GB 40

With news that dorm life would start earlier before admission, Haero had to pack sooner.

Coincidentally, Yoon Moo-hwa’s departure date and the move-in date were similar, so they went shopping together.

Yoon Moo-hwa chose the items needed for dorm life. Thanks to this, Haero’s luggage was very efficiently organized. Occasionally, Yoon Moo-hwa advised that Haero could postpone his Naval Academy admission, but Haero didn’t listen.

“Why are you so worried? It’s because you haven’t seen my school life. I’m the type to do well wherever I go. I could even survive on a deserted island, you know? You know where I grew up.”

At this, Yoon Moo-hwa frowned. “Don’t talk about that place.”

It might be a memory for Haero, but to Yoon Moo-hwa, that was no place for a child to live. It was a harsh environment even for adults, let alone children. Not that the adults there were particularly good at raising children either.

When Haero was much younger, when he hadn’t completely escaped the traces left by the island, he often showed habits from that time. When he did something wrong, he thought it natural to be hit and didn’t make excuses or defend himself. He didn’t know how ‘mistake’ and ‘error’ were different, or how to distinguish between them.

That’s why Yoon Moo-hwa doesn’t want to send Haero back to the sea. He’s afraid Haero might face that island again. Afraid he might see Haero from that island again.

He checked the number of navy personnel missing and unaccounted for every year. That number was always updated in his mind, never disappearing.

“Why? I like that time. How can I not talk about it? It’s when I met you, hyung.” But for Haero, that place seems to have a different meaning. Rather than the difficult times, he remembered the most brilliant and joyful moments. 

“It was the best thing I’ve ever done since I was born and the first bad thing I did. I stole you away from the adults.” Haero giggled, unaware of Yoon Moo-hwa’s feelings.

“The first bad deed, you say.” Yoon Moo-hwa sighed exaggeratedly and shook his head. “How much more trouble are you planning to cause?”

Haero strode forward, pretending not to have heard despite clearly hearing everything. Holding a snack that dyed his fingers and tongue a fluorescent red, he asked, “Shall we buy this?!” 

Yoon Moo-hwa frowned, but the snacks were already in the cart. Not just one, but enough to stack up to the height of the cart.

“What’s so tasty about this that you’re buying so much?”

“At first, I wondered what this taste was too, but it’s addictive. I think about it often. Once you open it, you can’t stop.”

I don’t get it. 

Haero liked it so much that Yoon Moo-hwa had tried it a few times too, but he still couldn’t understand the taste of this sour snack.

Haero walked ahead briskly, hands behind his back, whistling.

It’s a song Yoon Moo-hwa doesn’t know. It’s familiar because Haero often whistles it, but he had never learned it or heard it before Haero started whistling it.

It’s probably a song from that island.

Yoon Moo-hwa quietly pushed the cart behind Haero.

* * *

At dawn, Yoon Moo-hwa urgently participated in a meeting.

The content delivered in the video conference, secured by layers of security systems, was roughly this:

“Maritime illegal armed criminal groups, hereafter referred to as pirate forces, show signs of forming an alliance. According to intelligence agencies, they are presumed to be targeting unrecognized nations, but the situation is not yet at a level to be concerned about. However, as the group grows, maritime chaos will clearly worsen, so the quasi-wartime period will be extended and the alert level raised to the highest grade.”

Only eye-straining blue light flowed from the screen after the meeting ended.

Yoon Moo-hwa, rubbing his dry face, skimmed through the files he received.

It seemed they had united under the leadership of a troublesome pirate group that had been moving their hideout with each tide. Just when they thought appearances had decreased after the navy’s recent high-intensity illegal armed group suppression operation with no compromises, it seems they were actually uniting underground.

“From monsters to criminal nations. It’s one thing after another.”

The waters under Yoon Moo-hwa’s jurisdiction had long been classified as a Red zone, making sea monster appearances frequent. It would be better to control it, but that would cause enormous losses. Ships must pass through here to maintain the flow of cargo and international trade. If blocked, it stagnates; if it stagnates, it rots; if it rots, it dies.

Yoon Moo-hwa, who had been staring at the screen, stood up. There was no way to recall the sleep that had fully left him.

Quietly, Yoon Moo-hwa stepped onto the floor and headed towards Haero’s room. Inside was complete silence. It was only for the first few years that Haero slept lightly as if experiencing land sickness; afterwards, he always slept so deeply that he wouldn’t notice if someone carried him away.

Even at this moment when Yoon Moo-hwa opened the door and intruded, Haero didn’t wake up.

“…”

Standing beside the bed, Yoon Moo-hwa looked down at Haero with his hands in his pockets.

Due to the early hour, Haero looked pale. When the sun was bright, his face would have a healthy glow, and the tiny freckles on the bridge of his nose would make one imagine Haero smelled of sunshine.

“…”

Yoon Moo-hwa slowly bent his waist. “Haero.”

There was no answer to his call, not even a stir.

Yoon Moo-hwa stared at the small lips that barely moved, then tilted his head. However, he didn’t bend further or move his head closer. Although the atmosphere seemed as if such a thing might happen at any moment, in reality, neither of them seemed to notice the subtle air surrounding them. Or at least, they were acting as if they didn’t.

“You want to go to such a dangerous place?”

“…”

“Just to be with me?”

He would return to Haero’s side anyway, so why the obsession?

Once Haero enters the Naval Academy, he becomes a quasi-soldier. From then on, Yoon Moo-hwa can’t treat Haero as a brother. From that point, all interactions with Haero become entangled in the complexity of separating public and private matters.

“I keep coming back to your side, isn’t that enough?”

Naturally, Haero had no answer.

Yoon Moo-hwa slowly leaned in. He placed his hand next to the sleeping Haero and faced him.

Looking at him closely like this, he suddenly felt how much Haero had grown. Though there was still a very slight hint of baby fat, his facial features had become more defined and distinct. From the skinny Number 8 to the slightly chubby young Haero, what are you trying to become now?

“Haero,” Yoon Moo-hwa called softly. “You need to draw a line on how far your desires go. We’re not ordinary brothers…”

No response from Haero. An unfamiliar Haero.

But if Haero were awake, there’s only one answer he would give, ‘Don’t say such nonsense. Since when were we brothers? We’ve never been like that.’

The voice seemed so vivid that Yoon Moo-hwa couldn’t help but smile.

But soon his face grew heavy again.

His head, already close, tilted further.

Not noticing the changing numbers on the clock, he stared at Haero.

He reached out with the hand that was on the bed.

The small mushroom-shaped mood light that Haero had left on went out. The room was plunged into complete darkness, left only with the subtly soft and vaguely dreamy atmosphere of dawn.

Yoon Moo-hwa rose from above Haero and quietly left the room.

After he left, there was no trace that he had ever been there.

* * *

When Haero woke up in the morning, he didn’t even notice that the mood light was off, unlike when he fell asleep. He immediately read the email from the Naval Academy. It was a notice to prepare a speech as the representative of incoming students.

While he had some expectations, he didn’t really think he’d actually be the top student. Haero’s eyes sparkled as he excitedly paced around the room.

“Will hyung come too?”

If Yoon Mu-hwa came to the entrance ceremony, he could give the top student speech in front of him. If the worry-causing kid from Pirate Island who had tarnished Yoon Moo-hwa’s name could enter the Naval Academy as the top student.

Overjoyed, Haero jumped back onto the bed and kicked his feet.

“Hyung,” Haero called out ambitiously to the air, his eyes shining. “Don’t worry.”

Yoon Moo-hwa, who still thinks I’m that ten-year-old kid.

“I’ll restore your honor.”

But it seems he’s forgotten that he was saved by that ten-year-old’s hands.

Haero understood gratitude. He understood honor. He was going to restore Yoon Moo-hwa’s honor that had been damaged because of him. That was his own honor and responsibility.

Before leaving the room, Haero opened the link he received from the Naval Academy on his tablet.

Inside were videos of past freshman representative speeches. There was a time gap in the middle, presumably during the flood period when the world was struggling to survive in water as the glaciers melted.

Haero skimmed through the older videos until he stopped scrolling at one point.

“Oh… it’s hyung…”

On the screen was a younger-looking Yoon Moo-hwa.

Even with the cap on, his prominent nose bridge and the shadows that appeared whenever he lowered and raised his head made Yoon Moo-hwa look even more dramatic.

Haero, who had intended to just take a quick look, became completely absorbed in the video.

Yoon Moo-hwa was speaking about the crisis-stricken sea, the role of the Naval Academy, and its traditions in a voice that was slightly less experienced than now, but still steadfast and reliable.

“He’s handsome.”

Haero, who had never been impressed even by the carefully selected Navy public relations officers on TV, muttered without hesitation. From the beginning, Yoon Moo-hwa had always been the most impressive person in Haero’s eyes. Even after he got the artificial eye, and even if he hadn’t, Haero would have seen Yoon Moo-hwa as the most impressive.

“Haero.”

Just then, he heard a voice calling him.

Even though he hadn’t done anything wrong, Haero instinctively hurried to hide the tablet under the blanket.

“Are you up?”

Yoon Moo-hwa’s voice came from the door. He seemed to be right outside. Haero fumbled under the blanket to turn off the tablet, accidentally turning up the volume instead.

“Today, to all my fellow classmates gathered here…”

“Y-yes, I’m up!” Haero shouted, clutching his pounding chest as he quickly lowered the suddenly increased volume.

“…”

Silence came from the other side of the door.

Did he hear?

“Alright. Come out when you’re ready.”

But Yoon Moo-hwa’s voice was the same as always.

He must not have heard.

Haero let out a big sigh as he took out the tablet again and turned it off properly.

Why was he so surprised when he hadn’t done anything wrong? His hair even stood on end. Haero sighed deeply as he headed to the bathroom.