Chapter 1, A Niece One Year Younger
Chapter 1, A Niece One Year Younger
"Reporting! Sergeant Kim Jae-jun has received orders to be discharged as of April 22, 2026! Reporting! Salute!"
I shouted loud enough to make the Battalion Commander-nim's office ring.
It was a moment I'd been waiting for for nearly two years.
As a healthy son of the Republic of Korea, the day I finish the nation's call and head out into the world.
The Battalion Commander-nim received my salute with a satisfied smile.
"Right. What do you plan to do after you're discharged, our Jae-jun?"
"I'm still thinking about it!"
"Hmm, really? If you don't have anything to do out there, how about re-enlisting? I can pull some strings for you."
I gave a bitter smile at the Battalion Commander-nim's half-joking suggestion.
The Company Sergeant Major-nim had been singing that song for days, trying to convince me to re-enlist.
Now even the Battalion Commander-nim is at it.
I did do an amazing job in the military.
But I have zero intention of burying my youth in the mountains.
"No, sir! I will become a fine member of society."
I put up a wall with a pleasant smile.
The Battalion Commander-nim chuckled and waved his hand as if it were a pity.
"Alright, understood. Just do outside what you did in the unit. Then you'll succeed in everything. You may leave now."
"Thank you! Salute!"
With that final salute, I left the Battalion Commander-nim's office.
My steps toward the guard post were very light.
I slung my backpack over my shoulder and arrived near the guard post with confidence.
Unfortunately, my juniors couldn't come to see me off because they were in a training period.
'You poor bastards.'
As soon as I passed the guard post, I turned my head toward the unit.
And I shouted as loudly as I could.
"Have fun suffering!!!"
My voice echoed loudly through the mountains.
It felt so refreshing.
I took a bus from the terminal to the train station and boarded the KTX to Seoul.
I stared blankly at the scenery passing by outside the window.
Even just last night, I hadn't slept a wink, my mind a mix of the joy of being discharged and the pain of the hazing.
But once I actually boarded the train and arrived at Seoul Station, my mood calmed down a bit.
"There are so many people."
I pushed through the typical, bustling crowd of Seoul Station and came outside.
The familiar smog of the city and the honking of cars.
I finally felt like I had perfectly returned to society.
I thought about taking the subway, but my luggage was heavy and it was my discharge day, so I decided to spend a little money and headed to the taxi stand.
I took a taxi and arrived near my neighborhood.
The car stopped in front of my house after passing through the familiar alleyway.
I thanked the driver, told him to have a good day, and paid the fare with Pay.
I was about to turn off my smartphone screen when I saw a strange icon in the corner of the home screen.
"What is this? It's an app I've never seen before."
A simple design with a Möbius strip intertwined on a black background.
It's an app I never installed.
I had scoured my application list this morning while leaving the guard post to delete the [Defense Mobile Security App].
So I knew exactly what apps were on my phone, but this was a stranger.
"Is this a phishing app? Do these things get installed when you connect to taxi Wi-Fi these days?"
Feeling uneasy, I pressed and held the icon to try and delete it.
But the delete button didn't even appear in the pop-up menu.
It was in a format where the deletion permission itself was blocked, just like the default apps that telecom carriers force onto your phone.
"Damn it, is this another crazy stunt by the three major telecom carriers?"
I had recently read an article about how those telecom bastards were forcing useless apps onto phones under the guise of AI or something.
They really are pieces of shit.
I'll have to ask at a service center later.
I let out a deep sigh and shoved my phone into my pants pocket.
I placed my hand on the door lock and entered the password.
Beep-beep-beep-beep.
The door opened and I stepped into the entryway.
And before I could even take off my shoes, I had to let out another deep sigh.
"Haa..."
The sight unfolding before my eyes was truly...
An eyesore.
A tripod was standing right in front of the front door.
And in front of the smartphone camera mounted on that tripod...
A grown woman was standing in her pajamas in the middle of the day, dancing a weird dance.
The movement of wiggling her hips and poking with her fingers.
I thought I had seen it somewhere before; it was the choreography for that song about a little captain that's trending on the internet these days.
"I'm going crazy, seriously."
The name of that kid dancing alone in front of the camera is Baek Ha-rin.
She is my eldest sister's first daughter.
So...
My relationship with Baek Ha-rin is uncle and niece.
Even though there's only a one-year age gap.
That's because my parents had me very late in life, right around the time my eldest sister got married and had a daughter.
So, in terms of family tree, I'm the uncle, but our ages ended up being similar.
I quietly took off my shoes, walked in, and lifted the camera tripod that was recording Ha-rin's dance.
"Ah! What are you doing!"
As the camera in front of her suddenly soared into the air, Baek Ha-rin snapped her head around, looking annoyed.
Her eyes widened like a rabbit's when she spotted me.
"What the. Why is the soldier-ajussi here already?"
"Already? Your uncle has finished the nation's call and returned safely with glory, and you don't even have a greeting? You don't have to bow down and pay respects, but couldn't you at least not be shaking your ass in your pajamas?"
When I scolded her while holding the tripod, Baek Ha-rin's lips pouted out.
"Damn it, I was almost done filming."
Baek Ha-rin didn't even listen to my scolding, and very boldly raised her middle finger straight up at me.
Then she snatched the tripod from my hands and ran off toward her room.
"Huh, wow."
I was so dumbfounded I let out a dry laugh.
She's a lost cause.
A niece flipping off her uncle?
I'll have to tell on her when my eldest sister comes home.
I went up to my room on the second floor.
When I opened the door, it was kept clean, just as I had organized it when I came out on my last leave.
I tossed my bag onto the bed and flopped down into the chair in front of my desk.
"My room is the best."
I leaned back in the chair and stretched widely.
It finally hit me that I was truly discharged, and the tension in my whole body melted away.
I took my smartphone out of my pocket.
That mysterious app I saw when I got out of the taxi caught my eye again.
'What on earth is this?'
The design is too simple to be a telecom app, and it doesn't even have a name written on it.
Out of curiosity, I tapped the icon to run it.
The screen turned black, and a single white chat window appeared.
It had a UI like a messenger app.
[What would you like help with?]
"Hmm... Is this an AI app like JackGPT?"
These days, the old geezers at big corporations don't have any real technical skills, but they always waste money on things like this just to follow trends.
If they have money to force-install useless apps, they should use it to improve the quality of their network services.
I was about to just turn it off, but I got curious about just how smart an AI app made by the three major telecom carriers could be.
"Let's test it out."
[What is the jurisdiction if an accident occurs on the day of discharge?]
This was something I had heard until my ears bled during the pre-discharge education.
I wonder if this domestic AI can answer even legal questions accurately.
As soon as I pressed the Enter key, the answer popped up without even a second of delay.
[Jurisdiction for an accident is determined by the time the incident occurred.]
[A soldier's status is maintained until midnight (24:00) on the day of discharge.]
[Therefore, if an accident occurs on the day of discharge, you are legally still a soldier, so the jurisdiction falls under the Military Police, Military Prosecution, and Military Court, not the general police.]
"Oh... That's smart."
An exclamation came out.
It was exactly the same, word for word, as what the Company Commander-nim had warned us about while getting all worked up during pre-discharge education.
The legendary story about the idiots who thought they were civilians on their discharge day, drank, caused trouble, and got dragged off to the Military Police.
"Well, this is something you can find just by searching the internet, so it's expected."
Knowledge search is a feature that almost any AI app can do.
This time, I decided to ask a realistic question.
[Tell me a stock that will moon within a week.]
I asked a question that would only be asked in an illegal stock-picking chat room.
I naturally expected a refusal message to appear.
But a loading icon appeared on the screen for a moment, and then text I absolutely didn't expect was output.
[I recommend KSA Holdings.]
[A rise of over 30% is predicted at the market open tomorrow.]
"...Hmm?"
I blinked.
There wasn't a single line of warning or disclaimer.
"Are the telecom bastards finally crazy?"
I immediately turned on my brokerage app and searched for the stock called KSA Holdings.
"It's a real stock."
Looking at the chart, it was a typical penny stock.
A "coin stock" that was struggling around 1,000 won per share.
The trading volume was crawling on the floor, and it was a discarded stock with no clear good news or articles.
"This piece of trash is going to go up 30% tomorrow?"
Hmm...
A strange curiosity arose.
'Yeah, well, let's just say I bought a lottery ticket to celebrate my discharge.'
It's 1,000 won per share anyway.
Buying 50,000 won worth is just the price of a few meals.
Just in case, I placed a buy order for 50,000 won worth of KSA Holdings stock at the market price.
I was about to put my phone down on the desk after confirming the buy order.
Bang!
The door swung open without warning.
"Hey! Eat!"
It was my niece, Baek Ha-rin.
Instead of the silk pajamas from earlier, she was wearing a sloppy pair of sweatpants and a short-sleeved t-shirt.
"Don't open the door so roughly, you brat. And what's with the 'hey'? Who calls their uncle 'hey'?"
I grumbled as I got up from my seat.
But is there anyone to make me food at this hour?
My eldest sister should have gone to work.
'Did she order delivery?'
I went down to the kitchen, wondering.
A fairly decent meal was set on the dining table.
A pot of hot kimchi stew and a thick, golden-brown rolled omelet.
And a few side dishes.
Baek Ha-rin was scooping stew into my rice bowl with a ladle.
"What's the occasion? You making food."
"You think I made this? Mom made all the side dishes yesterday before she left, froze them in the freezer, and I just heated them up. She nagged me to death to make sure I feed you when you get here, so it's annoying as hell."
No wonder.
The skill is exactly my eldest sister's.
"As expected, there's no one like my eldest sister. You should learn a thing or two from your mom."
"Shut up and just eat."
I pulled out a chair, sat down, and took a spoonful of the kimchi stew broth.
The sourness of the well-fermented kimchi and the savory taste of the pork blended together.
I also picked up a piece of the rolled omelet and popped it into my mouth.
The thick and fluffy texture was art.
"Kuu... This is the life."
As I shoveled the rice into my mouth and exclaimed, Ha-rin, who was sitting across from me poking at her rice, chuckled.
"Did you not get fed in the military? You look like you're starving."
"What would you know about the taste of society's food. Anyway, what was that nonsense you were doing in the entryway earlier? Setting up a tripod and all."
I asked, remembering the terrible dance from earlier while eating.
At my question, Ha-rin poked the rolled omelet with her chopsticks and snorted.
"Does Uncle not even know about Shorts?"
"Shorts?"
"Yeah. I was filming that."
Ah...
Shorts.