Duty • Military AU, Blackpink • Jenchulichaeng

14 - The Last Time

6.30 A.M

Captain Seojun opened the door to the meeting room, to find other officers from the South Korean and US armed forces seated around the table. GCO Byeon stood at the front of the room beside an empty whiteboard. Seojun bowed down and said, "I apologize for being late, sir."

"Sit down, Captain," Byeon said. "We are about to begin." Captain Seojun walked to an empty seat on the table.

The projector turned on and a satellite image of a large building appeared. GCO Byeon took the marker. With bold blue letters, he wrote on top of the white board, "Operation: Raid on Arbihuk Outpost."

He wrote again, "Homebase of extremist organization, Tel Halafar," and circled it. GCO Byeon turned to the officers.

"We have gathered information on an extremist group named Tel Halafar," he began. "This group is said to be linked to the ambush on Dirabad two months ago. They were said to be behind the captors of two South Korean military personnel, who were thankfully recovered by a rogue operation."

He pointed at the aerial image of a building. "Our intelligence has tracked their movements all the way to this warehouse in an abandoned power plant. We traced all their connections to this certain place and concluded that this is their headquarters.
In this joint briefing, we will put together a strategy to stage a raid on Arbihuk outpost today at midnight."

GCO Byeon turned back to the whiteboard and explained his proposal to the officers.

A long two hours later, the meeting was finished and they were dismissed. Captain Seojun stopped outside the building and sighed deeply.

The announcement soon reached all the stationed soldiers at the fort. Immediately, all of them set to prepare their gear and weapons. They called their families back home one last time and wished good luck to their comrades.

Jisoo, Jennie, Chaeyoung and Lisa were gathered together in Room 6-4 when the news were announced. Their initial chatter was followed by dead silence.

For those who were selected, this was to be the peak of their service in Iraq. With a bullet that can take their lives any second, they knew that today might be their last chance to see sunlight until dawn.

Not everyone in the room would make it back home.

——

[JISOO]

By evening, Jisoo had finished packing all her gear. She was assigned to Platoon G, one of the units in the reserves.
She looked around the locker rooms outside and finally found the already empty Platoon B room. There's Sergeant Namhyun alone on the corner, writing notes on a piece of paper.

Jisoo entered the room and greeted him. "Sergeant Namhyun?"

"Oh, Jisoo-yah." Namhyun quickly hid the piece of paper behind him. "Yes? Do you need anything?"

"No, not really. I just stopped by to check on you," Jisoo said. "What were you writing there?"

Namhyun looked at the folded paper and turned back to her. "It's nothing much, just a few thoughts I wanted to write down before I go. You might find out after the mission is over," he replied. "So, do you want to say something?"

"Well..." Jisoo's mind went blank for a second. "You're on Platoon B? On the front line offense?"

Namhyun replied, "Yes. I'll be part of the first to attack. What about you?"

"Platoon G, the reserves," she replied.

"Ah. We'll be quite far apart, then," Namhyun said. "You're safe far behind the front line."