M 78

Ah… Sehwa rolled the unfamiliar words around in his mouth.

Lee Sehwa’s.

Legal guardian.

Ki Tae-jeong.

“You have to register within 3 weeks of confirming the pregnancy, and regardless of your wishes, I’ll submit the paperwork on the last day no matter what.”

“…If you’re going to do that anyway, why are you asking me?”

“Well. To let you prepare yourself mentally?”

While saying he would push through with his own intentions anyway, Ki Tae-jeong continued to soak the towel wrapped around Sehwa’s body. To keep his warmed body from cooling down. As if registering as a guardian was no more difficult than this, he remained nonchalant.

The hot stream of water flowing down Sehwa’s shoulders was as contradictory as his orders. There were several more rational choices than warming his body temperature this way. The best would be to get out of the bath, dry off completely, put on clothes and then have the conversation. They could even soak their bodies in separate baths without touching skin to skin.

But Ki Tae-jeong insisted on sitting Sehwa on his thighs and warming the parts of his upper body that emerged from the water. Like someone who knew how but didn’t want to be apart even an inch.

“You can think about the baby issue more comfortably, for longer. But.”

Ki Tae-jeong muttered as he buried his nose in the crook of Sehwa’s neck.

“I’m your guardian.”

Not Lieutenant Na or Warrant Officer Choi or Lieutenant Park, or unknown house staff.

“Whether you have this child or not, that position is mine.”

That place is mine. So you are mine.

“…Brigadier General.”

“I’m putting my name down no matter what. Understand?”

Ki Tae-jeong’s voice spread along the bones as he continued speaking with his lips pressed against his skin. Like droplets of water flowing along the skin, his voice viscously raced through his entire body.

“Don’t think of anything else.”

“Ah, no…”

Ki Tae-jeong, who had been rubbing his face against Sehwa’s nape as if marking him, reached out to grab a fruit. The muscles in the man’s thigh he was sitting on, and the pectoral and abdominal muscles against his back, pulsed greatly for a moment. …It was a new thought, but he was too close to him. He could vividly picture how the tightly woven lines of this body moved when he touched him. 

Crunch. As if scolding his lewd imagination, a clear sound rang out loudly. The fresh scent of the fruit mixed with the thick steam and settled downwards.

With Ki Tae-jeong hugging him from behind, all he could see was his hands. The bright red fruit revealed its milky flesh, dripping juice as the man gripped and pressed it. Watching the apple crumble in his hand according to Ki Tae-jeong’s will, he was reminded of how the man had earlier compared his inner walls to a juicy fruit.

Sehwa splashed his fingers in the water out of embarrassment. He really wasn’t in his right mind. They were in the middle of a serious conversation, yet here he was recalling when Ki Tae-jeong had tasted his body… Why did he even like such embarrassing words…

“Lee Sehwa.”

“Y-Yes?”

“Why are you so startled? Suspiciously.”

Ki Tae-jeong’s opposite hand that had been wrapped around his waist slid into the towel as if swimming.

“Still, I’d like to see you sign with your own hand if possible…”

The sensation tickling his side gradually climbed upwards. Ki Tae-jeong slowly rubbed his lower abdomen, traced his ribs, and suddenly grasped his chest.

“So what do I need to do for that to happen?”

Ki Tae-jeong languidly whispered as he slipped Sehwa’s reddened nipple between his fingers.

“…That, don’t…”

“I can’t give you my best fucking for a while. And you’re not begging me for anything you want either.”

“Brigadier… General…”

“Hm? Lee Sehwa.”

Laughter tinged Ki Tae-jeong’s voice as he urged him to speak. Meanwhile, he placed kisses densely along his entire jawline as if tracing his facial contours. Though he said nothing, it felt like he was asking permission to kiss him. 

After hesitating briefly, Sehwa slightly turned his head. The man’s lips locked deeply with his. With each gasping breath he swallowed, all sorts of fruit flavors burst in his mouth.

Nothing, just like now, just like today… Sehwa gulped down words Ki Tae-jeong couldn’t hear along with his saliva.

***

“Even if it’s inside a detention center, what kind of appearance is that?”

Kim Seok-cheol silently rummaged through the medicine bottles spilled on the floor. Although quite some time had passed since Oh Seon-ran had vented his anger and left, he still had to endure without receiving any proper medicine.

From minor cuts on his hands to drug withdrawal symptoms, Kim Seok-cheol would take H3 first whenever his body felt even slightly unwell. His body, which had become accustomed to recovering quickly as if immortal, was unfamiliar with this kind of pain. The natural healing process was much slower and more painful than Kim Seok-cheol remembered.

Yet his family couldn’t take any measures at home for fear of Oh Seon-ran. His father had barely managed to come for a visit under the pretext of the upcoming trial. No, maybe this was intentional too. If they had wanted to help from home, there would have been some way.

“Still, be grateful it ended at that level. Your opponent is a general, and from the Oh family no less.”

Kim Seok-cheol almost shouted at his father’s calm voice. Did he have to reveal all his son’s flaws knowing that, why did he have to upset Oh Seon-ran like that, wasn’t it his father who sold him out and blabbed about Lee Sehwa?

But… now was not the time for that. He had to endure. Kim Seok-cheol did have some sense of propriety.

“We’re negotiating to end this with you leaving the military.”

Kim Seok-cheol’s father, Colonel Kim, said coldly that as long as there was no criminal record like imprisonment, it would be fine even if his name was erased from the military. He had been steadily promoted to an appropriate rank before retiring as a colonel, after which he inherited the family business. Even after becoming the CEO of a proper pharmaceutical company, people still called him Colonel Kim.

Once a soldier, always a soldier. If more than half of existing officers and elders recommend it upon retirement, that person can also become an elder and continue to intervene in military affairs.

In other words, Colonel Kim was telling his son to give up that natural custom and honor.

“Not because I cherish and love you who are lacking, but because we can’t lose one of our people like this.”

“…I understand.”

The voices of his cousins mocking that if one was going to cause trouble, they should do it big like Kim Seok-cheol rang in his ears. Yet they too would be lobbying their best to ensure no dishonor was recorded on Kim Seok-cheol’s resident registration.

It was exactly as Colonel Kim said. The complaint filed by Ki Tae-jeong would not end with just a condemnation of Kim Seok-cheol as an individual. The prestige of the entire family was at stake. No, it was a sudden calamity and an unavoidable rain of arrows for all the military personnel who had joined hands with the Kim family.

Of course, the family fortunes wouldn’t immediately decline just because Kim Seok-cheol did some jail time. However, if they yielded here, other small fry would start to revolt while watching the situation, and the pack of greedy opportunists who had been waiting for them to fall would pounce at the chance. The Kim family had grown their influence in a similar way, so predators of similar size wouldn’t miss such a golden opportunity.

“It seems Ki Tae-jeong has meticulously organized the evidence without any immediate flaws. Even if we want to dispute its relevance or authenticity, I don’t think General Oh Seon-ran, angered by your clumsy lies, will allow any room for that.”

“…”

“Sigh… Still, it’s a fight worth attempting. Those who were involved in the ‘harvest’ are also speaking up to cover themselves, and above all, we have the dregs of the House. If we say it was done independently by a group of criminals who have lived their whole lives doing such things, people who don’t want to make this a bigger issue will mediate on their own.”

“Father. In my opinion,”

“Opinion? What opinion!”

Colonel Kim, who had been speaking in a relatively calm manner, could no longer contain himself and barked harshly.

“If you were the kind of person who could think, you wouldn’t have set fire to the warehouse in 2-Hwan in the first place!”

“Father….”

“From now on, no matter what provocations anyone makes, even if Ki Tae-jeong critiques your face right in front of you in the courtroom, keep your mouth shut. I believe that even someone as lacking as you can manage that much, considering the lives of all family members are at stake.”

Fortunately or unfortunately, everyone knew that Kim Seok-cheol was a drug addict, and this much could be covered up somehow. After all, Kim Seok-cheol wasn’t the only one who frequented places like the House to do some drugs.

So the plan was to make excuses that he got unluckily involved while watching criminals excitedly trying to make a new drug out of immature curiosity. Even if 99% of the evidence pointed to him, they could insist that it wasn’t 100%, right? Fortunately, the family elders, including Colonel Kim, had the power to do so.

But this lacking son went and completely burned down the warehouse in the 2-Hwan, causing the situation to escalate. This incident completely paralyzed the 2-Hwan. As it became impossible to even approach the area where various armories and logistics warehouses were concentrated, there was an uproar everywhere. Even factions that had been maintaining a polite neutrality bared their teeth sharply when their own assets were directly damaged.

And after all that, Kim Seok-cheol had the gall to say that it was the best he could do. Colonel Kim sighed and rubbed his dry face. If only he wasn’t his only son, he would have torn his mouth wide open.

“You should have at least mentioned that you were hitting on Oh Seon-ran! Why did you do such a thing when you don’t even have the sense to wrap things up on your own, why!”

“Father, please listen to me. Actually, Lee Sehwa…”

“There’s nothing more to hear. I’ll take care of this from now on.”

“Ah, I think that bastard has something going on with General Oh Seon-ran! I think Lee Sehwa is the person Oh Seon-ran has been desperately looking for!”

“…What?”

“That’s why Oh Seon-ran was so angry with me, saying things had gotten complicated…”

Once, a heavily drunk head of state had blabbed that Oh Seon-ran had someone he was desperately searching for, so he could never betray him. That’s why he let his roam outside.

There were traces left of Oh Seon-ran obsessively searching for something related to a previous experiment, so everyone speculated it was related to this. Still, no one knew the exact story, and honestly, no one cared. What mattered was that a high-ranking member of the Oh family was permanently tied down by this issue.

“I think that bastard might be Oh Seon-ran’s illegitimate child.”

“Illegitimate child? Oh Seon-ran had something like that?”

“It’s not certain yet… But isn’t it important that Oh Seon-ran himself believes so? Ki Tae-jeong will try to use Lee Sehwa, and Oh Seon-ran will want to protect Lee Sehwa until a conclusion is reached… We just need to subtly add weight to their fight. And most importantly…”

Kim Seok-cheol gritted his teeth. Just thinking about this still made him furious.

“Lee Sehwa is pregnant with Ki Tae-jeong’s child.”

“What did you say?”

Colonel Kim, who had been trying to maintain his composure, turned to Kim Seok-cheol in shock.

“Don’t tell me it’s because of that drug you said you made?”

“Yes. So I think it’s even easier to frame it as something Lee Sehwa orchestrated. The condition that bastard demanded from me when he asked for the drug was also an ID that would allow him to live inside the fortress… It’s perfect to package it as the actions of a lowborn whose eyes were rolled back trying to change their fate.”

Moreover, the drug manufacturing-related documents referenced for this project weren’t even top-secret. Everyone knew that similar attempts had been consistently made within the military. Although not everyone had access to the documents themselves, if you just casually asked an officer you knew through connections, “Isn’t there something like this?” information would have poured out.

It was a common occurrence. The inside of the utterly corrupt military was more porous than one might think, and nothing was impossible with connections and money. Of course, if such a big incident occurred, things would be different, but in any case, the department in charge would catch Lee Sehwa like a mouse to lessen the responsibility for the document leak.

It was also perfect for crafting a narrative. We could just cry and say, “What could we have done when hardened criminals deliberately did this?”

If all circumstances point to Lee Sehwa being the real culprit, others will start pressuring Ki Tae-jeong on their own. They’ll say it’s enough that Kim Seok-cheol has been discharged from the military, and that he should make concessions at this point.

Although it’s humiliating for now, Kim Seok-cheol could look forward to the future. It’s unprecedented, but… if the family exerts its influence after some time has passed, he might be able to return.

Something Ki Tae-jeong didn’t have but he did. Kim Seok-cheol planned to wield the weapon of family background to its fullest extent, something that defective products of unclear origin like Ki Tae-jeong could never possess no matter how hard they tried.

“So father, we need to drag Lee Sehwa into the courtroom somehow. We need to pressure Ki Tae-jeong to bring Lee Sehwa directly, not just documents or video evidence. He’s young and has lived his whole life at the bottom. How could someone like him endure being attacked from all sides, asking if he did it?”

***

“An injection? Why are you giving it yourself?”

Ki Tae-jeong’s brow furrowed. The contents of the envelope that Lee Sehwa had brought back from his recent medical examination were unusual.

“It’s a hassle to come at the same time every day, isn’t it? And I’m probably better at sticking needles than the hospital staff, at least for this.”

“Getting cheeky again, are we?”

Ki Tae-jeong snatched the envelope and gestured with his chin.

“No more talking back. Get your injections at the hospital.”

“I heard even ordinary people self-administer sedatives at home and such.”

“So you’re ordinary? You’re not.”

“Come on. It’s not even an IV injection anyway.”

Lee Sehwa looked up at Ki Tae-jeong with a broad smile. Saying nonsense like, ‘I still have my pride. I’ve made a living with this all my life.’

Ki Tae-jeong had called him cute many times, and now he’s saying ridiculous things. Ki Tae-jeong was dumbfounded, but decided to let it slide for now. With Lee Sehwa, it was more effective to gently persuade him over time rather than sharply ordering him to correct himself immediately. If they went back to the official residence, had dinner together, and showered together, he would eventually pretend to give in and follow Ki Tae-jeong’s wishes.

“Hm?”

As he was about to take Lee Sehwa inside, he felt an unfamiliar weight in the envelope. The sound of something bumping against the drug ampoules seemed somewhat out of place, so he looked inside again and noticed something black tucked under the box. Even at a glance, it looked like it had been deliberately hidden.

“What’s this?”

The object that Lee Sehwa probably wanted to hide turned out to be a palm-sized tablet.

“Oh, wait a minute! That’s…!”

Lee Sehwa, who had been acting nonchalant, suddenly panicked and rushed towards him. He stretched out his arms and jumped up and down, asking for it back, saying he would explain later. Needless to say, it looked very suspicious.

It’s definitely not a phone. No one would dare give him communication equipment without my orders. Did Oh Seon-ran pull something?

Ki Tae-jeong, who suddenly became serious, held the object higher so that Lee Sehwa’s hands couldn’t reach it. He quickly touched the screen with his thumb, and round letters floated up over a cream-colored background.

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