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chapter 23
A brief silence fell. Kim Do-woon barely regained his composure.
“Why are you here?”
Seol Ah-yeon suddenly thrust the tablet she was holding forward.
“Baek Yi-hyun told me to do this.”
The words registered a beat too late. Normally, hearing or speaking Baek Yi-hyun’s name alone wasn’t common, so it took him a moment to recognize it.
Kim Do-woon fixed his expression and stared at Seol Ah-yeon. She was definitely doing this on purpose. Since he wasn’t part of their group, she was drawing a line, signaling that their hierarchy didn’t apply to him.
Not a chance. He corrected her firmly.
“Call me Battalion Commander.”
“Anyway, they said to do this.”
Seol Ah-yeon pushed the tablet a little closer. A sigh escaped him before he even looked at it. If it was an order from Seol Ah-yeon, it was predictable—it was probably an assignment for an outsider.
“Do you know how much of a headache you’re causing me even without this?”
“Then I’ll tell the Battalion Commander that you can’t do it, and I’ll do it instead.”
“Ah, fine. Give it here.”
He snatched the tablet. A quick glance confirmed his suspicion—it would take at least an hour.
Though it was a mostly meaningless, minor task, careful consideration was required because each outsider had different traits. Even an easy job could overwhelm someone and cause trouble if they collapsed.
Moreover, each department had its own atmosphere. He couldn’t place a weak person in a particularly hostile environment.
He quickly organized the framework in his mind, and Seol Ah-yeon spoke as if she had been waiting.
“As you know, there are elderly people here, so please be considerate.”
Kim Do-woon remembered the child who had been dragged into the control room. When he had lifted them, they felt as light as a wisp of down.
He instinctively looked for a place for the child, then raised his head. Seol Ah-yeon looked oddly satisfied. Something felt off.
“Got it, now go.”
“One more thing.”
“What now?”
“I’m hungry. It’s well past dinner time.”
A sense of unease swept over him. The person in front of him kept defying expectations. He asked defensively.
“So what?”
“Please eat with me.”
He thought he had misheard.
“Why me?”
“There’s no one else to ask. If you refuse, I’ll have to go hungry.”
“Why go hungry? Can’t you eat on your own?”
It was absurd.
“You ate fine on the transport ship, didn’t you?”
Then he realized. Seol Ah-yeon was extremely suspicious.
On the transport ship, food and water were distributed together, and outsiders shared among themselves. But now Seol Ah-yeon had to eat separately.
She must have been quite hungry, yet she hadn’t touched any of the food in the dormitory. There was no way she would eat just anything…
Wait.
“Did you eat your lunch box earlier?”
“Baek Yi-hyun tasted it first and gave it to me.”
“Baek Yi… the Battalion Commander tasted it first and then gave it to you?”
Seol Ah-yeon nodded. She had no idea what she was saying.
Before Kim Do-woon could even react, a commotion erupted around them. Most looked shocked; some scoffed, thinking it was a lie; others frowned and focused only on their meals; and a few propped their chins on their hands, watching them with interest.
“It’s dinner time, so I went to Baek Yi-hyun because I was hungry, but the soldiers in front of the Battalion Commander’s office wouldn’t open the door, so I came here. It was hard to get here. I didn’t know the way, and it’s so big. Still, I couldn’t go hungry. You’re an S-class weapon, after all.”
The more he heard, the more ridiculous it sounded, but Kim Do-woon managed to grasp the context.
“So, you want me to taste it first?”
Seol Ah-yeon nodded enthusiastically. Kim Do-woon was speechless. After a moment, he asked.
“Why me?”
“Because the lunch box is delicious.”
He thought he had misheard. It was an answer he never expected.
But there was no sign of deception in her innocent expression. Thinking about it, there was no reason to lie.
Only then did Kim Do-woon realize he had instinctively put a lunch box with the dishes he liked into Seol Ah-yeon’s dorm.
In a place where all the food was terribly tasteless, it was one of the few edible things.
“I wanted to eat it again.”
Seol Ah-yeon said clearly. Before he could respond, someone in the back chuckled.
“Wow, that’s tasty?”
Damn. Kim Do-woon clenched his teeth and looked back. Choi Jae-hyung was snickering with a few others around him. He shouted to the crowd.
“Hey, did you hear? That countryside-tasting grass here is perfect for outsiders’ taste buds.”
Then Choi Jae-hyung tilted his head toward Seol Ah-yeon.
“You’re from a colony too?”
Choi and a few others laughed heartily. The rest watched tensely, careful not to draw attention.
But Kim Do-woon felt anger rising. Normally, he would have laughed it off, but he couldn’t tolerate this pathetic atmosphere. He said clearly:
“I’m blocking links on this mission.”
The laughter stopped immediately. All eyes in the dining hall turned toward him, but he had no intention of changing his mind.
In the upcoming battlefield, just keeping himself alive would be difficult enough. Seeing the state of the people he would fight with, he felt even more certain.
He didn’t want to take on links in this situation. If the other person accepted a link through the Watch, their positions would instantly swap. It was a means to switch with someone else in danger on the battlefield.
The person accepting the link bears the heavy risk of responding immediately to a suddenly changed situation, so using links recklessly was clearly rude. Normally, links were used sparingly, only in extreme emergencies.
The problem was that Kim Do-woon had accepted links several times and flawlessly resolved crises, causing the team to rely on him subconsciously.
Whenever it got even slightly difficult, they’d pin the aftermath on Kim Do-woon. Choi Jae-hyung even deliberately worsened situations before using links.
In the past month alone, Kim Do-woon had accepted seventeen links, ten times more than the others.
“Do you even understand how serious this is? If an S-class is used by the wrong person, the operation might fail. If the only Defender uses advanced tech selfishly, and if rumors spread that our battalion has a coordinator, the enemy could bring in a Phantom, and we’d be wiped out.”
Silence fell. Not a sound.
“I barely have time to protect myself, let alone help others. I’ll block links and move, understand? Isn’t it time to stop relying on me and using links at the last minute?”
He spat out the words.
“Everyone, get your heads straight. Don’t regret it when you die.”
…Is she fearless?
Watching Seol Ah-yeon tear open the lunch box without hesitation, Kim Do-woon thought.
From the start, she had never been cautious. She endured hardships, pulled others along, constantly watched her surroundings, and attempted escapes.
Wasn’t she afraid of me?
Even in a dining hall crowded with soldiers, she approached him confidently. She must have remembered that she had stomped at the gate, yet she showed no intimidation.
Perhaps Baek Yi-hyun entrusted the tablet to Seol Ah-yeon intentionally to gauge her personality. Normally, such orders could have been sent via message, but using her was unusual.
“Looks good.”
Seol Ah-yeon muttered as she opened the lunch box. She thrust the included fork toward him. He took it but felt awkward, feeling a little foolish, and asked:
“What do we do? Should I taste each one?”
“No. Just eat together.”
“Eat together?”
“Yes. Earlier, I mixed everything together. It tasted okay, but like dog food.”
“You mixed it?”
Seol Ah-yeon nodded casually while opening the spoon’s packaging. Kim Do-woon was taken aback.
“Did you eat that? The Battalion Commander?”
“Yes.”
He exhaled and looked past Seol Ah-yeon.
The central hall. If they ate together in the dining hall, they would be bothered by onlookers, so they had retreated to a bench out of sight. Sitting side by side, Kim Do-woon felt unprecedented anxiety about the future.
He looked at her again and asked:
“You said the Battalion Commander mixed it all and ate it like dog food?”
“Yes.”
Unbelievable.
“For you?”
“Not exactly. I was suspicious, so he did it to put me at ease. If I went hungry and my condition worsened, it would be bad for both of us.”
Still, there were other ways. He could have asked someone else…
Wait, did he even need to ease Seol Ah-yeon’s suspicion?
If she didn’t trust it, she could just skip eating. If she was hungry, she would find something to eat, and if she ate fine, she would eat on time afterward. That was how things usually worked here.
Kim Do-woon lifted his gaze. Seol Ah-yeon was staring at him, one hand holding the spoon, the other the lunch box.
He paused at her innocent face, then shook his head and asked:
“You said earlier to the Battalion Commander… that he wasn’t your friend. That you were mistaken. Your friend wouldn’t take advantage of goodwill. Are you sure?”
Something was wrong. Either Baek Yi-hyun or Seol Ah-yeon had made a mistake. This couldn’t be considered a stranger. He asked again:
“Your friend… do you really know them completely?”
