PASSION Chapter 2 Part 2

Chapter 2 Part 2

When Tae-ui looked at him with an incredulous face, his uncle added that there was no need to worry, as if trying to reassure him.

This definitely seemed like the wrong place to come. Even though it was only half a year, come to think of it, isn't half a year more than enough time for someone to die unluckily?

While thinking about somehow waiting until next weekend to escape to Hong Kong and run away for good, his uncle suddenly spoke as if just remembering something:

"Ah, right. Come to think of it, you won't be able to leave for about a month. Joint training with the European branch starts in two weeks, for two weeks. Before that is a special training period so no going out. No going out during joint training either. Well, a month will pass quickly, so adjust well during that time."

Before wondering just how much this uncle knew about what, Tae-ui briefly but sincerely wanted to strangle this man.

While glaring regretfully at his uncle's neck, Tae-ui suddenly felt a gaze and glanced forward. His eyes met the driver's in the rearview mirror. When their eyes met, the driver's eyes curved slightly. He seemed to be smiling.

It was the same driver who had met them at the airport. He had driven from the airport to the pier, and now was driving after crossing the water to this island... Surely he hadn't piloted the boat too...

This person had a similar smell too. The smell of a soldier who had lived roughly - though his uncle repeatedly said it wasn't military or army - hardened by life. Probably everyone he'd meet on that island would have that same smell.

While thinking this, Tae-ui sighed and turned his head. Even the energy to strangle his uncle had disappeared.

"So I came right in time for 'annoying' joint training with the European branch where 'blood flies.' ...When you know about it, Uncle, you actually hate me, don't you?"

"Of course not."

His uncle laughed. Tae-ui felt he had definitely gotten caught up in something wrong and left a bad taste in his mouth.

Joint training, huh. He was familiar with that kind of training. He had been rolling around doing such training almost daily for the past few years. Until four months ago, he had been a military officer after all. Wonder what kind of training they do here.

No matter how tough it gets, as long as he doesn't die, he'll get used to it. Though it might be painful anew each time, the day comes when you get used to those repeated times. ...And if at some point he causes trouble because he can't control his quick temper, well, that's a matter of personal choice.

Tae-ui suddenly got irritated and scratched his head roughly.

He had never regretted anything he had done so far in his life. No matter what he did, he had deeply resolved never to do anything worth regretting.

So he didn't regret beating that annoying colleague almost to death. He figures he was patient enough, having endured for five and a half full years before it came to that. As a result, or rather as the complex result of various things, he didn't regret being discharged from the military where he had once thought he would spend his whole life.

However, he couldn't help feeling sick when thinking about the situation at that time and how he had felt then.

There are people who show very ugly reactions when they first see someone else surpassing them, having never been behind others before. His colleague who had been in the military hospital with him just before discharge was like that. That colleague had found Tae-ui's sexual orientation to be perfect prey.

Clicking his tongue, Tae-ui stretched somewhat uncomfortably in the car. Between the plane, car, and boat, they had covered land, sea, and air all in one day. His body felt stiff - he felt like he needed to run a few laps around the training ground just to loosen up.

That's when the car stopped.

Under the dimming sky at sunset, dense forest thickly enclosed both sides. He wasn't sure when they had entered such a forest path.

"We're here."

The driver got out, and as his uncle briefly spoke beside him, Tae-ui opened the car door. And as he stepped outside, he saw the building standing before them.

"Whew. To feel tired from just this much means I really am getting old. Well, I can't say I'm young anymore now that I'm past forty."

To his uncle who was muttering to himself after following Tae-ui out, Tae-ui, who had been staring at the building before them for a while, asked:

"Uncle."

"Yes?"

"The Asian branch building... is this it?"

"Yes. One building. Simple, isn't it?"

"Then what were all those impressive buildings and training grounds etc. in that guide booklet?"

"Ah, those were the American headquarters. Didn't I mention? Our branch facilities are the least modernized, and therefore optimal for physical training."

"This isn't just borderline fraudulent - it's completely fraudulent."

"Nobody applies after seeing that guide booklet anyway."

Though people apply after seeing the organization's name rather than the guide booklet, and though it didn't matter to Tae-ui who would have been dragged here by his uncle regardless of the facilities, the building before them looked no different from a single-story school building facing closure in some rural village. Moreover, it had cracks everywhere, peeling paint, and pipes covered in rust.

No matter how you looked at it, it appeared to be either a crumbling school building or some abandoned government office from decades ago.

No, wait. If there's just this one building...

"How many people are here in total?"

"One Director General, two Deputy Directors, six Instructors - or Training Officers in other words, ninety-six members, five Support Staff - simply put, administrative staff. 110 people total."

Is that right...? His uncle's figure counting on his fingers didn't even register as Tae-ui wondered.

"How can 110 people all fit in here?"

"They fit. You know how even a compact car can easily fit fifteen or so people if you squeeze them in?"

"No, where do they eat and sleep and train..."

As Tae-ui pointed at the building with an incredulous face, the driver passed by carrying his uncle's luggage and entered the building first. As the door opened, the rusted hinges made a spine-chilling sound. That sound seemed like it might summon ghosts.

After laughing at Tae-ui's expression for a while, his uncle finally spoke somewhat seriously:

"Underground. It goes down to the seventh basement level. With 2,000 pyeong of space over seven underground floors, though it's not exactly spacious, there's no problem accommodating around 100 people."

Tae-ui looked at his uncle with another incredulous expression. Though 2,000 pyeong over seven floors might actually be more than enough space for 100 people to move around in...

"How can there be seven basement floors of 2,000 pyeong each on such a small island..."

"That's why we chose this island. Did you think we just picked any random island in Asia and set up a branch?"

His uncle spoke cheerfully as he started walking.

Tae-ui briefly looked at his uncle's back suspiciously, but when his uncle who had reached the open door looked back, he shouldered his bag and followed.

His uncle, who had stopped and waited for Tae-ui to approach, suddenly came close when Tae-ui stopped two or three steps away. As Tae-ui tried to step back half a step with a puzzled face, his uncle suddenly patted his head and said:

"Don't die."

"...Pardon?"

"This isn't a place where actual laws apply. There's nowhere for the powerless to appeal injustice, and depending on circumstances, even if several people die, it can be smoothed over without issue."

His uncle paused briefly. Tae-ui silently looked at his uncle. Then suddenly smiled weakly.

"Uncle, that's too much... You should have said such things beforehand, not after dragging me to the tiger's den."

"I don't think the outcome would have been any different even if I had told you beforehand."

His uncle smiled too. Tae-ui sighed "oh boy" and shrugged his shoulders.

"I'll have to try to survive somehow trusting the intuition you mentioned. If I die, please at least collect my bones."

"Haha, well, it's not completely lawless either."

"Are you telling me to be careful, or not to be?"

"Being careful never hurts either way."

His uncle smiled and turned to walk again. This time following behind his uncle who entered the building without stopping or looking back, Tae-ui slowly shook his head.

At times like this, he envied his brother whose luck no one could match.

  *

Though his uncle had said everything from offices to conference rooms, classrooms, training halls, laboratories, dormitories, dining halls and so on were all underground, when they entered the building, his uncle headed not underground but toward a worn-out door - what was behind it was unknown - at the end of a wooden corridor with holes in the floor here and there.

However, he paused at Tae-ui's footsteps following behind and turned around. As Tae-ui tilted his head in confusion, a door quietly opened right beside him. And from that door emerged a young man.

"Tou!"

The young man who was coming out through the open door and slowing his steps upon seeing Tae-ui standing right in front, turned his head at his uncle who called out as if glad to see him. Seeing his uncle, he straightened his posture and gave a slight bow.

"Are you busy?"

"No. I was just about to go out for a smoke."

While nodding his head thinking he had found one difference from the military, Tae-ui internally sighed at the opening of the world of English - the branch's common language which, though he could use it, he didn't particularly want to. Just then he had to swallow back his sigh when his uncle's index finger suddenly pointed at him.

"Take this fellow downstairs. Guide him to the room Kiyomi used, and help him build good relationships with his colleagues since he's new."

"Ah, yes."

Though the young man scratched behind his ear as if annoyed, he nodded without any particular complaint.

With those words, his uncle entered that worn-out door without even looking at Tae-ui, just waving his hand once lightly, leaving only the young man and Tae-ui in the corridor.

The young man looked Tae-ui up and down from head to toe, then went back inside the door he had come from. Then he beckoned with his finger. After looking the young man up and down from head to toe as well, Tae-ui followed him in. The young man smirked.

The wooden door the young man had come through was an elevator. Though it had looked like a sliding door from a crumbling abandoned school, seeing it open and close without a sound was a fresh shock. Once inside, the elevator's functionality was also flawless.

"Do they spend all their budget on making things look more run-down..."

After examining the interior while muttering to himself, Tae-ui turned his attention to the young man who was still watching him.