M 133

“Ah, ah… What should… I do, Brigadier General…”

Ki Tae-jeong closed his eyes deeply and then opened them.

Brigadier General.

How he had missed Sehwa’s voice calling him that.

Since sending Sehwa away, Ki Tae-jeong had been living only in a fantasy of his own making. In it, he was still a Brigadier General, and Sehwa called out to him with a bright smile, just like on any sweet day.

They picked apples and cherries together at the department store they often visited, chatted cozily in bed with the cream-colored reading lamp on, and dozed off together. They drank at the small bar set up in the official residence and went for drives. Things that actually happened and things he belatedly wished he could do for Sehwa were all tangled together, to the point where the boundary between what was real and what wasn’t gradually blurred.

The final destination of the dream was always the 5-Star beach. Ki Tae-jeong endlessly gazed at Sehwa’s clear face, constantly laughing and saying the sand tickled his bare feet, even though he knew it wasn’t real.

Sometimes, Sehwa would gently urge him to go see the baby, saying it was okay to hold the baby, while tugging at the hem of his top. He did add a stern admonition to apologize to Hae-rim, but… Nodding repeatedly at his lovable voice that was incomparably gentle, Ki Tae-jeong whispered to the child many times,

‘I made unforgivable remarks to you then, using the excuse that I was out of my mind. I was very sorry, and I’m still so sorry, Hae-rim. And to you too, Sehwa.’

“The blood… Brigadier General, there’s so much blood…”

With each blink, the shimmering fantasy slowly melted away. The dazzling white sand beach scattered grain by grain, and in place of the vanished light, the chaotic scene of the protection room rushed in.

“This… wh-what… what should I do…”

Ki Tae-jeong leaned against the doorframe and breathed slowly. As he felt the area where blood was gushing with his other hand, he realized the situation was worse than he thought. Only then did he begin to feel a bit dizzy.

“Damn it, it’s ruined anyway…! Might as well kill and at least get paid handsomely!”

“N-No…!”

The villain’s crude outburst and Sehwa’s tearful scream brushed past his ears, and simultaneously, another flying scalpel grazed an awkward spot near his sternocleidomastoid muscle. The thin skin of the special makeup rippled greatly, and the voice modulator chip attached inside fell to the floor with a thud.

The runt who swung the scalpel at him was limping badly. Unable to maintain proper balance, it seemed the force was concentrated in the stabbing hand. From his perspective, there was no way to describe the current situation other than saying he was lucky. Somehow, he hit the exact angle he was aiming for and even managed to put his full weight into it…

“Brigadier General!”

He couldn’t help but grin like a madman. He wasn’t a Brigadier General anymore. He had one more star now, he was a Major General. Being called Brigadier General by Sehwa made him so happy. Happy enough that he didn’t mind being hit by a scalpel wielded by a lowlife who he could probably send to the grave with just the twitch of a finger.

“Over here! Please call someone quickly, over here…!”

From behind, he heard the sound of feet stamping in helplessness. The cries of the baby in Sehwa’s arms grew louder and softer in turn.

Ki Tae-jeong shook his head as if throwing a tantrum, trying to focus his increasingly blurring vision. It wasn’t the time to be lost in sentimentality. He grabbed the back of the head of the guy trying to crawl away on his knees and smashed his face hard into the floor. Even with just that much force, blood gushed from where the knife had been stuck.

Throwing away the guy who had been crushed like a bug, Ki Tae-jeong slowly walked to the island counter. Then he carefully placed the torn gown he had collected earlier on the countertop. He laid it face down so the chip was visible; when General Oh Seon-ran found it, he would find it suspicious and check it right away.

“Just a moment, I’ll call someone…”

“I told you not to come out, go back inside.”

Sehwa’s eyes wavered greatly at the low, completely cracked voice. Even though he had guessed it was him, hearing his real voice seemed to bring new emotions.

“Can you hear the sound of the door being forced open? Trustworthy people will be here soon, so wait in the bedroom until then.”

“But…”

“I’m fine.”

“…”

“I’m standing straight, and I haven’t collapsed, right? I don’t even particularly get hurt.” 

Sehwa’s expression became strange at these words. He was biting his lower lip so hard that wrinkles like walnuts formed on his chin. Would Sehwa be dumbfounded if he smiled and said it had been a long time since he’d seen that expression, that he was glad to see it?

“It’s nothing.”

“How can it be nothing when you’re bleeding so much,”

“Compared to how much you suffered because of me… this is really nothing.”

“……”

“It’s okay, don’t worry about it. This much is… if I take some medicine…”

This might actually be for the better. Now they can pin charges of officer murder on them too, so they can completely finish the Kim family with this incident. Although he was caught off guard and stupidly injured, thanks to that he got to hear Sehwa’s voice calling him, so that’s enough…

“We received the call and arrived! Is everything alright?”

The front door was finally torn off, and allied forces that had been guarding outside poured in. Ki Tae-jeong, who had been observing the movements of those stepping inside just in case, finally relaxed when he heard General Oh Seon-ran’s angry voice over the radio. His sharp gaze gradually filled with languor.

“Brigadier General…?”

For a moment, his vision greatly distorted, and the strength left his knees. In that brief moment as his body collapsed, Ki Tae-jeong unfolded and folded over and over his shabby repentance, belated regrets, and unworthy affection, none of which had any style to speak of.

“Brigadier General…!”

An unfamiliar darkness rushed in along with the smell of blood.

Yet, he thought that this fade to black, matching Sehwa’s sorrowful call, didn’t seem too bad.

***

Sehwa paced anxiously in the hospital corridor.

Why hasn’t Captain Na, no, Captain Na come back yet when he said to wait just a moment? And what kind of place is this where there’s no guidance at all? Do they not even put up signs for operating rooms where officers go in? Because of security… or something? Even so, shouldn’t there normally be doctors or nurses bustling in and out for surgery? But there wasn’t even a robot carrying surgical tools or medical supplies in sight, let alone people.

Disliking the ominous silence, Sehwa shuddered slightly. What if… just what if something irreversible had happened… If that mountain of a man, Ki Tae-jeong… had collapsed and couldn’t get up again…

“No, surely not…”

Sehwa scolded himself for constantly having such awful thoughts. He was speaking just fine until right before he collapsed. He even had enough strength to finish off those bad guys, so…

“…He said he was fine, so.”

Regardless of old emotions, he didn’t want to see Ki Tae-jeong die- no, get hurt like this.

“He also said it was nothing…”

Hae-rim had been temporarily moved to the neonatal care unit, and Lieutenant Park, no, Captain Park, said he was cleaning up the recovery room.

He was told it was done by beneficiaries of the scholarship foundation run by Colonel Kim, like the doctor who had spoken rudely to him when he came for a check-up before. It seems they tried to use him and the child as hostages to get Ki Tae-jeong to the negotiating table, and General Oh Seon-ran was personally investigating the details.

This was all the information Sehwa had received.

The soldiers who broke down the door also moved urgently when told to quickly call a real doctor, that he had been stabbed in the neck and was bleeding profusely.

However, when it was revealed during the identification process that the collapsed person was Brigadier General Ki Tae-jeong, no… Major General Ki Tae-jeong, people’s attitudes became strange.

Of course, their words and manners were extremely polite. They quickly prepared for transfer, and Ki Tae-jeong’s aides were hastily summoned. That was it. No one there showed any urgency. Besides the stabbed neck, Ki Tae-jeong’s palm was also badly cut while dealing with the assailants. Even at a glance, it seemed like an urgent situation where every second counted, but somehow everyone seemed to be moving leisurely.

“Mr. Sehwa.”

Captain Na, no, Captain Na and Warrant Officer Choi approached, bowing their heads. Their eyes showed gladness at seeing him after a long time.

“Sorry for the late greeting earlier, we were in a bit of a rush. It’s been a while. Have you been well?”

Sehwa found the way things were unfolding increasingly incomprehensible. It’s nice to be welcomed. But isn’t it a bit strange that even his aides are so calm when it’s Ki Tae-jeong, of all people, in that state?

“The Briga-, no, the Major General’s condition…”

“Ah, it’s fine. You must have been very shocked, right?”

“I’m perfectly fine. But, well… anyway, he was severely injured…”

The title ‘Major General’ still felt unfamiliar, so Sehwa vaguely blurred the honorific.

“Come on. He’s the Major General.”

Captain Na continued his explanation as if it were no big deal.

“Well, first… a small amount of anesthetic was detected in his blood, which is actually better.”

He had been anxiously waiting for someone to ask questions to. But even Captain Na’s words were going in a completely different direction from what Sehwa had expected.

“If it had been some strange drug, it might have been a bit troublesome, but since it’s a real anesthetic used in hospitals, I don’t think this will be a big problem.”

The voice delivering the news was excessively bright. Sehwa, feeling somewhat dumbfounded, barely managed to speak after his lips moved silently.

“…Ah, um… What about where he was stabbed? Is he in surgery now or…?”

“Oh, that? One recovery pill is enough for that.”

“…”

“Anything else you’re curious about?”

That was all. Sehwa, unable to believe it, blinked slowly and then grabbed Captain Na.

“Recovery pill? Why aren’t you doing surgery?”

“Come on, surgery for something like this?”

Something like this…? Blood was gushing out like a broken dam from his neck, and they call it ‘something like this’?

“Wait a minute. I know recovery pills are good. But his flesh was all torn, and he lost so much blood…”

“That’s right, if it were other people, they would have been rushed to the emergency room immediately. Even then, their chances of survival would be very low.”

But it’s Major General Ki Tae-jeong.

Captain Na kept wielding the fact that it was Ki Tae-jeong as if it were some kind of all-purpose shield.

“Since there’s no need to remove bullets lodged in his body or any state of being pierced through by something, surgery really isn’t necessary. He’ll be up and about in no time.”

Captain Na comforted Sehwa, saying that being stabbed and having some skin torn was nothing to Ki Tae-jeong. It seemed like he was intentionally speaking lightly to console him and tell him not to worry… but it didn’t reassure him at all.

Rather, it made him feel nauseous.

Ki Tae-jeong, even when injured to a level where ordinary people couldn’t determine if they would live or die, did he consider it normal that no one worried about him… and just swallow one recovery pill and put on his uniform again as if nothing had happened? Every time, for his whole life, like that…