September 18, 2020 - the day of capture, 0800 hours

Minho remained close to his men as they began their assigned duty, which was to start removing the land mines at the Demilitarized Zone. There were about as many as fifty or more land mines on their side of the border and by removing them meant to work diligently but carefully. 

Before they could begin their work, they had attempted to contact their neighbors who were only meters away. By phone or face to face meeting didn’t go over well, as no one from the North acknowledged them. A sure proof way to let them know was by megaphone, where they stood silent and unmoving. As Minho would stand to hear the announcement being made, he watched the North soldiers' reactions, which was nothing. It was amazing that just over the strip of dirt was a whole country of people that looked like them and yet were decades behind them. 

Minho was kneeling on the ground while they attempted the first land mine. There was no room to make any mistakes, no room to not pay attention, because one wrong move could end everyone where they stood. Once confirmation was made that what they had detected was indeed what they were looking for, Minho stood up and stepped out of the way. 

He moved a few feet away as the others came to manually defuse it. As Minho stood to watch, he couldn’t help but shake the feeling that he was being watched himself. He broke his attention away from the group and looked towards the border. His eyes scanned for any of the Northern military and sure enough, they were watching them with binoculars. He furrowed his brows with a glare, hoping that they saw his face. 

The rest of the day had actually been trying to remove just one of the mines. It was dangerous since they were being removed by hand and even then still had to be diffused. Since the process was taking longer than they had hoped, Minho was assigned to flagging as many land mines as he could by the end of the day. He was given what looked like a metal detector and yellow flags attached to metal poles to stick into the ground. 

As Minho walked the border by himself, it was most likely going to take the majority of the day as he had to walk carefully and slowly. Two things he had to keep in mind was: don’t blow up and don’t get shot. It would’ve been easier said than done if he wasn’t walking on ground that could blow him up. But he decided that the sooner he could finish this the sooner it would be towards the end of the day so he could call back home. 

Just when he felt that his guard was down, he sharply turned his head towards the Northern border. Instinctively his one hand went to his holster and he scanned around him again.

Nope, they haven’t moved. 

It was as if they were statues and he was starting to think that maybe they were. Minho moved his hand back to the handle of the metal detector and went back to his assigned duty. He kept the Northerners in the back of his mind while he walked along the South Korean side of the border. In his ear piece he could hear the others in the group give updates about the first mine they found. It didn’t seem that they were making much progress as they were wanting. Minho had just placed another flag when the detector made rapid beeping sounds. 

"Private Choi, do you copy? Over.” 

Immediately Minho stood straight as he heard his name over the radio. He placed his middle finger against the earpiece before he spoke. 

"This is Private Choi, I copy. Over.” 

"How far are you from landmine one? Over.” 

Minho took a moment as he looked behind him. He had covered a decent amount of ground within the last few hours or so, as the rest of the men were a good distance away from him. He could barely make them out as they looked like specks at this point. He eyeballed the distance before responding. 

"I'm three hundred meters and some change from landmine one. Over.” 

The radio was fuzzy for a second before he heard, “That sounds about right. One of us will drive out to retrieve you. We’re going to call it a day. We’re going to attempt to speak to the North one last time. Remain where you are, over.” 

"Copy that, over.” 

Minho stood idle where he was told to stay. He knew that it wouldn’t be long until he saw the military Jeep make its way over by him driving along the dirt to avoid the flags of which he had placed. It was only a few moments before he squinted his eyes to see the dark green Jeep carefully make its way out to him. It was the waiting that felt like an eternity, especially being out in the open like this. With moving his head as little as possible, he again took one quick side glance towards the other side of the border. There was just no way for Minho to feel that he wasn’t being watched every minute of every second until he was safely back to base. He felt as though something was to happen at any moment, so that meant there was no room for wandering thoughts. 

Minho could hear his heart beating in his ears with every second that passed as he watched the Jeep quickly come into view. The amount of self control that Minho possessed gave him some type of egotistical high as he patiently waited for the Jeep to finally reach him and he wasted no time in climbing in. Immediately, Minho spoke into his ear piece the moment he sat down. 

"This is Private Choi. The raven is in the nest. Over.” 

"Copy that, over.” 

As much as Minho wanted to release a sigh of some kind of relief, he didn’t. It was best not to count your chickens before they hatched. The other two soldiers remained quiet as they drove back to Joint Security. It wasn’t a long drive back so Minho began to tally up the flags that he had placed. He was almost done counting until he heard the familiar beeping sound. It was coming from the detector. The sound had started slow for only five seconds before it started beeping uncontrollably. 

"What the--?”

Boom!

There was a loud explosion that filled Minho’s ears. He didn’t realize that it was actually coming from under the Jeep until he saw the flames immediately engulf the vehicle. There was no time to react when he felt himself being launched into the open air and could see briefly that he was no longer sitting in the sand colored seats. There was an immediate strange heat that burned by his right calf that he began to feel but couldn’t even cry out when he rolled a few times once his body made contact on the hard dirt ground. 

For a few seconds, Minho was disoriented but in pain. He wasn’t sure what to focus on first since his ears were ringing louder than he could think. Managing to roll onto his belly and get to his knees, he looked in the direction where the Jeep had been. It was flipped upside down and in flames. It instantly hit him that his men were in there still and that was all the adrenaline he needed. He forgot about any pain he felt and the ringing suddenly disappeared. As fast as Minho got to his feet, it was as fast as he ended back onto his knees. 

There was an immediate searing hot pain that shot up from the back of his thigh, into his tailbone and behind his ears. It came from behind him, that much Minho knew and as he fell to one knee he turned in the dirt to see where the gunfire was coming from. It was just as he had suspected, seeing that the Northerners stood almost stealthily as they watched what was unfolding before them. Minho gritted his teeth and reached for his gun in his holster. He hadn’t even made the motion to draw it out when there was a loud pop along with another hot, shooting pain that entered his left shoulder. The hotness and pain seared down his whole arm and left side of his torso; it was in that moment Minho finally felt the wind get knocked out of him. 

Minho dropped his gun as he fell to both knees again, his right hand instantly going to his shoulder, screaming at the pain. He heard more gunshots shower nearby and immediately laid supine. Again, he rolled onto his stomach and this time started to crawl towards the burning Jeep. However, Minho couldn’t get too far with only one good leg and one good arm. He suddenly felt hands grab at his legs and pull him backwards. Even more hands grabbed his arms and placed them behind his back to make him entirely immobile. 

There were screams during this entire struggle and Minho hadn’t realized that they were his own. The Northerners were capturing him and he could feel they were starting to bind his wrists together. They weren’t going to do it without a fight, however. With his heart ramming in his chest and the adrenaline pumping, he managed to flip onto his back. Even if he had full strength and no injuries, there would have been no way Minho could fight off the amount of Northern soldiers that practically piled on top of him. 

But Minho did fight back, he had given it all he could, until he was eventually knocked unconscious. They began dragging him across their side of the border just as backup arrived from the South. The South Korean soldiers who heard Minho’s screams risked being captured themselves so their only way of stopping them was by shooting at them but it had been too late. 

The North Korean soldiers had successfully captured Choi Minho.

*  *  *

He didn’t know how he ended up in what seemed to be an old operating room. Minho could barely make out where he was as the room had little to no light besides the lone bright yellow bulb that hung above him. 

His wrists and ankles were bound by leather straps to the table along with a thick strap just below the line of his chest. He figured it out pretty early when he realized he was still alive and couldn’t sit upright. He could feel himself shaking in the restraints from the numbing pain in both his right thigh and calf along with his left shoulder. He’d made it this far until now without getting shot and now that he was, it was starting to become unbearable. 

Fighting the restraints were useless and though it was easier said than done, he had to relax. He was breathing heavily through his nose and his eyes were shut tight. To focus on anything else was nearly impossible not only because of the excruciating pain but also because he was in the hands of the enemy. 

His eyes suddenly opened when he heard hushful murmurs nearby. Minho scanned around the best he could while laying on his back but he couldn’t see anyone, only hear them. The voices began to become clearer as they also sounded as though they were nearby. He tried to focus on what the voices were saying but the pain made his whole body throb that he thought he was going to throw up. 

"Hmm.... we need to keep him alive.”

"Ne, majayo.* He looks as though he’ll die right now.” 

"Exactly. We need to work quickly.” 

Minho gritted his teeth when he saw two of the Northerners come into his view. They looked down at him, stoic and unnerving to the fact that he was practically bleeding out from his wounds. His heart in his chest sped up out of anger at the sight of them, his eyebrows furrowing as he desperately wanted to be freed from his restraints. 

The one Northern soldier examined Minho’s right leg and he couldn’t help but flinch at the slightest touch. It didn’t seem to faze the soldier much even when Minho held his breath and closed his eyes. He could feel the other man’s fingers pull the tattered fabric of his pants away from the bloody hole in his thigh and then down to the now singed skin on his calf. It was no use in even trying to move his leg out of the way so he couldn’t be touched any further, the leather strap against his ankle cut into his skin. 

Minho finally let out his breath when the Northerner pulled his hand away completely. By now he was gripping tightly onto the table he laid on, his body still trembling. He was breathing heavily, almost panting and he watched the Northerner then move closer to him. By instinct, Minho tried to move away but it was of no use. The North soldier reached his hand out to the bullet wound in Minho’s shoulder which immediately caused Minho to react. 

The North soldier’s touch was anything but careful or gentle. Minho could feel the other male’s thumb press around his wound and Minho thought he was going to see stars. The North soldiers had no expression on their faces while watching Minho squirm, bleed, and flinch. It was as if they were accustomed to seeing this type of suffering all their life, as if this had been just another day for them. 

"Hajima!*” Minho finally snapped. His outburst actually caused a reaction from the North soldier as he did in fact, stop. Minho was sweating and felt as though he was close to tears from the throbbing that came from the inside of his body. Not to mention being probed like he was some kind of science project. Besides Minho’s labored breathing, there was nothing but silence between the two North soldiers who simply looked at each other before looking down at Minho. 

In one swift movement, the soldier that was closest to his shoulder wound dug his thumb into the open hole. Minho screamed with a groan, his eyes closed tight at the sudden pressure and pain that came with the man’s thumb literally embedded into his flesh. 

"Ip dakchyeo! Shut up! If you speak out of turn, we’ll leave you here.” The soldier spat.

Minho could barely even comprehend what was being said to him. He let out a breath of some relief when he felt the pressure finally leave his shoulder wound. His heart was beating in his ears and when he opened his eyes again, the other Northern soldier started wheeling what looked like a cart with some type of supplies on it. Minho couldn’t see and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to. 

There was the sound of elastic snapping against skin nearby. Minho was starting to feel his head become cloudy and he began to wonder how much blood he had lost. When the North soldier came back into view, he was holding what looked like surgical instruments in his hands. Minho eyed them and looked up at the soldier, who only stared back at him with no emotion. 

"Take this,” Said the other on his right side. What looked like a floppy piece of meat was actually just a real old piece of leather. The soldier hung it by Minho’s face and he stared at it, confused on what he was to exactly do with it. 

"Open your mouth!” The soldier barked at him. Reluctantly, Minho did, and the strap was placed in between his teeth. It was at that moment he realized what was happening but was given no warning when he felt the instruments invade the bullet wound. Minho couldn’t even arch his back in pain as his screams came through biting down on the leather strap. It was absolute torture as the soldier dug into the wound to retrieve the pieces from the bullet that was stuck inside Minho’s body. He felt like he was going to pass out until he heard a small metal plunk sound against the concrete floor. 

Minho could barely breathe and hadn’t realized that tears escaped from his eyes. With no type of anaesthesia, it was only natural for the human body to react in such a way that Minho did. To the North soldiers, to see these types of operations, was like an everyday affair. 

He yelped out painfully as he felt more burning and the smell of something foul, almost like nail polish. Though there weren't any drugs to put someone to sleep for a botched operation, they managed to have hydrogen peroxide and rubbing alcohol to clean the wound. Minho didn’t notice but the other soldier who stood idle was actually threading what looked like a household needle. He handed the needle over to the other soldier who had performed this “surgery” and started to sew Minho’s wound. 

By this time, Minho was fighting consciousness. His labored breathing that he’d done through his nose was becoming less and less. His eyes were starting to glaze over and both of the North soldiers realized they had to work even quicker now. As his eyelids grew heavy the last thing that he remembered was staring into the yellow bulb above him. 
 

 *   *   *

1400 Hours...

Sohee was glad that she managed to get off early from work that day since it meant that she could surprise Haneul when she picked him up from school. She had actually arrived at his school about ten minutes early and as she waited she took out her phone. She immediately went to the messages to find Minho’s name. The last message that he had sent was that he loved her and missed her and couldn’t wait to come back home. She smiled and started typing that she was here at Haneul’s school, waiting for him and that she would send a picture of him as soon as he got out. She knew that he wouldn’t respond right away or until later, but she knew that it would make Minho happy to see. 

"Noona?” Taemin’s voice reached her ears and she looked up to see him walk towards her with a smile. 

"I see you got off work early.” He chuckled as he stood by her. 

She returned the smile and tucked her phone back into her purse. “Ne, I thought it would be nice for Haneul to see the both of us pick him up today. I know he's excited about seeing Minho later tonight.” 

Taemin nodded to her and then started to snicker. “I don’t think excited is even the word, noona.” 

The last two days for Haneul were like waiting for Christmas. All the young boy talked about was seeing his appa on FaceTime and being involved in some way even if he wasn’t physically there. He would constantly be wondering what his appa was doing and if maybe they could do a quick call before he went to school, but the answer was always the same: be patient for Friday. To fill in the painful feeling of waiting, Taemin would watch the Marvel movies with his nephew. Of course, Haneul’s favorite was Captain America: Winter Soldier. Haneul would watch it a dozen times if he could but Taemin managed to convince him to watch the other Avengers movies. 

As the time was drawing near, both Taemin and Sohee could see more parents start to either join outside or wait in line in their cars to be picked up. It wouldn’t be much longer to wait when the bell rang and within minutes, hoards of children piled out of the building. Fridays were always fun because it meant the weekend and no school! 

Both Taemin and Sohee started scanning around as children ran to their parents or tried to sneak in extra play time with their friends as their parents talked. It didn’t take long until Sohee heard “umma!” and saw her son run to her with a big smile. 

Being the child Haneul was, he made sure to crash into Sohee for an obnoxious hug. Taemin snorted nearby and though he tried to stifle his laughter, he was Haneul’s next victim. However, Taemin was a little bit more prepared and managed to pick Haneul up to hold him instead of almost being knocked down. 

As he was being held, Sohee went to Haneul to fix his hair to be out of his eyes, making a mental note that a haircut was going to be needed pretty soon. Haneul squirmed in Taemin’s arms since he hated his hair being messed with. Typical boy. 

“Haneul-ah, let me take a picture for appa, okay?” Sohee said as she took her phone out again and backed up to get both of them in the picture. 

Taemin looked over at Haneul, who was anything but enthusiastic about taking a picture. His expression surprised Taemin and he again tried to not laugh even though the whole situation was just way too funny. 

"Aigo, Haneul-ah, you won’t smile for appa?” Taemin asked while trying to make his nephew feel a tad bit guilty. It seemed to have worked as Haneul finally looked over to Sohee to smile while even throwing in the peace sign. 

Taemin smiled and joined in by also giving the peace sign for the picture. It was the perfect moment captured in time. Sohee gave a thumbs up as she pressed send. Taemin finally let Haneul down and the three of them decided it was time to walk home. Haneul took his uncle’s hand as they walked and Taemin smiled. He had often found that when it was just him, Sohee and Haneul, they looked like a typical family. Often, if the three of them were out and about on weekends, they did get mistaken as husband and wife. It always ended up being awkward when correcting people but secretly, Taemin liked them being mistaken as a couple.

While they walked, Sohee gave her phone to Haneul. “Can you record a voice clip for appa?” 

The young boy wasted no time in taking the phone, feeling like a grown up and started to speak into it. “Annyeong, appa! I’m walking home from school with umma and Taemin Samchon! We learned about the planets and different kinds of stars in class today. There’s the Big Dipper, Little Dipper, Orion’s Belt and there’s a dog one. Appa, can we get a dog?”

Taemin snorted with laughter again and Sohee shook her head at Haneul before saying, “yah, Haneul-ah, we can’t get a dog right now.” 

Haneul sighed into the phone. “Umma says we can’t get a dog but can we get one when you get back?” 

“Haneul-ah,” Came the stern mother voice from Sohee that even Taemin wouldn’t want to mess with. She stuck out her hand for him to give the phone back. 

"I'm only asking!” He said with a pout and defeatedly, gave the phone back to his mother. 

Nonetheless, Sohee sent the voice clip. As she did so, Taemin initiated a race with Haneul to see who could reach the tree at the end of the block the fastest. The child more than accepted to challenge his uncle and after counting down from three to one, they were off. 

In that moment it made Sohee think, what would she have done if she had been raising Haneul alone? There would be lots of limitations and hardships to get by, but she was very grateful that Taemin was there to distract her son from the obvious. Sometimes he was able to even distract her for brief moments, just enough until she remembered the reality that she was in. Or that they all were in. 

She raised her phone again to add one more voice clip. “Annyeong, oppa, I hope that you’re doing well. I wish that you were here with us. Haneul-ah reminds me of you every day, it’s scary sometimes. It makes me wonder what he’ll be like two years from now when you get back. Every day I’m grateful that Taemin is so good to Haneul and how helpful he’s been. We’ll talk some more later tonight, ne? Saranghaeyo.”

As she pressed send, she looked up ahead and saw that the whole race turned into a game of tag. They all weren’t too far from the house so that by the time Sohee had reached them, Taemin was out of breath, as was Haneul before he smacked his palm on Taemin’s arm to claim he was “it.” 

She laughed while shaking her head at them and walked to the front door to let them all in. Just as Sohee unlocked the door and opened it, she stopped when she heard Taemin’s question, 

"Noona, who are they?” 

Sohee turned to see whom Taemin was talking about. She hadn’t noticed but in the front of their house was a black car parked with what looked like official plates. From the car came out two men, dressed fully in their military uniform. In that moment, Sohee’s heart sank as they made their way towards them. She was hoping that they wouldn’t come closer, but they did. When they stopped only feet away from the small family, their faces were grave. Almost as if they were in sync, they took their caps off. 

"Are you Choi Sohee-ssi?” One of them asked as he looked directly at her. 

What  transpired in the moments that followed became a blur to Sohee. Her mind only now replayed what it wanted…

"At 0800 hours, your husband, Private Choi Minho, along with the rest of the crew in his sector, began the mandatory assignment of removing landmines from the DMZ.”

"At 1400 hours, high ranking officers ended today’s assignment. Two members of the crew went to retrieve your husband who was detecting landmines along the DMZ and flagging them.” 

"Upon the retrieval, less than 30 seconds after, an unknown source detonated the landmine from beneath the surface of the militarized vehicle. The explosion caused your husband to be ejected from the vehicle and unfortunately, land on North Korean soil.” 

"Fellow servicemen on our side who witnessed the explosion and went to their aid do believe that your husband has been captured as he was last seen dragged across the border. They do believe he is injured but we do not know the severity.”

"As of late, we do not know whether your husband has survived his injuries or his capture with the North. We have received no further updates as of 18 September 2020, 1400 hours.”

"Our forces will do everything they can to ensure his well being and safe return. You will be updated throughout the course of this ongoing and unfortunate situation.” 

She didn’t even remember them leaving. Sohee was numb by the time they had left, and when they did, she was hysterically crying in Taemin’s arms. She had sunk to the floor and Taemin could do nothing but ultimately sit with her on the floor and hold her. 

Before the servicemen could share the news, Taemin had instructed Haneul to go upstairs to his room. The boy was confused but only partially listened to his samchon as he secretly sat on the stairs to hear what was happening. For the young child, he didn’t understand what was going on or why his umma was crying. He knew it was something with his appa but what happened? He felt scared, confused, and he didn’t want his umma to be crying. Was she crying because appa got shot? Or did those men make his umma cry? 

Haneul finally decided to go back down the stairs and carefully walked to the weeping heap that was his umma and samchon. He was surprised to see his uncle’s eyes and nose were red from crying but his cries weren’t as loud as umma’s. 

"Taemin Samchon, what happened?” Haneul finally asked. 

When Taemin looked up at his nephew it hurt him so much to even have to explain to a child what was going on at this very moment. He gestured to Haneul to come close to them and as his nephew knelt down to lean up against his uncle, Taemin tried his best to explain. 

"Your appa is hurt and the bad guys took him.” He said while trying his hardest to keep it all together. 

"Will appa be coming back home?” Haneul asked innocently as he looked up at Taemin who pulled him in closer. 

"We don’t know, Haneul-ah. We hope he will and that’s all we can do.”

A/N: Hello, lovelies! I'm sorry that this chapter took a while to upload. I had done a lot of research for this one the best I could to make it make sense. I know that the actual DMZ/border between North and South wouldn't necessarily be that easy to cross over, with both sides being heavily armed... but this is fanfiction so we get to make believe, you know lol  

I'm sorry if it's also super long TT As I'm typing this I'm trying to fight sleep but it's okay! I'll live [: 

*Hajima : In Korean, means "stop" 

*Majayo : In Korean, means "that's right." 

I'm not sure where the video is from? But it kind of reminded me of the last chapter with FaceTiming Minho that got me in the feels~~

Here are some Minho pics with kids that made me feel super soft: 

[x][x][x][x][x][x] [x] <~ especially this one TT 

Thank you all again for being wonderful and still reading this story after it's taken me forever to update it! TT <3

-M