While some of them were already backing up to each other with nothing but eye contact, Seoryeong was treated like she was invisible. Even when her desperate gaze brushed over them, they passed her by like it was nothing—as if she wasn’t even there.

Her soaked clothes kept draining her body heat, and she grew colder by the second. This wasn’t just training anymore—it had become a critical golden time. Eventually, one of the trainees even lost consciousness. The waiting instructors loaded the passed-out body onto an emergency stretcher and hauled him off.

“Anyone like that is out.”

The voice came from the loudspeaker—the same man tapping the mic against the back of his own neck.

“Failure in underwater endurance, hypothermia, stress fractures, organ damage, panic attacks—they’re all grounds for dismissal.”

“......!”

“Anyone who drops out midway is deemed useless. We’re not here to nurture soldiers step by step—we’re filtering out only those who can be deployed immediately.”

The trainees glanced toward Lee Wooshin, then quickly returned to focusing on untying their restraints. Seoryeong, caught in limbo between doing nothing and having no partner, finally approached the struggling trainees and began helping them.

“Not there—move it down, two centimeters...!”

At her sudden interference, the trainees frowned—but they must’ve been desperate, because they followed her instructions without protest.

“Thread it through your wrists—down, all the way down...!”

“Hhuff... is it here? This gap?”

“That’s it! Just pull! Pull harder!”

Finally—snap—the knot came undone. The freed trainee quickly untied their partner’s binds as well. With their hands freed, they managed to loosen the ties around their ankles and stood up at last.

Seoryeong looked at them with a flicker of relief in her eyes.

“Hey, since I helped, maybe you could... untie mine too—”

“S-sorry.”

“...What?”

“It’s just so cold... I really think I’m gonna die...!”

“......”

“You should just go home. You’re gonna die out here.”

Their faces ghost-white, the pair trembled and sprinted toward the barracks. Who the hell asked you to worry about how I’ll get home?! I said untie me, not pity me! Seoryeong stared blankly as they shrank into the distance.

Her teeth felt like they might crack from the pressure. Her hands, red and frozen, hurt like they were being split open—then suddenly went numb. She couldn’t even tell anymore whether what she was feeling was cold, pain, or nothing at all.

Even then, the newly freed trainees were screaming as they bolted for the barracks, and only a few were left scattered on the beach.

“First four in get to stay. The rest are out.”

Lee Wooshin narrowed his eyes in amusement, as if he’d been watching Seoryeong the whole time. Sadist. That bastard was a full-blown sadist. And of course, with an odd number of people, she was the one left out—like some goddamn extra.

Seoryeong tilted her head back to stare up at the star-filled black sky. Her breath came out in white puffs, but the stars made her feel just a little better. In the end, wasn’t she going through all this to reach for those very stars?

She wasn’t particularly disappointed or angry about being excluded. In the end, this was a knot she’d have to untie on her own.

Taking a deep breath, Seoryeong yanked her arms behind her back. It might’ve looked like a freak contortionist act, but this was a move she’d practiced often in secret back in her gymnastics days—back when she just had to do everything they told her not to.

Luckily, there was a good-sized gap in the knot. She stretched her elbows wide and raised her arms past her head. There was always a moment where she’d have to dislocate her shoulder slightly.

“――!”

Someone looked at her in shock.

There was a distinct pop in her shoulder—but thankfully, it didn’t dislocate completely. Maybe she really was getting older, since her muscles and ligaments didn’t rotate quite as smoothly as they used to.

Still, it wasn’t hard to swing her bound arms from behind her to the front. A pained groan rippled through the others nearby, but she didn’t have the luxury of caring.

Now, Seoryeong gripped the knot with her teeth and began calmly working it loose. After watching everyone else with nothing but a metaphorical spoon in hand, the untying itself wasn’t even that difficult.

“Phew...”

Finally free, she staggered to her feet.

Should’ve done this from the start instead of all that flailing...!

The wind, once sharp as claws, now felt almost refreshing. The feeling of taking one step ahead of everyone else was electrifying. Especially as she passed by Lee Wooshin’s pale face without sparing him a glance.

“You...”

He opened his mouth as if to say something, but Seoryeong was too busy trembling to care.

She bolted to the showers.

Inside, the trainees had already stripped and were crowding under the gushing showerheads. With hot water pouring down from every direction, the shower room was now filled with dense steam. Seoryeong paused at the doorway, hesitating just a moment.

“Planning to stand there until you freeze to death?”

“...!”

A thick blanket suddenly landed on her head.

“Recruit Han Seoryeong, come with me.”

“...Huh?”

“Unless you want to wait out here with a sad, nutless face until they all finish?”

“......”

Seoryeong hugged her still-shaking shoulders and bit her lip.

“You hesitating? Or were you peeping?”

“I—I wasn’t doing anything like that.”

With snot still running from her nose, she followed him. Past the main building and into the one next door—it was structured entirely differently from the shared barracks.

Lee Wooshin opened a door, walked her past a living room and kitchen, and shoved her into a private shower.

“Use this shower from now on.”

“...Where is this?”

“My place.”

“......”

She hesitated, suddenly thinking she’d stepped into the wrong place. But Lee Wooshin asked shamelessly,

“What?”

“I’m not even going to argue with someone who can ask that with a straight face.”

“Then what do you want to do with me?”

“Work under you, obviously.”

At that moment, hot water poured down without warning. She flinched, shoulders tightening with a choked sound.

Lee Wooshin adjusted the temperature, making it a bit milder, but maybe because she’d been so cold, even the hot water felt like a blow. Her skin didn’t melt gently—it felt like ice cracking apart.

As she stood frozen under the water, he began kneading her hands.

“...!”

Seoryeong jerked, trying to pull away, but his grip only tightened.

“Relax. Your body’s frozen stiff.”

“I don’t see how that’s any of your business. It’s not like I’m the only one freezing.”

“If you keep zoning out like that, even staying under this all night won’t be enough.”

“...!”

“What, planning to sleep over at my place?”

She bristled, but he wasn’t wrong—she had to get warm and get out, fast. She shoved her hand toward him irritably, and Lee Wooshin immediately found the pressure points and worked them like a pro. Steam filled the space, and her soaked, cold body began to thaw.

His hands moved up her arms and over her shoulders, checking her bones. Seoryeong knew her way around massage too, but even considering that, he was alarmingly skilled.

As he deftly worked out the knots in her muscles, her stiffened skin began to relax, and a shallow sigh slipped out. Her eyelids grew heavy.

With her eyes closed, a memory of her husband came to mind. When she went to the market with Kim Hyeon, people would always say, “Your husband looks so reliable...!”

But Lee Wooshin looked wild, like someone who’d stir up trouble. He constantly crushed people’s spirits. Even calling him handsome felt like an oversimplified description.

Their faces were nothing alike... and yet—why did it feel strangely familiar...?

“Keep your eyes open.”

“...!”

A sharp voice snapped through the air.

“You don’t close your eyes in front of your instructor.”

She jolted awake. When she forced her eyes open, the roar of the shower came rushing back.

Did I... doze off for a second? Seoryeong quickly splashed water on her face.

“S-sorry. I’m sorry.”

The water pounding against her neck and chest stung. She shook her head and pushed her wet hair back.

Thanks to his perfectly-timed scolding, her intrusive thoughts stopped. She needed to finish this shower before anything got weirder.

She opened her reddened lips to push him away.

“Instructor, I’d like to wash up properly now. Are you planning to keep standing there?”

But Lee Wooshin responded with something completely off the wall.

“Just how much were you hiding from your husband?”

“...Why are you bringing that up now?”

As she looked at him defensively, Lee Wooshin suddenly turned off the shower.

What the hell...! Seoryeong coughed, stunned, and looked up at him. He stood there calmly, not moving his hand from the shower control.

Is he seriously doing this? She tried pushing his hand off, but he didn’t budge. ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) Her body, finally beginning to warm, was now shivering even worse from the cold air.