SOG Ch 114

“… Thank you. I’ll enjoy it.”

Even just receiving a greeting makes Jae-chan’s face heated with embarrassment for some reason. It was right when Seon Jae-chan awkwardly brushed the back of his hair. After opening the fancy tin case packaging, Woo-jin immediately opened the lid and picked out a cookie to hand to him. Jae-chan said in confusion,

“Hey, there’s only one chocolate flavor, you know.”

“But you like it.”

“You already gave me a lot of chocolate before?”

Aside from the hostage incident in June, Jae-chan also received a bunch of chocolate and honey medicine when he woke up after a long day at the hospital due to taking TZ.

Jae-chan kept refusing Woo-jin’s attempts to give him the only chocolate flavor cookie. Why doesn’t Woo-jin understand that he wants Woo-jin to eat the prettiest and best ones, even though it’s a gift he gave?

“Well then, I’ll have this one. Okay?”

Jae-chan had no choice but to grab one of the two green tea rice cookies. As a result, the distance between the two people who were leaning towards each other became significantly closer. Seon Jae-chan’s hair almost touched the tip of Woo-jin’s chin, and Woo-jin visibly stepped back without realizing it.

“…”

The two people’s eyes met. At the moment Woo-jin’s lips parted slightly in surprise, Jae-chan naturally took the cookie and moved away.

I’ll eat well. Jae-chan spoke with a smile and turned his back to the bartender. Woo-jin’s gaze lingered on his smooth side profile as he lightly bit into the cookie and ordered a non-alcoholic cocktail. Discovering the much wider gap between them than before, bewilderment filled Woo-jin’s eyes, and just as he was about to open his mouth, the pub door opened.

When Kim Geun-won returned, Woo-jin covered the shopping bag with his body and organized the cookie box to hide it. Even though he wasn’t a child, Woo-jin had a childish feeling that he didn’t want to share with him even if he thought of him like an older brother.

“Are you drinking alone?”

Geun-won asked as he sat down next to him. Woo-jin didn’t bother to answer and just stared at Jae-chan, who was talking to the bartender in a lower voice.

‘I’m talking about the woman wearing a beanie who came here the other day. Do you remember her companion? It seemed like a man.’ Listening in on the whispered conversation, Woo-jin’s attention was diverted. What was he up to?

Woo-jin rubbed his still itchy chin with his palm, which Jae-chan’s hair had touched. It was inevitable that he backed away when Jae-chan approached.

Lately, he had been refraining from skinship with Jae-chan, and even the slightest touch has been incredibly stimulating, so he has started doing that kind of thing reflexively.

The reason Woo-jin avoided skinship with Jae-chan was to look into his own feelings more carefully. The unprecedented pleasure pushed aside his small and big concerns, making him immerse himself only in Jae-chan’s body and reactions, sweeping Woo-jin away with the thought that everything was fine.

But it turns out that not everything was fine.

Woo-jin was dissatisfied with Jae-chan always putting himself in danger.

Even if he outright said, ‘I don’t like you putting yourself in danger,’ Jae-chan would just nod in front of him but not listen. It’s not Jae-chan’s fault. It’s difficult for anyone to change their actions and patterns. Especially in urgent situations.

When Seon Jae-chan is cornered, he will make the same choices he’s made before. He will readily throw himself into it first, without a second thought.

Woo-jin hated that so much. And the fact that “he hated it” was the biggest problem.

Woo-jin’s temper was usually to let go of things he couldn’t control. How could he change a person’s heart, habits, or behavior? He had never asked anyone to change. But he couldn’t understand why he was so frustrated because Sun Jae-chan couldn’t be controlled.

Anger, possessiveness, obsession, and an inability to accept that you have no control.

Furthermore, loveliness, affection, pleasure, inexplicable tremors, etc. Woo-jin wanted to take a closer look at all the things Seon Jae-chan had given him and the reasons behind them, even if just for a moment. Instead of rushing into skinship with him and being helplessly swept away by only a small part of the pleasure.

“I heard that the atmosphere in the Guide Bureau is chaotic these days. I’m glad I resigned when I did.”
Woo-jin just nodded his head as Geun-won continued his casual chatter. At that moment, Woo-jin’s particularly busy phone vibrated again.

Woo-jin’s eyes narrowed as he checked the caller ID and the time, puzzled. It was Jin Dae-ho, the E-SOF team leader.

*

“What do you mean, being dispatched?”

Called out abruptly for an urgent matter, Woo-jin went straight to the Korean restaurant. Seated in front of the elegant table setting, he heard Team Leader Jin Dae-ho say something outrageous.

“Ah, what’s the big rush? Have another drink.”

Since it was a private occasion, Jin Dae-ho dropped the formal ” Esper Go Woo-jin” title and reached out to pour him a drink.

The clear fragrant rice wine spilled into the round cup from the white porcelain bottle. Drink! Drink! Jin Dae-ho, whose face was already flushed, repeatedly urged him to drink by clapping his thick fingers. Feeling increasingly irritated by the repeated situation, Woo-jin declined the second cup.

Go Woo-jin needed to cooperate with the E-SOF team leader. His father, Chairman Go Young-chang, had said ‘If you wanted to become the heir, you must serve in the military as a field-grade officer or higher.’

Because Go Woo-jin was an esper, he enlisted in the E-SOF unit rather than a regular military unit. In fact, that was what Chairman Go Young-chang was aiming for. The unit in which Go Young-chang worked as an A-class Esper was the special operations unit with special abilities, the predecessor of E-SOF.

Chairman Go Young-chang wanted his son, who closely resembled him in appearance and abilities when he was young, to follow in his footsteps. Therefore, when Woo-jin first joined E-SOF, he received media attention regarding Chairman Go Young-chang’s past activities.

In order to win the favor of the public, Chairman Go Young-chang also emphasized and revealed that Go Woo-jin’s enlistment was part of ‘cultivating a humble successor.’ The media praised Go Young-chang’s noblesse oblige, but Go Woo-jin deep down thought that Go Young-chang’s aim was ridiculous.

In any case, for the above reasons, in order to be safely commissioned within a few years, it was better to live without major friction with his superiors.

“The destination is obvious. It’s Zone Z, and it will probably take about three weeks.”

The intended destination was not a desert area, but Zone Z, the outskirts of the conflict zone and a relic of the era of President Kim Tae-young.

Zone Z was an area adjacent to the United 10 Zones, serving as a base camp for the Center or military before launching operations to suppress the Z area, the headquarters of gangs where countless crimes like murder, money laundering, and kidnapping took place.

The cleanup operations were usually carried out every five years, and since the previous cleanup operation was two years ago, it wasn’t time yet. However, the sudden order from above came at the request of the American Union’s cooperation.

“Wouldn’t it be good to tidy things up neatly before the foreigners arrive?”

After a few more cups of the fragrant liquor, Team Leader Jin Dae-ho revealed this background.

The military was not paying attention to the American Union. It was just a pretentious display by the higher-ups to show that our union was so perfectly equipped to defend even the insignificant Zone Z.

Woo-jin’s expression became even colder as he understood the situation. Jin Dae-ho suddenly became sensitive to Go Woo-jin’s significantly lowered temperature.

“But that’s not the end… They said they would like you to stay there and take charge of the intelligence mission?”

His voice involuntarily became cautious.

“…”

“The American Union might have other things on their mind, so it would be nice if a large unit like E-SOF stayed in Zone Z to keep things in check…”

Jin Dae-ho felt his shoulders getting weaker even as he was intoxicated with the sweet aromatic liquor. Go Woo-jin’s expression, which did not calm down even if he was given delicious alcohol, made him like that.

“So when is the final expected completion date for the operation?”

“Uh, around late December or early January…?”

Excluding a mid-term reward vacation, it meant he’d have to be away from District 1 for almost two months. Woo-jin felt his already thin patience snap in an instant.

Meanwhile, Jin Dae-ho, who had been hunching his shoulders, felt indignant. Why should he be acting like this in front of this brat?

“Huh, you’re not annoyed with me right now… Or are you?”

The riled-up team leader Jin blurted out, forgetting his dignity as a superior officer in his drunkenness.

“No, sir.”

Go Woo-jin answered, but Jin Dae-ho read clear dissatisfaction in the pitch-black eyes he met.

Jin Dae-ho was flustered, troubled, a bit scared, yet also puzzled. This was the first time Go Woo-jin had shown any dissatisfaction or negative reaction to a mission.

‘This brat never even flinched when we dumped all sorts of unreasonable tasks on him before!’

He couldn’t understand why he was suddenly being so serious about this. Compared to other tasks he had undertaken so far, this mission simply meant being away from District 1 for a long time, with no inherent danger.

“Anyway, that anti-terror training or whatever the Center is hosting right now doesn’t really concern you, does it?”

Jin Dae-ho, who was startled and somewhat sobered by the surprise, tried to adopt a tone appropriate for a superior.

“Plus, after tidying up Zone Z, there’s about a week’s reward vacation! Ah, of course after the vacation you’ll have to return to Zone Z since the American bastards will be coming, but…”

No matter how much he tried to urge or placate Woo-jin afterward, it was no use.

A warning light flashed in Jin Dae-ho’s mind. He had assumed it would be easy as long as Woo-jin cooperated and the rest of the team members would follow suit, but it was like a rock falling from the clear sky.