Three hours to 6:00, their departure on a journey to their final destination of Yundo.

Myungsoo's hand dangled over the top of his bunk, wide awake and staring at the ceiling for some time. Upset by the way the day ended, Myungsoo's insomnia got to him and left him restless. 

I don't think I have a reason to answer why Hoya was not recognized today... because you know exactly why.

Myungsoo cleared his throat, lying down uncomfortably on a mattress more luxurious than sitting upright in a truck. Captain Peo's words stunned him in disbelief. It haunted him knowing that Captain Peo was aware of everything. He thought that maybe Sunggyu crying in front of him that Hoya was dead, only to have him truly dead at Shu Chai, allowed Captain Peo to put the pieces together that maybe someone was foiling his dirty plan. He feared for himself and Sungyeol for hearing all of that, but he feared for Sunggyu even more for involving himself to betray Captain Peo.

Myungsoo sighed, closing his eyes and forcing himself to go to sleep with the whole world on his plate. A strategy of good intention turned into mayhem for him and his friends.

"Myungsoo, you're awake?"

Sungyeol lay on the lower bunk, clenching onto his blanket with his eyes wide open as he listened to Myungsoo's stressful breathing.

"I am." Myungsoo opened his eyes, a little startled that Sungyeol was still awake but mostly expecting it. "You can't sleep?" Myungsoo whispered.

"No, and you know why."

Sungyeol's cryptic you know why was always something Myungsoo immediately understood. Sungyeol carried the burden of knowing that Captain Peo slyly ordered his soldiers to shoot the family, and he wondered why he would do such a thing. He wondered if it was an intentional move to psychologically mess with his soldier's minds, needing them to feel feeble and confused after everything happened. He wondered how someone could lack any kind of heart and soul, and how he could do that with him. The golden locket pressed against his skin, cooling the spot on his chest and providing him the fuel to his fire for revenge. 

"I don't know what we're going to do. And we can't talk much right now. If history repeats itself, this is not a safe place to talk." Myungsoo remembered back when he found out his very conversations were being recorded and listened to by Yu Kwon and at this point Captain Peo. There was no time to act carelessly, and any critical mistake would cost him his life. 

Myungsoo wanted to live more than anything. He wanted to live to see his family's faces once more. He wanted to live to hug Sungjong and tell him everything was fine. He wanted to live for the remaining six of them to go back to Seoul and live peacefully. He did not want to die, but he especially did not want to get executed at the hands of Captain Peo.

Sungyeol agreed that their residential bunk was a terrible place to speak about Captain Peo. Any movement and conversation spoken on military camps seemed to have been recorded or watched, and Sungyeol did not want to risk himself or anyone else getting into trouble. "Do you remember back in high school when Teacher Cho tutored for the college entrance exam?"

"The CSAT?" Myungsoo was baffled by such a random memory being brought up. "What about it?"

Sungyeol collected his words and emphasize specific parts of his sentence for Myungsoo to understand. "Don't say the answer out loud, but you remember what he did to our classmates?"

Myungsoo thought for a second. Teacher Cho molested the girls in our class, and during private tutoring he would take students to that room in the library without windows... This was the most dramatic thing that had ever happened at our high school. Sungyeol, why are you bringing this up?

Sungyeol continued. "Now think. Remember what Jieun's dad did?"

Myungsoo blinked his eyes several times, the newspaper articles of the incident racing in his mind. Myungsoo's heart dropped. He knew exactly what Jieun's father did. "No Sungyeol, you can't."

"I have to," Sungyeol argued.

"No."

"This is something I have to do, and it will happen soon."

It concerned him that Sungyeol could make such a bold claim. He was unsure how Sungyeol would even carry it out, if he was intelligent enough to stir up a plan. Myungsoo knew for sure he could never trust his own self for something of this kind of nature. Though he had done things during the war, they were all out of passion. He was incapable of having a master plan like Sunggyu and Hoya. And with this, he was skeptical Sungyeol could carry it out. But he knew that Sungyeol was enraged by the family's fate, and he would not let this slide. "Sungyeol, I'm scared. I don't want anything to backfire. I don't want you..." Myungsoo's voice trailed off, trying to keep himself together and holding back his tears.

To die? Myungsoo, I'm not going to die. Sungyeol hated hearing that tone of voice with Myungsoo, which always meant that he was close to crying. Sungyeol needed to show that things were under control. "I'm going to be fine. I'm going to talk to... the hamster about it tomorrow."

Hamster, no one has called Sunggyu hamster since primary school. Myungsoo chuckled at the use of codewords during their conversation, finding it oddly amusing at such an urgent situation. "You tell me you'll be fine, but I'll still be worried."

Sungyeol smiled. "You were always the high strung one."

"Whatever." Myungsoo yawned, slowly closing his eyes. "We have about two and a half hours till we need to wake up. I'm going to try and sleep."

"Same here." Sungyeol closed his eyes, adjusting his sleeping position to turn to his side and rest.

"Goodnight Sungyeol."

"Goodnight Myungsoo. Sleep tight."

Myungsoo smirked. "I'll try, even though you're scaring me. I'm going to trust your every word, even though I hate it."

Sungyeol yawned, realizing how tired he truly was as he closed his eyes. He was falling into a slumber, his anxious thoughts escaping him for the next couple of hours until he woke up. He was conspiring something out of the ordinary, something out of his own comfort zone. He was unsure if he could even pull through with the plan, but with Myungsoo on his side he was more determined to get justice for the family. Sungyeol slurred his words as he lost himself in his dreams. "Myungsoo, you're the most important person to me. We're infinite."

Myungsoo barely heard a word he said, only responding with a tired "ok" to end their conversation. He recalled the title of the local newspaper on Teacher Cho's incident, falling asleep with these final thoughts.

Sungyeol, Jieun's father murdered Teacher Cho with a car after he found out his daughter was molested.

Please tell me, how are you going to kill Captain Peo?

(((())))

Sunggyu kept himself awake the whole night, alert of his surroundings and any possible threat to his life. He hugged his pillow, biting the corner and breathing slowly as he feared the next step.

Yesterday's incident set a precedent for the final days of war. With Captain Peo's plans crumbling before him, there are holes in the Korean military that Sunggyu and the others caught. Getting Sungjong captured, dishonoring Hoya's character, an avoided ambush at Fuden, framing for the mother to die instead of him. Sunggyu started to question how involved Captain Peo had been in sabotaging the efforts of the Korean army as well as their allies, recalling that in several cities they were attacked by Sotenan crossfire. With Hoya gone and their army days away from reaching Yundo, Sunggyu needed to plan a strategy.

There was one problem: Sunggyu wondered the extent of Captain Peo's knowledge of him and Hoya's plans to foil their leading officer. 

You're treading in a deep ocean, and you can only last for so long until you drown.

Sunggyu thought at what times he made himself obvious to exposure. Captain Peo had sounded like he caught him, and a plan B was necessary to survive in the war. He made a promise to Hoya that he would stay alive for Sungjong, and he would not let Captain Peo stop him from doing so.

Sunggyu rose from bed, pulling the pillow out of his mouth and throwing it against the pole of his bunk bed. He needed to decide a plan of action before they went on the road again. He considered other possible leaders who could comply with his strategies for special operations and overrule the power of Captain Peo.

My Japanese is limited, but I could possibly talk to Lieutenant General Yoshida about this. There is also Philippine General Andrada, Australian Captain Bronson. In the Korean army, Captain Suk and Captain Sungho are available. I think that our plan of action is to get to Yundo as fast as possible without any kind of delay. We need our momentum from the Battle of Shu Chai and we need Sotena to have as little time as possible to prepare. 

But how do I do this?

Someone knocked the door.

Sunggyu looked above and heard not a single twist or turn from Woohyun. He figured Woohyun would not be keen to opening the door. It was proper protocol to wake up and get out of bed as fast as possible when someone came to the door, but Woohyun tend to slack with a lack of pressure whenever it happened. Sunggyu rushed out of bed and threw his pillow away to greet whomever was waiting. He latched his hand onto the handle, slowly turning it open to pull back. 

"Captain Peo." Sunggyu straightened his back, raising his hand to salute his superior early in the morning. Captain Peo was the last person he wanted to see.

"Kim Sunggyu, we will be planning our next move," Captain Peo explained. "You will be away until we load our trucks. Please retrieve your personal items."

Sunggyu nodded his head, flicking the lights on in his bunk to get his backpack. The lights blinded him, taking a step back as he scratched his eye to get used to the brightness. He blinked his eyes several times, squinting as he noticed something missing from his room. Or someone.

Woohyun's beddings were clumped together with his comforter close to falling off. Woohyun was nowhere to be found, and his backpack was missing. 

"Woohyun?"

In a split second, the barrel of a handgun pressed against Sunggyu's back. Sunggyu froze, his heart racing fast and his palms sweaty as he kept his composure without a falter.

"Captain Peo, please don't do this," Sunggyu whimpered.

Captain Peo cleared his throat. "Follow my every move and everything will be ok."

(((())))

10 minutes before departure and the soldiers gathered together for the final stretch to Yundo. Their journey would finally come to this point, where the troops ventured to get to Yundo as fast as possible and shake up the war. Though the squadrants were normally indifferent, now with their country on the line in their finishing battle the spirits were high for the motivated soldiers to defeat Sotena.

Sungyeol and Myungsoo waited with a group of other soldiers from their squads for Sunggyu, Dongwoo, and Woohyun to arrive. The two barely took advantage of their time on a comfortable bed this time around with heavy minds and hearts that kept them awake. Myungsoo rested his elbow on Sungyeol's shoulder, keeping his mind away from the conflict for a moment. "I want to go to Japan."

Sungyeol smirked. "Why the sudden inspiration?"

"I don't know. Yesterday I had a short conversation with one of the Japanese soldiers... he was a sergeant. I think his name was Taro... Yamamoto... he lives near Kobe, Japan. He was talking about how when he returned home the first thing he would have is barbecue."

"Always thinking about food, what a pig."

"They massage the cows in Kobe! Taro said he even massaged them one time. That's why their beef is delicious. I'm going to try Kobe beef one day. Maybe after we finish college or something."

"When we come back, the first thing we'll do is go to Japan together." A bright smile flashed on Sungyeol's face thinking about the future. It was rash for him to do so while he still fought the war, while the drama unfolded, but a man could only wish. "Maybe we can bring Daeyeol, your brother, we'll make it a trip with all of our friends. The first thing we'll do in Japan is buy a plate of Kobe beef. I've also always wanted to go to Kobe's Chinatown. But first, we need to survive this war."

Right on time, they saw Dongwoo and Woohyun walking towards them to snap them out of their wishful daydreams and remind them that they were in the war. Sungyeol shook his head to get his head back into the game, remembering what he wanted to do and that he set out to accomplish it with Sunggyu.

"Where's Sunggyu?" Myungsoo was first to talk.

Woohyun shrugged his shoulders, tightening up the straps on his backpack. "Sunggyu didn't sleep at my bunk last night. Well I thought he was... but I woke up this morning and jumped down to see Dongwoo there. Also, there are new assignments for trucks. We're all separated. Sunggyu and Myungsoo are the only two sitting together."

"Dongwoo was your roommate?" Sungyeol scratched his head. "By the way, how are you doing?"

Dongwoo expressed a slight nod, forcing a smile on his face. "It doesn't get easier. I can't wait to get out of this."

"When we get out of this war, Sungyeol and I decided to go to Japan. Everyone is invited," Myungsoo chimed, patting on Dongwoo's shoulder. 

"I hear the ladies are gorgeous in Japan," Woohyun nodded with a smug smirk.

Dongwoo chuckled. Myungsoo's outburst was uncharacteristic of his taciturn personality, but whenever something like this happened he was always amused. And likewise, Myungsoo knew that speaking out loud always cheered Dongwoo up whenever he was down. "And when was this decided?"

"I don't know. Something about beef," Sungyeol shook his head, acting ashamed of knowing Myungsoo.

"Ya, you jerk you want to go to Japan too!" Myungsoo laughed, wrapping his arm around Sungyeol's neck and pulling him down. Sungyeol returned the favor, twisting Myungsoo's head as they wrestled each other by the trucks.

At this time, Captain Suk walked down the line of trucks to announce their departure to the road. "Load up the trucks gentleman. We are leaving in 60 seconds."

The four friends bumped into each other, separating for their next journey on the road. Dongwoo and Woohyun ran off the quickest for their trucks were farther away from the rest of them. Sungyeol jerked to leave, but as he remembered something he turned back to Myungsoo for a quick message. "When you see Sunggyu, can you tell him about you know what?"

Myungsoo bit his lip, their conversation turning south. "We're playing fire with fire, and we know how Hoya ended up. Sungyeol, you know I'm scared. I'm scared ok? I already lost Sungjong, Hoya, and what am I going to do if you do this?"

Sungyeol placed his hands on Myungsoo's shoulders to calm him down. He can already feel his best friend's shoulders tensing up knowing he was worried sick about everything. "Myungsoo, nothing's happening. Remember what I told you today. We're infinite." Before Sungyeol left, he ruffled Myungsoo's hair, displaying a genuine smile before he ran away to his own truck.

Myungsoo was always one to overthink everything, with good reason. But with someone like Sungyeol, Myungsoo knew nothing else but to believe everything he said. There was no one else in this world he trusted more than him. With a firm face of determination, he was the last person of his caravan to step in. He looked at the edge as volunteer soldiers hoisted the boundary up to keep troops in their trucks. Myungsoo sat there as he waited for the trucks to move.

That was when he realized someone was missing.

"We forgot Sunggyu." Myungsoo remembered Woohyun saying that in their new arrangements, Sunggyu was in his truck. He peeked out the opening of their caravan to yell for assistance. "Hey, come back!" he screamed at the soldiers who were hurrying through the line of cars to shut them close. "Open this! Sunggyu didn't get here!"

Myungsoo took it upon himself to kick the entrance open, but as a weaker body it was with no luck. "Hey, someone help me. My friend Sunggyu didn't get in yet." His truck was a mix of not only Korean soldiers, but ones from Japan who could barely make out a single word Myungsoo said. The Korean troops onboard responded warily, slowly getting up to help Myungsoo because they did not want to get themselves into trouble for breaking protocol and knocking down the trucks. 

But as they gained strength and leverage to push the entrance open, the truck mobilized to exit the military base.

"Hey! Stop the truck!" Myungsoo screamed frantically, searching through the cracks for Sunggyu to come running in and get on his caravan. "We left a soldier behind! Kim Sunggyu! He was assigned to this truck, stop the car!"

The driver could barely hear a word, only following the truck in front of him as they left the area and went on their way.

(((())))

Sungjong sat in the middle of his cell with his eyes closed. As the afternoon closed in on him, sat right where the sun shined from his window and sat upright with a straight posture and his arms out. Sungjong payed close attention to the sounds of his own breathing as he inhaled through his nose and exhaled out of his mouth. Concentrating on different senses of his body, his mind cleared up to allow him to freely think and hone in on several aspects of this war. With a peace of mind, he better figured out how their escape would manage.

His peace was interrupted as he heard the sounds of a guard opening up the door along with chains smashing against each other. Sungjong knew this meant that General Kang was back from questioning, or as Sungjong liked to call it: torture. Sungjong opened a single eyelid, watching as the guard pushed General Kang to the ground before slamming the cell closed on him. He was back into his own personal square of horror, chained to the floor once more as General Kang turned his head to find Sungjong watching him. The guard's footsteps were boisterous as he trotted down the hallway, slamming the bars of other prisoners like an incompetent schoolchild. 

Sungjong lifted the other eyelid opening with a deep stare at General Kang, who was waiting for the steps to disappear before starting his next move. Sungjong watched General Kang's eyes follow the guard until the doors of their prison room slammed shut, marking his disappearance and safety to speak. "What happened?" Sungjong asked.

"Jongin was kept in longer while I was excused," General Kang started. 

Sungjong nodded his head. "I see. When is the time to reveal that we know about Captain Peo and their other planted spies in the Korean army?"

"Give 1-2 more days for us to finalize the plan, and all hell will break loose." General Kang swallowed his spit, lowering his head. "Are you sure you want to trust Jongin? He was next to us this whole time without saying a single word until now. Why speak now?"

Sungjong was making a leap of faith if he teamed up with Jongin, who he felt had a good understanding of the setup of their prison. With his compelling story, Sungjong trusted his instinct. "I can truthfully say that I would do the same thing if I encountered someone of my own in a prison for the first time. He could not trust us either first hand. This is our best decision to work together. He knows this place more than we do if we want to make our grand escape."

General Kang sighed, dipping his finger into a puddle of water in his cell. He traced different shapes into the cold concrete floor, writing his name and making circles. "Sungjong, we need to talk about something else."

General Kang's voice changed, disconcerting Sungjong in his position. He hunched his back over to rest his arms on his criss-crossed knees, looking at what he was writing. "Is that a code?"

"No, just my playful musings," General Kang responded. He looked up at Sungjong with a regretful look in his own eyes. "When I spoke to Ranu Sojang's secondhand man about our Korean army, I listed all important sergeants of every squadrant." 

"Go on."

"When I spoke of-"

The doors opened for the arrival of someone new. General Kang and Sungjong finished their conversation, minding their own business as the chains slammed once more. The echoing of metal and high-pitched scratching against the floor left Sungjong unsettled, who scrunched his face and closed his eyes shut to try and block the noise. Jongin was taken in by a guard, his face stern as a gash on his forehead dripped in blood. General Kang watched as the guard laughed throwing Jongin into his cell, landing on his head right where it bled. The guard took his ankle shackles and cuffed them back to the floor, closing the cell on him as he left them once more.

Jongin squirmed on the floor to get himself back up, pushing himself off the ground and gently rubbing his forehead. He took one look at his fingers, which were covered in his own red blood. He turned his body to look diagonal of him and see a worried face on Sungjong's face. Jongin took one more look at his fingers before he wiped the blood on his waist and shook his head. "Rule one of being around Kim Jongin. Never worry about me, only about yourself."

Sungjong had no words for such a bold statement, only that of respect and desire to have as much courage as he does. "What happened?"

"I overheard Ranu Sojang in another meeting room when he was with me other. Yisik, I mean General Kang, did you catch that?" Jongin asked.

"I was just about to mention it before you walked in." General Kang looked at Sungjong sympathetically. "Sungjong, this is important. I told you about the spies in our Korean army, correct?"

"Yes you did," Sungjong affirmed.

Jongin nodded his head to continue the story. "There is a story that there is a small team in the Korean army figured out the spies to foil their plans and get the Korean army back on track. At a most recent battle with the Korean army as well as all alies in Shu Chai, someone aded the Sotenan army to play a spy of their own and change their plans. That is how we won, and Sotena is severely disadvantaged with many pivotal leaders in their army falling. Our people are figuring things out, and now we're outwitting the spies."

"The Battle of Shu Chai was an infiltration of the spies themselves?" Sungjong's eyes grew wide in awe, caught completely off guard by this revelation. "Daebak."

"But now that Sotena is aware of this, and capturing anyone who is a spy. The person who led the campaign, I think they said his name was Howon." Jongin mentioned.

Howon? Lee Howon?  "Hoya," Sungyeol spoke, remembering the last time he saw him. It was during their very first battle at Pyongyang. He remembered the warmth of Hoya's hug when he found out he was put on the lines of battle. Even though it led him to this moment, he had nothing but admiration and respect for Hoya as a leader and as someone like an older brother. "Hoya is my best friend."

That was when Jongin stayed quiet, his palms getting sweaty from hearing those words. Best friend. "He was your best friend?"

"He was an older brother to me. Lee Howon, I grew up with him."

General Kang cleared his throat, shaking his head that he had to confess the news to Sungjong. "Sungjong, I'm sorry." Tears streamed down General Kang's face as he refused to believe this was all true himself. It was a pain in his heart, and knowing that he had to break the news was just as much as killing Sungjong right in front of him. It was one to kill Sungjong's body, but to kill his soul was much more than he could handle. After hesitating for some time, we finally spoke. "Hoya is dead. He died at Shu Chai."

"Wait." Sungjong thought he heard wrong. "I don't think I heard you correctly. What?"

"Sungjong. I'm sorry. During the battle, Hoya was stabbed..."

"No. General Kang, please we all do respect. Don't talk about Hoya like that." The words barely processed in his head, unable to sink in and accept that repeated statement. "Hoya is not dead."

Jongin's eyes grew teary eyed, covering his mouth as he lowered his head and avoided any eye contact with Sungjong.

"Hoya can't be dead. Someone like Hoya never dies. This is all a lie." Sungjong's volume grew louder as he rejected the thought one more time, shaking his head and crumbling to the floor as he lost all feeling in his body. "No, Hoya, this can't be." Sungjong let out a pained shriek of agony as a river of tears poured out, falling to the floor as Sungjong pressed his cheek against the cold hard ground. He hugged his knees together in a fetal position, his whole self turning weak from everything.

General Kang bit his tongue, holding back his own tears as he watched Sungjong sobbing in front of him over the news. General Kang regretted this moment, thinking it would never come. This was all too much for him to handle, and he thought he failed as a leader and did not prepare his own soldiers for the heartbreaking pain of knowing that someone you love died.

"Hoya, Lee Howon, I'm going to see him when the Korean army arrives in Yundo. Right?" Sungjong hoped for any kind of response, but it was only followed with silence. That was when it all hit him. The sinking feeling that Hoya was gone and out of his life was unbearable, and Sungjong almost wondered if there was still a meaning to his own life without him. "Hoya... no..." 

Jongin kept quiet during this revelation, not knowing these two people for more than a day yet understanding and knowing everything they felt. "I'm sorry Sungjong."

Sungjong tried to get angry. He told himself he would avenge Hoya's death, knowing that he did the right thing in fighting for his country and battling against all odds to take him down. In the worst way possible of knowing Hoya was gone, without seeing him one final time to hug him or laugh with him, was what hurt the most. He told himself he would get justice for all of this, knowing that the spy might still be out there and that he had to escape this wretched prison to take back what he knew and loved.

But for now, Sungjong lay on the floor of his prison cell to cry for a fallen friend.

(((())))

Dear Mom,

It's closing in on the evening as I'm close to falling asleep. Things are different being on this truck because I have no one to talk to. No one to be around or keep me awake. I might as well use this time to sleep, cause I barely had any the day before.

I'm on my way to Yundo to carry out the final mission of Squad 10609. I'm gathered in a truck with people of different histories and names than what I'm used to, some people sleeping while others stay awake to watch the scenery through the cracks. It will be a straight path to our only day-long rest stop of the Yixnang Military Base, formerly known as the Chengde Military Base. Yixnang is a mountainous city that preserved much of the Chinese culture that existed before it was taken over by Yundo. I have overheard that the city is colorful, and that there is a beautiful palace grounds right next to the military base. I would love to visit there before we commence into the takeover.

Mom, I'm worried about a lot of things. Some things aren't adding up, and as the pages turn I'm finding flaws in the system. The own system that I'm fighting so hard for is the one that is hurting me the most. I have to question, what am I fighting for anymore? As the days go by in this war, I'm not fighting for my country. I'm not fighting for this Korean army. I'm fighting for myself. And it has a selfish connotation, but I'm trusting fewer people and my mind is going crazy. It's hard making sense of all of this. The ones I do trust, I will do anything to protect them from harm. I will do anything to keep them alive. Sungyeol, you're not supposed to be the one acting irrationally. I am. I guess the tables turn from here. I want to kill him as much as you do, but I don't want to risk your life doing so. 

Sunggyu is supposed to be sitting next to me. He's supposed to be sitting in this very truck by my side, but he isn't. I could be overrreacting as Sungyeol would say, because maybe he latched onto another truck or was placed somewhere else. But my instinct is telling me that something is suspicious about this. Especially after a night like yesterday, why wouldn't something be going on. Until I know more, I will try to believe that Sunggyu is on another truck.

The expected time of arrival in Yundo is 4 days. 

Does this army think I'm stupid? Does Captain Peo think I'm an idiot?

Because I'm not. Game on.

Kim Myungsoo

My apologies to everyone for the slow updates. School is a little difficult for me, especially math, which is why things are slow. But my testing should be done soon enough and I'll be updating things very slowly for the moment.

Sungjong knows about Hoya's death, Sungyeol wants to kill Captain Peo, Sunggyu is gone, and Myungsoo is slowly but surely trying to piece the puzzle together and figure things out.

Dongwoo will do something in the next chapter out of desperation, and Sungyeol is going to be tested how much he means what he says. With all the promises that nothing will happen between the two of them, what will happen when something does?

STAY TUNED! I will update as much as I can.