Dear Mom,

I've calmed down a bit from the last letter I sent. What a horrible day that was. Thankfully, I'm refreshed with a clearer mind and heart from before.

I'm out on the road again and heading to Fuden to spend for a couple of days. Due to certain circumstances in the army, our group had to make a sudden change in strategy and go to a different city. I think we're almost there. It's 6:00, and I'm one of the only people awake on this truck.

Being out here has been the biggest challenge of my life. I definitely think out of all of us, I was the most naive. I wish I was more prepared embarking on this, because event though I understood that this was a war I don't think I fully understood the circumstances of what it all entailed. It's not like I ever thought the war was going to be war and games, but I didn't know it was going to come to a lot of things. I didn't know there would be this much blood. This much betrayal. I try so hard to stay strong, but sometimes it all builds up and gets to me. Somtimes I wonder if I am the only weak one here. No one else seems to be cracking right now. 

I'm repeating myself now. I always write the same exact thing in letters over and over. I hope you're not getting tired of me, mom! I think out loud in letters. You're one of the few people who know my real and uncensored thoughts. Just let me know if you're tired of dealing with me and my emotional waves. I can tell Sungyeol is getting tired of me. Which speaking of, he's waking up right now. 

We're closing in on Yundo. Keep me in your thoughts.

I love you mom.

Kim Myungsoo.

Sungyeol slowly opened his eyes, little by little allowing the sunlight to creep in. There was a sharp pain at the back of his neck, putting his hand back to feel it. There was something boney hitting his neck, lurching forward to massage it. He shifted his body, locking eyes with Myungsoo as he finished writing a litter. Sungyeol scratched his eye. "Was I leaning on you this whole time?"

Myungsoo folded up his mother's letter, ing the top of his uniform to shove the letter into his bulletproof vest. "I don't know, but when I woke up 30 minutes ago you were still on my shoulder."

Sungyeol was disoriented, the sunrise bringing out an arrangement of hues in the sky to keep his eyes open in astonishment. "I think it's going to be a good day."

"I sure hope so. All I've been having are terrible days," Myungsoo smirked, buttoning his shirt back together.

", my neck hurts," Sungyeol whined, hitting the spot where his muscles strained and flinching from the spasm.

"Do you want a massage?" Myungsoo asked.

"Yes please." Sungyeol turned his body for Myungsoo to see a better angle of his neck. He leaned back and allowed his best friend's hands to do their magic.

Myungsoo placed a finger on Sungyeol's neck, noticing the tensity almost immediately. He knew exactly how to treat it, pressing his thumb against the spot. Myungsoo knew all the right spots to press; massaging his neck in small circles and changing speeds to get into the knot. 

Sungyeol rolled his shoulders back, closing his eyes and enjoying Myungsoo's heavenly touch. All stress eased, letting out a satisfying exhale. "Thanks."

Myungsoo nodded his head. "No problem."

"Of course, you're not as good as your mom," Sungyeol smiled.

"Are you kidding me." Myungsoo pushed Sungyeol's neck away and stopped massaging him.

"Hey! I was enjoying that," Sungyeol frowned.

"I'm sorry, why don't you ask my mom since you're clearly in love with her," Myungsoo rolled his eyes.

"Hey!" Sungyeol turned around and pointed his finger and Myungsoo's chest. "I'm not in love with her. She's just an amazing woman."

Myungsoo could not stand how ridiculous that sounded, Sungyeol's infatuation with his own mother more than he can chew. Sungyeol practically lived at his house, him and his brother coming in at least five times a week to hang out with Myungsoo and his own brother. Deep down Myungsoo knew the real reason why Sungyeol would always stay for hours, and Myungsoo found it all hilarious. Mrs. Kim was pretty much like Sungyeol's aunt, if not his second mom. "Marry my mom why don't you? Or why don't you find someone like her so you stop hogging her from me?" Myungsoo quipped.

Sungyeol laughed nervously. "Is it my fault her food is amazing?"

"Using my mom for food? I knew it."

"Well, your food is decent too."

"Oh, so we're going to talk about my cooking now?" Myungsoo was ready to hear what this was all about.

"You're not bad. The thing you cook the best, even a little better than your mom, is jjigae," Sungyeol grinned.

"Wait, you liked my jjigae?" Myungsoo remembered the last time he made jjigae for his family. His mom was sick with the cold and did not want to cook something that infected the rest of the family, so Myungsoo volunteered himself to cook a tofu and fish jjigae. Sungyeol came over that day, offering him a bowl of piping hot jjigae to eat for dinner. "I didn't know you liked it that much. You were quiet after you ate it."

"I like messing with you," Sungyeol chuckled. "After you left to bring dinner to your mom I ate that er in less than 5 minutes. It was too delicious to pass up." Sungyeol pat his stomach and rubbed it in circles. "It was fantastic."

Myungsoo rolled his eyes. "Stop trying to butter me up."

"Well, like you said! I should find someone like her, right?" Sungyeol smiled at Myungsoo, his joke on a more intimate level than he intially thought before he delivered it. In this war, it made him realize just how much Myungsoo meant to him.

Myungsoo was used to hear witty comments like that spewing out of Sungyeol's mouth, but this specific one brought an uncomfortable feeling in his stomach. He almost felt like he was sweating bullets around Sungyeol, affecting him in such a different way than ever before. After everything that him and Sungyeol experienced together in only a matter of a few weeks, he felt their bond was something different than before. It was a stupid joke, but why do I feel weird?

The truck traveled from rocky gravel to a smooth pavement, marking their arrival into the next city. At this point almost every soldier had woken up in the back of their truck and peeped through the cracks and back of the caravan to check out the area. 

Their arrival into the new city was something different than before. Usually the squad was welcomed to another group allied with Korea, but this time their entrance was sour. As they looked through the cracks of their truck, they were greeted to the dirty looks of Sotena citizens around the area. The town was a little poor and the peope who inhabited it looked less advanced than the rest of the country. Sotenans kept their eyes focused on the Korean troops, many families bringing their children into their homes and hiding into the buildings along the street. It was an unwelcomed entrance, but the citizens did not pose a real threat to them.

"It looks like we're not wanted here," Sungyeol stated.

Myungsoo caught his attention on a mother standing right next to the town trading post using her hand to shield her daughter's eyes from the troops. The mother's eyes shared contact with Myungsoo, and in that it made him contemplate about the innocence of a child and his own mother. How his mother used to protect him from anything terrible and shield him from the evil in this world. Now, in a foreign country Myungsoo himself was the evil. He somehow wished there was a way to walk straight to the mother and tell him he would not hurt her and her daughter, how even though he was put into the realms of war he still cared. The whole situation was disheartening. "Wait a minute." Myungsoo squinted his eyes at a local sign in his peripheral.

It was a typical convenient store, the customers inside at a standstill from watching the trucks pass by. To his surprise, the sign read something different than what Myungsoo had expected: Aniyan Convenient Store.

"What the." Myungsoo pulled on Sungyeol's hair and brought it to the crack he was looking at. "Sungyeol, we're in Aniyan right now."

"That's not right. We're not supposed to be in Aniyan." Sungyeol saw the sign, confirming the complete unexpected. "We're in Aniyan." Sungyeol turned to the rest of the troops in the truck, confused at their final destination. "We're in Aniyan!" he yelled out.

The truck and every caravan following parked on an empty street at the edge of the city center, troops filing out of the caravan and into the unknown territory of Aniyan. Soldiers piled out into the city streets in commotion of where they were, the new plans to head to Fuden had unfortunatey backfired. There was nothing anyone could do to change it, and backtracking just to go to Fuden could risk them falling behind too much. Sungyeol and Myungsoo filed out of the truck last with their weapons secure at their hands, suspicious at what just happened. Standing off to the side, Sunggyu, Dongwoo, and Woohyun found the both of them and ran towards them. 

"Sunggyu, you said we were going to Fuden," Sungyeol questioned.

"Yeah, that's what I thought." Sunggyu scanned the area, every single sign marking the town as Aniyan boundaries. Sunggyu was more confused than anyone else since he had partaken in the planning process of the new strategy. 

"Look over there." Woohyun pointed everyone towards the direction of Captain Peo, several other high ranking leaders arguing, and the drivers. They could not hear anything they said, but from the hand movements and facial expressions of the group this pivotal mistake could change the course of the war.

Hoya walked over to everyone scratching his eye, letting out a tiring yawn as he stumbled his way in. "What's going on?"

"Rise and shine?" Dongwoo joked, flicking Hoya's ear to wake him up.

"We're in Aniyan when we should be in Fuden." Sunggyu put his hands behind his back in frustration, wondering how things could have gone wrong.

"Did they change the course?" Hoya asked. "I don't know, I've been sleeping this whole time."

"Who's truck was leading us, anyways?" Woohyun asked.

"It was Hoya, Myungsoo, and me in the leading truck," Sungyeol answered. "I have no idea what happened, I only woke up about an hour ago."

"Your truck?" Sunggyu scratched his head. "Hoya, you were sleeping on the truck the whole time?"

"What do we do now?" Myungsoo pondered. "Wasn't the point of going to Fuden to pick up more troops? We're alone with only our squadrants."

The six of them were rather oblivious to what could possibly be going on, some of the acting better than others 

"Well as of right now we are an army of 800. It's enough right now for the next couple of hours, but we have to move quickly and gather more soldiers. We didn't prepare for this." Sunggyu crossed his arms, the first order of business important to him was getting out of Aniyan as soon as possible. "I guess for now, stay alert and be wary of everything around you. You don't know who you can trust."

(((())))

Woohyun, Sungyeol, and Myungsoo checked out city center of Aniyan and followed the foot of different soldiers heading to the small shopping area. It was quite a scene, a bazaar of different cultures infused together. Arts and crafts like rugs, clothing, jewelry, carved wood, and furniture hung from the diiferent sections of the market. The town was a lot more old-fashioned than other places, keeping to its traditional roots while exhibiting a spurt of advanced technology in other areas of Aniyan.

"Hey, check this out." The three of them passed by a booth with a whole glass case of handcrafted earrings laid out on a rug. There was one specific earring that caught his eye, bending over to carefully inspect it in his hand. Each earring had  a small globe of green jade with different swirls in its marble. The earrings were perfectly polished, Myungsoo rolling his finger on each one to feel its smoothness. These are perfect. "I want to get these for my mom."

"They look really nice," Woohyun complimented. "Maybe I should get a pair for my future wife."

"Or wives," Sungyeol snided. 

"You're so funny," Woohyun rolled his eyes.

"I'm going to pay for these now." Myungsoo walked over to an older female who sat in a chair. She was draped in a traditional dress that had influences of Chinese and Korean culture, the combination of a qipao and hanbok all together. The dress was beautiful, pink and green and embroidered in a glittery gold. Myungsoo smiled at the lady, handing the earrings to her. "Just this," he said in the minimal Sotenan that he knew.

The lady stood still, holding onto the register and staring straight into Myungsoo's eyes. She did not move a single limb.

Myungsoo blinked his eyes, figuring he may have said the wrong words. "This," he repeated.

Once again, the lady did not wince at his words, her bright eyes gazing only at Myungsoo.

"Hey, did you buy the earrings yet?" Woohyun and Sungyeol followed Myungsoo inside of the booth where he was supposed to pay for the earrings.

"I don't know. I don't speak a lot of Sotenan," Myungsoo admitted, a little embarrassed that the lady did not understand a single word he said.

"I kind of know some." Sungyeol moved foward to project his voice. "We would like to buy this pair of earrings," he said with adequate pronunciation.

The lady took a step back, her body trembling at their presence. Her eyes started to tear up, a strange reaction to asking to buy earrings. The three of them had no idea what else to say or understood what she was doing.

That was when she pointed over Myungsoo's shoulder. On his back, his assault rifle was strapped and pointing straight into the air. Her hands were shaking as she pointed at it, keeping shut and overcome with a fear that Myungsoo would hurt her.

"What?" Myungsoo looked over his shoulder to finally realize she was scared of their guns. Myungsoo waved his hands in the air. "No, no! The safety catch is on my gun. I promise I do not want to hurt you. I only want to buy these earrings." I swear I'm not a monster. I promise you, I won't hurt you. 

"Hey, what do you guys think you're doing?"

Woohyun, Sungyeol, and Myungsoo turned around to see a group of three guys standing behind them. The man who spoke stood in front of the other two, his arms crossed and guard up. They looked like Sotenans of Aniyan, and Sungyeol could sense an aggression coming from them. Sungyeol was quite shocked to hear them speaking with decent Korean. He responded back in his native language. "We weren't doing anything. My friend only wanted to buy earrings."

The one in front took a step forward to provoke them. "Get away from here and get out of Aniyan."

"We're not here to harm anyone. We only want to buy something," Sungyeol tried to convince, repeating his words in Sotenan just in case they did not understand him.

"You were going to hurt that harmless lady," the man accused.

"What are you talking about? We would never do that," Sungyeol was trying to cool down from the deliberate insult he was invoking.

"Hey." Myungsoo placed the earrings back down on the table right next to the lady and gripped onto Sungyeol's arm. Even though he thought i would be a lovely gift for his mother, the struggle to buy it was not worth his time and safety. "Let's just go, ok?"

"Yeah. Listen to your friend and leave right now." With every passing second, his volume grew louder and more irritating to their ears.

Sungyeol regretfully agreed, motioning his hand for them to leave. "Let's go back." Disappointingly, the three of them exited the market store to avoid the risks of getting hurt. Their uninvited presence into Aniyan did not sit well with the locals, many of them showing their attitude for Korean soldiers to leave their city. Sungyeol was the first one to leave the store, as he walked out shoving his shoulder into the man who was inciting him. "Sorry," he snided, walking away with Woohyun and Myungsoo. 

Insulted by his move, the man grabbed onto Sungyeol's shoulder and spun him around. He was holding a fist behind his back, ready to punch him at any moment. "No one wants you here in our country," he declared. "You guys are monsters. Terrible people who only care about hurting our kin."

"Those are some bold words there." Sungyeol shrugged the man's hand off of his shoulder. Sungyeol was normally good at controlling his emotions, but this guy in particular had him spiting him since the second they met eyes. "We're going to leave now. Don't speak for any of us." 

"Let's go Sungyeol." Woohyun and Myungsoo were frantic to leave the situation, Myungsoo pulling on Sungyeol's hand to get him out.

"Are your mothers proud of you for what you're doing? Are they proud to know that their sons are killing people by the second?"

As they walked away, Sungyeol stopped in his tracks to process his words. The threat was a jab that grinded Sungyeol the wrong way, the comment about their moms very deterring in every way. It was as if the war had gone over a new boundary that should have never been crossed. Sungyeol lowered his head, clenching his fist without a second thought and allowed for his emotions to take over. With a burning passion, Sungyeol spun around and swung his fist straight into the man's eye to knock him unconscious.

The man fell back, his two companions crouching down to help him. Several customers of the bazaar and other workers screamed frantically at what had taken place.

Sungyeol's eyes widened as he saw the blood dripping down his chin, breathing heavily from seeing what he caused with his own hands. 

"Sungyeol!" Woohyun screamed.

Sungyeol turned around, trying to think clearly after being clouded by unwarranted feelings. "I... I didn't mean to!" Sungyeol stammered.

"Please let's go!" Myungsoo frowned, never seeing Sungyeol react like this before. It frightened him to see Sungyeol act like that; his best friend was usually in control of his emotions and seeing him lash out like this was almost uncharacteristic. Myungsoo grabbed onto his hand, dragging Sungyeol away with Woohyun as they escaped the bazaar. Myungsoo watched over his shoulder as the Sotenan was barely breathing, his eyes closed and mind dizzy from the impact of his punch.

I'm always the one to break first. Never Sungyeol. 

(((())))

Dongwoo sat down on the curb of a nearby convenient store and watched Sunggyu and Hoya as well as a few other soldiers speaking to Captain Peo about the next step. The area was fairly quiet, and Dongwoo was able to make out a good amount of the conversation. The Korean troops would do their best to leave Aniyan as fast as possible and onto their next location to Shu Chai, formerly known as Shenyang, China. Their next location will be a big important takeover, infiltrating the city and meeting up with other Korean squadrants and allies from Japan and Australia to seize the city. It would mark their midway point to Yundo, hoping to arrive to the area in one or two days if the weather permit.

The weather was dismal in Aniyan, dark clouds hovered the area in what seemed like a preparation for a big downpour in the area. Their strategy was sidetracked, and no one was prepared for coming into a town where the weather was telling of how its own villagers felt about Koreans in their land.

Dongwoo twiddled his thumbs together, anxiously awaiting for their meeting to finish. He was about to head out with Woohyun, Sungyeol, and Myungsoo, but he instinctively stuck with Hoya to keep his eye out on him in his current state. The whole time waiting Dongwoo had encountered the nasty looks from different Sotenans for being Korean. No one wanted him or anyone in their city, and Dongwoo felt the exact same way. Him, his friends, and many other soldiers were ready to leave this dreaded town.

Sunggyu and Hoya finally finished their meeting, bowing in front of Captain Peo before running to Dongwoo on the sides. Both of their faces were serious, their expressions showing they were bothered by something.

"How did your meeting go?" Dongwoo asked, standing up and brushing himself off. He was thankful for them to finish since he could no longer stand being alone.

Sunggyu's expression was grim, biting his tongue as he glared at Hoya. He felt uncomfortable around him as he was suspicious of the fact that they arrived in Aniyan when Hoya was sitting in the leading truck. He tried to brush off the idea that it was intentional because he wanted to believe in Hoya, but it sounded too coincidental.

"We're getting the hell out of here as soon as possible." Hoya scratched his head, uneasy being in the area. "So we're going to be teaming up to invade Shu Chai, and because we took the wrong path it's going to happen faster than we expected."

Maybe that's what you wanted. Sunggyu nodded his head, still frustrated with the fact that his plans were foiled. "This whole situation got messed up, but we're going to get it together and leave as soon as possible."

Sunggyu, Dongwoo, and Hoya stood by contemplating their next course of action while wasting time in the city. It was a long day, and with it being the late afternoon their stomachs were growling for food.

"Dinner?" Dongwoo asked.

Sunggyu nodded his head. "Let's do it."

The three of them headed towards a random direction to search for any kind of restaurant to appease their appetite. They were starving and in much desire to eat anything at this point. 

"How are you feeling Hoya?" Dongwoo mumbled to Hoya. Knowing that today could have put an insurmountable amount of stress on Hoya, he wanted to ensure he was mentally capable of going on for the rest of the day.

"I'm fine." Hoya was hesitant to answer his question around Sunggyu, Dongwoo being the only person of the group who knew about his most recent stint the day before. Hoya was stressed out about a lot of things, the weight of something big piled up on his shoulders and eating him up alive. He kept up a poker face in front of Sunggyu and Dongwoo. "I'm really hungry right now, and I can't really think straight."

"I'm sure you can't," Sunggyu mumbled offhand.

They arrived at a restaurant for noodle dishes, Sunggyu opening the door for Dongwoo and Hoya to come in. The restaurant was somewhat empty, the only people there were the chefs, waiters, and a few Sotenans enjoying their dinner. The three of them took a table by the window, taking a seat and grabbing several menus to look at. Their menus had pictures right next to every single dish served, just the image of delicious food making their stomachs growling for something.

A waiter came to their table, waiting for them to announce their orders.

Sunggyu hummed, plagued my several different choices in front of him. "I think I'm going to get this Meng Runai."

Dongwoo followed his eyes towards a dish at the bottom of his menu of different vegetables and thick noodles in a spicy soy sauce. Dongwoo could not wait much longer. "I'm getting the Ringuma."

"Hanudan Runai," Hoya followed, choosing the first dish he saw. 

The waiter walked away with their orders and returned to the chefs, getting right into frying the noodles and cooking the ingredients to fill the restaurant with an aroma of a sweet wonder of deliciousness entiing their taste buds. Dongwoo's mouth watered, leaning over the table as he impatiently waited for their meals. "I can't take this."

"Me neither, I really need some food right now," Sunggyu added.

Hoya was fairly quiet during their conversation, looking overwhelmed in his own thoughts.

"Hoya, are you ok?" Dongwoo was concerned that maybe Hoya was not as fine as he said he was.

Sunggyu spotted Dongwoo staring endearingly at Hoya, noticing how worried he looked over him. Sunggyu tried to lighten up the mood. "I wonder what kind of TV shows we're missing out on right now."

Dongwoo laughed. "We're in a war, and all you can think about are dramas?"

"Hey, I like my shows," Sunggyu chuckled.

Suddenly, a group of Sotenans sitting in the restaurant walked over to their table with threatening looks. They recognized the three of them as Korean soldiers due to their uniform, surrounding their table and hovering over them. "Get out of our country," one of them warned, pointing their finger at Dongwoo's nose.

"Get away from us," Sunggyu spoke in Sotenan. "We don't mean any harm, we only want to eat."

"You can eat in your own country," another one spoke, flicking Dongwoo's hair and ruffling it up to irritate him. Dongwoo sat at the table with his hands clasped together, holding his temper in and taking anything they were throwing at him.

"I said you need to leave us alone. We only want to eat," Sunggyu repeated. 

Hoya noticed them bothering Dongwoo, his eyes glaring at the main man speaking arrogantly. "We mean no harm, so do everyone a favor and please leave us alone."

Sunggyu was shocked that Hoya stood up for them since he was silent the whole day. He noticed a spark in Hoya's eye, triggered when they were playing with Dongwoo.

"This is our home, so you guys should leave." At that moment, the Sotenan grabbed a knife on another table and went straight for Dongwoo.

Hoya jumped in between Dongwoo and the man. With one hand he grabbed onto the man's wrist as the knife was only centimeters away from Hoya's chest. He backed his body up into Dongwoo's body, his other hand holding onto Dongwoo's hand with a firm squeeze. The man struggled to stab Hoya, and Hoya with all the strength in his body Hoya twisted his wrist to aim the knife right back at him. Hoya pushed his hand into his neck, the knife only inches away from cutting his throat.

Everyone in the restaurant shrieked in horror. Sunggyu sweated in his seat, standing up behind Dongwoo and Hoya to support them. Dongwoo had his eyes closed the whole time, almost expecting that he was going to get hurt. He opened up his eyes, shocked to see Hoya's back against him and Hoya's fingers intertwined with his. 

"Go eat your own food and leave us alone," Hoya threatened. "If you try to hurt Dongwoo again..." Hoya could not finish his sentence. He let go of the man's wrist, the knife dropping straight to the ground. Hoya kicked it behind himself, his eyes speaking as if he was going to kill him if he tried to mess with Dongwoo one more time.

The man willingly surrendered, motioning for him and his posse to leave the restaurant all together. Everyone was horrified and shocked, the waiters, chefs, and other customers pausing everything they were doing in fear of what Sunggyu, Dongwoo, and Hoya would do next.

Dongwoo's whole body shivered, breathing heavily at the sudden attack. His whole life flashed before him when the man grabbed a knife and almost stabbed him. He was in complete and utter shock, his heart racing an incredible speed. "Hoya..." Dongwoo held onto his hand tightly, grateful for his actions to protect him. "You... you saved me," he cried, a single tear falling down from his face. "You saved me."

"I know." Sunggyu had no clue what to think about Hoya anymore. One second he questioned Hoya's character and his role in the war, and the next second he would do anything to save his friend. He saw a scene where Dongwoo and Hoya's friendship was on a completely different level than any other relationship he knew of, and Sunggyu was unsure if he liked it.

Hoya stared blankly into the distance, every single emotion crossing his mind and giving him a headache. He observed the group of Sotenans leave the restaurant at the corner of his eye, fuming in his stance with his whole face turning read. He was distracted in thought, losing track of his obligations in the war. He no longer knew where he was, what he was doing, or why he was even standing in the middle of the restaurant. He lost all consciousness.

The only thing Hoya knew was that he still wanted to hold Dongwoo's hand.

(((())))

Hoya ran laps by himself around the block of the Aniyan city center. It was 22:00 and while everyone was getting ready to sleep and prepare for a long journey in the wee hours of the morning, Hoya went on a run to relieve stress and thoughts about Dongwoo. It was a very spontaneous thing for him to do, holding Dongwoo's hand to protect him from the aggressive locals. Hoya was overcome with the emotions to protect Dongwoo at whatever cost, having lost Sungjong once. He was not going to let anyone take one of his friends again, especially Dongwoo. His heart was racing with thoughts of him, trying to figure out the feelings he experienced at that moment. 

At the same time, Hoya had a different plan from everyone else.

The sky was hazy, cloudy and polluted with the street lights around the city. The sky shined purple and red to hide the twinkling stars and moon in the mountain range. The wind picked up, a chilly breeze blowing against Hoya as if to halt him from going around much longer. An ominous shiver sent down his spine, but continuing to run anyways. The weather was unkind, maybe to reflect the hostility the city of Aniyan brought to Korean troops.

Hoya finished his last lap, slowing down as he approached the city's convenient store. He leaned against the wall to catch his breath, closing his eyes and refueling his lungs for energy. In the silence of the night, his breathing was the only thing that could be heard.

"Hoya." Hoya heard a sound coming behind him, spinning around to see Sunggyu walking up to him with a canvas bag of what looked like food and toiletries for himself. 

"Sunggyu, you're out late." Hoya grabbed onto his workout shirt, his whole chest and back drenched in a repugnant scent of sweat. The wind picked up, freezing his body from the wetness of his shirt. "What did you buy?"

"I bought some local handmade pastries and bread, a bottle of milk, and some shampoo," Sunggyu answered, hugging his body for warmth. "How was your run?"

"I ran three miles around the city, you know. Blow off some steam and work out."

It was a rather basic conversation with minimal language. The ambience was different between them, their usual verbose talk turned simple as Sunggyu and Hoya looked at each other. Their silence marked the notion that they were hiding certain feelings between them.

"Hoya, I need to talk to you," Sunggyu declared.

Hoya raised an eyebrow, nodding his head for Sunggyu to begin.

"Where do I go with this." Sunggyu tried to collect his thoughts, all the pieces of this puzzle making sense. "You need to stay away from Dongwoo."

Hoya was absolutely shocked by his words, panting in disbelief. After everything he had gone through with Dongwoo, someone was telling him to stay away. "Excuse me?"

Sunggyu crossed his arms, staring off into the street to avoid direct eye contact with Hoya. "There's something obviously going on. You have all of the documents and files in your backpack, you're at a decently high level in this hierarchy to know a considerable amount of information about the Korean army, and on top of that when the Korean troops were supposed to go to Fuden we ended up here in this ing forsaken town. Your truck was leading the whole pack to Fuden, and it led us to Aniyan. You ed up plans."

Hoya was offended to what Sunggyu was alluding. "Do you think I'm the spy?"

"If the shoe fits." Sunggyu was quite done with every word that came out of Hoya's mouth. For him nothing was believable anymore, and he regretted thinking that way about one of his best friends. At the same time, Dongwoo was also his best friend as well as everyone else. "The way you manipulated Myungsoo before was heartbreaking to watch. I had to admit you had me fooled in the residence at Senruma, but you need to cut the crap. You caused Sungjong's capture, you're ing with Myungsoo who has already gone through enough, and on top of that you're leading Dongwoo on. Dongwoo is one of the most compassionate people and he cares so much about you on a deeper level that I don't even understand. He's standing by your side in everything you do to the point of delusion. He's so dedicated, and I won't allow you to mess with him. I won't allow you to pretend you care about him and mess with his emotions."

Hoya walked up to Sunggyu, pushing him against the wall of the convenient store and causing Sunggyu to drop all of his groceries to the sidewalk. He choked Sunggyu with one arm and pointed at Sunggyu with the other. "You do not tell me how I feel about Dongwoo."

Sunggyu gasped for air, grabbing onto Hoya's arm to barely push it off and speak. "I swear, if you hurt any other one of our friends I will ing kill you. Hoya, I have to say you have quite an impressive poker face that has everyone fooled here. Well you underestimated me, cause I see right through you. I'm giving you an ultimatum. Tell me if you're the spy right now. If you give me no answer, I will kill you."

"You don't have the guts Sunggyu. You never killed a man before," Hoya threatened.

This was true, Sunggyu having little to no tolerance with killing and blood. Of course, when things were desperate he changed into a completely different person. "I will do anything to protect Dongwoo and all of our friends. I can't stand seeing another person hurt, and if you're the enemy then I have to do what I can for the ones I love the most. Hoya, I love you like a brother, but if you're the traitor I must kill you. It's a simple question, and I deserve to know the truth after all of these years."

"Do you really want to know the truth?" Hoya questioned.

Sunggyu narrowed his eyes. "Yes, yes I do."

Hoya pressed his arm against Sunggyu's chest, using his other hand to reach into his back pocket and whip out a double edged knife. He raised the knife to Sunggyu's neck, Sunggyu's heart immediately shutting off and losing all circulation in his body. Sunggyu was almost trembling, shutting himself up at the sight. "You do what I tell you, and if you love Dongwoo and the rest of our friends so much then you shut your mouth."

"Do what I tell you." What are your predictions for the next chapter? Hoya's identity will soon be revealed. A traitor? It will all reveal itself!

Different relationships are heating up, and the next couple of chapters should be quite interesting. Not to mention, quite sad ;_;

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