The Demure Woman

"I'm Jo Shin-hye. My little sister seems to have stepped out. She never said she was leaving..."

Sergeant Jeong stared at the woman who had gone suddenly demure, plainly thrown. It was a side of her no one ever saw. Even with the Postman barking, out of nowhere, for her to go fetch her older sister, she kept her composure.

Jo Shin-hye stepped out to fetch something, and in the gap Sergeant Jeong leaned toward the Postman and whispered.

"Lucky she came out willing to cooperate."

"Yeah."

Cooperation coaxed out of a well-meant lie, if you wanted to call it that. Claiming Jo Shin-hye could pass ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠for a younger sister in her early twenties had been a lie, though she was young-looking enough to sell it.

"I'd say that beef jerky Captain Choi gave her really did the trick."

"...You honestly think that's all it took?"

"What other reason could there be? You took her for the wrong person and ran your mouth at her, and she still fell right in line. That settles it!"

This kid. Stick a man in the army long enough and he won't know the first thing about women. Not that I had much experience with them myself. The Old Man, though, had never been shy about drilling the lesson into me.

They said the Old Man had been popular with women in his youth. Not because he'd been especially handsome. Only because he'd been considerate to a fault. I'd hated that.

Anyway—this Sergeant Jeong. The moment talk of the doctor's little sister came up earlier, his eyes had changed. No question about it.

"You've got a thing for the little sister, don't you."

"You think I'm the only one...? The competition's fierce."

Sergeant Jeong's love life was none of my concern. Still, he'd been a real help getting me this far. Calling it repayment felt like too much, but I could spare him a little of what I'd been taught.

"You have to assume someone else could snatch her up any time. Sit still and the chance flies. You putting in the work?"

"Of course! You know me, don't you? If I'm going to do a thing, I do it."

"And what does that work actually look like?"

Sergeant Jeong pressed in close to my ear and, very quietly, began to rap. The lyrics weren't violent, the way they used to be. It was a love song that made the body twist and itch. To my ears, this one was the more violent of the two.

"...Right. Extremely promising."

"Really? Thank you! I feel brave now! Next chance I get, I'll hit her with this rap for sure...!"

Sure. Whatever. Win or lose, maybe it was better if the thing came to a verdict fast.

"The two of you at least a little close?"

"We've never actually spoken. Never even managed a proper hello, to tell the truth. But I look at her every day, so to my eyes she's familiar!"

"...So you're strangers."

"Which is why I'm going to let her hear this rap as soon as I can and strike up a conversation!"

"You are not seriously opening with the rap."

"Is that not allowed?"

That was when Jo Shin-hye's footsteps started back toward them.

"Please, tell me! Is it not allowed?"

"No, you're good. Go get her."

What she brought back was a single old envelope, crumpled soft. You could still see where it had been ripped open to get the letter out.

"It's proof. Take this with you and you should be fine."

Proof the recipient had actually received the letter. Get it to Jo Yong-han—the exposition junkie who would be waiting on me back at headquarters with his heart in his throat—and the mission was over.

One step closer to boarding the Subway.

I didn't need two rides. Once would do. It would be the kind of thing I could turn over for the rest of my life. Maybe it would even find its way into my dreams every night. And maybe, after that, the nightmares would stop for good.

"You seem like a Postman who actually works for a living, so I'll make an exception just this once. I'd rather never have to look at mail again."

Jo Shin-hye, playing it cold.

"Understood."

Don't worry. Ask me back and I still won't come.

I smoothed out the crumpled envelope she'd put in my hand. Why it counted as proof was easy enough to see.

So this wasn't the first letter the exposition junkie had sent.

Creased along the wrinkles was the name Jo Yong-han. The envelope of a letter he had sent her before. It would serve as proof, no question. One doubt came with it. The recipient's location was written there in plain terms: Jo Shin-hye, AAA. Which meant she had received a letter from Jo Yong-han in this place once already.

As far as I knew, nobody had ever successfully delivered mail to AAA. So the Postman who came before had put the letter in her hands and never reported it to headquarters.

An illegal delivery.

He would have taken some kind of payment here on the condition that he file no report. Same shape as my situation now.

"The Postman who came before must have been good, too. It couldn't have been easy."

"Good? What do you even measure a Postman's skill by?"

"Nothing fancy. A Postman just has to get the mail where it's going. By whatever means it takes."

"By whatever means..."

I nodded, and a beat later Jo Shin-hye smiled a smile I couldn't read.

"Then that Postman was far more skilled than you."

So he hadn't been ordinary. Wonder what kind of bastard he was.

She let the smile go and spoke again, calm.

"But to my eyes, you're better than he was."

"How do you mean?"

"At least you're showing your face. That Postman kept his covered."

Ah. That one. I'd heard the rumors. The Postman in the mask. Word was he was something extraordinary, and the word traveled. Every time it reached me, I couldn't have cared less. My place at the top of the delivery rankings had never once been threatened, and I'd figured there wasn't a Postman alive worth calling great. Just some attention hound who'd put on a mask for the look of it.

So he'd been running illegal deliveries and never reporting them. Maybe that was why his numbers stayed low. I'd heard that just as I had Bae Guk-jang at my back, he had someone covering him too. The kind of backing that lets a man make illegal deliveries as casually as he eats. A crooked Postman with a man of power behind him. It left a bad taste.

"Did you happen to hear that Postman's name?"

"What reason would I have to trade names with a Postman?"

Fair. Nobody cared who a Postman was.

"He was strange, though. He wasn't wearing a single piece of a Postman's kit. No armband, no bag, nothing like that. He had this... smell. The smell of someone you should never get close to."

So he was running the illegal route on purpose, start to finish.

"The mask didn't look like it did anything, either. Why wear something that stuffy?"

"Guess he wasn't confident enough to show his face."

"Pfft. So you skip the mask because you're confident in yours? You're not bad-looking. I'll give you that."

She shrugged and let out a short little laugh.

"That isn't what I meant. I meant he's probably in a spot where his face can't get around. Someone after his life. That sort of thing."

Plausible enough. And you could take the guess a step further.

"For all we know, he took the Postman identity ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in the first place just to stay alive. Unless you're a raider who's already hit the bottom, you don't lay a hand on a Postman if you can help it."

She listened without a word, and then her face went tired.

"Ugh... boring. That was not the moment to get all serious for no reason. I'm taking back the part about your face."

Beside me, Sergeant Jeong shook his head. The gesture might as well have said you don't understand women at all. This little shit.

"...Anyway. I've got the proof, so I'll be going."

Objective met. Now I only had to get Captain Choi out of the settlement...

"By the way, you didn't happen to see my little sister outside? She isn't in uniform, so she'd be easy to spot."

"I didn't."

"I see..."

For some reason her expression darkened. Sergeant Jeong's eyes lit up.

"Has something happened to your sister?"

"Stay out of it."

"Yes, sir."

She opened her mouth again soon enough.

"If you do find her, would you tell her to come straight home?"

"Couldn't you go out and look yourself?"

"I can't leave the house empty..."

Petty thieves, then. Internal security going bad. A sign the settlement was coming apart. Come to think of it, every soldier inside it had been skin and bones. Even Captain Choi, and he was an officer. Only Sergeant Jeong and Jo Shin-hye could be called reasonably lean rather than starved. The rations were clearly in a bad way.

The escape plan's going to have to work that angle.

Then Jo Shin-hye spoke, almost pleading.

"Please. If you see my sister..."

And before I could answer her—

"Yes, ma'am! Leave it to me!"

Sergeant Jeong jumped in.

"If you would, thank you... And who might you be, Sergeant?"

"I'm Sergeant Jeong, and—!"

"...Why do you keep speaking to me so formally?"

Outside he'd called her "the woman" to his heart's content. Face to face, Sergeant Jeong was all honorifics.

"Th-that's..."

Polishing the image so he could get somewhere with the little sister. Obviously. Tsk.

"What I mean is, I'm Miss Jo Shin-hye's little sister's—gkh!"

I drove an elbow into his side.

"Don't mind this one."

"I could have sworn you just said 'little sister'...?"

"Sounded like 'don't say' to me. Didn't it?"

"Koff—yes, sir..."

"Then keep on don't-saying."

The moment I stepped out of her house, a smile came on its own.

Delivery complete.

I'd delivered to AAA itself. Proof in hand; all that remained was getting back to headquarters. It hadn't even taken long. Go back like this and even the exposition junkie would have no choice but to admit what I could do.

Wonder how that brick wall of a man is going to take it.

There was still the promise to get Captain Choi out of here, of course. But the delivery was finished, which meant I no longer strictly had to keep a promise that dangerous.

Still. Might as well try.

Captain Choi was the officer who controlled entry to the settlement and the anti-aircraft guns. A man in a position to give the order to fire. Break the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠promise, slip away, get caught, and I might get a taste of those guns myself. Then again, he'd said he'd throw in some Cores as payment, so a clean escape would do me some good too.

And so we were on the road to Captain Choi's office.

"Postman!"

Sergeant Jeong suddenly fired up.

"Aren't you even curious why that woman doesn't want the mail? Or why she's looking for her sister?"

"Whether she wants it isn't my business. The sister went out without a word, so of course she's looking."

"You're a Postman! How can you treat someone refusing mail like it's somebody else's problem?"

"Ah. Ear's itchy."

Sergeant Jeong had no intention of backing off.

"I know a deserter like me has no right to say this, but delivering the mail is a Postman's duty, isn't it? Then you ought to care."

"Listen to you. You just like the little sister, so now you're fussing over the older one too."

"It isn't just that I like her, it's lo— anyway! I'm not wrong, am I?"

Back in the service, this was a man who had never once talked back to me. Then again, I wasn't his commander anymore. Maybe that was why he could climb.

"What are you, that woman's husband? Get a grip. Too much interest makes people run."

"Aren't you the one who's too indifferent?"

"Ah. Nose itches."

"Postman!"

Sergeant Jeong lengthened his stride and planted himself in my path.

"Have you lost your mind? This your turf, so now you've got nothing in your eyes?"

"Postman. No—Sergeant Woo. You've changed a great deal..."

And what was this itchy little sermon?

"Of course I've changed. You think I'd ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠be the same man I was in the army?"

"That isn't what I meant..."

Whoever refused the mail, it had nothing to do with me.

"Quit sticking your nose into other people's business. And quit meddling in mine."

"I'm not telling you to meddle. Can't you at least spare a minimum of interest for the person standing in front of you?"

Nothing out of him but words soft enough to melt.

"Interest?"

"Yes! Interest!"

"Interest put food on the table?"

I shoved him aside and started walking again.

Cocky bastard. Lecturing me now?

It wasn't that I failed to understand why he was saying it. I'd had a time like that myself. But once the people you've bothered to care about die off past counting, the thinking changes.

He just hasn't seen enough blood. Lucky.

Go on living lucky like that. Never understand me. See if I care.

"Postman!"

Sergeant Jeong limped after me and caught up again. Far off, the captain's office was beginning to show. It wouldn't be long before I left this settlement.

Captain Choi was growing more anxious by the minute, waiting on the Postman. The thought had taken hold of him: what if the man broke the promise and simply ran?

Knock, knock.

That was why, the instant he heard it, he yanked the door open.

"What took you so—"

A Postman stood before the captain. Just not the Postman he had been waiting for.

The Postman was wearing a mask.