GB 64

The first night after departure is deepening. Haero, staying awake, volunteered for sickbay duty and opened his diary.

It’s a new diary bought to commemorate his boarding. On the first page, Haero wrote the date and quickly jotted down one sentence.

‘I met him today.’

In Haero’s diary, Yoon Moo-hwa has no name. There was no need to mention others, and even if someone else appeared, for Haero, ‘he’ was only Yoon Moo-hwa.

The total time he met him today wouldn’t even add up to 3 minutes. It’s too short. Far from enough to soothe 4 years of longing. Haero, who had been burying his face in his interlocked fingers, raised his head again and picked up the pen.

‘The ship is larger than expected, and even late at night, the engine noise makes it difficult to sense people’s presence. In this vast place, where he might be…’

Just before finishing the sentence, someone knocked on the sickbay door.

“I heard you’re on duty on your first day, so I came.”

It was the medical chief who entered.

“Take a short break. The duty officers are having coffee in the mess hall now.”

Haero stared at him blankly, then closed his diary, put it in the drawer, and stood up.

The ship’s engine noise filled his ears. The ship’s distinctive smell had already deeply permeated his body. Haero carefully stepped on the gently swaying floor and arrived at the mess hall.

“It seems the waves will be calm tonight. While we might not have another chance to greet each other this comfortably in the future, isn’t the first night something that only happens once?”

It’s a tone skilled at lifting the mood. Haero nodded, took the offered cup, and sat down.

The cup, made of a material resistant to breaking, contained cocoa. Although no one complained, perhaps feeling awkward about the excessively harmless and cute contents, the deck officer who had been leading the atmosphere added a word while scratching his head.

“We can’t drink alcohol while on duty. But it’s too boring to end with just water. If we were just going to drink water, why would I have called everyone together? Still, that powder drink is the first supply to run out.”

“Why are you lying? Everyone will drink mixed coffee first, so how could this run out first?” The deputy chief engineer laughed loudly and jokingly chided.

The atmosphere softens gently. Everyone extended their arms for a toast, treating the sweet drink as if it were some great alcohol.

“Let’s get to know each other’s faces in advance. A ship stops if even one part doesn’t work properly, and if it stops, it sinks. I hope that even if emotions arise, you’ll resolve them well and distinguish between public and private matters. That’s all!”

The deck officer, who had the highest rank and seniority among the current members, gave quite an impressive toast. The deputy chief engineer whistled by pursing his lips.

Each person shouted “Cheers” in their native language, followed by “Cheers” in the common language. After two cheerful greetings, the cups clashed so hard it wouldn’t have been strange if they had broken. The fact that they remained intact suggested they were made of an unbreakable material to prevent glass shards from scattering even if they fell from the table during heavy waves.

Sipping his cocoa, Haero exchanged greetings with the people around his table. Some even approached him directly to shake hands. Haero was cautious, wondering if anyone might remember him from his brief time, just short of a year, at the naval academy.

However, whether they truly didn’t know or were pretending not to, no one seemed to recognize him.

After catching his breath, Haero carefully probed, “The captain must be asleep now, right?”

“Since nothing’s wrong. But there are times when he wakes up and comes out first, even without being reported, just before something happens. It’s almost ghostly.”

An officer with higher rank and more experience than Haero clicked his tongue.

It seemed they had already formed their opinions about Yoon Moo-hwa among themselves, but they appeared to be holding back due to the presence of newcomers.

He’s curious about how others view Yoon Moo-hwa.

‘When will he be able to hear it,’ Haero wondered. The long 6-month operation time was not an obstacle for Haero, but rather seen as a good opportunity.

“By the way, newcomers must hear this story. There’s a blocked passage leading to the underground armory…” The seniors’ playful side emerged to tease the newcomers.

Every ship had at least one or two ghost stories circulating. Whether it was hallucinations seen due to prolonged stress in a confined space or real ghosts, Haero wasn’t scared at all and had no interest. Anyway, non-physical things couldn’t harm him. 

Only people hurt people. 

Even if it’s a case of getting your hand caught in a door, it could be due to one’s own mistake or someone else’s carelessness.

Haero sipped his cocoa while glancing repeatedly at the entrance of the officers’ mess.

However, the person he was hoping for didn’t appear.

‘It’s fine. I didn’t think it would be easy from the start anyway…’

He had endured for four years. Haero wasn’t one to be discouraged by this much. For now, just being on the same ship was enough. Consoling his disappointment, Haero finished his cup.

* * *

Someone came to the empty sickbay. It was a sailor suffering from severe seasickness. Unable to sleep at all and constantly vomiting, waking up his bunkmates, he had finally decided to come for some medicine after holding out as long as he could.

Expecting to be scolded for seeking medication for such mild waves, he opened the door, only to find someone even more intimidating than a nagging petty officer inside.

“V-victory.”

Captain Yoon Moo-hwa, standing in front of the desk, slowly turned to face him. The sailor remained frozen in a salute, barely able to close his churning throat, breaking out in a cold sweat.

‘Why is the captain in the sickbay at this hour? Surely he can’t be seasick.’

He had already heard everything in his room. The names of the most troublesome officers and seniors to watch out for, advice on what to be cautious of, and warnings never to go to the outer deck for a smoke when waves are above a certain height, no matter how desperate you are. There was even a ghost story about a guy who disappeared after a wave hit while he was smoking on the outer deck, and now appears there during storms like a water ghost.

And even a somewhat chilling story that the captain might not be human.

“That guy doesn’t even get seasick. Even when veteran sailors, petty officers, and officers are all down, he stands alone on the bridge.”

“When even the executive officer was down, and only the chief engineer and one deck hand weren’t seasick, I really thought he wasn’t human. At least the deck hand cried about missing his girlfriend, and the chief engineer bragged about his daughter, showing some human traits.”

They paused and exchanged glances. These sailors had been on this ship for two years. Despite having gone through training and seen almost everything in those two years since joining after careful consideration of the recruitment notice, the captain was still the most intimidating.

“Seeing how he deals with the sea and pirates, it seems like even a lover would lose interest and leave.”

“And that eye, it’s still hard to get used to.”

However, it seemed they held him in high regard, as they soon agreed that apart from these points, the captain was faultless. They even added that his inhuman aspects were somewhat reassuring.

Recalling that conversation, the sailor tried not to look at the captain’s eye patch while his arm trembled.

“At ease.” The captain, who had been staring at him, acknowledged the salute and turned his gaze back to what he had been looking at. “It’s lights out. What is a sailor doing here?”

“I-I came for seasickness medication!”

How embarrassing. How pathetic must he seem. The captain must be wondering how he’ll manage six months if he’s getting seasick in such mild waves.

However, Brigadier General Yoon Moo-hwa, the captain, didn’t even glance at the red-faced sailor. Instead, he simply pushed a tablet PC on the desk towards him.

“Put your seal there and take what you need from the bottom drawer.”

The sailor pressed his seasickness-greened finger on the screen while covering his mouth, glancing furtively at the captain.

He was intently looking at something. It was an analog notebook. His long fingers were turning the pages one by one.

“Are you done?” The cold question snapped him back to reality.

The sailor replied, “Ah, yes. Yes.” He gathered the seasickness medication and saluted again.

The captain ended it with a slight wave of his hand. The gesture seemed annoyed, but his face remained as expressionless as a machine.

Only after leaving the sickbay and entering the corridor did the sailor realize how tense he had been, his legs almost cramping. 

He tapped his thighs with his fist, groaning, “I was so fucking scared I’d puke right in front of the captain.”

Grumbling, he barely managed to move his feet. He opened his mouth and gulped down the seasickness medication. He quickly became excited at the thought of telling others he had seen the captain.

The captain he saw seemed less machine-like than expected.

Perhaps it was because he was focused on reading something, whatever it was.

He was curious about what the captain was reading, but the mixture of the medication’s effects and his seasickness prevented him from thinking further.

Yoon Moo-hwa put everything the sailor had touched back in its place. He carefully placed the notebooks in the drawer and closed it. Although it had a password as it was personal storage, there were no secrets on this ship that he, as the captain, couldn’t access. Even if they were in the private domain.

As if nothing had happened, he slowly made his way to the captain’s quarters.

Just as he was about to open the door to his quarters, the deck officer called out to him.

“Captain.”

Instead of turning around, Yoon Moo-hwa resumed moving his fingertips that had momentarily paused. After the biometric recognition finished, one of the ship’s most confidential spaces opened.

“The duty officers have returned to their positions.”

“……”

“Thank you for allowing time for such a gathering.” The deck officer joked that the officers would quickly become close.

Well, he wasn’t particularly interested in such things.

Yoon Moo-hwa, who had been listening with his head slightly bowed, raised his gaze again. “Good. Well done.”

Then he entered his room. As if nothing out of the ordinary had happened today, just like any other day.