“Jiyong? It’s Seunghyun. How are you my baby? How’ve you been?”

“Seunghyun? Hyunie!!  Oh my god it’s been so ing long! No point asking how I am, I should be asking you! It’s so good to hear your voice again! Where are you? Why can’t I see you?”

“Only one of the web-cams is working,  Ji. Our division has only just returned to the carrier, so the queue to use it stretches right round the ship. It was use this phone or wait another few days before it was my turn to use the web-cam with a working screen and to be honest, I really couldn’t wait.”

“No, it’s enough just to hear your voice. God, I’ve missed you so ing much Seunghyun! I’ve been worried sick! Are you all right?”

“I’m fine, Ji.” Seunghyun smiled again, reaching out a tentative arm towards the blank screen before him. “I’ve missed you so much too. I just can’t wait to get home so I can finally tell you in person just how much my heart aches from being away from you.”

“Oh my god, so it’s true?! You’re really coming home?”

“The war’s over for me, Ji. Our unit is off rotation. I should be home within the next fortnight.”

Muffled sobs could be heard over the other side. “S…Seunghyun, you don’t know how long I’ve been waiting for these words. It’s been so long since your arms have wrapped around me and kissed me goodnight. Every morning I wake up to a cold sheet instead of your brilliant warmth. It’s been too long since we’ve taken a walk together in the park, or lied down on the beach to watch the sunset dip below the water. These calls and web-chats are the only thing that keeps me sane and I often wish I could just reach through the screen and touch your skin once more. I want to feel you again inside me and the pleasure of our aching legs the next day, I-“

“Listen, Ji, I’m sorry but I can’t stay on the phone for much longer. There’s a time limit on all comms out of this place until further notice. I wish I could do all those things with you Ji, you know how much I want to. But, umm, I…I wanted to ask you for a favour though.”

“Er yeah sure, go ahead.”

Seunghyun swallowed hard. “You’ve met Daesung, my co-piolet. Did you like him?”

“Yes, of course I did.”

Seunghyun heard the surprise in his lover’s voice. He ran a dry tongue over his lips. “It’s just that…well, we were shot down while on manoeuvres over-“

“What?! You were shot down? When were you going to ing tell me? Are you sure you’re-“

“I’m fine,” Seunghyun interrupted. “But Daesung…but Daesung isn’t, Ji. We had top-secret military information to deliver. We were both told that the data came first – nothing else even made it on the priority list. Daesung managed to eject out of our plane with the data, but when it crashed he broke the rules and came back to rescue me. He saved my life.”

“So what’s the matter with him?”

“He…he was shot while he was dragging me clear.”

“Oh god…”

“Exactly. The bullets kept hitting him but he wouldn’t leave me. And then they shot him with some kind of chemical agent which burned straight through his flesh. He’s lost an arm and both of his legs and his face is severely burned – almost beyond recognition. And he’s not eligible for military aid or compensation because our colonel says he broke the rules and risked our unit and possibly the whole war by going back for me. Our colonel says he’ll be lucky if he isn’t brought up on charges. The army aren’t even going to pay for medical care and proper artificial limbs for him. They keep quoting something about contravening regulations. I know these artificial limbs aren’t much use but at least their better than the nothing he’s going to get because of me.”

“Oh my god… that poor man. I know this sounds really selfish, but I’m so happy it’s not you. I don’t even know what I would’ve done if it was…”

Silence.

“Hyunie? What’s the matter?

“Sorry, Ji. I was just thinking.” Seunghyun forced himself to continue. “Daesung smiles a lot, but deep down he’s terrified and he feels very alone. He has no family, no one to go back to. So I said that he could stay with us.”

“Stay with us? For how long?”

“For good, Ji.”

Seunghyun listened to the silence that filled the air around him. The unspoken plea echoing through his mind was almost deafening.

“Hyunie, maybe Daesung can stay for a day or two, or perhaps even a week, but no way can he live with us permanently.”

“Why not?”

“Seunghyun, use your head. I’ll always be grateful to Daesung for saving your life. Always. But we have to face the facts. Daesung is a cripple. He’ll need lots of time, care and attention, not to mention money. Our home is an apartment for god’s sake, how will he get up the stairs? I’m sorry but we don’t have the money to buy a new house and then on top of that, adapt it. I don’t want to share our home just as soon as I’ve got you back and I especially don’t want him in the house when we’re… you know…”

“But, Ji, he saved my life. Couldn’t we at least try? He wouldn’t be too much trouble-“

“Yes he would Seunghyun. Don’t you think I’d love to say yes? But I can’t. We would have to mold our whole lives around him and all I want to do is mold myself around you. Maybe he could go into hospital for the war wounded and we could visit him?”

“He’d hate that. Please, Jiyong-“

“I’m sorry Hyun, but the answer is no.”

“But I’ve already told him that he can live with us.”

“Then you’ll just have to untell him”

“Couldn’t we at least try, Ji. Please. For me?”

“No, Seunghyun. He saved your life and I’ll always be grateful for that, but he’d be too much of a burden.”

“A burden?” Seunghyun whispered.

“I’m sorry Hyunie, I really am.”

“So am I”

“Come on, Seunghyun. Let’s not argue. I haven’t spoken to you in almost 6 months. Tell me all about-“

“I can’t Jiyong. My time’s up now.”

“Already?”

“ ’Fraid so. I’ll see you soon. Bye, Ji.”

“Ahhhh, I’m going to give you such a homecoming!! Wink wink if you get my drift.”

Seunghyun heard the musical laughter from his lover that he always joined in at, no matter the occasion, but somehow all the humour seemed to have seeped out of him.

“Look, Seunghyun, I’m sorry about Daesung, but you do understand-“

“I understand, Ji. Bye.”

“Bye Hyun. See you soon.”

Seunghyun switched off the phone. He stared up at the peeling, dingy grey paint on the ceiling, slow tears trickling down his otherwise expressionless face.

“Kwon Jiyong, it’s Kang Daesung here”

“Daesung? Well err… hello, Daesung. How are you?”

“I’m alright Jiyong.” Daesung studied the image of Seunghyun’s lover on the phone. He was just as Daesung remembered him. A flawless face surrounded by a messy shock of blond hair, although today it looked more messy than usual as if he had run his hands through it several times. A pair of plumb lips which always seemed to be getting bitten by his perfect teeth and a set of gorgeous, almond shaped eyes that hid gleaming brown orbs underneath his eyelashes. Jiyong was a man you instinctively trusted and was almost always in a good mood. Only now, he was frowning.

“Umm, Daesung, I don’t mean to be rude, but Seunghyun told me that you’d lost an arm and your legs. Have the charges been dropped? Have you received replacements after all?”

Daesung turned away from the screen, his lips a tight, bitter line. He was going home but it didn’t matter what the politicians and the diplomats said, the war would never be over… not for people like him. Or the man on the screen before him.

“Congratulations! Seunghyun must be so pleased for you!” Jiyong continued.

Daesung turned back to the screen, staring at Jiyong’s broad grin that lit up his whole face. “Jiyong, please …” A moment to think, then he took a deep breath. “Jiyong, please prepare yourself. I…I have some bad news.”

“Seunghyun…” Jiyong said immediately. “What’s wrong? Has something happened- please… Seunghyun!”

Daesung felt the young man’s hysterics piece through him.

“Jiyong, I don’t know how to say this. Seunghyun… Seunghyun committed suicide this morning. I…I’m so, so sorry.”

The two men stared at each other.

“Seunghyun…?” Jiyong whispered. “He didn’t… he wouldn’t … You’re wrong,”

“Please, Jiyong. I’m afraid it’s true…”

“But why? I don’t understand. Why would he do such a thing? Why?” Jiyong seemed to shrink into himself, to diminish right before Daesung’s eyes.

“Jiyong, Seunghyun spoke to you last night. Did you see him?”

“What…?” Jiyong shook his head slowly, utterly bewildered now, utterly lost. “I…I couldn’t… I never saw him yesterday. He said the web-cam wasn’t working…”

“I see. And what did you talk about?”

Jiyong’s eyes were glazed with pain. “Where’s Seunghyun? You had better ing put him on this goddamn phone right now or-“

“Jiyong,” Daesung interrupted him, “what did you talk about?”

Jiyong slowly shook his head again. “You. He talked about you. He wanted you to stay with us.”

“Me?” Daesung said, stunned.

“He told me that you’d lost an arm and both legs…”

“Oh, I see.”

“I don’t understand,” Jiyong pleaded. “Where is he? All I want is to see him, please… please…”

Daesung felt his eyes tighten with oncoming tears. “Seunghyun left you a letter. May I read it to you?”

Jiyong nodded slowly, his cheeks flushed and his once beautiful eyes were puffy and red. Daesung removed the letter from his overall pocket. The words, like shards of glass pierced his tongue and sliced at his vocal cords. He tried to swallow, but it hurt. It hurt so much.

Sorry Ji. I love you. You’ve explained everything to me very carefully and I think this is the best solution for everyone. Seunghyun.

“What the hell does that mean?!” Jiyong cried. Tears now streaming down his face. “Seunghyun can’t be dead. I…I don’t believe it.”

“Jiyong, I’m not supposed to do this, but I’ll use my security clearance on this computer to show you Seunghyun. He’s… he’s in the morgue. I can transmit the image to you.”

Daesung looked away from Jiyong’s eyes. Eyes filled with such sorrow, such pain. It was too much, too searing, like looking at the sun. Daesung keyed his password and the necessary commands into the console beside the web-cam and the morgue appeared without warning, filled to overflowing with row upon row of transparent body capsules. Hermetically sealed body containers to stop infection spreading and to preserve the bodies for as long as possible before they were brought home. Daesung knew he’s catch hell from his commander for this severe breach of military protocol, but he didn’t care. He owed Seunghyun that much. Daesung began to key in the commands to home in on one particular capsule.

“Jiyong, did Seunghyun tell you what happened when we were shot down?”

“Yes, he told me how you saved his life.”

“I didn’t save his life, Jiyong,” said Daesung quietly. “It was the other way round. He came back for me…”

A new image filled the screen now. There, in his capsule, lay Major Choi Seunghyun, with no legs and only one arm and a badly scarred, almost unrecognisable face.

a bit depressing i know but i hope you enjoyed anyway XD comments are appreciated...