Ire sighed deeply as he looked in the mirror. There was a hickey on his neck. That damned man. If he was going to suck, he should have just sucked on his lips. Just as he was about to stick a square bandage on his neck to cover it, Seo Young-jun burst in. He panicked and covered his neck, but Seo Young-jun was one step ahead.
“Ire, you!”
He tried to push him out, but Seo Young-jun made a fuss.
“You’re covering it up now? I saw everything, you little rascal.”
Since he’d already been caught, he just put the bandage on in front of him.
“Who the hell is it? Is it someone I know? Is she pretty? Does she have a good body? What kind of girl is she?”
It’s someone you know, and it’s not a girl, it’s a man. He has a good body, though. What kind of expression would Seo Young-jun make if he told him honestly? Oblivious to his inner turmoil, he insisted that he introduce him next time. He said he was genuinely curious about what kind of person he was. He’d run away if he introduced him.
“It was a mistake. It won’t happen again.”
“You, man. You need to see the world more broadly. You’re still young, you should mess around more! Like me!”
Then he pretended to thrust his hips in the air. Suddenly, he remembered what Kim Ha-yoon had done to him that day, and his face involuntarily turned serious and his cheeks flushed. He hadn’t met Kim Ha-yoon separately since then, and the graduation ceremony was just around the corner.
Just then, the door opened and Oh Nam-gi rushed in.
“Ire! Come out for a second. Someone’s here to see you.”
“Who?”
He pushed him out, telling him to just go and see, so he went outside and saw someone he hadn’t expected at all. The trainees passing by glanced at Kwon So-young when they saw her, but she didn’t seem to care at all.
“Hello….”
As he hesitated and greeted her, she smiled brightly.
“Oh, you got a haircut. It looks great. You’ve become even more handsome. How have you been?”
“Yes…. But what brings you here….”
Seeing his awkward expression, Kwon So-young held out the box she was holding. “Here, take it. Share it with your classmates.” The box was bigger than the last one, and a golden ribbon was tied neatly around it.
“Did you like the cake last time?”
“Thanks to you, I enjoyed it that day…. Thank you.”
“We’re friends. If you want to eat anything else, tell me. I’ve got a good handle on dessert shops.”
Her bright smile made him feel good too. He had imagined that researchers would be people who wore thick horn-rimmed glasses and had dark circles under their eyes from being exhausted from work…. Kwon So-young exuded a surprisingly refreshing energy. Her tone was kind and she was always friendly whenever they met, making the people around her feel good too.
“The graduation ceremony is coming up soon, right?”
“Yes.”
“Congratulations. You’ve worked hard. I’m grateful that you’ve endured it well.”
Why is that something to be grateful for? He was puzzled, but only for a moment. Kwon So-young said goodbye, telling him to see him again next time, and went straight back. As soon as he entered the room, Seo Young-jun and Oh Nam-gi went crazy like mad monkeys.
“Wow, damn! You sly bastard. Was it that person?”
Looking at Oh Nam-gi’s expression, he must have heard everything from Seo Young-jun. He told them they were gossips, but they didn’t even pretend to listen.
“I knew it. The hickey looked very skillful. It’s not easy to leave it like that, just barely noticeable. I thought it was a master.”
“You like older women? You should have said so sooner. I would have taken you to some amazing older women.”
“Okay, congratulations. You finally have a girlfriend.”
Even if he said no, they didn’t seem to believe him. Why else would she bring a cake all the way here if they weren’t together? He was about to tell them that his relationship with Kim Ha-yoon was complicated, but he stopped. He thought it would be better to be misunderstood than to have the blame fall on him.
When he opened the box, there was a cake that looked normal, unlike the previous one. The cake with the pretty strawberries on top looked delicious to anyone.
“Cakes are supposed to look like this, right…?”
“Why? Are the cakes in District B different?”
“What cake is there in District B? You must have seen it in a picture.”
“You guys are talking about it right in front of me.”
No matter how he looked at it, it looked too different from the previous one. Before he could even question it, the music announcing the end of the break came on. Oh Nam-gi grumbled that he really didn’t want to do the afternoon training today. The atmosphere was chaotic because the number of people had been reduced by more than half, and the humid weather due to the rain also played a part.
“I hate the humidity so much.”
“Me too.”
“But why has Park Mu-jin been so quiet lately? It’s unsettling.”
At Seo Young-jun’s words, Oh Nam-gi shrugged. Ire didn’t know the reason either. He used to show up all the time to pick fights, and in the end, he even made up stories about Matteo’s surgery to piss people off, but recently he had been strangely quiet.
“Did that crazy bastard come to his senses?”
“No. I’ve known him since kindergarten, and there’s absolutely, absolutely no way.”
Oh Nam-gi said that he had been notorious since he was a child. He used to hit and bully children, relying on his father’s connections. They arrived at the indoor shooting range and sat down, and other trainees arrived one after another. With the number of people clearly reduced, he realized that this would be over tomorrow.
“This is not a normal problem.”
Kim Do-cheol rubbed his bristly chin with a troubled expression. There was a military cloak on the table. It was a special item that synchronized with the surrounding temperature in real time, making it appear as part of the background on camera.
Soldiers mainly used it in District A, but the problem was that it had recently been found in Area C. The agents who were lying in wait in Area C found the residence and raided it, but no one was seen, and this was left behind instead.
“Is the headquarters still there?”
“It seems like it was a temporary residence. That’s why I’m saying, how about sending more people after the kids’ graduation ceremony? It’s so big and complicated there, and it’s not easy to bribe people. You know that too, since you’ve been there. Those goblin bastards are getting better and better at running away.”
Kim Ha-yoon remained silent, staring at the military cloak on the table. It had been quite a while since a rebel force had emerged in Area C. At first, they were just petty thieves. They talked about revolution and whatnot, but they only went as far as stealing supplies or going over to District B and stealing things that could be sold for money.
But as time went on, they became more solid, calling each other brothers, and the level of their deviance gradually intensified. So Kim Ha-yoon’s father made a decision. To eliminate all the rebel forces there. A considerable number of people died in the midst of the fighter jets being mobilized, and the few remaining rebel forces scattered and disappeared.
But they couldn’t completely eradicate them, and even now, the remnants were still watching for an opportunity. There was even talk in the committee of getting rid of the place altogether. They said that they were useless even if they were alive. That usefulness was a standard that District A had created thoroughly.
“Maybe… weren’t those bastards the ones who did that to my men in the sewer that day? If they had a cloak, they could have come all the way here.”
The cloak was an early model and outdated, but it was still usable enough. So Kim Do-cheol’s words made sense. He got up from his seat and went to his desk, opened the drawer and checked the bullet he had taken from the beast’s body that day.
It was not something used by the military, but something that someone had manufactured with lead. He shone a fluorescent light on it, put it back in its place, and then went to the window. The training ground was bustling with preparations for the graduation ceremony the day after tomorrow.
The trainees were out moving chairs and making noise. Among them, Ire was definitely noticeable. Why didn’t he say that there were other people in the sewer that day?
Because he didn’t trust me? Or is there another reason?
“Hmm….”
He pursed his lips so much that wrinkles formed on his chin, and was thinking when Kim Do-cheol suddenly cut in.
“Why don’t you just put a bed there? You can lie down and watch comfortably.”
“Don’t pick a fight. I’m thinking.”
“But why did Kwon So-young come and go earlier?”
Kim Ha-yoon, who had been looking out the window, turned his head.
“Kwon So-young?”
“Yeah. Wasn’t she here to see you?”
“She did? She came to see me?”
“She was dressed up nicely and even had a cake, so I thought she came to see you.”
Without thinking any further, Kim Ha-yoon frowned and clicked his tongue. She couldn’t stand it. Then, when he heard that she had given him a cake, a chill ran down his spine. Could she have put something in it? What was scary about Kwon So-young, who was a doctor and a scientist, was that she could send someone away without anyone knowing. Of course, she wouldn’t kill Ire.
And if she had killed him, she wouldn’t be smiling so brightly over there.
Ire, who was carrying chairs, was joking around with a classmate who shared the same room. He was smiling so brightly that it could be seen from afar, which made him feel spiteful for no reason.
“Look at that. I’m telling you, he’s only acting expensive with me.”