122. Six on seventy three
a few days later.
Professor Donghyung Kim’s lab at Hankuk University’s Department of Mathematics.
Through the crack in the lab door that opened with the sound of a knock, a student poked his head out and said:
“Hello Professor. Do you have a good time right now?”
“It’s a gem. Okay, come in.”
Geun-seok entered the lab, sat down, and handed out thick papers to Professor Dong-hyeong Kim.
“This is a draft thesis.”
“Five… ! Are you ready already?”
“My supervisor told me to prepare in advance. And the last chapter is still being prepared, so when the defense date is set, I will print it out separately.”
“You haven’t set a date for defense yet?”
Geunseok said while crying.
“Yeah, we haven’t found an external judge yet.”
In the case of the Department of Mathematics at Hankuk University, a total of 5 judges review the thesis in the final review of the doctoral thesis, and one of them must be an external judge (professor from a school other than Hankuk University).
Because the opinions of external judges are important in the doctoral defense, meeting with strict external judges may twist the thesis review process, and in the worst case, the thesis may be rejected.
Therefore, advisors and graduate students carefully select external judges, but this process was not easy. In particular, when a graduate student’s thesis was a minor topic, the selection of external judges was often delayed.
When Geun-seok’s complaints were over, Professor Dong-hyung Kim carefully opened his mouth.
“Your supervisor will take care of it, but… As an external judge, I think… How about Professor Yoon? Professor Yoon is only doing topology now, but like you, he did both analysis and topology.”
“If it’s Professor Yoon… Are you talking about that visiting professor from America?”
Professor Donghyeong Kim nodded and said.
“And Professor Yoon is our senior again. So I’m not going to make it too difficult in defense.”
“Are you our senior? I thought he was a Korean… Wasn’t his name Sonia?”
“ha ha ha—! That’s an English name, and his original name is Major. If Geun-seok is in your fourth grade, it would be difficult to know about Major-senpai… ?”
Geun-seok repeated the name ‘So-ryeong Yoon’ several times before opening his mouth.
“Then, once upon a time… A senior who was famous as the class leader of the 84th class… Is that him?”
Professor Donghyeong Kim nodded and opened his mouth as if thinking of something.
“ah… ! right. Geunseok-ah, have you ever made a mistake with Professor Yoon or something like that?”
At his question, Geun-seok continued to speak with a kind expression on his face.
“a—-! What am I doing wrong? haha!”
“okay? Then, discuss with your supervisor, Professor Yoon, as an external judge.”
Geunseok smiled broadly.
“all right!”
* * *
A week later.
Unit 523 Administrative Group.
“Loyalty! Private Private Chae Jung-ho reports that he returned from his regular leave on July 13, 2001! Loyalty!”
The officer who received my report said to me.
“Did you have an accident while on vacation or something like that?”
“Yes, there was none.”
“Did nothing else happen?”
“Yes, nothing special.”
“Then, return your vacation card to the employee and go to the office.”
I don’t know why, but… We get a number other than the actual vacation period stamped on the vacation card. So when you return from vacation, you must return your vacation card.
So, while returning the vacation card to the employee and filling out the vacation return document… Sergeant Kim, a first-class soldier, said to me.
“Is Jung-ho now a Private Commander?”
The most senior of the privates is called the private commander, and is in charge of managing the privates and the privates. In other words, he is the military commander of the successor group.
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Then you will be busy as soon as you return from vacation.”
“yes? that is… What do you mean?”
“A new recruit came in yesterday. That too… .”
Sergeant Kim continued speaking while stretching out three fingers.
“Three of us are here!”
“Wow! Is that true?”
I couldn’t help but be happy.
At Jin-goo’s mother’s funeral, the company commander said that there would be reinforcements soon, but the new recruit he had been waiting for came in two months later.
“If there are three new recruits… Have you ever been assigned to our squad?”
“then!”
Aww—!
Sergeant Kim said looking at me with a smile spreading across my face.
“haha–! Are you that good?”
“Yep! I can finally grab a broomstick.”
When cleaning the office, roles are assigned in order of rank, and the task of wiping the office floor with a wet mop is finally over.
I went around my office to say goodbye to senior soldiers on their return from vacation, and when I returned to my seat after saying goodbye, Incheol came to me and said
“Jeong-ho, I have three pieces of news. Good news, bad news, weird news! What would you like to hear?”
“I think I know what the good news is. Are you talking about new recruits? You said three people came in?”
“uh? Okay. haha—-!”
“What is the good news and the bad news?”
“What can I tell you?”
“Well… Is it strange?”
In response to my answer, Incheol nodded and opened his mouth.
“Do not be surprised to hear.”
“What?”
“One in three recruits is… It’s Eunsung, Kim Eunseong! It’s our squad too!”
ah… ! this is what you said
It was two days before returning from vacation.
I had one thing to ask of you, so I called Team Leader Kim Jung-soo, and just before hanging up… Team leader Kim suddenly said that it would be good for three friends to get together and serve in the military.
I asked what that meant, and the team leader pretended that he would know everything when he returned to the unit, but that’s what he meant.
“what? this child? Aren’t you surprised? Did you know?”
I shook my head and said.
“No, I didn’t know. But where did Eunseong go so she can’t be seen in my office?”
“Maybe he was taken by my father?”
“Sergeant Ha Soo-yeol?”
“yes.”
In-cheol and Su-yeol are said to be father and son if their enlistment dates are 12 months apart and their military numbers are 1 year apart.
However, it’s rare to actually call him father… Sergeant Ha, who is famous for his rough personality, took care of In-cheol, and In-cheol likes him, so he often calls him his father.
I was worried that Haengyeo-na Eun-seong might have been taken by Sgt Ha, who has a rough personality, so I asked In-cheol.
“okay? But why is Sgt. Ha Eun-seong?”
Seeing my worried expression, Incheol waved his hand as if it was okay.
“Sergeant Ha said that he was in the same school as Eunsung, and was a senior in the same department.”
“uh… ! Come to think of it, is that really true?”
Eunseong and Sgt. Ha were both students of the Broadcasting and Communication Department of Haneul University. I nodded vigorously and continued.
“Wow—! This is Jin— It’s amazing. After all, the world is really small.”
In-cheol looked at me intently and said with a pouting mouth.
“Sheesh! Aren’t you surprised that Eun-seong was assigned to this place, and that Sgt. Ha and Eun-seong are from the same class?”
“I heard that. ha ha ha—!”
After laughing like that, I said to Incheol.
“ah… ! But what’s the bad news?”
In response to my question, Incheol let out a long sigh.
“A date of gathering has been set.”
“… !”
“Man, you’ve never been provoked before, so what are you doing with such a poopy expression on your face?”
The reason my expression hardened was because the feeling of the past life guerrilla training came to mind.
Rather than having a hard time and having a hard time… I didn’t like the feeling of being ripped off by evil. It was just before the onset of epileptic seizures… It felt like a switch in my head was turned off.
I said with a long sigh.
“So when does the guerrilla start?”
“Next Tuesday. After lunch, a meat truck was coming.”
Today is Friday. Next Tuesday… Even if you apply for leave on Monday morning, it won’t do you any good.
under—–!
At my long sigh, Incheol smiled and said.
“Are you thinking of using that reward vacation? give up There is no exception of 1 person. Sgt. Ha said he was returned to his regular leave.”
“really?”
“yes! And Sergeant Ha said this is the third guerrilla attack. There is only one month left until the discharge, and I feel sorry for everyone who sees it.”
“under—! The third hit is a bit harsh. By the way, wasn’t August the original guerrilla training?”
Incheol shook his head and said.
“It’s not decided. This is the story that Sgt. Ha told me… .”
Incheol lowered his voice and continued.
“Every summer, INSCOM of the US conducts a training tour around US bases around the world, and of course USFK also participates in this exercise.”
I cut off Incheol’s words.
“INSCOM? what is that?”
“Intelligence and Security Command, American wiretapping units. Well, they’re just like us.”
Incheol continued speaking with a slightly bubbly expression.
“Anyway, if you go down from our base toward downtown Yangju, there is a US camp on the right, right?”
“Gwangsari Camp?”
“Yeah, INSCOM works there, and they say they use our radio tower for a week. So in the meantime, it’s a deal that we should go to for guerrilla training.”
It sounds plausible, but… There was one thing I didn’t understand.
“If the U.S. military does wiretapping, we don’t have to empty the barracks and go get guerrillas.”
In response to my question, Incheol smiled and said.
“Think about it. Over there, the radio reception tower on Hill 523 is connected to our barracks’ underground monitoring room.”
“How about that?”
“under—! Shit, it’s frustrating.”
Incheol lowered his voice and continued.
“As soon as INSCOM has access to that radio tower, we have direct access to the U.S. military base from our interception room computer.”
Seeing my surprised expression, Incheol smiled and continued.
“By the way, INSCOM, their security system is so—-so poor. Last year I drilled there in Okinawa, Japan. At that time, even though I pierced it, I wondered if this was the right piercing.”
When In-cheol finished speaking, the corners of his lips rose slowly as he thought about what he was thinking, and I grabbed In-cheol’s collar and said with a serious expression.
“hey! Choi In-cheol! Don’t think you’re fooling around If you make an accident in the military, you are going to have a really red line!”
“Don’t worry, ma’am! I’m that sensible too!”
the next morning.
With the sound of the trumpet, we gathered outside the barracks, and after checking the number of people and chanting the national anthem, the official said.
“Let’s do biceps after a long time! Everyone take off their tops!”
While we were taking off our jackets, the official continued to speak.
“I have guerrilla training next week, so I need to build up my stamina in advance! In that sense, let’s go only to the breaker today!”
just as expected… The voices of the soldiers were heard.
“OMG—! The platoon commander is so great!”
As a matter of course, our 30-member unit does not have a training ground. So, the only place where I could canter was the mountain road going down to downtown Yangju.
If you go down a long way down the dirt road where one car can pass… There is a vehicle access barrier that opens and closes manually, and he said that he would go canter up to that point.
It’s not that hard to jump down there. But on the way back to the barracks, if you sing a military song… It really felt like I was out of breath.
We sang a military song and started cantering, and around the turning point where there was a vehicle access barrier, we started going uphill.
It was around this time that I started to run out of breath.
Bread—!
An officer stopped us at the sound of a car horn.
“Squad, stand in place—!”
The officer walked towards the vehicle waiting behind us, and he heard gasps from everywhere.
“Ugh! omg! I really thought I was going to die.”
While holding my breath for a while… A conversation could be heard between the official and the driver of the car.
“At the beginning of the dirt road below, there is a sign saying Military Area, didn’t you see that?”
“I saw it… So, isn’t this the way to Unjukam?”
“no. You have to turn around and go down.”
“Yes, sorry.”
It seems that the driver was on the wrong road. But actually, it’s not the driver’s fault… It is not without the responsibility of our unit officers who always leave the vehicle access barriers open.
By the way… From an executive’s point of view, getting out of the car and raising and lowering the circuit breaker every time I commute to work seems very cumbersome.
Anyway, thanks to the lost driver(?), we were able to finish the bicep canter more easily. Just before returning to the front of the barracks and putting on the top… The officer in charge raised his voice and called me.
“Chae Jung-ho!”
“yes! Private Chae Jung-ho!”
“Where did you sell your dog tags?”
Still, I was very concerned about the military number… In the end, it ended up like this.
I said scratching the back of my head.
“I… that is… I think I left it in my office.”