Recon Battalion.
Recon Battalion.
Da-yeon always said it was disgusting. Still, she listened intently to what Ji-yeong had to say.
Innocently curious about men...
Then again, Ji-yeong and Yoon-seo had dated guys in high school, but they said they broke up quickly to focus on studying.
"I want to get discharged fast too..."
"You don't even have anything to do after discharge."
"Outside's still better."
"But for real, can't you use your phone?"
"I can, but finding it and turning it back in is a pain in the ass."
Park Ji-hoon must have had a question pop into his head, because he looked at me.
"So, are you heading back tonight?"
"Nope. I booked a room. I'll hang out for a while and then go. I mean, I came all the way to Pohang, I should at least try the gwamegi, yellow croaker, and Yeongdeok snow crab."
"Ah... jealous."
"When do you get leave?"
"No plans, but my regular off-base pass is next month, so I'll probably go out then."
We wandered around the beach area for a while. Park Ji-hoon was looking pretty beat, so we headed to a movie theater.
It was a Korean movie about people trapped in a sinkhole. Park Ji-hoon didn't seem interested at all and started dozing off right away.
No matter how much easier the military had gotten, special forces were still rougher than you'd think.
Fast asleep, Park Ji-hoon leaned his head on my shoulder.
This bastard's got a big head too, so he's fucking heavy.
I decided to let it slide and think of him as my poor subordinate, but then something warm dropped onto my chest.
Trickled.
"...Ah, fuck."
Reminded of that old incident at the baseball stadium, I pulled a tissue from my bag, wiped it off, and stuffed it into Park Ji-hoon's mouth.
"Mmph!! Mmph!!"
I took out an actual tissue and wiped the top of my chest. Park Ji-hoon spat the tissue out of his mouth and stared at me.
"What the hell?"
Then Park Ji-hoon flicked the saliva-soaked tissue at me with his finger.
I caught it lightly in my hand.
Splat.
"Hah..."
Having apparently finished processing the situation—and his own half-asleep, thoughtless actions—Park Ji-hoon checked my expression and started shifting in his seat, getting ready to bolt.
"Sit your ass down if you don't want to die for real."
"Yes, ma'am."
Just as everyone was focused on the movie.
Park Ji-hoon, intent on survival, focused exclusively on my hand the whole time, never knowing when it might fly.
Even after the movie ended, he kept his eyes glued to my hand. And even once we were outside, he kept his full attention on my position for a perfect defense.
"Piss off, fuckwit."
"Oh... our Tti-yoon's gotten so much nicer..."
Thump.
His guard slipped, and Park Ji-hoon allowed an overhand left hook.
Nobody saw it. So I left Park Ji-hoon there, staggering for a moment and grabbing the wall, and kept moving.
I wanted to show Park Ji-hoon a bit of the world and feed him dinner, so we got in the car and headed into the city.
Park Ji-hoon knew my temperament. As if nothing had hit him, he started looking out the window and humming.
I naturally put on some hip-hop.
Without really thinking about it, I was nodding my head to the beat along with Park Ji-hoon and cruising in the right lane when I spotted a slow-moving truck up ahead. Far away in the left lane, I could see a sports car, so I turned on my signal and started to change lanes. But the sports car, which had been accelerating hard from behind, rushed right up to my car's tail and started blaring its horn.
BAAAAAAAAAAANG!!! BAAAAAAAAAAANG!!!
"What's going on!?"
"What's his problem!?"
The flustered backseat and Park Ji-hoon, shrugging after glancing behind us.
"Yo, Ji-hoon, take off the jacket."
"Out of nowhere?"
Doing as I said, Park Ji-hoon took off the jacket, revealing the white tank top I'd given him that morning underneath.
The sports car passed the truck behind us, switched back into the right lane, and sped up—maybe wanted to get a look at my face.
It honked again, then finally rolled down the window. The driver looked over at my driver's seat and started cussing.
"HEY!!! You son of a bitch!!! Learn to fucking drive!!"
Without even glancing to the right, I casually rolled down just the passenger-side window.
Park Ji-hoon's excessive muscles—each one the size of a normal person's head—and both arms covered in tattoos.
Park Ji-hoon, who'd been looking at me for a second, seemed to get what I wanted. He stuck his right arm out the window.
Then he made eye contact with the other driver and knitted his brow hard.
The sports car that had been hurling abuse alongside us gradually fell back and disappeared.
"Feeling pretty comfortable, huh?"
"Always was pretty comfortable."
As if nothing had happened, we rolled the window back up and went on our way.
We had the windows down, enjoying the Pohang air, when Park Ji-hoon spoke up.
"Huuungry~"
"We're literally going to eat right now, aren't we? Can you shut the hell up?"
"Meat~ meat~"
"Just get out, you little shit."
"Sorry."
I parked on the outskirts of the city center, and we walked around downtown Pohang.
"Well, there's nothing here. Guess it really is the sticks."
"You know that's a dangerous thing to say, right?"
We wandered around a bit to kill time, and a punching machine came into view.
"Oh, how high do you score on that thing?"
"Me? Never tried it."
Maybe it was because Da-yeon, Yoon-seo, and Ji-yeong's eyes were sparkling.
Park Ji-hoon suddenly started loosening up his body, pulled out a thousand-won bill from his wallet, and fed it into the punching machine.
Ding-ding-ding!
Clank.
"Watch closely. I'm gonna hit it with full power."
Park Ji-hoon looked like he really meant to use full power—he clamped down on his own right wrist with his left hand and got into his stance. I saw the instinctive transfer of power and weight travel from his ankles up through his waist. I knew he was dead serious.
And then Park Ji-hoon's fist connected with the punching machine.
KWAAAAAANG!!!!!
A sound like a sledgehammer smashing down rang out of the machine, and the score kept climbing without end...
In the end, it hit 9999 and set a new record.
""Wow...""
Park Ji-hoon looked at me, maybe feeling his self-esteem rising at the pretty girls' reactions.
"What."
"Aren't you gonna give it a shot?"
How high would my score even be if I punched that thing? So I walked up to it, figuring I'd just take it easy.
I was wearing black stockings under stretch-denim shorts. I tied my hair back with the hairband that had been on my wrist, walked up to the punching machine, and drove my fist in with perfect form.
Pang!
I held back a lot because I knew hitting it for real would only draw way more unwanted attention. Park Ji-hoon flashed a greasy smirk and pointed a finger at me.
"Pfft... our Tti-yoon's gone all girly."
At Park Ji-hoon's taunt, I let out a snicker, turned around, and put some distance between me and the machine.
I loosened up, then created torque by whipping my body around fast and planted a picture-perfect soccer kick into it as I spun.
KWAAAAAANG!!!!!!
""......""
"Let's go."
""Yeah...""
Only then did Ji-yeong start seriously reconsidering whether I still beat Park Ji-hoon, while Da-yeon's eyes sparkled.
We arrived at a barbecue place and grabbed two grill plates.
Four women and one man.
On one side we grilled pork belly with baby octopus, and on the other we grilled soy-sauce-marinated pork ribs. Park Ji-hoon was zeroed in on eating.
Still, he had some sense of decency, because he personally brought out all the side dishes first.
"Wow... even after eating that much, he's still eating a ton..."
We must have been nibbling a little at a time whenever Park Ji-hoon ate something, because we were already full and just picking at our food.
Yoon-seo, who'd been wanting to strike up a conversation, asked Park Ji-hoon with sparkling eyes.
"What was that about Ji-hoon rescuing you and Da-yeon?"
"Hm? Oh, we almost got kidnapped before."
""For real!?""
Da-yeon must consider it no big deal by now too, because she smiled and nodded. Yoon-seo started focusing on what I was saying too.
"There were about sixty of them at the time. A friend named Tae-oh and Ji-hoon, the two of them rescued us."
""Wow...""
Park Ji-hoon puffed out his chest all on his own, looking incredibly proud of himself.
Dumbass. In the end, I was the one who cleaned it all up.
While I was eating rice with doenjang stew, Da-yeon was watching me eat. She added some ssamjang to the bubbling stew, then sliced up a bit of meat and some Cheongyang peppers and dropped them in.
"Try it again~"
I ate the doenjang stew Da-yeon had doctored up. It was incomparably better than before.
"Oh..."
"Good, right?"
"It's actually really good?"
Park Ji-hoon tried the stew Da-yeon had made, and then tried to slide it over to his side of the table. I stared at him for a moment.
""......""
Ji-hoon put his spoon down.
Yeah, at least he still knew how to respect his big bro.
Da-yeon said she wanted to pay again, so I was about to hand her the bill, but this time Ji-yeong swiped her card quickly.
"Hey, my family's well-off too, you know? I wanted to treat you too."
"Ah... sorry."
"Nothing to be sorry about~"
We left them to that and stepped outside. Park Ji-hoon was on the phone with his parents.
Park Ji-hoon was smiling brightly while he talked.
Back in the day, we barely had any memories of smiling like that.
Sweeping back his hair—so short it couldn't even be grabbed—Park Ji-hoon definitely looked good while he was on the phone.
To anyone else watching, he'd look like a total punk, but...
I walked over to Park Ji-hoon after he ended the call.
"Hey, can you set off fireworks around here?"
"How the hell would I know?"
"Korea puts rules on this kind of thing. Pain in the ass."
"Can't we just shoot 'em off in secret and bolt?"
I popped open Whitey's trunk and opened the box inside.
"Whoa... what the, dude..."
Inside were bundles of fireworks, fifteen packs lashed together like miniguns.
"These are leftovers from when I used to set them off with my dad. Wanna shoot a few?"
"Sounds hella fun."
Da-yeon, Yoon-seo, and Ji-yeong had finished paying and came outside. I basically kidnapped them into the car and headed for the beach.
The nights were still cold, and the sea breeze made the beach unimaginably colder.
When I pulled the homemade miniguns out of the trunk, their pupils dilated.
"A beach means fireworks."
"Are those... really fireworks?"
Park Ji-hoon's eyes changed the second he grabbed a firework. Knew the bastard would love it.
Park Ji-hoon and I strapped a minigun into each hand and lit them for each other.
Fweefweefweeng fweeng fweefweefweeng!
Pababababang!!! Pwooosh!!!
Overwhelming firepower. Most military training wouldn't be this flashy.
Yoon-seo was filming the sky embroidered with fireworks. Da-yeon was filming me and Park Ji-hoon. Ji-yeong was sitting by herself, just watching.
In the ruckus kicked up by the fireworks, Park Ji-hoon shouted at me over the noise.
"Yo! Can you make 'em collide in midair!?"
"Oh?"
We drew a fiery X in the sky, and at the same moment, things went sideways. Park Ji-hoon and I ditched our miniguns and ran like hell.
Gunpowder came ricocheting back down toward us like rain.
Pababababang!!!
"Whoa, shit, almost fucking died."
We went right back to blasting fireworks into the sky again. Then I handed one to Yoon-seo, Ji-yeong, and Da-yeon each and made them shoot. They'd been scared at first because of the display we put on, but like always, once they fired one off, everyone had a blast.
And I didn't forget to film them while they did.
"So, how is it? Military manageable?"
"Sucks donkey dick."
"Kyahah."
"You seem to be loving the hell out of it?"
"Thinking about your ass suffering in there, even the shittiest stuff lately has felt sweet."
"You shithead..."
Once we'd enjoyed all the fireworks, we cleaned up, sat down at a café, and looked outside while drinking coffee.
Ji-yeong poked a finger at Park Ji-hoon, who was shoveling cake into his mouth.
"How much longer do you have to go back in?"
"Hm? In an hour?"
"Guess that's a shame~"
"It is a shame."
"You better be grateful such pretty girls are hanging out with you, got it?"
"Ah—yesh. Thank you very mush~"
Park Ji-hoon must have eaten his fill of cake. He changed back into his Marine Corps uniform.
We saw Park Ji-hoon off. He seemed reluctant to go straight in, so he called Min-jun and Jun-won first.
Guess because the bastard's always stuck to my side, he hasn't got a single other friend. Pitiful.
Park Ji-hoon made his last call before heading onto base. He said his goodbyes to us and then went inside.
We sent him off and headed straight to the hotel we'd booked.
"Are you seriously... wearing that?"
"There's no one here but us anyway. What's there to be embarrassed about?"
Thanks to her previous experience, Da-yeon was no longer shy about showing her cleavage—at least not at the pool. But Ji-yeong and Yoon-seo had apparently never worn this kind of fishnet-style swimsuit before, because they were way more embarrassed than I'd expected. Still, they'd get over it once we were outside.
"Hurry up. Should Da-yeon and I just go by ourselves?"
"Umm......"
They were still agonizing over it, so Da-yeon and I confidently got into the warm pool first. The two of them followed a little later.
Da-yeon enjoyed swimming for the first time in a while, and I properly demonstrated what it meant to operate as a human torpedo. Ji-yeong and Yoon-seo sat on the underwater steps and watched the two of us swim.
"Wow... just like always."
"Why?"
"In elementary school, Si-yoon held her breath underwater for five minutes."
"F-for real?"
"You saw how she was kicking earlier. When they were kids, Ji-hoon used to get beaten up by Si-yoon every day..."
"No way..."
"Hey. You know something I really wanted to do when I was little?"
Yoon-seo, who'd been splashing around in the warm water, looked at Ji-yeong.
"My dream was originally to be a pianist. I had the talent too."
"Oh..."
"But after I saw Si-yoon play piano, I didn't want to anymore."
"...."
"I seriously practiced every single day, and then I saw her just sit down and play better than my piano teacher. Man...."
The mood had grown serious. Yoon-seo watched Ji-yeong as she briefly reminisced about the past.
"When I was little, I didn't know what that feeling was. But after I grew up and thought about it, I realized it was an inferiority complex."
"Do you get what it means to be next to Si-yoon?"
"...Huh? I mean, yeah... but Si-yoon's always had that image of being good at everything, right?"
"Is that so? Then I guess you can handle being next to her."
"What do you mean?"
"Don't let it show that you've surrendered to her talent, like I did. Si-yoon's really kind, so she might never do it in front of you again. She never touched a piano in front of me after that."
"Ah..."
"So I quit piano too. I just ended up following my parents and my brother's path instead."
"Ji-hoon and Da-yeon are always trying to win... maybe that's why she's closest with them?"
The two of them looked out into the distance, where Si-yoon and Da-yeon were enjoying their swim as if they were competing.
Si-yoon had swum over underwater and now surfaced, looking refreshed.
Her pink hair, soaked and wet, was even more captivating.