Of Battles and Unfound Peace
The war between North and South Korea has been raging for near to a year when their group is formed. Since after a whole year of fighting, they hadnât reached much further than when they started, the South Korean government decided to put together a team of a few of their most cunning soldiers to send out on special missions, and thatâs exactly the message the group gets when they are created. They are a special team put together to carry out special operations.
At first they feel like itâs an honour to be part of this special team and to be able to serve the country, but that soon changes when they find out that special is just another word for dangerous in the governmentâs vocabulary. Their missions are of the kind that no one else is to know about and that have to be performed in the utmost secrecy. From simple scouting missions to sneaking into the enemy camp to help some of the prisoners escaping.
They consist of twelve people in the beginning. Some of them know each other from the battalions they were previously in, or from just randomly having played some poker or sport together in the main camp.
Jungsoo is the one they put in command of their group; because heâs the oldest, because he has been in the army for the longest time, because he has the qualities of a good leader. The rest of them are added because of their expertise in certain fields.
There are Youngwoon and Donghee, a pair of the strongest men in the army and both also incredibly cunning when it comes to bombs and grenades of all sorts, but as friends they are two of the most funny and kind people to be around, always full of pranks.
Another important one is Heechul, the snarky, legendary sniper who has taken out one of North Koreaâs most important leaders somewhere in the beginning of the war, but hasnât really done anything impressive since and basically still lives off the fame he gained from that one important kill.
The group also holds Hyukjae and Ryeowook, the two medics of the team, both kind of shy and easily affected by the harshness of the war, missing their home a lot as they were thrown into the war at a young age, but they are said to have saved a lot of lives already with their skills.
A little bit of an odd one out, but still very valuable, is Hangeng, a strategist who is originally part of the Chinese reinforcements, known for the many battle strategies he has thought out so far that have helped South Korea a great deal in their war against the North.
The other five, Kibum, Sungmin, Siwon, Donghae and Jongwoon, donât have any specific talents themselves, but they are needed to strengthen the teamâs numbers and because the group needs the men who can handle their guns and take on some more important missions.Â
After about a year of missions, suddenly a new team member is introduced to them. His name is Kyuhyun, another strategist. Although no one talks about it, everyone knows heâs added because the higher-ups are afraid that the Chinese will pull back their reinforcements now that the war is seemingly heading nowhere, and they want the new strategist accustomed and ready to fully take over Hangengâs job by the time this happens.
Kyuhyun is welcomed with a few disapproving looks, mainly coming from Youngwoon, Heechul and Jungsoo, but seems to not want to push Hangeng out of their midst or take the place of the Chinese man, so after a while he gets accepted. They are not given any harder missions anymore, but just a few easy ones, so that Kyuhyun can get used to the way things work and train himself. Then, about three months after he joined them, they finally get sent out on a mission again.
The only thing they have to do is take over an enemy outpost so that they can use the weapons and stocked food there. Heechul is supposed to cause a commotion by killing off a few of the enemies from a certain direction, pulling the attention towards him, and the others will then close in from another side and take over the remaining ones. The building cannot simply be blown up as they need the weapons in good state and not partly destroyed.
Yet everything goes wrong when the enemies canât see anyone in the direction Heechul is shooting from and start scanning the other directions as well. Knowing that his friends will be clearly visible to them when they just look the right way, Heechul does the only thing he can think of in that split second; he makes himself visible. Immediately all attention turns back to him, guns are fired and he quickly runs away. By the time the enemy realises itâs a decoy, the others have broken into the outpost already and the mission succeeds without anymore fail.
Heechul gets out less fortunate, however. He takes a bullet in the leg and if not for Hyukjae and Ryeowookâs amazing medic skills, he probably would have lost it, but they manage to bandage him excellently and carry him back to the camp where he can be taken care of by real doctors. It is the first time one of them gets hurt and they find themselves looking for comfort in each other and praying for Heechulâs wellbeing, because the shot wound has created the possibility for him to never walk again in his life.
The snarky sniper, however, does not seem to feel as bad as he looks and refuses to give up as well, because heâs up on his feet again after a month already, seven months before he was supposed to be able to get up. He stumbles around with a tight bandage around his leg that is meant to keep his leg stable, but he walks, and he improves much faster than anyone could have imagined.
Yet they still have to go out without him, because they canât just stop doing missions. They manage quite well, though, and Hangeng still remains by their side because unlike the superiors thought, the Chinese are still good allies to have and they keep their troops in South Korea, albeit most of them on standby. Their group does quite well with their missions, gaining themselves a certain name amongst the other soldiers and slowly starting their path towards victory.
The first real shock comes about half a year later, when their group gets hit by a bomb. Jungsoo, Donghee and Kyuhyun are closest to the explosion, taking a rather hard blow. Out of the three of them, Donghee is hurt the least. He immediately gets up again and rushes over to where Jungsooâs lying. The eldest is bleeding out of several little wounds, but none are life-threatening it seems. He is losing a lot of blood, however, and his calls for Kyuhyun, inquiring if the youngest is alright, grow weaker and weaker as Ryeowook tries his best to take care of the cuts and burns.
Hyukjae is the first to rush to Kyuhyunâs side the moment he sees Donghee going towards Jungsoo. The strategist is mumbling continuously, but already doesnât seem conscious enough anymore to know himself whatever heâs saying - or trying to say. It takes only a minute or two before he completely sinks away into oblivion and Hyukjae works fast to try and temper most of the bleeding, as the others frantically search their surroundings to see where the enemy is hiding and to keep them at bay.
They soon find that the bomb was merely a mine placed in what seemed to be the wrong field, because they discovered no other mine, but this knowledge doesnât heal the severe injuries their friend has suffered and when they carry his seemingly lifeless body back into the camp, they realise for the first time the massive proportions of the whole war, and how many innocent people have already given their life for it so far. They do not need the doctor to tell them what they already know; Kyuhyun is injured so badly that heâs fighting for his life, and thereâs no way of knowing when and if he will wake up.
In the weeks that follow, Kyuhyun is in a state of coma and none of them knows what will become of him. They continue to have to do missions, but somehow it feels like thereâs an empty spot. On top of all that, the superiors decide to cut their group into parts, telling them that they are too crowded and can be discovered too easily, so theyâre going to split up into smaller teams at times and get around like that.
The first new team consists of Jungsoo, who recovered rather well after three weeks, Donghee, Hyukjae, Heechul, Youngwoon and Sungmin. They are sent on a few missions and appear to be cooperating very well, always returning to report another successful mission, and always showing a bright and joking attitude towards the others. Often the trips to the places they have to be are full of happily sung army songs or teasing jokes from all sides. They are considered successful, but soon are no longer able to go out because Heechulâs leg seems to not be healed completely.
So the second new team is about the same people and they simply replace Heechul with Jongwoon. Even though they donât have any sniper or strategist amongst them, they do their missions well. It turns out Jungsoo is capable of more than just leading people around when he takes up a sniping gun one day and leads them to victory by taking out the most important enemy with it. His skills are nowhere near as perfect as Hangengâs, Kyuhyunâs or Heechulâs, but he seems to manage well with everything he takes upon himself to achieve.
After a dreadful month and a half, Kyuhyun finally wakes up, causing the whole group to rush to his bed in the infirmary and tell them how happy they are to see him wake up. He smiles at them, but doesnât talk back, because he still has a hard time breathing. His lung is still recovering from the damage it has taken when he was thrown to the ground by the explosion. They sit there for a whole day, night and then another day. Some just sit, others pray, others -like Heechul- crack a few silly jokes and tell the youngest to recover soon or theyâll hunt him down to his grave.
Kyuhyun recovers quite okay, mainly thanks to the help of his amazing doctor, but the incident is never forgotten by the thirteen of them. The two years and a half of war and death are starting to take their toll on the men. Their dreams -or rather nightmares- are filled with blood, gunshots, explosions and corpses; and whatever moment of rest they can find is still accompanied by the sound of faraway shooting. They find that the people theyâre working with are their only hope on surviving and the ties between their group grow even stronger.
It is the day that Kyuhyun starts walking again for the first time that the superiors announce yet another change. There is another new team to be formed out of them, but this time with other members. Since Heechulâs leg isnât quite as good yet, they tell them that they have found another sniper and because the group has to go far away, they need someone who can handle the food, so there will be two new people added to this new team.
The first reactions are not very positive - after all, they have to add two strangers to their group and try to work together with yet new people - but when Zhou Mi and Henry are introduced, Hangeng happily greets them, telling the others that he knows both of them from his days back in the Chinese army, and Heechul recognises Zhou Mi as someone who has helped him a great deal back when he was still suffering with his leg. They are easily accepted into the group after that, because they soon prove their value.
The new group contains the two Chinese soldiers, Hangeng, Ryeowook, Donghae, Siwon and Kyuhyun. Everyone protests against Kyuhyun having to go along, but by the time they have to set out on their first mission, Kyuhyun is recovered enough to go along, albeit not able to do that much intensive fighting. Luckily the mission is easy and they return with good news and a carload of heavy artillery.
The whole group works together fine, occasionally splitting up in the separate teams to do the more secret missions. At times when theyâre not out in the field, they sit together and play some cards or have a smoke as they talk about their lives. Most of them were pulled into the war in the middle of their obligatory army duty, but some were less peacefully forced to enter the fighting.
Jungsoo speaks of the university he was going to attend when they called him into the army, Ryeowook talks about his studies to become a professional doctor when suddenly men from the government came and told him how much they needed more people to help out with curing people on the battlefield, Kyuhyun mumbles something about having played a lot of strategic computer games in his past and then suddenly being called to arms, only to serve in their group, and then thereâs Kibum..
Kibum just sits and is silently listening, but when they turn to him, they see pain in his eyes and regret in his expression, and they wonder exactly what he has been through, but he doesnât speak so they donât try to push him. It is a few days later when he tells them of his fiancĂ©e who is left at home to worry about him, hoping heâll come back to her alive so that they can finally marry, something they were planning on doing already when they came to recruit him.
All twelve who have fought with him for almost two years now, suddenly realise what all the letters he wrote during that time mean and how much he must really suffer being in such a big war, having no other wish than to make it out of there and get back to the woman he loves. They exchange hugs and pats on the shoulder with him and he gives them a wry smile, saying heâs happy to at least still have them to have good times with in the midst of all the death and destruction.
They smile, they laugh and they agree, but his words never seem to leave their midst and it is not long until they all start to see the war the way he sees it. They have been fighting for three years already, out of which two were spent in the team they have formed now, but nothing seems to change. North Korea is not moving away from the borders and the bombardments keep going on. There is only the faint positive note that at least they havenât started using atomic bombs.
They of course canât just step out of the war, because that will surely mean theyâll lose their heads, so they continue fighting. Months pass and nothing changes. They kill so many, but it doesnât seem to change a thing. It is as if the North has a never ending supply of soldiers whom they can simply throw in and give a certainty of death without any second thoughts. The war is hard and fierce, raging at the borders and it is wearing them out to never have an untroubled night of sleep.. And then Kibum makes an unexpected decision.
It is halfway the fourth year into the war and they are sent on another one of their full-team missions that do not include Zhou Mi or Henry when he tells them of his plan. He is sick of the war, he says, sick of all the useless killing and needless suffering in name of something that he doesnât believe in anymore anyway. He says heâs very sorry for not standing by their side, but he really loves his fiancĂ©e and he doesnât want to die and leave her behind alone, with no one to take care of her. He deserts on their way back to the camp and they can only wish him good luck.
When they get back to the army camp, they tell their superiors that they lost him in battle and are not sure if heâs still alive or not. Another team is sent out to find him, but they return saying there is no trace of the young man and so the superiors assume he has been taken prisoner by the North. The twelve people who know better do nothing to contradict that belief as they silently hope that their friend has made it out alive and will be able to get to his fiancĂ©e.
Kibumâs parting leaves them with more questions about the whole purpose of this war. The pride of their nation and the preservation of the country all donât seem so important anymore as they start missing their family even more. Itâs not rare anymore to find two or three of them curled up close together at night. They all have trouble with nightmares and homesickness and they know exactly how much comfort the close proximity can give, even if the other is a male as well, so itâs nothing they will judge others for.
As time passes, things seem to get worse, and they get another big shock mere months after Kibum left on one of their standard missions. They have just taken over an enemy base and are in the middle of gathering the weapons, when a loud cry from the outside warns them that others are coming. They rush out of the base with as much as they can carry and give a run for it, trying to get away from the place as fast as possible. They have run about a hundred metres when the enemies reach the base, discover their dead comrades and open fire on them.
Youngwoon gets hit. They suddenly see him stumbling forward, he makes a strange flip in mid-air and lands in the grass with a terrifying thud. When Ryeowook rushes to him, the young man needs only one look to tell that there is no more hope. They have no time to waste, no time to sit next to his dying body and hold his hands that steadily grow colder. The only thing they can do is run, to make sure that no one else suffers the same fate.
They make it to safety in time, disappearing into the forest, not stopping until they reach their own outpost, but the moment they sink down on the ground, the cruel reality hits them all. Youngwoon is dead. He lies somewhere on the battlefield, left to rot away as time passes. Heâll never be able to build a house like he wanted to do once in his life, and they canât even bury him because trying to get his corpse back would be a suicide operation. Even though they successfully finished their mission, they donât feel successful at all when they return to the main camp with hanging heads.
They tell their superiors how the mission went, but the commanders also notice the absence of the straightforward bomber. There is a short silence when they ask about him and as realisation hits them, the first report of bombing attacks in the country itself is brought to them. The camp turns into chaos as the news quickly spreads through the soldiers. Everyone starts shouting, some calling for their beloved ones, others inquiring to know where exactly the bomb hit. When the officer tells them it is their capital city, all hell breaks loose.
The group of now eleven people is silent. Very silent. Extremely silent. Because Seoul is the place where Kibumâs fiancĂ©e lived and thereby also the place he went to. They retreat to their barracks without saying another word and when the two Chinese members ask what happened, the only thing they can point at are the empty beds of the two people that are now probably both dead. The silence in their room lasts only until Hyukjae starts crying. Soon after Ryeowook follows and they donât need long for all of them to shed tears, openly or hidden.
The war doesnât stop just because theyâre mourning, however, and soon they are put on another mission. There is no hope or life in them, but they also donât want to die, so they exercise it perfectly. The outpost where Youngwoon died is taken over once again, this time without fail, but they do not find his body anymore. At the same time, reports of more bombing attacks are coming in and soon it is clear to all of them that the North hasnât even unleashed half of their destructive powers.
The Chinese are in a state of horror, pulling back their troops the moment they find out about the bombings. Hangeng is torn away from the group together with Zhou Mi and Henry. They have exactly five minutes to say goodbye, watching as the three pack their stuff and leave. They donât really want to go and the others kind of want to hold them back, but they all know that going back to China means being safe, and somehow that option sounds like itâs best for them, so no one even utters a word about staying together.
They are left with the ten of them, huddled together on the ground of their barrack, wondering why it is again that they are fighting this useless fight. Jungsoo cradles Ryeowook in his arms, but neither of them stops crying, and Hyukjae on their right isnât much better off. Heechul scoffs, saying that they shouldnât act so childish, yet the tears threaten to stream over his cheeks as well and all life seems to be drained out of him. His face is deadly pale and he obviously is not yet able to grasp the magnitude of the fact that all of his closest friends; Kibum, Youngwoon and Hangeng; seem to have left him.
The others are in a state of disbelief as well, not really able to grasp the fact that there are only ten of them left. What once was a tight group of friends, maybe even family, now is nothing but homeless people spread out over two different countries; one at war and one desperately trying to stay out of it. They go to bed with a feeling of defeat and abandonment, all close to each other on the ground. Everyone is holding someone or is being held, but they still feel the absence of those that left and the nightmares come albeit uncalled for.
And yet the war rages on. Continuously and without remorse. A week after Youngwoonâs death, it is already obvious that the bombings have become daily events. It seems like the North is randomly attacking, because there are small villages as well as big cities on the list of attacked places. Once, when they mention Ryeowookâs village, he grows very still and ashen, before tears start streaming over his face. No one knows what to say that is soothing enough for his pain.
They are soon sent on missions again, because the war doesnât wait for people to mourn their losses, and although they make it out alive every time again, they have long lost the euphorious feeling after being successful. Something just feels terribly wrong. They miss Youngwoonâs sexist jokes and Kibumâs sarcastic comments, just as much as Henryâs good food, Zhou Miâs happy smile and Hangengâs accented Korean. But war doesnât wait for people to contact their friends either.
They are five years into the war when the unthinkable happens; the North starts bombing China as well. Soon reports come in that America has come to Chinaâs aid and is bombing the North as well. Many a man finds happiness in that news, knowing that they do not stand alone anymore against the vicious North, but the ten of them worry and doubt, because no one deserves to be bombed, especially not the innocent civilians that canât choose either in which country theyâre born. It is sad that the destruction of others is needed to save their own lives, they know, but thereâs nothing they can do about it.
China sends back its reinforcements now that it is actively involved in the war They fight North Korea at the North border and they have a lot more soldiers to use. Zhou Mi and Henry appear again at the barracks they have lived in for so long. The reuniting is filled with hugs and smiles and somehow they manage to find a faint feeling of happiness in the midst of all the destruction. Yet Hangeng is nowhere to be seen and it worries them that the two donât know anything about him either. They have to beg their officers for news about him and when it comes, it shocks even the Chinese soldiers; Hangeng is promoted and now comes up with Chinaâs war strategies, safely hidden away in some fancy Chinese government building.
They feel two-sided about this. On the one hand, they are happy that he is safe and can do the thing he does best on a larger scale, but on the other hand they feel betrayed, left behind, forgotten. Have they not fought together in this crazy war for ages? Have they not struggled side by side with him to make it through, to survive? Heechul is most enraged, shouting profanities into the deadly silence of their barracks the moment they return. Surely, he says, the asshole was able to at least send a letter or something along with the Chinese troops so they would know he is alive instead of having to find out through others, but of course his shouting doesnât change a thing about the situation.
The past five years of war seem so useless to them. They still havenât gained anything; the North is still fighting, they still havenât gotten past the borders and there are still people uselessly dying. Youngwoonâs death doesnât seem to be that of a heroic fighter who died for his country like they were told it would be in the beginning. Itâs more of a needless lost life for no reason at all, because the outpost they were supposed to take that day proved completely useless to them now. If anything, they find that everything has become very fucked up.
But apparently things are able to get even worse, which they find out when the North becomes more aggressive. Suddenly it is not battling anymore, but mere struggling to survive. Bombs are dropped everywhere. Sleep is now reduced to the few minutes they can squeeze in when you rest your head for a moment as others take over their positions at front. It seems like the North has focused all its strength on the border in order to end this part of the war as fast as possible so they can use all their soldiers for the Chinese.
There is no such thing as barracks or teams anymore, but still the twelve of them stick together, because they have gotten through so much already so far that they canât just give up like that. Every day tanks are send out and every day they return with fewer than they left, but also with news that the North isnât doing too good either. Yet the force they attack with doesnât seem to become less. Exploding grenades have become an everyday thing and if one canât focus with a lot of noise, then there is nothing for them to do in the war.
At a certain point - time has become unimportant, all that matter is that you have to keep going, keep surviving - Siwon gets injured badly and heâs taken to the infirmary for a while. Heechul and Zhou Mi are soon called away by the commanders because they have some kind of plan and they need all the snipers they can find. The nine remaining keep going. None of them remembers anymore what it feels like to not hold a gun in their hands and they all have only one thing left in their heads; the need to survive. They seem to have forgotten that there is something else than the battlefield. Yet the outside world doesnât want to be forgotten that easily.
When Siwon returns, he brings with him a very unexpected friend. Heechul and Zhou Mi return together with them as well, saying that the commanderâs plans have gone to waste after the North advanced too fast. What shakes them all the most, however, is not the two snipers coming back without having done anything, it is the fourth person in the group that silently walks along with them, his eyes not for once leaving the ground, until they notice him and, almost disbelievingly, call out his name.
Kibum looks up then, taking in all their faces with an expression that speaks of so much sadness that itâs hard to believe heâs actually smiling. They donât have time for hugs or introductions, because the bullets fly around their heads and the war doesnât wait for those who want to catch up, so they simply pull the four of them into their midst and push a gun in their hands again. Kibum surprisingly blends into their group again like he has never been away, and they take down an unexpected amount of enemies that day.
It is during the night, when the shooting becomes less because the North might have many soldiers but they havenât invented night vision for all of them yet, that they finally get a chance to share some words that have nothing to do with fighting. Kibum gets hugs and pats on the back from all of them and the two Chinese who didnât know yet about his reasons to leave finally get to hear the truth about it all. Yet Kibum has things to add that are much less touching and full of love as they had expected.
He tells them how the whole country has been bombed so badly that there is no city left unharmed. Buildings have been taken down to the ground, grain fields have been destroyed and the whole of South Korea meanwhile is nothing more than the ruins of a once blooming society. Many have died and he says heâs quite sure that if ever they get to go home, they wonât find much family alive anymore. Incheon, he says quietly because he knows Ryeowook was born there, is one of the places that was reduced to nothing more but ashes and dust and all who lived there have been killed.
A silence ensues after his words as they try to grasp the enormity of his words. They realise that, even if the war would end and they would be able to go home, nothing will ever be the same again. They would have to rebuild the houses, plough the fields and dig the waterways all over again. Electricity only exists on rare places, mostly hospitals that use big generators, and even they are slowly losing their power as well.
All in all, Heechul finally breaks the silence, their best plan is to just travel abroad. They chuckle despite the heavy feeling of despair. The sound is neither happy nor bright, but it is a change to the sighing and crying that most do. Not knowing what to say more and also slightly unwilling to sacrifice the few hours of sleep they get to spend on chatting, they decide to sleep. It is a partly ruined canvas that serves as their blanket and the ruins of what once was someoneâs house probably they crash in. But they find themselves unable to sleep and when Kibum suddenly starts talking again after a few moments of silence, they find out why exactly that is.
He tells them how he made his way past their army back to the main land. Once in a slightly bigger city, he immediately got on a train that would bring him closer to Seoul, where he arrived right in time to see the damage the first bombing had done. The house of his fiancée was nothing but broken stones and shattered glass and the neighbours - whom he found days later only - told him she had not survived. He then went on to find his parents who lived in a less damaged part of Seoul, but even though his father survived the bombings, he died because of an infected wound not long after. After that, he wandered around the country for a while, suffering from terrible nightmares every single night, before deciding that he would be better off in the middle of the war. So that was where he returned to.
They are silent for a while as they take in his words, before Heechul rolls closer to Kibum and pulls him into a hug. The youngest doesnât respond to that, it seems like he has run out of tears to cry, but softly asks where the other two missing are. They tell him of Hangeng being promoted in the Chinese ranks and of Youngwoonâs death. He merely nods in reply, resting his head on Heechulâs shoulder as he closes his eyes, ending the conversation with that move.
They all huddle so tightly together that it almost gets too hot under the canvas, but no one really minds. Hyukjae has his face hidden against Donghaeâs chest, crying tears over the lost hope of going back home, Ryeowook is tightly holding on to Henry, but actually the latter seems to be the most composed of the two, Siwon is praying silently, Zhou Mi and Shindong are looking at it all with sad eyes, Kyuhyun is staring at the ceiling without words and Jungsoo is looking at all of them with a bleeding heart, his maternal instincts making him shed tears in silence.
Heechul and Kibum seem to be the two least affected. They merely hold on to each other and whisper in a soft tone, holding a soft conversation that no one else can hear. After about ten minutes, they both turn to the others. There is a short silence, before they tell the others to not waste their precious time and just go to sleep. There are mumbled goodnights and sniffled apologies, before everyone puts down their head and closes their eyes.
They wake up to their commanderâs shout. In a matter of seconds theyâre all standing. Some still have swollen eyes from all the crying, otherâs look more dead than alive, but theyâre all together and somehow that brings them strength. The commander tells them that their team needs to go out once more. They need to go free some prisoners the North took and bring them back, so that the South can do a full-scale attack and hopefully take over the North by surprise. However, the prisoners are held somewhere behind the enemy camp, and it will probably be their most dangerous mission as of yet.
It all doesnât matter to them anymore, really. They agree, because their success might change the course of the war and maybe all the madness will end then. So they take their weapons, drag Zhou Mi and Henry into it as well, and set for the camp where they have to free the prisoners. It is about a dayâs march to the place where the North is keeping the prisoners hostage and they set off with nothing but the need to succeed and hopefully put an end to all the needless killing.
Yet the path is dangerous, as they have to sneak past the Northâs army. They have walked away from their own main camp for about five hours when they stumble upon about seven enemies, hidden in the bushes. There is sudden shooting and Kyuhyun falls to the ground before anyone can even respond. Their first reflex is to jump into hiding and shoot in the direction where the bullets came from, but Sungmin and Kibum are smart enough sneak around the back and take out the remaining enemies. The moment their call comes that itâs safe, both Hyukjae and Ryeowook rush to the unmoving Kyuhyun.
When they flip his body over, they know itâs already too late. Blood is oozing out of the wound in his chest and itâs obvious that the bullet has pierced his lung by the way his breath rags through his throat. The others gather around him in no time, all shocked at the sight of the obviously dying strategist, but he merely smiles as he reaches out a hand to grab Ryeowookâs and thereby stop the medic from trying to prod at the wound. He coughs up some blood as he chuckles humourlessly. Itâs too bad, he then mumbles, that real life doesnât allow him to revive in the base camp after a three minutes wait.
Heechul is the only one showing a grim smile at that bad joke made with his last breath and as everyone stares at the youngestâ corpse, he merely shoulders his sniper again and pulls Hyukjae and Jungsoo back on their feet. They all realise then that they cannot stay behind to mourn over his death, but Donghae refuses to leave him just like that, so he stays behind to give the body some sort of burial. All the others move on, because the war is still raging and they have a mission to do, but their hearts stay with the two they leave behind.
The rest of their travel goes by in silence and they reach the camp where the prisoners are held without trouble. Yet it is only when they take in the vastness of the prison that they realise the trip might have just been the easiest part of the mission. There are guards everywhere. Heavily armed guards who seem to be guarding a lot of important people, because why else would the North take so many of their soldiers out of the fight to guard some prisoners?
It is Jungsoo who comes up with a plan, being the closest they have to a strategist, and Donghee is their main person in this plan. He is going to throw smoke bombs and grenades everywhere, confusing the people inside. At the highest point of the enemiesâ confusion, the others will storm the prison and overtake it as Zhou Mi and Heechul snipe down the guards on top of the walls, meanwhile remaining hidden at the sides themselves. They know the plan is risky, but they also know it is their only chance and so they share a last hug before readying themselves, set on bringing this to a good end in honour of those who have fallen.
Donghee and Henry leave and it is a mere ten minutes later that the first explosions happen, obviously startling the guards of the prison. Another five minutes later Jungsoo, Jongwoon, Sungmin, Hyukjae, Siwon, Ryeowook and Kibum start their advance on the entrance, crawling to the leg-long grass. Theyâre about halfway there when the first guards start falling down, clutching whatever part of their body that was hit. Five metres away from the entrance, they suddenly see the heavy gate being opened and Donghee ushering them to come in.
From then on, everything becomes a blur of shooting, running and surviving. Jungsoo rushes towards the cells together with Siwon and Jongwoon. On their way, they pass a lot of corpses missing some limbs or full of burns, but none of it registers in their mind. They simply run, opening cells as they pass them and letting out the prisoners. Some of them immediately rush out and grab a gun from the ground to fight along, others merely run for the exit in order to get out as fast as possible. Everything is chaos, shouting and shooting.
Heechul and Zhou Mi come running in when all the guards on the walls have been taken down, but the latter stops dead in his tracks for a moment when he sees an all too familiar arm sticking out from under the ruins of what once was a building. He doesnât need to roll the block away to know itâs Henry and that all help would be useless now, but he doesnât stop Ryeowook when the young medic rushes to his younger friendâs side and tries anyway.
Suddenly a door opens and from inside a horde of North Koreans come running, shooting in all directions. Everyone ducks behind cover, recklessly shooting back without even looking if theyâre aiming right. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Donghee runs towards the group, shouting some war cry that isnât understandable above the other noise. He gets shot several times, stumbles over his own feet and lands right before the group, letting the opened grenade roll out of his hand and into their midst.
The huge explosion filled with cries of pain and the smell of burning flesh makes everything all the more disgusting, but they have all become so numb that no one really notices it anymore. It is then that Kibum suddenly appears on the scene again and it is only then that they can see how much the death of his fiancée really changed him. His expression is emotionless as he takes a better grip on the machine gun and starts shooting everything North Korean that moves. Heechul takes that as his cue to throw himself into the fight as well and suddenly all nine of them storm forward, right as another group of North Koreans comes out of the prison building.
The fight is heavy, but short, even though for the ones fighting it feels like ages. They can see how in the first minute Kibum is taken down, but not before having killed or injured almost half the group of enemies. As his lifeless body falls limply on the ground, Jongwoon lets out a cry of rage and doubles his firepower. Empty guns are thrown aside and people just grab whatever still working weapon they can find. People are taken down left and right, North and South Korean alike, until five minutes later the last enemy is taken down by a bullet from Heechulâs gun.
When Jungsoo looks around, only barely realising that they won, he finally sees the real damage they have taken. Henry, Kibum and Donghee have been taken down together with a few twenty-something of the prisoners they have come to free. Ryeowook is still sitting next to the huge stone that has crushed Henry, while Hyukjae is trying to see if there is any hope for Kibum. Both of them are crying without realising it. Siwon took a bullet in his leg, but is jumping around on one leg, giving a silently prayer for every ally he passes that has been taken down. Sungmin and Jongwoon stand next to him, taking in the damage as well and Zhou Mi walks over to Heechul to calm down the still enraged sniper.
They take a day of rest in the prison, using the supplies the North Koreans have left to feed themselves and the prisoners. Donghae arrives by their side again when the sun has almost set, drained and tired, but when he hears of the three who died, he immediately insists on giving them some sort of burial as well. Sungmin and Jongwoon help him this time and it isnât long before all their fallen soldiers have been covered under the rocks and stones that were spread all around. Siwon, who meanwhile has gotten bandaged by Hyukjae, speaks another prayer over the mass grave and then they go to bed.
It is at sunrise the next morning that their whole group, including the prisoners now near to about seventy people strong, sets off back to their own camp. Once there, the commanders clear out their new strategy with the few important people they have saved and it is on that same day already that the South opens a full-scale attack on the North, storming them with every weapon they can find. Tanks go first, followed by other heavy artillery and finally the soldiers on foot.
That is the last battle in the war between North and South Korea, after six years of battling. With help of the Chinese and the Americans, the South has finally won, albeit after terrible losses. Their next goal is of course rebuilding the country and helping the surviving civilians, which they succeed at rather nicely. The whole western world sends funds for them to bring their country back to how it was and after a long year of troubles, the capital city is the first to be cleared from all the ravages and the first batch of houses stand, ready for the people to move in.
With help of neighbouring countries, everything is slowly rebuild. North and South Korea are united to be one country again, under lead of the former South Korean president, and China sends them a lot of its military forces to help with the clearing of the ruins and the rebuilding of the cities. It still takes a lot of years for the country to get back to its former state, but peace has returned to the world.
Many ex-soldiers are send to special houses where people help them to survive, as they have become unable to blend into the normal world again. Often they are haunted by nightmares or so scarred by the things theyâve seen that they have a breakdown or sink into depression. There are few who manage to go back to living a normal life like they had done before the war, but some of them even manage to write books about it all or have someone write their biographies.
Twenty years after the war, a Chinese magazine interviews the owner of one of these homes for ex-soldiers. It turns out he is a Chinese ex-soldier himself who, for a while, has fought alongside the South Koreans. When asked what he thinks of the war, he tells them that the war was a place where one made friends, only to lose them again the same day when a bullet took them down. He tells them the war also was a thing that killed people, not by taking their lives, but by taking everything else they held dear.
His name is Hangeng, he says, and when asked about the soldiers he is giving a home and why, he tells them about the group of people he fought with in the war. He even shows them a picture of the fifteen people, pointing at every single one and calling them by name. Somewhere halfway through the interview, the door opens and another man walks in, but Hangeng merely lets him takes place on a chair next to him, without introducing him.
The interview continues like nothing happened and the unknown man does not give them any reason to make him leave, because he merely sits and stares at the ground. They ask Hangeng if he knows what happened to these men he fought with. Strangely enough it is the unknown man who answers, his voice hoarse and with a certain twinge to it that makes it obvious he has been through a lot. He tells them of how five of them died throughout the war and four in the final battle.
When asked where the other survivors are now, both of them remain silent for a while, before the unknown man sighs deeply. He then reveals his name is Donghae and he is one of the few. It almost seems as if he grows older as he speaks when he tells them of his poor younger friend Ryeowook who couldnât take the nightmares and hung himself mere months after the war ended. He starts about someone else, but his voice gets caught in his throat as if something makes him unable to speak.
Hangeng then continues. He says there are three others left who are all currently living in his home. Jungsoo, their leader, is one of those. He had always been the one looking after everyone and having lost so many of his team caused him to have terrible nightmares every single night. It is only since Sungmin showed up as well and shared a room with the haunted man that he is able to get some decent sleep from time to time.
When he finishes speaking, Donghae suddenly starts gasping for air, clutching his head in pain. Hangeng kindly asks them to end the interview there and wraps a comforting arm around his friendâs shoulders as he helps him up. He leads the other through a door, where he calls someone else to let the people from the magazine out. A still very young-looking man appears almost immediately after, leading them to the main entrance of the building. Right before they leave, the photographer seems to recognise him and asks for his name.
The man simply smiles a rather amused smile and opens the door for them. He tells them that he is no one important, just a man helping out a few fellow soldiers, after which he motions them to go out. They step outside, asking the still familiar-looking man to thank Hangeng for his time. He smiles and nods, watching as they walk towards their car before closing the door and walking back to the room Hangeng and Donghae are sitting in. He immediately walks up to the latter and pulls him into a comforting hug, knowing exactly what kind of images his mind is feeding him.
All in all, he tells the younger man softly, travelling abroad had been the best plan.
