The trucks meant to take the recruits away to their assigned bases only showed up and crowded the training ground the day after the graduation ceremony.

“Wow, so it really is over,” Ju Yeong-Gi muttered in a half-bitter, half-glad tone, his eyes scanning the parked military trucks.

His friends tapped him on the shoulder. “We're gonna miss you, Yeong-Gi.”

“You guys…” Ju Yeong-Gi sheepishly wiped his nose. He had grown quite close to these recruits after living with them under one roof for a month. "Hey, give me a call when you get your hundred-day leave, okay?"

“Huh? Why should we call each other during our precious leave?”

“C'mon, man. We ain't some random strangers anymore now, are we?! We should definitely see each other at least once.”

With that, the recruits began exchanging phone numbers.

“Hey, Jin-Ho!”

A few recruits also approached Kang Jin-Ho with a pen and an open notebook. He didn't refuse any of them and jotted down his contact number.

“Jin-Ho, I'll definitely call you.”

“Alright,” Kang Jin-Ho replied with a nod.

Ju Yeong-Gi observed the exchange, then tutted loudly. “Dude, do you really think they'll call you?”

“Probably not.”

“Why did you bother to give them your number, then?”

Kang Jin-Ho shrugged his shoulders. “Because they asked me to…”

“Tsk, tsk.” Ju Yeong-Gi shook his head disapprovingly. “Anyway, why did you reject the offer to become an assistant instructor here? I heard the higher-ups wanted to recruit you.”

"Mm? This is the first time I'm hearing about that."

“Eh? Really? That's weird. I heard...