GB 56

More precisely, the culprit appeared in person.

“Are you running off to tattle?”

It was natural to be bewildered by someone who grabbed him in the corridor leading to his room and suddenly seemed ready to beat him up. Haero didn’t even know the person’s name to begin with.

“Hey, Gorin. Come here.”

A startled Tan Shui came belatedly to intervene, but Gorin, with crazed eyes, didn’t listen. One of Gorin’s parents was a major shareholder in a media company known for third-rate gossip and B-grade yellow journalism.

“Fuck, do you know how much we might have to pay now? That bastard is trying to ruin our family!”

Haero, already on edge due to his conflict with Yoon Moo-hwa, retorted sharply, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Are you playing dumb, you sly bastard? If you didn’t whine to your sugar daddy to ruin our magazine company, does it make sense to demand this amount in settlement?”

Gorin spelled out the amount figure by figure.

It was an amount that even shocked Tan Shui. The malicious intent to bankrupt or severely shake the company was evident.

While it’s natural to respond to malicious nonsense with malice, Gorin was outraged.

From Gorin’s half-crazed ranting, Haero realized that he was the one who had spread the gossip about Yoon Moo-hwa and himself.

“It was you?”

Sparks flew from Haero’s eyes too.

If only he had known it alone, it might have been different, but it had reached Yoon Sang-won’s ears. This wasn’t something that could be overlooked. The fact that Yoon Sang-won knew meant that rumors had likely spread among people in that world. He had become filth to Yoon Moo-hwa. This bastard had turned him into filth itself, into infamy.

“You spread that bullshit? It was you?” This wasn’t something he could let slide. Haero threw down the bag he was unpacking and strode over.

Gorin flinched momentarily at Haero’s gaze as he came close. The intensity of this guy half a head shorter than him was tremendous.

Soon, Gorin smirked. “Look at this bastard’s eyes. Want to hit someone? No, kill someone? Oh, have you already killed someone before?”

“You’re writing novels with your head. Why don’t you change your career path to suit your aptitude? You seem to think you’re something special because you can push people around with a pen, but you’re mistaken.”

The reason Haero, who had resolved to live righteously, hadn’t responded to any provocations or rumors was partly because the previous noise hadn’t been significant, but also because there hadn’t been a case that so directly damaged Yoon Moo-hwa’s honor until now.

“What? Want to hit me?” Gorin laughed mockingly and lunged forward, bumping Haero’s shoulder repeatedly.

What surprised him a bit was that this guy, who seemed insignificant due to his smaller size, unexpectedly didn’t budge.

Haero was quietly, calmly furious. People often don’t realize that calm anger can be more terrifying.

Gorin lowered his head and sneered even more, “I heard he came to pick you up this time? There’s more than one person who saw you two tangled up as soon as you got in the car.”

Haero flinched. It must have been then. The day Yoon Sang-won called. Yoon Moo-hwa leaned towards him to close the door. Someone must have seen that.

“That was–”

“Creepy bastards flock together. Whether it’s the guy who used his rank to groom a kid to his taste or the guy who came here following such a man–”

“Haero!” Tan Shui cried out in shock.

Haero, unable to hold back any longer, had thrown a punch at Gorin.

If this were just a fight between them, it might end with a warning and demerits, but this wasn’t an ordinary emotional dispute.

Tan Shui rushed to intervene, but Haero was incredibly quick. He ducked and lunged at Gorin, who tried but failed to shake him off. Instead, he pummeled Haero’s clinging body.

It was literally a dogfight, a complete mess.

The two rolled around wildly. It was beyond the point where anyone could stop them.

“Fuck, you’ll both be screwed if this continues!”

The commotion drew other cadets from their rooms.

However, unable to grasp the situation, they were closer to being bystanders to the fight. Especially since Haero was involved, they didn’t want to get entangled and deal with the hassle of being labeled as “young master’s” associates afterward.

No one knew that Haero wasn’t the type to take out his anger on just anyone.

There’s no one here who knows Haero.

In this world, only Yoon Moo-hwa truly knows him. But Yoon Moo-hwa isn’t here, and Seon Ikhyeon and Major Gu Yejin aren’t people Haero thinks of when he’s lonely and troubled.

Haero started to cry. Not from pain, but from sadness.

He felt miserable. He didn’t even realize he was now pinned under Gorin.

There’s only one person he can think of, but he can’t contact him. He can’t call or find him. Moreover, he won’t be able to tell him why he’s fighting this trash now, why he couldn’t make any rational judgment about worrying about disciplinary action. He doesn’t want to let him know. Because he’s no longer completely innocent. Because he can’t be proud in the face of those false rumors due to his feelings. Now that he’s realized his own feelings to the point where he can’t even be proud in front of B-grade tabloid gossip, the other party won’t even acknowledge it.

So this is rejection.

This must be heartbreak.

It didn’t bother him at all when others treated him like human garbage or a young criminal, but being pushed away by Yoon Moo-hwa and having his feelings firmly defined and rejected hurt like his limbs were being torn off.

“You bastard, who are you to Yoon Moo-hwa.” Haero cried as he threw another punch at Gorin, “Who are you? What do you know? What do you know about us!”

‘Then do I know about us?

I don’t know.

I don’t know about us, and I don’t understand Yoon Moo-hwa.’

He had tried so hard to remove the rumors entangling him with Yoon Moo-hwa, but it was all in vain. No, he made it worse. Now he can’t laugh off everything as false rumors. 

‘Because of me. Because I have feelings for Yoon Moo-hwa.’

The feeling of liking someone is humanity’s worst invention. It’s a self-imposed punishment that makes you weaker than any other being the moment you feel it, in exchange for enjoying everything.

Moreover, the reason Yoon Moo-hwa could be so casually mentioned by a newly enrolled cadet was actually because of him. Yoon Moo-hwa isn’t just anyone, but Haero is. And on top of that, he’s Yoon Moo-hwa’s weakness.

If only they had met when he was still a pirate, he would have just taken him away.

Haero sobbed loudly while imagining things he didn’t really mean.

He shouldn’t have enrolled. It was his fault that Yoon Moo-hwa was now being talked about by just anyone.

‘But … but then how can I stand by Yoon Moo-hwa‘s side? How can I have all of his time? To do that, I can’t be ‘just anyone’, but I can no longer be satisfied with being Yoon Moo-hwa‘s special ‘clueless protégé’.’

In his anguish, Haero didn’t even realize his arm had broken.

The sound of the bone breaking silenced the commotion as if cutting through it. Even the cadets who were rushing in, sensing the seriousness of the situation, all stopped at once.

Everyone thought Haero, whose face was red from crying, was in pain because his arm was broken. In fact, a broken bone was nothing to Haero.

* * *

There was a very slightly misaligned part in Haero’s leg bone that could be felt if touched carefully. There was also a long scar on his arm that had been torn and healed, the former a trace of falling and breaking while climbing a tree, the latter a long gash from swimming.

Getting hurt was everyday life. Haero, who had spent his childhood considering it a good day if he didn’t die, wouldn’t think much of a broken arm.

But this world was different.

Especially when it was a fight between cadets, and Haero, who was secretly considered a special management subject, was at the center of the incident.

Yoon Moo-hwa was contacted.

Yoon Moo-hwa did something uncharacteristic again. It was quite rude even for Colonel Yoon Moo-hwa. He very privately used his influence to delay the departure. The crew was told it was delayed due to engine inspection issues.

It was obvious that Yoon Sang-won would have heard the rumors, and it was clear that he would be angry.

Yoon Moo-hwa quietly turned over his communication device that was ringing as if on fire. The desk hummed with the reduced vibration.

Staring at it blankly, he slowly raised his head.

Haero was on the other side.

They reunited not long after parting. In that short time, Haero had been injured. His arm was broken and in a cast, they said. And he hadn’t even gone to sea yet.

Yoon Moo-hwa didn’t sigh or frown. Haero felt as if the air around him was slowly constricting.

“Cadet visitation request.”

When the life guidance instructor said he was looking for him, he went and received this brief notification.

With just that one sentence, he could immediately guess what had happened.

His beaten face was a mess. The cast on his arm couldn’t be hidden either. Haero wished this time walking to the special visitation room could last forever.

It was pathetic. He didn’t regret lunging at Gorin, or did he? No. He didn’t know anything anymore.

But if he went back to that moment, he would have lost his reason and attacked just the same. The only shameful thing was that while he thought he had fought for Yoon Moo-hwa’s honor, he bitterly questioned whether the result was worthy of that.

It was certain that Yoon Moo-hwa had come. If the situation was worse, it would be Yoon Sang-won.

Either way, it was the worst and unspeakably embarrassing.

The worst part of all was that even in this situation, he hoped it was Yoon Moo-hwa who had come.

He missed him.

He hadn’t seen him for three months and had thought of him every single day. His longing was deeper than the Mariana Trench. The fact that it could get even deeper frightened Haero. He couldn’t understand people who were afraid of water, but if it was because they felt this kind of unfathomable depth, now he could understand that fear.

Unfortunately, the path to the visitation room had an end. Haero stood in front of the door and, contrary to his hesitant steps, flung it open in one go. Standing with just a wall between them, he felt an unfounded certainty.

The one who came to see him was Yoon Moo-hwa.

He missed him unbearably. Even in this situation.

Haero couldn’t properly face the face he longed to see so much. Because the look in Yoon Moo-hwa’s eyes when he first met them upon entering was so unfamiliar.

‘He looked at me as if I were a stranger.’

Haero felt suffocated, like when he was first thrown into the water.

He looked at him as if at a stranger, with an expression devoid of contempt, worry, disappointment, or any emotion.

Haero finally realized that Yoon Moo-hwa had never fully shown himself to him.

The vibration that had been shaking the desk finally stopped.

Even though it was no longer ringing, Haero suffered from an auditory hallucination of still hearing that vibration. It seemed as if the lingering vibrations in the air were hitting the walls and returning to shake his ears repeatedly.

“Cadet Haero.” Yoon Moo-hwa called him. In a way he had never heard before.