Late at night, with a steady breeze of sharp, flesh-cutting blades, a man in a military uniform leaves his trench and begins to head off in the direction of his destination.

He was surrounded by many of his comrades, but none of them said anything, except to stare in horror at the man's unauthorized departure from the perimeter they were supposed to be guarding.

The man stopped in a large clearing. With only the moonlight in the sky for illumination, the clearing looked so deserted and dark that the man felt as if something was going to come out 

of the woodwork at any moment and swallow him whole. The man stared straight ahead without saying a word, and his eyes were filled with a lot of emotion. 

After a while, the man's gaze shifted to the round moon shining brightly in the sky.

By now, the man's eyes were filled with longing as he gazed at the moon, and he slowly closed his own. 

Soon, thick tears began to flow from the man's closed eyes. began to flow from the man's closed eyes, and they began to wet both his cheeks, but the man did not did not stir.

The thick tears from the man's closed eyes rolled down his cheeks and onto a pile of snow down his cheeks, and onto the pile of snow, a shadowy figure on the man's back. The man's body turned toward the shadow, fast and swift. and at the same time, his left hand went to the hilt of the bayonet at his waist. at his waist.

As he turned to face the approaching shadow behind his back, his left hand was already gripped with the hilt of a bayonet, and many things were darkly settled in his eyes glared fiercely 

at the shadow behind him, ready to pounce. 

But that was it. The man remained frozen, unmoving. frozen in place. There stood his superior, a steaming mug of coffee in each hand. steaming cup of coffee in both hands. The man scrambled to get his bayonet back into its scabbard, but he was too panicked. His bayonet tumbled to the ground in a heap of snow and was buried.

The man's face turned contemplative, and without even bothering to pick up his bayonet, which was buried in the snow, he saluted his superior with a bow.

"Ha! Ha! Ha!"

A loud laugh echoed through the dark and dreary clearing, like raindrops on the parched earth.

"You are a strange and funny fellow after all."

Unable to contain his laughter, the superior stepped closer to the man and held out one of the coffee cups he was holding toward him.

"Here you go, cocoa. I already knew you didn't like coffee." 

The man took the mug of hot cocoa from his superior with both hands.

"Your platoon leader has been snitching on me again. He accused me of leaving the perimeter unannounced, but I came here just in case. Cocoa is a bonus."

The man said nothing, his eyes fixed on the contents of his coffee cup, which had grown cold as he listened to his superior's tale.

"I know you want to be alone, but I'm here to talk to you, so don't be a doorstopper. This is none of your business."

As the man accepted the coffee cup with both hands and let his hands warm, his gaze shifted once more to the moon in the sky, and his superior spoke to him as he stared at it.

"We were forced into the situation after the apanese occupation. As a result, our country has been divided by the clash of ideologies. Our division soon turned out to be of great benefit to our neighbors." 

As the man stared at the moon, listening to his superior, a dark shadow began to settle over his face. The man's face had a look of anticipation on it, as if the story was about to begin. 

"North Korea invaded South Korea for a second time, using the U.S.'s interference in its internal affairs as an excuse, in the name of a war of reunification. The war ended with the U.S.-South Korean alliance reconquering North Korean soil, and that seemed to be the end of it... until China intervened."

Looking up at the sky with eyes filled with sadness, the man said nothing and listened to his superior's story.

"Under the guise of the Northeast Policy, China has claimed North Korea as its territory and has demanded that the United States withdraw from the Korean Peninsula on the condition that all neighboring countries affected by the war receive 100% compensation." 

The man brought the coffee cup he was holding in both hands to his mouth. He looked at his superior, who looked back at him. His superior continued.

"I know that you have risked your life on many battlefields to ensure that this war ends in victory for the United States and its allies. Dozens of American and South Korean divisions have been wiped out by the North Koreans in this war. And you've always been there. I know you've been forced into other divisions, and each time you've been the only one to survive. That's why you've earned the nickname Ghost from both the Chinese and the Allied forces."

The man's eyes closed as he looked up at the sky. He had survived. Soon, the tears that had begun to form in the man's eyes rolled down his cheeks.

"In the final battle, you ran under American gunfire and carpet bombing. And you survived again. I asked you, at gunpoint, why you jumped in. And your answer broke my heart. You looked like you were desperate not to die when everyone else was screaming for their lives." 

The superior's one-sided story didn't stop there.

"After that, I had a lot of questions about you. I asked the higher-ups to do a background check on you, and now I know why you were so desperate to die."

The man, who had been wiping away the tears that had rolled down his cheeks again and again, looked up at his superior, unable to hide his bewilderment.

"Your paternal grandfather was a very good man, indeed, and from great ancestors come great descendants, but that's not really the point. What was more important was the fact that you had contact with your godmother so long ago! It was then that I understood everything about you, that you could not die even if you wanted to. You already knew this war was going to happen! You knew there would be a nuke on the peninsula. peninsula would be nuked."

Scared to death of his superior's words, Sanae dropped to her knees on the cold ground. to the cold ground. The man's hands clutched at his coffee mug, and his chest heaved. and began to shiver. Looking at the man with pity and compassion in his eyes. The superior began to stroke his head and back.

"We've been negotiating for three months. The U.S. ordered the South Korean army to hold the line, and finally, yesterday, they began withdrawing from the Korean Peninsula from the Korean Peninsula as of yesterday."

Turning to the man who was still fondling his chest, the officer continued. 

"You'll survive this one."

Before he could finish his sentence, the heavens and earth trembled violently, and countless Chinese fighter jets began to pass overhead in the wind. The man stood up and looked up at the sky with fear in his eyes, and his boss tapped him on the shoulder. Here and there, screams began to echo as shells from Chinese fighter jets began to explode, and the superior smiled and said to the man.

"It's good to talk to you. It was an honor to talk to you, sir, and I wish you well." 

Those were the superior's last words to the man. Soon after, a shell landed near where the superior and the man were standing and exploded. The place where the man and his superior stood was engulfed in a huge flame, and there was no trace of them in the thick cloud that quickly began to spread.