Dawn of a New Morning 2

#4
“If anybody could join the marines, I would never have chosen the marines.”

Among 270 recruits, there was one named Han-pil who finally joined the search team at his third try. At his first try, he was dropped out because he failed in the physical examination, and at his second try, too, he failed because he couldn’t get used to swimming due to hypothermia. However, he tried once again to accomplish his dream, following in his father’s footsteps.

He was proud of his father and respected him. Just like most other former marines, there were many similarities between Han-pil’s father and Min-guk’s father; both of them had a strong military spirit and were very proud of being former marines. Min-guk didn’t like Han-pil because of his weakness and the difference in the way of thinking about their fathers. However, Han-pil didn’t seem to care how Min-guk thought of him.

While getting the boot camp training, Min-guk got closer to Han-pil little by little, and also to all the other recruits. As they spent those hard times together, their comradeship became deeper and deeper. However, their strong comradeship couldn’t stop their eyelids from coming down. As their sleepless days went by, they began to experience visual or auditory hallucinations.

“This is not a simulation. This is real! The body can live when the spirit is alive!”

They couldn’t help falling asleep even though the drill instructor yelled at them and poured cold water on them. Then suddenly, someone began to sing the song, “Mother’s Heart.”

Mother, you forget all the pain of labor and birth; / You work day and night to raise your children without rest. / Taking care of all your children in your loving arms, / till your hands and feet are worn out, you suffer for us. / What else under heaven could be wider than your love? / Mother’s sacrifice knows no bounds and lasts forevermore.

As the recruits began to sing along one by one, the song echoed through the night sky. They felt awake and tears welled up in their eyes. They burst into tears of yearning. Min-guk remembered the documentary about the student soldier that he watched with his father one day. He could understand why the student soldier had a picture of his mother in his pocket during his rough journey. He could also feel the burning comradeship and the military spirit of his father and of the soldiers from the Independence Army whom his father respected.


#5
If anyone was injured during the training, he was to be dismissed, depending on the medic’s decision. Although the other recruits tried to comfort him, telling him he still had a chance, the injured recruit could not stop shedding tears, feeling sad to give up. The names of the 46 recruits who were dismissed were erased from the list of barracks.

As days went by, the recruits’ strength was reaching a breaking point. The training got more and more severe. For the recruits who had to crawl on their knees if they had to, the only way to go was the way forward. Going forward, gritting their teeth, the recruits finally arrived at the finish line. The boot camp training that seemed to last forever finally ended.

“Congratulations! You’ve all overcome your limitations and become final victors! I wish you health and victory in war!”

When the drill instructor proclaimed the end of the training, the recruits hugged each other with a shout. It was possible because they were young and with other fellow recruits who didn’t let go of each other’s hand when they were exhausted. Min-guk and Han-pil, too, held their hands together.

The drill instructors walked around each platoon and put a red name patch on top of the yellow name patch on the right chest of each recruit.

“Good job!”

There was no recruit who could hold back tears when the drill instructors said this. Tears rolled down on Min-guk’s face, too.

In the barrack, Min-guk took off his socks which were stuck on his feet and became like leather. His skin was covered with white salt from dried sweat. The past week, when he practiced swimming over and over again and ran here and there with a rubber boat on top of his head, went through his mind like a flash. Looking at his bruised feet, he remembered his childhood.

“Dad, why are your feet so ugly?”

Until he entered puberty, he was close to his father. When he was young, he liked talking with his father.

“Dad, how come your feet look strange?”

“Well, all these are a medal I got while protecting you.”

The father hugged his son.

‘A medal he got to protect me?’

While looking at his own feet, Min-guk realized that he had forgotten his father’s feet full of scars and calluses for quite a long time. His father must’ve obtained more medals while protecting his son, his family, and his country, but as he entered into adolescence, the father’s feet couldn’t draw Min-guk’s attention anymore.


#6
Min-guk saw his father’s feet again in the hospital. After hearing the news about his father’s accident, he took a leave and visited him. Seeing his father lying on the bed like a corpse, he was devastated.

While staying at the hospital with his mother for a few days, he massaged his father’s feet as often as possible. The father’s feet where medals were deeply engraved in were not ugly anymore. They were the most beautiful feet in the world. Whenever Min-guk massaged his father’s feet, he made a resolution to have glorious feet like his father’s and stand before his father.

After he returned to the base, he tried harder than ever. Cold, hunger, drowsiness, fear, pain . . . The time he cultivated his physical and mental strength to overcome the poorest environment that men could face was indeed a struggle against his own self. Whenever he became weary, he thought of his father. His father, too, must’ve been fighting. He desperately hoped that his father would wake up with a strong will.

The mother welcomed her discharged son in the intensive unit. She had become skinny and her hair turned half gray. There was no such thing as sleep or rest for her. She had to feed the father in a vegetative state with food and water through a tube that was connected to his nose, give him baths, change the bed sheet, and move his body every two hours to keep him from getting bedsores.

“I’m discharged from military service!”

His salutation was not loud because they were inside the hospital room, but his voice was firm and his eyes were bright.

“My son, I’m very proud of you.”

The mother patted him on the back while wiping her tears.

Then Min-guk also raised his hand in salute towards his father. Right at that moment, something happened!

“His toe! Mother! His toe was moving!”

Min-guk shouted. His father was wiggling his toes.

Surprised, the mother looked at the son’s face. Then Min-guk calmed himself down and said to his father, “Father, can you blink?”

Then his father blinked. He did it once, twice . . .

“Can you recognize me?”

Then the father barely nodded his head. He recognized his son. The mother held her son’s hand and shuddered. Tears rolled down her face. In Min-guk’s eyes, too, tears welled up. At that time, a nurse came inside the room, but then she ran back out with a surprised look.


#7
Early in the morning, taxis and cars honked at each other, asking to yield at the entrance of a bus terminal. Cranes and concrete mixer trucks were busily going in and out of the construction field covered with safety nets.

Passengers ran into the platform, calling each other’s names, because their departure time was coming near. A group of women came into the waiting room with lots of luggage to catch a bus for a trip. There was a quarrel between a drunken man and a delivery guy.

“I guess I’ll see you at the family education for military security.”

The father who was sitting on a wheelchair grabbed his son’s hand. Min-guk gave his father a tight hug.

Min-guk decided to be a military officer, and he got admitted. The father felt proud of the son dressed in a marine officer’s uniform.

“From now on, I will protect this country. Don’t worry. Please take care of yourselves, father and mother!”

Min-guk saluted. The young marine officer looked imposing and confident. The father and the mother waved their hands to their son until they could no longer see the bus. Min-guk engraved that scene deep in his heart. When the bus was about to leave, it began to become bright outside. A bright light of a new morning was coming up.