Passion (BL Novel)

"Damn, I’ve lived this long without ever getting a beating. Is it going to hurt a lot? It must hurt. I hope they at least get me to the hospital in time."
As the surroundings became increasingly tense, Jeong Tae-yi clicked his tongue. He muttered to the man, who was barely a hand’s breadth away from him.
"By the way, according to you, the cowardly and pathetic me—did you think I’d have something in my pocket, and that I’d be easily captured and lying here? I guess you won’t die from a neck strike, huh?"

With his hand still tucked into his pocket, Jeong Tae-yi placed it just beneath the man’s neck.
Jeong Tae-yi’s indifferent face met the man’s gaze. The sharp point of something barely touched the man’s neck, and in an instant, the man’s eyes widened. Jeong Tae-yi couldn’t help but smile, seeing the man’s reaction.
"The problem is... you can’t cut a neck with a pen."

With a flick, Jeong Tae-yi threw the pen aside, jumped off the man’s body, and sprawled on the floor. The man scowled, glared at the ceiling for a moment, then suddenly shot up, trembling, and yelled at Jeong Tae-yi with a voice full of rage.
"You coward! On top of being pathetic, you’re using such petty tricks. Enough is enough. I’ll fix that attitude of yours today."
"Yeah, that’s a good idea. But I’ll go first. Alta."

A chillingly low voice murmured, and only then did Carlo, who had been waiting, remove his hand from his groin and stand up from the floor.
Jeong Tae-yi looked at him with a downcast face. Why did he have to worry about his life from the start, even though he was trying to survive quietly and just keep his head down for half a year? If anything, it was the fault of the one who brought him here.
It was probably the natural course of things, but Jeong Tae-yi couldn’t help but glare at To-wu, even if he didn’t have a real reason for it. To-wu, who had been watching from the group, flinched when their eyes met and frowned. Feeling down, Jeong Tae-yi looked at the ground with an even more melancholic expression.

"By the way, how did you get in here? Who’s your connection?"
As a shadow loomed over his head, Jeong Tae-yi looked up to find Carlo, with his # Nоvеlight # sleeves rolled up, right in front of him. It seemed like he wanted to do some background check before doing any damage.
Just as Jeong Tae-yi was about to say there was no connection, To-wu quickly shouted.

"Instructor Jeong. Instructor Jeong Chang-in brought him."
"Instructor Jeong?"
Carlo glanced at To-wu, then turned back to Jeong Tae-yi, looking perplexed.

"How do you know Instructor Jeong?"
"...If we’re close, should I just leave my manners alone?"
Carlo tilted his head slightly, as if considering something, and Jeong Tae-yi sighed before responding in a resigned tone.
"My uncle."

"Instructor Jeong? ...From the Special Forces?"
Carlo’s voice raised in surprise, and the people around them began murmuring. Jeong Tae-yi was a little taken aback, though he didn’t let it show. He hadn’t realized that his uncle was such a well-known figure. It seemed being an instructor held more weight than he thought.
"Wait... Jeong Tae-yi... If that’s the case, what’s your relationship with Jeong Jae-i? I heard rumors that he’s also a close associate of Instructor Jeong."

Carlo muttered Jeong Tae-yi’s name, pronouncing it slightly wrong, and then asked with a serious look. When Jeong Tae-yi heard his brother’s name mentioned, he was once again caught off guard.
He hadn’t expected his brother’s name to come up in this situation, nor did he understand why it needed to be. But then again, it was possible that Jeong Jae-i had worked with Instructor Jeong back when he was briefly stationed at headquarters.
"He’s my brother."

"Your brother? Jeong Jae-i? The famous genius researcher who turned down an offer of wealth and power from headquarters after the contract ended and left without a second thought? The one who’s said to be so lucky that everything he touches turns to gold?"
Carlo exclaimed loudly, and Jeong Tae-yi grimaced, moving slightly away from the excited man.
It was the first time he’d heard this. But then again, he and his brother had never been interested in each other’s work. So, it was entirely possible that his brother had done just that. He could totally imagine it.

It seemed his brother was much more of a well-known figure than Jeong Tae-yi had realized.
"Yeah, that’s him. My brother. So, are you just going to leave my attitude like this?"
With a wry smile, Jeong Tae-yi half-expected that maybe some of his brother’s luck might rub off on him. As Carlo spoke, excitedly mentioning all the rumors about Jeong Jae-i, he turned and looked at Jeong Tae-yi again, giving him a shrug and a small grimace.

"What are you saying? Of course, that’s a separate issue."
With that, Carlo cracked his knuckles, then stretched his wrists before leaning in with a pitiful expression, making it look like he was trying to sound sympathetic.
"I can see you don’t have strength, you don’t have skills, and when you realize you can’t win, you just give up. Why resort to dirty tricks to bring trouble upon yourself?"

"I did win with dirty tricks."
"..."
Carlo shut his mouth, and the man from earlier, looking menacing, approached. The other men, with expressions that were hard to read—was it a smile, was it anger?—surrounded them. At that moment, any hope Jeong Tae-yi had that his brother’s reputation would somehow help him vanished.

Fortunately, the atmosphere wasn’t as threatening as he had feared. There was no need to worry about needing medical facilities, it seemed. However, the result—getting beaten up—remained unchanged.
The beating was intense, around seven or eight blows. Two of them were so painful that they made his head spin. However, the rest of them were more like a token gesture, just enough to match the atmosphere, and some of them were even soft punches, so he could consider himself fortunate in that regard.
It was too mild to be called a real beating, but after getting a few blows, Jeong Tae-yi, once he recovered, found himself drinking with the very people who had just hit him.

"Got anything to snack on?"
"Before, Wi-enho went out and brought back some jerky. He's gone to get it now."
"Oh, the jar's empty. Fill it up without delay. What are you doing over there?"

"..."
Jeong Tae-yi quietly thought to himself while crunching on the peanuts handed to him by an unfamiliar man sitting next to him. Another thing he realized was how different this was from the army.
These men, who had just beaten him, were now happily suggesting they go drink together to welcome the new teammate. They grinned as they dragged him along to the bar, and now here he was, sitting quietly and eating whatever food and drink they gave him.

Were these men weird, or was the team weird, or was the whole branch weird? Or maybe it was him who was the weird one for thinking this situation was odd?
"Is it really fine to drink like this? What if something happens during a crisis?"
Jeong Tae-yi muttered. A man across from him, named Qing Lun Zhao, shrugged and laughed.

"Crisis? What’s that supposed to mean?"
Then To-wu, who seemed close to Qing, added in.
"Tae-yi was in the military, right? So, he must have some ingrained habits."

"Ah, I see."
Qing nodded, as if understanding. Carlo, who was busy working on something, elaborated.
"There’s no reason to be on edge here, not like the army. Unless someone has a personal grudge and tries to stab you in the back, there’s no danger. Once we’re off the clock, drinking is just fine. Of course, if you get too drunk and miss training the next day, the instructor’s going to tear you apart."

"I heard that sometimes, on external requests, people go out to do tough jobs. What if someone with a grudge sneaks in and tries to stab us?"
Jeong Tae-yi asked, though he didn’t know the details. He recalled overhearing some conversation between his uncle and Jeong Jae-i, mentioning something similar once. So, he had always thought of the UNHRDO as a contracting company doing miscellaneous jobs.
"Where did you hear that?"

"Well, rumors always spread, don’t they?"
"Ah, right. You’re Jeong Jae-i’s brother. I guess you’ve only heard half of it. Sure, sometimes we do go on real missions, but we don’t accept personal requests. Even though there’s a lot of money involved, we’re officially part of a union organization. We don’t take on personal revenge jobs. So, we don’t have any reason to go after anyone personally. The real things we should be careful about are..."
Suddenly, Carlo’s voice lowered, and there was a hint of anger and frustration in it.

"Those bastards in the European branch! The ones who’ll come crawling here soon enough!"
Again, Jeong Tae-yi heard a few curses aimed at the "European branch." He couldn’t even count how many times he’d heard it today. Watching the grown men get so worked up like this, he couldn’t help but laugh quietly at how absurd it seemed.
"Wow, things really must be bad between you guys. I thought you’d be exchanging members between branches sometimes. I never would have guessed things were this bad."

It was almost as if he was talking to himself, but just as Jeong Tae-yi made that observation, an eerie silence fell. He hadn’t even swallowed the drink in his mouth before he stopped moving, his eyes darting around.
"Ah, right, you wouldn’t know. Let me explain. Of course, there are exchanges between branches sometimes, but..."
"...."

"There are no direct exchanges between the European and the Asian branches."
"Huh?"
"Unless someone passes through another branch or the headquarters, there’s never a direct exchange."

Jeong Tae-yi swallowed the drink in two gulps, trying to keep the disbelief from showing. He had just learned that even within the same organization, there were issues so severe that members from different branches couldn’t even interact directly.
"So, the ‘European branch’ wasn’t even involved in this, huh? I see. I get it. You all have a pretty bad relationship, don’t you?"
At that moment, Carlo, who had been speaking with a heavy tone, leaned in closer, his voice soft but insistent.

"Yeah, it’s not just between you and me. The entire European branch is in a terrible state. They’ve been at odds with the Asian branch for so long that it’s become entrenched. It’s not just tension, but real animosity. In training exercises, we literally treat each other like enemies."
"What, you’re telling me they actually kill each other during exercises?"
The answer didn’t come. Only silence, the kind of silence that confirmed the truth, filled the air.

"Not that we kill anyone on a whim... but yes, sometimes someone dies. It’s happened before. In fact, there was a time when, during a joint exercise, someone was killed on purpose."
Jeong Tae-yi paused, trying to absorb the gravity of what he’d just heard.
"So you’re saying, sometimes people deliberately kill each other?"

Carlo just stared at him with a grave look, nodding silently.
"But it’s not like they just randomly kill people. In any case, you're about to experience hell on your first day here."
"...So, this joint exercise happens once a year, right?"

"Yeah. Once a year, with the European branch, then with Australia, South America, Africa. Every three months, we rotate and face off with different branches."
Jeong Tae-yi thought to himself, realizing that if he was going to survive the next six months, he’d have to survive at least two of these intense events. He could almost feel the weight of the responsibility settle in.
"But I don’t get it. If there are five branches, someone’s bound to be left out. Does that mean they rotate around?"

"That’s right. This time, half of the European branch will be with us, while half of our team will go to Australia. Then the Australians’ half will head to South America, and so on. We rotate every three months."
"Ah, so when do they decide who stays and who goes?"
"On Friday night, before we leave on Saturday. We draw lots."

"…How do you even manage to get seats on the plane with all this rushing around?"
"Why do you need to worry about seats? You’ve got visas and passports. You just need to pack your bags and get ready."
Jeong Tae-yi thought for a moment, remembering the dilapidated buildings he’d seen on the island and how the idea of a private jet seemed so out of place here. But he kept quiet.

"Do you really have to decide so quickly? Wouldn’t it be better to plan ahead?"
"If we knew in advance who’s going, people might slack off in their training."
"Ha, well, if you don’t want to die, you’ll train hard whether you’re leaving or staying, right?"

"Right, but when we train with other branches, it’s not like anyone dies. It’s just a little rougher. But the European branch, they’re a whole different level of dangerous."
"Well, last time, it was Seng-wat and Croi who died, right? Uel and Yun and Kiyomi are still in the hospital and can’t come back yet. And the guy who killed Seng-wat, once he shows up, I’m going to take his neck off."
As the men exchanged their gripes and curses, Jeong Tae-yi just listened.

"...Do they draw lots for the European branch too?"
"Yeah, they probably do. The policy’s the same everywhere. But if someone’s known to be dangerous, they try not to send them."
"Shady bastards."

Jeong Tae-yi thought about the situation. It seemed like everyone was out for themselves, so he wisely kept his thoughts to himself.
"He’s coming, isn’t he?"
At that moment, Alta muttered, and everyone fell silent at once, as if on cue.

Jeong Tae-yi, chewing on dried fruit, looked around with a confused expression.
The faces of the men had turned stiff, their emotions—anger, anxiety, fear, and something similar—clear on their faces.
"They wouldn’t dare send him here. He’s got too many enemies. The European branch better not be foolish enough to send one of their guys to die."

The man sitting next to Jeong Tae-yi muttered through clenched teeth. It seemed that everyone at the table had similar expressions, all one step away from violence.
Then Carlo spoke again, his voice heavy with contempt.
"Yeah, but from the European branch’s perspective, sending him here is better. Think about it—he’s killed three people already, but on his home turf, who knows what he’ll do. He’s a monster over there."

"Once he’s here, I’ll be the one to take that bastard down."
"...Who’s going to?"