Lee Yeeun (2)
Whether it was because our people had done their jobs well, or because Japan's public order had simply been that good to begin with, nothing happened until the bus finished the parade and made it back to the hotel. A few civilians, swept up in the festivities, had rushed at the bus — but that was all.
And yet a faint smell of cigarette smoke just would not leave the tip of my nose.
It hadn't even been that strong of a cigarette.
It was irritating as hell.
"Comrade Lee Yeeun."
Annoying.
I ran a hand across the tip of my nose again for no particular reason.
"Comrade Lee Yeeun!"
What? When did Myeongsuk get here?
"Yeah. What?"
"Why aren't you answering the radio? I've been calling you this whole time."
She had?
When?
"Ah... you were? What's going on?"
"Park Seonghun wants to see you."
That bastard? Why?
"When?"
"He said to come by later tonight."
"Tonight?"
Why at night?
"Yes. Looking at the time, he probably means after you've had dinner, doesn't he?"
"Huh? Oh... yeah, that would be it."
Ah. Right.
The sky had already been dimming when we got back to the hotel, and now it was fully dark.
Gotta eat.
Food.
"The boys are having dinner too, so we'll rotate in three shifts same as the Japanese. I brought a boxed lunch — would you like to eat it now?"
So that's what she'd been holding. A lunchbox.
"Yeah, I should eat."
"But Comrade Lee Yeeun, is something the matter? You seem a bit off right now."
"No. Nothing happened."
"Doesn't seem like nothing. Did something happen with those bastards?"
"I said no. And why do you keep not speaking South Korean? You little— damn it!"
She was digging into something she had no business digging into.
"I was wrong! I'll correct it!"
"I'm watching you. Got it?!"
Tsk.
"Here! Your lunchbox and tea. Enjoy your dinner!"
She set down the lunchbox and a plastic bottle, then left without looking back.
Hmm...
The Japanese women had packed a neatly arranged lunchbox. A decent amount of meat in it, too. Fried food as well.
No kimchi, though?
Ah...
Why did I have no appetite?
I needed to eat quickly...
With slow, mechanical hands, I opened the lunchbox, split the wooden chopsticks, and put a little rice in my mouth.
I ate the whole thing. It was good.
Without quite realizing it, I packed up the empty lunchbox, left Myeongsuk in charge of the site, and went to find Park Seonghun.
Twenty-eighth floor, twenty-third room.
Room 2823.
The doorbell sat right there beneath the softly glowing lights, plain as day — and yet pressing it was not as easy as it should have been.
Why am I like this?
It's been like this since the elevator ride up.
I've talked with Park Seonghun plenty of times. It's not like I'm some virgin who doesn't know the first thing about men, the way Unnie is.
So why am I like this.
Fine!
I'll just press it.
What's the big—
"What're you doing."
"Eek—!"
I clapped a hand over my mouth.
Scared the hell out of me.
He didn't even open the door from the front — why was he appearing from behind?
"The hell."
Ignoring the resentful look I shot him, the bastard opened the door with practiced ease and went inside.
"Come in."
He walked in first without even holding the door.
Seriously...
Wasn't holding the door for someone common courtesy among South Korean men? That's how they always did it in the South Korean dramas and movies.
This bastard...
I really didn't like him.
I caught the door as it was closing, pulled it open, and followed him in. Park Seonghun, who'd gone in first, acted as if he didn't care I was there at all — he pulled a bottle of water from the fridge in the corner and gulped it down.
What had he been doing to be this out of breath.
Did he work out?
"Sit wherever."
I looked around the room at that. There was nowhere to sit facing each other. Just sofas arranged so you'd end up sitting side by side.
So I moved the table and sofa that had been sitting together in the corner until we could face each other, then sat down.
He could've set this up in advance. He called me here, and this is what I get.
I sat there for a moment, and he came over from the fridge holding two of something, setting one down in front of me.
A plastic bottle with a peach on the label.
But it was clear.
What even is this.
"Drink."
"... Fine."
I carefully unscrewed the cap and took a sip. Peach flavor filled my mouth.
It's good.
So this kind of thing exists.
No. This wasn't the time to be sitting here drinking something sweet.
"Why'd you tell me to come here?"
"What?"
Ah.
"I said why did you tell me to come."
"Anyway, since you people came to Japan, I figured we should talk at least once."
He scratched his head, then spoke with a hard look in his eyes.
"Why did you come?"
Huh?
Uh...
"... Regarding everything that's happening right now, Unnie's judgment — which is the military's judgment — is that it should be resolved without military intervention. So the military will continue to maintain political neutrality on current events. However, she determined that those of you who went overseas needed protection, so we came."
I told him honestly, without hiding a thing, exactly what Unnie had told me.
"Hmm... and you came as the one in charge?"
"That's right."
"Ahh... I see..."
He seemed to have a lot to think about at that. He turned his gaze aside and kept looking out the window.
Then, abruptly:
"But are you people really here to protect us?"
"What?"
And then he grabbed me by the collar and threw me onto the bed.
Too easily. Too naturally. I only understood I was flying through the air once I'd already hit the mattress.
The instant I came to my senses and tried to get up, a sharp blow snapped my head to the side.
Then a cold, heavy sensation against my chest.
A gun barrel.
The bastard had already climbed on top of me, a hidden pistol leveled at my body.
To deal with a situation I couldn't even begin to comprehend, I let the tension drain from my body and slowly opened my hands.
A gesture of surrender.
I met the bastard's eyes, telling him with my gaze that I had no will to resist.
The same hard eyes as before.
This son of a bitch.
He'd definitely killed people before.
"Kim Eunjung already gave me a heads-up, so I can understand her making that call."
"I can understand needing to protect us after we came overseas, too."
"But you, of all people — the one who doesn't get along with me — showing up as the one in charge... that's what's weird."
"It's like... you're here to snatch us up whenever you feel like it."
A cold, low voice, all the warmth from earlier completely gone.
"... It's as I said before."
Whether it was because I might actually die, my voice trembled and kept cracking.
"Who else besides me could take charge of a mission like this. And no matter how much I don't like you, you people are essential to the nation. And I'm a soldier who has to protect things that precious."
"....."
"That's why I came. Why!"
Then we held a conversation with our eyes for a stretch of time I couldn't measure.
"... That's really all?"
"Yes!"
The cold sensation slowly left my chest.
The bastard who'd been on top of me put the gun away, got up, and righted the fallen table and chair.
Crazy bastard.
I'd heard he was armed on his own — but using it on the person who'd come to protect him?
"Sit."
I somehow got my trembling body moving, got off the bed, walked to the chair he'd indicated, and sat down.
Meanwhile the bastard cleaned up the peach drink that had fallen and spilled across the floor, pulled another from the fridge, opened the cap, set it in front of me, and sat down.
Crazy bastard.
He wanted me to drink this now?
"You heard it next to me earlier, but that's why we came to Japan. And if this doesn't happen, it doesn't work. We'll go to another country."
"... Even so, I don't think such extreme methods are the way."
Whether it was because of the gun still somewhere on the bastard's person, the words didn't come out easily.
Damn it. I should've brought mine too...
"For someone who thinks that, you've been looking at me like you agree with everything I've been saying since we were up on that bus."
Words that went through my heart as if they'd been fired from the barrel that had just been pressed to my chest.
"Am I wrong?"
Yeah.
He was right.
I understood what these bastards were doing and saying. Because in all the time I'd spent working alongside Unnie, the South Korean women had never been the least bit friendly toward us. Wherever we went, they looked at us with suspicion and wariness — as if we were people who might stage a coup at any moment and start oppressing them.
Unnie and the rest of us had no intention of staging the coup they were so afraid of. We were just diligently doing the jobs we were supposed to do.
I could understand the South Korean higher-ups acting that way. We'd ended up in control of the military, so of course we'd always be a thorn in their side. But I could never quite understand why even ordinary South Korean women weren't friendly toward us. I really wondered why. We were comrades who'd gone through a coup and a world war together. We were fellow countrymen who now had to live side by side.
Still, I'd told myself it was because we'd been different countries for so long, and it hadn't been long since unification. I'd also told myself that if we just kept quietly doing our jobs well, they'd come to understand us soon enough.
But after hearing this bastard's words today, everything made sense. It all fit together so perfectly it was almost unsettling.
That's why I was so shaken. That's why coming to see this bastard had been so hard. Even now, sitting here enduring those eyes that wanted an answer from me was almost too much to bear.
".... I want the Republic of Korea to change for the better more than anyone. You think I'd be happy leaving the country I protected? So while you're here, help me out a little."
"What happened after we arrived in Japan?"