A cafe in Incheon.
I was meeting with a man who appeared to be in his early forties.
“Hello. I am Hwang Byeong-il of All Day Guard.”
“Hello. I am Gong In-bae.”
“Thank you very much for taking the time.”
“Not at all. I am the one who should be more grateful that you came all this way.”
The man treated me with the utmost respect.
Short hair.
Darkly tanned skin.
A muscular body hidden beneath his suit.
Hands thick with calluses.
This man must be ex-military as well.
“You will be discharged soon, won’t you? Congratulations in advance.”
“Ah. Yes. Thank you.”
“The reason I contacted you is that I would like to invite Staff Sergeant Gong In-bae to our company.”
“Me?”
“Yes.”
“Why me?”
“I have heard that you are exceptional. We very much wish to recruit you.”
“But I’m just an ordinary person?”
“Valedictorian of the Special Forces School. Two years deployed, served as an instructor in the Congo. Proficient in English and French. Numerous medals and commendations. These are absolutely not ordinary achievements. Most cannot even accomplish one of these.”
“That was just luck.”
“I absolutely do not believe it was luck. And so what if it was? How about we unfold that luck together at All Day Guard?”
“What kind of company is All Day?”
I asked about the company called All Day Guard because the man named Hwang Byeong-il gave off a good impression.
“Ah. I apologize. In my eagerness to recruit you, I neglected to introduce the company. We are a security firm exclusively dedicated to domestic and international VIPs. We mainly provide protection for business executives, celebrities, and sports stars.”
“Don’t most such people already have bodyguards?”
“Of course. Most have personal bodyguards. However, you see. When a VIP visits from overseas, they naturally bring their bodyguards. But can those bodyguards perform security well in a country like Korea? They can provide close protection for the VIP, but route planning, advance site inspections, communications, emergency medical preparedness—these require collaboration with domestic firms. Yet, people capable of such collaboration are rare.”
“Can’t they just do it?”
“Basically, one must be capable of both security work and foreign languages. Sometimes interpreters are assigned, but because the interpreters know nothing about tactical security movements, communication errors keep occurring. There are some physical education majors who speak foreign languages, but they are equally unsatisfactory to us. Security is not about fighting. It is about protecting.”
“But I am somewhat lacking in that area as well?”
“If you join us, you must undergo four weeks of basic security training. However, according to our data, those from special forces backgrounds certainly learn much faster.”
“Is that so?”
“At All Day Guard, we wish to bring in Staff Sergeant Gong In-bae at the team leader level. All Day Guard needs Staff Sergeant Gong In-bae.”
“What? Team leader level? But I have no experience?”
“We are looking at six months. After one month of training, if you work for five months as vice-team leader in Alpha Team—our company’s finest—we plan to immediately separate a team and create one for you.”
“I don’t quite understand why you would go this far for me?”
There is no such thing as a free lunch.
He must be trying to extract something equivalent in return.
“There is no other reason. The person who recommended you did so strongly, and reviewing your record, you seemed like a talent we absolutely need, so we are simply being greedy.”
“Could you tell me who recommended me?”
“I would like to tell you, but that person asked me to keep it a secret if possible.”
“Hmm... May I think about it and contact you?”
“Of course. Here is my business card. I am on standby twenty-four hours a day, so feel free to contact me anytime; I will gladly take your call.”
“Hahaha. I have that much manners too. I will do my best to contact you while the sun is still up.”
“Haha. Then I think I will be able to take your call even more gladly.”
.
.
.
With one month left until discharge, I received offers from many places.
In Dae-hun’s case.
I had repeatedly warned him not to do anything reckless.
I told him if he was going to instigate something, to let me know beforehand.
To report to me in advance on how he planned.
I planned to decide whether to help or not after seeing the plan.
Information is needed to make a plan.
Collecting this information is harder than one might think.
Selecting from the collected information is even harder.
Creating an operation with the selected information,
and executing it is extremely difficult.
If collecting information alone is difficult, one could hire people, but
I told him, Dae-hun, you could end up dead because of those hired people.
If you thoughtlessly commissioned a detective agency to do a background check,
I told him again and again that you would get stabbed before you could even draw your knife.
In that world, almost everything is connected.
The moment you walk into a private investigator’s office and say, “Please investigate the Geumho Faction,” by evening you might be inside a drum barrel with cement.
Seeing Dae-hun’s plan lets me know Dae-hun’s heart.
How he will enter and how he will exit,
whom he will strike.
How he will handle the aftermath.
What resolve he is approaching this operation with.
I can tell immediately.
So I intend to decide whether to help Dae-hun or stop him after seeing the plan.
My only friend is walking into a death trap; I have to bring him out alive.
Ah.
That day at the chicken restaurant, Dae-hun said this.
“If I die, you handle my funeral.”
“Crazy bastard, why would you die?”
“Wouldn’t it be nice if my only friend handled my funeral on my way out? Though it’s also because there’s no one else anyway.”
“Are we really friends?”
I had wanted to ask since the Special Forces School,
and cautiously asked the question I hadn’t been able to ask.
“If we’re not friends, then what are we? Should we be lovers, you gay bastard?”
He might just be saying it,
but I felt good for no reason.
The word friend.
A friend made for the first time in twenty-four years.
They say that once you’re out in society, it’s common to get backstabbed even by friends you’ve known for twenty-four years.
It’s not hard to voluntarily take a hit alongside a friend.
Because I can handle that much.
I told Dae-hun to investigate the information as thoroughly as possible.
How many members the Geumho Faction has, where they mainly operate, how their funds are circulated and laundered,
whether they ate pork cutlets or stir-fried pork for lunch, whether they ordered an extra bowl of rice—I told him to find out everything down to that.
I told him to make a plan on how to crush the Geumho Faction based on that data.
Only then did Dae-hun seem to find a way to survive and diligently wrote down what I said.
Dae-hun finally seemed to understand the Seoul National University-style education method.
I felt proud.
In the case of the National Intelligence Service too,
though I had openly refused, a desire to go suddenly popped up from a corner of my heart.
Not because of some invisible justification like serving the country,
but the title of NIS itself was alluring.
Honestly, I felt a bit sorry for freeloading on the reputation built by other agents with their loyalty, but
that is how powerful the name National Intelligence Service is.
How cool would it be to have NIS stamped on my business card.
Huh?
Speaking of business cards reminded me.
Those bastards carried around Haegwang Industries business cards too.
Not NIS.
They say Black agents can’t say they work for the NIS even if they do?
I would become a Haegwang Industries employee.
...
All Day Guard is a completely new field.
Security.
They said they need me, but
I don’t know how much help I would be if I went,
and there is also the pressure of having to undergo training again.
The position of team leader level too.
But I am curious about the field of security.
It’s not about killing enemies and attacking,
but protecting and guarding someone, which feels a bit cool.
It’s a bit cringeworthy, but doesn’t it feel like being a hero?
And decisively, those words “we need you” draw people in.
I wasn’t someone needed anywhere.
Nor was I someone unneeded.
I was merely an invisible man.
Whether I was there or not,
no one paid me any mind,
but now there are people who say they need me.
It feels as if I have become an important person.
My heart also flutters at the new challenge.
Protecting different people every time rather than the same person is also new.
Protecting clients with different people, in different environments, under different conditions.
There would be no room for boredom.
It seems like it would be fun.
Let me think a bit more about what to decide.
There is still time until discharge.
********
“Staff Sergeant Gong In-bae has been ordered discharged as of today. Reporting accordingly.”
“You’ve worked hard. Keep in touch often even after discharge.”
In the International Peace Battalion Commander’s office, I was reporting my discharge to the commander.
The commander tapped my shoulder with a beaming face and told me to keep in touch often.
We didn’t even do that normally; wouldn’t it be stranger to contact him after discharge?
But my answer always contradicts my thoughts.
“Yes. I understand. I will contact you.”
“Won’t you re-enlist even now? Think about it again.”
“I am being discharged today. Isn’t everything already over?”
“Changing this is no big deal. I can do that much for you. Shall I call Command?”
“Haha. It’s alright.”
I said it’s fine, you fucking bastard.
Telling a soldier being discharged today to apply for re-enlistment and nail himself down.
Cruel bastard.
Bring up re-enlistment one more time.
I’ll beat the shit out of you.
.
.
.
Leaving behind those waving their hands, I quietly exited the base.
My heart is heavy.
I remember when I transferred to this unit four years ago.
I was really just a kid then,
but now I feel I have grown a little, even by my own estimation.
It has only been four years,
yet it feels like I made up for all the growth I couldn’t achieve in twenty years during just four years of military life.
On a day like this, there is a place I must go.
I flagged down a taxi.
“To the National Cemetery, please.”
.
.
.
“Brothers, I’m here.”
“It’s me, In-bae, the youngest brother you all loved.”
From the moment I saw my brothers’ names on the gleaming marble, tears kept flowing.
I shouldn’t be like this.
Today is a day to receive congratulations.
Without getting hurt, thanks to my brothers,
that I was discharged safely. I wanted them to praise me.
I came with such feelings, but the moment I saw my brothers’ names, the tears burst forth.
“Congratulate me. Today is my discharge day. I’m a civilian now too. *Sob*”
“If you brothers were here, I would have applied for re-enlistment without hesitation, but the army without you brothers is too cold.”
“I’m still wearing long underwear right now. Funny, isn’t it? I never wore long underwear even in the dead of winter.”
I took out the alcohol, fruit, and flowers I had prepared from my inventory and neatly arranged them in front of my brothers’ tombstones.
“Eat lots. I prepared what you brothers liked.”
“You brothers must be happy. You’re still together, right?”
“I want to be together with you brothers too... Can’t it be done somehow?”
“It must be warm there even if it’s cold.”
“It was always warm when I was with you brothers.”
I lay down on the cold ground of the National Cemetery in October.
A chill seeps through my back.
Yet, I feel as though there is a warm warmth.
“The bastard who did this to you brothers. I turned him to powder.”
“That bastard didn’t deserve to remain even as dust in this world. So I erased him completely.”
“I will erase even that bastard’s name. That’s why I don’t call that bastard’s name either. Because it is a name that should be obliterated.”
“I’m sorry for coming late.”
“I wanted to come as soon as I returned, but I didn’t have the courage to see you brothers.”
“Back then, my heart was a mess too.”
“Still, seeing you brothers like this makes me feel good. I’ll come often.”
And so, I lay on the grass of the National Cemetery all day long, muttering.
Words no one else could understand.
But words that my brothers would all have understood.
And so, my military life came to an end.