Ionian Military Base

Keroessa, Io

I had to dig around in Haeyoung’s closet to find something suitable to wear. After seeing the Ionians in the city, I realized that the clothes I brought with me from Earth would make me stand out too much. I ended up picking out a collared shirt, a blazer, and some nicely ironed dress pants. I even used her dry shampoo to fix up my hair the best I could. I probably should’ve done makeup too, but I know I have zero skills, so I’d be better off not trying.

I stuff my notebook, pen, phone, and camera into one of Haeyoung’s nice leather satchels (she has multiple) and then I head downstairs.

-

The air pod drops me off at the gates of the base.

There are soldiers stationed at each side of the doors, and the base itself is a dark metal dome. The walls are high, and the whole building is intimidating and enormous.

The guards at the door turn to look at me once I step towards them. I’m the only visitor around. I glance at the nametags on their uniforms. One of them says CHANYEOL and the other one says LAY. I don’t know what to say for a second. I didn’t think this through well enough… Do they know Do Haeyoung? What if they do and my cover is blown?

Well, . It doesn’t matter now, because I’ve caught their attention and I’m going to have to explain myself somehow. It’s all or nothing, so I better get my act together.

“Hi,” I begin neutrally. “I’m here to see someone.”

The one named Lay squints at me. I don’t think he recognizes or knows me.

“We haven’t seen you around before.” He says.

“My name is Do Haeyoung. Does that ring any bells, sir?” I give them a slight bow and hide my shaky hands behind my back.

Should I bring up the fact that my dad is supposed to be Do Kyungsoo? I could say I’m here to see him, but I don’t even know if he’s in there right now. What if he’s not at work right now? Or what if he’s on a business trip? I don’t know how things work here. I have no way of knowing anything for sure, which is why I have to play it as safe as I can.

Chanyeol’s eyes widen. “Oh, you’re that Do Haeyoung? It’s nice to meet you! I heard a bit about you from Kai. He’s a friend of mine. I thought you flew off to do some work on Earth or something. At least, that’s what we heard. Are you here to see him?”

Oh, okay. So they haven’t seen the real Haeyoung before. I can work with this.

“Yeah, that’s me. It’s nice to meet you. I’ve heard about you from Kai as well. Is he in right now? I just got back and wanted to visit.” Wow, my lying is getting smoother and smoother. I force a smile on my face as I shake hands with Chanyeol and Lay.

“Of course. Your ID, please.” Lay presses a button on the watch he’s wearing and one of those holographic displays like the ones in the air pods pop up.

I hand over the card and watch as he swipes it and enters some authorization code to open the gates.

“Would you like me to call Kai for you? I can tell him to come now.” Chanyeol asks.

“No!” I panic. I can’t let this Kai person see me. Ever. Once he sees me, it’s all over. He knows the real Do Haeyoung, and who knows what’ll happen to me if he catches me.

Chanyeol and Lay look at me in confusion after my outburst.

“What I mean is, I want to surprise him. This is a surprise visit. He doesn’t know that I’m back yet. Please don’t call him. I’ll go inside and find him myself. I know my way around so don’t worry.” I say quickly.

Lay nods and Chanyeol smiles at me.

“See you later, Miss Haeyoung! Maybe we can have a meal together the next time you decide to drop by.” Lay says politely.

I nod hastily, bow, wave, and turn towards the gates.

I breathe out a quick sigh of relief as the doors slide open and I walk through.

Finally.

-

It’s like another small city underneath the dome. I quickly get out my camera to take some photos. I don’t know which ones I’ll end up using in the end, but I know I need to get as much as possible, so I can analyze and decide later.

Just after stepping through the entrance, I spot a glass and metal structure that looks like a bus stop across the road. The info sign says that there are only four buses that run in the military base. One goes to the naval centre, one goes to the dry land centre, another to the aviation centre, and one to the dormitories.

I pause for a moment and try to decide where I should go first. Unsurprisingly, there’s too much stuff to look at all in one visit, and I realize that I’ll have to come back. I know I have to cover as much as I can as fast as I can because the longer I stay here the easier it’ll be for me to get caught.

I end up catching the first bus that comes and heading to the dry land centre. The driver barely glanced at me when I got on the bus, and thank goodness there was no one else aboard.

I head straight to the armoury building when I reach the dry land area. There should be lots of stuff in here. Seems like a good place to start, right? Well, I was wrong. I guess Haeyoung doesn’t have the clearance to get in here, because the ID doesn’t work when I swipe it through the scanner. I’m trying to figure out what to do next when I hear the sound of a car coming down the road.

Some tall dude in a black uniform and pink hair jumps out of a jeep and makes his way to where I’m standing at the entrance of the armoury.

I can feel myself getting the jitters, and my heart pounds in fear every time his combat boots hit the asphalt.

“Hey. Don’t think I’ve seen you here before. What’s your name?” He asks without a single bit of hesitation.

Why does the first person I have the misfortune of running into have to be so straightforward? Why couldn’t he just ignore me, walk past me, and head into the building?

I can’t really read this guy’s expression either. Is he suspicious of me? Or is he just greeting a stranger? I don’t know. I can’t tell at all, so I have to act with caution.

“Hi, I’m here looking for someone named Kai.” I go with my original story because I can’t think of anything else at the moment. And plus, if this guy knows or ever talks to Chanyeol and Lay at the gate, then at least the lies will match. I’m careful to keep my facial expression as neutral as his.

“That’s me.” His eyebrows shoot up. “But now you know my name and I don’t know yours.”

Wow, just my luck. Are you kidding me right now?  I didn’t want to run into this guy at all, but he’s the first person I meet when I’m inside. What am I supposed to do now? My chances of being caught just skyrocketed. This is turning into more and more of a mess.

“I’m Song—” I almost mess up and tell him my real name, but I catch myself just in time. “Hae…ji.”

Wow, good for me. Making up another identity. Now I have even more to keep track of.

“Okay, Haeji-ssi. What can I do for you?”

Okay, this is really not good. I can practically hear the suspicion dripping from his tone of voice. He raises his eyebrows and his whole expression just screams disapproval.

“I’m a friend of Do Haeyoung’s. We went to the same university. I, um, I’ve always been interested in the military.” I stutter. This is really bad.

“Really? Haeyoung never mentioned you before, and I think I’ve met all her friends.”

“Well… I’m sort of an, um, enthusiast, you see… Okay… to be honest, we weren’t very close. We worked on a couple of assignments together when we were in school and we also studied together from time to time. But! She told me that she had a friend in the military after I told her I found it interesting.” I force a smile on my face, but I’m sure I it looks more like a grimace because of how nervous I am.

I gesture awkwardly at him. “That’s you. You’re the friend, so I came looking for you.”

“How’d you get through the gates?” Kai asks.

“Ah, that. I had Haeyoung contact Lay and Chanyeol in advance to let me in.”

Kai nods. I don’t know if he really believes me. He probably doesn’t trust me at all.

“So how about a little tour? I promise I’ll be out of your hair after that. Or if you’re busy, I could just walk around by myself.” I suggest.

“Well, I haven’t got much to do now. Come on, Haeji-ssi. Any friend of Haeyoung’s is a friend of mine. Let’s go.” Kai smiles at me, but I can sense the underlying distrust in his expression. His goal in taking me on the tour I suggested is just a chance for him to question me and probe into my background more… I have no choice but to go along with it. I know I’m in danger, but I have no choice but to keep going. I want to get out of here and run because I’m scared of what might happen to me if I’m caught… This is what I wanted, right?

For a millisecond, my thoughts flash back to Baekhyun, Minyoung, and all the other things and people I left behind. I feel a pang in my chest and curse myself for ever letting my resolve waver. Who cares if I’m scared? I chose this. I won’t and I can’t let myself regret it. I think about why I came here. For Baekhyun, for Daegu Daily, for myself. I have to succeed.

-

Kai only has enough time today to take me on a quick walk inside the armoury building today. He’s not allowed to bring me into more than half the sections of the building, which doesn’t surprise me at all. Still, it’s really frustrating because I need things to write about.

“So this is the storage area. We have old things that we don’t use anymore here, all of our current stuff, and some new prototypes. What made you so interested in the military, Haeji-ssi? Does it have anything to do with your job? Tell me a little bit about what you do.”

“I write and edit for a few news sites sometimes. I’m a freelancer. I want to do a piece about the Ionian military because it’s not written about very often. I’ve always found it interesting since I was a kid. It’s very mysterious, and that’s why I was drawn to it.” I say. Well, not all of that is a lie. Sort of. Wait, , what if Kai tries to search up my fake name? Then he’ll know Song Haeji doesn’t exist. Definitely not a smart move, but there’s nothing I can do about it now. I’ll just hope he doesn’t try to dig deeper. Which is unlikely. I'll worry more about this later. 

“I see. What did you study in university? Did you live on campus?”

Why do I feel like I’m being interrogated?

The small talk goes on for a while until I’ve basically made up every aspect of Song Haeji’s character. I still can’t read Kai, but I’d like to believe that he thinks I’m harmless. He would’ve arrested me or something by now if he thought otherwise, right?

He’s smart, though. He takes me through the building without actually revealing much. I only manage to learn where certain things are kept, which doesn’t help much because I’m not allowed to see them. Whenever I ask questions, Kai’s answers are always ambiguous. I question him about every part of his military life, but he sticks to giving me short answers like “training” or “inspection”. He never says what they do during training. He never gives away any details.

The only useful information I got from the tour is where the administration office is. Apparently, it’s located in the basement of the armoury for extra security. Kai tells me that’s where lots of confidential information is kept, like building blueprints, plans, laboratory documents, weapon details, as well as the files of every staff member on base.

Well, at least now I know what my next target is going to be.

Kai drops me off at the gates of the base when he’s done showing me basically nothing about the armoury building.

I get out of the jeep and give him a small bow.

“Thanks for your help. I appreciated the tour you gave me.” I say. I’m about to turn around and leave when Kai speaks up.

“So what’s your article going to be about? I don’t think you told me.”

I’m caught off guard, but I manage a reply anyway. “I just came to get a few ideas. I’ll think about it for a few days before I really narrow in on a topic.” I say vaguely.

“Why don’t you write about me? You could do an interview. I don’t think that’s been done before.” Kai suggests.

No, no, no, no no. I don’t want to. I don’t want to see him ever again. I don’t know what his intentions are behind suggesting the interview. I can't tell what he's thinking. This is dangerous. I don’t want to get caught, but….. I need some way to get into the armoury building again. I need to find the administration office so I can get my hands on whatever military secrets there are and then get out of here and run.

“So how about it, Haeji-ssi?” Kai sticks out his hand.

“Deal.” I grasp his hand firmly and we shake on it.