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As he had said, we ran into each other again. On the drill ground, in the corridor of buildings, in the central square, in the canteen… Jung Haekyung would continue speaking to me with a gentle smile every time we passed by each other. Most of the things he said were meaningless, but I liked that. I wanted to hear meaningless things, and I wanted to say meaningless things.
Whenever we met in the canteen, we’d naturally eat together, but many things changed over the course of a few weeks. People would sit at the table I was sitting at, and some would even talk to me first. Nevertheless, I didn’t speak to others first. I was secretly scared I’d be ignored again, and the behaviour they showed all this time was dirty and cheap, so I didn’t want to approach them. Jung Haekyung, whom I had run into in the canteen, ate a mouthful of peanut butter ice cream and said, “Euijin-ah, what will you be doing before the evening roll call?”
“…Shooting practice?”
“Why would you do that during your free time?”
“Because I have nothing else to do.”
“Can we do it together?”
“Shooting practice?”
“…Yeah.”
When I nodded my head, Jung Haekyung said to meet at 19 o’clock, carried his tray first, and got up. Even the sight of his long back was pretty. How could a person have both a pretty front and a pretty back? I didn’t know why he seemed pretty despite his tall height and wide shoulders. Maybe he just seemed that way because of his face. As I thought of useless things, I wondered whether I should have some of the peanut butter ice cream Jung Haekyung had eaten. I didn’t really like peanuts or butter, but for some reason, it looked delicious.
However, a clear plastic cup with cream-coloured ice cream in it was placed in front of me. Although I had thought about whether or not I should get some, I didn’t get up from my seat. Unless I had suddenly developed some kind of telekinesis, someone must have placed the ice cream in front of me. I raised my head to see the face I expected. Jung Haekyung smiled in a way that seemed sweeter than the ice cream and said, “You looked like you wanted some.”
I nodded my head. I felt like I had already eaten the ice cream, but I still picked up the small spoon he had placed beside me along with it. For some reason, it felt like my face was burning up, so I wanted to eat something cold. I scooped up a spoonful of ice cream, all the while gazing at him as if I still had something I couldn’t yet say to him.
“Thanks.”
Jung Haekyung laughed again. The air around us felt refreshing. Were anions coming out of his body or what? Was this what you called phytoncide…?
“See you later.”
“Yeah.”
See you later. Even after he had left, I thought over those words. He said to meet up at 7 o’clock. I didn’t know how long it’d been since I last had an appointment that wasn’t an experiment schedule. It was said that people would start feeling excited at six if they had a meet up at seven, but what do I do now that I’m already excited? Lunch break hadn’t even ended yet.
I quickly scarfed down the ice cream, afraid it would melt. However, now that I put it in my mouth, I realised it was vanilla ice cream. I wanted to eat peanut butter ice cream, though. My lips swelled and felt a bit itchy when I ate peanuts, but I wanted some today. Still, now that I’d gotten a taste, vanilla ice cream was good as well.
Every day felt long after I entered S.E., but today felt especially long. As soon as I finished all my work, I hurriedly prepared and arrived twenty minutes earlier than the promised time, but Jung Haekyung was already at the shooting range. He took off his black safety glasses and said, “You came early?”
“Yeah.”
“You came earlier,” I added, and Jung Haekyung laughed. However, strangely enough, there was no one at the practice range. Every evening, there would usually be about five or six individuals here, much like myself, who had nothing particular to do, but right now, it was just Jung Haekyung and me. As I looked around our surroundings, Jung Haekyung handed me some safety glasses, gloves, and earplugs. When I received them, I realised they weren’t the items readily supplied by the practice range. Just one look was enough to see that they were much better than what was usually used.
“Are these yours?”
“No.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“Ktfs’gf abajiis cfk, atbeut?”
“Efjiis?” Aecu Ljfxsecu rjlv, cba mjglcu wemt. Qfii, pera yfmjerf atf fdelqwfca lwqgbnfv vlvc’a wfjc ws rxliir kbeiv lwqgbnf. P ofia fwyjggjrrfv tjnlcu ab jmaejiis rtbba lc ogbca bo tlw. Pa ofia ilxf vbu-qjvvilcu lc ogbca bo j ktjif.
P qea lc wbgf foobga atjc ereji ktfc rtbbalcu, yea atf gfreiar kfgf kbgrf atjc ereji. Zjcs yeiifar tjv mbwqifafis wlrrfv atf ajgufa jr kfii. Ycmf atf alwf fcvfv, P mtfmxfv atf gfreiar jcv rmgjamtfv ws mtffx lc fwyjggjrrwfca, yea Aecu Ljfxsecu revvfcis jqqgbjmtfv ws yjmx. Ktfc tf ufcais ugjyyfv atf kglra atja kjr tbivlcu atf uec.
“Relax.”
I was a bit taken aback, but just as he said, I relaxed. I heard the sound of his low laughter against my ears.
“Now you’re too relaxed. Hold it a little harder.”
I tried to grab the gun with the right amount of strength, but I couldn’t. Jung Haekyung gently grabbed my hand and said, “If you hold the gun too hard, your hand will shake, and if you hold it too loosely, it’ll fall.”
Suddenly, his grip strengthened. As I looked at him in surprise, he loosened his grip as if he had never done so in the first place.
“You need to find the right amount of strength by increasing and loosening your grip.”
“Oh…”
I did as he taught, trying to find the right amount of strength so that neither my hand or the gun would shake. I didn’t succeed immediately, though. While I controlled the strength of my grip, Jung Haekyung pressed down on the inner side of my right elbow.
“Yeah, relax your right arm, just like that.”
Then, he bent my left elbow with his other hand.
“Bend the elbow of the arm supporting the gun. Point the gun a bit downward.”
I felt a bit conscious about Jung Haekyung, who was meticulously fixing my posture here and there, and turned back a bit to look at him. As soon as our gazes locked, he smiled brightly.
“Your posture’s falling apart.”
I looked forward again. I needlessly stared at the foresight when Jung Haekyung’s foot stepped in between my legs. He pushed my right foot with his. His body touched my back, and even our legs were touching now.
“Widen your legs to the length of your shoulders, and push your right foot towards the front a little more.”
I tried not to have any unnecessary reactions to the voice coming from behind me, which sounded overly close. It was discourteous to act so needlessly embarrassed even though he was doing his best to teach me, so I widened my stance as he had taught and assumed the right posture.
“Yeah. Just like that, keep it at a 45 degree angle.”
The unfamiliar posture made me feel a bit uncomfortable. Jung Haekyung touched the tip of my index finger, which was placed between the trigger. Then, he pressed down on the thickest part.
“Pull here.”
He stepped back a bit. In that posture, I shot a few consecutive bullets. I think it was the best I’ve shot up until now. I took an unnecessary glance at Jung Haekyung. As soon as our eyes met, he nodded his head as if to tell me good job.
“It’s all good, but don’t flinch. You need to be unafraid of the recoil in order not to flinch. Although, there’s no other method than getting used to it.”
Jung Haekyung aimed the gun at the target in front of him. Then, he began to shoot. His posture looked like a perfect textbook example, so I blankly stared at him. Although he shot seven bullets, all of them hit the same place, and there was only one hole left. I watched in amazement, and he chuckled.
“Just keep going until you can do it.”
His words were quite irresponsible, but I nodded my head anyway. ‘Until you can do it.’ It was like seeing an anachronistic phrase written in Gungseo font in the military. Still, since Jung Haekyung was the one saying it, it sounded reasonable enough. It truly seemed like he could do whatever he wanted, however he wanted.
I aimed the gun at the target in the way Jung Haekyung taught me. The lead ingot quickly flew and pierced the target. For some reason, I felt good. I loaded the gun again. I could feel Jung Haekyung’s gaze as he stood next to me. For whatever reason, I wanted to do well, so I did my best to relax the tension in my shoulders and corrected my posture. Bang. Bang. Bang. The sound of gunshots echoed throughout the shooting range.
∞
“What are you doing this evening?”
“…Shooting practice?”
“Want to play Deode today?”
Jung Haekyung, whom I had met on the way to my afternoon schedule, happily approached when he saw me and struck up a conversation. He did it so casually, as if we always shared our routine together. I engaged in idle conversation with him, reminiscent of the days when I used to attend school and chat with my friends from other classes in the hallways. However, when he suggested that we play what was the hottest shooter game in the military these days, I couldn’t accept as easily as back when I was in school. Like the outcast in the rumours, I knew where the PC room was. I’ve played Dead of Devil a few times before. The problem was that I had no money. I couldn’t tell him that I didn’t have enough money for the petty PC room bill. Even if I were to borrow some, I wouldn’t be able to pay it back because there was still a lot of time left until the end of my pay cut.
“No.”
“Why? Haven’t played before?”
“It’s not that…”
I didn’t know what to answer, and the ends of my words began to blur. I wanted to go to the PC room with Jung Haekyung. Should I try calling my father’s secretary tonight? If I call and tell them the account number connected to my ID card, I’ll have money in less than ten minutes. As always.
In what felt like a futile act of rebellion against my father, who had signed the consent form as he pleased, I didn’t want to ask for money from him. Perhaps noticing the intent behind my rebellion, he wouldn’t send me money unless I asked for it either. I tried to stay unyielding no matter what happened, but it made me seem laughable now that I fell apart all because of one single PC room.
“Anyhow, I’m not going.”
When I refused, Jung Haekyung went quiet. Maybe I put him in a bad mood by blindly rejecting him without giving any reason whatsoever. I glanced at him. However, he soon asked in his usual friendly tone, “Is it because of Director Baek?”
“Huh?”
“She must’ve played around with your salary, right? That woman’s always been cheap.”
I was amazed by how he managed to pinpoint the exact cause even though I hadn’t said a thing. As soon as I nodded my head, Jung Haekyung grinned.
“Don’t you have any money at home? Want to go get it?”
“…In Cheonwol?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m prohibited from going out, though.”
“Do you want to go out?”
“……”
“I was planning on going to Cheonwol this weekend, want to go together?”
“Will they let me?”
“They will if you’re coming with me.”
I couldn’t understand why they would let me go out with him since he was the one who helped me run away and the reason why I was banned from going out. Jung Haekyung, as always, answered without even needing me to ask him, “Aren’t I S.E.’s only SS-Class? I’ve been serving this place for ten years now, I’ll quit if they don’t let that much slide.”
“Can you quit?”
“I’m wanted by places all over the world.”
The way he jokingly hit his chest with his fist was both amusing and true, so I lightly laughed along with him.
The next morning, Jung Haekyung brought an outing permission form with my name written on it. I couldn’t believe how easy it was. I blankly stared at the permission form. Jung Haekyung said, “Then, PC room this evening?”
“If I get the money.”
“You can get some and pay it back later.”
Yeah. I nodded my head. Maybe I felt reluctant because I was scared I wouldn’t ever be able to pay it back, but there was no reason why I couldn’t borrow a sum that didn’t even reach 10,000 won. Jung Haekyung had a bigger hazard pay, so he must’ve had a lot of money, and it was such a petty amount that he was able to casually say he’d be able to cover for me, but he even went as far as thinking of how I felt and got me an outing permission form. What was up with the people who said he was cruel and evil? Was he only like that in battle? Looking at Jung Haekyung who was smiling in front of me, I couldn’t really imagine it.
I was in a good mood the entire day. I liked how I had an appointment in the evening, how I’d be able to visit Cheonwol after so long, and how I didn’t need to meet with Director Baek on the weekends. I must’ve been subconsciously smiling as I organised my bullets. Someone whispered from beside me, “Get a hold of yourself.”
As soon as I tried to turn my head, the person beside me continued, “Don’t look.”
“.…..”
“I’m telling you this because your life’s pitiful, so listen up. Don’t play into that bastard’s hobbies.”
“.…..”
“Well, you won’t be able to break free as you please, but still, drill this into your head. Don’t be fooled by that bastard’s pretty face and tongue.”
The man, whom I didn’t know the face of due to his wearing goggles, finished organising his bullets first and escaped. I stood there for a while. Based on the context, it seemed like “that bastard” referred to Jung Haekyung. The one with the pitiful life seemed to be me. I agreed with that. It was truly the worst before Jung Haekyung came along. Even now, it was closer to the unfortunate side. And “hobby”. What was Jung Haekyung’s hobby? If he had something to say, he should’ve said it properly. Or he should’ve just shut up instead. My mood was instantly soured by his incomprehensible words.
orcinus comments:
homoerotic gun holding…
Is it truly enemies yaoi if there isn’t homoerotic gun holding? also THE PLOT THICKENS
So far I’m uneasy with it, Haekyung is nice but I cannot helping thinking this guy deliberately let Enji be treated unfairly so that he got a chance to win his trust.
Oh, there’s absolutely no doubt about that. I’m just curious how the person next to Euijin knows about Jung Haekyung’s depravity… have there been other unfortunate souls?