Even though he sensed someone entering the hospital room, the man on the bed did not raise his downcast eyes, keeping his lips tightly pressed together in his seated position.

It was because his mindset hadn’t changed even after being rescued, just as he had only waited to die in the Tamayon lair.

“……”

“……”

Seojun, who had one military boot propped up on a wooden chair, also said nothing. He simply bent his graceful body slightly and cast a low gaze towards the bed.

Growing up abroad alone to become a decent businessman was due to harboring resentment at being abandoned by his birth father, and the terrorist gang pointing guns at the hostage was because the Tamayon leader’s demand for an astronomical sum as ransom was flatly rejected by that man who called himself a father.

Hence the gunshot wound to the chest.

Sent abroad right after birth. Abandoned when kidnapped. Being discarded twice by his father like this, it’s only natural that his heart would be more broken than his chest torn by the bullet. In that mental anguish, he would want to deny even his own existence.

Publicly, Chairman Han had only one son. Therefore, this man was clearly a hidden illegitimate child.

This was what Seojun had heard from the medical officer who came to greet him when he crossed over from the main building to the medical ward.

As he had heard, Seojun did not rush. He simply calmly told the reality as it was.

“Our special forces team risked their lives to rescue three people from that dangerous place, including you, but because one of them wishes for death, the reward for risking our lives has been halved, so who should be held responsible for that?”

“……”

“With that plummeting morale, do you think our military would want to do something like this again?”

Even after explaining until his mouth hurt, this guy simply wouldn’t listen. Of course the festering wound would be terribly painful, and it wouldn’t be strange if he died soon.

Seojun coldly sneered as he twirled the heavy object he had pulled from his waist with his finger. At that, the man who had shown no reaction raised his head and stared fixedly at Seojun’s face.

The reason he opened his eyes wide was more a question and protest of whether a military doctor could do this, whether he was going to shoot him with that gun now, rather than surprise at seeing a famous person before him. However, his lips remained even more tightly pressed.

He should already know well what a gun is like, if only because of the hole below his chest, but perhaps he needs more to snap out of it.

Seojun moved his thumb to make a clicking sound. The man’s Adam’s apple trembled slightly at the metallic sound of the gun’s slide being pulled back and the hammer cocking.

“Y-you, what are you doing!”

He finally opened his mouth.

“Let’s just say I’m a corrupt doctor.”

With a bullet now chambered, just a slight touch of the trigger would fire the gun. He closed his eyes tightly as if resigned. And at that moment, Seojun pulled the trigger.

Click.

“!”

However, nothing terrible happened, and the man on the bed was blinking rapidly with a shocked expression.

“I was going to grant your wish and send you off painlessly. Sorry.”

Seojun pulled the slide again, this time placing his long finger on the trigger as if for real.

His life hung on this one shot. Having already experienced one terrifying moment, he suddenly changed his mind.

“W-wait……”

The man who chose to live spoke more clearly.

“Please… save me.”

“I didn’t quite catch that. Again.”

“I want to live!”

As he answered repeatedly, Seojun put away the gun with a faint smile.

“I think there are others who would be happy if you died early, so take revenge. It would be good to show them by living well. You can grind them to dust if you like. There’s nothing wrong with living tenaciously, doing everything you want, and dying slowly with no regrets.”

As Seojun spoke, the man gritted his teeth and shed tears.

“Ugh……”

It was because of a single gun. No, it was because the military medical officer before him had awakened him. That facing the one responsible for his despair, even if his whole body is crushed, is a far more satisfying thing than resenting through death.

“Lieutenant Park.”

“Yes, Captain!”

The medical officer who was called approached Seojun and answered.

“He seems like he’ll behave now, so treat him. If he refuses again, let me know immediately. I’ll be sure to bring live ammunition then. Well, carry on!”

With a smirk, revealing that the gun had been empty from the start, Seojun left the place with the same stern expression he had when entering.

It was when Seojun had left the medical ward and was walking towards the main building.

BOOM!

A tremendous explosion tore through his eardrums.

“Ack!”

“!”

The medical officer walking ahead suddenly collapsed limply to the ground from the sudden bombing. Seojun’s uniform was instantly stained dark red. It was the blood of that soldier hit by shrapnel from the shell that came out of nowhere.

Eeeeeeee…

The air raid siren began to wail.

BOOM! KABOOM!

At that moment, shells dropped again from fighter jets, devastatingly destroying the largest main building in the base and turning the surroundings into a sea of fire in an instant.

If Seojun hadn’t come to the medical ward or had returned to his office a little earlier, he would have died instantly inside the main building. The gap between this life and the next was so thin.

After checking once more on the medical officer who had died without needing to check his pulse, Seojun began to deal with this urgent crisis in an orderly manner along with soldiers who had quickly evacuated from the barracks building.

This Korean military base, surrounded by rocky mountains, could be called an optimal fortress. Therefore, it was insufficient to raze this place with just two fighter jets.

It was certainly a retaliatory surprise attack from Selar, where hostages had been rescued earlier today. But why were they making such an unprecedented mad provocation when important negotiations were right ahead, when peace would be discussed tomorrow? This was something no one had expected.

Although shells were still falling, Seojun caught his breath and quickly walked to the underground bunker where the operations room was located. Stepping over broken bricks and all kinds of debris.

However, another shell that flew in blocked his path.

KABOOM!

At that moment, Seojun belatedly realized that he had been thrown and was lying on the path he had been walking.

He needed to get up again, but his body wouldn’t listen. As the blood from his head and body, which had hit the ground hard, soaked the soil thoroughly, Seojun’s mind also became dazed.

But when the light of countless stars floating in the dark night sky poured deep into those eyes, Seojun was able to briefly delay his collapsing consciousness.

Is it okay for the sky to sparkle like that when the ground is hell? It was really funny that he thought of her, who looked even prettier with those clear eyes, at this moment that could be his last.

If I’m missing that winter night that was only one day with her, does that mean I’m really crazy?

The thought didn’t go any further than that. With a ringing in his ears, only her face kept spinning around in his head.

“Kuk……”

Seojun couldn’t help but chuckle.

What overlapped in his increasingly blurry vision was the Milky Way scattered like jewel dust in the night sky and the flames blazing on the ground.

Now he couldn’t hear any sound. Seojun slowly closed his eyes.

It was a cruel yet beautiful night where no expression could be made anymore.

There is such a thing.

Something that was difficult before, but is even more difficult now. Something you can’t do even more because you know, when you wouldn’t know if you didn’t know. That thing that’s so hard to even attempt because the aftermath of an accident is too great – that was standing in front of a camera with the spotlight focused on you.

But, how could one not be happy after finally accomplishing that fearful thing?

Although a bit nervous, the large eyes that boldly faced the camera sparkled even more today because of that.

“Very good! So Yeon, stay in that pose a little longer!”

So Yeon’s appearance captured on screen was beautiful enough to be a goddess in her own right. Because of that, the filming director’s expression was full of excitement as he kept exclaiming in admiration.

“Okay, zoom shot coming in!”

As soon as the director’s words fell, dozens of lights turned on all at once with a flash. And that bright light was fully captured in her mysterious back view.

Eom So Yeon’s height was 175cm including her high heels. Although not as tall as runway models, the fantastic proportions and elastic curves of her entire body were no less impressive.

The delicate features contained in her small face were also like a porcelain doll carefully crafted by a master artisan.

It was a stroke of luck that her face wasn’t injured in the sudden accident not long ago.

It happened six months ago, in the middle of last year.

The traces of that terrible accident that occurred then remained intact as an 8cm long scar on the back of So Yeon’s head.

So Yeon, who had barely won a supporting role in a movie called after fierce competition, severely injured her head on the first day of filming when part of the set collapsed. A steel structure fell from the ceiling and covered So Yeon who was immersed in acting.

But what hurt So Yeon more was the cruel principle of this industry. Her role was passed on to someone else. Moreover, So Yeon, who even developed camera phobia, struggled for months.

However, today, as she was resuming activities after that hiatus, So Yeon’s slightly pursed lips were quite determined. Although it was just a CF, she really wanted to do well on this opportunity that was created by desperation at the edge of a cliff that must be seized.

“The sub-model is quite pretty? Is she a rookie actress?”

“That’s Eom So Yeon, she was cast in a supporting role in the movie that Jeong Hwa unnie starred in last year. But there was an accident, you know.”

“An accident?”

The two women chatting in a corner of the set were the manager and coordinator of Yoo Jeong Hwa, the main model for the CF currently being filmed and considered the top actress at present.

“Yeah, she was the only one injured in that accident, and her supporting role was immediately replaced with a new actress. She has enough acting skills and educational background, but luck just doesn’t seem to be on her side. This CF is probably her first shoot since that incident.”

“Educational background?”

“Yeah. She’s from S University. Even for the acting department there, you need to study well to get in, right?”

As the new coordinator, who couldn’t know the rumors circulating in the entertainment industry, blinked her eyes and continued to show curiosity, Sung Jin Ah, who was seasoned in this field as a manager, completely forgot about what Yoo Jeong Hwa had asked her to do and recounted all the facts she knew.

“I heard she was in Canada until recently, but things didn’t seem to go well even after she came back. At least the agency she contracted with this time is the famous CN, so that’s somewhat fortunate.”

“Anyway, I’m really envious. At twenty-six, it’s not too late yet. If her school is there, she was born with good looks and a good brain.”

“It is kind of like that, right?”

Zzzzing…

Sung Jin Ah, who had been chatting for a long time without realizing how much time had passed, crumpled her face like paper as soon as she answered the phone. She was intimidated by Yoo Jeong Hwa’s scolding, who was acting more sensitive than usual.

As if they had never been gossiping, the two women hurriedly ran to the waiting room, and at that moment, the director’s shout echoed loudly through the indoor set.

“Cut!”

So Yeon, who had safely completed the shoot after a long time, barely moved her trembling legs behind the camera.

“You did well!”

Do Soon, who came running with her short hair fluttering, patted So Yeon’s back saying she had worked hard.

“I was okay, right?”

“Don’t worry. You were too pretty. See, you can do it!”

“Ha……”

A faint smile formed on So Yeon’s lips as she met with a sigh of relief.

But upon closer look, Do Soon’s attitude, starting from her gaze, seemed somehow unusual. So Yeon asked the reason.

“What’s wrong with you? Your eyes are downcast like you’re about to cry.”

“I’ll tell you later. I need to take care of you first.”

“Tell me quickly. What happened?”

“Well… I just saw an article that came out…”

As So Yeon pressed, Do Soon continued stuttering.

“Our Seojun oppa… even though he only had a few days left until discharge, there was a big bombing at the deployed unit…”

Although the news coming from her cloudy face was unlikely to be good news, So Yeon, sensing it was about him, had to press Do Soon.

“So, so what?”

“They say he died! Waaah…”

“…!”

That, that can’t be!

The heavens. No, all the gods in the world, you really can’t do this to me!

So Yeon, with all thought suddenly stopping, collapsed into a chair.