“It couldn’t have been easy, how did you get here?”
Ire was flustered and lost for words, and in the meantime, Seo Young-jun stepped forward.
“Please wait a moment. I’ll get you out of there quickly.”
Ire grabbed Seo Young-jun’s arm as he stepped forward and pulled him back, then pointed his gun at Captain Kim Ha-yoon.
“Stay back.”
Seo Young-jun looked at Ire with a troubled expression. What’s wrong? That’s Captain Kim Ha-yoon. The hostage. His face was full of conviction that Kim Ha-yoon was the hostage they were supposed to rescue. In fact, where else could they find such a valuable hostage? But Ire’s thoughts were different. The faint traces of something being dragged on the floor had been bothering him for a while.
“Are you going to keep me like this?”
Captain Kim Ha-yoon looked upset, but Ire didn’t budge and tried to communicate with the other team members. At that moment, a static sound came through the earpiece.
-This is Alpha 2, do you hear me, over. Leader! Lee Ga-ram, that- static- us- static- hit- static- static- uh! Are you listening to me?
The words were cut off and repeated, and Ire closed his eyes tightly. Roughly piecing the story together, it seemed that Lee Ga-ram, that bastard, had stabbed them in the back. He was grinding his teeth when Seo Young-jun came to his side and lowered his voice. What’s wrong?
-We’ve been tricked. This isn’t it.
Ire’s mouth felt bitter. He shouldn’t have included Lee Ga-ram from the start. It only now dawned on him that the guy had been acting scared and afraid. Instructor’s words that the most terrifying thing in war is an enemy within were now painfully piercing him.
Even in the midst of all this, Captain Kim Ha-yoon was staring intently at Ire.
“Why. What’s wrong?”
Ire kept his mouth shut, and Captain Kim Ha-yoon smiled with his characteristic sarcastic face.
“Betrayed, perhaps?”
That was the moment. He only blinked once, but Captain Kim Ha-yoon’s hand was already out in front of him. He tried to counterattack when he saw the gun in his hand, but it was already too late. Seo Young-jun was hit with a taser and lost consciousness, and the moment Ire raised his gun, Captain Kim Ha-yoon fired the second bullet first.
A jolt of pain and electricity spread through his body along with a tingling sensation in his thigh. His body fell backward with a thud, and his vision blurred. He barely managed to lift his head and saw Seo Young-jun lying on the floor unconscious. He tried desperately to pick up the gun that had fallen to the floor, but his hands wouldn’t move as he wanted.
With the sound of footsteps, Captain Kim Ha-yoon’s face appeared before him. Captain Kim Ha-yoon, who was looking down at him and smiling brightly, gently stepped on Ire’s chest with his foot.
“You should have been on guard until the end.”
“……”
“Try flattering me. Who knows? I might spare you.”
“You son of a bitch…”
As he muttered through gritted teeth, a second shock came to his body, and his consciousness faded. It would have been better if he was pureblood. He briefly heard a voice just before losing consciousness, but he couldn’t understand exactly what it meant.
Ire groaned and suddenly opened his eyes, sitting up in bed. He looked around, but it was a strange room he had never seen before. He hurriedly got out of bed and put his feet on the floor, but his body swayed.
Damn it.
He punched his numb thigh with his fist and rubbed his face roughly. What the hell is going on? Before he could even grasp the situation, the door opened and someone came in. It was Seo Young-jun.
“You’re awake?”
“What? What happened?”
“I don’t know. I woke up and was lying in bed.”
Seo Young-jun laughed, dumbfounded. Ire was just as dumbfounded. Then Oh Nam-gi suddenly poked his face in through the door. You’re both here? Are you okay? The guy was giggling and laughing, his cheeks were red and he smelled strongly of alcohol.
“They want you to come to the dining hall when you wake up.”
“Dining hall?”
“Yeah. Everyone’s downstairs.”
He told them to come quickly and scolded them, so they came out of the room, and the dark hallway was lit up like daytime.
“Oh Nam-gi, where were you?”
“I heard the other teams say there were infected people, so I went straight back. You crazy bastards! You went through that? Do you know you’re the only ones who went through there? I heard you splattered paint all over their faces?”
Oh Nam-gi giggled and laughed, and Ire and Seo Young-jun looked at each other and could only sigh. They went into the dining hall, and the team members waved their hands. You’re awake? Come on. Everyone seemed to be eating and drinking as if they had never been serious.
He scooped up some food and sat down, and Park Mu-jin and his gang were sitting imposingly right in front of him. Park Mu-jin made a face that made people angry and then tapped Lee Ga-ram’s head next to him. Lee Ga-ram smiled shamelessly and gestured apologetically.
“Fuck… that bastard.”
Ire cursed with a fork in his hand, and the other team members next to him chimed in.
“I was suspicious from the start. We should have abandoned him from the beginning.”
“Who was the first to agree to take him in?”
“Is it my fault I’m soft-hearted?”
“Don’t trust anyone in battle. Don’t you know that?”
“Then why did you share your biscuits?”
The team members were bickering, and Ire’s mouth felt bitter, no matter the food or anything else.
He brought a beer to his mouth when one or two trainees from other teams came over.
“Did you know? Your team is the only one that made it to the end without any dropouts.”
“My team left me as soon as I started to falter.”
“I heard you even pointed a gun at Captain Kim Ha-yoon. What kind of guts did you have to do that?”
Ire belatedly remembered Captain Kim Ha-yoon’s existence. He was so angry that he had forgotten how he had fainted. He looked around, but Captain Kim Ha-yoon was nowhere to be seen. He should have shot him as soon as he saw him. He should have painted his face with paint.
He was belatedly regretting it when a hand came up on his shoulder. Ire’s face crumpled automatically as he turned around. Captain Kim Ha-yoon was looking down at him and smiling brightly. The cold expression he had just before he fainted was nowhere to be seen.
“Are you okay?”
He almost cursed at the friendly voice. Seo Young-jun quickly moved out of the way. Please sit here. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say he ran away. Everyone was busy scattering, glancing around cautiously.
“The trainees really like me. They even give up their seats.”
Is he clueless? They left because they hate you.
Captain Kim Ha-yoon put down his beer glass and stared at Ire with his chin propped up.
“Don’t be too upset. Things in the world don’t always go your way. Don’t you think?”
“Are you giving me medicine after giving me the disease?”
“Why are you like this. Are you perhaps sulking? Should I have given you a heads-up? I could have done that much for you.”
Ire snorted and picked up his beer glass. He realized that the trainees’ eyes had been on them for a while, and he was very uncomfortable. He was about to get up and go somewhere else when Captain Kim Ha-yoon grabbed his arm and pushed him back down.
As a result, the beer overflowed from the glass he was holding and soaked his pants.
“Oh, dear. Are you okay?”
He pushed away his hand that was trying to wipe his pants with a napkin.
“I’m sorry, but can’t you sit somewhere else?”
“Why.”
“I’m uncomfortable.”
“Then shall we go to my room and have a drink? I have some good liquor.”
Ire didn’t even pretend to listen and just gulped down his beer. The spicy alcohol went down his throat. It felt stronger than what he had before. It wasn’t just his imagination, as his cheeks soon flushed and his vision blurred.
In the meantime, Instructor came to find Captain Kim Ha-yoon, and he left his seat for a while.
“Don’t drink too much.”
He told him before leaving, but he didn’t even pretend to listen. Before he knew it, the team members who had left their seats had returned one by one.
“I, I had to go to the bathroom.”
“Excuses. You ran away because you were scared of Captain Kim Ha-yoon.”
“It would be weird if you weren’t scared. He was smiling and then suddenly pointed a gun at me, do you know how surprised I was? Shit, when I woke up, I had even peed my pants.”
Everyone frowned at Seo Young-jun’s confession. Was that pee smell that I’ve been smelling you? When they told him to get away, Seo Young-jun looked wronged, saying he had washed up. Everyone was complaining about how unfairly they had been treated by Captain Kim Ha-yoon, and Ire was no different.
“Drink, drink! Let’s eat to our heart’s content today.”
“Kuh, the alcohol is sweet.”
Ire also drank alcohol non-stop, unlike usual. It was so much that he had vowed not to drink alcohol. After drinking for a long time, he got drunk and stood up. Seo Young-jun grabbed his shoulder as he staggered.
“You’re drunk after only three beers?”
Ire mumbled in an inaudible voice. Sleepy. I want to sleep….
Okay, I’ll take you.
He was led away by Seo Young-jun’s hand with his eyes almost closed. I have to be careful. When did Seo Young-jun’s voice get so low? I thought he was about the same height as me. Did he grow in the meantime? Even though he was drunk and out of his mind, he was thinking such things.