Fifth Vital [EN]: Chapter 223

Five Vital Signs-Episode 223 (223/502)

223. Private! Number 444

As Choi Tae-shik, after greeting the unit members, walked towards the building to get his phone, he suddenly stopped, noticing something.

“……?”

A Private First Class, who had come out to empty the trash can, was sorting through a large amount of trash alone.

Usually, they work with their direct senior, so Choi Tae-shik was curious why the Private was alone.

“What are you doing right now?”

“Chung-seong [Loyalty]! Private!”

As Choi Tae-shik approached, the Private, on high alert, immediately saluted.

“Kim Seong-hoon! I was sorting the trash.”

“Yes, I can see you’re sorting the trash, but why are you alone?”

Privates are usually managed to be with their peers or direct seniors. This is to prevent any accidents from happening when they are alone.

“Ah, no…….”

Kim Seong-hoon, who had been hesitant at Choi Tae-shik’s words, reluctantly answered.

“I am with my direct senior, Corporal Go Cheol-soo.”

“Wait! Are you perhaps sick somewhere?”

Choi Tae-shik, who was about to ask a question, suddenly asked Kim Seong-hoon if he was in pain. It was because his expression didn’t look good from up close.

“No. I’m not sick anywhere.”

“Really?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“But the Corporal isn’t visible, so why are you working alone?”

“I’m not alone.”

Kim Seong-hoon quickly replied when asked about his direct senior again.

“So, where did the Corporal go, and why are you working alone?”

“G-Go, Corporal Go Cheol-soo…….”

“Chung-seong! Corporal! Go Cheol-soo!”

At that moment, a Corporal came running like a bullet from the entrance of a nearby building and saluted Choi Tae-shik.

“Yes, chung-seong [Loyalty]. Go Cheol-soo?”

“Corporal Go Cheol-soo!”

“Did you make your junior work alone and slack off?”

“No. We were sorting together, but I’ve had a stomachache since lunch and went to the bathroom. I’m sorry.”

“Really?”

“That’s right.”

“Private Kim, is this true?”

“Yes, Captain. That’s correct.”

Unlike Choi Mo-na, Choi Tae-shik, who has a meticulous personality, asked the Private again to see if the situation matched.

“Okay, I understand. Hurry up and finish and go inside.”

“Yes, I understand. I’ll do the rest. You should rest a bit.”

“No.”

Choi Tae-shik went inside the building, listening to the conversation of the unit members behind him.

“I’ll do it. You did it while I went to the bathroom.”

“No. I’ll do it.”

“Of course, you have to do it. You x-like 새x [saeki – a Korean slang term, similar to ‘bastard’ or ‘jerk’]!”

As Choi Tae-shik completely entered the building, the eyes of Go Cheol-soo, Kim Seong-hoon’s direct senior, who seemed to have a good personality, changed in an instant.

“Hey, you 새끼 [saeki]? Were you trying to rat me out to the Captain earlier?”

“Ah, no.”

“What do you mean no? I saw everything hiding earlier. Ha! This 새끼 [saeki] is lying. Hey!”

Go Cheol-soo pointed his index finger and poked Kim Seong-hoon’s nipple area, quietly uttering harsh words.

“Why? Are you annoyed? Huh?”

“Ah, no.”

“What are you looking at, 새끼야 [saekiya – a more vulgar form of ‘saeki’]. Lower your eyes. You 진따 병신 [jintta byeongsin – a derogatory term for someone who is pathetic and mentally deficient] like guy. Hey,”

“Private Kim Seong-hoon!”

“I know, I know!”

Go Cheol-soo knocked down the brim of Kim Seong-hoon’s hat with his fingertips as soon as Kim Seong-hoon stated his rank and name after he called him.

“Hurry up and throw it away. Let’s go inside.”

“Yes, I understand.”

Kim Seong-hoon, who was emptying the trash cans one by one, somehow didn’t look good.

“Hurry up!”

“Yes, I’m going.”

Clang-

“I’ve thrown away the trash.”

“Okay, good job. Rest.”

The squad leader said to the two people entering the living quarters.

“I’m going to the gym with the others, so take good care of the room.”

The squad leader headed to the gym with the Corporals and Sergeants, leaving only the Privates First Class and Privates behind. It was a routine after dinner.

Kim Seong-hoon, who had brought the trash can he had brought to its original place, sat down and began to look around.

The pupils that had been facing to the right turned to the left again, and then back to Go Cheol-soo.

Every time one of his direct seniors moved, his heart felt like it was sinking.

That’s because Kim Seong-hoon was being bullied by Go Cheol-soo.

It is said that bad practices such as bullying in the military are a thing of the past, but that’s not true.

In every corner of the military, there was still a dirty culture of bullying junior soldiers that needed to be eradicated.

As Go Cheol-soo passed in front of him again, Kim Seong-hoon flinched slightly as if he had seen a ghost.

If he had a big reaction here and offended him, he didn’t know what kind of disaster would fall on him.

Kim Seong-hoon was a Private who had just entered the military for nearly 100 days.

In fact, it wasn’t like this from the beginning.

Before joining the military, Kim Seong-hoon himself was stressed because of his introverted and small physique.

He worried about whether he would be seen as easy to take advantage of or be ignored, and searched the internet until before his enlistment.

-Everyone. I’m enlisting soon and I have a concern. I’m shy and introverted, can I do well in military life?

-Honestly. It depends on your mindset. I was also worried about my timid personality, but I adapted better than I thought and my personality became more active.

-There aren’t as many crazy bastards these days as there used to be, but if your senior is a 병신 [byeongsin – a derogatory term, similar to ‘idiot’ or ‘moron’], then your military life will be ruined from then on.

-This is not a lie, it’s 100% true. If your senior is a weirdo, there’s really no answer.

Looking at the posts on the internet, his worries grew.

He thought about telling his family about these frustrating feelings, but he couldn’t bring himself to tell his family, who were more worried than he was.

With a trembling heart, he enlisted, went through training camp, and was assigned to his unit.

“Private! Kim Seong-hoon.”

“Yes, good name. Welcome. Let’s get along well in the future.”

After greeting the soldiers in the living quarters he would be living with, Kim Seong-hoon realized that his worries were unfounded after a few days.

Contrary to what he thought, everyone was okay. They led him well and took care of him, who was very nervous.

The worries he had before enlisting were so pointless. But just as the worries in his heart disappeared, everything changed.

Suddenly, his close grandfather passed away in an accident, and Kim Seong-hoon was able to take a vacation thanks to the consideration of the unit.

In fact, it was just a vacation in name only, and he returned to the unit immediately after the funeral procedures. But from then on, the atmosphere of the living quarters towards him changed.

To be exact, the attitude of his two direct seniors changed.

Unfortunately, there was a harsh training schedule in the unit for a few days while Kim Seong-hoon was away for the funeral, and the direct seniors complained about it.

“Hey! You 새끼야 [saekiya]. Was your grandfather’s death a lie?”

“No.”

“You’re lying. Then x발 [Shibal – a Korean swear word, similar to ‘fuck’]! How did you get out on the exact day of training?”

“This 새끼 [saeki] is 존x [jonx – an intensifier, similar to ‘very’ or ‘extremely’] enjoying his time off under the pretext of a funeral, but his answer is so confident.”

Kim Seong-hoon, who was shocked by the death of his close grandfather who had given him a lot of love since he was a child, was even more shocked to hear the words of his seniors. No matter what, he never thought that they would be sarcastic about the death of a person.

Corporal Go Cheol-soo and Corporal Park Byeong-deok.

These two were the problem, but Park Byeong-deok’s bullying was bearable. The problem was that Go Cheol-soo’s bullying was getting more and more severe.

In addition to personal attacks, he would pull down his pants and humiliate him in front of other people, slap him unpleasantly on the cheek, and poking his nipples was basic.

And one day, he took him to the PX [Post Exchange – a military store] and bullied him.

“Okay! For our beloved junior, Private Kim.”

“Private Kim Seong-hoon.”

“I’m going to buy you everything you want to eat today, so pick as much as you want.”

“No. It’s okay.”

“It’s okay, your senior is buying it for you. Then I’ll choose.”

Go Cheol-soo, who had picked out a lot of snacks instead of Kim Seong-hoon, who politely refused, left behind terrifying words.

“Okay! These are full of the love of your direct senior, so eat them all here without leaving anything behind. Start!”

That day, Kim Seong-hoon forced himself to eat all kinds of snacks in pain, ran to the bathroom, threw them all up, and shed tears.

In the midst of bullying that cannot be expressed in words, Kim Seong-hoon wanted to die, but he didn’t have the courage to die.

When he fell asleep at night, he hoped that he wouldn’t wake up in the morning, and he was full of negative thoughts that he wished he would die in an accident during training.

In addition, he had been suffering from unexplained abdominal pain for some time, and everything was so painful that physical pain was added to the mental pain.

‘Ha! My stomach hurts.’

Kim Seong-hoon, who was sitting in his seat, closed his eyes tightly due to the abdominal pain that had started again.

He wanted to go to the infirmary, but he had to report to his direct senior to go.

The problem was that he had never been sent off nicely even once, so Kim Seong-hoon endured and endured and only reported when it was really difficult.

But now it was hard to bear. He felt like he had to get some medicine and take it.

“G-Go, Corporal Go Cheol-soo?”

“Why!”

Kim Seong-hoon, who had plucked up the courage after thinking about it more than 10 times, spoke to Go Cheol-soo, who was passing by, and as expected, a sharp exclamation came.

“Why. You 자식아 [jashik-a – a Korean term, literally meaning ‘child’, but used as a derogatory term similar to ‘jerk’ or ‘brat’]. If you called me, answer me.”

“Private Kim Seong-hoon, may I go to the infirmary?”

“Ha! Look at this 새끼 [saeki]!”

When Kim Seong-hoon, who had been agonizing, barely managed to speak, Go Cheol-soo let out a sneering laugh and showed his displeasure.

“Why? Are you going to say you have a stomachache again?”

“I-I really hurt.”

“You’ve been going to the infirmary like crazy since last week.”

“It wasn’t last week, it was the week before that.”

Another Corporal, Park Byeong-deok, who was looking at his phone nearby, added a word.

“Our Private goes to the infirmary more than we do.”

“That’s right! It was the week before that. I was thinking about it while I was taking a dump earlier, are you lying about going to the infirmary on purpose because you don’t want to work?”

“Ah, no. It’s because my stomach really hurts.”

“No, you 새끼야 [saekiya], you’ve been to the infirmary several times because you’re sick, but it doesn’t make sense that you’re still sick?”

“That means our infirmary’s military doctor is a 병신 [byeongsin]?”

Park Byeong-deok, who was watching a video on his phone, interrupted Kim Seong-hoon’s words because he wasn’t interested.

These words stimulated Go Cheol-soo even more.

“But, isn’t our military doctor a bit of a 빙신 [bingsin – a milder form of ‘byeongsin’, meaning ‘fool’ or ‘idiot’]? I asked for medicine because my leg hurt last time, but he gave me a digestive medicine.”

“빙신아 [bingsina], that’s because he gave you the wrong medicine. But he doesn’t seem to be able to see the diagnosis properly. Does he feel a bit dull?”

“My discharged friend said that military doctors are originally too lazy to treat patients in the military, so they don’t do it well.”

Go Cheol-soo and Park Byeong-deok were having useless conversations, leaving Kim Seong-hoon, who had to go to the infirmary because he was sick.

“Hey! Cheol-soo, Seong-hoon is going to cry. Let’s just send him. If he’s crying when the seniors come back, we’ll be in trouble again.”

“Oh? Should we? Kim Seong-hoon?”

“Private! Kim Seong-hoon.”

“You can go to the infirmary.”

“Thank you. I’ll be back…….”

“Wait!”

Just as Kim Seong-hoon answered and was about to get up from his seat,

“Okay! Then Squid number 444 will now begin the game to go to the infirmary.”

A devilish voice struck his eardrums.

Not once. Not once did he just let him go. Whenever he had to go to the infirmary, Go Cheol-soo always started a ridiculous game.

If there was anything popular in the movies or dramas he enjoyed watching, he would slightly transform it in a vicious way and use it on Kim Seong-hoon.

These days, he was addicted to a drama that had swept the world a few months ago.

He called Kim Seong-hoon number 444, attaching the number 4, which means death, and gave him a mission on the opposite side of the living quarters door, and he had to succeed to go to the infirmary.

If he failed in the middle, he had to do it again from the beginning until he succeeded.

“Why? Don’t you want to go to the infirmary?”

“No.”

Kim Seong-hoon got up from his seat, leading his sick body.

“Okay, our Squid number 444 stands on the starting line. Start!”