He hadn't slept well the night before. After waking from that cursed dream of the past, he hadn't been able to fall back asleep properly, so he was a bit short on sleep. And today, the weather was exceptionally good, with brilliant sunlight flooding every corner of the rooftop.
Under such conditions, it would have been hard not to doze off, but he hadn't expected to sleep through until the sun began to dip toward the western horizon.
He must have even slept through the pager going off because there were three or four missed calls on it. When he checked the number, it was from the office. Clicking his tongue, he went straight down to the office from the rooftop, only to be scolded thoroughly by the duty officer. He told Jeong Taeui that if he hadn't answered one more call, he would have triggered an emergency alert, and angrily asked what he had been doing. Jeong Taeui could only click his tongue and tell him that he had been taking a nap on the rooftop, which earned him an extra helping of scolding.
However, seeing that he was grumbling and nagging, it didn't seem like such an urgent
emergency that required being called four or five times in a row. For now, that was a relief.
"What's going on?"
Jeong Taeui asked as he looked around.
Somehow, the office seemed busier than usual. Just as he was thinking that something felt off, the office door creaked open behind him, and a man walked in. The man approached the person in charge of living arrangements and said, "I lost the house rules for the dormitory."
Jeong Taeui blinked as he looked at the man. It wasn't because the man himself was
particularly unusual or suspicious. He just seemed unfamiliar.
In this isolated island where a limited number of people lived, there was absolutely no chance of suddenly seeing a stranger.
"..."
Jeong Taeui glanced at the wall clock in the office. It was a little before five o'clock. Just in case, he checked his wristwatch, but it showed the same time.
The regular time for the ship to arrive was between five and five-thirty, give or take a few minutes.
"Who is that man? I don't recognize him."
When Jeong Taeui asked curiously, the public official glanced at the man and muttered indifferently.
"I don't know. I can't possibly know every outsider....The phone's not being answered. Is he not in his room?"
The official, who had been trying to make a call somewhere since Jeong Taeui arrived,
clicked his tongue. But no matter where he was calling, Jeong Taeui kept staring intently at the man as he took the rules and walked away.
"An outsider...? What kind of outsider?"
"An external participant for the joint training. Today's the day they're coming."
The official looked at Jeong Taeui with a face that said, "Surely you knew that?" Jeong Taeui, on the other hand, responded with a more bewildered expression.
"But it's not yet time for the ship to arrive, is it?"
"There are a lot of people, so they arranged an extra trip. They just arrived a while ago, and by now, they're probably all in the dormitory unpacking. More importantly, you're an instructor assistant, and the instructor you're supposed to be in charge of has arrived, but you can't be reached...You should be meeting and greeting them, shouldn't you?...But now the instructor isn't answering the phone either."
The official clicked his tongue in annoyance, saying that the beepers hadn't been distributed yet. Jeong Taeui just blinked and stared at him.
He wasn't so much shocked as he was at a loss for words. At himself. All those people had come pouring in, yet he had been sleeping peacefully on the roof, oblivious to their presence.
It was absurd.
Now that he thought about it, the sounds outside were noisier than usual. Not only the
officials working in the office, but also the footsteps and muffled conversations coming from the corridor were slightly more bustling than usual.
...Wait. If external participants have arrived, that means...
"...Um, then..."
"No luck with the call. It can't be helped. Mr. Jeong Taeui, go straight to your room. I already told the instructor that you would be sent to your room as soon as you could be reached. Go and greet them and have a brief discussion about the upcoming schedule."
The official cut off Jeong Taeui's words without a second thought and looked up at him.
"This time, don't get sidetracked and make sure you go straight to greet them," the official said, firmly emphasizing the point with wide eyes. Jeong Taeui could only nod obediently and turn around to leave.
Even as Jeong Taeui left the office and walked toward the elevator, he passed two unfamiliar men who had just stepped out of the elevator that had arrived on the first floor.
The men, who were clearly outsiders based on their attire, exchanged brief nods with Jeong Taeui as they passed by, conversing in a language he didn't understand. They were probably going out for a
smoke.
So they've arrived.
Jeong Taeui sighed. "To think I didn't even wake up when all those people came in, Jeong Taeui, are you carefree or just dull?" he muttered to himself, lightly tapping his head.
Jeong Taeui was about to step into the open elevator when he stopped himself. No, he
thought, and stepped back. Come to think of it, he wasn't headed to the dormitory on the
sixth basement floor. He needed to go one floor down, where the instructors were staying.
There was no need to take the elevator, so he turned toward the stairs.
"...Well, then."
Somewhere inside this building or somewhere on this island—those guys were here. Two faces he wasn't at all happy to see: an old classmate he wouldn't mind seeing at any other time but definitely not in this situation, and someone he absolutely did not want to meet, not in this situation or ever again.
(In truth, Jeong Taeui still didn't know how to define his relationship with Ilay Riegrow.
There was a word that came closest to describing it, but it was a word he couldn't bring himself to say. Sometimes it seemed that Ilay could say it casually, though.)
The fact that there were two unwelcome faces in this closed space was by no means pleasant, but Jeong Taeui sighed lightly and shook his head.
Still, they wouldn't run into each other that easily. Although it was inevitable that they would encounter each other during training, the UNHRDO Asia Branch building was large.
A total of eight floors, each with an area of 2,000 pyeong. The number of people staying there was just over a hundred. (A pyeong is a Korean unit of area and floorspace, equal to a square kan or 36 square Korean feet.)
The population density was extremely low. Unless it was during training, there was a good chance they could go two weeks without running into each other.
Besides, how many years had it been since he had been discharged? One of the unwelcome faces might have already forgotten about him. (He sincerely hoped so.) Even if they trained together, they might go two weeks without being recognized if they only saw each other in passing from a distance.
Of course. The immediate problem wasn't some guy like Lieutenant Kim-no, he was a
captain now, wasn't he? The first thing to worry about was the man who might throw a
massacre right in front of him.
Let's live without crossing paths, if possible. With Ilay, that was impossible since their work was entangled, but with Lieutenant Kim, it might just be possible.
"Right, right. In this vast place, there are only so many spots where people can kill time. As long as I avoid those places―."
"What? Jeong Taeui?!"
However.
Unfortunately...
It seemed that Jeong Taeui's wish was already showing signs of not being granted.
From below the stairs where Jeong Taeui was descending, about two floors down.
"Why is that bastard here?"
"Well, I heard there was a Korean, so I asked his name, and they said it was Jeong Taeui.
Though the pronunciation was a bit off, so I might have misheard."
A disgruntled voice contrasted with an indifferent voice as they exchanged conversation.
There was the occasional slurping sound, probably from someone sitting on a folding chair beside the water dispenser at each landing, drinking water. And right at the landing two floors above, Jeong Taeui, who had frozen in place, had stopped descending the stairs. He found himself idly thinking that it had been a while since he last
heard someone speaking in Korean.
"Isn't it just another guy with a similar name?"
"Well, it turns out the time he first came here coincides with when that guy was discharged. And I heard he was a former officer too. With that much matching, it's hard to dismiss..."
There was a brief silence after the voice trailed off suspiciously.
Jeong Taeui collapsed into the chair at the landing where he had stopped. Why is it that
voices you'd rather forget, the ones you want to erase from memory as soon as possible, are the ones that come back so vividly?
But it wasn't just that voice that he remembered, the owner of the slow, easy-going voice that accompanied it was also easy to guess. He was a fellow classmate from the military academy, one who had often met during reunions as they were stationed nearby after commissioning. A
friend who got along with everyone without causing friction, so naturally, he got along with Jeong Taeui as well. Let's see...Ah, yes, it was Chang-oh, Yoon Chang-oh.
That guy came along too. Now that I think about it, I vaguely remember seeing his name on the list. I couldn't focus on it at the time because the impact of seeing Kim Jeong-pil's name was too big.
Jeong Taeui took some water from the water dispenser and moistened his throat.
I thought the memories had aged over the years, but apparently not. The moment I heard Lieutenant Kim's voice, the old resentment started bubbling up. I haven't really had such an experience before, so maybe I never realized it, but perhaps I'm more of a grudge-holder than I thought.
...Hmph. If you forget that grudge after a few years, then you'd be a saint.
Jeong Taeui grumbled to himself, feeling his eyebrows rise as memories from the past
surfaced. Meanwhile, the conversation continued to drift up from the lower floor.
"I was wondering how he was doing, but I never thought I'd run into him here."
"What's there to wonder about? He's probably still messing around with men."
Crunch, the paper cup in his hand crumpled.
Why hasn't that bastard changed at all? I guess his elbow and ribs that got smashed back then have healed by now.
As Jeong Taeui frowned, just like the crumpled paper cup, there was a noise indicating that the door on the lower floor opened. It seemed someone had come out into the landing. The conversation below paused for a moment. There was a brief "Hello," from Yoon Chang-oh.
A few seconds of awkward silence followed, and then that damned voice spoke again.
"So, what's that bastard doing here?"
"Huh? Oh, Taeui? I didn't ask that far. I just heard that someone by that name was here, and that was it."
"So, they haven't heard the rumors about him messing around with men here?"
"Hey, Jeong-pil..."
"Huh? What? He's a foreigner. It's not like he'd understand Korean anyway. And even if he did, so what?"
Yoon Chang-oh probably said something in response to whoever had come out into the
landing, but that damned Lieutenant Kim was as stubborn as ever.
Fine, go ahead and tell the whole world that Jeong Taeui is gay. As you said, out of 6 billion people, how many would understand?.
(You know this novel is old when it says the population is 6 billion people. At this moment, the world population is sitting at around 8 billion people.)