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M 130
by Sorai“…Warrant Officer Choi.”
“Yes.”
“Do you think Sehwa won’t recognize me just because I’m wearing these shabby things?”
When Ki Tae-jeong coldly rebuked him, saying he’d hardly be inconspicuous wearing the honor guard uniform, Warrant Officer Choi lowered his head in embarrassment.
“That’s enough. Captain Park, put all that away.”
“But…”
“Are you now questioning your superior’s orders?”
At Ki Tae-jeong’s sharp voice, both men immediately straightened their posture. The more he looked at what they were doing, the more absurd it seemed, and he couldn’t help but laugh sarcastically. It seemed he had changed quite a bit in a short time. Seeing these guys preparing to get scolded rather than to die.
“Warrant Officer Choi.”
“Yes.”
“Did you think everything would be fine if you used Sehwa as an excuse? A General made an official request, and you went ahead and did this without even reporting to your superior?”
Guilty of his actions, Warrant Officer Choi stood with his hands behind his back, staring at the floor. Captain Park was the same. Rather than cursing at them, Ki Tae-jeong was like a ticking time bomb when he acted like this.
“…I’m deeply sorry. I apologize.”
While repeatedly apologizing and saying he would accept any punishment, Warrant Officer Choi still didn’t give up on that ridiculous plan.
“I’ll return my rank insignia if you order me to. But for now, how about you start moving? Even 4 hours isn’t that much time to complete all the preparations.”
“…”
“Major General. It’s not just any day… Today, when the baby comes out of the incubator, is the baby’s real birthday, isn’t it?”
Hah…. Ki Tae-jeong rolled his eyes and glared at the innocent ceiling.
In emergencies, even post-facto reports are allowed. Captain Park and Warrant Officer Choi seemed to have judged this matter as urgent as losing a stronghold to the enemy, and for Ki Tae-jeong, Sehwa was indeed that weighty a subject. Even if the center of the five-star Generals were to be overturned, it wouldn’t feel more urgent than Sehwa’s matter.
But if they went ahead and did things like this, prioritizing only his lingering affection, then what was the point of letting Sehwa go?
Only the first time is difficult; the second and third times are nothing. If he went to see Sehwa like this now, it was obvious that next time he’d be pondering ways to visit without General Oh Seon-ran knowing.
Moreover, birthday? Did he even have the right to consider Hae-, no, the baby’s birthday as something special? If Sehwa heard this, he’d get angry, telling him not to be ridiculous and to apologize to the child first. Of course. He had done many unforgivable things to the child in his attempt to keep Sehwa…
“…Warrant Officer Choi.”
“Yes.”
“Connect me to General Oh Seon-ran’s line.”
Ki Tae-jeong slowly rubbed his dry face.
First, he would confront General Oh Seon-ran. Ask him if he, of all people, shouldn’t be the one most wary of him, why he was calling him to that place, why a General was listening to the nonsense of his subordinates. He would protest harshly.
“Captain Park, you…”
As he was about to give further instructions, Ki Tae-jeong stopped mid-sentence.
He was going to protest, but….
His chest swelled as he held his breath. His whole body tensed up, veins bulging at his temples and nape.
As he was choosing his words to say to his aides, a thread-like expectation shamelessly blossomed. The crack that had been as shallow as a hairline immediately spread violently, threatening to crush his entire body. His pulse pounded loudly as if someone was beating a drum next to his ear.
“Ah, damn it…”
Ki Tae-jeong finally closed his eyes. He tried to clench his fist tightly to calm his trembling insides, but it was of no use.
He wants to see him.
He wants to see him so badly.
In the end, he knew he was truly a coward and trash for using the child as an excuse, but Sehwa, Lee Sehwa, he want to see his face, even if just from afar…
“…Call someone to prepare special makeup.”
After a long hesitation, Ki Tae-jeong finally declared his defeat. He found himself ridiculous for acting so pathetically, but he simply couldn’t resist the temptation.
Just because someone other than Sehwa said it was okay to meet him, okay to go see him, something he had been trying so hard to hold back started to crumble.
“Bring disinfectant on your way. Medical alcohol swabs are fine too. As much as possible, enough to completely pickle a person.”
“Ah… Yes! Understood!”
Warrant Officer Choi, who had been frozen with a bewildered look, hurriedly took out his tablet and pressed the dial on his wristwatch. Captain Park ran out, saying he would prepare ordinary activewear in addition to the requested items.
Would something like special makeup even work? Sehwa knows that human skin can be easily replaced.
No, more than that, the biggest problem is the perfume smell that he wears like armor. While face and voice can be changed, there’s no proper way to hide body odor.
Though it’s all in the past, he was someone who could only breathe when in his arms. That’s how sensitively Sehwa reacted to his scent. Moreover, these days Ki Tae-jeong had been spraying several times more perfume than before, solely because Sehwa had liked it.
Anyway, the first thing that came to mind was immersing the body in disinfectant or alcohol. Since taking just one pill would lead to immediate recovery, it seemed a bit safer to douse oneself in such substances even if it meant the skin would burst.
“Major General, the connection is ready.”
Ki Tae-jeong laughed like a madman. Those bastards who hurriedly brought such a shoddy thing, and himself for coming up with an equally crude temporary measure…
Was his condition that bad? Well, he had been told to consider going to the hospital recently, so he must look terrible. Ki Tae-jeong checked the tablet screen with a “whatever happens, happens” attitude. His mind felt hazy and wasn’t working properly. He didn’t know. Maybe General Oh Seon-ran would come up with something. Any strategy was useless in front of Lee Sehwa anyway.
***
“Um, General…”
“Hmm?”
“Well… never mind.”
Sehwa looked around and swallowed hard. General Oh Seon-ran had assigned a lot of people, saying it would be good to be extra careful for a while. It seemed to be about three times the usual number of personnel just by eyeballing it.
It wasn’t anything else but for the child’s safety, so he could endure this level of inconvenience. Although the details weren’t explained, he knew General Oh Seon-ran was struggling to completely drive out Colonel Kim and his group. He wasn’t thoughtless enough to only consider his own convenience while his adoptive father was striving hard, hoping for him and Hae-rim to safely settle in the 5-Star facility.
But still… isn’t this a bit… strange? Did they deliberately gather only large men? Soldiers are usually fitter than civilians, but having huge, block-like men densely lined up in every corridor was extremely burdensome.
“I didn’t know newborns were this small. It’s my first time seeing one in person…”
“Yes… He seems too small.”
Sehwa, who had been glancing at the outside of the bedroom, refocused on Hae-rim at General Oh Seon-ran’s exclamation.
Indeed, Hae-rim, tightly wrapped in swaddling clothes, was extremely tiny. They said his weight was average and his leg length was even longer than average, but to his eyes, the baby still looked infinitely small. He wondered if this was what it meant to have rose-colored glasses on.
It might be a bit embarrassing to make such an assessment about a child who resembled him, but Hae-rim was so, so beautiful and pure. It had been about 20 minutes since they moved to the protected room, and he was very well-behaved. Even though the new place should feel unfamiliar, he didn’t cry, just let out one big “waah” yawn and had been sleeping soundly ever since.
“Want to hold him?”
“Ah, no…”
Sehwa, who had been smiling from ear to ear, shook his head in panic at General Oh Seon-ran’s sudden suggestion.
“Later, not now…”
He knew there would be no problem even if he touched the baby.
Hae-rim had spent perfect growth time in the incubator, enough not to need to stay in the special newborn care unit, and this cradle was also a top-of-the-line product with some kind of automatic device for immune enhancement and improvement… anyway, it had a complicated name.
Still… He needed time to prepare mentally. The baby was so small and fragile. What if he held him and accidentally broke his neck…
“By the way, really…”
General Oh Seon-ran chuckled and looked at Hae-rim once more. Sehwa stood half a step behind, fidgeting. As he stretched his neck as much as possible and stood on his tiptoes, General Oh Seon-ran pulled him right up to Hae-rim’s face, seemingly exasperated.
“Why are you being so distant with your own child? How is it, isn’t he prettier up close?”
“Yes…”
“How can he be such a spitting image?”
The tender affection brimming in his gaze was no longer unfamiliar. It seemed that General Oh Seon-ran was now recalling the person who had given birth to him… that person called Jin-woo.
He needed to fix this habit of speech soon. The person who gave birth to him, the person called Jin-woo, the person who supposedly gave birth to him… Every time he referred to him like this, he could see the regret in General Oh Seon-ran’s eyes. Yet, he couldn’t bring himself to say it easily. Calling someone he had never even seen “dad” was harder than he thought.
“I need to fix this too. Constantly thinking about Jin-woo in front of you and Hae-rim.”
Somehow knowing that he was pondering about Jin-woo, or more precisely about how to address Jin-woo, General Oh Seon-ran gently stroked his head.
“It’s absolutely not because of Jin-woo that I’m fond of you two. I don’t think of you as some kind of substitute for Jin-woo, and I’m not reluctantly taking responsibility for you either.”
General Oh Seon-ran comforted him kindly, “It’s true that I adopted you to keep an old promise with Jin-woo, but it was my own will that made me truly embrace you as my son. So if you were worried because of your speech habits, there’s no need for that.”
Sehwa nodded with a smile. Now he no longer became flustered or immediately denied such words. General Oh Seon-ran had taught him that when hearing something nice, he should just smile.
“Ah, finally here.”
General Oh Seon-ran, who had been checking the clock’s alarm, suddenly frowned deeply. As if he had seen something very displeasing.
“Sehwa, I think I need to go take care of some business for a moment.”
Oh… that means… he has to be alone with Hae-rim… Feeling a bit anxious, Sehwa said nothing and nervously scratched at his thumbnail.
“Don’t worry. I’ll have someone come in here too.”
General Oh Seon-ran patted his shoulder lightly, saying he could handle it, and promptly left.
If he had known this would happen, he should have called for the dedicated sitter right away. He wanted to welcome Hae-rim without outsiders, considering it a somewhat historic moment. That’s why he had deliberately scheduled the sitter for about an hour later…
Left alone with Haerim, Sehwa straightened his body, which kept shrinking.
‘Right, what is there to be afraid of? I’m the father. How long am I going to be scared?’
Sehwa, who had been circling around the cradle, gathered his courage and stood right at the foot of it.
“Saessak, Hae-rim.”
When he called out both the baby’s prenatal name and given name alternately, the baby’s lips twitched. Could he possibly recognize his name already? Though not certain, since he as the father felt it for a moment, he decided to believe it was true. Sehwa, immediately elated, smiled broadly with flushed cheeks.
“So beautiful…”
They say using diverse and rich expressions is good for a child’s emotional development, but like a fool, all he could do was exclaim how beautiful he was.
His hair was already thick, and his features were distinct… He did resemble him, but Hae-rim was much prettier, incomparably so. How to put it? It felt like his genes had been maximized in the best possible way. When he had said this in a hushed voice upon first seeing the baby in the protected room, General Oh Seon-ran had laughed heartily, saying he sounded just like his father.
And… of course, looking at Hae-rim reminded him of Ki Tae-jeong. The eyebrows, the space between them, the bridge of the nose, and the chin definitely had more of that man’s feel than his own. The tiny face and long legs might also be his influence.
Ah. His mood immediately sank just from briefly thinking of Ki Tae-jeong. Sehwa shook his head briefly from side to side, pushing away the depression that was habitually trying to rise. He should only think about the baby. He felt like he would be okay if he focused on Hae-rim.
“Hae-rim.”
As Sehwa tried to call the baby from a bit closer, he was startled by the feeling of something clicking under his hand and quickly stepped back.
“…Huh?”
Fortunately, the immune system device was fine, but the mobile hanging above started spinning vigorously on its own. Was it synchronized with the cradle?
The rabbit and squirrel rolled around busily. The music box melody was lovely too. The problem was that Hae-rim, who had been sleeping peacefully, started to furrow his brow as if something was bothering him.
“Oh no, this isn’t good…”
Sehwa fumbled around the outside of the cradle, not knowing what to do. As he felt around the area where his hand had touched earlier, he sensed a protruding part. Fortunately, he found it quickly. So this was the button…
“Whew…”
He unconsciously dropped his tensed shoulders… At that moment, a sharp smell of disinfectant wafted from behind.
Who is it? Surprised by the unfamiliar presence, he didn’t have time to turn around. A solid body touched his bent back. Someone’s arm, brushing past his ear and stretching out in front of him, pressed the cradle’s button for him.