Warnings About Each Other

Sure enough, Tikhonov was caught by me while cycling around the track at a speed of 20 km/h. It wasn’t difficult to find her location. I could get clues by heading towards where Chinese students were whispering more.

A Chinese senior student approached me as I was looking around and said:

“Hey, Korean. Aren’t you the leader of that foreign student class?”

“Using informal speech to a stranger…”

“Anyway, forget it, your Russian over there is going around irritating people, so go talk to her. What kind of leader are you if you can’t even manage your students at a time like this?”

Not all Chinese here behaved this way, but being poked like this at such a troubled time irritated me a bit too. I frowned and retorted:

“Was there any instruction that foreigners shouldn’t ride bicycles at school during the national mourning period? The notice I received actually said to strengthen our minds and bodies, so what business is it of yours whether our Russian rides a bicycle or does backflips?”

“Huh?”

“Anyway, just leave her be. It’s only troublesome for everyone if unnecessary incidents increase.”

I passed by the Chinese awakened who disappeared rolling her eyes as if she had nothing to say, and slowly moved towards the track where there had been eyewitness accounts. The student who had spoken to me confrontationally also seemed to realize that I was actually going to stop Tikhonov despite my words, and disappeared in the opposite direction with a smirk.

It was a pointless show of force that benefited no one. But there wasn’t any particular loss either.

Colonel Tikhonov dismounted from her bicycle as soon as I caught her, with an expression that said ‘the inevitable has come’.

“Ahaha, Platoon Leader, you’re out early. Well, I know it’s better not to stand out at a time like this, but my body was itching and hard to bear, or rather, I couldn’t control myself, something like that, haha…”

“Well, it’s not like you’ve done anything terribly wrong, so it’s fine.”

I clicked my tongue. Colonel Tikhonov leaned her unicycle to the side and loosened her tied-up hair. Her silver hair, slightly damp with sweat, swayed gently in the wind.

“Then, since I’ve ridden enough for today, shall I spend the rest of the time quietly in the dorm with Katyusha?”

“Wait a moment.”

Katyusha. Catherine Duey and Barbara Tikhonov… The relationship between the two is indeed concerning. During the last nuclear bomb incident, Duey argued for Tikhonov’s arrest without a moment’s hesitation. Even if they’re in a relationship of mutual checks and balances, such a response might have hurt feelings to some extent, but can she call her so casually, without a hint of coldness?

“Are you concerned about the relationship between me and Katyusha?”

Tikhonov hit the nail on the head like a fortune teller, seeing my expression. I nodded awkwardly and answered.

“There was a seed of discord between you two, after all.”

“Because Katyusha argued for my arrest?”

“At a time when none of us thought it was necessary. It was a bit surprising. Even if one were to handle it flexibly, it doesn’t seem like it would have felt good from the perspective of the person involved. If there were to be a fight between you two…”

“I would have been disappointed if Katyusha hadn’t done that.”

Tikhonov said with sparkling eyes. She slightly stuck out her tongue and flicked it like a snake.

“Katyusha is afraid of me. She’s always looking for the most appropriate opportunity to eliminate me, and always regrets when it doesn’t come. You must have noticed too, haven’t you?”

“Honestly, I have no idea…”

“Katyusha and I like each other. As people from the same country, if we had met privately, we might have liked each other quite a bit. Of course, as friends.”

“I’ve heard that friendship transcends nationality.”

“But it rarely transcends ideology. Rather, wouldn’t it be more in line with reality to say that ideology even transcends friendship and family love? I don’t deny it. I’m a hardcore communist. And Katyusha is an extremely old-fashioned nationalist. A Frankish nationalist, a French supremacist. She’s so old-fashioned she seems like she could have popped out during Napoleon’s era. Hidden behind her smile, that friend seems to love nothing but her own country.”

“…Is it to that extent?”

“It is to that extent.”

I thought Duey was a bit strange, but Tikhonov’s assessment is new. She went on praising human desire and flame. In the midst of that, she did show signs of loving her homeland, but I was a bit doubtful whether Tikhonov was as extreme a nationalist as she was explaining now.

But it’s also true that Tikhonov has been observing Catherine Duey much more closely than I have.

“You might just be looking at her from a Russian perspective because you’re loyal to the Soviet Union.”

“That might be so. But however you think about it, it comes down to this. Duey and I like each other quite a bit. But we love our motherlands that gave birth to us even more than that. We will kill each other someday. At the very least, we’ll try to kill each other. Was I the only one who noticed Katyusha rejoicing when she heard about the incident in Beiping?”

“Lieutenant Duey rejoiced?”

“She probably thought a world war had broken out. That Russia had finally crossed the line, that finally an all-out war between China and Russia, a showdown between Europe and Russia, a confrontation between Japan, China, and the United States. A battle for the fate of the world was about to unfold, she seemed to think that way.”

“But what kind of person would sincerely wish for a world war in times like these…”

“It would be rare except for Catherine Duey.”

Tikhonov laughed. I couldn’t laugh after hearing those words.

“It’s true that Catherine Duey is a bit strange. But I don’t think she’s so cold-hearted and callous as to sincerely wish for a world war.”

“Shin Eun-young. Do you ever think like this? That you are the Republic of Korea, and the Republic of Korea is you. That you yourself represent Korea, and Korea is your everything.”

“…I’ve never thought about it.”

“I have.”

“You’ve thought about yourself being Korea?”

“No. That I am the Russian Soviet Republic itself. That I am the incarnation of the USSR, the guardian of communist ideology, the spokesperson of the Red Army, that I should be so, my subordinates should be so, and the people of my country should also be so. I’ve thought about it like that. Seriously.”

“…That’s a frightening ideology. And dangerous too.”

“Do you know what happens when you arm yourself with this kind of ideology? People become cells. Not individuals, but cells. Countless cells die even from small wounds. Epidermal cells, muscle cells, fat cells… But they eventually regenerate. If I become the state, the state becomes a colony. Honestly, I’ve moved past the period when I fell into such naive thoughts. But young Katyusha is different. When I look at her, I’m reminded of myself in my early 20s.”

“Lieutenant Catherine Duey is actually the youngest among us…”

“Just twenty-one years old. The prime of youth. There’s an eight-year age difference between us. When I was twenty-one, I thought the Comintern was everything to me, Tikhonov. For Duey now, everything is the French Republic. Be careful of her. If there’s anyone among us who most wants the resumption of a world war. And if there’s anyone who most wants to kill me, it’s none other than Catherine Duey.”

“Lieutenant Duey told me to be most careful of you.”

“That’s because she’s afraid of me.”

“Are you not bothered at all about sharing a room with such a person? If Lieutenant Duey sincerely wants to kill you, there are many ways.”

“Ah, you haven’t understood properly.”

Barbara Tikhonov even made a slightly pitying expression. She grabbed the unicycle she had set aside to return to her quarters and jumped on it. I grabbed her bicycle and demanded further explanation.

“What haven’t I understood?”

“I’m telling you, Duey believes she is France. Think about it. What was France’s last humiliation, I mean, the last humiliation experienced at the national level?”

“Wouldn’t it be the Battle of Sedan?”

“They’ve paid back what they suffered from Germany. Napoleon III, that fool’s humiliation was thoroughly avenged by Ferdinand Foch in Versailles. No. It’s Russia. It’s Napoleon I’s tragedy. The miserable end of the little corporal who invaded the Russian plains without knowing his place. The bad blood with Germany was cut off through the Great War, but can’t you imagine what Russia might mean to a woman who identifies herself with France? If it’s hard to understand, try identifying yourself with your homeland, Korea. The feeling you would have towards Japan, it would be exactly the same as that.”

“I can’t identify myself with my country. That doesn’t fit me as a person.”

“Then you’ll never know how dangerous a person Catherine Duey is. And you won’t understand how dangerous I am either. It means there’s an incomprehensible gap between us. Anyway, I’ll refrain from morning exercises for a while. Take care, Platoon Leader. Well then, goodbye!”