Byulyi yawned into her hand, resisting the urge to rub at her eyes.  She was leaning against the outside of a building in oversized clothes, making her gender ambiguous.  It was dangerous for a girl to be out at this hour at night. At least for most girls.

 

Someone smacked the back of her head and she practically growled.

 

“Geez, would you take it easy!” she yelled, angrily turning to glare at the person who decided to pester her.  Of course it was Ahn Hyejin, dressed in an almost laughably gaudy knee length fur coat with sharp eye makeup and bright red lipstick to boot.

 

“The show go well up North?” Byulyi grumbled, rubbing the sore spot with begrudging fingers.

 

Hyejin made a mischievous face.

 

“Got some good intel from the officers.  Men really let their tongues run with alcohol in ‘em.”

 

Byulyi made an appreciative noise as she reached into her pocket, grabbing at her pack of cigarettes.  

 

“We should report to Major Han then.”  

 

They began to walk together, Hyejin’s arm looped through hers.  From the back they looked like a couple, a scrawny looking man arm in arm with a luxurious looking lady.  It was a cover that couldn’t be further from the truth.  

 

“Is the North planning a second attack on Busan?” Byulyi asked quietly as she tried to light her cigarette, letting the lighter click rapidly in the late night.  

 

Hyejin sighed and they paused as the other woman cupped the cigarette with a hand, carefully lighting it with the other.

 

“You don’t even smoke,” Byulyi observed with wonder, an eyebrow quirked in surprise.  

 

“It’s a good trick.  Lighting a man’s cigarette and getting him to look at your cleavage.”

 

“I suppose it makes sense that you’re one of the best intel gatherers we have for those Northern officers.  They never seem to be able to say no to you.”

 

“Well they never can say no to Hwasa.  Hyejin on the other hand would never give them the time of day.”

 

Byulyi pulled her cigarette away from , laughing quietly as they turned into an alleyway.  

“Hyejin would leave them on the side of the road with their throats slit.”

 

A smiling blood red mouth was Byulyi’s reply.

 

They came to their destination, a seemingly inconspicuous battered back door of an abandoned building.

 

Byulyi pulled her cap lower over her eyes as she glanced behind them to make sure no one was watching.  Heaving a quiet sigh, she tapped lightly twice with the toe of her foot. 

 

One rap answered her.

 

In reply Byulyi leaned forward, pressing practically against the seam of the door. 

 

“It’s me,” she breathed against the crack, feeling the splinters of the wood brush against her lips.  

 

She felt the lock snap unlocked and Byulyi straightened quickly.  Letting Hyejin enter first, she did one last careful glance at the city before entering in a blur of gray. 

 

It was dark in their little headquarters. At least the first floor.  The inside was a completely empty floor of what had once been a restaurant.  A few tables were on their sides, gleaming with dust in the slivers of moonlight that seeped through the boarded up front windows.  Byulyi sighed once before turning to Hyejin who was kneeling down in her heels, fumbling with the lock to the floor door of the basement.  She finished the last of her cigarette before squishing it under her heel with a soft crunch.  In the last bit of embers she could see the faint outline of a soldier standing against the door they had entered.  She gave him a curt nod of acknowledgement and he bowed.

 

“If you wore your glasses, Hyejin-ah, you’d open it quicker.”

 

“It ruins my image, unnie,” argued Hyejin stubbornly as she successfully opened the padlock.  Giving another glance at the soldier, Byulyi walked forward, stepping below to the little door of the cellar.  She heard the soldier close the door behind them, so that they were submerged instantly in darkness.  They both stood almost comfortably in the pitch blackness as Byulyi pulled her lighter from her pocket, snapping it a few times to get a flame.

 

“Why do you even smoke if you can barely light a cigarette?” wondered Hyejin in exasperation as she reached forward, snatching the lighter from Byulyi’s hand once again.  In mere seconds the stairs leading deeper into the cellar were lit in a small orange glow.  Offering her arm with a crooked smile, Byulyi led them down, deeper into the darkness.  

 

The South Korean military had done quite a few things wrong during the onset of the War.  But at least, a year into the conflict, they had managed to provide Byulyi and the soldiers she was working with a decent amount of security and secrecy with the hideout they had in Seoul.  She wished she could say the same about the soldiers and civilians that were being slaughtered daily in the madness.  

 

They reached the back wall of the cellar.  Hyejin lifted the lighter up so that the smooth brick was illuminated in a faint glow.  Byulyi slapped at the middle brick with an open palm sighing with a bit of impatience.  So much damned work just to get to her report in before bed.

 

Suddenly the “wall” groaned, pulling back with a puff of chalky remains from the brick grinding against stone.  Lit by the small flame was a familiar face.

 

“Wheein-ah,” Hyejin murmured with a smile as the other girl grinned at the both of them.

 

“You two took long enough.  The Major was starting to get worried.”  She stepped back a bit and let them through.   Byulyi tried to ignore the way Hyejin paused, the two brushing against each other as Wheein looked up into the other woman’s face with a smile.

 

“It's good to see you. Three weeks up North as Hwasa was a little too long for me, Wheein-ah.”

 

Byulyi walked quickly away letting them have their moment.

 

The small headquarters had been hard to create in such a short notice.  Byulyi recalled the sleepless nights she had spent with herself and Seulgi, kneeling in rubble and digging with bloody hands as Major Han had silently held a lighter.  The rumble of bombs and gun shots had echoed above them with the occasional sprinkle of dust and wood showering down on their shoulders.  

 

But as she glanced appreciatively at the wooden desk and tables filled with maps and scattered notes, she couldn’t help but feel a bit of pride.  At least her efforts had amounted to something despite the suffering. 

 

“Unnie.”  Byulyi turned and smiled at Seulgi who was standing in front of the Korean map, a pencil tucked behind her ear.  She was an invaluable cartographer who had been drawing useful geographical points at key battle locations.  

 

“How was your trip up North?”

 

Seulgi grinned.

 

“Major Han said he hadn’t seen a hand as skilled as mine in quite some time.  We were able to get a good assessment of the geographical layout of Kaesong along with the formations of some of the Northern troops there.”

 

“I was so disappointed that we didn’t get to have the trip together like we did in the old days.”

 

“Unnie, we had a trip together barely over a month ago!”

 

Byulyi shrugged playfully, stepping forward and helping adjust the glasses on the bridge of Seulgi’s nose.  

 

“We need you to be able to see well, Seulgi-yah.”

 

The younger girl looked up at her and the warmth of her made something in Byulyi stir.  She couldn't help but remember the tearful confession at the beginning of the War as she bled out from a gun shot wound to her side.  Seulgi’s hands had been so red and it all had felt like the end.

 

“Seulgi-yah…. do you think you could bring yourself to love someone like me?”

 

“Unnie?”

 

“Haha, sorry.  Guess I’m just tired.”  Byulyi scratched the back of her neck, ignoring the way her face felt hot at how close Seulgi was standing.  The rejection had been expected but seeing the other girl still made her feel a little raw.  

 

“Major Han wants you in the back room, Byulyi-unnie,” Wheein chimed in from behind them.  

 

“What is it this time?” she grumbled good-naturedly, earning a giggle from Seulgi.

 

“We brought something back with us from the North.”  Major Han poked his head out from his office.  Byulyi straightened at attention.  Even though she wasn’t a soldier by name her father had taught her enough about military etiquette.  

 

“Sir.”

 

“Hyejin-ah, give Wheein your report for her to transcribe.  We can get Byulyi to deliver it in the morning.”

 

“Are you going to make me chase a train again?”

 

Major Han paused.  He was usually an expressionless man, his hair always cut and his beard trimmed with not a wrinkle in place.  However, he had a mischievous streak with his deadpan humor that always made Byulyi feel comfortable.

 

“Not if you don’t make me have to jump from a building again.”

 

“I had to jump from a bridge too! It wasn’t easy for any of us!”

 

Ignoring the titters of laughter from behind her, Byulyi crossed into Major Han’s office, closing the door.

 

The office was drab, a simple desk and a table filled with files and maps and special reports.  Seulgi had suggested they make it in order to give the Major some privacy and Byulyi couldn’t refuse.  It had just meant they slept on the floor of the main room huddled for warmth during that winter.  Neither had complained.  

 

“Seulgi and I brought something back from the North.”

 

“I heard.”

 

Major Han sighed.

 

“Seulgi doesn’t know what exactly it is and I thought it best to keep it that way.”

 

“It?”

 

Wordlessly the man walked behind the desk and started to drag a large crate that had been hidden from view.  It was surprisingly large, almost up to her waist and as wide as half an arm span.

 

“How on earth did you get this in here?”

 

“Bribes and bullets.”

 

“You should have let me help.”

 

“I think we both wanted to make sure that Seulgi got past the garrison post safely.”

 

Byulyi bit her lip and said nothing, dropping her gaze to the crate before her.  It was so close that she could almost touch the faded wood.  Squinting, she realized that there was smeared dried blood across the side.

 

“Whatever you put in here had quite a struggle.”

 

“It took four people and a sedative.”

 

“Four people to put it in here?”

 

“Four people’s deaths.  She killed people in the process of being subdued.”

 

Byulyi paused, frowning as she met Major Han’s eyes.

 

“She?”

 

Silently the Major took off his dark green military coat, draping it over his desk chair before getting to work on rolling up his sleeves.  

 

“Draw your gun and keep it aimed at the crate.  She’s heavily drugged but I fear she may still put up a fight.”

 

“If she tries to kill you, do I have permission to shoot?”

 

“I’m afraid her life is more valuable than mine according to higher ups.”  Major Han lifted his chin toward a typed message on his desk.  “‘The weapon must survive at all costs.’”

 

“The weapon?”

 

Major Han simply grunted as he lightly tapped at the crate with his shoe.

 

“Are you awake?”

 

Silence.

 

Byulyi drew her gun, pressing her back against the firm wood of the door as she trained her weapon on the now menacing box.  Major Han picked up a crowbar that rested against the side of his desk.  

 

“Shouldn’t we warn the girls?”

 

“I have faith that you’ll be able to subdue her in some form or another.”

 

Locking eyes with him, Byulyi nodded once and then Major Han ripped off one of the four boards at the top.  The tension was thick in the room as they both waited.  Slowly a pale white hand reached up, fumbling at the edge of the crate.  Byulyi could see that the nails were bloody.

 

“How long has she been in there for?”

 

“A few days.”  Major Han stepped back, still holding the crowbar in hand as he watched whatever was inside begin to adjust to its freedom. 

 

The hand gripping the edge of the crate clenched once before pressing down.  In a slow moment Byulyi saw dark brown hair come into view.  It was cut a little bit above the shoulders.  The woman slipped a little and she barely caught herself from lunging forward and helping. And then she lifted her head and Byulyi saw her face.

 

The woman’s face was expressionless and surprisingly round considering she had been starved for the past few days.  Her eyes were slow-moving as they surveyed her surroundings with the laziness of a well fed tiger.  It was as if she knew that one move and Byulyi and the Major would be dead in seconds.

 

Suddenly the eyes zeroed in on her and Byulyi swallowed.  Those eyes were alarmingly lucid and she unconsciously gripped her gun just a little bit tighter.  

 

“What’s her name?”

 

“She doesn’t have one.”

 

“What?”

 

The woman watched the exchange lazily, eyes flitting back and forth.  

 

“That’s not even important honestly.  Apparently she was an experiment that the Japanese had been working on during the Occupation period.  When they left after World War II she traded hands and was put under North Korean care.  And now she’s ours.”

 

“And what exactly is she?”

 

“A weapon.  And a dangerous one at that.”

 

Byulyi hummed as she glanced at the bloody grey raggedy gown that covered the woman’s body.

 

“Dangerous?”

 

“That blood isn’t hers.  Do you see her nails? That blood there is from when she clawed a man’s face nearly to shreds.”

 

“You watched that happen?”

 

“I had to see for myself what she was capable of.”

 

Byulyi scoffed.

 

“Men don’t seem to believe women are capable of killing unless they see it themselves.”

 

“After seeing you level a whole squadron with a few magazines, Byulyi, I don’t think that’s true for me.  At least anymore.”

 

“Glad to have changed your heart on the subject, Major.”

 

Suddenly the woman in the crate started to fall, eyes fluttering closed.  Byulyi wasn’t thinking as she lunged forward, gripping her by the armpit to help her remain erect.  Wide brown eyes bore into hers and Byulyi just looked right back.  There was something delicate about her from this close, she thought.  It was almost impossible to believe that she was capable of killing men with her bare hands.  But there in the glint of her eyes was something Byulyi had only seen once.  It was her own reflection in the mirror after she had killed a man in the street to keep him from alerting his squadron of an enemy’s presence.  The animalistic rage that quietly burned in her eyes was right there again in front of her.

 

“Are you hungry?” Byulyi asked quietly.

 

“They say she’s best with Japanese.  Apparently her best phrases in Korean are ‘Kill’ and ‘Don’t kill.’”

 

Byulyi straightened, gently loosening her tight grip on the woman.

 

“And how does she know not to kill us?”

 

“She’s a weapon that doesn’t have a loyalty to a particular master.  Think of her like the gun you’re holding in your hand.  It doesn’t discriminate as long as you can shoot it.”

 

“Not even an allegiance to a country?”

 

Major Han shook his head, taking a step closer.  The action had the woman tensing.

 

“It’s alright.”  The soft-spoken words had her snap her head towards Byulyi in an instant.  She gently put the gun back in its holster and used her now free hand to help the woman step out of the crate.  She was still a little affected by the drugs and she swayed into Byulyi, clutching at the collar of her shirt to find purchase.  Instinctually, Byulyi put her hands out to grab at her back.

 

“So we have a human weapon in our hands… What exactly is our purpose for her?”

 

 The woman pulled back a little and their gazes met again.  Something tugged painfully at Byulyi’s chest as she met the emptiness of her eyes with a half-upturned smile.

 

“It’s a gift from the base at Busan. To help kill as many Northerners as possible.”

 

She sighed and watched as the woman’s brow puckered in confusion at the action.  Trying to soothe it, Byulyi smiled again, ignoring the guilt she felt at the prospect of using this woman as some kind of tool in war.

 

“What a wonderful gift we’ve been given, then.”