Alpha Team, it’s a combined operation. After putting on winter military gear, come to the 463 airport by 21:00 today. It will be a three-month long mission.

Just like always, as soon as Captain Yoo Shi Jin and his men received the call, they began their preparations immediately.

Now his bags were packed.

He’d made the requisite phone call to his father.

And he’d stopped by the hospital to say good-bye.

All that remained, as he and his men reconvened in their barracks for one last time, was the final step in their preparations. God willing, they would all return to this place in three months. But, if not . . . .

Yoo Shi Jin glanced around the room. The others were already huddled over their pieces of paper with busy pens in hand. Next to him, he imagined his best friend and second in command, Seo Dae Young, was writing his letter to Yoon Myung Joo, just like he always did.

This time, he also had a letter to write for a woman in his life. It was unfamiliar territory and he didn’t know quite what to say, or how to say what he wanted and needed to say.

In the past, he’d had only his father to write. That letter was written already and laid next to him in a white envelope. But this second letter was proving more difficult to write. He’d never had to write a letter like this before, and he didn’t know how he was going to express everything that was in his heart in the space of one sheet.

He thought about their meeting earlier and how he’d had to tell her he was leaving to go to the department store again. He was proud of how calmly and bravely she’d accepted his announcement that he was leaving for a long-term mission. He was also touched by the way she’d tried to send him off with a smile on her face, and had even managed to make a joke about how he was making her into a gomooshin. But even still. Despite her best efforts. She’d cried.

He hated that he’d made her cry.

He hated that he’d made her cry again.

He still remembered how he’d made her cry when he was brought to the hospital in an ambulance and she’d thought him dead. He remembered the promise he’d made to her then; that he would never show up covered in blood again.

Even now, her pleas from the afternoon played on repeat in his head: to not get hurt and to not be late.

He remembered his promises as well.

I won’t get hurt.
I won’t die.
I’ll be sure to return.

But when one wa