Chapter 34

With an amused laugh, Se-woong queried, “Is it truly that shocking? Do I look like a eunuch?”

Hee-chan sprayed out a mouthful of liquor. Fortunately, he whipped his head away in time to spare the grill, but alcohol shooting into his nasal passage stung his sinuses with agonizing heat.

“No, hearing you say that, it actually fits you!” Hee-chan sputtered, coughing.

Se-woong blinked in profound bafflement at the sudden assertion. “A eunuch, sir?”

“No, no, not that!” Hee-chan protested, waving his hands. “I mean, Captain Cha gives off the vibe of someone who dates for a long time rather than frequently.”

Leaning forward with sparkling eyes, Sergeant Kim pressed, “Just how long did you date, sir? A year? A year and a half? Don’t tell me… over two whole years?”

“Is two years considered long?” Se-woong wondered aloud.

Muttering ‘two years…?’ with a look of genuine bewilderment, Se-woong emptied another shot glass. Perhaps driven by military pride, he never sipped halfway, downing every glass in a single shot. In this fashion, he had finished an entire bottle all on his own. Meeting the eyes of his two companions, Se-woong’s eyes curved softly in the exact smile Sergeant Kim had attempted to mimic earlier.

Watching him, Hee-chan’s expression softened warmly. Knowing only that Se-woong rarely drank without knowing his precise tolerance, Hee-chan had no way of recognizing that this gentle demeanor was Se-woong’s drunken habit. In truth, Cha Se-woong himself was largely ignorant of his own drunken quirks.

Having waited eagerly for Se-woong’s answer, Sergeant Kim suddenly leapt from his seat, announcing he could hold it in no longer. Though desperate to hear about Se-woong’s past romance, his bladder simply refused to comply.

Just as Hee-chan rose to shut the sliding door left slightly ajar in the sergeant’s frantic exit, Hyun-woo, the owner of Yukwoo-jeong, appeared carrying a bottle of soju and a complimentary platter of raw beef.

“Hyun-woo-ya,” Se-woong called out, his face lighting up.

Indeed, the captain welcomed his longtime friend even more enthusiastically than the complimentary platter.

Seeing Se-woong beaming innocently up at him, Hyun-woo let out an affectionate, helpless laugh. A fellow usually so prickly turned into such a gentle pushover the second alcohol touched his lips. Despite knowing him for years, Hyun-woo had witnessed this drunken habit only twice, both instances occurring within the past few days. Still, tonight seemed slightly better than the previous time.

“Why did you drink so much?” Hyun-woo chided gently, ruffling Se-woong’s hair. “Woong-ah, want some cold water?”

Shaking Se-woong’s head as he tousled his locks, Hyun-woo called out to an employee passing by the door.

“Em oi, bring some cold water here, please. With many, many ice?” Hyun-woo requested in broken English.

Cheerfully, the employee replied, “Yes, boss. I bring ice water right away.”

“Yeah, nhanh nhanh, please,” Hyun-woo said with an affectionate chuckle.

Nodding brightly, the employee replied, “Yes, very fast!”

The brief exchange warmly reflected both the foreign staff member’s sharp wit in speaking Korean despite a clumsy accent, and the proprietor’s thoughtful consideration in using simple phrases so his employee would understand. Hee-chan watched the interaction with delight, as though viewing a short-form video clip.

“If the administrative officer doesn’t mind, may I sit with you for a brief moment?” Hyun-woo inquired politely, stepping toward the table.

“Oh, by all means!” Hee-chan welcomed him. “Though we don’t have a clean glass…”

Hyun-woo waved his hand dismissively. “Ah, no need—I don’t drink at guest tables. Besides, what got into this punk to make him drink like this? He looks thrilled out of his mind. What, did he get a special promotion?”

“A promotion would be wonderful, but no,” Hee-chan remarked with a broad grin. “I’m treating them to celebrate my upcoming wedding, so I think he’s enjoying himself on my behalf.”

“Ah… a wedding celebration,” Hyun-woo murmured slowly.

The cheerful smile Hyun-woo had maintained stiffened awkwardly for a brief fraction of a second, though Hee-chan failed to notice.

His gaze was thoroughly captivated by the freshly delivered beef platter. The marbling looked extraordinary. What they had eaten so far was already prime grade, yet this cut displayed marbling that was truly spectacular.

Pulling out his smartphone to hurry his tardy girlfriend along, Hee-chan snapped a photo of the meat and typed out a quick message in shorthand: ‘Where r u? Hurry up!’ Looking up after sending it, he noticed Se-woong’s chin drooping forward. Had he seriously succumbed to… one bottle? Maybe a single bottle and change?

“Captain Cha,” Hee-chan called out in surprise. “You can’t possibly be drunk already, can you? You’ve only had one bottle!”

Straightening slightly, Se-woong slurred politely, “Drunk? Not at all. I’m entirely sober, sir.”

Lifting his nodding head and straightening his spine, Se-woong adjusted his posture with exaggerated formality. Seeing him fail to realize that such stiffness only made him appear far more intoxicated, Hee-chan concluded he was definitely drunk. Hee-chan had assumed Se-woong’s temperance at dinners stemmed from strict self-discipline, but it appeared he simply possessed low tolerance. Then again, avoiding alcohol for that reason was self-discipline in its own right.

Witnessing Se-woong tipsy and feeling as though they had grown closer, Hee-chan drained his own glass with satisfaction.

Meanwhile, the sliding door parted as the employee bearing ice water and Sergeant Kim returning from the restroom entered together. Looking puzzled at the restaurant owner sitting beside Se-woong, Sergeant Kim bowed respectfully, though his curiosity promptly snapped back to his superior officer.

“Now please tell us, sir,” Sergeant Kim demanded, leaning forward. “You dated for a long time, so how long was it? If it was over two years, three years? Surely it couldn’t be that long, sir!”

Se-woong gave a soft chuckle. “Tae-jin-ah, what kind of phrasing is ‘surely it couldn’t be that long, sir’?”

“I’m curious as well, but why are you so persistent, Sergeant Kim?” Hee-chan chided playfully. “Whether it was three years or thirty years, what difference does it make?”

Sergeant Kim pouted, insisting, “Three whole years… isn’t that way too long, sir?”

Clearing the water glass that had a thin film of beef oil floating on the surface, Hyun-woo poured ice water into a fresh glass while discreetly observing Sergeant Kim. He immediately understood why Shin had ordered him to head into Se-woong’s room and pry that brat away. While there was no need to indulge Shin’s excessive paranoia, the sergeant pestering Se-woong for answers resembled a spoiled younger brother distraught at losing his eldest brother to a sister-in-law.

Had he made this impression last time? What was certain was that even then, he hardly looked like military material. His physiognomy screamed the youngest son of a wealthy household—especially handing the tongs straight to his superior and happily gobbling down the grilled meat Se-woong prepared.

Snatching the tongs from Se-woong’s hand, Hyun-woo deftly flipped the beef across the grate. Right at that moment, Se-woong chimed in.

“I think I dated for about eight years too,” Se-woong murmured, tilting his head toward Hyun-woo. “Hyun-woo-ya, wasn’t it eight years for us?”

“Excuse me?” Hee-chan blurted.

Sergeant Kim gasped in sheer shock, “What?!”

At Se-woong casually asking Hyun-woo if it had been eight years for them, both Hee-chan and Sergeant Kim’s jaws dropped straight to the floor. They appeared vastly more shocked by that implication than by the eight-year duration itself. For some reason, a muffled thud echoed from behind the adjacent wall. Only Se-woong, having dropped the verbal grenade, remained utterly serene.

“Hey, hey! Woong-ah! You’re making them misunderstand!” Hyun-woo stammered, bursting into panicked laughter. “It’s not you and me—we weren’t together! I just happen to be close friends with the person Se-woong was seeing… Everyone, that’s not it! I love women! I fucking—I mean, I really love women!”

Before the two men nodding in slow, doubtful comprehension, Hyun-woo gave an embarrassed, awkward chuckle.

Scratching his cheek, Sergeant Kim noted thoughtfully, “Still, it seems everyone around Captain Cha has known him for a very long time. The owner here, his long-term girlfriend… and Major Lee Shin as well… Ah! That’s right! I ran into Major Lee Shin on my way to the restroom earlier.”

Hyun-woo’s smile turned even more awkward. Glaring at the wall as though seeing something that ought not to be visible, his expression was fraught with dread.

He should have known the second Shin hijacked Room 7 right next door, claiming he came to drive Se-woong home because the punk was drinking. Did you seriously get caught already, you bastard? No, you probably had no intention of hiding in the first place.

Either way, both of them were absolute masters at throwing him into impossible predicaments.

The rain that had drizzled tediously all day began falling with earnest, heavier drops.

A torrential downpour would merely wash away without penetrating the earth, but rain that fell steady and fine seeped deep into the soil, nourishing the terrain and allowing the roots of new life to take firm hold. It was rain quintessential to the threshold of spring.

As the sound of rain outside grew louder, the voices of the occupants inside swelled in volume as well.

Hee-chan’s girlfriend arrived, and with Hyun-woo unwittingly joining the party, lively clamor filled the room for a time. Pleasantly tipsy, Hee-chan prepared to wind down the gathering. For working professionals facing duty the next morning, a weekday drinking engagement was nothing short of a test of discipline.

Having claimed he would mix soju with cider, Hee-chan had assumed Sergeant Kim possessed little drinking talent, yet the sergeant had merrily polished off three whole bottles of soju cocktail all on his own. With his complexion completely unchanged, the sergeant stepped up to take care of Se-woong while Hyun-woo stepped out of the room.

“I will escort Captain Cha home, sir,” Sergeant Kim volunteered proudly.

“Sergeant Kim, aren’t you taking a taxi?” Hee-chan questioned, frowning. “Your home is near headquarters. That means you’d have to circle all of Seoul! My girlfriend deliberately refrained from drinking. We can easily drop Captain Cha off on our way home.”

Though Se-woong possessed a car and calling a designated driver was hardly difficult, watching colleagues compete to see him home safely was a genuinely heartwarming sight.

“Well, I’m not exactly taking a taxi…” Sergeant Kim mumbled.

“Come now, you plan to take a bus at this hour?” Hee-chan scolded playfully. “It’s pouring outside, take a cab! We’d love to drop you off too, but that would make us far too late.”

In other words, he was apologizing that he could not extend the ride to the sergeant. Even so, Hee-chan pulled a yellow fifty-thousand-won banknote from his wallet. Since Se-woong had already settled the bill in advance, robbing Hee-chan of the chance to pay for dinner, he at least wanted to cover the taxi fare.

Waving his hands in refusal, Sergeant Kim insisted, “No, sir, I really won’t be taking a taxi. Someone came to pick me up…”

Hee-chan gasped, his eyes widening. “What? Don’t tell me your parents came to get you? In this downpour? At this late hour? And why on earth would you make your parents drive Captain Cha home too? You’re truly something else!”

“That’s not it—it’s not my parents—” Sergeant Kim flustered, his cheeks reddening. “It’s really not!”

Hee-chan gave a disbelieving chuckle. “Come on, really. What, did your personal chauffeur arrive then?”

Seeing Sergeant Kim merely opening and closing his mouth in flustered dilemma, Hee-chan assumed he was embarrassed and patted him consolingly on the shoulder. If the young man couldn’t even order kimbap alone without asking his mother, asking for a ride in the rain was hardly beyond belief.

Still, seeing a junior subordinate earnestly offering to escort his drunken superior home was undeniably admirable. Upon first meeting, Hee-chan had assumed he was an arrogant young master who cared only for himself, but beneath that exterior lay genuine depth.

Sergeant Kim announced, “In that case, I’ll carry the captain on my back to the car!”