October 24th, 2016 - Unnamed Cluster

Another day, another mission, Heechul thinks to himself as he scans the perimeter.

They’ve been busy lately after the addition of their new team members. Hyukjae was insistent on jumping into the fray almost immediately after joining, and Jungsoo is still worried enough about his emotional state to where the whole group goes on every mission (sans Donghee, who is still monitoring the Capital’s communications).

Something good has definitely come out of spending time together: Heechul has learned that Hyukjae is the stealthiest of all of them, able to move like a ghost when he wants to stay hidden. And since Donghae has spent most of his life with the other man, he’s easily able to follow Hyukjae’s movements. That’s why now, as the group of four moves behind cover to be closer to the Drones up ahead, the pair of new recruits silently leads the way.

Hopefully, they can be as successful as during the last raid they’d stopped, when they’d managed to liberate the Cluster without losing a single civilian. The Resistance needed every morale boost it could get.

They’re less than twenty feet away when Hyukjae pauses behind an abandoned wagon, motioning the rest to stop. “On my mark,” he whispers. “Right...n━”

With a shot, a man bursts out of hiding on the opposite side of the street, rushing at the Drones with nothing but his bare hands.

“Cover him!” Jungsoo orders, stepping out of cover. “No one’s dying on our watch!”

Heechul aims as quickly as the words are out of the leader’s mouth, but he needn’t have bothered. Before any of them can get a shot in, the unnamed man is crashing two Drones’ heads together, then bull-rushing the one that remains.

“Throw me a gun!” the man calls, and Jungsoo is quick to toss one of his spare sidearms in the man’s general direction.

Next to him, Hyukjae mutters, “Who is he?”, and almost as if on cue, the man turns to face the group.

“Kim Youngwoon,” he introduces himself without preamble. “You all are here to help?”

Jungsoo has never looked so taken aback. “Yes, but don’t you want to know━?”

“If we’re on the same side, that’s good enough for me. I was on my way over to the other side of the Cluster when I ran into you, so if you want to come along…”

It must be at least partially due to shock when Jungsoo agrees without more protest.

~*~

Youngwoon is a beast in battle. He’s lethal enough with his fist, but armed with a gun, the Drones on the other side of town don’t stand a chance.

With the others’ permission, Jungsoo immediately asks him to join the Resistance effort, and Youngwoon is more than willing to comply.

“I’ll be leaving my parents behind,” he tells them. “But joining up and fighting the Capital is the best way to keep them safe.” Later, he’ll add, “I’ve always thought it was my destiny to be a hero. Just wait ━ they’ll be cheering my name in the streets after we’ve won!”

Heechul would think he’s delusional if not for the display of strength earlier that day.

Back at the Bunker, Youngwoon seems impressed with their setup. He’s the first to join the group without not having anywhere else to go, so it’s surprisingly validating for their operation to get his stamp of approval.

“I have some ideas, though,” Youngwoon says. “What about this: we don’t have to get new identities, but we should at least change our names.”

“This isn’t a spy movie. We’re not using codenames,” Heechul tells him flatly.

“We can drop our family names,” Donghee suggests. At the look Heechul sends him, he shrugs. “What? He has a point. If there’s anyone even remotely connected to us, the Capital will try to go after them. I say we drop our family names and keep wearing facemasks outside of the Bunker.”

Youngwoon nods, clearly proud that his suggestion is catching on. “That’s the idea. Still, I say we go all the way with first names, too, if anyone wants to. I want to go by ‘Kangin’.”

“Kangin?”

“The literal meaning is ‘strong benevolence’. It’s a hero’s name, don’t you think?” He turns to look critically at Jungsoo. “And as for our leader...you should have a memorable name, too. ‘Leeteuk,’ maybe? A special name ━ literally, ‘special’━ for a special person.”

And Heechul can’t hold in his snicker because, wow, when was the last time he saw Jungsoo actually blush?

~*~

“I did not blush, Heechul. Tell the story properly!”

“Sure you didn’t. Just like you’re not doing it right now.”

“I’m not━”

“So from that day forward, we started using different names. Even in the Bunker, with a few exceptions, we would call each other by the new ones, just so we wouldn’t slip up in public. Jungsoo, Youngwoon, Hyukjae, and Donghee were the first ones to change their names, but obviously they didn’t end up being the only ones. Moving on...who’s next?”

Hyukjae’s expression is uncharacteristically devious. “I’m pretty sure it’s our turn to make fun of you now.”

“Oh, hell no, I’m starting before any of you can try and fail to embarrass me.”

“That is the most hypocritical thing━!”

“Now I’ll skip forward a few days, to when I was starting the morning patrol of the Bunker…”

“Dammit, Heechul!”

~*~

October 28th, 2016 - The Bunker

Heechul’s least favorite Resistance duty is probably doing perimeter check. He’d caved when Jungsoo insisted on it, and has to admit that there’s some value in making sure that there’s nothing shady going on around the Bunker’s entrance, but still. The feeling of being an open target and possibly leading someone back to their hidden trapdoor outweighs the feeling of security for whoever is on watch. That, and the overwhelming boredom.

At least it’s over, Heechul thinks to himself as he unseals the entrance. Maybe Donghee could actually use my help with a strategy, instead of sending me to admire who-knows-how-many square feet of wasteland.

A wasteland that isn’t as quiet as it was a few moments ago...are those footsteps?

“Excuse me, are you with the Resistance?” a stranger’s voice asks in accented Korean.

Heechul whirls around, gun in hand and damn does he almost regret that he’s going to have to drag this stranger out of their territory kicking and screaming, because the guy is a catch.

“Who’s asking?” Heechul demands rather aggressively, though he’s admittedly spending the time it takes for the other to respond to take inventory of a few essential things.

Arms? I’ll give him a 7 out of 10...or an 8, I’m feeling generous. Jawline that could cut steel. Nice. And for bonus points, his voice…?

“I’m Han Geng. I’ve come to fight with the Resistance.”

Jackpot. Wait…

“You seriously went through all the trouble of finding where we were hiding ━ and I’m not even going to ask how you did it ━ just so you could ask to join?”

“I’ve heard stories of what you’ve done, who you’ve saved. If there’s any way to prove that I’m telling the truth, anything I can do...I’ll gladly do it.”

I can certainly think of one or two━

Calm down, you hormonal excuse for an internal monologue. What if he’s not even interested in you?

I’m Kim Heechul. What kind of a question is that? Also, why does my conscience sound suspiciously like Jungsoo?

Sparing Heechul’s dignity once again, Jungsoo suddenly appears at the top of the Bunker’s stairs, asking, “What’s going on here?”

“Jungsoo? How did you even know to come check on me?”

“I heard voices; you left the entrance open.” Jungsoo trains his eyes on the man across from Heechul. “Do you know him?”

“This is Han Geng. He came to ask us to join up because, um…”

“Because the people deserve justice,” Han Geng finishes for him. “I was visiting from China when the bombs dropped, so I’m cut off from getting home. I can’t protect my family...but I can protect all the others. The citizens in the Capital, the Outsiders, everyone. That’s why I came to you.”

It’s a touching sentiment, but Jungsoo is only half-convinced; Heechul can see it in his eyes.

“Give us just a minute,” he says to Han Geng, and pulls Jungsoo a few feet away, just out of earshot.

Almost immediately, Jungsoo says in a harsh whisper, “Heechul, you can’t seriously think letting a stranger who ‘just happened to find us’ into the group is a good idea.”

“We’ve been best friends for over fifteen years. Please do this for me.”

The judgement on Jungsoo’s face almost, almost makes him feel a bit ashamed of himself. “Really? This is what you’re concerned with right now?” The Resistance leader asks, because it isn’t exactly subtle the way Heechul is still actively checking the newcomer out.

“Of course. Don’t you know me?” Jungsoo rolls his eyes at the statement, but before he can dismiss the conversation entirely, Heechul adds, “I’ll keep an eye on him, even though I personally think he’s plenty trustworthy. He’ll never leave my sight.”

“I don’t even want to think about what you’re planning to do to accomplish that. At least buy him dinner first, okay? Assuming he’s even interested in you.”

“You really have replaced the voice of my conscience.”

“What?”

“Ignore that. Tell the guy the good news!”

It turns out that Han Geng’s smile is just as gorgeous as the rest of him.

“And now,” Heechul tells him, linking their arms together, “in honor of this moment, I’m giving you a complimentary tour of our headquarters. Any place you want to start?”

“Umm...wherever you’d like?”

A cheshire-cat grin stretches across Heechul’s face. “I have a feeling we’re going to get along wonderfully.”

~*~

“You treated him like a piece of meat, Heechul. What did he even see in you?”

“Shut up. This is before I had my emotional revelation about being in love.”

“Did you just━?”

“You heard nothing. Nothing.”

A/N: Hey everyone - I've got 3 minutes to post this before it's no longer Sunday & I'll have lied, so I'm doing it. But full disclosure: I'm exhausted and can barely see straight after all the work I had to finish up today, so I didn't have time to go over this chapter again/reevaluate how long it was. If there's any glaring mistakes, I apologize. I'll be back next Sunday with more for you - thank you for reading!