Seaside

Reohn had just finished a special late orientation meeting. He was there with two other officials to talk to him about deployment to the country of Gyn. He stood up to shake the sergeant’s hand. If he remembered correctly, he said his name was Heonse. The man’s face wasn’t very friendly, but he offered his hand anyway as the polite thing to do.

Of course, he accepted it anyway. It was the respectable thing to do. “Welcome to the army, private.”

“Thank you, Sergeant Heonse, sir.” He replied with a smile.

“Hmph. Just so you know, I don’t buy the current science. If it were up to me, I would have never let you in, so you better be on your best behavior out there.”

“Lay off him, Heonse. I’m sure the kid’s been through a lot. He doesn’t even have any family left to see him off.”

Reohn tried to keep up the smile, but those parting words stung a bit. It hadn’t been that long since his father was given the death penalty as a murderer. He had turned himself in to the police saying it was him that murdered his wife and attacked his son, Kothur.

It was due to his sacrifice that Reohn could join the army, no longer being labeled as a mental liability. Now Kothur and him were just the pitiable sons of a murderer. His dad hadn’t even told Reohn beforehand. He felt conflicted. Had he known why his father asked him that question, would he have answered differently? It didn’t matter now. He would just have to try his hardest to not make his sacrifice go to waste.

This is so unpleasant. It was all Reohn could think about. He hadn’t really thought about the fifteen-day boat ride to the far away country. He had never been on a boat before at all, actually. He learned quick that it wasn’t pleasant.

The dorms were so small and cramped, it reminded him of a prison cell. Most of the doors were open with soldiers trying their best to stave off boredom by chatting. The rooms were white and the beds were attached to the walls vertically. As he walked the narrow halls with his heavy backpack, he wondered about his assigned bunkmate.

Hm? His door was closed. He heard a thick-accented voice yell at him to quickly get in when he opened it. Reohn closed the door behind him, he just wanted to know why.

“I got extra bread rolls from the kitchen since my sister’s a cook here, and they’d get mad at me if they saw. Want one?”

Reohn took a bread from the young boy. He looked at his roommate's dark blonde hair and his rather girlish face. They talked for a while together. He learned his name was Nithew and he liked to carve wood in his spare time. Nithew proudly showed him one such wooden carving taken from his bag and said it was a dog. It just looked like two lumps on a log to Reohn and he harshly told him as such. Eventually, Reohn met Nithew’s sister, Liobin, as she was serving lunch. It surprised him; Nithew didn’t mention they were twins.

There wasn’t much to do on the boat besides walk, talk, or play card games. A few days of doing nothing really takes a toll on a man. Sometimes they would have scheduled training just to keep everyone fit and motivated. Many of the soldiers were coming straight from their towns without any combat training after all. Reohn enjoyed shooting practice the most.

Reohn strolled into his room to get ready for practice. He was going to change before heading out. It looks like Nithew was on his top bunk, probably carving wood again. No, something was different. He was reading a book. That was strange. Did his carving knife break?

“Since when do you read books for fun, man?”

“Since a while ago, I guess.”

Wait. Stop. Hold on. That voice was not Nithew’s. Even though it did have the same accent. He could see that person was wearing his uniform when he walked in, he just couldn’t see the face. He rapidly grabbed the ladder and climbed up a few steps to confirm.

“Woah. I didn’t know you and my brother had that kind of relationship.” They put the book down and scooted away from him.

“Liobin, what the hell are you doing here? Where’s Nithew?”

“He’s taking care of lunch. Didn’t he tell you?” Oh god. Does that mean he’s wearing her uniform over there? He didn’t really want to imagine it. “You don’t have to make that face. It’s just temporary. I wanted to try going to practice and he didn’t.”

“He didn’t tell me anything! And being temporary doesn’t make it right!”

“Shh! You’re being too loud!” She put her finger to her mouth and shooed him off the steps. “Can’t you just let this slide? Why are you making such a big deal about it? Is it so weird that I want to get training in too?”

Reohn jumped off the steps in anger. That is crazy. Am I wrong? Nithew skipping out of practice and letting his sister do this wasn’t right. He was just coddling her. “You’re the most unfeminine girl I’ve ever met. What do you even need training for? You can’t go out to war like that just because you’re wearing a soldier’s uniform. Besides, if you get caught you both will get punished. I should just tell the sergeant on you guys before you get yourself killed.”

Liobin was quiet for a bit. He couldn’t see her expression from up there. She climbed off the bed and walked up to him with her arms crossed. “I told you and my brother this was temporary and that’s why he agreed to it. I know he’s just being nice to me. But to tell you the truth, I want to trade places with him. I don’t care about being feminine and I know he never cared about being masculine. This is just best for the both of us.”

“The best? You’re just humiliating you and your brother for your little fantasy. Just go back to being a girl, it’s way easier than being a solider anyway.”

“Women die in childbirth all the time. Our mom did. Even if I never gave birth, I’d still have to die eventually. If I had to choose, I wanted to die a proud death.”

“Have you told Nithew that?”

“No.” She shook her head, her hair too short to move like a normal girl’s would. “You understand though, right? Isn’t that why you became a soldier? To be able to die a proud death with your name remembered instead of just wasting away?”

“I guess I didn’t think about it that much.” He looked away. He thought about his family and how he was so tired of death from people he knew. It made him feel so helpless, the exact opposite reason of why he joined the army. “Fine, I won’t tell anyone. But you have to stop with that death talk. If you die out there, you’d just ruin your brother’s life. Lots of soldiers come back alive, you know.”

“Thank you, Reohn.” She grabbed his hand to shake it. Her face softened with gratitude looked much more girly than her brother’s. It made him uncomfortable.

She was still just a girl after all.