Chapter 134: Chaos in the Base (1)
Kang Ra-Eun’s resistance toward the army had been significantly reduced compared to before, possibly due to her appearance on the female soldier special of On Duty, All Clear!, or her modeling for the army right after the special. However, her hatred for the army had not fully disappeared; rather, it was still as strong as always.
She would rather die than go through another round of military service, but there was just one instance when her hatred for the army disappeared. That was when she went to visit others in the army. In other words, when she herself was discharged, but went to visit friends or juniors who still weren’t.
‘It’s rather fun to go visit them at times like that.’
This was why it was always best to complete one’s military service early. Ra-Eun knew this better than anyone else.
They were on their way to the army base. The exact location of the base couldn’t be designated on the GPS, so they searched up a place that could serve as a close estimate and relied on Seo Yi-Seo’s memory to find the rest of the way there.
“I think we turn right at the crossroads there,” Yi-Seo stated.
“Okay.”
Ra-Eun had obviously never been to the base that Seo Yi-Jun was deployed at. She had been far too busy due to her movie and various variety show recordings, and she honestly never felt like going since it was too far away from Seoul, where she lived.
However, a man... no, a woman never went back on her word. She said that she would visit, so she had decided to do so as soon as possible, and today was that day.
It felt like they had still been in an urban area around twenty minutes ago, but now their vehicle was on a road far away from civilization.
Ra-Eun’s eyes sparkled as she could see the guardhouse from a distance.
“So that’s the base Yi-Jun was deployed to, huh?”
“Yeah, it is, but why are you so excited?” Yi-Seo asked perplexedly.
She seemed to have no idea why Ra-Eun was reacting this way, but she likely had no idea how awesome it was for someone who didn’t need to go to the army to visit someone during their military service.
***
The army base always held church services on Sunday mornings. One had to be at least a sergeant to have the power to skip church service out of laziness, but Private First Class Seo Yi-Jun had no such power. However, there was one way that a low-ranking soldier like himself was able to proudly skip church service, and that was a visit.
He was standing by in his barracks wearing the full military outfit consisting of a clean combat uniform[ref]Korean soldiers are given multiple uniforms, and one of them is to be kept clean to wear on leaves, visits or inspections.[ref] and boots that he had polished like crazy since last night. He checked the time over and over again, since today was the day that his older sister and his crush were coming to visit.
While Yi-Jun was waiting, an orderly opened the door and called for him.
“Yi-Jun.”
“Yes, sir!”
His eyes sparkled, hoping the orderly had come with the news of visitors, but the orderly simply had a mischievous smile on his face.
He asked, “Your older sister is coming to visit you today, right?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“Is she really coming?”
Yi-Jun had thought the orderly had come to tell him that his older sister was here, but he was instead being barraged with questions about her instead. Yi-Jun sighed in his head and acted like he wasn’t annoyed as much as possible.
“Yes, she said she would,” he replied.
“Is just your sister coming?”
“She and... her friend are coming.”
Yi-Jun had been keeping Ra-Eun a secret from everyone in the base. No one would believe him anyway if he said that he was extremely close to a female celebrity, and he felt like his superiors would pester him to prove that he was close to Ra-Eun if he said anything about her.
The orderly showed great interest in Yi-Jun’s sister’s friend as well.
“Is your sister’s friend pretty too?” he asked.
“Yes, she is.”
There was no way that she wasn’t pretty, when she had stolen Yi-Jun’s heart. However, the orderly didn’t believe him.
“How am I supposed to believe that when you don’t even have a single picture of her?”
Sergeant Jin Nam-Woo, the orderly for today, did not like Yi-Jun very much. He was dissatisfied by how the other superiors showed great interest in Yi-Jun and made his army life easy, simply because of the fact that he had an older sister, because...
“Shit. I have older sisters too, but my superiors harassed me to no end as soon as they found out they were all married. You have no idea how much that pissed me off.”
Sergeant Jin Nam-Woo glared at Yi-Jun.
“That’s why I can’t stand to see guys who have a comfortable military service just because they have pretty older or younger sisters.”
“...”
“Your sister or her friend might actually not be that pretty. A little photoshop can always fix that these days, right?” the sergeant remarked.
Yi-Jun could endure anything else but his family being insulted. However, they were in the army. He knew that he would only worry his family if he made a big deal out of this, so he simply clenched his fists tight in anger to maintain his composure as best he could.
“Hey, Nam-Woo.”
While Yi-Jun was on the verge of exploding, the orderly officer came to the barracks and called for Nam-Woo.
“Yes, sir?” Nam-Woo asked.
“What are you doing here? I just got a call saying Yi-Jun has visitors. Who’s gonna receive the keys coming to the orderly room if you’re not there?”
“I’m sorry, sir.”
The orderly officer deeply sighed and turned to Yi-Jun.
“You have visitors, so get ready to go. As for your lead... go with your squad leader.”
“Yes, sir,” Yi-Jun replied.
He quickly got ready to go down to the guardhouse.
Meanwhile, Nam-Woo asked the orderly officer, “Communications Chief, may I lead Yi-Jun to the guardhouse instead?”
“You? Why?”
It was to see for his own eyes Yi-Jun’s sister, who was rumored in the base to be pretty, and her friend with his own eyes. However, he gave a different excuse since he thought the orderly officer wouldn’t let him if he was that direct.
“Da-Hyeong’s stomach has been hurting since this morning, so I thought it’d be better for me to lead Yi-Jun there instead.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes, sir.”
Sergeant Choi Da-Hyeong was a squad leader of the second platoon that Yi-Jun was part of. The orderly officer quickly scanned the barracks. Everyone else but Yi-Jun, who had been standing by for a visit, had gone to the church service.
“Now that you mention it, where is Da-Hyeong?” the orderly officer asked.
“He’s probably in the bathroom right now, sir,” Nam-Woo answered.
“Hm, really?”
The communications chief’s eyebrows twitched. He honestly did not want to send Nam-Woo all the way down to the guardhouse since like he had mentioned earlier, he would have to receive all the keys returned to the orderly room if none of the orderlies were in the orderly room. However, he couldn’t just allow Yi-Jun to go down to the guardhouse without anyone accompanying him.
“I guess I have no choice...” the orderly officer said as he put his hand on the back of his neck.
Contrary to the troubled orderly officer, Nam-Woo was all smiles. Yi-Jun did not like how things were going either. The communications chief made a decision after much consideration.
“Well, okay. I can receive the keys for the time being, so you can—”
“Sir!”
As things were about to go as Nam-Woo had planned, someone appeared to ruin it all. Choi Da-Hyeong had returned from the bathroom to the barracks, and saluted as soon as he saw the communications chief.
The communications chief asked, “I heard you weren’t feeling too good today. Are you okay?”
“Yes, sir! I’m fine!”
“Yi-Jun has visitors. You’ll take him to the guardhouse, right?”
“Yes, sir! I will!”
Da-Hyeong had been waiting for the chance to meet Yi-Jun’s older sister for a while, so he wasn’t going to miss it for the world. Yi-Jun was relieved, but Nam-Woo clicked his tongue in disappointment.
“Okay. Da-Hyeong will take Yi-Jun, so you stand by in the orderly room, Nam-Woo. I’ve gotta play a mobile game,” the orderly officer remarked.
“Yes, sir.”
Yi-Jun said to Da-Hyeong as they left the barracks together, “Thank you so much, squad leader.”
“Hm? What did I do?”
Da-Hyeong couldn’t help but be perplexed as he had no idea what had happened before he had entered the barracks.
***
Ra-Eun parked the car and walked to the base with Yi-Seo while wearing glasses and a mask. They went through a check at the guardhouse.
The guardhouse captain tilted his head.
“Which one of you is Private First Class Seo Yi-Jun’s older sister?”
“I am,” Yi-Seo answered with her hand slightly raised.
“Then, this is...”
Ra-Eun answered, “I’m her friend.”
“Oh, I see. A friend.”
A friend accompanying a visit was fine, but she looked fairly suspicious with everything she was wearing to conceal her face. The soldiers of the guardhouse glanced at each other.
“I’m sorry, but could you please show us your face?”
There had been significant issues with the army’s security systems lately, so this had to be done to confirm the identities of everyone coming in and out of the base. Ra-Eun couldn’t blame them since they were simply following procedures. However, she was not displeased. She lowered her mask and took off her glasses.
“Huh...?”
The soldiers’ eyes shook violently. It was their first time seeing the woman, but she felt all too familiar. It was obvious, since they had seen her acting on TV countless times.
“C-Could you be... M-Miss Kang Ra-Eun?”
There was no way the soldiers wouldn’t be able to recognize Ra-Eun, since her popularity among soldiers was on par with popular girl group members.
Ra-Eun smiled and nodded. “Yes, I am.”
“N-No way!”
The soldiers were shocked as well as ecstatic enough to be happy with dying at this very moment. Unlike them, Ra-Eun maintained a calm attitude.
“May I put my glasses and mask back on?” she asked.
“Pardon? Oh, yes! O-Of course!”
“Thank you.”
She covered her face back up, but she couldn’t cover her celebrity aura. The soldiers couldn’t focus on their duties after coming face to face with Ra-Eun.
After all the checks had been completed, the soldiers came out of the guardhouse and exclaimed to Ra-Eun and Yi-Seo, “Please enjoy your stay!”
The other soldiers and the people who had come for visits wondered what they were doing. They were acting as if a division commander had come for a visit.
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