Chapter 245.2: Let’s Fight Together (2)
In two days, the South Korean special forces team would depart to carry out a joint operation with world-famous special forces. More importantly, they would be dropping right into the heat of combat.
The adjutant who was put in charge of logistics checked if they were lacking or missing anything so fervently that he looked as if he had gone crazy.
The sun was starting to set behind the mountains. Darkness was slowly engulfing the vicinity of the barracks.
Seok Kang-Ho’s eyes had been glinting since yesterday. However, talking to Kim Hyung-Jung made him calm down and relax.
They cut barrels in half, put them all over the field, and lit fires in them. The air around the barracks alternated between hot and cold as a result, making it seem as if they were having a power struggle.
Seok Kang-Ho was blankly standing in front of one of the barrels when Cha Dong-Gyun approached him.
“Here you go,” Cha Dong-Gyun said, offering a paper cup which Seok Kang-Ho gladly took. “We’re going to grill a pig later.”
“Nice!” Seok Kang-Ho exclaimed. He then carefully took a sip of the coffee and watched the flame in the barrel rise.
“Are you thinking of the captain?” Cha Dong-Gyun asked.
“Yeah,” Seok Kang-Ho swiftly answered. “I should’ve pestered him harder so I could go to Mongolia with him. He must be so fucking lonely out there.”
He sounded quite disappointed.
“The captain is... lonely?”
Seok Kang-Ho grinned. He tried to down the rest of the coffee but grimaced instead. “Ugh! That’s fucking hot!”
Cha Dong-Gyun looked as if he was deceived.
“Got any cigarettes with you?” Seok Kang-Ho asked.
“I haven’t been smoking lately.”
“Jeez!”
Seok Kang-Ho’s complaint made Cha Dong-Gyun call over one of the soldiers in front of the barracks and bum a cigarette from him.
Seok Kang-Ho lit it up as soon as he received it.
“Does the captain feel lonely too?” Cha Dong-Gyun asked.
“Why are you asking me that? Did you really think that man never gets lonely?”
“For some reason, I just can’t imagine it.”
Seok Kang-Ho nodded in understanding. “Once you get to know him a little bit more, you’ll start to notice when he’s lonely. That’s the reason he started hating genuinely caring for people.”
Noticing Cha Dong-Gyun’s perplexed expression, he grinned. “You know, I am always a bit surprised whenever he’s around you guys. He talks a lot and does whatever he can to make sure you’re all properly taken care of.”
“To this day, whenever I think about the operations we’ve executed, I still can’t help but feel as if it’s all just a dream even though we’ve already done a handful of them.”
“I feel the same way.” Seok Kang-Ho finished his smoke and threw the cigarette butt into the barrel. “Do your best over in Africa.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Nobody will be able to stop that man if you all die at some random place. We don’t have any countermeasures for when he loses someone he genuinely cares about.”
“I understand.”
Seok Kang-Ho sighed. After a brief pause, he complained, “This is fucking boring! I’d rather be back in North Korea again, running as fast as we did back then.”
“Aren’t you going to meet the captain soon anyway?”
“Aren’t you going to grill the pig?”
Smiling, Cha Dong-Gyun stood up.
***
After having dinner, the South Korean team in Mongolia planned the order of the agents’ shifts for guard duty. They then collectively agreed to put Kim Tae-Jin in charge of the training until Suh Sang-Hyun arrived, which would be in two days.
“You should get some rest,” Kim Tae-Jin suggested.
“No, let the agents rest instead,” Kang Chan replied. “Just in case our enemy changes their mind, I’m taking guard duty for the next two hours.”
“You’re staying outside to stand guard with me?” Oh Gwang-Taek asked Kang Chan. He then stood up and picked up a thick coat.
“Hey! There’s still a few minutes before you have to put that on.”
“Are we going outside together or not?”
“We are.”
Oh Gwang-Taek only returned to the sofa when he heard Kang Chan’s answer.
“We’re going to need some weapons,” Kang Chan told Kim Tae-Jin.
“You mean heavy weaponry?”
“Yes. We’ll find ourselves in trouble if we keep fighting armed with nothing but rifles.”
“I’ll talk to Manager Kim later and look for a way to get some, then.”
“The Mongolian border patrol will probably return tomorrow. It’s going to be hard for them to turn a blind eye and pretend they don’t know us once they realize that the Russian mafia has given up.”
“Those sons of bitches!” Oh Gwang-Taek swore.
“You should go easy on them. No matter how we feel about it, we’re in the middle of Mongolian territory. We should play nice until we become so powerful that we no longer have to,” Kang Chan advised.
“Jeez. Fuck!”
“It doesn’t really matter when you’re only with us, but you’re the one in command of this base. Shouldn’t you hold back your anger when you’re in front of the Mongolian border patrol?” Kim Tae-Jin asked.
“Argh! Fine!” Oh Gwang-Taek obediently answered, perhaps because he felt bad for swearing in front of Kim Tae-Jin. He then turned to Kang Chan. “When will you be departing?”
“I’m going to wait for our reinforcements before I leave.”
“I’m jealous.”
“You shouldn’t be. I’m going to go to Africa. It’s going to be far more gruesome over there.”
“Huh? Aren’t you going to Seoul?”
“If that was my only other option, then I would’ve just stayed here.” Kang Chan smirked.
“Well, isn’t that quite the pity?” Oh Gwang-Taek complained as if he felt bad for Kang Chan. He then gave him a suspecting look.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“What are you really going to Africa for? Do you like black women?” Oh Gwang-Taek asked.
“Jeez. Do you want to get hit?” Kang Chan finally managed to laugh after so long. “Anyway, let’s go outside.”
Kang Chan and Oh Gwang-Taek stood up and wore another layer of thick coat and pants.
A moment later, they headed to the barracks, and Kim Tae-Jin returned to the one he was assigned to.
Whish!
The wind rushed toward Kang Chan and Oh Gwang-Taek as if it was happy to see them. Contrary to how it greeted them, though, Kang Chan was quite sick and tired of it.
They told Joo Chul-Bum and the agent with him that their shift was done and to head back into their barracks. They then stood facing the wilderness.
Was it because they were in the middle of nowhere? Even the moon in front of them looked red.
“If you put your mind to it, I bet you can just live a nice, quiet, and comfortable life. Unlike me, you don’t have the cops constantly chasing after your ass. You won’t get arrestest as soon as you make one slipup, so why are you going through this much trouble?” Oh Gwang-Taek asked as he scanned their surroundings the way Kang Chan taught him.
Why am I doing all of this?
“I simply like fighting with others, I guess,” Kang Chan answered. If he was being completely honest, he would have said it was because he couldn’t just ignore the people that he genuinely cared about, but he thought saying all that would give Oh Gwang-Taek goosebumps.
Back in Africa, he only really cared about one or two people. However, when he reincarnated in South Korea, he found himself quickly getting attached to far more individuals.
Kang Chan thought that Oh Gwang-Taek was going to mock and laugh at him, but for a moment, he just stayed silent.
“Fuck! This is a gathering of people who like to fight, then,” Oh Gwang-Taek finally commented. He grumbingly continued, “You know, I used to live like an asshole. I was never any good at studying, but due to my personality, I couldn’t bring myself to work for anyone. It didn’t even matter if the alternative was death.”
After a brief pause, he added, “After some time, I started gathering subordinates, and I actually liked it. People only work for money nowadays. When I was young, the world was a far better place.”
Oh Gwang-Taek glanced at Kang Chan. “Don’t you even dare say anything that’s not related to the topic, you fucking bastard! I’m here because I want to quit being a gangster!”
Seeing Kang Chan simply smirk in response, he tilted his head up and stared at the blood-colored moon. “When I was still an underling in Gangnam, I used to live in a one-bedroom apartment. Back then, I would do nothing but eat until my hyung-nims called me, at which point I would spend the entire day working.”
“There was this one day... I remember being in so much pain that I was trembling and aching all over. At the time, my hyung-nim who lived in Hannam-dong called me, and I used all the money that I had on a taxi just so I could run over to him.” Oh Gwang-Taek looked as if he was talking to the moon. “You know what he did? He ordered me to do his laundry. His tub was full of clothes, and he wanted me to wash all of them by hand.”
Is this bastard drunk?
Oh Gwang-Taek looked as if he was being moved by the moonlight.
“I gritted my teeth and washed all of it even though some of them had to be washed with cold water. It took me four fucking hours. I thought I was going to die! When I told my hyung-nim that I was done, all he did was tell me that I did good and that I should go home and rest. Fuck!” Oh Gwang-Taek added. He then turned to Kang Chan, ice all over his face from the cold. “He didn’t even give me a penny for my fare home, so I was forced to walk across the Hannam bridge. It was snowing hard back then, and the wind felt exactly the same as the wind right now.”
“I did all of that just so I could be a gangster. But now? Now I’m doing this to get a chance to live like a decent fucking human being with you, so don’t go around being careless! You better not fucking die when you go to Africa. Just finish what you have to do and come back quickly.”
Whish!
The wind rushed in and carried his words away from them.
“I deserve to get at least one chance to fight alongside you in a gunfight, don’t I?” Oh Gwang-Taek asked.
Kang Chan couldn’t help but smile. He couldn’t believe he was starting to genuinely care for a fucking gangster now as well.
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