“SUNBAE, DID YOU HEAR IT?”

    Hwayoung followed me to my room.

“Did you get anything?” she asked. “Sunbae. Tell me. This is killing me.” She went on. Jeong Daewi invited herself into my office.

“It is true? Thank God. See, I knew it.” She seated herself in front of me. Just like at home, I found another unopened stack of letters in my office too. I spread them around my desk and picked the familiar looking envelope.

Kim Iseul,

It’s Taekwoonie. I’m fine. I love you.  

“He sent you a letter to here too?” Jeong Daewi asked as she took the piece of paper into her hand. “Aww Jung Taekwoonie, even in battlefield, he’s cheesy.” She said as she passed the letter to Hwayoung.

“It doesn’t state anything about his whereabouts.”

“But look,” I said as I took the piece of paper into my hand. “This is very unique. The paper looks handmade. There’s a lot of dirt mixed in the envelope and the paper. These can be our first clues”

“Why are you suddenly acting like a detective?” Jeong Daewi asked.

“I wanted to become a detective when I was little. But I didn’t want to take the bar exams. That’s why I’m here”

“I thought it was because-” Jeong Daewi stopped Hwayoung’s comment.

“What are you going to do now?”

“I’m going. There’s a new team leaving and I’m going with the-”

“Whoa whoa whoa” Hwayoung and Jeong Daewi grabbed my arms and made me sit down. “No you’re not.” said Jeong Daewi.

“Why not? I can do it”

“Have you looked at yourself in the mirror? You look like someone who fought ten battles in one night. No way they’d let you go”

“Yes, Sunbae, no way they’d let you go in this mess” Hwayoung seconded Jeong Daewi’s comment. However, both of them let go of me when we heard a knock.

“Daewi Kim I-Seul is requested by Yoon Soryeongnim”

    I raised my eyebrow and stood up to accept the order. After putting on my official uniform, I headed down.

“Reporting Daewi Kim Iseul.” I saluted once I entered Soryeongnim’s office. He was sitting on the meeting area. When he saw me, he asked me to have a seat.

“Congratulations.” He said and smiled. “Myungjoo wanted me to say that” He smiled.

“Thank you, Sir”

“The reason I called you in here is because” He cleared his throat, “You probably already know about this- ever since the news, the officials want to send another team to help out. The more the better. And I want you on the team. As the Captain. Can you handle?”

“Yes Sir!” I jumped to my feet and saluted.

“Anyone you want, you can take. You are to leave by 20:00 (8pm) tonight.”

“Yes Sir!”

“Good. Go now. Good luck. Bring our boys home. That’s an order”

“We’ll do, Sir” I said before stepping out. Outside of his office, I found Hwayoung, Jeong Daewi, Lee Sangsa and to my surprise, Myungjoo and Seo Daeyoung.

“What are you all doing here?” I asked.

“Going on the mission” Myungjoo spoke.

“A feeding mom? No way”

“Oh please” She waved her hand. “I’m fit to fight ten bulls. And more than any of you here, they need me the most. I’m the army surgeon.” She spoke and elbowed her husband.

“I agree with her” Seo Daeyoung agreed with her. Or, he was forced to agree with her.

“You’re not scared that something would happen to her?” I asked. He looked at her and she smiled.

“If something happens, I’d protect her” He said with a proud smile rolling over his lips, and everyone except for Myungjoo made puking faces.

“Myungjoo stays. Everyone else, sure.”

“Ya! Who are you to decide that?” She stepped up.

“I’m the Captain. Soryeongnim said so. He gave me the right to pick my members.”

“Ya ya, let’s all go, huh? I’ve been bored sitting home and watching over the baby. I need to go out.”

“But what about the baby?” I asked and everyone nodded.

“She’s fine. Eomma’s looking after her. Since you didn’t come to visit her, you wouldn’t know, but she’s already ten months old! Soon I’ll come back to work. She’s already trained on powdered milk- why do I even have to explain these things to you? Plus, this mission will be done a week. With you as the Captain, you’ll find them in two days” Everyone nodded, including me. “So let’s just go, okay?” She asked. I thought about it. Letting out a sigh, I looked at the group that eagerly awaited my answer.

“Sure. We leave at 8pm. Pack your bags. We’re going on a rescue mission”

    There were no airports or landings. Everyone got their bags and stood by the door. At the signal, we jumped out, one by one. It was dark, and one dim light shined, marking our destination. The moment we landed, the light turned off. The Captain from the camp came over.

“I’m Captain Kim Iseul, nice to meet you” I spoke in English.

“Nice to meet you, Captain Kim. I’m Rick Wolfe, the Captain of the Mount-Forest rescue base.” Everyone stood in attention and saluted. Then they led us to the tent where maps were hung in every corner and marked in different colours. The Captain at the base filled us in. Plane crash, he said. But when his troops got there, only three very unrecognizable bodies were found.

“That’s why we started looking around here. The plane was carrying eight people. The missing five are a mystery”

None of my team said a thing.

“There are villages in this area. It’s a mountain path, and we’ve already sent troops to that area. And we’ve already checked these paths.” The Captain pointed as different areas of the map.

“Is there any area with no roads and that is away from the sea. The letters I got had a lot of dust on them. The paper looked handmade rather than bought. A very rural area.”

    The Captain and his partner looked at each other.

“Yes. But we are not allowed to enter there. It’s no different than a desert. We can’t walk, and vehicles aren’t allowed.”

“And why can’t we go in?”

“It belongs to the Native clans that lives here. We don’t have the permission to go in.”

“We’ll go” I turned to Lee Sangsa. “Don’t unpack. Well go right away”

“With all due respect, we cannot walk into their land. No one has gone there. No one knows what it’s like-”

“That’s why we should go there. Not to fight, to sightsee.”

“Captain Kim, we can’t do that. Those people have isolated themselves from civilisation on purpose. Do you think they’d welcome you?” He asked me.

“They welcomed our troops and were nice enough to agree with him to send these letters. They can’t be that bad” The Captain said nothing for a while.

“Why are you so sure that they are at that village?”

“Captain Wolfe, you said it yourself; they are an isolated group of Natives, hence explains the handmade paper. They live in a desert-like place, hence explains the dirt. Two things that you haven’t been able to find in all the other areas. See?” I said, and the two sighed.

“We have to get the government’s permission before crossing that desert.” The Captain spoke. Then he turned to his partner. “Prepare and send the documents.” Then he turned to us. “We’ll go right after they approve it. Until then, you will stay here.” He said before heading out.

“Are you sure about this?