Chapter 135: Chaos in the Base (2)
Seo Yi-Jun’s heart beat faster and faster as he got closer and closer to the visiting room. Kang Ra-Eun had said she would come to visit, but she was so busy that she might have had to cancel the visit. It had actually happened once before, when the visit had to be postponed because she suddenly had to appear on a show, and that postponed date was today. Yi-Jun couldn’t help but be nervous.
‘Well, I don’t really mind if only my sister is here.’
However, he would be even happier if he could see Ra-Eun as well, since his feeling toward her was as blazing as always.
“We’re almost there,” Choi Da-Hyeong said.
Yi-Jun anxiously nodded.
“That aside, how are your sister and her friend acquainted? Is she a university friend?” Da-Hyeong asked.
“Yes, they’re friends,” Yi-Jun replied.
“Oh, really? Then she must be really smart too. Your sister goes to a good university, right?”
Da-Hyeong’s heart was also beating in expectation that he would be able to meet two women with both brains and looks. As they arrived at the visiting room, they could hear the sound of people muttering. All of their attention was focused on one person, a woman hiding her face with glasses and a mask.
Yi-Jun couldn’t hold back his happiness as soon as he saw her.
“Noona!”
Ra-Eun slightly lowered her mask as soon as she saw Yi-Jun, and said with a smile, “How’ve you been?”
Da-Hyeong froze in place from seeing the top actress.
***
A goddess had descended on their base located up on the mountains. The people who had come for a visit were more focused on Ra-Eun than their friend, lover or son. A few of them were asking for autographs and such from Ra-Eun.
“I enjoyed your movie so much!”
.
“I’m a huge fan, unnie! You’re so beautiful!”
Ra-Eun smiled as the people claiming to be her fans cheered. Her smile was beautiful enough to captivate ordinary people, so how would soldiers react?
Da-Hyeong felt like the sight in front of him was a dream.
“Hey... Yi-Jun.”
“Yes, sir?”
“I’m awake, right? This isn’t a dream, right?”
“Would you like me to pinch you on your side, sir?”
“O-Okay,” Da-Hyeong said while nodding.
He screamed as Yi-Jun pinched his side as hard as he could.
“Ouch! That hurts, dammit!”
“This is reality, sir.”
“I... see.”
Yi-Jun was used to seeing Ra-Eun since he had met her many times before his enlistment, but the same couldn’t be said for other people. Seo Yi-Seo set up the food they had brought on the visiting room table one by one.
“You said you wanted to eat pizza, right? We bought tons, so have as much as you want.”
“Thanks, sis.”
“Don’t thank me, thank Ra-Eun. She’s the one who drove here and bought all of this.”
“That’s noona for you. Thank you very much.”
He had been able to eat pizza any time he had wanted back when he was still an active member of society, but it had become a scarcity after coming to the army. Hence, one of the many foods that soldiers craved whenever they were out of the base was pizza.
Ra-Eun also offered Da-Hyeong sitting next to Yi-Jun some pizza as well.
“Please help yourself as well, squad leader.”
“M-May I really?”
“Yes. Yi-Jun can’t eat all of this anyway.”
“Thank you very much!”
What he craved wasn’t pizza, but the ‘pizza that Kang Ra-Eun had bought.’ When could he ever have an opportunity like this? It was safe to say that he never would. Ra-Eun had also been a soldier in the past, so she felt full just from the two of them frantically eating the pizza.
“Oh, right,” Ra-Eun mentioned. She had forgotten something. “I’d bought a few more boxes of pizza for everyone in Yi-Jun’s squad to enjoy. Could I bring them here?”
She and Yi-Seo had bought boxes of pizza to match the number of people in Yi-Jun’s squad on their way here. They had also bought fried chicken and soft drinks to go with them. They had practically brought a full course.
Yi-Jun muttered that she didn’t have to go that far, but Ra-Eun thought otherwise.
“I’ve come all this way, so I might as well go all out.”
By doing this, she would be able to give strength to Yi-Jun, and his superiors would treat him nicely. Not only that, if it was fried chicken and pizza that Kang Ra-Eun had bought, they would devour it all even if they had already eaten.
The base that Ra-Eun had served in had no rules restricting foods being brought in from outside. However, this base was different.
Sergeant Choi Da-Hyeong expressed reluctance. “That probably won’t be allowed. One of our sergeants snuck in food from outside once, and ended up giving food poisoning to two soldiers. The surveillance has gotten super tight lately because of that.”
He was saying that it was also impossible to sneak it up without the officers finding out, since it would be game over as soon as they were caught. However, it was far too much of a waste to just throw away all the food.
“What should we do, noona?” Yi-Jun asked in worry.
She couldn’t ask Yi-Jun and Da-Hyeong to eat it all. They could just share it with everyone in the visiting room, but it felt like a bit of waste to do so. Ra-Eun crossed her arms together and went deep into thought. They were in the army; if it wasn’t allowed, they could just make it allowed.
“Leave it to me,” Ra-Eun said as she turned her gaze to outside the visiting room.
She smiled as she saw a few men walking through an open door.
“Found it,” she stated.
“Found what?” Yi-Jun asked.
She replied while staring fixedly at the men walking toward her, “A way to bring the food up to your barracks.”
***
The second company commander sighed deeply as he lazed around in the battalion command control center.
“Why do I have to be the watch commander on a weekend?”
The second company commander had not been part of the base for longer than the other company commanders, excluding the headquarters company commander. Due to this, the role of watch commander on weekends was usually pushed onto him.
“You think I do this because I want to? I want to laze around on the weekends too.”
The soldiers stayed silent as the second company commander grumbled in the absence of his superior officers. He was in a very sensitive state at the moment, so it was possible that he would make them go through emergency drills out of spite.
As he was spending the worst weekend ever, an unbelievable report came his way.
“W-Watch Commander!” a soldier who had returned from the post exchange exclaimed in shock.
“What? Is the division commander here or something?” he asked jokingly, based on the soldier’s level of shock.
However, what he said next was more important in a way than a division commander’s visit.
“R-Right now, M-Miss... Miss Kang Ra-Eun is in our base!”
“Miss Kang Ra-Eun? You mean Kang Ra-Eun in One of a Kind of Girl?”
“Yes!”
The first thing the watch commander did was laugh.
“Enough with your jokes. I’m not in the mood.”
“I’m not joking, sir! Kang Ra-Eun is seriously in our visiting room right now!”
“You still haven’t gotten your shit together?” the watch commander said as he picked up the landline phone in front of him. “Watch Commander here. Put Staff Sergeant Yoo on.”
He called the guardhouse to check for himself.
- Sir! Staff Sergeant Yoo Hae-Gon speaking.
“Staff Sergeant, I just heard some weird news. Has Miss Kang Ra-Eun come to visit our base?”
If it was true, there was no way the soldiers dispatched at the guardhouse wouldn’t know since they kept tabs on everyone entering the base. If the soldier who had reported it was lying, the watch commander was thinking of making the soldier take responsibility for trying to fool him. However, reality sometimes exceeded one’s imagination.
- Yes, sir. She has.
“What...?”
The answer had been completely different from what he had expected to hear.
“We’re talking about the same ‘Kang Ra-Eun,’ right?”
- Yes, sir. I was just as shocked as you are right now. Seong-Kook was saying that she looked like Kang Ra-Eun, so I asked her to take off her mask and glasses... And it really turned out to be her.
“W-Wait. Then are you saying what I heard was true?”
- Yes, sir.
“Why didn’t you report it?!”
The watch commander’s cry filled the command control center. He was angry because he was a huge fan of Ra-Eun. He was also a member of Club Allegiance, Ra-Eun’s fan club.
- I’m sorry, sir. We weren’t able to think straight either.
It was understandable; they needed to check the other visitors as well, and they had likely been just as frantic.
“She’s in the visiting room right now, right?”
- Yes, sir.
“Got it!” He smashed down the landline phone. “I’ll be in the visiting room for a bit!”
“Are you off to see Miss Kang Ra-Eun, sir?”
“Could you please take me with you, sir?”
The other soldiers begged to go with the watch commander. He clicked his tongue in exasperation.
“Can’t you guys be this active all the time?”
The soldiers smiled awkwardly. The watch commander sighed and took just a few soldiers with him.
***
And just like that, the watch commander and his group of soldiers had arrived at the visiting room.
“H-Hello, ma’am! I ran here as fast as I could once I’d heard you were here, Miss Kang! You’re far more beautiful in person!”
Ra-Eun smiled brightly at the watch commander’s shy confession.
“Thank you very much.”
Her gaze shifted to his armband. It was yellow with four red stripes.
‘He must be the watch commander for today.’
She could tell from just a glance. She went straight into actress mode as soon as she confirmed the officer’s rank.
Ra-Eun looked in the direction of her car with a troubled face.
“I’ve come to see my friend’s little brother with tons of food and drinks for him to share with his squadmates. Could I bring them up to the barracks?”
According to the field manual, it needed to be refused. The second company commander was also about to, but...
“Please?” Ra-Eun begged.
There was no way he could refuse when Kang Ra-Eun herself was requesting him a favor.
“I understand. Da-Hyeong.”
“Yes, sir!”
“Go get a few men from your company. And Miss Kang, if you’d like to take a look around our base, I’ll happily guide you.”
Ra-Eun smiled once again at the watch commander’s decision.
“Thank you very much. You’re so kind.”
“I-It’s no problem at all!” the watch commander exclaimed with a bright-red face.
No one could win against a pretty face.
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