GB 110

The Captain’s sister remained silent, just as Haero remembered her. No, she couldn’t speak.

She untied a small bundle from her wrist. Inside were unidentifiable packets and small pieces of bread. The bread looked like focaccia, moist on the outside and fluffy inside.

When the Captain’s sister nodded, Salmo approached Haero and removed his gag.

“Better not even think about biting your tongue. If you fail, I’ll make you regret not being able to die.” Salmo made this savage threat.

He had always been a man of few words and not particularly friendly, but he was never such a violent person who resorted to threats. The Salmo before Haero’s eyes now was quite different from the one in his memories.

Salmo placed a knife against Haero’s nape. Rather than feeling the threat to his life, Haero thought how great it would be if he could steal it to cut his restraints.

“Ah.”

The Captain’s sister made a sound with her throat and opened her mouth.

Haero understood this meant he should open his mouth, but he pretended not to understand.

“Cut the crap and open your mouth. I know you’ve had sharp instincts since you were young. Even that anthrax-like navy bastard you brought in doesn’t know you as well as we do.” Sneering, Salmo pressed firmly on Haero’s cheek. 

Haero struggled, but when Salmo pressed down hard on his thighs with his limbs, he could no longer move. Despite being skinny, Salmo was incredibly strong.

The Captain’s sister, still with an inscrutable blank expression, calmly did her job. She tore open a packet and forced its liquid contents into Haero’s mouth, then had Salmo press Haero’s jaw shut and pinch his nose until he finally swallowed.

“Kuh.”

Haero immediately curled his tongue to try to vomit, but it was useless. Before he could ask what it was, the Captain’s sister stuffed bread into his mouth.

When his throat became blocked, she poured in more liquid from the packets, then blocked it with bread to prevent him from vomiting. After repeating this several times, the small bundle was quickly emptied.

The two stared blankly at Haero, who was coughing roughly. As if waiting for something.

Before long, Haero realized what they were waiting for.

His limbs began to lose strength. His eyelids naturally drooped, and his eyes kept trying to close. When he forcibly tried to keep them open, the whites showed, and his surroundings spun.

“We mixed in some hallucinogens extracted from jellyfish.” Salmo explained in a cold voice.

“Mus…cle relaxant.” Haero mumbled, barely moving his stiffening tongue. He wasn’t sure if he’d spoken properly, but seeing Salmo nod, he must have.

“Yes. That too. We can’t predict how you might backstab us again.”

“……”

“Since we don’t want you to choke on your own tongue, I’ll put this back on. Let’s talk again after you’ve had some sleep.”

Haero dry-heaved as the filthy cloth gagged his mouth again. However, that damned bread, the damn delicious bread, seemed to have become a sponge blocking his esophagus, and nothing came out. As Salmo said, he felt like he was about to suffocate.

Salmo looked with emotionless eyes at Haero, who slumped sideways and soon collapsed, then whispered something to the Captain’s sister. Though Haero wanted to hear, they were whispering, and the loud splashing waves made it impossible to hear anything.

Soon after they left, Haero blinked his unfocused eyes very slowly and stared at the waves surging toward him.

His body was getting wet. Unaware that it was his own cold sweat, Haero just stared helplessly at the oncoming waves.

It was such a vivid hallucination that he completely forgot he was in a tiny, filthily clean room. Haero coughed. As if seawater was actually hitting his face.

And he just stared at the silhouette in the distance, dangerously standing with more than half its body submerged in the sea. Even though he knew this too was a hallucination, he felt as if he needed to hold onto that image to stay conscious.

The sound of waves was truly vivid, and Haero, who had fallen asleep to that sound as a lullaby since long ago, slowly closed his eyes.

✼✼✼

Although their relationship had never been particularly amicable, this was the first time Yoon Moo-hwa wanted to kill his father.

–I’m suffering too!

Yoon Sang-won’s shouting voice didn’t even get through –But what can I do! We’re in a near-wartime situation. No, a wartime situation! We cannot rush in without clear preparation and reports for one military doctor whose whereabouts we don’t even know and whose survival we can’t confirm!

The greatest fear and difficulty regarding pirates is the unknown. They didn’t know them, and without knowledge, they couldn’t formulate a strategy. It would have been easier if Yoon Moo-hwa were operating with private mercenaries, but he was part of a massive organization. An important part of that.

And Haero was an extremely important, no, everything, to that important part, but from the organization’s perspective, he was just an insignificant speck. A regrettable speck.

“If we knew.” Yoon Moo-hwa muttered lowly into the transmitter, “If we knew for certain he was alive and could track his location.”

–What?

Yoon Sang-won snorted.

–The waters near the Cape of Good Hope have many ghost islands due to strong magnetic fields and tidal differences. In such places, location tracking is nearly impossible. Unless it’s military GPS…

Yoon Sang-won’s rapidly flowing words suddenly slowed, then stopped abruptly as if he had encountered some ominous premonition.

–You didn’t…

“If it’s possible, I’ll take your silence as approval.”

–You… you didn’t. That’s, that’s a violation of military law, you bastard!

Yoon Sang-won exclaimed in shock, keeping his voice low lest it leak out. 

Despite his outburst, Yoon Moo-hwa didn’t even blink. It wasn’t even at the level to be called embezzlement. Because he had only implanted it in Haero. And he had no desire to make such special efforts for anyone but Haero. His position, which had always been just a duty and routine until now, felt heavier and more vivid than ever.

All his nerves were on edge, as if he were burning alive. Yoon Moo-hwa felt neither the desire to sleep nor hunger. His brain was spinning as if pumped full of caffeine, and his artificial eye moved frantically in response. Even while on this call, his artificial eye was checking the list sent up by his aide and simultaneously attempting to contact them through the connected computer.

“Turn me over to the military court.”

–Hey, you bastard!

There are things that can be said and things that can’t. Yoon Sang-won shouted angrily.

–Over just that!

Just moments ago he was acting as if it was such a big issue his voice trembled, but now it was “just that.” Yoon Moo-hwa smirked.

No. What his father needed to prepare for was not “just that.”

“I’m resigning.”

–What?

“I’m leaving the military.” Yoon Moo-hwa ended the call without waiting for a response.

That was 20 minutes ago.

Blood vessels protruded from his left eyelid, where his artificial eye was, all the way to his forehead. His head throbbed painfully, as if a knife were cutting into his optic nerve due to the ceaselessly active eye. He reached out, roughly stirred a handkerchief in ice water, and placed it on his face.

“……”

Water dripped down.

With his legs up on the desk, Yoon Moo-hwa folded his hands over his stomach and held his breath.

With his eyes covered, it was impossible to tell what mood he was in or what state he was in. All that was certain was that he was in ruins. Both his temporary quarters and his mind were in ruins.

The height and speed of his fingers tapping on the back of his folded hands gradually increased. 

After this nervous movement continued, Yoon Moo-hwa’s lips moved, “I shouldn’t have let him on the ship. From the beginning. I should have accepted him but not let him on the ship. I should have kept him at home. Not letting him go anywhere.”

His voice, muttering very quickly and without pause, was almost eerie. Having completely lost his self-control, Yoon Moo-hwa was like a madman. As Yoon Moo-hwa had sensed, Haero was his margin. The factor that created margin in his life. And with Haero gone, he had no margin left. Nothing at all.

Accept him?

Even that word was wrong. Yoon Moo-hwa vaguely knew it too. The bizarre color of their relationship, a strange mixture of his grotesque control and selfish neglect, could only be maintained because Haero tolerated it, turned a blind eye to it. Haero must have known that he was a somewhat strange guardian and protector. But he had accepted it. He could have escaped or reported him at any time.

So it wasn’t Haero who had clung to Yoon Moo-hwa, but Yoon Moo-hwa who had clung to Haero. 

To the sea that was Haero.

Finally, Yoon Moo-hwa covered his face with his folded hands.

‘Who was confining whom? When he couldn’t even keep him by his side now. Stupid bastard…’