Development Group (2)
When Byeon Dong-jin grabbed him by the nape of the neck, Kang-hae was hauled up from the bed.
At that moment, a canteen flew straight at Byeon Dong-jin’s head.
Thwack—
The flying canteen smashed into the back of Byeon Dong-jin’s skull.
"Which fucking bastard was that!"
Byeon Dong-jin whipped his head around, eyes blazing.
"Me, you fucking bastard."
The one who had thrown the canteen was Kim Ha-jun, the same man who had always kept the mood alive with his ridiculous jokes and made his comrades laugh.
In that hellish training camp, Kim Ha-jun’s nonsense had been a sliver of light.
Everyone liked Kim Ha-jun.
But right now, after throwing the canteen, he looked nothing like his usual self.
The winning spirit of the undefeated rookie boxing champion everyone had refused to believe in was spilling off him in waves.
This was the story of why Kim Ha-jun, the man once called the future of Korean pro boxing, had enlisted in the Information Command.
After drinking with his friends, Kim Ha-jun had gotten into it with a pack of punks at an arcade punching machine and beaten a few of them senseless, which earned him a severe five-year suspension from the boxing association.
After that, in a mood of screw-it-all, he had enlisted in the Information Command.
"You want to die, you fucking bastard...!"
After taking the canteen to the head, Byeon Dong-jin stormed toward Kim Ha-jun with murderous intent.
Kim Ha-jun snorted and got to his feet.
Not a trace of fear showed on his face.
His expression was relaxed, almost lazy.
"Maybe you’re just too stupid to notice. You’re the one who’s going to die, punk."
"What the fuck did you say?"
"Na Kang-hae’s the one holding back on you right now, punk."
"What kind of bullshit is that, you fucking bastard?"
"Ever see the look in Na Kang-hae’s eyes during training? That bastard goes all the way once he makes up his mind. Whatever it is. So stop acting tough for no reason and go to sleep."
"But this fucking bastard has been—"
Byeon Dong-jin suddenly threw a punch at Kim Ha-jun’s jaw.
But Kim Ha-jun had already seen it coming.
He casually turned his head and let the punch slide past.
Then he immediately fired off an uppercut.
Whoosh—
Just before Kim Ha-jun’s fist could bury itself in Byeon Dong-jin’s lower jaw, it stopped dead.
"You little fucking bastard. If you keep acting up one more time, I’ll split your jaw into six pieces."
Kim Ha-jun usually did nothing but crack stupid jokes and make people laugh, but in that moment he looked every inch the undefeated rookie boxing champion.
And the trainees who usually hated Byeon Dong-jin sided with him as well.
"Hey, Ha-jun. Just kill him now."
"Yeah. Beat the crap out of that bastard and take the punishment."
"Hey, you fucking punk. Who the hell are you trying to scare, putting on airs in here?"
Byeon Dong-jin turned and glared at the others.
Every trainee here had made a name for himself outside, one way or another.
Not a single one of them was afraid of Byeon Dong-jin.
And through experience, Byeon Dong-jin knew something else too.
You had to know when to act tough and when not to.
Sometimes putting on a front worked. Sometimes it backfired.
Right now, it was obvious it wouldn’t work.
"You fucking bastards... I’ll kill you all soon enough..."
Still bluffing to the end, Byeon Dong-jin went back to his bed.
And Kang-hae, inwardly, was grateful to Kim Ha-jun and the others for taking his side.
He looked over at Kim Ha-jun.
The moment Kim Ha-jun met his eyes, he gave him a cheeky wink.
Just like that, he was back to being the same Kim Ha-jun who joked around and made everyone laugh.
* * *
At the same time, in the instructor’s office, the newly assigned company commander Ha Seok-jun and the rest of the instructors, including Lee Woo-hyung, were gathered together.
Ha Seok-jun looked at senior instructor Lee Woo-hyung and said, “Assistant Director, they’re saying the waves will be over five meters tomorrow. Why don’t we cancel training?”
“That is not possible.”
Lee Woo-hyung’s refusal was crisp and absolute.
Ha Seok-jun’s mood darkened.
It had been a month since he’d been posted to the Information Command, and he was increasingly irritated that the instructors refused to follow his lead.
No matter how special the Information Command was, it was still the military, wasn’t it?
And among the instructors, the one he disliked most was Lee Woo-hyung, the most senior of them all.
“At this rate, what happens if another kid dies like the one did two years ago?”
With obvious irritation, Ha Seok-jun brought up what had happened two years earlier.
Back then, one of the trainees had died during the very training scheduled for the next day.
Lee Woo-hyung stared at Ha Seok-jun and said, “He was not a kid. He was Kim Seong-min.”
"What did you say...?"
“It is a training we absolutely need.”
“No, Assistant Director. This isn’t the era of people bouncing around on dolphins anymore, so why push it that far—”
“I will make sure nothing you need to worry about happens.”
By “worry about,” Lee Woo-hyung meant the possibility of an accident jeopardizing Ha Seok-jun’s promotion.
Ha Seok-jun caught the meaning behind the words as well.
"Nothing I need to worry about...? Do you think I’m some kind of fool? Hey, Sergeant Lee Woo-hyung. This is the military, isn’t it? When a superior officer gives an order, at least pretend to listen."
There was fury in Ha Seok-jun’s voice.
Lee Woo-hyung only stared at him in silence.
And in that instant, Ha Seok-jun felt an inexplicable chill.
After being assigned to the Information Command, Ha Seok-jun had heard the legend about Lee Woo-hyung many times.
That he had infiltrated the North on multiple occasions and carried out missions that bordered on impossible.
Every time he heard those stories, Ha Seok-jun had sneered inwardly.
What the hell is this, some Jason Bourne bullshit?
But the instant he saw Lee Woo-hyung’s eyes, he knew the rumors were true.
There was something in them that only a man who had walked through death more than once could possess.
Still staring at Ha Seok-jun, Lee Woo-hyung slowly spoke.
“Captain Ha Seok-jun, Academy Class 52. The Information Command may be a place you pass through for promotion, but it is not that for us.”
"What did you say...?"
“This is where we train the elite operators who can infiltrate all the way to the First Headquarters of the Workers’ Party in Pyongyang. Remember that.”
After saying that, Lee Woo-hyung got to his feet.
The other instructors rose after him.
Ha Seok-jun wanted to say something, but in the end he couldn’t get a single word out before Lee Woo-hyung left.
* * *
In the early dawn, the trainees who had woken from sleep assembled on the parade ground.
Before long, Lee Woo-hyung and the other instructors appeared.
“Two years ago, one of your seniors died while taking today’s training.”
At Lee Woo-hyung’s words, the trainees glanced around uneasily.
The Taegeukgi hanging from the flagpole fluttered in the wind, and the sky was packed with dark clouds.
It looked certain that rain would soon come pouring down.
“Anyone who lacks confidence, raise your hand. I’ll excuse you. Raise your hand.”
The trainees swallowed hard.
But no one raised a hand.
They were soon loaded onto buses and moved to the harbor.
When they arrived at the beach, rain had already begun to fall from the sky.
Tap, tap, tap—
Tap, tap, tap—
The rain grew heavier and heavier.
The trainees and instructors boarded a fishing boat and headed out to sea.
With the waves so high, the vessel heaved like a roller coaster.
Some trainees were so seasick they threw up.
After about thirty minutes, the fishing boat came to a stop in the middle of the ocean.
“Today’s training is to hit that buoy and come back.”
Lee Woo-hyung pointed to a yellow buoy about a kilometer away from the fishing boat.
The buoy rocked in the waves like a roadside inflatable advertising sign.
“First team, forward.”
At the instructor’s order, five trainees, including Kang-hae and Byeon Dong-jin, stepped forward.
“Enter the water.”
Kang-hae leaped into the sea without hesitation.
After a beat, Byeon Dong-jin and the others followed, glancing around before finally jumping in.
All the trainees began swimming toward the buoy.
But the high waves and currents kept them from making any real progress.
Then Huang Seon-ho, who had once been a competitive swimmer, read the current and shouted, “Swim forty-five degrees to the left!”
The trainees changed direction as he instructed.
Little by little, they made their way toward the buoy.
From the fishing boat, the instructors and the remaining trainees watched anxiously.
When Kang-hae, who was leading the group, had gone about a hundred meters, a mass of trash floating on the waves crashed over the trainees.
And tangled inside that trash was a fishing net more than five meters wide.
The net swept over Byeon Dong-jin, who was bringing up the rear.
"What the hell...!"
Terrified because he wasn’t confident in the water, Byeon Dong-jin began thrashing wildly.
The more he struggled, the more the net swallowed him, larger and tighter.
"Help me—"
Entangled in the net, Byeon Dong-jin flailed helplessly.
Seeing that, Kang-hae decided he would save him.
No matter how much of a piece of trash Byeon Dong-jin was, there would still be family somewhere grieving his death.
And Kang-hae, more than anyone, understood how painful family death could be. So he turned and swam back for him.
Huang Seon-ho spotted it and shouted, “Hey, Na Kang-hae! You’ll die too!”
Despite his warning, Kang-hae did not stop swimming.
No matter how much of a bastard Byeon Dong-jin was, he was still a comrade.
And to somebody, he would be a beloved family member.
Kang-hae bit down on the net wrapped around Byeon Dong-jin’s body.
Then he clenched his molars with all his strength.
But the waves were too strong for the net to tear.
To make matters worse, Byeon Dong-jin clung to Kang-hae for his life.
Because of Byeon Dong-jin’s frantic thrashing, like some drowning ghost, and the height of the waves, the net began to tangle around Kang-hae too.
He tried to break free, but it was useless.
With Byeon Dong-jin, Kang-hae’s body was now entangled in the net as well, slowly sinking beneath the water.
Images of the time he had spent with his family passed through Kang-hae’s mind.
The family trip to Bulguksa when he was in elementary school.
The day his brother got into Seoul National University and they took a photo together at the entrance.
The trip to Jeju Island with his family before his brother enlisted.
The graduation ceremony where his enlisted brother received a commendation from the division commander as the representative trainee, and his mother cried.
Kang-hae felt bitter at the thought of dying like this without ever taking revenge.
But then he thought that if he could at least meet his family again soon, maybe that wouldn’t be so bad.
With that thought, he gradually lost consciousness.
When Kang-hae opened his eyes again, he was in the infirmary.
Byeon Dong-jin was lying on the bed beside him.
Once they came to, the two of them were immediately summoned to the instructor’s office.
Senior instructor Lee Woo-hyung sat in a chair and looked up at them.
The instant Byeon Dong-jin got tangled in the net, Lee Woo-hyung had jumped into the sea with the instructors and cut the net apart with practiced ease, saving both of them.
He was, in a sense, their lifesaver.
“Na Kang-hae.”
“Trainee Number 17, Na Kang-hae.”
“Why did you try to save Byeon Dong-jin?”
“Because I thought I had to.”
“Were you capable of doing that?”
“...”
Lee Woo-hyung turned to Byeon Dong-jin, who was standing beside Kang-hae.
Byeon Dong-jin stood there in silence, his expression twisted with resentment.
“Byeon Dong-jin.”
“Trainee Number 4, Byeon Dong-jin.”
“Got a problem?”
“No.”
“Both of you, get out.”
Kang-hae and Byeon Dong-jin left the instructor’s office and returned to the barracks.
All the trainees had been waiting for Kang-hae.
When Kang-hae entered the barracks, his comrades gathered around him.
Meanwhile, Byeon Dong-jin, welcomed by no one, silently went back to his own place.
"Hey, Na Kang-hae, you idiot. You should’ve just let that punk die." Kim Ha-jun said, jerking his chin toward Byeon Dong-jin, who was fiddling with something in front of his footlocker.
Kang-hae smiled without a word.
After a moment, Byeon Dong-jin stood in front of Kang-hae and called out to him.
"Hey, Na Kang-hae."
It was a different tone from his usual one, the one he used when picking a fight.
Kim Ha-jun and the others exchanged looks of surprise.
Kim Ha-jun put a hand on Byeon Dong-jin’s left shoulder and said, “What, did this bastard swallow too much seawater or something?”
The other comrades chimed in one after another.
"Yeah. Na Kang-hae saved your life, didn't he?"
"Right. If you’re human at all, you should know how to say thanks."
At their words, Byeon Dong-jin let out a snort of laughter.
And in that instant, everyone thought the same thing.
That peace had finally come to the barracks.
At the very least, they thought there wouldn’t be any more fighting among the trainees.
But that was a colossal mistake.
Byeon Dong-jin pulled a knife from his pocket and slashed Kang-hae across the face.
He had secretly taken it out of his footlocker just moments earlier.
Riiip—
Red blood dripped down from the left side of Kang-hae’s jaw.
"You fucking mad dog...!"
Kim Ha-jun and the other comrades rushed at Byeon Dong-jin.
Pinning him down on the floor, Byeon Dong-jin screamed at the top of his lungs.
"Na Kang-hae, you fucking bastard. When did I ever ask you to save me?! You thought if you saved me, you fucking bastard, I’d say thank you?! Let go, you sons of bitches! I’ll kill you all too!"
That day, Byeon Dong-jin was expelled.
Under normal circumstances he should have been sent to the military prison, but company commander Ha Seok-jun covered the incident up, afraid the blast would come back and hit him instead.
And beside Kang-hae’s left jaw, a scar was left behind that would never disappear.
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