Chapter 8: Reunions (Final Chapter)

(Location: Albanian Land Force Military Base, Albania)




It was a chilly morning at the base.



While the foreign soldiers went out for a morning jog, Dae Young and Si Jin were enjoying their sleep, savouring the last days of their two-month stay in the barracks before heading to their own separate destinations. It has been a wonderful time doing fieldwork together with the Albanian Land Force, as their commanding officer Jungjang Yoon Gil Joon had permitted them to do so. It was going to take about a month or two for Taebaek to reactivate and process their papers, so he thought that letting them do volunteer work at the foreign base would keep them busy while their faked 'death' was being extinguished in the records.


It was a working furlough, but both soldiers enjoyed it through the company of the accommodating soldiers at the barracks—they did intense training together (which triggered their previous injuries to come back: Si Jin sprained his overworked wrist, while Dae Young's arm had a few complications since his cast was prematurely taken off), helped in surveying the terrain, but their biggest contribution to the battalion they stayed with was influencing them with their Three Days and No Nights ritual whenever a group came back from a mission.


They did their last round of that ritual just last night, which explains why these two did not wake up early for the morning exercise.



The corner of Dae Young's eyes crinkled as he woke up at the faint bellows of men jogging right outside their quarters. "Daewi..." He groaned as he sloppily threw a pillow to the man who occupied the bunk bed beside his, "Ya. We're late...morning jog,"


Si Jin seemed irritated by the pillow that suddenly slammed on his face; he groaned in annoyance while covering his whole body under his bed’s sheets, "We're exempted... It's our last day here, so just sleep,"


Last day...

The thought of it made the sergeant get up from his bed and rush to Si Jin. Nudging and tugging on the captain's hands, he tried to wake him up even at his own groggy, sleepy state.

"Wake up. We both have to go. I have to go to Urk," Dae Young pulled on the blankets that covered Si Jin entirely.



"Urk...can wait," Si Jin sloppily murmured, curling up on the bed, "Stop bugging me... I was just about to kiss Kang-seonsaeng when a pillow came and...uhh, Urk can wait—"


"Are you settling on petty dreams now? You're about to finally meet her after a year, so get your lazy bum moving and let's get out of here—"



"Arasso, I'm up. I'm up. Aish..." Si Jin lazily pushed himself up and off the bed, his hair messy and his head heavily tilting on the sides as he sat up. His brows were knitted closely together, as he was still annoyed that his friend had to wake him up from a good dream.


In moments like this when Dae Young was more sober than his Captain, Yoo Si Jin was more of a baby than someone who's called the Big Boss. For many years after a night of drinks, he can hear Si Jin whine like a child at dawn.


"I was just inches close. Inches!" Si Jin scratched his head as he walked to the bathroom, "I was that close when you smacked a pillow on my head,"


"Quit complaining and just get yourself dressed up," Dae Young said when he heard Si Jin grumble again, "Seriously, who's the boss here, huh? Why am I even reprimanding my superior?"


"Geurae, why are you reprimanding me?"


"Because I have to,"


"But I'm your Captain," He growled, "And we're in a military base,"


"We're on furlough, this isn't a military matter, and I'm older than you," Dae Young said, "So are you going to move and meet the real Kang seonsaeng, or will you go back on the bed and settle with dreams?"


Si Jin stopped walking, "I'll let this pass for now," He turned to him, and then resumed walking to the barracks' bathroom. Dae Young can't help but chuckle at his friend acting that way.



"Aigoo, he's still drunk," The Sergeant said when he got up and walked to the opposite side of the room that was occupied by a long stretch of lockers. Dae Young stationed himself right in front Locker No. 35—the locker assigned to him in the same barracks before he went to the battlefield about a year ago.

Opening the locker, Seo Dae Young was amazed at how his things were still in place; his handphone and other personal belongings were left untouched inside that small box, just as how the keeper of the base described it when he handed him the keys to both his locker and Yoo Si Jin's.

Dae Young slowly took the things he stored in his locker: a n  earth-colored windbreaker jacket, some bandages, his phone and lastly, the two spare walkie-talkies he left in that locker for some reason. Looking at the two identical radios, he smiled, seeing how it reminded him and Si Jin being locked up on the dungeon for a long time.


"Both of you are finally free," Dae Young chuckled as he checked on the radios if they were still functional. It still works.

 "Was this perhaps some kind of premonition of what would happen?"

Seo Dae Young can’t fathom how things were appearing to be identical with reality, or was it just plain confidence?


Nevertheless, whether it was real premonition or just plain luck , Dae Young chose to make the coincidental meanings live on as he rested the other walkie talkie right below Locker No. 36, taking the other one with him as he walked out of the barracks.

 

Daewi Yoo Si Jin,

I just happened to open locker 35 to see all of my items still in place, exactly how I left it a year ago, and I saw a pair of long-range, two-way military radios hidden inside. I took both of them out, and it reminded me of the hell that we've been through in that bomb shelter. We've been locked up for long, but we still function well just as these two still had battery power left when I took them out of the locker. Like these useful radios, we're finally free, and now it's time that we make our survival known to the sources of our strength, the women in our lives.
 

Mine's in Urk, so I had to leave early.


I left one of the two-way radios underneath your locker, should there be any concern. Set it to Channel 3. Your locker key's with it as well.


It's been a wonderful year escaping death and saving the world with Alpha Team's captain, and I look forward to see you again in Korea. I hope you meet her soon, and I also hope you sober up from your hangover before you do.

Dan Gyeol.


-서대영


"Aish," Si Jin laughed, reaching for the walkie-talkie and the keys of his locker after reading the handwritten note posted in front of Locker No. 36. Twisting the lock open, he came to see what was inside and it had been just as Dae Young described: it was never touched or moved by anything.
 

Since the locker was airtight, all the items he stacked inside were just as good as they were when he last saw them. Ah, the smell of Korea... Si Jin quickly took out his phone to charge it, and then gathered up the other things: a jacket, a scarf, a brown shirt and a pair of green cargo pants—all these he used as his clothes for the day.


"Captain Yoo?" An Albanian soldier asked when he came in the quarters to see the Korean soldier fix his bunk bed, "You're leaving already?"


Si Jin happily nodded after placing the pillow on the upper part of the bed, "Yeah. Thanks for watching over us for the past two months,"


"It's no problem. I look forward to do joint missions with your team again. By the way, where are you going? Do you need a ride to the airbase?"


"No," Si Jin replied, finally placing his radio on one pocket, and his phone on the other, "I'll need a ride to MediCamp,"


"The only refugee camp up in Kukes? What for?"


 "...I have a date,"


The soldier laughed, "Well, that's pretty far for a date. Okay, I'll try to get you a ride to Kukes. Follow me," He said, walking outside with Si Jin following behind.


Compared to Korea, it's not that far-fetched, Si Jin kept that in mind as the soldiers in Albania bid him farewell. Jumping onto the truck, the soldier instructed him on things to do, "The vehicle shall make a stop at the superhighway. There are farmer trucks that would give free rides and they'll be passing by the town of Kukes. For sure, it’ll make its way around Medicamp,"


"Got it. Thanks a lot,"


"Have a safe trip, Captain," the soldier waved as the military truck travelled farther away from the military base. Right after they have travelled a few miles away from the base, Si Jin stopped by the superhighway and gladly found a farmer truck generous enough to give him a ride to Kukes. The ride would approximately be a duration of five hours at most, and Si Jin thought that was better than not travelling there at all. He badly wanted to meet Kang Mo Yeon.


Trying on his two-way radio, he attempted calling on the sergeant, "Wolf, do you copy, over,"


No response.

 Aish, why'd he lend me a radio when I can't even reach him, he thought, placing the radio back inside his pocket. "This'll be one long ride,"


 

(Location: Urk)



Dae Young arrived swiftly at downtown Urk with the help of a friendly local who was on his way to deliver trading goods in the country. From the town centre, the lone sergeant trudged his way along the road he knew would eventually lead to Mowuru Base Camp, the place where Yoon Myung Joo was currently assigned.


As he walked farther away from the capitol, the road seemed to get lonelier by the hour, and the next thi