Kim Pilseung, 24 years old.
He was a healthy, four-limbed, able-bodied South Korean man who had finished his service as a Marine Corps sergeant.
"From now on, you will follow this instructor’s orders. Understood?"
"Yes!"
"Answer with 'Akk!'"
And right now, he was standing there as an instructor in front of Iam, the hottest girl group in South Korea these days.
'Whoa, holy shit, it really is Iam?'
Pilseung still couldn’t believe a famous girl group like Iam would co to a Marine camp that wasn’t even well-known.
- Pilseung, you free next Tuesday?
- Tuesday? I don’t think I’ve got anything special?
- Then co in that day, extra. We got a sudden booking, and they say they’re filming sothing? You might end up on TV, so if we’re gonna advertise, we need soone who at least looks presentable.
Pilseung Invincible Marine Corps Camp. That was the na of the Marine camp where Pilseung was working part-ti.
The boss was a real forr Marine who still yelled about “Marine spirit” nonstop at every company dinner,
- But I was Army?
- It’s fine. We even have people who were exempt. What matters is Marine spirit! Just follow this manual and you’re good!
and the part-tir instructors running the camp were a multi-branch coalition force, mixed together from Army to Air Force.
Thanks to that, Marine Corps alumnus Pilseung had beco the ace of Pilseung Invincible Marine Corps Camp.
'High hourly pay, and the schedule had room. It was the best part-ti job spot.'
Sothing felt off, but the pay was decent, and the fact he only had to co in two days a week suited him so well that Pilseung was working as an instructor at Pilseung Invincible Marine Corps Camp until he went back to school.
Plus, the boss liked Pilseung’s na so much that he treated him well, too.
Anyway, the main custors of a Marine camp like this were elentary, middle, and high school kids, but then a girl group showed up out of nowhere, so Pilseung’s head went completely blank.
- TV? Like that “6 o’clock in my hotown” type of thing?
A famous person wouldn’t have any reason to co to a not-that-famous place like Pilseung Invincible Marine Corps Camp, would they?
So even when the boss said a TV station was coming to film, Pilseung just figured it was local TV, or so program only older people watched.
Even if he asked the boss where the filming crew was coming from,
- What was it again··· I don’t really know, but anyway, show them our invincible Marine spirit good!
- Aren’t you appearing too, boss?
- I’ve got a Marine buddies association eting that day, so Pilseung, you take the kids and handle it!
the boss, either not rembering or not caring, dumped everything on Pilseung and left for the eting.
Since a lot of part-tirs only stayed two or three months and left, Pilseung—already working here for half a year—had sohow beco the senior-most one.
"From now on, we will conduct basic drill training. Are you ready?"
"Akk!"
Either way, Pilseung had gotten so used to it by now that he could chew up the custors with his eyes closed.
"Your response is too quiet!"
"Akk!"
It was already so loud it hurt his ears, but the key point of a Marine camp was that you always chewed them out once, no matter what, for being “too quiet.”
'But why do all their expressions look so murderous?'
Pilseung was feeling so kind of unknown killing intent from the ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) Iam mbers in front of him, who were glaring at him with fierce eyes like flas were burning.
Normally, when people got dragged to a camp, the standard look was the face of soone who was dead inside, but right now, the vibe was way too vicious.
If Pilseung hadn’t been wearing black sunglasses, his flustered eyes would’ve shown exactly as they were.
Especially—
"Should we seize a vehicle?"
"Hold it, Lee Sion. You don’t have a license."
"If we pull in just one staff mber by saying we’ll go easy on them···."
Even Pilseung knew Iam mber Lee Sion, and Lee Sion’s expression—like she was in the worst mood out of all the mbers—was such a vicious look she could practically take soone’s head off.
'Pretty···.'
Even so, since she was the prettiest person he’d ever seen in his life, Pilseung found himself rolling his eyes without thinking and staring at Lee Sion’s face.
But he couldn’t keep doing that.
"Trainees, no chatting among yourselves!"
"Akk!"
Because the job he was assigned was instructor.
No matter how much Pilseung liked Iam, and separately from how happy he was to see the mbers in person, he still had to do what he had to do.
"Do you see the combat uniforms and combat boots placed in front of you?"
"Yes."
"Akk!"
And mistakes popping out when he hadn’t even properly started yet.
'Yes'—when he looked at the one who answered that way, it was Lee Gahyeon.
"Trainee, how did I tell you to answer?"
She was an Iam mber he liked, but Pilseung decided to target Lee Gahyeon as a good example case to give so discipline.
"Akk?"
"Pfft."
Pilseung hadn’t expected "Akk?" instead of "Akk!", and he barely held back the laugh that almost burst out as he continued.
"Can’t you get your head straight?! All trainees, run at full speed to that flag you see over there and co back!"
"What?!"
"Answer!"
"Akk!"
The instant the response ended, the Iam mbers turned around and ran toward the flag.
"Pilseung-hyung, it’s Iam! Iam!"
"Hey, there’s a cara right now, watch how you address people. Talk about that during break, and when the mbers co back, you know our pattern, right?"
"Yes, we change them right away, then give them one more round of discipline, then go into drill training, right?"
"Yeah. Anyway, they told us to remove anything that could get them hurt today, so let’s do basic drill, then go to conditioning drills."
"Yessir!"
Taking advantage of the gap, the junior instructor working with Pilseung today yapped excitedly with a thrilled face, saying when would they ever get a chance to run Iam mbers like this again, but—
'Oh, they’re fast?'
Pilseung, since he was still the person in charge, stayed focused on the Iam mbers running out and coming back.
- Please exclude rappelling and the gas-mask chamber, just in case. If they get hurt or their skin breaks out, it’ll be a problem because they’re promoting right now.
- Then we’ll just do simple drill, conditioning drills at the end, and maybe a boat movent exercise.
Since they were special custors with more to worry about than normal custors, safety had to co first above all else.
So Pilseung, keeping an eye on them without getting distracted in case sothing happened, watched the mbers.
It had to be hard to run on sand, but the mbers were running to the flag and back pretty quickly.
Normally, he would cut it by first-co-first-served and make them repeat it a few tis, but that felt like it would be too much from the very beginning, so for now he decided to be satisfied with this.
"From now on, each of you will take the combat uniform and combat boots placed in front of you, move to the barracks in that building, and change."
"Akk!"
Maybe because they’d just run, they were panting hard, but their responses had gotten much louder than at the start.
Pilseung glanced at the watch on his wrist with a satisfied smile.
"Current ti is 10:42. Can you change and assemble by 10:50?"
"Akk!"
"Good response. Move out!"
Peeeep.
With the whistle hanging around his neck shrieking, Pilseung watched the Iam mbers imdiately grab their combat uniforms and boots and run to the barracks, and he thought to himself.
'The first ti you put it on, no matter how fast you are, you’ll go over ten minutes.'
They were given eight minutes, so even factoring in travel ti, the Iam mbers would definitely go overti.
Then he could use that as an excuse for another simple round of corrective exercise and go right into drill training. It would be the perfect course.
***
Tap.
There are things people say the body rembers.
Like how nobody consciously thinks about breathing—things that get repeated and drilled in naturally until your body just reacts on its own.
For , changing into a combat uniform was like that.
'Been a while since I felt this chill.'
First, I put on the pants and quickly tighten the boot laces.
Then I stand up and whip the top on, and I’m done changing.
It felt like it took about one minute to change into the combat uniform.
Back in my pri, it only took about thirty seconds, but putting on combat boots after a long ti took longer than I expected.
Anyway, once I finished first and helped the mbers change, and roughly checked that everyone had their combat boots and combat uniforms on, I kicked the door open and ran out while ordering them to put their belts on while running to the assembly point.
When they saw running, the mbers ran after for now.
Whether they put their belts on while running the way I taught them, by the ti all our mbers arrived at the assembly point, everyone was perfectly changed.
"Haa··· hahk."
"Ssssh!"
Maybe because they’d been busy running, they were breathing hard, but seeing the mbers standing in a single-file line, one column, with a sharper form than at the beginning, an old, nostalgic mory surfaced.
How many squad mbers and company mbers had I taught drill training to?
- Third rank, far right, step back a half step.
- Step back a half step!
Later on, I’d had hawk eyes that could find where the formation was crooked just by scanning it.
But that was a story I missed when it stayed a mory. Being in the position of receiving drill training didn’t feel very good.
'How dare you trick !'
I rembered when we got out of the car.
- Move, move, move! Trainees!!
The mont and the mbers got out of the car, what we saw were instructors in black sunglasses, red caps pulled down, screaming at us.
- This is··· what.
When we were flustered because we didn’t know what the hell was going on, the content team started explaining like they’d been waiting for this, beaming with huge grins.
- Today’s Iam self-produced content is a Marine Corps camp in preparation for Paldo Sanai!
- Preparation for Paldo Sanai?
- You’ll find out soon, but one of the mbers is scheduled to appear on the hit variety show Paldo Sanai. To prepare for that, through a military experience···.
The main point was that one of us was going to appear on the hit terrestrial variety show Paldo Sanai, and for that, we ca to a Marine Corps camp for a practice run.
The important part was that the content team had decided from the start to trick us.
When they asked for cooperation for once, I thought they’d finally given up, but who would’ve thought they were plotting sothing like this.
"···All right. Everyone changed within the ti limit."
But right now was the ti to focus on the situation in front of .
Maybe the instructor hadn’t expected and the mbers to assemble earlier than predicted, because the instructor’s flustered look was obvious.
'Pilseung?'
Looking at the na tag, it said Kim Pilseung, and it seed like a Marine-style assud na.
"Then, from now on, we will conduct basic drill training. Under this instructor’s control, when the assistant instructor demonstrates, you will follow exactly."
"Akk!"
Answering loudly to Instructor Kim Pilseung’s orders, I felt a slight sense of wrongness.
'What is it?'
The instructors I knew maintained a thorough, ticulous deanor no matter what the situation was.
And that was because if they showed a sloppy side in front of trainees, they couldn’t keep their authority, so they had to act perfectly themselves first.
But—
"Attention! At ease!"
The instructor and assistant instructor demonstrating in front of right now were way too sloppy.
"Hold on, hold on!"
"What is it, Trainee Lee Sion! During training, chatting is—"
"No, if you’re going to call attention, you have to call at ease first so the form cos out."
"What?"
The instructor looked at with a blank, bewildered face, like he didn’t understand what I was saying.
And now that I looked, even the way he wore the cap was wrong.
Instead of pulling it down so low you could barely see his eyes, he was wearing it all goofy, trying to look stylish. That disqualified him as an instructor.
'You have to pull that cap down. That’s the whole point!'
And the way he had his belt on—was that even right?
"Did you not learn how to wear your belt?"
"Wh-what··· what?"
"The end line has to match the dead center, the pants zipper line!"
"How do you even know that···."
It was suffocating.
The three-line alignnt was the basic standard of a combat uniform.
Top, belt, pants—those three lines had to align perfectly for it to be a real combat uniform, and he was wearing it like this and trying to teach soone?
"And, Assistant Instructor, do attention again."
"M-··· ?"
"Not . . You’re the assistant instructor right now."
"M-··· ?"
"Ssssh··· Attention!"
An attention call rising up from the core.
At that, the assistant instructor standing next to Instructor Kim Pilseung imdiately snapped into the attention position.
Swish!
And I opened my hand and jabbed it between the assistant instructor’s side and arm.
"Look at this! In a real attention position, there can’t be room for even one finger! Glue it on tight!"
"Yes!"
"Not 'yes.' The response is 'Yes!'"
"Yes!"
The attention position was originally a very hard, unmoving position.
I wasn’t kidding—if you stand in the proper attention position for just ten minutes, your whole body can start trembling and you might pass out.
And doing it like this was sothing I absolutely couldn’t let slide.
'This is pretty normal, though.'
Honestly, it wasn’t like the assistant instructor in front of was completely bad at drill.
You get drilled hard as a trainee until your form is perfect, but once you get assigned to a unit and ti passes, it’s normal for it to loosen up.
If you thought about how sergeants’ drill posture got all slack, you could say the assistant instructor’s posture right now was actually pretty decent.
It just didn’t et my standards.
"What is this foot angle? You don’t know forty-five degrees?"
"Like this?"
"And you have to answer in formal drill style!"
"···Like this, is that correct?"
"Hm··· It’s not satisfying, but let’s move on for now."
"Thank you!"
There were still a lot of lacking parts, but since the attention shape ca out for now, I moved on to the next target.
"Instructor Kim Pilseung?"
"Uh··· yes?"
"The foundation of all drill doesn’t start with attention. It starts with at ease."
"···Is that so?"
"No, what do they teach in the Marines these days? You have to call at ease, then you do the rest position, and then you do attention."
And the instructor had a lot of disappointing parts when it ca to giving commands, too.
Even officers who ca out of an academy or an officer training corps were bad at command when they were second lieutenants, so to give real command, you needed at least captain-level experience, maybe?
"I don’t really know about that either···."
"And when you give commands, just lowering your voice isn’t enough. This diaphragm breathing! You have to give commands with a voice coming up from the core so you don’t blow out your throat and it carries all the way to the back."
"Ah! So that’s why my throat always got wrecked."
"Now, follow ! Aaaat eeeease!"
"At ease!"
"No! Stretch out the 'at,' and keep 'ease' short and crisp, okay?"
"Yes!"
To an officer, diaphragm breathing was like breathing itself.
Even if you spit out a single word, it needed resonance and soul.
- The company commander is disappointed in you.
- Hngh, I’m sorry, Company Commander. Please stop!
In my past life, when I was a company commander, I could easily give a two-hour speech through diaphragm breathing, so without yelling, I could pull out the unit’s sincere reflection.
"Sion-chan! I believed in you!!!"
"Lee Sion, seriously, they say even a worm has a trick, and you really do!"
"Boss, how are you this good?"
"I always knew Sion was good at everything."
After I trained the instructor and assistant instructor for a bit, the mbers watching that scene started blurting out amazed exclamations at in shock.
They probably thought I’d saved them.
"You all stand straight too!"
"Huh?"
"Ever since you put on the combat uniform earlier, there’s not just one or two things that bug ."
"No··· Lee Sion, calm down!"
Lee Gahyeon tried to stop , but it was already too late.
Right now, I wasn’t an idol.
The Devil of the FM—the living specin of “I won’t touch you as long as you do what you’re supposed to do,” Army Captain Lee Sion.
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