EDITED
It was nighttime. You walked over to Kimchi's family tent. "Come on Kimc- Chiyeol, the others are waiting to play Uno." You said to get the boy to leave the tent and follow you. Were you going to play uno? No. Were you going to get some fresh air? Yeah...
You and the boy walked over to the meeting point, waiting for Nara to appear. It was the corner of the shelter, a barred off window which meant you could all get in and out without being spotted and not have to cause the whole shelter to die as the obstacle blocking the entry was easy to move back. Nara soon appeared with three people following her.
"What is this? You three should definitely not be here" you whispered seeing Bora , WuTaek and Taeman behind Aesol and Nara. "Aesol I thought you said you would distract Bora?" Kimchi added but the short girl just went embarrassed.
"I accidentally told her..."
"You think you could keep this from me? I don't care if I had lost my leg, I'm still coming." She said confidently and trying to signal her leg was all fine. Then you all turned to the tallest two members of the group. "FOMO you know?" They both agreed on their reasoning. You all rolled your eyes groaning at this.
"Whatever let's be quick" you whispered climbing out of the window, the others soon following and once outside it was time to show off what you had all learnt in the past few months. Hopefully this wouldn't end up like the time before. You all ran over to one of the trucks when the officers weren't looking, grabbing some guns and ammunition. After all grabbing some you headed up one of the ladders attached to the side of the building. Heading to the top.
Once up there you all relaxed, breathing in the sight. It was beautiful, seeing the once bright and colourful city dark. The tall buildings just looked like odd mountains. But the best part was how bright the stars began to look, due to the lack of cars adding to air pollution the stars had become brighter. Allowing you all to see more of their beauty. "Ursa Minor" Aesol said pointing up at the sky.
"You know astronomy?" Bora asked the girl on the other side of her, you all looking at her too. She nodded shyly. "My grandma used to take me to the observatory" she smiled remembering the happy memory.
"That's so cool. You and your grandma seem to be so close." you said jealous of the girl. You never got to do any of that with your parents or grandparents.
"Yeah she raised me, I was so happy to see her. We should all play some games with her tomorrow, just a warning she cheats." Aesol laughed, causing you to too.
After an hour up there.
"You know this reminds me of when we first started training. The late nights with each other in the city-"
"What are you going on about Wang Taeman?" Bora cut the boy off , confused on what nonsense he was trying to spout.
"I'm just reminiscing the better times" he said pouting.
"This whole situation made me remember the time I had to sneak out with Jangsu , Deokjoong and YoungShin" you said smiling remembering the eventful night. "And Kimchi outing me" you said looking at the boy with a slight glare but soon laughing.
"It's nice we can look back at those days and smile" Nara said smiling happily thinking about it all.
"Remember when we had to balance those pebbles on our guns?" Kimchi asked
"Oh yeah and YoungShin kept trying to show off to Bora" you laughed remembering when the boy came up to the two of you, trying to teach you both how to do it properly without realising that both you had already successfully done it. "I was certain he had a thing for one of you" you let out your thoughts looking at the two girls who used to have a love hate relationship.
"Uhh if we want to talk about someone who had a thing for someone let's not forget Soochul" Bora snapped back
"Wasn't that a love triangle?" WuTaek asked, you all looked at him. "Hana liked Soochul but Soochul liked Y/n and Y/n liked..." he announced thinking about it.
"Shoot we forgot to invite Hana" you said realising the girl wasn't with the six of you.
"It's fine she's probably with her mum"
"Lots of people did pair up in couples in the last month of us all being alone" Taeman said thinking about it. "Kimchi and Nara , Bora and YoungShin , Jangsu and Soyeon, Y/n and Soochul...well they just kissed but still-" the boy paused himself realising what he just revealed. Your eyes widened as you slowly turned to the three girls, two shocked but the other showing a mischievous smile.
"How come I didn't know about this?" Bora asked, her smile still on her face.
"I think it's time we head back down-" you said trying to get up but you were pulled back down by Bora.
"Wait how do you even know?" You asked Taeman. He went quiet. Trying to think of an excuse.
"Well we were curious what he was going to say...Kimchi and WuTaek were there too!!" He said pushing the other boys infront of the bus , Kimchi just opened his mouth about to say something to defend himself but all he did was worsen the situation. But WuTaek was quick to defend himself.
"Well I also saw you kiss Ilha-" he shut up realising what he had just done. This statement caused you to clearly be shocked but Bora just got happier.
"You kissed them both?! aww that makes things extra sad" she said realising it all.
"It's sad enough as it is, don't make things bigger then they are." You said getting back up. You mood soured. "Plus I didn't like him like that. Soochul was just trying to get a chance." you said beginning to walk off, not wanting to hear this conversation for much longer. The others weren't blind to what you said though. Clearly understanding the sour mood wasn't because of Soochul but instead because of Ilha.
"You two were dating weren't you?" WuTaek said , although understanding the sad mood he thought it was a good time to be open. You walked back, sitting down next to your best friend.
"Yeah we did. And things started to head that way again but then Yeongsu..." you stopped yourself before the emotions of anger and heartbreak filled you.
"Wait when did you two date?" Bora asked.
"First to Second year" you admitted.
"Wait why does that make so much sense? That's when you stopped hanging out with us when we were with the boys and that's why the two of you got super depressed for no reason , well there's a reason now, in the middle of second year." She said connecting all the dots.
"But why did you break up if you clearly still liked each other?" Aesol asked.
"My dad."
Everyone went quiet.
"Do you still love him?" Taeman asked , he was quiet whilst asking this. As if he was nervous to hear the answer.
"He's gone. That's a fact. I can't be In love with someone who's dead-"
"Y/n stop shielding yourself with this cold persona, we've all lived with you long enough to know you aren't like that." WuTaek stopped you. You just looked at the boy , tears very clear in your eyes that you were trying so hard not to escape. He pulled you into his embrace, comforting and holding onto you as you finally let it out infront of everyone. You cried. Hard. The bottle of your emotions finally cracked and everything pouring out, even what you felt over a year ago when you and Ilha broke up. It was all coming out.
"You know since we're being so open..." Bora began to speak up. Everyone looked over at her, it was clear she wasn't as confident saying this but the mood gave her the confidence to speak up about it. "I did have a sort of crush on YoungShin..." she admitted, sadness clear in her tone. You pushed yourself off of WuTaek and now wrapped yourself around Bora, Aesol doing the same from the other side. The two of you comforting her in your embraces. "It's silly, I shouldn't be getting emotional because nothing ever happened between us-"
"There's nothing wrong with being emotional." WuTaek said , showing a comforting smile.
"Ugh when did you get so mature" you said to your best friend.
"Someone has to be with the rest of you being an absolute mess" WuTaek said proudly but it earnt a threatening raise of the hand from you and Bora causing him to hide behind Taeman.
"Come on girlies , no more murder ." Taeman said trying to defend WuTaek. "And if you do, go for Kimchi first"
"Hey- why me?" Kimchi said shocked as a bystander in all of this.
"Despite us being together for months alone, I think tonight we've bonded the most." Aesol admitted. "Although we are a bit off an odd group, I'm really really happy to call you all my friends" she said , starting to get emotional too.
"This right here is a friendship for life that we've made. Even if we end up miles apart we all know we still have each others backs and are there for each other." Nara said, hugging the side of Kimchi.
"Wait when did this happen?" Taeman asked pointing at Nara and Kimchi's closeness.
"Maybe it's time we should get back before they notice we're gone" Kimchi said to avoid questioning . But it just caused you all to let out ooos. However everyone did start to get up to leave.
"Guess we have to go too" Bora said standing up.
Once everyone was back onto the ground, you had to sneakily make your way back inside the shelter as well as dropping off the ammunition and firearms. Luckily the ammunition and firearms was done pretty quickly , however once arriving at the secret exit and entrance you all had to stop. A guard was positioned outside of it. You pushed the others back seeing this.
"What-" you quickly covered Taemans mouth.
"A guard" you whispered to them, and their faces showed the exact same reaction you had. How the hell will you get in now? You tried to find another route but there seems to be more military staff around. Maybe it was because it is night time.
You all started running around trying to not get caught. Soon you found yourselves behind a car, trying to hide. All of you trying to sneakily look out to see if anyone was coming your way.
Someone cleared their throat behind you.
You all slowly looked back.
"Why is it always you lot?" Wonbin said knowing it was you all before even having to see your faces. You all just smiled at him.
"Look at the seven of you, huh? It's been a while. Now let's get you over to the commander-" and you were all off. Running away from the man so he wouldn't take you over to the people in charge. Obviously not the smartest move as you blew your cover but you had already been found so it wouldn't make much difference. It became another game of chase, other military officers getting involved whilst all of you tried to dodge them. You were all still running all over the place until you ended up at the main entrance, you stopping and just like before the others all bumping into you from behind. Everyone looked at the women infront of you. It was a huge Deja vu experience for you.
"Mum?" she turned around to see you, a serious face turning happy at the sight of her only child.
"Y/n~" she happily said seeing you but then quickly realised the situation. "Why are you all out here? WuTaek, Bora and Taeman too?" She said recognising the three she knew. You all went quiet. "Did you sneak out? Answer me Y/n." You opened your mouth to reply but you were stopped from Wonbin appearing. Out of breath again.
"I Uhh... Y/n!... Platoon 2!...outside!" He said out of breath trying to relay the key parts, then he saw the six of you. "You caught them!" He said happily but then rested his hand on his back as he tried to catch his breath. You all just looked at him, Deja vu for you.
"An Y/n." You looked at the serious women in front of you.
"Yeah, we got bored of staying inside the shelter and wanted some fresh air." You admitted. The others behind you were worried your mum was going to lose it at the seven of you. Especially after knowing your dad went as far as breaking you and Ilha up. But she just sighed. "You all know it's there to protect you, you're adults. I shouldn't have to tell any of you this." She said very clearly not wanting to add anything more to the load of stress she already had to deal with.
"I understand you can all protect yourselves, you were trained. But it doesn't mean you can look after yourselves in a real attack scenario." You all just looked at her. Did she not know? Even Wonbin was confused by this, he was certain that your mum of all people was aware of the mission you and your class had been on.
"Mrs Park, do you not know what happened?" Nara asked first. Confusing the lady in front of you all.
"What do you mean?"
"We were alone for over a month trying to complete the mission we were given." Bora said , annoyance creeping into her tone. She thought maybe if your parents were aware of the situation your class wouldn't of had to go out and also wouldn't have ended up with the fate it had.
"Alone?"
"Y/n's mum, we were given the mission to eliminate all spheres in an area and progress our way towards Seoul. We were told not to stop no matter what." Kimchi added
"We're only here because we all decided it wasn't worth it especially since the CSAT is cancelled." Taeman said. Your mothers face just changed, from confusion to a serious look. She was very clearly not happy with what she was being told right now.
"So the seven of you were left to fend for yourselves in a high sphere density area without any regular supplies?" She asked, her tone calmer than her expression. You all nodded.
"There was 21 of us" Aesol said from behind you all. Earning a heavy sigh from your mum.
"Alright. Now being here you're all aware you lost your extra points?" You all nodded to what she was saying. Understanding the sacrifice you had all made. "Well that's not the truth anymore. I'm overriding that due to the poor choices the people below me made, give me your sphere tallies and I'll ensure you get those points towards your CSATs next year." She said also telling her secretary beside her.
"Hana was also apart of the group but she stayed inside tonight, auntie" WuTaek added. Making sure no one was left out.
"Now you said there was 21. Why did only eight of you arrive, did the others stay out there?" She asked, wondering if she needed to send out a group to go and get the others back here safely. But everyone's silence told her enough.
"They're dead." You said confirming with words. Your tone of voice calm like your mothers.
"Are you 100% sure of this?" She asked the question she had to, and the pain on all of your face just confirmed it for her. Turning to the other officer on her side, not her secretary. "Sort something out for those families, their children were abandoned and forced to defend themselves. We must apologise for the mistakes made." The officer nodded before they walked off with the command. Your mother then turned to you seven again.
"Get inside. If I hear of this again, you'll all have permanent jobs in the armed forces and won't be able to ever leave." She said threatening you all, obviously it was empty as she couldn't actually do that. But the aura she held was strong and intimidating enough for her to convince you all that an elephant was a mouse.
Once back inside the shelter, Hana quickly ran over to you all.
"I came to play Uno but no one was anywhere here so I told the officers because I was scared. Are you all okay?" You all nodded. Everyone heading off to their tents, after reassuring her you were all okay.
In the middle of the night you were woken up by someone entering your tent. You didn't get up though, you just looked at them staying lying down.
"Y/n?!" They whisper shouted.
You raised your head to look at him.
"Yah Wang Taeman, you're going to wake up the whole of Seoul." You whispered back.
"Sorry" he said walking in and closing the tent door. You just watched him as she carefully walked over to lay next to you. You just looked at the boy, noticing him positioned to look at you on his side. You moved so you mirrored him.
"What are you doing here?"
"I couldn't sleep"
"So you woke me up?"
"Yeah" he smiled cheekily. Moving his hand to brush the hair out of your face.
"That was cringey."
"Deal with it." This comment just made you smile, letting out a breathy laugh. He smiled watching you.
"Y/n. When this is all over, I have an important question to ask you." He admitted. You're expression changed. Listening to him.
"Just say it now."
"I don't want to. Anyway the suspense would be fun."
You just rolled your eyes.
"Fun my ass. Whatever. Just know when we leave this I'm going to university so you'll never see me again."
"What if i get into that university? We can be roomies then"
"We're practically already roommates" you admitted the truth. You were. More often then not would Wang Taeman sneak into your tent in the night to sleep next to you.
"Then we should live together. Let's live together."
"Saying it like that makes it sound like we're dating"
"Should we then? Lets date. Be my girlfriend and I'll be your boyfriend." He said half as a joke but definitely wasn't opposed if you answered with yes.You just looked at him as if he was serious but he was oozing confidence. You took it as a joke though, especially since your feelings were with someone else. You laughed.
"No. I'm not saying yes if you ask me like that." You said playing along with his joke and turning around to fall asleep away from the boy. He just smiled happy you were laughing. Although he knew he wasn't the one you liked, he was determined to make you happy even if that meant you weren't with him.
In the morning you woke up before Taeman as per usual, and just like usual the boy was spread out like a starfish. The boy was a messy sleeper. Something you werent used to yet but also seemed to be able to sleep through all the kicks.
"Taeman-ah" you said calmly but the boy just let out a snore. "Yah Wang Taeman. Get up or I'll make sure you're on a team with Hana and Aesol during the game tonight." He heard this for sure, pretending to be asleep. But he let out another snore to act like he wasn't. You hit him with your pillow, the fake snore being all to clear. You were amused by the boy.
"You're such a clown" he turned towards you hearing this.
"I don't like that."
"Okay sorry"
"So you won't call me it again?"
"Ofcourse. If you don't like it, I won't say it."
He smiled happily at this. You just took one of his hands into your own, tracing on it.
"Why're you doing that? Are you nervous?" He asked, knowing what this habit of yours meant after many years of knowing you.
"No. I just don't want to forget this." You said calmly tracing the pattern Ilha once traced on your hand.
"Forget it? What is it?" He asked , aware of it being the same pattern over and over again.
"Ilha drew it on my hand."
"Do you miss him"
All you did was nod.
"Do you love him"
Your look was enough to tell him your answer. You looked up at him through your eyebrows, not amused by the boy trying to joke. Although you shared a serious look at Taeman, your eyes showed your emotions. And how despite the glare they seemed soft and innocent, as if on the bridge to cry and open up to him.
"Sorry." He said pulling you into his embrace, resting his chin on your head. "When this is all over I'm going to get my degree and become a teacher." Taeman added.
"It's not a fun or nice job but I want to do it. I have a new respect for people who guide others and I want to be able to do that to others too. And the only other career I think does that is politics, and I'm not brave enough for that."
"Wang Taeman for President" you laughed, earning a chuckle from the boy wrapped around you. You pulled back.
"When I leave this mess I want to have a career that's fun. Not sad and depressing. Something that brings joy to my short life." Taeman just watched you with admiration.
"What about being a doctor?"
"That's not fun-"
"But you help others out and you're really good at it. We definitely wouldn't be here today if you weren't a good doctor."
"I'll think about it, there's no rush."
Someone banged on your tent. Quickly opening the door, you looked up seeing Bora and Hana.
"Y/n you've got to come and see this." Bora said practically pulling you up. She didn't even wait for your response, grabbing your hand and pulling you through the base of people. Soon you arrived. It was the medical centre.
"Bora why are we here?" You asked confused.
"They apparently found someone the other day near where we were." She said still pulling you through everything .
"What do you mean?" You asked, so confused over what she was trying to say. She got to one of the makeshift rooms, pulling the curtain to reveal Aesol, WuTaek, Kimchi and Nara by one of the beds.
"Look." She said pushing you forward. Taeman and Hana weren't far behind. You walked over to the bed, the others moving so you could get a good look. Then you saw him laying there. You hand instinctively went over your mouth as you tried to compose yourself with the shock and rush of emotions all happening at once. It was Ilha. Laying on the hospital bed.
"Hey." He smiled at you. Your eyes just started to tear up.
"We'll give you two some time alone." Nara said, moving everyone out. Although they were just going the eavesdrop outside.
"Don't cry." He said sitting up, the blanket falling to show the bandage on his side. He winced.
"No lie down, don't hurt yourself." You said trying to help.
"No I'm good , I honestly feel like ive never been better seeing you." He smiled, it being uncontrollable. He was so worried Yeongsu had gotten you.
"I thought you were-" you stopped yourself as he grabbed your hand, tracing the pattern onto it.
"I'm here now." Hearing him say this made you practically jump onto him. Hugging him. He felt so safe in your embrace. Something he had been craving since the whole event with Yeongsu.
"There were no spheres." He said making sure you knew it was Yeongsu.
"We know, Yeongsu went crazy. He uh killed everyone else." You said going quiet at the end, the sight flashing into your mind.
"Is Huirak?" You just nodded, Ilha placed his other hand over his face. Not before banging it onto the bed from the anger of the whole situation. "We should have left that bastard at the rest stop like he wanted."
"I couldn't agree more. But other than your side you're all okay right?" You said checking up on him.
"Yeah he shot me but he's so crap at it he missed my head. And whilst I was concerned about the pain in my side the twat knocked me out. I woke up in one of the shops which seemed to be a few days later as there was no sign of any of you. I got up and walked to the food area and stayed there until I regained some strength. Once I felt better I started walking and came into contact with some of the military. They took me here." He said explaining it all. "You have no clue how happy I am to see you." He said holding onto you tightly. You pulled back slightly looking at him. You had to brush his hair out of his face.
"Your hair has gotten longer"
"I know, I need to cut it don't I?"
"I think you look handsome no matter what."
"Oh really?" He smirked.
"Can I kiss you?" You asked, honestly he didn't even need you to ask but he nodded, appreciating your respectfulness. You moved closer to him kissing him on the lips but you pulled back after a peck. He looked a little annoyed by this.
"Why are you-" you moved to sit on the side of the bed. So you could be more comfortable. You then kissed him again, shutting him up. It was passionate, not rushed but slow and appreciative of being with each other again.
"You know if you weren't injured-"
"Hey Ilha!" Taeman burst through the curtains before getting pulled back out in a rapid pace. You both looked over , letting out small chuckles seeing the sight. You got up.
"Wait finish the sentence." Ilha said grabbing you hand, you looked down at him lovingly. Leaning in and giving him a peck on the lips.
"No."