Passion Novel - Volume 1 - Chapter 11

The man chuckled with a subtle nuance. Jeong Taeui slightly raised his eyebrows, looked at the man’s white hand, and then let out a short laugh.

“What? It’s funny that the intellectual older brother has a physical younger brother?”

At that, the man laughed out loud for the first time. He laughed as if he had seen a great comedy and then slowly waved his white hand.

“Not at all, that’s not what I meant. Besides, you don’t seem to have the kind of imposing physique to confidently call yourself ‘physical,’ unless you mean ‘physical’ in another way… My apologies.”

At the man’s laughter, Jeong Taeui made a bitter face and said, “It’s okay.”

“No, what I meant was that the combination of a brother who develops weapons and a brother who is a victim of weapons is interesting. If you’re a soldier, aren’t you closer to being a victim than a user?”

Jeong Taeui paused, resting his chin on his hand. He replayed the man’s casually spoken words in his mind.

The latter part didn’t matter. The important thing was the first few words.

The man seemed to notice the strange expression on Jeong Taeui’s face as he stared intently at the white hand. After thinking for a moment, he seemed to realize the reason and muttered, sounding embarrassed, “Oh. You didn’t know?”

“……Yeah. I didn’t know. My hyung was involved in weapons development?”

Someone else knows more about my own brother than I do, Jeong Taeui thought with a short, bitter laugh, but he felt a strange reluctance to say anything.

Jeong Jaeui and Jeong Taeui weren’t brothers who were on bad terms, but they also didn’t share everything. They were, in a word, just ordinary brothers who were moderately close. Moreover, since Jeong Taeui graduated high school, he rarely stayed home, and Jeong Jaeui was also frequently away, so they didn’t really know much about each other’s lives. He had only heard here that Jaeui was a researcher who received special treatment at the UNHRDO’s American headquarters.

But weapons development.

When would he have done something like that? If he did, it would probably be at UNHRDO. But it could have been before or after that. In any case, they weren’t interested in each other’s work, so they didn’t talk about it much.

Weapons. Weapons, huh.

Jeong Taeui smiled wryly. He knew they were a necessary evil, but he had seen too much of their negative impact.

“I might have said something unnecessary. Those who should know probably do, but it’s still classified information, so I’d appreciate it if you could keep that in mind.”

“I don’t really feel like saying out loud that my brother develops weapons either.”

“Haha. Looks like you don’t like it. Still, your brother has a reputation as a genius in this industry.”

“Even if he’s a genius at making weapons, I’m not exactly thrilled.”

Muttering that, Jeong Taeui suddenly raised his eyebrows. He rubbed his chin for a moment and then chuckled.

“Seeing as you said ‘this industry,’ does that mean you’re also involved in weapons-related work?”

The man fell silent again. This silence was rather long. If it weren’t for the occasional movement of his hand, Jeong Taeui would have thought the call had been disconnected.

Finally, he laughed, a sound that was almost a sigh.

“To be precise, my brother is involved in that. I did say I occasionally help with the family business, didn’t I?”

“The family business is weapons-related?”

Jeong Taeui asked back, looking dumbfounded. Then, he quickly realized. This man wasn’t just an antique book dealer. He was a dealer, but the items he handled weren’t old books, but weapons.

“So you make a living selling weapons…”

“Not me, my brother.──You really seem to dislike it. The rocket launcher your brother designed is consistently in the top ranks of recent excavations.”

“Oh, for crying out loud. A world without war is just the barking of some dreamland resident living in a blessed country… Jae-ui hyung. I’m going to punch you one when I see you.”

The man laughed. The man, who had caused a brief but significant turmoil in Jeong Taeui’s mind, seemed completely unfazed and nonchalant.

“How scary. So, are you going to sever ties with your precious brother because of that?”

“What do I care? He was the one who cut ties first.”

“Aha?”

The man’s tone shifted to one of amusement. Jeong Taeui wanted to see the man’s face. He was probably looking at the monitor with a slow, subtle smile.

“I didn’t know you two were such estranged brothers. I thought you were quite close. Why, did you fight or something? I wouldn’t have thought Jae-ui was the type to tell his younger brother he wanted to cut ties first.”

“He said he was going to snip─this thread that connects us, you know, and left home that very day. And he’s still missing.”

Jeong Taeui held up his little finger and muttered. It wasn’t the complete truth, but that was the gist of it anyway. The man was silent for a moment before speaking.

“Hahaa. Jeong Jaei did that? That’s interesting.”

“It might sound interesting to you, but to me, it’s a family crisis.”

“Haha, ahahahaha.”

The man kept laughing as if something was incredibly amusing. The laughter in the mechanical voice was very strange.

“Looks like you’re in a good mood.”

“No… I just thought you two were quite different brothers. Even though you’re twins, I thought there would be some similarities, but your faces are different. Your personalities are different. It’s amusing.”

“──Have you ever met my hyung?”

“Hmm. Well, I’ve casually run into him a few times. I was quite surprised at how young he looked.”

That was something that had happened several times. Ever since he was young, everyone who heard about Jeong Jaeui through some channel and went to great lengths to find him was surprised when they saw him. It was rare for someone not to express their shock, saying they hadn’t expected him to be so young.

But this man didn’t seem that old either.

Jeong Taeui stared intently at the white hand, even though he knew he couldn’t possibly tell someone’s age just by their hand.

However, he didn’t feel like prying into such personal matters, so he changed the subject. “The way you talk, you must look exactly like that older brother of yours who sells weapons.”

“Well, I haven’t heard that I look much like him, but then again, my brother and I aren’t twins. There’s quite an age gap between us.”

“What does the age difference have to do with whether siblings look alike or not?” Jeong Taeui retorted, waving his hand dismissively.

At that moment, the man paused. He turned his body slightly, as if someone had come up behind him or perhaps there was some kind of sound. He said he helped with the family business; maybe he lived harmoniously with his family.

“This is sudden, but I have to go now. Let’s talk again later.”

“Huh? Ah, okay. Oh, but what about your business with my uncle?”

“I’ll call again later. Bye-bye.”

The white hand waved slightly. With that, the call ended. The monitor went dark again.

Jeong Taeui sighed and pressed the lamp button again. The surroundings became quiet in an instant.

Tap, tap. Just like the white hand had done on the monitor a moment ago, Jeong Taeui stood like a statue, silently tapping the desk. His head felt like it was about to become a mess. But on second thought, there was no point in Jeong Taeui getting worked up about it now.

“Aish… I don’t know. I’ll just live in a world where wars break out. It’s not like I’m going to join an anti-war movement.”

“Yeah. Even though I quit, there are still plenty of professional soldiers in the world; they have to make a living too,” Jeong Taeui muttered to himself before collapsing onto the bed.

Thwack! He hit the instep of his foot on the edge of the bed. It hurt like hell.

***

As expected, he was royally screwed.

The person who summoned Jeong Taeui more than thirty minutes before the start of the next regular work hours was none other than Instructor Golding of the Second Martial Arts Training. They called roll call after the regular hours ended, and it was only natural that they would notice someone was missing when a guy who had gone to change clothes hadn’t returned even after more than thirty minutes. In fact, he had been called separately as soon as the evening roll call was done yesterday, but Jeong Taeui, stubbornly sprawled on his uncle’s bed, hadn’t moved an inch.

And he paid the price for that this morning, being dragged out before regular hours even started and made to roll around until he was utterly exhausted, staggering into the morning’s regular lecture.

The combat practice analysis, which took up the entire morning, hadn’t started yet.

The lecture hall with the large screen installed wasn’t very big, more like a slightly spacious seminar room. There, the team members were already sitting in a circle, silently waiting.

When Jeong Taeui entered the lecture hall, the instructor glared fiercely, but perhaps because he had already heard from Instructor Golding, he didn’t say anything in particular.

As Jeong Taeui quietly found an empty seat, Tou grinned next to him.

“Did you have a good date with Golding? Being called out right after breakfast, you guys must be really hot for each other.”

“Yeah, so hot I practically burned to death.”

Jeong Taeui snapped sullenly at Tou, who was teasing him with a sly tone. Then, the instructor in front glared at them again, causing Jeong Taeui to lower his head. Tou pretended to look ahead.

“As you all know, the joint training with the European branch is not far off. So today, as part of interpersonal analysis, we will review the records from the last time. Now, this is the record of last year’s joint training.”

While Jeong Taeui mercilessly jabbed Tou in the side, the instructor pressed a key on the controller. The dark screen brightened, and a video appeared on it. The image quality wasn’t great, but it was clear enough to understand what was happening.

“You bastard, that hurts!”

Tou muttered under his breath with a fierce expression, but Jeong Taeui pretended not to notice and just looked ahead.

“Be quiet and watch that. It’s the joint training record.”

Jeong Taeui said, feigning coldness. Tou reached out as if to retaliate, but Carlo, who was watching from the back, lightly kicked Tou’s chair. With a small thud, the instructor’s icy gaze shot over. Beep, the video paused.

“You there. Do you want to watch that separately in your free time after regular hours?”

A frosty voice rang out sternly. Tou straightened his back ramrod straight and adopted a serious expression.

“No, sir. I absolutely do not want to.”

“Sorry, sir. I’ll be quiet.”

It was best to just submit unconditionally. Jeong Taeui had just learned this morning that arguing with a superior here would only hurt himself. Of course, Tou, who had been here longer, couldn’t possibly not know that.

The hierarchy went from the Chief and Vice-Chief to the instructors, and then the members below them, but the position of instructor was not one to be taken lightly. They were instructors at UNHRDO, but if they moved to another organization, they would immediately secure a mid-level position.

The instructor, whose hair was starting to turn gray, glared at them fiercely before grabbing the controller again.

“If you want to stay alive even one more day, you must not neglect your studies. Watch carefully.”

As the instructor finished speaking, the video began to play again.

It was the record of last year’s joint training with the European branch. It wasn’t the entire record, but rather a compilation of necessary parts, cut and edited into scenes.

The lecture hall had been quiet when the video started, but as the content progressed, it gradually became more animated. Everyone watched the records with serious expressions, quietly exchanging short conversations with the colleagues sitting nearby. It could be described as a discussion in a format similar to casual chatter.

Jeong Taeui, who had never experienced joint training, focused on the screen, picking up the bits of conversation he could hear around him.

“How is it? Less than ten days left. After watching that, do you think you can keep up?”

Tou leaned over from the side and muttered slyly. Jeong Taeui rested his chin on his clasped hands, gazing intently at the screen without looking away, and replied, “It feels like organized gang fighting. It’s all about joining hands with your teammates and beating the crap out of the other side… Still, I need to look out for myself; I’m not very confident.”

Among the men brawling in the video, there were familiar faces. Colleagues currently sitting in this lecture hall occasionally appeared. However, they wore expressions Jeong Taeui had never seen before. Faces that were truly on the brink of life and death. Faces that said, If I lose, I die.

They weren’t given lethal weapons. The guns were paintball guns or air rifles. The knives had been dulled so they couldn’t cut people. In other words, everywhere it was formally just training.

But no one here was unaware that even with those things, it was possible to kill someone.

“Aha, they even filmed Tou doing something stupid.”

Jeong Taeui chuckled and pointed at the screen. A man with a fiercely scowling face was visible next to him in the video. He had been trying to seize an opportunity to land a blow on his opponent when he lost his balance by accidentally stepping on someone who had fallen and was lying prone behind him. Because of that, the punch he swung lacked proper force and was practically a miss, and naturally, his opponent had seized the chance to counterattack.

Tou clicked his tongue, grumbling about why they had filmed something like that. Wienho, who had been chuckling next to him, soon had to put on a grim face when he saw himself on the screen.

“Honestly, instead of just showing us failure cases, I wish they’d show us some success stories. It’s embarrassing to watch, with all our team members just doing dumb things.”

“You little brat…─you think your mistakes won’t be shown, so you’re all carefree, huh?!”

“It’s not easy to shorten your lifespan with such basic mistakes.”

As Jeong Taeui openly snickered, Tou, enraged, tried to roll up his sleeves, but the atmosphere around them suddenly turned cold. Startled by the sudden silence, Tou turned his head, and Jeong Taeui also looked ahead.

A compilation video was playing on the screen. Even though it was edited, it had only cut out the unnecessary beginning and end, leaving the main parts intact.

In it was a man.

His face was so pale it was bloodless. Tall and lanky, he was staring blankly down at his feet as if lost in thought. Perhaps even looking depressed, the man had a neat appearance that didn’t seem to fit in such a video. He would have looked more fitting in a photo from some model’s photoshoot.

“……He has a face that looks like it would be cute if he smiled.”

But his face is completely white, poor thing, Jeong Taeui added, muttering to himself. He then met the eyes of Tou, who was glancing at him with a look as if he had seen a ghost. Not only that, but the colleagues sitting within earshot all turned to Jeong Taeui with wide, shocked eyes—or perhaps they were glaring.

What’s with all of them acting like this? Jeong Taeui thought, meeting their gazes directly before tilting his head and looking back at the screen.

The man in the video didn’t even have a weapon. His hands were empty. He was only wearing black gloves on his hands. It didn’t seem like he was hiding any other weapons either. His form-fitting shirt and pants were simple, without any cumbersome additions.

Did they put in the wrong video? No, but the background is definitely our branch.