Flashback: “Her mom ushered her inside the safe box they hid in the wardrobe. Her mom kept telling her to keep shut, not to utter a single damn word out of . Eve kept nodding while sobbing silently. Her dad was measuring the room with his steps and kept running his fingers through his hair. Her mom was crying soundless, Eve only could see for the last time her mom’s eyes all watery and her dad who couldn’t even tell her a word of reassuring. The thing was he didn’t want to lie to her. It was going to be hell, they only could be grateful that her grandma was still alive, even if not for so long as they wanted.

Her mom looked at her only daughter once again, kissed her forehead and petted her hair, caressing her cheek and whiping her hot tears. Eve’s mom say good-bye and hugged her tight before ordering her to shut once again and not to get out until there are no more noises. Eve was still young, but she knew what was going to happen even if she didn’t understand it fully then.

Eve was laying uncomfortable in the dark in a small box, she heard screams, rumbles, rollings on the wooden floor and then 2 gun shots followed by hard thuds, she covered her ears, trying to push back what was happening outside her box, but she still heard everything. Only two gunshots. She heard some men talk korean, but with a strange accent and a different dialect. Eve heard the wardrobe’s doors opened, but she was hidden in the safe box which was camouflaged with a small wooden door the same as wardrobe’s. She heard someone say ‘nothing’ and then they left, but she didn’t dare to get out so soon. She waited, she didn’t know for how long, but she waited.

Suddenly, the young girl started sobbing as she was opening the door from inside and got out of the closet. She looked around the house, the dorm was clean, the kitchen and bathroom as well, and she went in the living. She was carefully walking, like a small kitten, trying not to attract attention onto her. She saw the carpet stained with blood and no bodies. She gulped, her parents were nowhere to be seen. She went to the landline and tried to contact someone, anyone. Wire disconnected and cut. She started crying loudly. She went to her parents’ room and stashed their family photo and some other belongings and got out and started running. She was scared, she was young, maybe 9-10 years, she didn’t remember well, she just knew she had to run somewhere, the house was not safe anymore.”

Eve ordered the gardians to bring the prisoner to the interrogation room. They immediately obeyed. She and Baekhyun entered the room and waited. Baekhyun thought Eve was behaving really odd, she kept kicking with her leg and she couldn’t seem to focus on the papers under her eyes. Baekhyun stared at her without even realising only until Eve looking him straight in the eye.

“Any problem, Soldier Byun?” she asked bluntly.

“No, Captain. You seen anormal today.”

“Anormal? How so?” she said, giggling.

“I don’t know. You seem off. Is there something on your mind?”

“I will just warn you. It’s going to get personal.”

“What do you mean?” Baekhyun asked, furrowing his eyebrows at her, which she found oddly funny. A confused Baekhyun was always funny.

“No more questions, Soldier. Save them for our ‘friend’.”

Baekhyun nodded and thought about what she said, he realised he knew nothing about her only what his comrades’ gossips about whereabouts or behind the scenes infos. She seemed clean, but nobody was really clean.

He wanted to ask something anyway, but didn’t get the chance because the door opened and the guardians put the chained prisoner on the chair and chained him with another pair of handcuffs on the chair. Eve smiled at him, he wasn’t that old. He was around 35, maybe. He had short black hair, and a piercing glare, he wasn’t happy at all to be there. His bottom lip was thicker than the upper one, he had a straight nose and thick eyebrows, a sharp chin and a carved jawline. He was quite handsome, even if he was beaten up, she gave Baekhyun a questioning look because he was looking way worse than she remembered last time. Baekhyun made a unknowing fake face and shrugged.  

“Hello, mr. prisoner. We will start with the basics so please cooperate with us, okay?” Eve asked as polite as she could, even if she felt the urge to just ask bluntly what she really wanted to know. “Give me the paper with the questions, Soldier.”

Baekhyun rushed to the documents and handed them to his Captain. Eve took them and searched for that paper.

“Alright. Name?” she asked, looking at the man before her.

“Gong Yoo”, he muttered directly.

Eve was grateful he was cooperating. Eve smiled at him.

“Age? Date of birth?”

“39. 10 iulie 1981.”

“Occupation?”

“Sniper. Soldier. Division A.”

“? Male. Good”, she flipped the pages and wrote the answers. “Where do you live?”

“Phenian.”

“Married?”

“Yes.”

“Kids?”

“Two.”

“Names?”

“Gong In Ha and Gong In Ho.”

“Their ages?”

“10 both of them. They’re twins.”

“Nationality? North Korean. Alright. We’re finished with your personal matters”, Eve said suddenly.

“What do you mean?” Baekhyun asked. “You have loads more!”

Eve just glared at him, telling him to shut up mutely. Baekhyun backed off and just sat again on a chair with his back against the wall. Baekhyun watched Eve flipping through those pages until she pulled out an envelope, she opened it with her long fingers and took out some pieces of paper, looked like photos from where Baekhyun sat. Eve looked at them and Baekhyun could’ve sweared that he saw a small tear in the corner of the Captain’s eye. He shut up anyway. Eve slided them to the prisoner, he took a glance at them and shrugged.

“Do you know these people?” Eve asked in a sinister tone, making Baekhyun’s hair and probably prisoner’s hair stand up.

Gong Yoo was just staring blankly at the photos trying to connect some dots, but no idea appeared. They looked somehow familiar, but don’t all Asians do? Though, the photo seemed to be at least 10-20 years old, he couldn’t tell. It was a couple, a young couple with a small girl between them. The woman wasn’t very tall and she was dressed in an uniform, as well as the man. He read the names on their tags: Kim Dan and Kim Yuri.

“Their names are familiar with me, not the faces though. I never saw them, but I heard about them. I heard they used to do the interrogation part on North Korean prisoners back in the day. We called them ‘Finger Breaker’ and ‘Hayan Mask’ (하얀 – hayan – white), never to their faces, of course. They were kind of playing ‘good cop-bad cop’, but worse. He used to break the fingers to the prisoners and she used to be so sweet, but she got under your skin and played with your fears”, the prisoner said without any remorse.

Eve was getting really angry now. Her mom and dad were not like that. They weren’t torturers. They taught her kindness and softness, there’s no way in hell he was telling the truth. Her right hand was shaking and she felt the urge to take out her dagger and slit his throat open. She gulped a breath, but tried to regain her calm.

“That’s all?” she asked, unaware of her effect on both men who were staring at her in shock.

She was trembling now, she felt how adrenaline took over her body and in a slight second she pulled out her dagger, that was the moment Baekhyun jumped from his chair and caught her by the wrist, stopping her from stabbing the innocent, well, he was reeking of guilt, but it was not necessary to kill him. Eve was pulling hard, but Baekhyun tightened his grip around her hand and pulled her into a hug.

Eve’s heart was beating like crazy, when she inhaled his scent, she realised what was about to happen. If this was heard by her superiors, she was going to be demoted. “ me”, she thought to herself. She realised Baekhyun was still holding her, so she straightened her voice to let him know she’s alright.

“Go on with him! I’m taking a break”, she said, leaving them both dumbfounded.

They stared at each other, but the sniper just shrugged carelessly. Baekhyun sat down and took the picture to take a look at it. There was a family, both parents were smiling and the little girl was making a face while showing her peace-sign proudly. The parents had military uniforms, while the little girl was dressed in a traditional hanbok. Soldier Byun found himself smiling. It was Eve that was that little girl.