GB 100
by EmerlynIn the quiet medical bay, the chief medical officer suddenly pushed his chair and approached Haero quickly. “You were on deck with the Captain yesterday.”
Haero flinched at the direct question from the chief medical officer, who was old enough to be his father. “Only I saw it. Probably. Still, you should be careful.”
“…”
Haero’s face turned bright red as he immediately recognized that though the tone was playful, it was serious advice.
In truth, the chief medical officer was saying this because Haero was lower in rank than himself, though he knew he should really be saying it to Yoon Moo-hwa, who was older and more experienced. He hadn’t expected someone with the title of Captain to be so obvious. Even if it was on the deck at night in the Antarctic Ocean, where few ventured due to the fierce waves and cold.
One more thing. The chief medical officer hadn’t thought Yoon Moo-hwa would have a shipboard romance. That premise hadn’t even been established. Despite being on the ship for a long time, he had never seen Yoon Moo-hwa involved romantically or even being personally close to anyone on board.
“Well… it’s not a major issue on board, but isn’t your partner a bit too old? Though it’s not my business to interfere, surely you’re not serious about this, Lieutenant? Given the age difference too.”
The chief medical officer advised with a genuinely fatherly concern before breaking into an embarrassed laugh. His intermittent “ah, ha, ha, ha” left Haero dumbfounded.
“What? I don’t understand what you mean…”
“Well, when young people are confined together in a place like this, sparks naturally fly, but if it’s serious, it would be difficult… that sort of thing.”
After a while, Haero finally understood what the chief medical officer meant.
Apparently, he had vaguely seen Yoon Moo-hwa and himself together on deck after roll call. And he seemed to have misunderstood it. Not as lovers, but as something else… a relationship where they merely mixed bodies for mutual benefit.
Flustered, Haero wasn’t sure whether to deny it or confirm it, and he stammered for a while. After hesitating, thinking it might be better than saying they were dating, Haero weakly nodded.
“Yes. There’s no way it’s serious.”
“Then perhaps…” The chief medical officer stared intently at Haero and asked very carefully, “Is the Captain forcing you to…”
“No!” Haero shouted as if screaming. “It’s absolutely not like that! We do it because we both l-like it! Because our feelings match!”
Strictly speaking, Haero hadn’t lied at all except for saying there was no seriousness. It was true they did it because they liked each other, because their feelings matched.
The chief medical officer, who had been questioning Haero with a suspicious expression, finally seemed convinced after receiving consistent and certain responses to his repeated questions. He nodded. He still looked somewhat worried, but his expression suggested he was at least partially relieved.
Seeing the apparently genuine concern for him, Haero felt guilty.
Fidgeting nervously, Haero finally jumped up from his seat. Looking up at him, his face was flushed red to the point of bursting.
“Would you like some tea?”
“Oh my. Yes, please.” Finding Haero’s clumsiness cute, the chief medical officer responded without pressing further.
However, when he saw the snacks Haero brought with the tea a little later, the chief medical officer covered his face and pretended to cry.
“Aren’t these precious cookies?”
“Oh, are they?”
“These are the ones distributed to the Captain with the rations!” The chief medical officer finally chuckled before bursting into laughter.
Haero, with his face red from embarrassment, just rolled his eyes before eventually joining in with an awkward laugh.
“You’re not cut out for secret relationships. You seemed a bit difficult at first impression, but I guess not, Lieutenant.”
“Do I seem difficult?”
The chief medical officer carefully examined Haero, who was wiping away tears from the corners of his eyes from laughing so hard.
While he certainly didn’t appear difficult when smiling, when expressionless, he looked quite unapproachable. Sensitive, delicate, cold, and calculating.
But that wasn’t necessarily bad. Especially for a young military doctor.
The chief medical officer joked that they should forget what he said and just enjoy the expensive cookies.
Haero made a mental note to stop bringing Yoon Moo-hwa’s personal items while crunching on a butter cookie with an exceptional flavor.
✼✼✼
Yoon Moo-hwa was watching TV while dining in the captain’s mess hall, in anticipation of his secret meeting with Haero. Though he enjoyed movies, dramas that required continuous viewing to follow the flow were not to his taste. Nevertheless, he had turned it on because it was a truly famous long-running program and he knew his orderly really liked it.
The orderly already had it hard enough serving such a high-ranking superior, so shouldn’t they at least be allowed to comfortably watch dramas? Yoon Moo-hwa had allowed each orderly to watch TV when they were on duty.
Little did he know that the drama he had turned on was the same one that had been running for 8 years with a family tree more complex than a spider’s web—the one that had made Haero realize why he felt uneasy about the scent of lavender shampoo.
Yoon Moo-hwa frowned.
In the drama, a young man with a visibly youthful face was just beginning a relationship with a much older person. Given that it was early in the episode and this man wasn’t the main character, it was obvious they would soon break up, but public opinion was very negative.
“My goodness, how can someone have so little conscience?” The chef, who had been with Yoon Moo-hwa for nearly three years, vented his frustration.
“I didn’t know you watched this too, Chef.”
“Well, I don’t watch every episode religiously, but I see it occasionally. Few people don’t watch it, I imagine. With each new country joining the International Maritime Union, characters from that country increase too, and since last year, a famous actor from my homeland has joined the cast.”
The chef proudly mentioned that he had been a fan of that actor for nearly 20 years.
Uninterested in that, but with today’s content unusually sticking in his mind despite never really watching or listening properly before, Yoon Moo-hwa asked casually, “So what’s the age gap between those two?”
“Thirteen years. A full thirteen years! If it were my sibling, I would have stopped them. If it were my child, I’d have beaten up the other person.”
As if truly empathizing, the chef clenched his fist as if ready to swing at the air. Then, with a resolute expression, he turned sharply to Yoon Moo-hwa and asked, “You understand my feelings, Captain, don’t you?”
The implied meaning was: although as far as I know you have no family except your father, if you think about that person everyone on this ship knows about, you must understand this feeling.
“Hmm. That’s right.” Yoon Moo-hwa cleared his throat with a dry cough, covering his mouth with his fist, and agreed in a low voice.
But he felt distinctly uncomfortable. Somehow it felt like the arrows of criticism were aimed at him rather than the character in the drama.
In fact, there wasn’t much difference.
The only difference between that character and Yoon Moo-hwa was that the age gap with their lovers was twelve and thirteen years. A difference of one year. Yoon Moo-hwa knew better than anyone that this wasn’t a perfect self-justification. Moreover, while that character had met a complete stranger, the connection between Yoon Moo-hwa and Haero was somewhat special.
Of course, Yoon Moo-hwa had once let Haero go so he could make other choices, but in others’ eyes, he might just appear to be a pervert who waited for Haero to grow a bit more to feel less guilty. In truth, Yoon Moo-hwa wasn’t perfectly confident about it either… having realized it was only a matter of time before he became a conscienceless bastard. But how could he reject Haero, who shone with such vibrant vitality—no, just Haero himself?
…Fuck. Even his excuses were long-winded.
His glass was empty. Yoon Moo-hwa brought the empty glass to his lips, then irritably filled it with water.
“But I don’t think he’s the type to be dissuaded. He must be quite stubborn too. When they separated them, the new person he briefly dated had, believe it or not, a fifteen-year age gap.”
At that moment, Yoon Moo-hwa gulped down his water in one go.
“That’s unacceptable.”
How could one know how decent this new guy was? The world is full of criminals. He should definitely have a GPS and biometric signal transmitter on his body. If he can’t speak, then he should at least have an implant.
At some point, Yoon Moo-hwa had become intensely immersed in these aggressive thoughts.
Hearing his solemn and menacing muttering, the chef thought the Captain fully agreed with his opinion and enthusiastically continued, “Exactly. It’s unacceptable. And then to fall head over heels just because this new person treats him well… Ah, but this drama is known for its outrageous developments, so even though they’re happily dating now, they’ll probably break up soon. In the next season, he might date someone ten years younger…”
The chef chattered excitedly.
With each word, the veins on the back of Yoon Moo-hwa’s hand bulged more prominently.
If the cup had been made of a breakable or crushable material, it would have been destroyed by his hand.
Fortunately, Yoon Moo-hwa stopped just before damaging the vessel.
The chef also fell silent as the atmosphere suddenly chilled. He hadn’t eaten his years of rice in vain.
Realizing that his mood had sunk low enough to affect the entire space and that he had shown it, Yoon Moo-hwa sighed and ran his hand through his hair. His appetite had completely vanished.
He had to admit it. The chef’s words had greatly displeased him. The foundation of this displeasure was anxiety. That Haero was still too young and had plenty of time for his heart to change, just like the seasons in that awful drama.
It wasn’t that he doubted those feelings; he had many complaints about Haero’s time.
After losing his conscience, it seemed his reason had gone too. But even with self-mockery, Yoon Moo-hwa’s cold atmosphere wouldn’t lift. After gulping down his water, he emptied his tray—called a “try” in navy slang—and stood up, saying briefly.
“From now on, I won’t be dining when that drama is on, so set a different time. Of course, others should eat at the regular time. And feel free to watch TV.”
He knew it was childish, but couldn’t help it.
No matter how much he tried to act dignified, apply the brakes, and even push away, he was ultimately just the kind of man who would have shoved Haero into his stomach if he could.