Reunion
With a hunger that felt as though I hadn’t eaten for a month, I set off toward the convenience store.
The road there was unusually quiet, with hardly a soul in sight.
The buildings were a washed-out gray, a stark contrast to the yellow ones I’d seen in Solomon.
Expensive foreign cars were parked along the curb.
The Japanese pickup trucks I’d grown sick of seeing on the battlefield were nowhere to be found.
When I looked up, a clear blue sky greeted me, free of dust and sand.
Only then did it finally sink in that I was back in Korea.
A world where I no longer had to kill anyone, and no one had to kill me.
"...Not bad."
Muttering that to myself, I kept walking until I reached the convenience store entrance before I knew it.
Since I’d had a small incident with the part-timer here yesterday, I couldn’t say I was entirely comfortable.
But it was still a hassle to go somewhere else when there was a convenience store right by my place.
I’d just buy some ramyeon and get out fast.
Dong-
"Welc— h-hello?"
No sooner had I opened the convenience store door than a familiar voice called from the counter.
When I turned my head slightly, I saw the part-timer blushing at me.
I tried to ignore her bright smile and grab my ramyeon, but she was faster than I was.
"Ah, hello! You came again today?"
"Yeah, well..."
"Were you looking for something?"
"Uh... um... cup ramyeon..."
She seemed to be in a great mood, almost bouncing as she fired questions at me, and I found myself flinching under the pressure.
We’d only met yesterday, so her friendliness felt a little excessive, and honestly, a little suffocating.
I was just thinking I should get out of here when I turned my head...
"Huh?"
"?"
My eyes met those of a woman sitting by the window and eating ramyeon.
Snow-white hair and black eyes.
A familiar desert-camouflage combat uniform.
A woman frozen in place with a cup of ramyeon noodles lifted halfway to her mouth on her chopsticks.
From her slightly parted lips came a voice thick with confusion.
"U-um... Leader?"
"Iris?"
What are you doing here?
.
.
.
.
"So... you came here traveling?"
"Yep."
"And you went home first?"
"Yep."
At my question, Iris, sitting beside me, answered flatly while sucking banana milk through a straw.
Watching her fidget by repeatedly brushing back the hair slipping out from under her combat cap stirred up old memories.
Her name was Iris Michel.
She was from France, a comrade who had served with me in Cerberus Squad.
Her call sign was Cerberus 6.
She was a jack-of-all-trades combat engineer who handled everything from explosives disposal to equipment repair with complete calm.
The number of bombs she’d disarmed had to be well into the hundreds, and I couldn’t even begin to guess how many allied lives had been saved because of her.
She’d fought beside me from the very first operation after joining Cerberus Squad, the so-called Cobra Operation, and was one of the closest people to me.
Because of her quiet, reserved nature, she never really clicked with the other squad members, so she ended up spending more time with me during our downtime.
When Cerberus Squad was disbanded after the war and we all said our goodbyes, she’d told me at the airport that she was going home.
She said she wanted to see her parents, whom she hadn’t been able to see in a long time, and that we should have a meal together sometime next time.
So why was she in Korea now?
We’d stepped out of the convenience store and sat on a nearby park bench, talking for a while, but she still refused to tell me why she’d entered the country.
It was too sudden a visit to call it a simple trip.
I had only returned to Korea two days ago.
We’d parted ways last week, which meant the span between Iris going back to France to see her parents and then flying to Korea again was absurdly short.
I watched her carefully, trying to catch even the slightest clue in her expression.
But the face of the woman still sipping banana milk showed not even a shred of emotion.
Her eyes were blank, unfocused, staring off at nothing in particular, and every answer she gave me was clipped to the bone.
"...You really haven’t changed."
"Yep."
She was exactly the same as she’d been on the battlefield, which made me strangely glad, but the reason for her coming to Korea only deepened my confusion.
Back when we were still being ground down in Solomon, she had always told me she wanted to go home.
She said she missed her parents and younger brother, missed the dog they kept at home.
She truly did long for her family.
So of course it was hard not to be baffled when, after finally reuniting with them, she claimed she’d come here on a trip.
Still, I decided not to pry any further.
She must have had her own reasons for visiting Korea.
Clunk.
Having finished an entire banana milk, Iris casually tossed the plastic container into the trash can beside the bench.
Watching her indifferent little gesture, I asked her a tentative question.
"So what’s your travel plan?"
"I just came to see Leader."
"Huh?"
Her answer was so far outside anything I’d expected that all I could manage was a stupid sound.
"Me?"
"Yep."
"Uh... did something happen?"
"No. I just wanted to see Leader, so I came."
Her answer was so direct that I lost my words.
Back in the war, Iris had always shown that she depended on me a great deal, but I never imagined she’d come all the way to Korea because she missed me.
Embarrassed, I scratched the back of my head and told her, “If you were planning to come see me, you could’ve at least called...”
"Leader doesn’t have a phone."
"Ah."
I hadn’t bought a phone until after we’d all parted ways.
So naturally, Iris had no way of knowing my number.
"Ahem... anyway, what did you plan to do after meeting me?"
"Just stay with you."
"...Huh?"
Had years of gunfire and explosions finally fried my ears?
Clutching my spinning head, I asked Iris again.
"I heard you wrong, right?"
"I packed my bags because I was going to stay with Leader."
Iris pointed to the black backpack slung over her shoulders.
"That’s your only bag?"
"I brought some underwear and a few sets of everyday clothes."
"Nothing else?"
"My passport and wallet, more or less."
Smack.
With my world collapsing around me, I slapped my forehead with my hand.
Was this a dream, or reality?
I pinched my arm lightly, and a sharp sting answered me.
Reality.
"T-then... where are you staying?"
I asked her desperately, and she answered.
"I didn’t book a place. I was planning to sleep at Leader’s house."
That answer was even more shocking.
"Iris? Won’t that be inconvenient? I just moved yesterday, and my place hasn’t been cleaned up at all."
"In Solomon, I slept on much worse ground. It’s fine."
"I’m a man."
"In the field, we all slept in the same tent anyway, didn’t we?"
"Well... yeah, I guess."
I wasn’t sure this was normal, but somehow Iris’s argument had its own strange logic.
I was a little flustered, yes, but Iris wasn’t the type to do anything improper to me, and since we’d always been close, maybe letting her stay with me for a while wasn’t such a big deal.
The fact that she hadn’t booked a place at all made it clear she’d come prepared.
For now, I half-accepted living with Iris and asked her, “How long are you planning to stay in Korea?”
"A year."
Maybe Iris was trying to screw me over after all.
.
.
.
.
The Leader I met after such a long time was still beautiful.
I was so startled by the sight of him in such a worn, shabby tracksuit that I nearly lost my breath.
He wasn’t wearing the uniform I was used to seeing, but civilian clothes instead, and somehow that made him dangerously alluring.
Yet whether he knew it or not, he only casually pulled down the zipper of his tracksuit, baring his smooth collarbone.
Watching that innocent, unguarded expression made me worry, for no reason at all, that flies might already be swarming around him while I’d been back in my homeland.
If he was the same man who had bewitched every member of Cerberus Squad, then seducing Korean women without even meaning to would be nothing for him.
The thought that someone might approach him kept me from truly resting even while I was at home.
In the end, I made my decision: I would meet him and live with him.
After all, we had once slept in the same tent in the field, and he didn’t seem to mind my presence in particular, so it should be fine.
If I’d known his phone number, I would have called ahead, but unfortunately he hadn’t had a phone when we parted ways.
Still, after asking around through the other squad members, I managed to find out where he lived, and since I ran into him while eating ramyeon after arriving in Korea, I’d say the plan had gone quite well.
Leader seemed flustered by my suggestion that we live together, but when he eventually accepted, I felt a little relieved inside.
If he had a woman in his life, I would have been refused entry into his home.
That would have been a shame.
The world these days is far too harsh, full of all kinds of strange people.
I absolutely could not allow people like that to get close to Leader.
He was the only person who had taken me in after I killed a comrade.
He was the one who had given me a new life.
He was mine.
Staying by his side and protecting him was the right thing to do.
Leader, I love you with all my heart.
Someday, I hope I can tell you this feeling.