PASSION Chapter 2 part 3
- HoshiMiya
- Apr 14
- 11 min read
"I knew it, but I got completely wrecked."
The person who called Jeong Tae-ui more than 30 minutes before the start of the regular schedule the next day was none other than Golding Instructor of the 2nd Special Forces Education. It was only natural, as he was roll calling at the end of the regular schedule, and the guy who had gone to change his clothes more than 30 minutes ago was not there. In fact, he had been called separately right after the evening roll call the night before, but Jeong Tae-ui, who lay sprawled on his uncle's bed, pretending to be dead, hadn't budged.
And he paid the price in full by being dragged out before the start of the regular schedule in the morning and being put through the wringer, leaving him physically and mentally exhausted, staggering into the morning regular lecture.
The combat practical analysis, which took up the entire morning, had not yet begun.
The lecture hall with the large screen installed was not very large, more like a spacious seminar room. The team members were already sitting around in a circle, silently keeping quiet.
When Jeong Tae-ui entered the lecture hall, the instructor glared fiercely at him, but having already heard about it from Instructor Golding, he didn't say anything.
As he cautiously found an empty seat, Tou snickered beside him.
"Did you have a good date with Golding? Being called out right after breakfast, you guys must be really close."
"Yeah, so hot I almost burned to death."
Jeong Tae-ui, who had been teasingly needled by Tou's whispering, retorted sullenly, then bowed his head again as the instructor in front glared at them with wide eyes. Tou pretended not to notice and looked ahead.
"As you all know, joint training with the European branch is just around the corner. So today, as part of the interpersonal analysis, we will be looking at the records from last time. Now, these are the records from last year's joint training."
While Jeong Tae-ui mercilessly poked Tou in the ribs, the instructor pressed the controller key. The dark screen brightened, and a video appeared on it. The image quality wasn't great, but it was perfectly adequate for recognizing the content.
‘You son of a bitch, that hurts!’
Tou muttered beside him with a grimace, but Jeong Tae-ui pretended not to notice and just looked ahead.
‘Be quiet and watch that. It's the joint training recording.’
Jeong Tae-ui said curtly. Tou reached out as if to retaliate, but Carlo, who was watching from the back, lightly kicked Tou's chair. With a small thud, the instructor's icy gaze flew their way. Beep, the video paused.
"You there. Do you want to see it separately during free time after the regular schedule?"
A frosty voice rang out sternly. Tou straightened his back and sat upright, his expression serious.
"No. I absolutely do not wish to."
"I apologize. I’ll be quiet."
The best policy is always to submit unconditionally. Jeong Tae-ui had just realized this morning that arguing with a superior here would only hurt him. Of course, Tou, who had been here longer, must also know this.
Although the ranks were Director, Vice-director, Instructor, and then team members, the position of Instructor was not one to be taken lightly. It was said that while they were instructors at UNHRDO, they could immediately secure a senior position if they moved to another organization.
The instructor, whose hair was beginning to turn gray, glared at them fiercely before grabbing the controller again.
"If you want to stay alive a little longer, you need to study your enemies properly. Watch carefully."
As the instructor finished speaking, the video began to play again.
It was a recording of last year's joint training with the European branch. It wasn't the entire record, but rather a compilation of necessary parts, edited with cuts between scenes.
The lecture hall, which had been quiet when the video started, gradually became more animated as the content progressed. Everyone watched the recordings with serious expressions, quietly exchanging brief words with their nearby colleagues. It could be described as a discussion in the form of casual conversation.
Jeong Tae-ui, who had never experienced joint training, focused on the screen, casually picking up the snippets of conversation he could hear around him.
"How is it? Less than ten days left. Does watching that make you think you can keep up?"
Tou leaned over from beside him and muttered softly. Jeong Tae-ui rested his chin on his clasped hands, gazing intently at the screen without looking away as he replied.
"It feels like a systematic gang fight. The job is just to join hands with your teammates and fight your enemies to death. ……Still, I'd better watch out for myself. I'm not so confident."
Among the men fighting in the video, there were familiar faces. Colleagues currently sitting in this lecture hall appeared occasionally. But their expressions were ones Jeong Tae-ui had never seen before. They were faces truly on the brink of life and death. Faces that said, 'If I lose, I die.'
Lethal weapons were not provided. The guns were paintball guns or airsoft guns. The blades of the knives had been dulled so they couldn't cut people. In other words, everywhere it was formally just training.
But there was no one here who didn't know that even without those things, you could kill someone.
"Aha, Tou getting caught doing something stupid is on video."
Jeong Tae-ui chuckled and pointed at the screen. A man with a deeply furrowed brow was visible inside. He had been trying to seize an opportunity to land a blow on an opponent when he lost his balance by accidentally stepping on someone who was lying on the ground behind him. Because of that, the punch he threw didn't have enough force behind it and was as good as a miss, and naturally, the opponent seized the chance to counterattack.
Tou clicked his tongue, grumbling about why such a thing had been filmed. Beside him, Wienho, who had been chuckling, soon saw himself on the screen and had to put on a grim face.
"Honestly, instead of just showing us failure cases, I wish they'd show us some success stories. It's embarrassing to watch, seeing all our team members making stupid mistakes."
"You little punk...—you think your mistakes won't be shown, so you're all relaxed, huh?!"
"It's not easy to shorten your lifespan with such a basic mistake."
Tou, enraged by Jeong Tae-ui's blatant snickering, tried to roll up his sleeves, but the atmosphere around them suddenly turned cold. Startled by the sudden silence, Tou looked around in confusion, and Jeong Tae-ui also looked ahead.
An edited video clip was playing on the screen. Even though it was edited, it was just the unnecessary parts at the beginning and end that had been cut out; the main parts were still intact.
Inside it was a man.
His face was so pale it was bloodless. Tall and lanky, he was looking down at his feet, seemingly lost in thought. Perhaps looking somewhat melancholic, this man had a neat appearance that didn't seem to fit in such a video. He would have looked more fitting in a photo from a fashion magazine.
"……He looks like he'd be cute if he smiled."
But his face is completely white, poor thing, Jeong Tae-ui added in a mumble, then his eyes met Tohu's, who was glancing at him with eyes wide as if he'd seen a ghost. And it wasn't just him. The colleagues sitting within earshot all turned to look at Jeong Tae-ui in astonishment, their eyes wide as if they might pop out—or maybe they were glaring.
'Why are these guys all acting like this?' Jeong Tae-ui thought, meeting their gazes directly before tilting his head and turning his attention back to the screen.
The man in the video didn't even have a weapon. His hands were empty. He was only wearing black gloves on his hands. It didn't seem like he was hiding any other weapons either. His form-fitting shirt and pants were simple, without any cumbersome attachments.
'Did they put in the wrong video? No, but the background is definitely our branch.'
Jeong Tae-ui, who had been looking at the screen curiously, his chin resting on his hand and his fingertips rubbing his lips, met the man's eyes in the next moment. When those black eyes looked at me as if looking through a glass, I felt my heart drop.
The man, who was probably looking at the recording camera installed on a high wall, blinked once and then smiled faintly. As the smile spread over his expressionless and melancholic eyes, Jeong Tae-ui realized that the man might be younger than him. He had an appearance that made it difficult to guess his age, but there was a very faint hint of youth in his smiling face.
The man tilted his head slightly and approached the camera. Then he reached out his hand. The screen was filled with his black-gloved hand.
However, before the screen was completely covered in black, his hand paused. Beyond his receding hand, another man appeared behind him. He was quite tall for an East Asian man.
Seeing the newly appeared man, someone nearby whispered, "Kiyomi." Jeong Tae-ui racked his memory, trying to recall where he had heard that name. This man was the previous occupant of the room I was currently using, the one who had been injured in the last training and was now in the hospital recovering.
The man named Kiyomi was holding a knife in his hand. It was a knife with a blunted blade, made dull so it couldn't cut people. Kiyomi's face was deathly pale, but he didn't back down and stared straight at the man. It looked like he was saying something, but no sound was recorded in the video.
The man calmly approached Kiyomi. He walked without hesitation, at a pace that was neither fast nor slow, and tension flickered across Kiyomi's face.
Whether Kiyomi made a split-second decision, he rotated the knife half a turn so the blade pointed downwards and moved closer to the man. Then, he swung his other elbow outwards, aiming to strike the man, while raising the hand holding the knife. It was a situation where an opening would appear whether the man was hit by the elbow or if he bent over or dodged to avoid it.
The man slowed his pace. Then, he reached out and touched the wall beside him, using the tips of his fingers to push off it. Or rather, he himself leaped sideways.
Jeong Tae-ui stopped rubbing his lips with his fingers. This is something strange.
On the white wall where the man had touched with his fingertips, a black mark remained, exactly where his fingers had been. It was as if water had leaked from his black gloves and stained the wall.
'What is that?'
There was no time to think.
Kiyomi's elbow slammed into the man's chest. It was a blow that could have easily broken ribs.
However, the man only frowned slightly. Even in the midst of that, the man's hand shot out and grabbed Kiyomi's wrist, which was descending towards him, and he smiled faintly as he saw the dull knife Kiyomi was holding.
The man twisted Kiyomi's wrist. In the soundless video, an unheard scream erupted. The knife he had been holding fell heavily to the floor.
The man lightly tapped his chest a couple of times, as if the pain from the blow he had just received was only now registering. But his head tilted with a face as expressionless as a mannequin.
Jeong Tae-ui unknowingly clenched his fist. A cold feeling was spreading through a corner of his chest. The surroundings were silent, without even a breath to be heard.
The man, who was holding Kiyomi's other arm, wrapped one hand around his neck. Kiyomi's neck fit comfortably within the large hand wearing the black glove. The man stroked Kiyomi's neck gently for a moment, as if caressing it.
Again. Again, a black trail followed the man's hand. Over Kiyomi's neck.
Jeong Tae-ui frowned and glared at the mark. It couldn't be that his gloves were soaked in black mud water from rolling around in a puddle. What in the world was that.…….?
Then, it suddenly dawned on him.
It wasn't black. That mark was a deep red, so dark it looked black. Maybe even the gloves weren't black. That crimson light that had soaked the gloves…….
The color drained slightly from Jeong Tae-ui's face. The moment he realized the identity of that crimson light, the man in the video, who had been gripping Kiyomi's neck, straightened his thumb and pressed it down instantly, right above the collarbone.
"No way……!"
The words escaped his lips before he could stop them. But he couldn't finish the sentence because the clearly recorded reality was unfolding before his eyes, and also because his spine had chilled and his tongue had frozen.
The finger that had pierced through the middle of his neck slowly withdrew. That finger was stained with an even darker light.
Kiyomi, his eyes rolled back and white, convulsed and then went limp. The man dropped him to the floor without a second thought. He rubbed his chest, looking displeased, but then shook his head and turned away.
Again, he stood facing the camera directly. Jeong Tae-ui rubbed his now cold lips with his fingertips. His eyes met the man's on the screen. His face was still pale and calm. It was impossible to see that face as belonging to the person who had just pierced someone's neck, which made it even more chilling.
He looked up at the camera for a moment, then suddenly chuckled. Soon after, just like before, the gloved hand came closer and filled the screen, and with that, the edited video ended.
Following that, a video of other men grappling played, but the image of the man's last smile was vividly etched into Jeong Tae-ui's retina. A coldness had settled in his chest.
"What the hell was that?"
Jeong Tae-ui murmured in a voice so faint it was barely a whisper. A low reply came from beside him.
"That's that psychopath from the European branch. That madman Rick, who no one in the European branch can handle."
Tou's face was also hardened as he replied in a voice filled with dread.
"It's not just the European branch. He's already notorious as someone you can't associate with in the headquarters and all the other branches."
Carlo's heavy voice came from behind them.
"Reigrow from the European branch. They also call him Madman Rick."
"Reigrow……."
"Because of that bastard, Kiyomi was lying in critical condition with a tube down his throat. We should probably be grateful he was dealt with quickly and survived."
Jeong Tae-ui, who had been staring at the lingering image of the man in the video where other people were now visible, frowned slightly and turned to look at them.
"Even after all that, the organization doesn't take any action? Even though they have a recording of the evidence like that?!"
Then Carlo chuckled, a bitter and grim laugh.
"Hey, Tae-ui. That, you see, is 'training.' And that was a 'counterattack by an unarmed trainee' against a 'trainee with a weapon.' What you saw was part of the 'training' process. Okay?"
"Well…… still, it's pretty obvious that that bastard intentionally went way too far and killed him. He doesn't even try to hide it, so he must have been in and out of the detention center several times."
Following Carlo, Tou, who had been muttering, pointed to the floor with his finger as if remembering something and added, "Ah, there's a detention center on the 7th basement floor. Once you go in there, you come out looking like skin and bones. Well, it's understandable if you're locked up and tormented for days or even months."
"……In that bastard's case, wouldn't the supervising instructor have ended up looking more like skin and bones?"
While half-listening and half-ignoring their muttering with serious faces, Jeong Tae-ui rubbed his goosebumped arms. 'That guy is going to tear someone to shreds before they get a chance to tear him to shreds.' No, before that, I wanted to tear my own mouth first for saying that the man looked like he'd be cute if he smiled.
I thought I had a pretty good eye for people, but I'd completely failed.
Now I understood my colleagues' reactions. Jeong Tae-ui kept rubbing his arms. My chest still felt cold. My anxiously fluttering heart wouldn't calm down. Those black eyes I had met across the screen. That snow-white face. Those black gloves. And the blackish-crimson traces left by them.
"......"
"Alright, everyone watched carefully? I'll replay a few points with emphasis, so watch closely."
The instructor tapped the desk lightly and spoke. Then, he started playing the video they had just watched again, this time pausing at intervals.
Jeong Tae-ui felt his heart calm down a little and quietly took a deep breath. Then, he watched the videos again, slowly and carefully.
As a result, Jeong Tae-ui came to the conclusion that running away was the best option.
***
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Credits:
Translator: Hoshi Miya
Editor/Proofreader: Tâmago
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