M 45

“You fed him an entire vial of H1? To a civilian? In that short amount of time?”

Lieutenant Na, who was adjusting the IV drip rate, turned to Ki Tae-jeong in shock.

“My goodness. It’s remarkable that he only has a fever and no other symptoms…”

Military doctors were given special treatment regardless of rank. They were few in number, and for those constantly going out to fight, there was nothing to gain by antagonizing medical personnel. A careless dressing could immediately put one’s life at risk. Knowing this, those wearing the military doctor insignia generally carried themselves with stiff necks. Of course, Lieutenant Na was no exception.

“Did you torture him or something? If it was just for treating external injuries, there’s no reason to administer that much medication.”

However, the other party was Ki Tae-jeong. To him, who viewed everyone equally as nobodies, the special status of a military doctor meant nothing.

The reason Ki Tae-jeong tolerated Lieutenant Na’s casual demeanor was simply because he was a fellow survivor. Lieutenant Na was one of the few who survived the detention camp. He told others they were classmates because it was too troublesome to explain, but rather than such close and friendly terms, it was more appropriate to describe them as people who remembered each other’s survival. Now that almost all those who conducted the experiments were dead, there were few left who remembered that hell. Somehow, the survivors all ended up in good positions, so they often heard the nonsense that being a test subject was actually lucky. Even when living normally, remembering any moment from the past would make inexplicable anger boil up, but everyone tried to pretend that time didn’t exist. Lieutenant Na, along with Lieutenant Park, was one of the few of Ki Tae-jeong’s people who could understand this maddening sensation he felt.

“Even though the Brigadier General is backing everything up, it must have been incredibly stressful for a civilian to be involved in a shelter terror attack. And to even have s3xual relations immediately after without rest… It’s no wonder he fell ill. Why did you have s3x with him in that situation, seriously?”

Normally, after such a scolding, a sharp retort or at least an ashtray should have been flying, but Ki Tae-jeong just sat there lost in thought, tapping the unlit head of his cigar in a steady rhythm.

“I didn’t mean to criticize the Brigadier General’s private life. But sir, even military treatments have their limits. Using them like this will inevitably damage the body. He’s a human, not an AI.”

Behind Ki Tae-jeong, Lieutenant Park silently mouthed words and made small X signs with his hands. It meant to really stop now. Lieutenant Na scratched his cheek and finally closed his mouth. The unspoken nagging dissipated into a long sigh.

“…I won’t say anything more that you find annoying. Lieutenant Park says this person is crucial for securing evidence… If he’s an important figure, then give him a chance to recover. Don’t push too hard. If he doesn’t show signs of shock, just let him rest. He’ll wake up after getting some solid sleep. No matter how frail he is, don’t ever give him something like H1 again. It’s like feeding steak to someone who can only handle liquid food—it does more harm than nourishment.”

The handsome man lying on the bed still had dark circles under his eyes. His lips were also parched. But his complexion had improved significantly since before the IV was inserted. It was a problem caused by excessively administering high-grade medication in a weakened state, so he should recover quickly with good food and rest.

Through the prison-like bars, a faint beam of light fell like nails onto the pale body. Lieutenant Na took a fresh look around the office inside the house. It was far from an environment where one could rest comfortably. The large windows, densely crossed with thick iron bars, were depressing just to look at. The furnishings decorated in red and gold were maddening by their mere existence, and the metal accessories and furniture scattered about held no sense of life. To make matters worse, all sorts of crimes were swirling just beyond the thin walls. Besides the military’s different way of managing people and facilities, this place was no different from hell.

“Should I return through the port when leaving? If that might be problematic, I can travel by car. I’m off-duty today, anyway.”

“Lieutenant Na.”

After being lost in thought for a while, Ki Tae-jeong finally seemed to reach a decision and stood up abruptly. He must have been gripping so tightly that the expensive cigar he hadn’t even smoked split in half and rolled across the floor.

“Is the IV working now?”

Ki Tae-jeong’s massive shadow completely covered Lee Sehwa’s body, leaving nothing visible but a tangled black mass.

“Yes. The fever is gradually going down. There are no other adverse reactions either.”

The cooling pad on the forehead was changing from red to green. It meant the temperature was returning to normal.

“…They said he doesn’t get addicted to drugs.”

What does that mean? Lieutenant Na just blinked. Due to the backlight, he couldn’t read Ki Tae-jeong’s expression from where he stood.

“They say it’s his natural constitution. Apparently, that’s how he became famous as a courier and got into deals with Kim Seok-cheol.”

“Ah, this person? Hmm… Is that possible? I’ve seen people who don’t respond to anesthetics, but I’ve never heard of someone who can’t get addicted to drugs.”

“It’s similar. They said anesthetics don’t work on him either.”

‘Well, if that’s the case…’ Lieutenant Na nodded. While it wasn’t a common type, right before his eyes stood a man who shattered all common sense and prejudices in the world. Lieutenant Na recalled Ki Tae-jeong crawling up the cliff while dripping blood. Right. If there are people who don’t die even when killed, there might also be people whose constitution resists drugs, whether they’re narcotics or anesthetics.

“Additionally, Lee Sehwa can distinguish all drugs just by taste. Not just narcotics, but literally every kind of drug there is.”

A shrill voice emerged, sharp enough to break pitch. Lieutenant Na had been trying to accept everything up until now, but this was impossible.

“What? That’s… That doesn’t even make sense.”

“I verified it myself. It’s true.”

Lieutenant Park nodded in agreement.

“I observed him closely as well. He correctly identified all types of aphrodisiacs. Even H2, after his first dose of H2, he seemed to recognize it immediately.”

“Hmm… if that’s true…”

If the higher-ups had known, they would’ve kept him tied to the military no matter what. Someone who could distinguish poisons and drugs without sustaining internal damage? He was practically a living, breathing detection device, needing no maintenance.

“Wow. I knew Kim Seok-cheol was stupid, but… he’s really an idiot. He had someone like that and just used him to make drugs?”

If it were up to Lieutenant Na, rather than clinging to an uncertain project like the ‘harvest’, he would have brought Lee Sehwa to present to the superiors. Given his circumstances, he could have acted as his guardian and pushed him into key positions, reaping the benefits that would fall. From food and water inspection to ensuring officers’ safety, Lieutenant Na could immediately think of over ten positions Lee Sehwa could fill. Yet all Kim Seok-cheol could come up with in his drug-addled mind was something as disgusting as the ‘harvest’.

“But thinking about it, something seems odd. According to Lee Sehwa, he should have shown a reaction when given aphrodisiacs, even if not to drugs.”

“That’s… right? Aphrodisiacs and drugs are different. He said only drugs and anesthetics don’t affect him.”

“Exactly. But there was no reaction at all. Not until we applied the patch and gave his new aphrodisiacs.”

“Now that you mention it… From what you’re saying, Brigadier General, it seems this person doesn’t react to any drugs without the patch. Not just being immune to drug addiction.”

Lieutenant Na, pondering his own words, looked at Lee Sehwa on the bed with a puzzled expression, then at the IV bag hanging on the pole.

“Huh? Wait a minute. But vitamins seem to work on him…”

“H1 was effective too. All his external wounds healed completely.”

Lee Sehwa hadn’t tried to hide his contradictions from the start. Or rather, it seemed even he didn’t know what flaws were hidden in his body and words. Perhaps because the first drugs tested happened to be of a similarly insidious nature, Ki Tae-jeong had also unconsciously accepted this confusion as normal. Maybe it was because Lee Sehwa’s ability to taste and distinguish drugs was quite impressive.

“It’s strange. Drugs, anesthetics, and aphrodisiacs don’t work… but treatment drugs do. It’s almost as if…”

“It looks like his body automatically detoxifies only substances that are harmful to it, doesn’t it?”

The content was as heavy as his lowered voice.

Lieutenant Na just rubbed the bridge of his nose, making an “umm” sound. Unable to guess Ki Tae-jeong’s intention in bringing this up, it was difficult to respond carelessly. If his hypothesis was true, Lee Sehwa’s situation would become even more difficult in the future. Rather than being captured and subjected to all sorts of experiments to see what poisons and drugs he could detoxify and to what extent, it might be better if he were simply immune to all drugs. The latter might allow for some kind of life, however difficult, but the former…

“As far as I know…”

As if he had already reached a conclusion, Ki Tae-jeong turned completely toward Lieutenant Na. The blazing sunlight flowed like blood along Ki Tae-jeong’s suit. With each step he took, the space between the bed where Lee Sehwa lay and where Ki Tae-jeong stood seemed to split in half. Though clearly in the same time and landscape, the picture Ki Tae-jeong painted looked different.

“I remember the military making a big fuss about preparing for chemical warfare some time ago.”

“Didn’t they stop that after getting heavily criticized by international organizations? They were randomly grabbing civilians and administering drugs. When they brought us in for that experience, they disguised it as military training…”

Lieutenant Na’s eyes, which had been responding casually, suddenly widened in shock.

“Wait a minute, Brigadier General. Could it be…”

“That’s right. It’s just a speculation for now.”

It seemed Ki Tae-jeong suspected a connection between those experiments and Lee Sehwa’s suspicious constitution. Certainly, there was something artificial about Lee Sehwa’s constitution that couldn’t be explained as a natural occurrence. And in a direction the military would particularly favor.

“But for this person to have been a test subject… The incident you mentioned happened in the generation right before ours. The age doesn’t match up.”

“True. But it’s been enough time for a child born to someone who was taken there to grow up to his age.”

Grasping a cigar case and matchbox in one hand, Ki Tae-jeong flung open the bedroom door.

“It was bothering me, so on the way here, I briefly looked over the list of those involved in that experiment… and there was a familiar name.”

The sharp crack of the match sounded like a slap. Ki Tae-jeong brought the red match head to the foot of the cigar, savoring the deep aroma that penetrated his lungs.

“Oh Seon-ran was the deputy in charge of that failed experiment.”

“General Oh Seon-ran?”

“She was a colonel at the time.”

Ki Tae-jeong exhaled a long stream of smoke, asking if something didn’t seem suspicious. It felt like piecing things together might unravel some new clues, but it was still difficult to articulate this intuition seeping through his skin into clear words. To concretize this vague instinct, there were more things he needed to find out. If handled well, this could potentially send Oh Seon-ran away for something bigger than just a slush fund.

“Find out everything about how the test subjects were disposed of in the end, and what role Oh Seon-ran played at that time.”

His dark eyes, revealed as the hazy smoke cleared, turned towards the syringe in Lieutenant Na’s medical bag.

“And the truth about Lee Sehwa’s real constitution.”

***

He wanted to wake up from this sleep. Even with his eyes closed, hazy globules of afterimages floated around, and he could see blood vessels throbbing beneath his eyelids, only adding to his distress. But his body simply wouldn’t listen. The thought that he needed to get up was clear, but everything else was hazy. The switch in his head kept turning on and off. Each time he briefly opened his eyes, the world was all white, then red, then black again. So why was he lying down now, what was happening until just now… As he pondered these thoughts, he would drift off to sleep without resistance.

Now he really had to get up. Sehwa struggled to try and open his eyes. If he missed work due to illness, he’d have to pay a fine. Of course, the amount was up to the boss’s discretion. Even if he collapsed inside the House, staying at his post was the way to accumulate less debt.

“Ugh…”

Thinking habitually about the remaining debt and today’s quota, money that wasn’t his, a groan escaped involuntarily. At the same time, the edge of the mattress rippled slightly. It was a swift movement as if someone had been watching his entire struggle. There was no time to be startled by the unfamiliar presence. A hand reached out abruptly, unhesitatingly caressing Sehwa’s forehead, and removed something soft like fabric that he hadn’t even known was there.

Though it was difficult to keep his eyelids open as they felt incredibly heavy, through his blurry vision he faintly made out a man’s hand. It was large. The fingers looked long and the knuckles firm. Below the wrist, a deep, cool scent pooled in each prominent tendon. Sehwa felt his nose tingling for some reason. The heavy yet crisp scent of a grown man was unfamiliar… and also somewhat familiar.

As the back of the hand that had been firmly pressing his cheek, as if to check his temperature, moved away, Sehwa found himself unconsciously leaning into it. He timidly clung to the warmth that was trying to retreat, clumsily burying his cheek against it. It felt good to have his feverish cheek pressed against the skin of a stranger, with its pronounced, thick bones. It was the hand of an adult that Sehwa had always wished for.

“Well, this is…”

A voice inhaling sharply, as if in disbelief. Sehwa forcefully crumpled up a certain memory that kept trying to surface and indulged in childish behavior to his heart’s content. This is a dream. There’s no way such a nice smell could exist in that cramped, dirty dormitory, and no way there could be someone comforting him when he’s sick.

“…When I’m sick…”

A cracked, unpleasant voice came out. Her parched lips split open at even that slight movement, quickly drawing blood. Gasping like a fish with torn gills, Sehwa begged the owner of the hand for mercy.

“When I’m sick, having someone here… it’s the first time…”

Sehwa leaned his entire body towards the stranger. He knew this dream would disappear when he woke up, so… please, just let him lean on like this a little longer…