The International Peace Support Group located in Incheon Metropolitan City.
Abbreviated as the Peace Support Group.
It is a unit deployed overseas to carry out peacekeeping activities with UN peacekeeping forces or multinational forces.
So yes, it is a unit for overseas deployment rather than domestic operations.
The International Peace Support Group was in Incheon,
a place where members prepared and stood by so that they could be deployed immediately at any time.
This was where the very best elites gathered.
So I honestly hadn't even thought about it; I was a bit surprised that I got selected.
I guess knowing a little English gave me a small edge.
Going to that English academy helped.
Private education, as expected.
Actually, I think I have a talent for private education.
“Inbae? Gong In-bae?”
“Sergeant. Gong! In! Bae!”
“Keke, what's this, you're all rigid military discipline. Don't do that. You don't have to. Be comfortable, be comfortable.”
“No, sir!”
In the army, when someone says, don't do that, be comfortable.
If you actually act comfortable after hearing that, you'll never be comfortable for the rest of your life.
A moment of comfort will make your entire military life uncomfortable.
Contrary to my heart, I said no anyway.
This is the correct answer.
My 28-week military career proves it.
Our team is composed of 12 members.
Company commander and executive officer.
And a senior manager in charge of intelligence operations.
Two demolition, two weapons, two medical, two communications.
And me.
The person talking to me right now is Company Commander Seong Gyu-tae.
Captain.
He is tall and has a good physique.
Well, this is a special forces unit, after all.
Everyone is tall, they work out a lot, so they have great bodies.
My height was 187 centimeters at the physical examination,
and I was very tall at school around graduation,
but coming here, I was almost average.
Most seemed to be over 180 centimeters.
But the company commander had more than just that.
Despite his tall height and sturdy body, he had a gentle face.
Most special forces members have sharp features,
but compared to them, he had delicate features.
Like the young master of a wealthy family.
An impression that seemed to smile even while staying still.
A face with no trace of hardship whatsoever.
Growing up always loved, there wasn't a shadow to be seen.
Perhaps because of that, his speech was also very gentle.
If not for his tanned face and short hair, it would be hard to believe he was a soldier.
I had a brief interview with the company commander.
“I heard you were first in your class at Special Warfare School?”
“Yes, sir.”
“You must be incredibly skilled.”
“No, sir. I just did as I was taught, so I think I got good results.”
Do exactly as ordered.
Believe it or not, this is the Seoul National University method.
“You know what our unit does, right?”
“I understand it is a unit in charge of overseas deployment.”
“You know well. There is nothing scheduled right now, but if a deployment order comes down, you might have to leave the country within three days. Make sure to always pay attention and manage yourself so that there's nothing that could cause problems when going abroad.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I have high expectations. I'm counting on you from now on. If something is hard, talk to me anytime, and if you have personal concerns, come find me. I'm not just saying this.”
“Yes, sir. If a problem arises, I'll come find you.”
“Come find me even if there isn't a problem. Let's at least have a cup of coffee.”
“Understood, sir.”
“Right. Go get some rest. You haven't met the unit members yet?”
“No, sir. I haven't seen them yet.”
“Let's take introductions slowly. They may be rough, but they're not bad guys. Try to get along.”
“Yes, sir.”
Finishing the brief interview with the company commander, I came to the barracks.
The quarters prepared on base.
It's a crazy single room.
Bigger than a goshiwon, smaller than a studio apartment.
Maybe about seven pyeong?
When you open the front door and come in, there's a bathroom right away,
past the bathroom, there is a bed, a desk, and a multipurpose storage cabinet for clothes and various other things.
Some might say it's cramped,
and some might say it's old.
But to me, it looked better than any place in the world.
It was the first space of my own since I was born.
Of course, I had a house too,
but strangely, I didn't feel attached to that house.
What kind of house has no electricity, water, or gas?
So I set up a tent and lived in the wild.
Is this the first home I've obtained?
I felt unusual.
They say getting your own home is so difficult,
I wondered if it was okay for me to get one this easily.
It looked clean to the eye, but I decided to clean anyway.
Isn't this where I'll be living from now on?
Swoosh~
I drew back the curtain to clean, and.
Huh?
Why is an unknown man behind the curtain?
Fuck, a spy?
I'd heard spies often approached junior officers.
Had my information already leaked to the North?
As expected of the dignity of being first in Special Warfare School?
This person had recognized me and was hiding in ambush.
To think he came all the way onto base, not just outside the unit.
He's no ordinary skilled operative.
But I'm not someone who falls for that so easily.
No.
Rather, I should catch you and score some achievements.
I immediately dove into the man's embrace.
The man tried to say something,
but not knowing what he'd say with his treacherous tongue, I covered his mouth with my right hand,
and with my left hand, I strongly struck his right flank where the liver is.
If you're hit properly in the liver, anyone would have trouble standing.
The tingling sensation in my left hand told me I'd targeted the liver.
The liver shot had landed properly.
Sure enough,
I felt strength instantly leave the spy's body.
But the spy bastard endured it.
He tried to somehow hold onto consciousness without falling.
Tough.
He should have fallen from taking a proper hit like this,
I thought, this guy is no ordinary man either.
I guess North Korea trains them hard too.
Grabbing the guy who still hadn't recovered from the shock, I immediately slammed him to the floor with a suplex.
Since it was a cement floor, the impact must have been considerable.
The man seemed to lose consciousness for a moment.
I made the fallen guy face the floor and pressed his back with my knee.
To subdue him, I tied both hands behind his back.
Actually, I wanted to tie him, but having nothing to tie with, I hurriedly untied my belt and bound him tightly.
And as I took out my phone to report it,
the front door opened and a cake with lit candles appeared with a ta-da~.
A cake?
For a moment, I wondered what this situation was.
I couldn't understand this situation.
Did they already know I caught a spy and come to congratulate me?
Is this real-time?
But the person holding the cake seemed just as bewildered.
A feeling of not knowing what to do.
The people filing in behind also all had bewildered expressions.
What the hell, how many people are coming in?
And the face coming in at the very back.
What the hell, that handsome face.
Huh? A face I know?
The company commander?
The company commander, seeing me and the man pinned beneath me, looked at us alternately with an incredulous face.
Soon, the company commander asked not me but the fallen man.
“Sergeant First Class Lee~~ Sergeant First Class Lee~~~ are you okay?”
What?
Is he protecting the spy?
Do they all need to be dragged to the NIS for investigation?
Perhaps because the surroundings were noisy, the spy bastard who had briefly lost consciousness quickly came to his senses.
After glancing once to see what this situation was.
“Hey! Untie this. Fuck, he tied me up tight as hell.”
The man spoke, and one of the guys standing blankly undid the belt that had bound his hands behind his back.
The man stood up, rotated his arms, lightly moved his body to check if he was seriously injured, and then sat on the edge of the bed.
I hadn't even sat on it yet.
As expected, spy bastards are cruel and ruthless.
The company commander, who had been sticking only his head out from the narrow shoe cabinet gap, came out and asked.
His gaze was on the man, not me, but I answered first.
“What is it? What happened?”
“A spy came in, so I caught him.”
“A spy?”
“Yes, sir. When I opened the curtain, a man was hiding. I was just about to report it...”
“You don't need to report it.”
“Sir?”
“He's our team. Our team's Senior Manager, intelligence operations specialist. So he'll be your direct senior. Sergeant First Class Lee Won-jun. Say hello.”
“Sir?”
In that instant, I strongly felt my military life was fucked.
To sum it up, it was a kind of surprise party.
The plan was to watch for an opportunity, subdue me from behind, and while I was surprised at being subdued, the cake would appear with a ta-da.
And while doing so,
they were going to say things like “Welcome to hell.”
But the Senior Manager who was supposed to subdue me had instead been subdued.
Everyone was in a bewildering situation.
But with me holding a phone saying I had to report a spy, the situation was even more absurd.
Thanks to the handsome company commander's mediation, the Senior Manager and I barely calmed down.
And our team exchanged awkward greetings.
“...Welcome to the team.”
“Yes. Thank you.”
“I welcome you too.”
“Yes.”
“Let's get along from now on.”
“Thank you.”
My first day at the Peace Support Group, a complete mess where I didn't know what was what, flowed on like that.
Life at the Peace Support Group wasn't particularly different from Special Warfare School.
I trained, and I studied.
If there was something different, there were now ranks.
There was the handsome company commander, there was the Senior Manager I had subdued,
and there were team members.
There were no juniors.
Compared to Special Warfare School, training was much harder.
If Special Warfare School was learning the basics needed when placed in the field,
here, we matched detailed movements with each other.
Like filming a movie,
we matched each other's movements.
For example, during an operation, to enter somewhere, you open a door.
Then who enters first?
In a country that values order of seniority, by age?
Or by height?
By alphabetical order?
No.
There is no correct answer.
It depends on the situation.
But what's certain is that if you don't decide properly
and practice, everyone could die at the door.
So we decide the method with hand signals,
whether entering with a cross,
or with a buttonhook.
According to that method, we must enter smoothly and fluidly.
Before entry, team members line up at the door, and Number 1 assesses the situation and leads.
Number 2 covers the direction Number 1 doesn't take, Number 3 covers the rear then quickly enters to form cross coverage.
Number 4 maneuvers or stands guard depending on the situation.
We repeat the same training, changing the order to practice.
This turn I was Number 3, next Number 2, then Number 4.
We keep doing it until we're familiar with it.
Only at doors? No.
Building entry, stairs, vehicles, buses, ships, aircraft, underground spaces, markets or shopping malls, obstacle response, night operations—we create these situations and practice.
Elevators, barricades, and so on—if we included every obstacle, there'd be no end.
The reason we practice like this?
Fundamentally, it's to subdue the enemy,
but before that, it's to protect team members and safely complete the operation.
It's practice for me,
but the harder I work, the higher the chance my teammates survive,
conversely, if my teammates work hard,
I too am that much farther from hell.
We are people who have entrusted our lives to one another.
When training ended.
We gathered and were eating dinner.
Dinner menu was pork belly.
Company commander, Senior Manager, Demo 1, Commo 1, Commo 2, and me—six of us gathered.
“Our youngest was pretty good? As expected of a number one graduate?”
“Sergeant Gong. In. Bae. Thank you.”
“Wow, rank and full name? You still haven't lost that military rigidity. Isn't the team leader being too strict with discipline?”
Demo 1, Im Deok-su, said.
“No, a sergeant stating his rank and name is natural. What's that got to do with military discipline?”
Senior Manager Lee Won-jun said.
“Hahaha. Sergeant Lee, are you still holding a grudge about getting suplexed last time? Complaining like this.”
“What are you talking about? That's just because I let my guard down. In a one-on-one, it's a three-second knockout.”
“Really?”
Sergeant First Class Lee shot the company commander a slight glare.
“I know, I know, you're a master of special combat martial arts. Have a drink.”
At the company commander's words, everyone raised glasses full of soju
and clinked them in the center of the table.
The glasses clinked,
and as they hit, some alcohol spilled and fell onto the grill plate,
but no one cared.
Is this what happiness is?
Training together, having pork belly and a glass of soju in the evening.
Talking about what happened today,
encouraging each other, pointing out what to fix.
While teasing and playing around.
And giving serious advice.
Is this what a team is?
The people sitting in this place.
They already looked completely hammered,
but their expressions looked good.
There didn't seem to be anything that funny,
but they laughed a lot.
They laughed again.
They kept laughing.
Taking the opportunity, I laughed along too.
I worried my laugh might be awkward,
but no one pointed out my laugh.
And so, the night deepened in front of the base.