"Myungsoo. Myungsoo. Kim Myungsoo."

Myungsoo slept in the corner of their truck with his eyes halfway open and dried drool on the side of his cheek. He leaned against the side, cuddling himself from the cold.

"Ya, Myungsoo!"

A slap hit Myungsoo's cheek, prompting him to wake up and spaz momentarily in his seat. He looked from side-to-side only to see Woohyun and Sungyeol standing before him. "What? What? Oh, you guys."

"Have a good sleep, princess?" Woohyun smirked.

"A little bit." Myungsoo scratched his eye, his nose sniffing from sleeping in the cold. His neck was also stiff from the uncomfortable sleeping position from last night, his nerves sensitive to any slight movement or touch. He slid his to the edge of his seat, looking up at Woohyun and Sungyeol. "Where are we?"

"We just got to Kanggye," Sungyeol replied, his thumb and cleaning off the drool on Myungsoo's chin.

"No, stop!" Myungsoo giggled, pushing Sungyeol away from him.

"Hey," Sungyeol shrugged Myungsoo's hand off his shirt. He pointed towards the opening of their caravan truck. "We have a couple of hours until 12:00 today, and we can go exploring around the base."

Myungsoo nodded, following Woohyun and Sungyeol out into the shy morning light peaking through the truck. Every step was a reluctant step, the light blinding his sleepy eyes that he used his arm as a shield. He jumped out into a sea of life, different people walking around the base at 9:00. Behold him were soldiers, doctors, scientists, engineers, even families walking around the bustling city. One of the first things Myungsoo noticed was another body of water flowing through the city, different people on boats floating down. Every building was white, much of it preserved when North Korea and South Korea united. Myungsoo was not sure what kind of base this was. It looked almost like any other regular town he had ever stepped foot in. He was in awe of how lovely the city looked.

"This is a military base?" Woohyun also wondered.

"This is part of the downtown area. The actual camps are a mile or so walk," Sungyeol answered.

Myungsoo scanned the surroundings. A liquor store nearby, a community clothing store, a nearby bar, and several apartments perched as penthouses on top of the buildings. "Kanggye almost looks immaculate. I'm surprised that Sotena didn't plow through this place first, unless they did."

"They tried to. But we stopped them just in time." The three of them turned to see an unfamiliar soldier walking up to them. With a warm grin, he stuck his hand out to greet them. "My name is Kim Yu Kwon, and I'm the sergeant of Squad 11405. You guys are 10609, I'm assuming?"

"Yeah we are," Sungyeol greeted. "I'm Lee Sungyeol."

"Nam Woohyun," he bowed.

"Kim Myungsoo."

Myungsoo stuck his hand out to also shake his hand, but Yu Kwon seemed to ignore his friendly advance and continued. "Welcome to Kanggye. We'll be offering you the best our troop has to offer as well as weapons to handle the troubles ahead."

Myungsoo pulled his hand back, hesitant in placing it in his pocket and pretending it never happened. 

"Are you going to be coming with us?" Woohyun asked.

"As of right now, I wasn't assigned to go to Yundo with all of you. But I may be assigned later. Our squad will also be attending the meeting at 12:00."

"Do you like it at this place?" Sungyeol asked.

"Oh, this place is fantastic! It's a great area to train, and I've learned so much from being here. I've worked so hard to get to where I am now, and now I can fully commit to this war and serve my duties as an active soldier." Yu Kwon rolled his shoulders back to stretch, taking a step back towards the city center. "Hey, follow me! I'll show you around why this place is amazing."

Woohyun watched as Yu Kwon walked away, reluctant to follow at first but running after him with much curiosity about Kanggye himself.

Sungyeol turned to Myungsoo and motioned his hand to follow Yu Kwon. "You coming?"

Myungsoo shrugged his shoulders. He still felt a little awkward about Yu Kwon blatantly rejecting his handshake, but in a world war at stake he had more important things to think about. Any kind of relationship with Korean troops to improve the morale of the amry and himself would help in the long run. "Sure, let's go."

(((())))

Sunggyu, Dongwoo, and Hoya arrived at the grounds of the Kanggye Military Base, half a mile away from the edge of the city. The layout was a lot more different from Pyongyang, the base formed in a rectangular shape and a lot more organized in structure. They strolled the way down the base, exploring the different parts of the base. Residency was in groups of ten as opposed to two per tent. There was a whole building dedicated to meetings instead of having discussions and meetings outside. The cafeteria and gym were neighbored with each other, and the recreational lounge was right across. 

They walked towards the flagpole, where the three of them were met with Captain Peo and an unknown soldier.

"Annyeong hashimnikka," they bowed and saluted their captain at 360 degrees.

"Good morning soldiers. How was the ride today?" Captain Peo asked.

"It was good sir. All of us fell immediately asleep," Hoya answered.

Captain Peo nodded. "Great. I hope that all of you had some beauty rest before the next step."

"Well if you look at Sunggyu, clearly none of us had beauty sleep," Dongwoo mumbled.

"Aish," Sunggyu reached behind Hoya's back to jab Dongwoo on his side.

The unknown soldier stood with a straight back and chin high up, stepping forward to extend his hand.

"Fellows, I would like you all to meet Pyo Ji Hoon. He is a part of special operations for Squad 11405. Sunggyu, I would like to talk to the both of you before we continue onto the meeting at 12:00 today."

"Yes sir." Sunggyu followed Captain Peo and Ji Hoon towards the meeting room, where everyone else would eventually join them.

Hoya his lips, watching them walk away. "It's a good day, huh?"

Dongwoo nodded with tenseness. He was happy to see Hoya up and running to continue fulfilling his duties as sergeant. At the same time, he could not help but view his positivity as forced. The moment replayed in Dongwoo's head for the rest of the day, haunting his dreams and his thoughts. It was not something he could easily get over, so there was no way Hoya did either. "Are you ok?"

"What?" Hoya glared at Dongwoo, hesitating to answer that question. He rocked his body back and forth, studying his surroundings and avoiding any eye contact with him. "I'm fine," he mumbled.

"I sure hope so." Dongwoo was concerned, almost scoffing at the fact that Hoya was trying to push this all aside. "I'm sorry. You worry me, Hoya. I have a right to be scared."

Hoya bit his lip, knowing that his best friend was right. And truthfully, Hoya was not as ok as he tried to convince himself to be. He would catch himself shaking uncontrollably, giving dirty stares to everyone around him for no reason. "Please don't worry about me, Dongwoo. I'm going to be ok. It was only that one time, ok?"

"I can't afford to have it be another. And what if next time, I..." Dongwoo stopped himself to swallow some tears, leaning his head back to look up at the sky and take a deep breath. "I don't walk in on time?"

Hoya had no answer to that question, but seeing the person he cared about the most almost crying in the middle of the day was all he needed to see. He grabbed onto Dongwoo's shoulder, squeezing it to almost massage it and try to ease his pain. "It's because of you, I won't be doing anything like that anymore," Hoya confessed.

The two of them stood in the middle of the base, lowering their heads bashfully from everything that has occurred between them. At that moment, Woohyun, Sungyeol, Myungsoo, and their new friend Yu Kwon walked over to them to join their group. Woohyun waved. "We found you!"

Dongwoo and Hoya separated, pretending nothing was going on between them to put a smile on their faces for their friends. "What's going on?" Dongwoo grinned. Hoya noticed a new person hanging around them, squinting his eyes to see who it was.

"We were getting a tour of Kanggye. This place is so much better than Pyongyang, right?" Woohyun's spirits were high, astonished by everything around him.

"It feels a lot more cozy here, too. I could live here," Dongwoo chuckled.

"Tell me about it. Oh, by the way meet the sergeant of Squad 11405." Woohyun stepped back and gently pushed Yu Kwon's shoulder to move forward.

"Sergeant Lee Yu Kwon at your service." The guy had an undeniable charm that Dongwoo and Hoya really liked, very friendly even though they just met. "Welcome to Kanggye Military Base. It's nice to hear the compliments about this place sometimes."

"Jang Dongwoo. We're all friends here." Dongwoo extended his own hand to shake.

"Lee Howon, but you can call me Hoya. I'm sergeant of 10609." Hoya bowed in front of Yu Kwon.

"You're the Hoya? I've heard a lot of great things about you," Yu Kwon complimented.

"You, you have?" Hoya was intrigued, raising an eyebrow and suddenly invested in getting to know him more. "I'd like to hear more about that. Will you be joining us to Sotena?"

"To be determined after this meeting. Which by the way, we should start taking our seats inside if we want a good seat. We can talk more on the way. I would love to get to know all of you much more." Yu Kwon headed towards the meeting room, grabbing onto Hoya's arm to pull him along. Hoya looked back, shrugging his shoulders at his friends before he followed Yu Kwon inside.

"Friendly guy, huh?" Sungyeol commented.

"He seems cool," Dongwoo added. "He looks very strong too, kind of like Hoya."

Myungsoo sniffed his nose, snot slimed up on his hands. He had nothing to say about Yu Kwon. In fact, he had a lot to say but he opted out of speaking his mind. The guy talked too much during his tour around the base and tried too hard to hobnob, majority of the time spoke only of himself, and his attitude was quite haughty for his tastes. He did not understand what people saw with him. Quite frankly, Myungsoo did not like him at all.

(((())))

Several hours after their meeting, the six of them moved into the cafeteria for dinner. Everything at this base was a vast improvement from their previous living situation, the place huge enough to serve up to 1000 people at a time. They spent a good majority of the day transferring new weapons onto their trucks, organizing new supplies and arrangements for their upcoming trip. The Korean army was expecting some sort of mountain attack within the next few days, it was only a matter of when it would occur. It was a long day of heavy lifting, and the boys were ready to unwind with a nutritious meal of carrots and dukbokki.

"Can you believe we're heading out at 2:00?" Woohyun complained, picking up his dukbokki and dropping it back into his bowl repeatedly. "We just got here!"

"We have a lot of things to take care of," Sunggyu explained, munching on a bite of dukbokki. "Like Captain Peo explained during the meeting, we have an advantage now in this war. We might be closer to finding their nuclear weapons."

Hoya took a sip of soy milk, releasing a satisfying sigh before slamming it down on the table. "This was never meant to be a long stop. Think of this as a supply run."

"I just wanted to stay here longer," Woohyun groaned, slumping in his seat leaning his chin on his fist.

"I'm sorry you couldn't stay here for a couple more days!" Yu Kwon walked to their table with a pair of trays, Ji Hoon on his side as well as another soldier. They took their places at the table uninvited, but the six of them said nothing otherwise to reject their advance. "Do you mind if we sit here?"

"Nope, go right ahead," Dongwoo nodded.

"You already sat here anyways..." Myungsoo grumbled.

Sungyeol pinched him on his thigh to stay quiet and not speak out of line anymore. 

"I don't know if any of you met Pyo Ji Hoon yet, but he's involved with operations and strategy here. Also, this is Park Kyung and one of my closest friends since elementary school." Yu Kwon did his best to introduce his old friends to his new ones. "Park Kyung and I will be coming along with you guys at 2:00 tonight. Ji Hoon is staying here, though."

"Hey, we were all friends in elementary school too," Dongwoo smiled.

"It's a little weird when you realize how long you've been friends," Kyung spoke. He shoved a mouthful of carrots into his mouth, chewing and talking at the same time. "That's really nice that the six of you knew each other for a long time."

"Kyung, your mouth," Ji Hoon groaned. Kyung sounded like an animal to him.

"Fine." Kyung swallowed all of the food whole in one gulp.

"You'd have to excuse my friends. We're a bit playful sometimes," Yu Kwon justified.

"That's fine. We're eating dinner, we don't need to act all dignified or anything," Hoya defended.

"It's not only the six of us. We have one more friend here." Everyone looked towards the end of the table, where Myungsoo was playing with his food and looking down at his tray. He was not in any mood to cozy it up with anyone in 11405, only concerned about his own squad and friends. He felt it necessary to bring it up, and if they were talking about lifelong friends he wanted Sungjong's name there. "His name was Sungjong."

"Captain Peo talked about him with me. It happened a couple days ago right?" Yu Kwon mentioned remorsefully. "I'm sorry for your loss."

"It's not a loss yet. He might still be alive," Sungyeol voiced. 

"Well, you have to be realistic here. There's a really good chance that he's gone," Yu Kwon said bluntly.

The words struck a heartstring for the six best friends, not exactly what they wanted to hear.

"Excuse me?" Myungsoo dropped his chopsticks on his tray to finally talk to Yu Kwon since the first time they met that morning. "I saw him taken away from me alive. He is still alive."

Yu Kwon clicked his tongue, taking a deep breath before continuing. "People come and go in this war all the time. It's a fact of life, and you can't continue dwelling on something like this for too long if you want to move on."

Everyone at the table stayed quiet. Unable to really speak out against Yu Kwon, who was confident with every word he said. Myungsoo was livid, wanting to burst from the words he was spouting. Yu Kwon, you have no idea what you're talking about. If you were there, then you can speak for yourself. But you can't speak for me, and you can't speak for Sungjong. Myungsoo silently kept the thoughts to himself, shutting his mouth and fuming on the inside. 

"Death is something that happens. But we can't let it consume our whole lives. The most we have are the memories we uphold of our past, and that's all we need to move on." Yu Kwon took a bite of his carrot, done with his words.

Myungsoo crossed his arms, scoffing at Yu Kwon's words. He refused to believe they were true. He looked around at his friends sitting at the table, all of them with morose expressions on their faces. "How can you be so insensitive," Myungsoo muttered to himself.

"We're going to head to the bar later if you want to join us," Ji Hoon mentioned to break the ice. It was not a good time to talk so lightheartedly at the dinner table, especially with Yu Kwon's cutting words. But Ji Hoon felt the mood of their table change from when they first sat down, and he wanted to start some more positive small talk with everyone.

"We have to go at 2:00 though," Sunggyu mentioned, apprehensive to accept the invite.

"Come on hyung. We can drink and then sleep on the truck anyways," Dongwoo tried to persuade.

"I'll go." Hoya took another sip of his soy milk, on the last remains of milk dry and sticking his tongue out after to show off that he finished. All the talk about Sungjong was generating ill feelings, and even the most serious one of them all needed a break sometimes. "I could use a beer."

"I guess we're all going then, huh?" Yu Kwon smirked, oblivious to the feelings that he may have hurt when he talked. 

"I guess so?" Sungyeol shrugged his shoulders.

"I guess so." Myungsoo was the least bit satisfied with all of this.

(((())))

Dear Mom,

6 or 7 hours ago we made a pit stop to Kanggye. The place is quite interesting, a lot of the buildings of its old city still standing and in great condition. The military base is also lovely, a lot more ascetic than Pyongyang. This place has an odd color to it. I could go into a lot of detail with this place, but I might bore you. While it's a very comforting city, I don't know if I completely trust this area. It's like I'm a tourist, but I'll get over it. I'll be leaving this place with some members of Squad 11405 at 2:00 tomorrow.

Have you ever had a moment where someone rubbed you the wrong way? They act cordial with you, but how can you tell if something is fake? How can you tell if everything is a false pretense of their true identity?

I've encountered someone today who acts like he knows better than me. He thinks that he can define my feelings and how I should act. How can anyone tell me what I should do and get away with it, especially if you were never there to begin with?

I'll speak more tomorrow. Sungyeol just walked into our room and wants me to go out with him.

I love you mom.

Kim Myungsoo.

"Hurry up." Sungyeol pulled on Myungsoo's arm to get off his bed. "We're going to leave to the bar soon."

"I know." Myungsoo tossed the letter by his pillow and stood up from his bed, grabbing his coat off the floor to put on. "Where are we going again?"

"We're going to head to that bar with Yu Kwon and Ji Hoon."

"Lovely," Myungsoo chimed sarcastically.

Sungyeol frowned, rubbing Myungsoo's shoulder. "I don't know why you have a problem with Yu Kwon. He hasn't done anything wrong to us."

Myungsoo did not quite understand either, but a strange vibe emitted when Yu Kwon started talking about Sungjong, General Kang, the other missing soldiers. "I can see through empathizing, and Yu Kwon did not pity us at all."

"This is about dinner?" Sungyeol crossed his arms, doing his best to be patient with Myungsoo and his outbursts about Sungjong. It was difficult to see Myungsoo traumatized by this mess, and he understood that not everyone takes in war the right way. "You can't read him like that."

"I can read him however I want, but he can't talk so lightly about that. And it's not just the people missing. What about the people who have died? On our side, and their side. Sungyeol, I blew Sotena soldiers up to pieces during our first battle. Yes they are the enemy, but it still hurts. They all had a mother, too. When people are lost in this war, it hurts me. And it hurt with him talking about our fellow troop members like that. Our best friend." Myungsoo sighed. "I'm being very melodramatic, aren't I?"

"Well, this wouldn't be the first time," Sungyeol smiled, patting Myungsoo on the back. "We'll stop by the bar to see our friends, not Yu Kwon or anyone else in 11405. Ok? Then after, I'll come back here whenever you want. We're leaving at 2:00 anyways, and we should try to get ready before the bumpy ride ahead."

It was late at night, 23:00. No soldier should have been out at this time with their lives and country on the line, but even in the hardest of times people needed a small break. Myungsoo needed one too, the war clearly getting to him and affecting his perception of the people around him. He recognized he was making things into a bigger deal than they should be, but perhaps it was possibly the lack of sleep and energy that normally fueled him to keep going on. Myungsoo was tired, he had no reason to trust Yu Kwon, but he believed in Sungyeol. "Let's go."

Sungyeol and Myungsoo made a last minute effort to look good for the bar, stepping out of their residence to walk down the base towards downtown. It was a cool evening, the breeze rustling the falling leaves of autumn and the skies clear for each twinkling star and crescent moon to illuminate the night. They stayed close together, shoulders side-by-side to share their warmth.

"Do you remember back in middle school, when the seven of us snuck to the Han River around 2:00 to watch the meteor shower?" Sungyeol asked out of the blue.

"Oh, how could I forget that? I think I still have the belt scar from my mom for climbing out of my window on a school night," Myungsoo chuckled. He smiled, his dimples pinched in his face. "That's random."

"Well, I only thought of it cause we're walking together under the stars. Remember when Sunggyu and Sungjong fell into the water?"

Myungsoo scratched his head, uncertain of that specific moment. "How did that happen again?"

"Well, Sunggyu took Sungjong's hat. And Sungjong was already having a terrible day cause he failed his algebra test, so when Sunggyu hid it he snapped and pushed him in the water. Jongie fell shortly after." Sungyeol snorted, which only happens when he finds something absolutely hilarious. "That was a good night."

"Wow," Myungsoo giggled. "You called him Jongie. I haven't heard that in a while." 

Jongie was Sungjong's nickname up until high school, first used by his mom and then carried on by the boys since elementary. Sungjong never liked the nickname because it made him sound like a baby, so when high school hit he insisted that everyone called him by his first time. Sungjong wanted to prove his masculinity in any way, and he thought changing his name would be a start.

"Well, it was a good name for him. It rolled off the tongue." Sungyeol spotted a tiny pebble in their path, kicking it and watching it rebound the pavement and hop away from him. "Can you tell I'm starting to miss Jongie?"

Sungyeol was not the type of person to outwardly express his feelings. It was hard enough for him to even say a word to Myungsoo, because for him revealing emotions like this was viewed as showing weakness. Sungyeol needed to stay strong for himself, but he also gets caught in the moment. There was also an externality of bringing this moment up, and that was seeing Myungsoo smile about it.

"We all miss Jongie," Myungsoo sighed, doing his best to control his inner emotions to break down and cry in front of Sungyeol. In the eve of the night and no one around, Myungsoo could easily do so. But now was not a good time. "I'll miss Jongie until we reunite again."

Sungyeol grinned. "You're adorable."

"Don't call me that ever again, loser." Myungsoo elbowed Sungyeol into a nearby bunker. The both of them laughed at each other, clawing and pushing each other into the concrete walls for fun. The two of them played mercy, holding onto each other's hands until one of them surrendered to the forced pain. "Stop it, Sungyeol!" Myungsoo begged, backing up against the wall with a mixture of uncontrollable laughter and tears. Sungyeol his lips, pushing him back until he was only inches away from Myungsoo. He moved his head in closer, the both of them touching their noses as they continued to fight for fun.

That was when the two of them caught eye contact with each other, their heavy breaths filling the air and onto the one in front of them. They stayed quiet, only the sound of their breathing and heartbeats heard.

"Today is d-day. We've been here for more than half a year, and it's led up to this moment where we will be fighting for everyone back home."

A familiar muffled voice could be heard through the bunker walls. Sungyeol and Myungsoo broke their gaze, listening in on what was happening inside.

"It's all led to this moment. Sotena is trying to take over all of Asia, but they can't. You know why? Cause we're here."

"Hey, is that Hoya?" Myungsoo thought, a lower tone coming from inside.

"Yeah, I think so," Sungyeol whispered. "This kind of sounds familiar, like as if Hoya has said this before."

"Yes, Sergeant Lee!" 

"Shut up, Dongwoo!"

"Is that... is Dongwoo also inside? I just heard Hoya call out his name." Myungsoo pressed his ear on the cold concrete, shivers sent down his spine from what he was hearing.

"They were all supposed to be at the bar waiting for us." Sungyeol was apprehensive, pulling on Myungsoo's collar to tiptoe closer to the door to eavesdrop on further. They had no idea which bunk they were by since the six of them shared the same residency, but the Dongwoo and Hoya seemed to be having a conversation.

"Sungjong, you stay next to me the whole time buddy."

"Sungjong?" Myungsoo exclaimed. 

Sungyeol covered Myungsoo's mouth, touching his lower lip with his fingers to make Myungsoo stay quiet. He tuned in to listen more. "Myungsoo, that sounds like you inside," he muttered.

Myungsoo's eyes widened, the tone in voice similar to his. His heart started beating faster, unsure what to make of all of this. The two of them listened to one more person speak inside.

"You got it."

Sungjong... that's Sungjong's voice. That was him. I don't know many voices, but that was him. That was my friend.

"Sungjong is inside!" Myungsoo slapped Sungyeol's hand away to run towards the bunker. There was only one thing on his mind, and that was Sungjong was alive.

"No, wait!" Sungyeol pulled on Myungsoo's arm. "That's not Sungjong. You were also inside, Myungsoo. We've had this conversation before. You can't be here and inside all at the same time!"

"Let go!" Myungsoo snapped, shrugging Sungyeol off to barge inside the bunker.

It was a small room. It was a better quality bedroom, the bed queen sized with much more amenities provided. Along the walls were pictures of several awards, such as a wrestling tournament and a certificate for promotion to sergeant. There was a desk, and there sat a person consumed with his laptop. 

Myungsoo was breathing heavily, looking around to see if Sungjong was anywhere around. Sungyeol followed immediately after, shocked to see that no one else was inside. Dongwoo, Hoya, Sungjong, it was only the two of them standing at the doorway.

Except for one more person at their desk.

Yu Kwon sat at a table, replaying some audio on his laptop with much concentration. One ear had an earphone to listen carefully as he transcribed the words on a computer document. He clicked to play the audio one more time, listening to some sort of podcast. The familiar voice played through the laptop speakers. It was Hoya's voice, replaying the same thing Sungyeol and Myungsoo heard outside.

It was a conversation they had hours before their first battle in Pyongyang direct from Yu Kwon's computer.

"Today is d-day. We've been here for more than half a year, and it's led up to this moment where we will be fighting for everyone back home."