GB 117

“――!”

Yoon Moo-hwa clenched his teeth so hard his gums might have detached, suppressing any groan that might reveal their position. This too was part of the training he had received, but while he could hold back sounds, he couldn’t reduce the pain.

Haero abruptly sat up. At that moment, he clearly felt something was wrong with the rubber boat. The floor was rocking.

“Stay still. Just a little further to go.”

Reflexively, cold sweat broke out and heat rushed through his body. Yoon Moo-hwa pushed Haero down and whispered quietly, quietly, shh.

His side felt burning hot and he was losing blood, but Yoon Moo-hwa was focused only on reaching the rendezvous point.

Meanwhile, the distance between the enemy’s modified fishing boat and the high-speed rubber boat was rapidly closing as they performed evasive maneuvers.

“Hyung, hyung. No, no. The blood, there’s too much blood. Hyung. What, what do we do? Wait.”

Haero, who had been calm about his own injury, saying it was fortunate because they could deceive the enemies, couldn’t bear Yoon Moo-hwa’s wound.

Yoon Moo-hwa was a selfish adult.

He thought he was the only one paying the price of life for Haero, but that wasn’t true. From the moment they first met, Haero had been sharing his fate with Yoon Moo-hwa. The eight moments that Yoon Moo-hwa could never understand had already been divided that way.

Haero’s time was flowing out through Yoon Moo-hwa’s side. It was leaking steadily. But at the same time, they couldn’t move rashly. The boat floor beneath them began to rock more violently.

Yoon Moo-hwa, with eyes glistening and his face shining with cold sweat, muttered continuously, “Romeo. Romeo. This is Juliet. This is Juliet.”

The hotdog was apparently a fervent fan of classic romance. 

Yoon Moo-hwa, self-deprecatingly wondering why they had to use the names of tragically fated lovers, muttered again, “Romeo. Romeo. This is Juliet…”

“Got them!”

From behind came an elated scream, followed by the sound of pulleys preparing to throw grappling hooks. It seemed they were trying to catch the boat with a net attached to hooks. They couldn’t increase their speed anymore. The engine was overheating. Yoon Moo-hwa, now numb to pain, pulled Haero completely into his arms. Haero embraced Yoon Moo-hwa tightly—not out of fear, but to stop his bleeding with his arms.

Yoon Moo-hwa, touching the small communicator attached to his ear, called for Romeo again.

“This is Juliet. Respond, Romeo.”

With a sound like whispered love poetry, everything suddenly brightened.

And after a brief moment when all movement ceased,

With a bang, searchlights turned on, and an intense light that seemed blinding poured down.

—This is Romeo. Welcome back, Juliet.

A voice mixed with static. The enemies hesitated at the sudden burst of intense light.

Hearing the radio transmission from Yoon Moo-hwa’s arms, Haero lifted his soaked face and reached back to pull the engine starter cord with all his might.

The engine roared as if it might burst, and they shot forward, skimming the waves. Through the screaming engine noise on the weakened rubber boat, a voice with a hint of laughter flowed into Yoon Moo-hwa’s ears.

—Did you book tickets to Mallorca?

Almost simultaneously with the end of those words came the pirates’ cries of “Abandon ship!” followed by splashing sounds, and then an old-model torpedo flew past Yoon Moo-hwa and Haero’s lifeboat toward the modified fishing boat.

The name of this old torpedo cutting through the sea was ‘Blue Shark,’ but as the sea typically blurs the line between sky and water, it looked less like a shark and more like a hawk soaring.

Haero, hanging from the ladder, begged tearfully for them to pull Yoon Moo-hwa up first, while the mercenaries burst into laughter against the backdrop of the fishing boat exploding after the torpedo hit its deck.

“Baby, the chances of you dying are higher than him dying!”

Of course, Haero couldn’t hear anything due to the ear-piercing explosion and his worry for Yoon Moo-hwa.

✼✼✼

The mercenaries stared at Yoon Moo-hwa with grim expressions.

Of course, a pierced side was a serious injury, but it wasn’t as if his entire side had been blown away, and his intestines weren’t spilling out, yet Haero was crying excessively.

“Didn’t they say he was a military doctor?”

“Yeah…”

The mercenaries, unaware of Haero’s exploits, could only watch while scratching their cheeks.

Of course, Haero wasn’t just crying. Even while sobbing, he skillfully removed Yoon Moo-hwa’s vest and tore his clothes.

Sniffling, Haero shouted, “Alcohol! Do you have any alcohol?!”

At those words, someone who was adjusting the course to Mauritius pulled back. Then he shook the bottle he was holding. It was high-proof tequila.

“Please bring that here!”

When someone snatched it and brought it over, Haero immediately poured it over Yoon Moo-hwa’s side.

Due to climate change, the regions where agave grew had shifted, and tequila distilleries had to relocate. As a result, this was precious alcohol, only in its third year of reproduction.

“My tequila!”

Ignoring the crying voice, Haero rummaged through the pocket of his active wear. Then he pulled something out.

Yoon Moo-hwa’s face crumpled as he kept Haero tightly against his side—that was most important to him, so he didn’t mind Haero crying or pouring alcohol on his wound.

“You… you said you didn’t have this.”

His demeanor changed instantly from acting like a whining lady to something much more severe.

“I never said I didn’t. I just didn’t answer.” Haero retorted shamelessly as he tore open the waterproof packaging with his teeth.

Inside was a capsule-sized compressed hemostatic pad. Holding the pad, which would expand greatly with just a small amount of blood to stop bleeding, Haero locked eyes with Yoon Moo-hwa with an expression that said he wouldn’t listen to any objections.

“Listen carefully. Yoon Moo-hwa, if you die here, I will definitely kill you. You belong to me, so you can’t die without my permission.”

Yoon Moo-hwa’s eyes widened at the bold, even terrifying face and voice, but then he laughed, “Heh… Haero, who do you think you’re talking to— Ugh!”

The military doctor was cold-blooded. Haero shoved the pad into Yoon Moo-hwa’s side, fingers and all, and due to the pain of the wound being prodded and the sudden expansion of the pad, Yoon Moo-hwa had to grit his teeth against the tremendous pain.

Haero stared at Yoon Moo-hwa’s magnificent neckline as he tilted his head back, veins bulging as he suppressed a groan, then suddenly embraced the larger man. 

Then he whispered so only he could hear, “I believed you would come for me. Thank you… both then and now.”

He didn’t need to specify when “then” was—they both knew.

As incredible as it seemed to Yoon Moo-hwa, at the sound of Haero’s voice, all pain became bearable. To exaggerate slightly, he felt no pain at all. Neither the phantom pain from his artificial body parts that had been tormenting him, nor the phantom sensations still stabbing at him now, nor the gunshot wound. Nothing hurt.

Slowly wrapping his arms around Haero’s waist, he buried his lips deeply against the temple beside the small head and replied, “I should be thanking you. For waiting for me. Both then and now.”

The “then” Haero spoke of was when he was still number 8, hiding on an island not knowing Yoon Moo-hwa would come, while the “then” Yoon Moo-hwa spoke of was a time in his heart that even he hadn’t prepared for.

They were talking about different times, but there was no need to coordinate, explain, or understand. They were already sharing enough.

✼✼✼

Haero fidgeted with the buttons of his patient gown. The buttons were fastened incorrectly. 

The inspector who glanced at Haero fixing his appearance adjusted the position of the recorder and asked, “So… you say you encountered Brigadier General Yoon Moo-hwa’s boat, who had personally gone out to rescue his subordinate after escaping from hiding in the smuggling ship’s hold?”

“Yes. That’s correct.” Haero answered calmly, “The smuggling vessel only had three crew members including the captain, so it was possible to sneak out.”

“And in the process, you were shot in the arm…”

“Yes.”

“And the other bruises also occurred during the escape…”

“Yes.”

The inspector stopped the recorder, then rubbed his face and sighed deeply. “It sounds like an impossible, implausible plan.”

“Surprisingly, it was a feasible plan. And it had the highest probability of success.”

He probably already knew Haero’s background. Haero used that to his advantage.

“Since there are few pirates stationed on the island and their ships, unlike warships, cannot carry many people, escape is possible if you know the method. Rather, the chances decrease when direct combat breaks out.”

“…Is that from experience?”

Haero smiled slightly. “It’s a conclusion drawn from both the experiences I observed growing up and this escape.”

In good conscience, he couldn’t say it would be good material for a manual.

The inspector looked dissatisfied but didn’t probe deeper. Rather, there were orders from above not to dig too deeply into the rescue itself, unless they were investigating whether the kidnapping was connected to Haero’s past and might actually have been desertion.

“It really seems miraculous. To succeed despite what appears to be very low odds.”

Haero again put on a kind, innocent smile. “Thank you.”

The inspector fiddled with the recorder. It was an action to make it look like he was about to record. Haero, noticing that it wasn’t actually recording, waited silently.

“Brigadier General Yoon Moo-hwa acted on his own, but with his experience, he would have known that jumping into enemy territory alone wouldn’t work. Yet according to the lieutenant, he set sail through a fishing boat borrowed from a neutral country. Is it possible that the brigadier general attempted to desert to enemy territory with you?”