Chapter 78
This place, where he had been forced to come, suited Koryoin better than expected. A place without fighting and war. The residents were simple and took good care of him. His comrade Angela was a naive soldier whose outside matched her inside, and she said she had been demoted and fled here like Koryoin because she also hated war.
And… Harriet Alster.
He was a stranger and better person than expected.
Yes, he was truly a good person.
He adored Angela and Koryoin, and often turned a blind eye to the two of them breaking various rules.
Looking back, everything here was good. Even bending over until his back hurt to till the fields on hot days. Even sitting in the garden with the elderly, having a slice of watermelon or a drink. Even loading a truck full of fruit while smiling. Everything was just so good.
Harriet Alster was a person who was empty and white. Koryoin had occasionally wondered if there would ever come a day when that person would be filled.
But surprisingly, from a certain day, Harriet gradually began to fill up. Like a child learning emotions for the first time, he absorbed them like a sponge and became emotionally rich. All thanks to Ender McGuire, that strange hero.
Ender McGuire, whose mere reputation was enough to make one feel honored, was a strange pervert, but perhaps it was precisely because of that that he could fill Harriet.
And Koryoin… he wasn’t sure about him. Though he seemed to glare at him with dislike, they had never actually had a conversation, and before Koryoin could try to befriend him, he had deserted.
He was a cute new recruit but a somewhat suspicious person. He sometimes made secretive calls with someone at night. Though Koryoin couldn’t hear who he was talking to, his surveillance of the surroundings was very suspicious.
Now that same Koryoin was standing casually in front of Koryoin, who had just returned from patrol, even waving his hand. Koryoin momentarily froze with a surprised face, but Koryoin maintained a relaxed attitude, flirting with Angela while sipping the warm cocoa Harriet had made for him.
Whenever Harriet glanced longingly at the mug, Koryoin would narrow his eyes and scold him, saying he couldn’t turn a blind eye to him getting diabetes. Even Koryoin, knowing how much Harriet loved sweet foods despite his small appetite, somewhat sympathized with that comment.
“His gaze toward him doesn’t seem good.”
Seeing Koryoin glaring at Koryoin with sharp eyes, Anschel whispered to Harriet like an older brother happily watching his cute siblings’ romance. Harriet, whose eyebrows had turned downward because he couldn’t have cocoa, agreed with him.
“They’re romantic rivals.”
“How cute.”
The two men in their thirties—33 and 34 years old—watched the energetic twenty-somethings with gentle smiles on their faces. While the two were pleasantly observing the young people, Koryoin’s playful eyes had settled coldly and were staring at Koryoin.
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“Koryoin came back today.”
Desertion could result in imprisonment or even death penalty under military law, but Harriet’s tone was gentle as always, with no intention of reporting his returned subordinate.
“Is that so?”
Ender McGuire put an electronic cigarette in his mouth and smiled. A photo dropped in front of him with a thud. Ender stared at the picture of a young man from Zone 18 with black hair, tapping it a few times with his long fingers.
His cute face, but eyes with a strangely unfocused gaze, indicated he was no ordinary person.
“It was nice seeing him after so long.”
Ender closed his eyes and slowly exhaled smoke as he listened to words spoken without inflection.
“I miss you too, Sunbae.”
Harriet, who always responded at the same pace, paused for a beat today before answering with a voice that contained a hint of laughter.
“Me too.”
Ender, who wore a perfect mask in front of his senior, reacted to Harriet’s nutritionally empty words without showing dislike, time and time again. It would be shocking to anyone who knew Ender McGuire.
For Ender, who hated nonsense more than anything in the world, to hold the phone for dozens of minutes, listening to the other person’s words to the end and even adding perfect interjections—it would take more than a truckload of people falling backward in shock. But Ender listened intently, afraid to miss even one phrase of his senior’s words.
“Special Forces Lieutenant Koryoin—”
On the TV that Ender had turned on, breaking news was constantly flowing about Jayden Olden fully supporting candidate Anschel Lee. Ender, who had been quietly tapping his old desk with a finger at regular intervals, clicked his tongue as he heard Harriet nodding off through the sound.
“Are you sleeping, Sunbae?”
“No, …oh, was I sleeping?”
“No, Sunbae, you just sound sleepy.”
Ender whispered as he turned on the electronic cigarette in his mouth. Even though the clock didn’t show it was particularly late, Harriet had dozed off several times during the phone call. Harriet finally spoke as if surrendering, in a troubled tone.
“I am sleepy. Today took a mental toll as well.”
Mental toll?
Ender narrowed his eyes. Since Harriet basically had a low threshold for feeling emotions, mental exhaustion was rare for him. What kind of situation would be taxing enough for Harriet to notice? Ender tapped the photo at a steady pace.
“Sunbae, have you been dealing with tiring things lately?”
“Maybe… it’s because you’re not here.”
Ender suppressed the urge to bolt out of there like the Zone 18 deserter Harriet had mentioned. At Harriet’s fumbling answer, Ender’s thigh twitched several times as he felt overwhelmed to the point of tears.
The fact that his noble senior was experiencing mental fatigue because of him automatically excited him, and he felt his jaw muscles might spasm from clenching his teeth.
“And lately I’ve been dreaming.”
“Dreams?”
“Hmm…”
Perhaps I should have installed CCTV at Harriet’s house instead of just bugs, Ender thought. He could imagine Harriet lowering his eyebrows into a downward shape as he struggled.
When Harriet was troubled or experiencing emotions difficult for him to understand, he would lower his eyebrows and smile slightly as if troubled. This made him look genuinely troubled, and most people were fooled by that expression. And Ender loved that expression more than anyone.
“It must be because you’re tired. Go to sleep, Sunbae.”
“No, I’m not tired…”
It seemed he wasn’t the only one reluctant to end this call. Ender’s red eyes gradually sank deeper and darker with passion.
A sinister desire to capture and defile the drowsy Harriet burst above the surface. But Harriet’s voice became increasingly blurred, as if filled with water. He was probably lying in bed taking the call and gradually falling asleep.
“Ender, do you remember the day we first met?”
A dreamy voice suddenly came from the other end of the phone, as if he had just recalled it. Ender responded that he remembered. Remember? He could vividly recall that day even now.
He remembered the smell of the water that day and the shape of the tank that filled the room. He had felt as if he had entered underwater in that room filled with water shadows.
Inside that tank, a white glowing merman was curled up in a ball, bleeding and wounded. When the merman’s white eyes slowly opened and discovered Ender, his eyes regained their beautiful green hue.
The merman in the tank smiled brightly and stretched out his hand, not surprised by the sudden visitor, as if whispering “come here.” Young Ender stepped forward one step at a time.
“I’m curious.”
The young artificial merman Harriet whispered to Ender. If Ender had run away in fear at that point, the Ender McGuire of today would not exist.
“You were really cute then… small and young. Why do I keep dreaming about that time?”
Ender was smaller in height and build than his peers when he was young. Harriet’s voice carried a hint of laughter, perhaps recalling that young Ender. It was the same for Ender. Whenever he thought of Harriet, he always recalled that time.
“I’m curious.”
Harriet definitely said that in the tank. Ender smiled pleasantly, put the electronic cigarette in his mouth, took a drag, and exhaled. Then, turning off the electronic cigarette, he whispered to the sleep-falling Harriet.
“…Sleep well.”
The call ended without a response. It seemed Harriet had pressed the button unknowingly. Ender stared at the phone for a long time after the call ended screen turned off, then moved his fingers to dial a number and made a call. After the ringtone sounded a few times, the other person answered.
“It’s hard to get a call from you, Colonel. Yet you’ve been calling Harriet just fine.”
Anschel, full of sarcasm, answered the phone. Ender tapped the desk again with his fingers and opened his mouth.
“Anschel, the president has made a move. The old man seems to have been impatient.”
Then Anschel on the other end of the phone responded in a voice full of caution and tension.
“…Could it be because of Jayden?”
Ender didn’t bother to answer, but Anschel was a more adept and perceptive man than expected. That’s why Ender had chosen him and was the only one who had brought him there.
“Yes.”
“…If you had been there, Colonel, would you have joined hands with Jayden?”
Anschel asked, but Ender didn’t provide an answer. He had never imagined or hypothesized about things that hadn’t happened. He had entrusted that place to Anschel because he trusted him, and if Anschel’s choice was to join hands with Jayden Olden, then that was his correct answer.
“Why do I keep dreaming about that time?”
“Abandon the base tomorrow and leave Zone 18 as much as possible. I’ll send Noel, so join up with him. And…”
Ender gave instructions to Anschel in a subdued voice.
“Sunbae…”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
