Chapter 4 Part 6

Someone like Tou wouldn’t mistake a real gun for a model gun, so it seemed Morrer probably had model guns stashed around the room as well. The gun enthusiast I’d only vaguely heard rumors about must have been him. For someone who usually buried his nose in puzzles, it was an unexpected hobby.

“You should remove the live ammunition, the live ammunition.”

Jeong Tae-ui docilely handed the gun over to him.

This was it. This was a place where subtly dangerous individuals were scattered everywhere. Trying to keep one’s life in a place like this naturally made him worry about the future.

Grumbling, Jeong Tae-ui suddenly yanked Morrer, who was taking the gun. Then, he reached his hand inside Morrer’s vest and fumbled around. Morrer yelped a strange sound and flinched.

“Hey! Where are you touching!”

“What’s the big deal between men, just hold still. …Aha.”

“Hey, hey! Come to think of it, you harbored ill intentions toward Shinru, didn’t you! Hey, don’t touch me, I’m pure! I don’t have a hobby of doing that with men!”

“I have no desire to do that with you either… More importantly, what’s this?”

Jeong Tae-ui grinned and pulled out a small piece of metal that Morrer had put in a separate pocket inside his vest.

“Oh, a Colt .22 caliber… It looks cute. What do you plan to use this for, carrying it around?”

“Give me back my darling! Why do you keep messing with my kids!”

Morrer snapped and snatched the Colt from Jeong Tae-ui’s hand. As he docilely allowed the gun to be taken, Jeong Tae-ui clicked his tongue.

It seemed there was always one person like this everywhere. Even in the past, one of his classmates was so obsessed with guns that he had decorated his entire house with model guns. When Jeong Tae-ui asked admiringly, ‘You won’t get caught even with all this?’, the classmate’s eyes gleamed as he threatened, ‘You won’t get caught unless you go blabbing to someone.’ So, Jeong Tae-ui docilely agreed to keep quiet.

Regardless of actual use, Jeong Tae-ui had seen about two individuals in the past who were so captivated by the charm of firearms themselves that they couldn’t escape. But now he saw another one here.

“You, you said you were Jeong Chang-in’s nephew, right.”

Morrer glared at Jeong Tae-ui with fierce eyes. Jeong Tae-ui hummed, trailing off his words, then chuckled.

“If I told my uncle that the guy in my room was crazy about guns, you’d shoot me first before he stormed into this room, wouldn’t you?”

“Of course! If you tell anyone, I’ll kill you!”

Making a threat that was clearly a bluff, Morrer tucked the Colt back into his chest.

“You always carry that around… You’ll get caught doing that.”

“You just need to keep your mouth shut!”

Morrer snapped, then went back to his desk. His hand, roughly flipping open the puzzle magazine after glaring at Jeong Tae-ui once more, clearly showed his irritation.

Jeong Tae-ui chuckled and resumed unpacking. However, calling it “unpacking” was a misnomer, as it was over in an instant.

Jeong Tae-ui sat on the bed and glanced around the room. Unlike his own room, where he was alone, this room was designed for three people. Moreover, compared to Jeong Tae-ui’s room, which had almost no belongings as he disliked keeping things, this place was overflowing with various items, almost to the point of being an exaggeration.

Jeong Tae-ui suddenly chuckled. Rather than feeling unfamiliar, it felt nostalgic.

While at the Military Academy, and even when living in the army’s BOQ—Bachelor Officer Quarters for officers—he had shared rooms with classmates and colleagues. At that time, there was one guy among them who couldn’t throw anything away and hoarded everything, so the entire room was once filled with stuff. Eventually, another colleague, unable to bear it, yelled at him to discard some items, and the issue was resolved after a minor dispute.

This room also had many things, but it was nothing compared to that time. This level could even be described as having a moderate ‘human touch’.

Even as Jeong Tae-ui was steeped in a slight nostalgia within the unfamiliar room, outside, the noisy and brutal sounds continued incessantly. Sometimes, the clanging of cans or the sound of something metal being kicked was also audible. It wouldn’t be strange at all if a fight broke out at any moment.

Soon, as if the Europe Branch members had gone into their assigned rooms, the ominous noise in the hallway seemed to quiet down for a moment. Although they shared the Male Dormitory Rooms on the same floor, it seemed the branch instructors didn’t want to create unnecessary conflict, so they appropriately divided the areas, assigning the side closer to the East staircase to their own branch members and the side closer to the West staircase to the Europe Branch members.

So Jeong Tae-ui had thought that since the bathrooms and restrooms were separate, they would at least have fewer chances to clash, but that thought seemed naive. This situation was such that even if they encountered each other at opposite ends of the hallway, they’d point fingers, yell, and then, unable to control their rage, rush to tear into each other.

There should have been someone to break it up, but their relationship was so bad that there were barely any individuals even pretending to intervene. At least the instructors or Aides formally made a show of trying to stop them, but it seemed it would get out of hand if a full-blown fight broke out.

“I just need to be careful not to get my back broken like a shrimp in a whale fight…”

Jeong Tae-ui clicked his tongue and muttered to himself. As if he had heard, Morrer glanced back at Jeong Tae-ui. He nodded vigorously, as if in agreement, then immersed himself in the puzzle again.

Jeong Tae-ui let out a small laugh. He had seen the simple men’s habit of burning with enthusiasm to cooperate and defeat a common enemy to the point of boredom, and he didn’t dislike such an atmosphere. However, Jeong Tae-ui had rarely actually participated in it. At most, it would be something light like a sports day event. So, it was only natural that he had no desire to join this fiery atmosphere, which actually resulted in casualties.

The Joint Training officially starts tomorrow, and with this kind of situation right from the first encounter, it’s certainly something to look forward to.

Jeong Tae-ui scratched his head, recalling his uncle’s words, a blessing that was not quite a blessing, that he “probably wouldn’t die.”