so far away (a haesoo fanfic)

Chapter 2: Chaos

Just two hours ago, Haein was still blissfully asleep. The small bunk sounded and smelt of exhaustion. His nine other comrades slept soundly in the double bunk beds. A gentle breeze blew through the camp, and all was silent save for some poor lad in the parade square on his 105th push-up of the night.

He vaguely heard a ringtone and immediately jolted awake. His was the only phone in the bunk that would not be left on silent mode in the night. He had to be aware of any emergencies happening within his family in the outside world, it was his responsibility and burden, just as he had apologetically explained to his bunkmates.

Now, the soft ringtone, on its minimum possible volume, sent deafening alarms into Haein's head. He sucked in a quick breath, grabbed the phone, and scurried outside.

Please, please don't let it be something serious.

He answered the call.

"oppa..." His heart wrenched. "halmoni...halmoni... sh-she's..." Haein's sister, Haerin blubbered through a sob. Haein clenched his fists but forced himself to remain calm. "Haerin-ah, calm down and tell me what happened, okay? What happened to halmoni?"

The next moment Haein was already back in his bunk packing his things. Things were much worse than he had expected. Anxiety coursed through his veins as he half-silently grabbed his essentials and stuffed them into his backpack. Min-kyu, his buddy on the upper bunk, was beside him in an instant. He took one look at Haein's horrible expression and realised his predicament. Without a second word, he helped him gather up the rest of his things and together they sprinted out of the bunk.

"How bad is it?" Min-kyu asked as they sprinted towards the officer's mess.

Haein drew a shaky breath and shook his head, but his bloodshot eyes said it all.

"Wait, I think Staff Sergeant Jang isn't in camp today, who are you going to go to for help?"

Haein paused in his tracks, frustrated that he had forgotten that their instructor for their Non-Commissioned Officer course had taken leave earlier on. Haein panicked. Staff Sergeant Jang was always the one that he had approached previously during emergencies like these. He had always been empathetic to his plight and would often go out of his way to grant him permission to leave the military camp to settle his family issues, even if that meant jeopardising his own position.

"Shit, I'll have to go to the next in line in the chain of command then."

"That should be the newly commissioned officer of our Platoon Kilo, but the official handover ceremony is tomorrow. We don't even know who they are yet."

"I'm going ahead anyway; I really got no time to lose right now."

Haein grimaced as he sprinted towards the admin office.