Taehyung sighed heavily while Ara watched him expectantly.  She didn’t want to probe him to speak.

“My brother and I were born in the North,” he started.  “We were lucky to be born into a reasonable situation. Our father was a farmer who worked to keep his family alive and fed, and our mother raised us as best as she could.  We didn’t have much, but it was home.”

He watched the feathery clouds billow along in the night sky.  “There was an ambush by the South. Our village was in the middle of it, being the closest to the border.  My brother and I tried to get our family out, but we were surrounded,” he continued. “They took us, and left our parents to be killed by the firing squad.”

Ara pulled her knees into her chest, curling up as she stared at a single spot on the ground.  

“We were in a war that no one wanted to fight, so I guess the South thought it would be ideal if they took from the North’s endless supply of hungry and desperate people,” he laughed bitterly.  “We had two choices: fight for the South, or die.”

“You chose to fight,” she concluded quietly.

He nodded.  “We thought that if we could do well, we could escape one day,” he said.  “We never expected to make any friends or long-lasting relationships. We separated ourselves from everyone, and it wasn’t like anyone reached out.  We were the outcasts. The Northern aliens. The monsters.”  He paused.  “And then Chanyeol reached out.”

“Chanyeol?”

“He was Major Park Chanyeol at the time, and he moved us to a rather remote location, away from prying eyes,” Taehyung said.  “He was helping an officer put together a team. That team would later be known as --”

“EXO,” Ara finished.

Taehyung hummed.  “I was never in on the action.  Baekhyun forbade me from doing anything of the sort, so I became the secret child no one knew about.  I never ventured out or did anything unexpected,” he said. “They went on mission after mission, trying to settle peace at the border.”

He shuddered.  “And then he decided to undergo the ROMAN procedure,” he said.  

He closed his eyes.  He could still hear Baekhyun and Chanyeol arguing about it.

Taehyung woke up to hear harsh whispering outside the dorm room door.  He crawled to the edge of his top bunk and watched silhouettes arguing above candlelight.  

“This could be your big break!  I don’t understand why you won’t just go for it,” Chanyeol said.

“Believe it or not, I still have family to worry about,” Baekhyun protested.  “I can’t just agree to do this. It’s not that simple.”

Chanyeol grasped his shoulder.  “But it is!  Besides, he won’t know the difference,” he said.  “You’ll be a better version of yourself. You and the rest of the team will be virtually unstoppable.  It’s the only way we can end these dumb skirmishes once and for all.”

“With more firepower?”