CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: Truth and Lies

Jessica followed her all the way back to the apartment.

“Taeyeon, wait, please,” Jessica said. Taeyeon stopped, inevitably. “I want to tell you something.”

Taeyeon hurried to her, frantic, and stood right in front of her.

“Calm down, and hear what I have to say. You know that you should stay here and help YG, if not, the army, and if not even then, your country."

"I-"

"If they win, everybody, your friends and family, are going to subjugated. And you don’t need an outsider like me to tell you what the North Koreans do to their lessers.”

“It won’t get that bad so soon. Wars aren’t won in a few days,” Taeyeon started, but Jessica took her by the hand and the argument she was about to say died on her tongue.

“True, but they are won through decisive moments. We don’t know how many Chimeras they have, but assume it's a lot. I don’t think the North has the restraint your military has, even if your superiors forced it onto the lot of you. They probably administered the program wholesale to see which woman lived through it.”

“So what if they have twenty Chimeras. Don’t underestimate us, and don’t overestimate me. I’m just one person. Those s will manage without me for a few days,” she said. “The deal right now is that I promised you that I’ll take you home.”

“Okay, you’ve made your decision and you’re aware of the consequences, and I can respect that, okay?” Jessica said. Taeyeon nodded, smiling and ready to move off again to shower and prepare for their trip. “Now listen to my position about why I won’t leave.”

Hearing the tone of Jessica’s voice, Taeyeon let her sit them down at their unfolded sofa bed. 

"I won't leave because YG is getting into major trouble, and I think they're going to bite off more than they can chew if they want to tackle this head on. Yuri's not going to be able to cope by herself, and more people will die if I don't help. And that's important to me because of something that happened when I first came to Korea."

Taeyeon waited.

Jessica took a deep breath. “You know my little sister, Krystal. She used to follow me everywhere, and she followed me right into the navy corpsman ranks. We were in different companies, of course, but always in touch. We were very close.”

“That’s tight. It’s rare,” Taeyeon said. She was on good terms with her siblings but she hardly even thought about them anymore. All she knew was that when she went home, they would be the Kim siblings all over again.

“We got sent to Korea because we speak Korean, of course. Every Korean American medic was on the priority queue to get posted here, but there's not a lot of us. Krystal got here a month before me. We spoke on the phone the week before I came.”

Taeyeon nodded slowly, dreading what Jessica had to say next, because she knew that something bad must have happened to Krystal.

“When I got here, her superior,” Jessica took in another breath, “her superior told me that she had been shot, and died on scene.”

“What? Who the -! I’m sorry.”

“Some crazy er who lost his in the aid station she was posted at. He was one of yours.”

"We told the US that she was shot by a wild patient who committed suicide soon after. There was actually an infantryman who died that night. He was fleeing when he got compromised by the enemy, so he was at the right place at the right time."

“When was this?”

“Maybe three or four weeks before I got put with you guys. Remember the doctor mission?”

Taeyeon nodded, unable to speak.

“I just didn’t want to do this anymore. I needed the time to grieve her, yet I had to work. Thank god I got put with Tiffany, she was a real support. And then there was you.

“I wanted to go back home immediately. Attend my Krystal’s funeral. Help my parents. My captain gave the go ahead.”

Taeyeon tried to speak, then cleared , and said, “why didn’t you?”

“Because... at the heart of it, Krystal was a good person. Even if she didn’t follow me to the corpsmen, she’d be working at some non-profit. For me, I just wanted to be in the navy and play doctor. I don’t have to stay in Korea to get to help people. But Krystal was so good she was kind of naive. She said on the phone that she was making an impact on the people she was serving here. I didn’t want her work to go to waste for nothing. So I stayed.”

Taeyeon frowned when Jessica started crying, a hand covering her face. Taeyeon could relate, having thought similar things about Team Sierra, about Hyoyeon. Jessica deserved more privacy than a living room. She put two hands around Jessica’s shoulders, stood them up, and walked her to the bathroom. She tried to ignore the fact that Krystal died the exact same way that Soojung did. She closed the door behind them and locked it. 

Jessica sobbed, sitting on the covered toilet seat until she silenced into tears streaming down her face. “I hated all of you.”

Taeyeon felt her blood run cold. Jessica took off her shirt, and Taeyeon just watched.

“My sister came to help but you people ing took her away senselessly.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s not your fault. When I saw you guys fighting so hard, it was clear that not all of you were bastards,” Jessica said. “I think I would have liked you more if I didn’t feel so angry.”

Jessica tugged off her own trousers and slipped off her underwear, then pulled Taeyeon into the shower stall with her. A few squeaks of the knob, and they were soon wet. Jessica laughed a sniff at Taeyeon’s drenched clothes. “They need to be washed anyway. They stink.”

Taeyeon nodded mutely. What if Krystal is Soojung? What the , but what if?

But she couldn’t resist when Jessica’s mouth slanted over hers, and their lips matched. Water pelted down on them and ran down their faces, washing away Jessica’s tears and her own grime. Jessica dove a hand into the back of her hair, and kissed her more forcefully. For one blissful second, she forgot Soojung and the Chimeras. All she cared about at this very moment, was comforting Jessica. 

Her old apathy made her flinch. Jessica must have felt so very sad and alone. Meanwhile, all she had thought about was de-stressing through ing sick pleasure. She broke out of the kiss and hugged Jessica, who gripped her shirt tightly and started shaking in tears all over again.

When they were finished showering, Jessica walked with her to YG headquarters for the all-hands briefing to deal with the Chimeras.

Jessica had collected herself again. “I don’t even know the name of the soldier who killed her.”

“What do you know about him, or her?”

“It’s a him. Some deserting coward, they said. They shot him down after he opened fire. So pointless.”

Taeyeon nodded, fairly sure now. “Your sister’s name is Krystal?”

“Krystal Jung Soojung,” Jessica said, half-smiling. “Don’t ask me why the parents decided on such a fobby name when mine was perfectly normal. We suspect they wanted one starting with K, since K’s after J, and all that.”

Taeyeon tried to smile with Jessica. You should tell her. You need to tell her. She deserves to know. You selfish ing coward. Don’t think you can ever make it up to her. “She sounds like a good person. I wish I could’ve met her.”

They met in the basement of YG headquarters, which was the largest space in the building. There was a circle of chairs. The obvious boss man was there, sitting near Jiyong’s crew. Yuri and Sunny were beside them, Yuri in the last seat and Sunny in her motorized wheelchair. Standing and sitting around the circle were almost a dozen other groups of guys and a pocket of women. They were teenagers to young adults. Taeyeon sat on a wooden crate with Jessica.

Jiyong spent the first fifteen minutes explaining the new situation. 

“, what should we do now?” Some flat-faced kid said.

“We need to fight fire with fire. So, Taeyeon, stop ing around and get us some of the Chimera serums,” Sunny said.

Taeyeon was pissed off that Sunny was calling her out in front of all these people, most of whom she hadn’t met before, even after they’d discussed this. “We’ve talked about this two ing times already. It’s too risky. Three of fifty soldiers who tried this survived. All of you can take it now and maybe there’ll be ten of you awake next week. So come up with a real plan that will work.”

“Who’s that ?”

“Don’t talk down to Sunny like that!”

“Hey, retard, what did we say about calling us es?” Some woman said.

“Shut up, everybody,” Jiyong said without raising his voice, and the room went silent. Maybe everyone feared him, but the one who held the real respect was the boss man, who didn’t have to say a word to get Jiyong to keep order.

“Fine,” Sunny said, glancing at Taeyeon briefly before addressing the rest of the room. “Let’s go over the alternative plan then. I contacted a few army buddies and they confirm that the North has produced an estimated forty Chimeras, and there could be more in the making.”

Taeyeon was alarmed to hear this. If there were forty in Seoul, there had to be a lot more hammering the South Koreans in the North. No wonder Sooyoung had her handle Kang Hodong by herself instead of getting rid of him through proper procedure.

The rest of the so-called Plan B was fleshed out. Each group would take a section of central Seoul, which was more neglected by the military fights, while two stayed in Hongdae to make sure that it remained secure. One of the groups would be Jiyong’s. Taeyeon assumed she would get to work with them, but Sunny had her off with Binhan’s crew or whatever. She just knew them as the subordinate group that paved the path for their sunbaes. Whatever. It was better to spread experience around, she supposed.

Taeyeon also had a chance to talk about strengths and weaknesses of a Chimera. “I don’t know if the Northerners ed with the formula, but chances are, it’s the same. Basically, shoot until very dead, and do it at a distance. The serums don't enhance stamina, so they’ll expire much quicker than you since they’re expending more energy but haven't improved their stamina yet. And, they eat a lot, but this won’t help you much because as far as I know, you’re just ing hungry all the time, but you still only starve at the rate of a normal person. It's strange but don't expect to starve them out or whatever. They'll just get pissed.”

She caught Jessica’s eye, and Jessica smirked at her. Of course Taeyeon would dedicate almost half her spiel to food.

“Everybody heard that?” Jiyong said. “Don’t save your bullets and outlast the enemy.”

“And if you can’t kill for some reason, at least maximize the blood loss,” Taeyeon said. “The speed-healing is controlled by nanorobots in the blood stream. If they don’t have enough robots, they can’t heal fast enough to survive.”

“Okay, bleed them out,” Jiyong said. “Although, if you can, you can probably kill them too.”

“Sounds like a kamikaze move, hyung,” the same flat-faced kid said.

“Worst case, then.”

“That’s settled,” Sunny said. “Yuri and Jessica will still stay at the clinic, because we can’t risk losing them, and we don’t have enough aid resources to spread out. So it’s business as usual on the medical end. As for ammunition, the warehouse stock will be split proportionally per crew, for fairness’ sake, since everyone is being mobilized for this effort. Almost everything will be depleted, so don't waste too many practice rounds.”

“Questions?" Jiyong asked. None. "Good. Head out in three hours. Let’s kill the bastards in the crib.”

Everyone stood up to leave. In the bustle, the flat-faced kid came up to her. “Hey, I’m Hanbin.”

"Hey. Where do we meet?”

“At the elevator on the first floor of your apartment. We live there too, but three stories up.”

“Got it,” She said, and then jostled against the crowd to get to Sunny. She bent down and took a seat. “What the ?” 

“Hello.”

“Drop the idea of getting your hands on the serum. I’m not going to give it to you. Nobody in the military is going to give it to anyone anymore until they’re sure it is safe. We are not ing barbarians like the Northerners.”

"Fine." Sunny grimaced at her. “Stay put. I have something to say to you, too. Let’s wait until everyone gets out.”

Taeyeon leaned back against the back rest of her chair sullenly and crossed her arms. She nodded a stiff smile at Jessica across the floor at the exit to tell her to go without her. The room cleared out at a steady rate, and then at last they were alone.

Sunny gave the empty basement a once over before facing Taeyeon with a narrow squint. “I told you before about my background in the army, and at the meeting I said that I talked to my old associates.”

“That, you did.”

“I asked around about you. Some deserter who is obviously useful to the army suddenly showing up on our doorstep... That needed to be checked, you understand?”

“So what’s the verdict?”

“Well, Firefly, for one, your three-man platoon is a big deal in the army to have the attention of so many soldiers, even though the platoon ranks lowly.”

“We did some good work.”

Sunny didn't react. “So a lot of people talk about you, and there are rumors that my friends believe. I've known them for years. They'd risk their life for me, and I would too, for theirs."

It's easy to say that in a wheelchair. "What did these pals of yours say?"

"One, you’re a no-good turncoat that ran as soon as you found out you were posted to the North. Two, that you broke into Seongnam base more than a week ago to attack and murder a random bunch of soldiers. Three, that you’re the one who handed the North Koreans the Chimera formula.”

Taeyeon clenched her fist under her folded arms. At least there were no rumors about being gay.

“Now, my friends don’t know you’re here, or I think they’d storm into YG and smoke you out. Fortunately for you, I don’t want them to disrupt our operations.”

“Do you expect me to thank you?”

“Of course not,” Sunny said. “And I also don’t believe you gave the formula to the North Koreans because you’re such a paranoid about it.”

Taeyeon waited for Sunny to say more, but she didn’t, so she said, “Good, then.”

“Are you going to say anything about the other two accusations? Neither of them make me feel comfortable about letting you stay with us. Us, as in YG, not just Yuri and I.”

Taeyeon unfolded her arms and smirked faintly. “Well, you need me here if your lot’s gonna go up against the Chimeras. Or you’d have me out of here already.”

“Jiyong didn’t have negative opinions about you in his debriefing, so you can work with us for now. Don’t give me that bull about us needing you. We’d still fight without you. You’re the one who needs our manpower and firepower. Without us, you’d be a bum. So shut the up and prove your worth to us, then maybe I’ll let your ty past slide.”

Taeyeon wanted to fly out of her chair and knock Sunny over, wheelchair and all. She stood up.

“I’ve told Hanbin and his men to be on guard around you, but I hope they won’t have to, got it?”

“ you.”

“You better not die without doing anything, you disgraceful little . After you get out of here, I pray to god you never say that you’re from the military again.”

Taeyeon ran to the apartment. She stormed up the stairs and slammed the door. Jessica wasn’t in the living room, the dining area or the bathroom. She went to the kitchen. Jessica was making instant coffee in a white mug.

“Seriously, her!” Taeyeon whispered furiously.

“Who is ‘her’? Sunny? What did you talk to her about?” Jessica asked.

Taeyeon told her every word that Sunny had said to her.

“That’s absurd. I thought she was nice.”

“I thought so too.”

“She shouldn’t have said anything of those things, not like that.”

“ her.”

“I think so too. It’s inexcusable, even if she doesn’t have the full picture. I’ll talk to her about this. Not everything, don’t worry, but I’ll talk to her for you.”

“Who cares. Just her.”

“It’s important if she can tell you where to go and what to do, Taeyeon.”

“I wish... I didn’t have to ing stay here.”

Jessica sighed. “I’m sorry.”

“The are you apologizing for.”

“If it wasn’t for me, you’d still be in the marines.”

“I didn’t mean it like that,” Taeyeon said. She hated herself for blaming Jessica at first. It wasn't Jessica's fault anymore. It hadn't been for a long time now. “It’s not on you. This is between me and Major Lee.”

Jessica shook her head. “It’s not your fault either, Taeyeon. You shouldn't have been treated like that for being gay. I’ll talk to Sunny. You go get ready now. Be careful out there, okay? I don’t want to receive you at the clinic.”

“Yes,” Taeyeon wriggled her eyebrows, feeling considerably calmer. “You can receive me somewhere more private.”

Jessica giggled. She patted Taeyeon’s . “Go before I receive you right now.”

Taeyeon broke into a smile. She needed Jessica. As Sunny said, without YG, she'd be one of those loser veteran bums. But without Jessica, she'd be... she'd be... a good person. An honest person.

She didn't want to tell Jessica the truth. It was selfish, for sure, to continue liking Jessica. But if she told the truth now, Jessica would want her gone. She wouldn't be able to protect Jessica like she had promised. You tell her, Kim Taeyeon. You tell her when the time is right.

A/N: Thanks for the feedback last chapter! How was this one?