“The person whose words conveyed that warm camaraderie shielding a comrade was another figure standing in the middle of the fight—Kim Jeong-pil. Whether he stepped forward to soften the tense atmosphere stirred up by the furious instructor charging over, or to help Ilrey out of awkwardness since they were acquainted, Kim Jeong-pil took a step forward and spoke seriously.At that moment, the mood around them grew indescribably cold.What is this guy? Some rando entertainer popping out of nowhere?! Is he joking?!Only those who knew the truth could feel that subtle silence, and for a moment, Taeui was at a loss for words.Kim Jeong-pil had badly misread something. That misunderstanding would naturally clear up after a few days living together, but in this training, Ilrey hadn’t caused any incidents yet. Then again, he had his own duties, so there was no chance to stir up trouble elsewhere.Indeed. They say ignorance is courage, and this was just the case.Yet, Taeui couldn’t bring himself to mock Kim Jeong-pil’s pure intentions. He scratched his head and looked at him with mixed feelings.Come to think of it, back in the academy he didn’t have a bad reputation. Quite the opposite—he was popular enough among classmates and upper- and under-classmen. His grades were always top-tier, and his cheerful, active nature and leadership meant he always kept a few people around him. Just like now, whenever a comrade was in trouble, he’d try to reach out and help.Still, why that well-liked, well-connected fellow singled him out and attacked him with such intensity, Taeui couldn’t understand even now.“…You’re new here, right? You’ve never served in another branch before?”The instructor, as if reading Kim Jeong-pil’s background instantly from his remark, spoke out, then turned away without waiting for an answer. It seemed he’d decided to ignore such absurd nonsense.…But why on earth did the instructor suddenly turn his head to me then?“Taeui. Oh, so you’re here. That’s why Rick’s here too, I see.”“….”Taeui stammered for a few seconds, unable to find any reply to the unexpected direct hit.He felt wronged. But since the instructor’s words weren’t entirely incorrect, he couldn’t protest or claim injustice. Yet the feeling of unfairness burned inside him, leaving his mouth moving without uttering a sound.“I admit I came here because of Taeui, but I don’t think that means we should press him, sir…?”He appreciated the gesture, but in this situation siding with him felt awkward. Sure enough, the instructor snorted with narrowed eyes. Having been in this Asia branch for years, he knew how Ilrey had once hunted down Taeui as if to kill him.“I never thought someone who hunted him red-eyed to kill him would have anything to say. I figured you’d finish him off when you found him… yet you let him live?”“Well… there’s plenty of time.”Ilrey answered vaguely and shrugged his shoulders.This situation was unbearably awkward—as Taeui tore at his innocent hair in distress, his eyes caught Kim Jeong-pil watching them with a strange expression. Nudging the nearby soldier, he whispered softly:“Those two, close? They seem to know each other from before.”The soldier standing beside, Morro, who was usually polishing his rifle meticulously with a microfiber cloth but now cleaned his glasses, paused and frowned.“They’re at the stage of killing or sparing each other. If things went wrong, he’d have killed him. Even I got hurt just by loitering near them—there’s more than one of us with bruised backs, myself included. Thinking of how much I suffered thanks to those two… ugh. No doubt, they have an even more explosive past than you and Taeui.”He always used that ambiguous phrasing at crucial moments! Hey! Don’t you remember how you sold me out to him for a rifle?!Taeui thought he should raid that bastard’s room and dump his collection into the sea off Hong Kong to repay that grudge—but on the other hand, maybe Ilrey already did that for him in his own way, so he let it go.“Are they really that bad? No wonder there’s an awkward vibe when they face each other… Hmph, Taeui there, with that temper, must pick fights wherever he goes.”If Taeui quietly crept up and clouted Kim Jeong-pil on the back of the head right now, he’d be in the instructor’s crosshairs. That wouldn’t do.He must endure, endure. Three times ‘endure.’Reciting this like a mantra, Taeui stared straight ahead. But Kim Jeong-pil’s mocking mutter still reached him.“But Taeui’s picking fights even with a desk jockey who doesn’t know how to fight? Coward.”He couldn’t help but want to throw a punch at that.“….”Taeui just stared at the ointment tin that Luther handed over. The medic, Koho, buried in endless workload, returned to his desk, and, scowling at Taeui who only watched the ointment, said sharply:“What are you doing—aren’t you going to apply it yourself? Don’t expect me to do it just because you got a bruise. Do it yourself.”“My hand can’t reach my back.”“Get your friend here to do it. I’m busy.”Nothing had changed since then—the tiger-ointment miracle cure was still stocked here.“Give it to me and take off your shirt. I’ll apply it.”Yun Chang-o, who had come with him to the infirmary, took the ointment and moved behind Taeui. Taeui swiftly lifted his shirt and stripped off his undershirt.“Hey… you’ve got a nasty bruise here. Oh, there too. Does it hurt?”“Argh! Of course it hurts when you press that hard!!”Taeui twisted his back weirdly and shouted. Yun Chang-o apologized with an “Oops, sorry,” but continued roughly rubbing ointment into his back. Soon, the sharp scent stung Taeui’s nostrils.“Can I take some ointment for another friend who’s hurt?”Yun Chang-o’s question to Koho was surely on behalf of Kim Jeong-pil, whom Taeui had insisted on leaving behind instead of bringing to the infirmary. Whether that bastard was getting punished first or not, Taeui pictured himself being summoned by the instructor for some penalty once they returned.The instructor, already seething at Ilrey, would have relished the chance to punish the two ringleaders of the fight.Damn. All because of Kim Jeong-pil.“He refused the infirmary, so why bring ointment to care for him? Leave him be.”Taeui muttered sulkily whenever Yun Chang-o’s hand brushed over his bruise, but Yun Chang-o, ever the neutral party, responded without concern:“He probably got bruised too.”As Yun Chang-o calmly applied ointment to his back, waist, and nape, Taeui, recalling the damned Kim Jeong-pil, suddenly thought back to a memory long past.Not long before his discharge, worn thin by his bleak service days, he’d roll in the drill yard until bruised all over—yet no one would apply ointment for him. In the cadet days he’d had friendly classmates around, so it wasn’t so bad, but after commissioning he felt increasingly isolated.Even though he’d grumbled “I don’t need it” like a joke, feeling the subtle stares and unspoken isolation in the ranks was anything but comfortable.…His resentment toward the fellow who caused that simmered anew.“Chang-o. Let me ask you something.”“What is it?”“Why did Kim Jeong-pil treat me so harshly? Come to think of it, even before rumors that I was gay spread, he was especially vicious toward me. Why? Was there something wrong with my attitude that I didn’t notice?!”As he traced through memories, dredging up old grudges, Taeui suddenly snapped and spun to glare at Yun Chang-o. Having almost finished applying the ointment to the faint bruise on Taeui’s arm, Yun Chang-o rubbed his finger over it, closed the tin, and muttered while staring at the ceiling:“Now that I think about it, at first you two got along fine. Went out for meals together, got special leave on Saturday afternoons and went out, even got caught by the drill sergeant for talking about your night out at the nightclub and had to run laps—I remember all that.”“….”That sounded vaguely familiar… He’d run laps as a cadet so often he couldn’t recall each instance, but he did remember the nightclub.He’d never openly revealed his orientation, so when two classmates went to a nightclub with women, he’d watch the hall alone, lamenting inwardly, “Most people in the general world suit me better… I wish someone cute like that dancing over there would come to my favorite spot,” then hammered down shots, only to return with whiskey spilling over his face and clothes.“One of the guys who went was Kim Jeong-pil, right?” Taeui frowned, though he couldn’t recall beyond that.“No, I never was close with him. We weren’t from the start.”Taeui shook his head. Yun Chang-o tucked the ointment back into his ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) shirt pocket and tilted his head.“Then what’s your earliest memory of him?”“He kept pestering me about my brother.”“Huh?”Yun Chang-o looked puzzled. Taeui blinked, searching his memory.He couldn’t recall exactly how they first met, but once the cadet newcomer felt familiar enough, that guy would speak to him often—and almost all he asked about was Jaeui.“He heard my brother was so smart, asked what he was doing now, said he’d been invited to some research institute—why hadn’t he gone? If another institute contacted him, wouldn’t he consider it? What if my brother went abroad—what would I do?”He thought, okay, regardless of preference, I shouldn’t get close to someone who shows such intense interest in my brother.That was a learned instinct from years of experience. No good ever came of befriending someone fixated on my brother. (Regular friends would at most say, “Your brother’s a genius,” then talk about playing with a new game console or the pretty girl next door.)So Taeui politely kept his distance from Kim Jeong-pil… yet somehow, whenever they crossed paths, they ended up at each other’s throats. At least he stopped mentioning his brother eventually.“Some even wondered why you two suddenly drifted apart after getting along well… What’s that about? Your brother?”“We weren’t close, I tell you—no such memories!”“Why else? After you two cooled off, Kim Jeong-pil bought food and beer to make up, but you threw it away.”Hearing that, Taeui’s eyes widened.“He even fabricated that?! I never got any food from him! If anything, I clearly remember the beer! He’d lie to slander someone?! …”He flared up, then paused. Actually, that memory was very old—but one hot summer weekend, after special leave, he’d returned to find jokbal and beer left at his dormitory door. The jokbal wriggled with maggots, and the sun-baked cans had bulged so badly that ripping the pull-tab sprayed foam over his face, clothes, and hair.“…Now that you mention it, someone did leave jokbal and beer at my door.”“Yeah, that must be it. I was there when he bought the jokbal to make up.”“They thought rancid jokbal meant making up?!”Of course he threw it away. Who knew who’d left it, it was infested with maggots, and he’d taken a beer shower. Grumbling about throwing it out, he vaguely remembered Kim Jeong-pil suddenly striking him. And since he wasn’t about to take it lying down, he grabbed his collar and swung a punch.“….”“….”Yun Chang-o and Taeui stared at each other in silence. A subtle, awkward tension filled the space.“After that, Kim Jeong-pil even bought movie tickets to reconcile.”“Oh, right, I remember that! He did give me movie tickets—then that damned bastard―”

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