Misu placed his palm against the edge of the dome as he wondered what it felt like to be out there in the wasteland. In the distance, he saw the figure of a little old woman heading for the South entrance of the dome through the glass. The little boy waved to her with a smile, and the old woman smiled back at him. He watched as the soldiers at the entrance refused to let her pass. They pulled the hood off of her head to reveal giant elephant-like ears, and she started to cry soon after. Misu frowned and ran back to his hut. "Kris hyung... Why can't the ahjumma come in the city? Why are the soldiers picking on her because of her ears?", he demanded with his arms folded across his chest. 

Kris sighed and watched the flames slowly die down in the pit central of their hut before getting up. "She's probably a mutant if they won't let her in. I know it may not seem fair, but we have to do whatever the governor tells us to do, and he says absolutely no mutants are allowed in the city of Seoul. It's the law", he answers and steps outside the hut to see what Misu's fussing was about. The first thing he saw was one of the soldiers shoving the old woman into the dirt. When he saw that his legs moved before his brain could even comprehend it. "Hey!", he yelled as he bolted toward them. "That was unnecessary", he said as he helped the old woman back up onto her feet carefully. The woman groaned as if at least one of her brittle old bones had broken, but still she tried to walk away. Even though there was nothing out there she headed towards the horizon, because what else could she really do?

One of the soldiers stepped up to Kris and grabbed his collar with a threatening look in his eyes. "What? Are you a mutant sympathizer now? You know very well that the governor doesn't like those either... Maybe you should give the old lady a shove to prove you hate them just as much as the rest of us do. Otherwise, we might have to lock you up with the rest of the sympathizers. Don't you have a son or little brother or something? It would be a shame if you left him all alone just to save a worthless old hag. Then he'd have to be put to work or else the little one would starve", he said without the slightest bit of guilt to his tone. It was scum like this that made Kris sick of the army. Once his shirt was released, the other soldiers shoved him towards the sluggishly escaping elephant eared woman. Another sigh pushed past his lips as he shoved the old woman to the ground. He knew all too well that the others would throw him jail if he didn't obey, because of the last time he rebelled. Misu nearly died when he was three years old, because Kris had gotten locked up for refusing to kill a smuggled in mutant. In the end, he had to do as he had been told for the wellbeing of Misu. The old woman sobbed as she laid on the ground now. It seemed as though something else in her had broken, and now she couldn't get back up. The look of betrayal in her eyes as she stared up at Kris was enough to pierce his heart, but he could not show anyone any emotion. Mutant sympathizing was the worst possible offense. 

When Kris turned around he saw that Misu had been watching from the hut. With tears in his eyes, the little boy ran off into the shadows of the night. The other soldiers laughed at Kris, which made him clench his fists, but he had no time to deal with them now. He chased after Misu, and caught up to him quickly since he was of course of a much larger build than the small six year old. When he caught up to him he scooped up the boy and held him high in his arms, hugging him tight so that the boy couldn't run off again. Misu squirmed as much as he could, but all that effort was fruitless. Kris was just much stronger than him. "Let me go! I hate you Kris! You're mean!", the little boy shouted as he cried rivers. Without a word left in him, Kris took Misu back to their hut, and tucked him in for the night, since the little one tired himself out squirming and crying all the way home. He watched Misu sleep for a while, playing with the little one's hair absently as he remembered how just yesterday Misu had been bragging to all the other kids around that he would be just like Kris, a brave soldier fighting for Seoul, a hero. Now he probably looked more like the villain in the young one's eyes, and he couldn't really argue with that. With his military service contract he had signed away his soul to the devil, and was now stuck in eternal servitude. 

Kris laid down on his mat eventually, exhausted by today. It seemed that he could never get away from the job he hated more now than anything else in the world. He had just gotten off an eight hour shift of standing around bored as hell while guarding the North entrance when Misu came to him with his predicament. Although, today hadn't been all that bad. He had met the most interesting of characters while guarding the North entrance. He had decided that he needed a break and told the other soldiers just that. Then he went off on a walk around the dome. He stayed close to it so he wouldn't get lost. Eventually, he felt the need to sit down, so Kris wandered a little away from the dome into a field of tall, but dead, grass, and sat on a large boulder. It reminded him of the fields around the small village where he had lived during his childhood. In those days he would wrestle with one of his best friends, Misu's father, almost daily. They both thought of it as training to become soldiers. That had been their shared dream up until after the war. The last time he had been in the fields with Misu's father was the summer after they had graduated from high school. He remembered every word of their conversation.

"Should I really do it? Should I really go through with this Kris?"

"The three of us are all still so young. Why now? Why not wait until you've both had more experience?"

"Because.... Kris... She's pregnant. She told me this morning..."

"You shouldn't tie yourself down so soon. Maybe it's not even yours. Have you thought about that?"

"What are you saying?!"

"I'm just saying, maybe."

"You two have been best friends since birth practically. How could you say that about her?!"

"People change. Feelings change."

"You ... Have you slept with her??"

"Perhaps"

"Perhaps? Kris I swear I'll-"

"Leave her?"

"Don't be so petty. I see what you're trying to do."

"I'm only being supportive. I don't want either of my best friends to end up trapped in a marriage that loses it's shine after a month."

"I hope that baby is yours, because then you'll get to watch mini you grow up to be a better person than you, and then you'll wonder where your own life went wrong"

"That's a bit harsh..."

"You shouldn't have ed with me then."

"I didn't. I ed with her."

"..."

Kris shook his head to rid himself of the memory and looked up. There was a figure off in the distance. For some reason the figure seemed so bewitching to him. It was as if there was some sort of enchantment that was cast over him. He found himself drawing closer to the figure. Before he even knew that he had gotten up again the figure was within arm's reach. It was a small, very thin looking male with his back facing to him. Kris hesitated, but summoned up some courage and gently tapped on the male's shoulder. For a brief moment he was afraid that the stranger would turn around and he would see a hideous 14-eyed mutant, but that was not the case. When the stranger turned around Kris saw that he had two eyes, but more importantly the other male had incomparable beauty that seemed like it could only have come from a dream. Kris began to wonder if he was hallucinating. "Are you lost?" Kris asked. There was silence for a minute. The stranger seemed to be confused and was looking around frantically as if something had been lost. "Did you lose something?" Kris looked around as well thinking that the other may have dropped something.

The smaller male gave up searching eventually with a huff. He shook his head in response to Kris. "Are you a mutant?" Kris now asked curiously as he looked up and down over the other for any imperfections. The stranger sighed, frowned a bit, and nodded. It seemed really hard for Kris to believe someone so beautiful could be a mutant. When his eyes had finished scanning over him there weren't any imperfections at all that he could see. "Why?" The taller never was much of a social butterfly, but everything about this particular stranger just threw him off. It made him extremely curious. The stranger picked up a stick and wrote in the dirt, 'I can't speak'. Kris furrowed his eyebrows a bit as he read the words in the dirt. "Is that it?? They outcast you, because you can't speak??" The taller was stunned by this. Kris knew that he was probably seen as a useless peasant by the upper class, because he can't speak. He was shocked that they went as far as leaving him outside the dome to die by the demons that roamed the land though. "That's bull..." Kris muttered.

'It's okay. I like it out here', the stranger wrote in the dirt. Then he sat down and brushed the dirt away as a way of erasing what he had written. 'No one forces me to talk out here'. "So you can speak?..." Kris asked. The smaller male frowned more and shook his head,'It really hurts when I try'. "Okay, well I won't make you talk. Writing is just fine" the taller patted the stranger on the shoulder. A small smile finally happened upon the other's face,'Thank you'. Kris sat down beside him, but then noticed a leather bound book lying a few feet away. "Is that what you were looking for?" The stranger turned and immediately scrambled over to retrieve the book. Then he came back and sat beside Kris again with a sigh of relief. He gave another nod to the taller with a brighter smile now. Kris watched as the other male opened the book and took out the pencils that had been tucked inside the cover. The smaller pocketed them, flipped to the first page in the book, and handed it to Kris to read.

Hello, my name is Yixing, but my tribe calls me Lay. After the bomb hit I had lost the ability to speak, so the government told me I did not qualify for citizenship in any of the dome cities. They said I would not be pulling my own weight, because I wouldn't be able to get a job. I had to live outside the dome without even a chance to prove I was useful still. Everyone I knew would always try to force me to speak to get me a citizenship, but it hurts so much. They don't understand what happens every time I try. It's like my throat has third degree burns on the inside and is being stabbed repeatedly with the sharpest blade ever forged. If I really could somehow regain my voice even slowly of course I would try it, but it's just impossible so don't force me to speak please.

When Kris had finished reading the page he looked back at Lay,"I'm Kris, a soldier that lives in Seoul..." he said with a sigh, because of how he despised the title of soldier now. 'Kris, do you like hurting people?' Lay wrote in the dirt. The taller instantly shook his head,"No, of course I don't." The smaller male took the book back, closed it, and hugged it dearly to his chest as if it were his own child. 'Then why are you a soldier?' Kris quickly looked away after he read the words. He was pretending he hadn't read them. Lay nudged him with his elbow and pointed to the words in the dirt. He wanted Kris to respond. Lay needed to know what exactly drove people to make the choice to become the chains of the people. However, Kris never answered him. 

Instead, he made an excuse, and told Lay that he had to get back to his post before the highers ups punished him for slacking off. In reality, he knew that no one really cared as long as things were just peachy in their little snow globe utopia. As long as there were no 'imperfect' mutants roaming the streets the government could care less about what soldiers did while on or off duty. On his way home that night he couldn't stop thinking about the mute mutant he had met today though. He found it strange the way he enjoyed being out in the wasteland. Tomorrow, he thought he would see if he was around again. Maybe he could ask him about how he survived out there. He did mention that he had a tribe though. Kris wondered if mutants really had made their own little cities out there like the rumors claimed. Although it would be fun to go out and explore the wasteland to see if that was really true, he had responsibilities here in Seoul. He has Misu to look after. It was his promise to a fallen love that he would make sure Misu was well taken care of, and he would never dream of breaking that promise. As his eyes closed his mind escaped to the memories of the world before the war. He smiled slightly as he let himself get lost in the delusions for a little while. They made him feel like he was home again, and that was all that he wanted.