March Novel (Completed) - Chapter 78

Ah…. Sehwa rolled the unfamiliar word around in his mouth.

Lee Sehwa’s.

Legal guardian.

Gi Taejeong.

“You have to register within three weeks of confirming the pregnancy, and no matter what you think, I’m submitting the paperwork on the last day, no matter what.”

“…Then why are you asking me?”

“Well. To prepare your heart?”

Even as he declared he would push through with his own will, Gi Taejeong continued to soak the towel wrapped around Sehwa’s body, as if keeping the warmed body from cooling down was a trivial matter, much less difficult than guardian registration.

The hot streams of water flowing down Sehwa’s shoulders were as contradictory as his commands. There were several more rational options than warming his body in this way. The best would be to get out of the bath, dry off completely, get dressed, and then talk. At the very least, they could soak in separate tubs without their skin touching.

But Gi Taejeong insisted on having Sehwa sit on his thigh, warming the part of his upper body that rose out of the water. As if he knew the method but didn’t want to be separated by an inch.

“You can think about the child’s issue more comfortably, for longer. But.”

Burying the tip of his nose where Sehwa’s shoulder met his neck, Gi Taejeong murmured.

“I am your guardian.”

Not Lieutenant Na, or Master Sergeant Choi, or Second Lieutenant Park, or some unknown house thugs.

“Whether you bear this child or not, that position is mine.”

That place is mine. So you are mine.

“…Brigadier General.”

“My name is going on it, no matter what. Understand?”

Gi Taejeong’s voice spread through Sehwa’s bones, muffled by his lips. Like water droplets flowing down his skin, Gi Taejeong’s voice ran thickly through his entire body.

“You’re thinking of something else again.”

“Ah, no….”

Gi Taejeong, who had been rubbing his face against Sehwa’s nape as if marking him, reached out to pick up some fruit. The pectoral and abdominal muscles touching the man’s thigh and back, on which he was sitting, powerfully rippled for a moment. …It was a sudden thought, but he was excessively close to him. So close that he could vividly imagine how the intricately woven lines of that body moved when it touched him.

Crunch. A refreshing sound echoed loudly, as if scolding his illicit imagination. The fresh scent of fruit mingled with the thick steam and settled downwards.

Since Gi Taejeong was holding him from behind, only his hands were visible. The bright red fruit exposed its pale flesh, dripping juice as the man squeezed and pressed it. Watching the apple crumble in Gi Taejeong’s hand, Sehwa was reminded of the man comparing his inner walls to a juicy fruit just moments ago.

Sehwa awkwardly fidgeted his fingers, embarrassed. He was truly losing his mind. They were in the middle of a serious conversation, and he was recalling when Gi Taejeong had devoured his body… And what was so good about such a mortifying remark anyway?

“Lee Sehwa.”

“Yes, yes?”

“Why are you so surprised, suspiciously?”

Gi Taejeong’s other hand, which had been wrapped around his waist, slid into the towel as if swimming.

“Still, I’d like to see you sign it with your own hand, if possible…”

The tickling sensation on his side gradually moved upwards. Gi Taejeong slowly massaged his lower abdomen, then traced his ribs, and suddenly grasped his chest.

“Then what should I do from now on?”

Gi Taejeong leisurely whispered, pinching Sehwa’s reddened nipple between his fingers.

“…That, stop….”

“I won’t be able to give you the best fucking for a while. And you’re not begging me for anything you want either.”

“Brigadier… General….”

“Huh? Lee Sehwa.”

Gi Taejeong’s voice, urging him to speak, was laced with laughter. Then he meticulously kissed Sehwa’s entire jawline, as if tracing his face. There were no words, but it felt as if he was asking for permission to kiss him.

After a moment of hesitation, Sehwa slightly tilted his head. The man’s lips met deeply. Every time he swallowed a gasp, all sorts of fruit flavors burst in his mouth.

Nothing, just like this, just like today…. Sehwa swallowed the unspoken words with his saliva, words Gi Taejeong wouldn’t hear.

“No matter that it’s inside a detention center, what kind of state is that?”

Kim Seokcheol silently rummaged through the medicine bottle spilled on the floor. Quite some time had passed since Oh Seonran had vented her anger, yet he had to endure without receiving even a decent treatment.

From minor paper cuts to symptoms of drug addiction, Kim Seokcheol would take H3 whenever he felt even slightly unwell. His body, which had naturally recovered quickly as if he were immortal, was unaccustomed to this kind of pain. The natural healing process was much slower and more agonizing than Kim Seokcheol remembered.

Despite this, his family couldn’t take any action out of fear of Oh Seonran. Even then, his father had only barely managed to visit, using the upcoming trial as an excuse. No, perhaps this was intentional too. If they had wanted to help from home, there would have been a way.

“Still, be thankful it ended there. Your opponent is a General, and a member of the Oh family, no less.”

At his father’s calm voice, Kim Seokcheol almost burst out. Knowing that, did you still blab about your son’s shame? Why did you upset Oh Seonran like that? Wasn’t it you, Father, who sold me out and blabbed everything about Lee Sehwa?

But… now was not the time for that. He had to endure. Kim Seokcheol also had some sense.

“We are negotiating to end this with you leaving the military.”

Even if his name was erased from the military, it would be fine as long as no criminal record like imprisonment remained, Kim Seokcheol’s father, Lieutenant Colonel Kim, said coldly. He had been promoted steadily to a suitable rank, then discharged as soon as he became a Lieutenant Colonel, and thereafter inherited the family business. Even though he became the CEO of a respectable pharmaceutical company, people still called him Lieutenant Colonel Kim.

Once a soldier, always a soldier. If more than half of the existing officers and elders recommend a person upon retirement, that person also becomes a member of the elders and can continue to interfere in military affairs.

In other words, Lieutenant Colonel Kim was telling his son to give up that natural custom and honor.

“It’s not because I cherish and love my inadequate son, but because we cannot lose our people in this manner.”

“…I understand.”

He could almost hear his cousins’ sarcastic voices, saying that if you’re going to cause trouble, you should do it big like Seokcheol. Yet, they too would be lobbying their best. To prevent dishonor from being etched onto Kim Seokcheol’s resident registration.

Lieutenant Colonel Kim was right. The complaint filed by Gi Taejeong was not something that would end with a condemnation of Kim Seokcheol alone. The entire family’s prestige was at stake. No, it was a sudden disaster for all military personnel who had allied with the Kim family, an unavoidable shower of arrows.

Of course, the family fortune wouldn’t immediately decline just because Kim Seokcheol spent some time in prison. However, if they yielded here, other minnows would also start to rebel, watching for an opportunity, and the swarm of ghouls, who had been waiting for their downfall, would gladly rush in. The Kim family themselves had grown their power in such a way, so predators of similar size would not miss such a golden opportunity.

“It seems Gi Taejeong has meticulously organized the evidence without any flaws. Even if we wanted to quibble about its suitability or authenticity, General Oh Seonran, enraged by your flimsy lies, doesn’t seem likely to allow any opening.”

“……”

“Hoo…. Still, it’s a fight worth having. The bastards who dabbled in ‘Harvest’ are also speaking up to save their own skins, and above all, there are the house remnants. If we say it was an act committed solely by a criminal organization that has lived their entire lives doing such things, those who don’t want to escalate the matter further will mediate on their own.”

“Father. I think,”

“What kind of thinking?!”

Lieutenant Colonel Kim, who had been speaking calmly, could no longer hold back and snapped fiercely.

“If you were the kind of person who could think, you wouldn’t have set fire to Hwan 2!”

“Father….”

“From now on, no matter what provocation anyone makes, even if Gi Taejeong insults your face in court, keep your mouth shut. Surely, with everyone’s lives at stake, I trust even someone as inadequate as you can manage that much.”

Fortunately or unfortunately, everyone knew Kim Seokcheol was a drug addict, and this much could somehow be smoothed over. Kim Seokcheol wasn’t the only one who frequented places like the house to do drugs.

So the plan was to claim that he had just been innocently curious, watching criminals try to create new drugs, and got caught up by bad luck. Even if 99% of physical evidence accumulated, they would insist it wasn’t 100%. Fortunately, the family elders, including Lieutenant Colonel Kim, had the power to do so.

But this inadequate son caused a huge mess by burning down the warehouse in Hwan 2. This incident completely paralyzed Hwan 2. When access to the area, dense with various armories and logistics warehouses, became impossible, cries of protest erupted everywhere. Even the factions that had maintained a dignified neutrality revealed their sharp teeth when their own assets were directly damaged.

And then Kim Seokcheol said, in a way that made his stomach churn, that it was the best he could do. Lieutenant Colonel Kim sighed and ran a hand over his gaunt face. If this weren’t his only son, he would have ripped his mouth open.

“At the very least, you should have mentioned that you were messing with Oh Seonran! Why did you do such a thing when you don’t even have the sense to clean up your own mess, why?!”

“Father, please listen to me. Lee Sehwa, he’s actually….”

“There’s nothing more to hear. I’ll handle this from now on.”

“Ah, that bastard, it seems he has something going on with General Oh Seonran! It seems Lee Sehwa is the person Oh Seonran was desperately looking for!”

“…What?”

“That’s why Oh Seonran was so angry with me, that things got complicated….”

Once, a heavily drunk head of state had blabbed that Oh Seonran was desperately searching for someone and would never betray him. That’s why she was allowed to roam outside.

There were traces that Oh Seonran had obsessively searched for information regarding the old experiment, so everyone had guessed it was related to that. Still, they didn’t know the exact story, and frankly, they weren’t interested. The important thing was that a General-level figure from the Oh family was permanently tied down by this issue.

“It seems that the bastard is Oh Seonran’s illegitimate child.”

“Illegitimate child? Oh Seonran had something like that?”

“It’s not certain yet… but isn’t it important that Oh Seonran herself believes it? Gi Taejeong will try to use Lee Sehwa, and Oh Seonran will want to protect Lee Sehwa until a conclusion is reached… so we just need to subtly shift the weight to their fight. And above all…”

Kim Seokcheol gritted his teeth. He still felt a burning rage whenever he thought of this.

“Lee Sehwa is carrying Gi Taejeong’s child.”

“What?!”

Lieutenant Colonel Kim, who had been trying to maintain his composure, looked back at Kim Seokcheol in shock.

“You don’t mean it’s because of that drug you said you made, do you?”

“Yes. So it should be even easier to frame Lee Sehwa as the main culprit. The condition he demanded when he mixed the drug for me was an ID card to live inside the fortress… it’s perfect to portray it as the act of a low-born who went crazy trying to change his fate.”

Moreover, the drug manufacturing documents referenced for this project were not even top secret. Everyone knew that similar attempts had been consistently made within the military. Even if not everyone had access to the documents themselves, simply asking a distant officer if such and such existed would have brought forth a flood of information.

It happened often. The inside of the rotten military was more lax than one might think, and nothing was impossible with connections and money. Of course, if something this big exploded, things would be different, but anyway, to lessen the responsibility for the document leak, the responsible department would surely hunt Lee Sehwa down like a rat.

It was easy to spin the story. They could just lament that it was a deliberate act by cunning criminals, and what could they have done?

If all circumstances pointed to Lee Sehwa as the true culprit, others would automatically begin to pressure Gi Taejeong. Isn’t Kim Seokcheol’s discharge enough? You should concede at this point too.

Even if it was humiliating now, Kim Seokcheol could look forward to the future. It was unprecedented, but… perhaps after some time, if his family exerted their influence, he could return.

What Gi Taejeong didn’t have, and he did. Kim Seokcheol intended to wield the weapon of his family to his heart’s content, a weapon that those of ambiguous origin could never possess, even if they died and came back to life.

“So, Father, we must drag Lee Sehwa into court somehow. Not just documents or videos, but we need to pressure Gi Taejeong to bring Lee Sehwa himself. He’s young, and he’s lived his whole life at the bottom. How could he endure being torn apart from all sides, being asked if he did it?”

“An injection? Why are you giving it yourself?”

A furrow appeared between Gi Taejeong’s brows. The contents of the bag Lee Sehwa brought, fresh from his check-up, were unusual.

“It’s a hassle to come every day on time. And even if I don’t know anything else, I’m better at sticking needles than hospital staff, probably?”

“Don’t be cheeky again.”

Gi Taejeong snatched the bag and gestured with his chin.

“Stop talking nonsense and get your injection at the hospital.”

“Even ordinary people self-administer sedatives at home, they say.”

“So, are you ordinary? No, you’re not.”

“Oh, come on. It’s not even an intravenous injection anyway.”

Lee Sehwa smiled shyly, looking up at Gi Taejeong. Saying absurd things like, ‘I still have my pride. I’ve made a living out of this my whole life.’

He thought it was cute, but now he was saying something ridiculous. Gi Taejeong was dumbfounded, but decided to let it go for now. With Lee Sehwa, it was more effective to gently coax him over time than to sharply order him to correct it immediately. If they went back to the quarters, had dinner together, and showered together, he would eventually give in as if he couldn’t help it.

“Hmm?”

As he was about to move inside with Lee Sehwa, he felt an unfamiliar weight inside the bag. The clinking sound of something hitting the ampoules of medicine felt somehow alien, so he scanned the inside again, and something pitch black hidden at the bottom of the box caught his eye. It looked like it had been intentionally hidden.

“What’s this now?”

The object Lee Sehwa probably wanted to hide was a palm-sized tablet.

“Oh, wait a minute! That’s…!”

Lee Sehwa, who had been acting nonchalant, was startled and rushed towards him. He stretched out his arms and hopped, asking for it back, saying he’d explain later, which, naturally, was extremely suspicious.

It definitely wasn’t a phone. No one would be bold enough to hand over communication equipment without his command. Could Oh Seonran have pulled a trick?

Gi Taejeong, suddenly serious, held the object higher so Sehwa’s hands couldn’t reach it. He quickly touched the screen with his thumb, and round, bubbly letters floated on a cream-colored background.

Obstetrics (for Men) Journal.

Record your baby’s day-to-day life.