Seoyeon really did not want to eat in the mess hall with the soldiers.  In part it stemmed from the fact that she was pretty sure some of them other than Captain Park probably didn’t like her.  In part, it was because if she was to dine with any of them, the only ones of the right kind of status were those who were ranked officers, and given that a lot of the officers were at least a good half dozen, if not full dozen, years older than her, and none of them were female, it was bound to be awkward.  On top of that, “ranked officers only” would probably include people like Captain Park in any case, unless the most senior officers dined separately and the junior officers ate in the mess hall with the rank and file.  If she absolutely had to eat with people other than her father, then she had to admit (even though it was scandalous) that she would vastly have preferred to go down to the staff kitchen where Baekhyun and Jongin ate.  Both boys were of similar age to her and, even if it would be hugely frowned upon if people found out that she was socialising with them at all, she had to admit that neither was bad company by any stretch of the imagination, although Jongin was significantly better at maintaining a respectful relationship than Baekhyun was.

As Seoyeon reluctantly trailed after Lieutenant Do across the vast entrance hall in the direction of the mess hall, she was horrified to catch herself wondering if it was actually possible to get one of the rooms near her own fitted up as a small parlour where she could eat by herself or with a couple of select people (like Jongin and Baekhyun), and if that would make it more acceptable than her dining below stairs.  Shuddering, she banished the thought from her imagination and tried to vanish herself from existence as Lieutenant Do held open the mess door for her.

She was almost propelled back out of the room by the raucous noise, but Lieutenant Do smashed his fist twice against the wall and there was instant silence as everybody swivelled around.

And then Seoyeon’s ears nearly started bleeding as every single chair in the room scraped back over the stone floor and the soldiers all rose to their feet.  She flinched back and turned to the lieutenant, unsure about the protocol for proceeding.

“All right, men!” he said loudly.  “We have a lady dining with us tonight, so be on your best behaviour.  Somebody fetch her a seat and cutlery.”

The atmosphere relaxed within seconds as the soldiers started chatting to each other again, not as loudly as they had been before Seoyeon had entered, and a couple of them hurried away to sort out a table place for her.  Lieutenant Do beckoned for her to follow him.

He sat her with some of the younger soldiers, thankfully away from Captain Park, but Seoyeon was a bit miffed that he hadn’t thought to place her somewhere more appropriately ranked until she realised that the centre of the table, which (she had learnt when she was putting out the mail) was supposed to be where the officers sat had been taken over by non-officers, and that the officers had actually dispersed themselves among the company and a captain was sitting diagonally opposite her.  When she finally gathered up the courage to ask about it during the second course, having not spoken a word as the soldiers around her joked their way through the soup they’d started the meal with, she found out that this was quite common.

“We sit together for breakfast because it’s the start of business,” explained the captain, the soldiers suddenly taking interest in the fact that she apparently had a voice.  “In the evenings, we relax.  Camaraderie and rapport is important to us here.”

“Why?” asked Seoyeon.  “There’s literally nothing here.  Don’t you get bored of just patrolling a wasteland?”

The captain (she thought it was Captain Kim, but she couldn’t remember) laughed and spooned more vegetables onto his plate.  The other soldiers took their turn to help themselves too.

“Borders are important,” Captain Kim said.

“Don’t you get told the stories we grew up with over in the capital?” one of the soldiers asked curiously.  “I know it’s miles away from here, but still.”

“What stories?”

The soldiers, including Captain Kim, looked at her in disbelief.  There was a very, very awkward silence.  Seoyeon could feel an unwanted blush of embarrassment spreading over her face, but she refused to duck her head.

“Well,” said one of them after several moments, clearly at a bit of a loss.  “Where do we start?”

Seoyeon solved the problem for them when her curiosity got the better of her.

“Is Ximo haunted?” she asked.  “Some… things have been happening at night recently and I was just… wondering.”

Captain Kim tucked into his food again as one of the other soldiers leaned back in his chair and took the reins.

“Depends who you believe,” said the soldier.  “There are loads of stories.”

The others immediately began to chip in.

“Yeah, you don’t want to go to the burial grounds after nightfall, especially in winter.  It’s d*mn creepy.”

“Didn’t your dad say when he worked here that he’d seen at least three ghosts?”

“Apparently the reason they locked down the east wings forty years ago was because of hauntings.”

“What about the west wings?” Seoyeon asked anxiously, thinking about how her room was located there.

The soldiers looked at each other.

“No recent stories,” said Captain Kim, “but I wouldn’t be surprised if there were some if you looked far enough back in the records.”

“Wasn’t the Silent Lady supposed to haunt the west wings?”

“No, that was just some doofus playing about a few years back.  She’s in the north-east side, nothing to do with the west wings.”

Seoyeon watched as they argued back and forth.  Nobody seemed to be able to agree on much, and she suspected that none of the stories consequently had any truth to them.  Given the close proximity that all the soldiers lived in, sh