Once again it was not the sound of the morning alarm that woke Sungmi, but the sound of a siren. Baekhyun was scrambling down from his bunk when her eyes flashed open.

“Are you dressed?” he demanded, hauling his boots on.

“Y-yeah,” she replied, also hurrying over to get her own boots.

Baekhyun nodded, heading to the door. “Stick near the outside,” he told her. “You’re less likely to get hurt there.”

Sungmi didn’t reply, but bit her lip as she hurried after him, keen to keep close.

Just like the last time, people were hurrying around in every direction and people were screaming and yelling everywhere. It was a rather disorientating situation to be in, and Sungmi found herself looking about frantically as she tried to discern exactly where she should be.

Baekhyun grabbed her arm, hauling her along with him. “Actually, stick with me.”

Sungmi didn’t reply, but allowed herself to be dragged along. Baekhyun seemed to be heading in the opposite direction to the rest of the men, but Sungmi knew it wasn’t in cowardice.

“Where are we going?” she asked as they pushed and pulled their way through the masses of men.

“I need to speak to Captain Minseok,” Baekhyun replied, pulling her tighter.

Almost instantly, Sungmi’s heels dug in a little to the ground. She trusted Baekhyun, she did. But she couldn’t imagine why he would be dragging her to see the captain during such an event, unless it meant bad things. And she had it in her head that maybe – just maybe – he was about to confess all. If she was caught, and it was revealed that she knew, then he would be punished just as severely as she would be.

Harshly tugging her arm free from him, she was met with a confused stare.

“What’s wrong?” he asked her, having to shout because of the noise around them.

Sungmi retreated back a few steps. “You go. I’m going to go help the others.” She didn’t wait for a response, or give Baekhyun enough time to stop her, but instead her heel and sprinted with the other men towards where the fighting was happening. It was made easier by the fact that she was moving with the masses now.

Although unsure what sort of attack it was, from the noise coming from the front of the camp, it was a nasty one of some description.  Her running faltered, and her heart sped up. Everything in her screamed danger, but there was very little she could at that moment to agree with it. People were dying over there – people she cared about. And she couldn’t just cower into a little corner and do nothing.

Moving forwards again, her eyes went wide searching. She didn’t know quite what she was looking for, but she looked nonetheless.  Then there was another blast, this one large in size and big enough for her to see it. She heard more and more shouting as she moved closer, despite how the adrenaline coursed through her like an explosion of its own at that moment.

When she reached the sight of the fight, she was instantly greeted with the sight of wounded and still-fighting men trying to battle through the mud. She fell to her knees next to a man with a wound deep in his leg. He reached out to her desperately when she reached him, obviously in a lot of pain. In that moment, she was not a soldier. She was a medic. And she knew how to save this man’s life.

The sound of fire and screams rang through the air like poisonous vapour, infiltrating and destroying the hope of all who heard it. Sungmi’s ears became dull to it, whether with shock or through choice she didn’t know.

“You’ll be fine,” she murmured as she roughly applied pressure to the wound. “We need to stop this bleeding, then you’ll be fine,” she tried to tell him, though it was unlikely that he could hear her given the noise of the battle surrounding them.

Then, unlike the other sounds of pistols, there was an explosion. And then another, and then another. Sungmi’s head whirled inst