, only receiving elder treatment by relying on their family’s prestige. Many of them were even lower in rank than Gi Taejeong, so legally, there was no problem with him, their superior, leaving first.

“Hey, Gi Taejeong. Putting everything else aside, what good will it do you to act so foolishly? I know you have bad feelings towards Lieutenant Kim, but this is when you need to be smart.”

“Colonel Lee is right. Before blowing this up, you should have gone to Lieutenant Kim’s family to negotiate first. If you don’t have parents to help you, at least seek advice from other elders. Your mood got a little upset, and now the entire military is in an uproar, what a mess, huh?”

“Sigh. I still don’t understand what Lieutenant Kim did wrong. That ‘harvest’ or ‘tentacle’ thing, it wasn’t even commercialized, so why all the fuss….”

Gi Taejeong’s military boots, which had been striding unhesitatingly towards the door, stopped abruptly.

“…Smart?”

The sound of his sole scraping the floor as he turned was chilling. The elders, as if they had never raised their voices, coughed and avoided Gi Taejeong’s gaze.

“Did you just tell me to be smart?”

The chaotic atmosphere instantly became taut. The adjutants standing guard by the door, meant to protect the elders, looked ready to radio for backup at any moment. Although weapons were strictly forbidden in the conference room, Gi Taejeong was a monster who could kill a person with his bare hands.

“When I was first dragged to the detention camp and had my first mock battle.”

Gi Taejeong scanned the stiff faces of the people emotionlessly and then smiled coldly.

“Ah, of course, it wasn’t a mock battle. Even if it was called that, if you lost, you really died.”

The rules were simple. Enter a combat simulation program, destroy enemy forces as instructed, and then exit. They said if you didn’t get out in time, you’d be shot dead, but this was considered not bad. They didn’t deprive you of sleep, nor did they throw you off a thousand-foot cliff. It was a game where you just had to navigate traps as ordered and plant a flag in the designated spot.

“I devised a pretty good strategy, and as a result, I managed to bring out all the kids who played the enemy role alive and safe. But the instructor said it didn’t meet the criteria and told me to do it again.”

The same thing happened two, three times. He kept mentioning efficiency, so he tried to shorten the time. He took the lead and handled all the difficult and tricky tasks. Thanks to this, he escaped two minutes faster than the first time, but the instructor still shook his head. He only gave vague advice to “think carefully about efficiency as a soldier.”

“So this time, I changed direction, killing all the enemies and only saving our allies.”

Yet, the instructor, with a stern face, pushed Gi Taejeong and the children back into the program. Even if there wasn’t much difference from the previous attempt, it was strange that the ten-year-old kids didn’t get tired from the repeated grueling battles.

Anyway, since they kept talking about efficiency, he gritted his teeth and devised an even more outlandish strategy. He coaxed the trembling kids who said it was impossible, and somehow they got out again. A couple of them collapsed from exhaustion during the process, but they completed the mission 10 minutes faster than before. This time, they hardly wasted any given resources. Still, the instructor said it was wrong.

“When I entered the simulation for the seventh time, I couldn’t even think of a strategy anymore. Exhausted, sleepy, hungry, I just got myself out, not caring if the others died or not. Only then did they let me pass.”

The instructor, satisfied, threw Gi Taejeong his meal for the day and pressed the red button without hesitation. With that light gesture, everything was wiped out. Not just the simulation program, but also the people struggling inside. All of them.

His comrades were among them. They were the kids who had shared their meager food with him when he was starving and getting beaten by the instructors because they didn’t like his defiant gaze. In this mock training, they followed him without a word of complaint. They even thanked him for working hard at the front. They said if they completed this, they would really become soldiers, and that Gi Taejeong, he might really become an officer. They would say such silly things and feel proud of themselves.

Gi Taejeong sat down and gnawed on the bread he had barely received. He gobbled down the rubbery bread, which he had been given only after his kind comrades had all died, and lay his exhausted body on the cold floor.

As he did so, his stomach kept stinging. They were kind and warm-hearted, which was why they died so futilely. It stung and burned as if fire had been lit behind his eyes. But that sensation didn’t last long. He had to sleep. If he didn’t rest now, he wouldn’t be able to keep up with the next training, and then it would be his turn to die a dog’s death tomorrow.

“I thought efficiency meant the maximum number of people surviving without effort, but it wasn’t. It was about being able to sit back and relax while the human weapons they painstakingly raised fought like dogs alone. That was the efficiency the instructors wanted.”

So, after that, Gi Taejeong also moved “efficiently.” He devised strategies with destruction as the top priority, not for care, governance, or persuasion. If a situation could be resolved by himself, he did so. He learned how to quickly resolve situations with minimal resources, and when necessary, he ruthlessly annihilated his own allies. After all, they had created a killing machine like him for that very purpose, so he faithfully followed orders.

“So, I handled this matter just as those instructors taught me back then. I secured all the evidence myself without bothering many people, didn’t I?”

“Gi, Gi Taejeong! You, now!”

“Because anyone who’s an obstacle to the military, like Lieutenant Kim, must be cut off, even if they’re an ally. I believe this is efficient and smart handling, as the superiors emphasized.”

Gi Taejeong deliberately put on a charming smile, tilting the uniform cap he held in his hand onto his head. He knew well that this expression infuriated those bastards the most.

“My rank is higher, so I’ll omit the salute. Then.”

“Hey! Gi Taejeong!”

The unnecessarily heavy conference room door opened and closed, and the noise that had been tormenting him was cut off as if sucked into a drain.

Gi Taejeong squeezed his eyes shut once, then opened them, and gestured to Lieutenant Park. He snatched the cigarette offered by the waiting man and put it in his mouth. Even though it wasn’t his usual cigar, the nicotine entering his body finally allowed him to breathe.

When he was with Lee Sehwa, he couldn’t smoke anymore, and he couldn’t curse at the child. Lieutenant Na had called him frantically that morning, even advising him to quit smoking as much as possible because secondhand smoke was bad for both the pregnant woman and the fetus.

Then what the hell was he supposed to do to endure when he felt this goddamn awful? He couldn’t actually take drugs…

Gi Taejeong irritably exhaled cigarette smoke, recalling Lee Sehwa as if seeking a reward. Lee Sehwa, with his sharp eyes, firmly tells him not to curse at the child. And how he had fidgeted on his lap yesterday. Still, he had changed a lot. Before, he wouldn’t have accepted anything he was given, but now he was even talking about going out to buy something tomorrow.

They said pregnant women get uncontrollable cravings. It didn’t seem to have been that bad yesterday. Well, he had been dry heaving all day, so his stomach probably wasn’t feeling well.

“Hmm…”

Imagining Lee Sehwa pacing in front of his bedroom late at night, craving something, made him feel a little better. He’d hesitate for a long time whether to wake him, then whisper, “Brigadier General, sir.” When would he make such a request?

Ah. Gi Taejeong unconsciously touched his naturally relaxed lips. A smile, unfamiliar even to himself, spread across his face. Seeing Lee Sehwa like that, a voice from deep within, a feeling he didn’t even know he had, seemed to whisper, “Isn’t it worth enduring cigarettes and curses?”

“Um… Brigadier General.”

Lieutenant Park, who had been looking around, called Gi Taejeong in a cautious voice.

“I just received a call from Master Sergeant Choi, saying General Oh Seonran has appeared.”

“Appeared? Where?”

Gi Taejeong, who had been responding indifferently, suddenly realized something and spun around to face Lieutenant Park.

“Master Sergeant Choi? How did he know Oh Seonran appeared?”

“Well… he was walking around the department store’s food court with Mr. Lee Sehwa… when General Oh Seonran suddenly appeared and drove people away, saying she had something to say to Mr. Lee Sehwa.”

“What?”