Chapter 55.1

Chapter 55.1

The onlookers alternated their gazes between the instructor and her, fidgeting like people desperate for a restroom but blocked by some cruel twist of fate, which was Seoryeong’s incessant questioning.

“When Instructor Lee Wooshin looks sleepy, just leave him alone! Let him keep bothering us! Don’t draw his attention with questions, you idiot!”

Their eyes, filled with such thoughts, shot resentful glances at Seoryeong.

“Stop.”

However, it wasn’t her who responded. Lee Wooshin quietly muttered while pressing his temples. Despite wearing a training uniform without a tie, he rubbed his neck as if it felt constricted.

“Sit up straight.”

The guy who had been holding onto Seoryeong straightened his posture in the tense atmosphere. Lee Wooshin chuckled softly, massaging the back of his neck as if his muscles were suddenly tense.

“Seeing your faces looking so relieved makes the instructor uneasy. During recovery week, you guys were too comfortable. No boots on, just sitting around in class, chatting.”

“……”

“Playing hand games with your buddies, thinking up nonsense.”

Us…? When…? The trainees were bewildered, but discipline was already taking over their faces, which were now pale as paper.

“How did we end up getting on the instructor’s bad side?” one of the trainees whispered to another, fear creeping into their voice.

In the seventh week of training, the long-awaited Hell Week began.

Failure in swimming, hypothermia, stress fractures, internal ailments, ruptures, panic attacks—all grounds for dismissal. Anyone who collapses in the middle, anyone who faints midway—all grounds for dismissal.

Even within these simple yet stringent rules, Seoryeong had managed to persevere. But for the first time…

“――!”

Damn it…! Her eyes snapped open, her face instantly filled with dark terror and despair.

No memory. None at all, since who knows when.

There were only three weeks left until the completion of training. But she had fainted for the first time during training.

Beep—!

It started with an unexpected siren that jolted her awake.

Everything happened at once. Smoke grenades exploded inside the barracks, and the skull-rattling noise of blank cartridges turned the place into chaos in an instant.

Though she was accustomed to nighttime raids, tonight felt different. Instinctively, she reached for her boots, but fierce jets of water from the sprinklers pummeled her from above.

“Ugh…!”

The force of the water knocked her to the floor. She coughed violently, water stinging as it shot up her nose and down the wrong pipe, making her head throb. Her body shivered uncontrollably from the cold, instantly drenched.

Recovery week is definitely over… Seoryeong gritted her teeth and stubbornly tied her bootlaces.

Fully awake now, the trainees hurriedly ran outside under the instructors’ shouts. The water from the sprinklers kept striking their bodies forcefully.

While moving, Seoryeong was pushed against the wall by the strong water pressure, but the smoke grenade had already exploded, obscuring her vision.

Using a fellow trainee, who happened to be caught in her outstretched hand, as a shield, she quickly navigated through the corridor.

“Everyone, get in the water—!”

Outside, the instructors were shouting in their ears. Seoryeong, anticipating the coming pain, sat down where the waves broke gently (against the shallow break of the waves, knowing the pain to come.

So began the endurance with the cold water.

The regular crashing of the waves made their bodies sway, and salt water surged into their mouths and noses. Despite trembling with blue lips, the trainees linked arms and sat, holding their legs at a 45-degree angle.

In front of them, Lee Wooshin, the only one at ease, blinked and said,

“Seeing you all soaking there, it looks like a brewery.”

“……”

“I’m sure it’s not booze, it’s just piss.” He looked down at the trainees, shivering in the cold.

“Shall the instructor give you some tasty alcohol to make up for it?”

Ah… something feels ominous… Seoryeong instinctively hardened her expression. As expected, Lee Wooshin grabbed the neck of a liquor bottle handed to him and suddenly began pouring it over the trainees’ heads and faces. With an expressionless face, he crossed the liquor in his hands and gulped it down.

“――!”

The man walked across the trainees, evenly dousing them with alcohol. When it was Seoryeong’s turn, his hand hesitated. To be precise, the bottle stopped tilting over her head.

Sensing the impending humiliation, she tightly closed her eyes but opened one slightly at the brief silence.

“……”

“……”

The man, shaking the empty bottle as if to get the last drop out, was staring at her with only his pupils lowered. His gaze felt deep and intense, making Seoryeong flinch—not from the cold.

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