By Zephyria 
Leo.
He was the first friend to reach out to Eden, who was suffering from racial discrimination after coming to the United States. The childhood friend, whose relationship was as cliché as his name, left many marks on Eden’s life.
He arbitrarily held a yard sale in the front yard of the cynical young immigrant, and made him squander all the money he scraped together from used goods at a barbecue restaurant.
He steadily built up Eden’s small body with flesh and muscle, and even made Jeffrey, the neighborhood bully who had been ignoring Eden, surrender. As a result, thanks to Leo’s scheme, the two were able to become inseparable friends.
He was a pure eccentric, but he sometimes knew how to say things that were heavy for his age. He was the one who gave unexpected advice to Eden, who had a vague dream of making weapons.
‘If you want to handle weapons, you have to go to the battlefield. You have to realize how many lives are attached to your hands, Eden.’
The world in your eyes isn’t everything. In that sea stained with corpse water, in the desert where the aurora rises, and in the sky where contrails leave their traces, each has its own world…
Leo, who enlisted in the special forces with Eden, set an example on the battlefield.
‘Eden, all the hostages will be rescued tomorrow. Can you believe it? We saved people.’
Northern Iraq, where they were dispatched to carry out a counter-terrorism operation. Leo, buried in the sand of the desert, was grinning like a bear, showing his white teeth.
Leo indirectly tried to instill the symbiosis of ‘weapons’ and ‘good’. But Eden was not fooled by his pure scheme. It was close to impossible in the first place.
The pleasure of seeing an enemy’s head blown off by a single bullet he fired, and an entire building collapsing with a single grenade, was as addictive as drugs. The trigger of the sniper rifle, covered in dirt, only ignited the spark in Eden’s grand dream.
The moment Leo died in his arms from enemy air fire, his determination became even stronger.
The ambition to create the world’s strongest killing weapon. The rage-filled dream of cutting off the enemy’s breath faster than anyone else, tearing through the sky.
After Leo died, Eden ran forward, looking only ahead. He worked tirelessly, participating in the birth of the Stealth F-27 and maximizing the killing power of old weapons.
Fame and wealth naturally followed his unstoppable steps, and the newly created weapons were exported to battlefields around the world. Many people died, and many were saved.
But Leo was still buried in the cold ground. Although he had achieved everything he had dreamed of, Eden occasionally felt empty.
He still didn’t know whether it was longing for his dead friend or an inexplicable sense of guilt.
Lost in thought, he lifted his closed eyelids.
“A dear friend died on the battlefield.”
A calm silence was broken. Ha-jin’s body, which had been sprawled on the haystack, was straightened up. At the sudden confession, his shoulders tensed up.
A blunt voice, devoid of any emotion, continued the confession.
“I’ve seen countless corpses, but the pain of my own people dying is on a different level. I think that was the first time I realized the true meaning of death.”
“……”
“It’s ridiculous. The guy who pretended to know more about death than anyone else was actually a kid who knew nothing.”
Eden shrugged his shoulders mockingly in between words.
Death doesn’t just take away life. It takes away all those moments that can never be seen again, that can never be returned to.
Hearty laughter, the path to the barbecue restaurant, the nights of crying and laughing at a third-rate movie, the baseball bat they used together, the bicycle with broken pedals, the stubborn beliefs, and the Adam’s apple that turned red when he raised his voice…
In the year he lost Leo, Eden locked his heart with fervent loss.
“Since then, I haven’t let people get close to me. Even though it was only once, losing someone is… sickening.”
Ha-jin traced Eden’s figure with his eyes as he ridiculed himself, and recalled his obsessively dismissive attitude towards people.
The cryptic conversations he had occasionally shared with him also came to mind like mushrooms after rain.
‘I just wondered why Jeong Tae-geon Hyung was taking me around, so I asked.’
‘Well, I guess he thought he could save you this time.’
Was he seeing the image of his old friend in him? He never knew that the words ‘I thought I could save you this time’ meant this.
Amidst heavy thoughts, Eden’s voice rang out again, harshly.
“Of course, it’s just a cliché. It’s common for colleagues to lose their lives on the battlefield, and the current situation is no different.”
With those words, Eden’s mouth closed. In the quiet silence, breaths came and went quietly.
Ha-jin could sense that he didn’t want to talk about this issue anymore. He wondered if he had needlessly poked at his wounds, and his mind became complicated.
But something was strange. While his heart ached at his unfortunate past, he felt as if a corner of his heart was deflating like a punctured balloon.
When he learned that he had been living on the shadow of a dead man, a strange disappointment weighed on his head. He had been trying not to give it any meaning, but he seemed to have been secretly proud of being treated specially by Eden.
The subtle self-loathing, which resembled jealousy, was embarrassing. At this moment, he couldn’t even feel the rough texture of the rope digging into his wrist or the sensation of his knees scraping against the floor.
Why? Tens of thousands of question marks popped up in his head. Before he could fall deeper into the abyss of thought, Ha-jin hurriedly opened his mouth.
“You must have liked him a lot.”
But the words that were blurted out in a hurry, without going through his brain, bounced off in a completely unexpected direction. Ha-jin, who had been gaping, frowned and reproached himself. Ah… you idiot…
“What do you mean?”
As soon as the question came back, he fidgeted with his hands tied with rope.
“No, I just mean, it seems like you liked your friend a lot.”
“……”
“I don’t know if you were lovers, but anyway…”
Somehow, the more he opened his mouth, the worse it got. If his hands weren’t tied, he would have slapped his own reckless lips right away.
“Do Ha-jin, what did you hear about my story?”
“Yes?”
Ha-jin flinched at Eden’s voice, which was tinged with displeasure. He sighed deeply and corrected the misunderstanding.
“Leo wasn’t my lover, he was just a friend. Just because I said I’m open to men doesn’t mean you can link everyone in that way.”
Ha-jin was momentarily flustered and stammered.
“No, I didn’t mean that…”
“Then, since Do Ha-jin is heterosexual, is it okay to be linked with Yun Mi-so?”
Before he could properly understand what he meant, a barrage of questions came one after another.
“Come to think of it, what’s your relationship with Yun Mi-so? You’re always hanging around together, but are you really just friends?”
“Y-yes?!”
At that point, Ha-jin unknowingly shouted loudly. He was so embarrassed that he completely forgot that he had been kidnapped, and the top of his head heated up.
“No, what, that example… don’t say such ridiculous things…?”
“How does it feel to be on the receiving end?”
“I, I feel terrible.”
“Yeah. I feel terrible too. Besides, I hate hairy men like Leo.”
Eden, who had been acting sentimental just a moment ago, as if longing for his dead lover, pointed out his friend’s hair with a voice full of displeasure.
“Hah, I, I also hate scary types like Mi-so, okay?”
Not wanting to be outdone, Ha-jin also hurriedly denied his relationship with Mi-so. As he jumped up and answered, the corners of Eden’s mouth began to loosen strangely.
“Are you sure you’re not seeing Yun Mi-so?”
“Ah, really…! Stop saying such ridiculous things. She’s just a ball-less, ball-busting friend!”
“Hmm, I see.”
“Yes!”
“I understand.”
“Yes…!”
“Yes.”
Shaking off his dizzy head, Ha-jin sighed deeply.
‘What kind of conversation is this?’
He was so dumbfounded and speechless that his whole body turned red. He had been working with Mi-so as a business partner for so long that he had been misunderstood like this more than once or twice, but somehow Eden’s question seemed to have a hidden meaning, and he unknowingly reacted sensitively.
Ha-jin couldn’t understand why he was so easily showing his raw emotions to him alone.
Before long, Eden asked with a smiling expression.
“What are you so curious about?”
Ha-jin’s chin, which had been buried in the ground, slowly lifted. Eden muttered in a strangely mischievous tone.
“You’ve been fidgeting like a dog that needs to pee since earlier…”
“……”
“Are you perhaps mistaken that I saw that friend in Do Ha-jin?”
He was so accurately hit that he was speechless. Does Delta Force also practice mind reading…? He couldn’t figure out how he had read his mind in a situation where he couldn’t even see his face properly.
Eden, who interpreted Ha-jin’s silence as affirmation, continued to ask and answer himself.
“I don’t know why you made that mistake, but I’m not that mentally ill. I only took Do Ha-jin as a colleague on impulse, and it has nothing to do with my dead friend.”
Ha-jin was once again dumbfounded by the neat explanation. The deflated chest began to fill with air.
He didn’t know what was so special about that special treatment, but his mood was fluctuating with Eden’s every word. He had experienced so many things today that he wondered if something was wrong with his brain. No matter how he thought about it, he didn’t seem to be in his right mind.
That being said, the most important question still hadn’t been clearly resolved.
“If you didn’t bring me in because I look like Jeong Tae-geon Hyung’s friend, then why did you choose me?”
“Are you that curious?”
“…I might be curious.”
“Do Ha-jin, do you know that we’re in a kidnapping situation right now?”
He meant that he should be thinking about escaping, but what good was that curiosity? Ha-jin didn’t give in.
“It’s a simple question, why can’t you answer it? Then I’ll tell you first. I stuck to Jeong Tae-geon Hyung because he seemed strong.”
*Yard Sale: A small market where used goods are sold or shared cheaply in the front yard of a house