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Chapter 56
The silence was broken by Im Eun-ha.
“Watch your mouth.”
Then, sweeping her gaze over everyone, she spoke firmly.
“There’s nothing certain, and the situation is unusual. Seol Ah-yeon is a coordinator. With her status window showing, no one knows if she can transfer unconditionally with someone else. Don’t judge recklessly.”
Choi Jae-hyung scoffed, his tone dripping with sarcasm.
“Do you really think that? Looks like the platoon leader’s one step ahead of me.”
“Lieutenant Choi, that’s enough,” Lee Gyu-min interrupted softly. Choi Jae-hyung raised one eyebrow. Lee Gyu-min placed a hand on Kim Do-woon’s shoulder and stood up.
“The battalion commander will judge whether it’s a real transfer.”
“Is there even enough to judge? An So-young already saw it.”
“Nothing official has been announced.”
“You’re going to believe everything the battalion commander says?”
“It’s not out of loyalty—it’s for myself. I don’t want to fight under any other commander than the battalion commander. If the commander were an outsider, would all the achievements we’ve built be meaningless? Our lives are part of the commander’s record, too.”
“Just being on the same team as an outsider is already annoying, and now you want the commander too—”
“Then, you should leave, Lieutenant,” Lee Gyu-min interrupted sharply.
“If you hate eating and sleeping in the same space as outsiders so much, then leave. Anyone with experience in our battalion can be assigned to any unit they want. Even if you leave, there are plenty of people eager to come here. Once word spreads that we caught a Phantom today, everyone will fight to get in.”
Kim Do-woon looked up at Lee Gyu-min, surprised. Usually calm and soft-spoken, Lee Gyu-min had never spoken so forcefully.
Choi Jae-hyung let out a hollow laugh, muttering curses under his breath. His heated gaze swept over Lee Gyu-min and, almost instinctively, landed on Kim Do-woon, who was crouched behind catching his breath.
Kim Do-woon thought, Finally, no fire is flying at me, as he looked up at Choi Jae-hyung. Choi Jae-hyung fixed his gaze on Kim Do-woon and then turned to the others.
“Have you all seen the battalion commander keep ordering Kim Do-woon back?”
No one replied. Kim Do-woon silently wiped his mouth. It didn’t matter what nonsense Choi Jae-hyung ranted. His priority was stabilizing his erratic breathing.
Choi Jae-hyung’s eyes glimmered as he stared at Kim Do-woon, who refused to respond. He stepped closer and raised his voice.
“Everyone saw it, right? The battalion commander favors Kim Do-woon? This isn’t the first time!”
“Choi Jae-hyung, that’s enough,” Im Eun-ha warned. Choi Jae-hyung turned to her.
“Platoon leader, why are you letting only Kim Do-woon go in?”
“What can you do with that outdated C-type?”
“Then from the start—”
“The point was to lure him onto the track. We deliberately used the C-type to avoid provoking the Phantom. What’s the problem?”
“Aren’t you even mad? How can the lieutenant—?”
“Considering only our platoon was going out, I thought it necessary to have staff authority in case of emergency. It actually helped.”
“So why Kim Do-woon of all people—”
“Because only Kim Do-woon can do it!”
Im Eun-ha yelled, her voice echoing through the clean room. She roughly wiped her face and stepped closer to Choi Jae-hyung, who didn’t flinch, though the veins on his neck bulged.
Leaving only a tiny gap between them, Im Eun-ha stared up at Choi Jae-hyung. Her eyes burned with a fierce intensity.
“Hey, Choi Jae-hyung. Annoyed that Kim Do-woon outperforms you? Then prove your skills. Stop flapping your mouth!”
Choi Jae-hyung’s jaw tensed. Im Eun-ha held his gaze.
“Do you think Kim Do-woon’s from the Colony, so he’s funny? Ugly and worthless, right? How long do you think your precious life would last if you got out there with that junk and had to trigger manually? How many people could do it?”
Everyone froze, silently watching Im Eun-ha and Choi Jae-hyung.
“Do you think the shock is nothing? Kim Do-woon risked his life! A weak Colony kid with no backing, barely surviving with his body! Thanks to him, that idiot still keeps his head above water. Who’s acting tough now? Shame on you!”
She panted after unleashing her words. After a moment, she stepped back, giving everyone a sharp, commanding statement.
“For this mission, Kim Do-woon is staff, not our platoon member. Until the mission ends, address him by his rank properly. Understood?”
“Yes, understood!”
Everyone but Choi Jae-hyung responded loudly, and Kim Do-woon felt his shoulders stiffen.
Im Eun-ha looked at Kim Do-woon.
“Sir, once you’re stable, go to the infirmary. I’ll report the platoon’s situation to the battalion commander.”
“Understood.”
Kim Do-woon responded immediately. It was awkward, but he had no choice—Im Eun-ha’s strict personality left no room for argument.
Im Eun-ha saluted crisply and turned. As she exited the clean room, she said briefly,
“Everyone, clean up and get out.”
The tension eased slightly among the team as they moved efficiently, unloading equipment and checking contamination levels. A few approached Choi Jae-hyung to guide him, but he shrugged them off irritably, still glaring sharply at Kim Do-woon.
Instead of reacting, Kim Do-woon braced himself against the wall to stand. Though still dizzy, leaving was the priority. Lee Gyu-min helped him without holding him back.
As he rose, something dropped from his open top. He stopped Lee Gyu-min from picking it up and bent to retrieve it himself—a precious item.
Choi Jae-hyung’s boot pressed down on the pendant with a sharp sound.
“Life sure is stubborn.”
The cracked pendant scraped against the floor.
“Could I survive like a cockroach with this?”
Kim Do-woon slowly glared at the boot, letting it crush the pendant.
A shadow fell across his vision. Choi Jae-hyung leaned toward him, his voice low.
“Feels good being called sir here after abandoning your ruined country, doesn’t it? The army suits you. Here everyone worships you, so your pathetic family doesn’t matter, right? Time to throw that away. To be reborn here. Right?”
Kim Do-woon didn’t respond. He knew reacting here would be bad.
He thought Choi Jae-hyung had a point. One by one, he’d lost items from home on the battlefield; this pendant was the last. It symbolized the goddess of night—a deity considered heretical in the Empire, long abandoned even at his hometown.
No need to worship a god he’d abandoned alone. It was time to let go.
He retracted his hand and stood up, dizzy but steady thanks to Lee Gyu-min’s support.
Choi Jae-hyung’s satisfied expression met his silently.
“Finally, you understand your place,” he sneered, his boot revealing the cracked pendant.
It didn’t hurt as much as expected. Perhaps he’d stopped believing in gods when his hometown was destroyed by the Empire.
“Crawl as you should. Know your place. Damn, earlier you said to steer properly? Who are you to give advice? That space existed only because you left it…”
Kim Do-woon ignored him, taking Lee Gyu-min’s hand and heading to the clean room entrance. There was no point engaging further.
He regretted even confronting Choi Jae-hyung at the cafeteria last time. He didn’t understand why he had done it, trying to stay amicable before, and now it had escalated.
Choi Jae-hyung’s focus had mostly been on Seol Ah-yeon then. Had he kept quiet, none of this would have happened…
“You ordered it, didn’t you?”
Kim Do-woon looked back.
Everyone froze as Choi Jae-hyung smirked.
“Your subordinate.”
Kim Do-woon stared quietly.
“They transferred, right? With the battalion commander? No way that happened in one go—they must have done it multiple times. That girl is amazing, huh? Came here and stole an S-rank, stuck close to the powers that be…”
Choi Jae-hyung laughed.
“Bold face, taking advantage, acting just like you, right? You trained her? She acts just like you…”
Kim Do-woon didn’t hear the rest. When he came to his senses, he had already knocked Choi Jae-hyung to the floor, straddled him, and punched him several times.
Choi Jae-hyung, bloodied, was subdued by the team and dragged out. One member hurriedly covered his nose with a handkerchief—it all felt unreal.
The tight grip on him, the tense atmosphere, the heat of blood on his fists—it was clear something was deeply wrong.
Choi Jae-hyung was irredeemable, Baek Yi-hyun was perfect in everything, Seol Ah-yeon merely stubborn—but the reason Kim Do-woon’s temper twisted so often was because of himself.
And he couldn’t quite figure out why.
