I lay in the uncomfortable bed of my room after our first full day of following schedule. Chanyeol lays next to me, arms wrapped around my smaller body, his breaths slow and warm on the back of my neck. I look at the clock nearby that reads 12:42 am. Despite the exhaustion I feel after a long day, my brain keeps me awake. I repeat the schedule over and over in my head in hopes of finding sleep. 
 

6:00 AM: Wake up.

6:15 AM: Pick up clean radiation suits from service members. Return suits and bedding from the day before to be cleaned.

6:45 AM: Take morning showers and other hygienic needs.

7:30 AM: Breakfast.

8:00 AM: Meet in main hall for headcount

8:30 AM: Health check ups. This is when Mrs. Choi took Chanyeol for medical training.

9:00 AM: Return to rooms and use products provided to perform anti-radiation deep cleaning.

9:30 AM: Prepare for morning task.

9:45 AM: Receive daily assignment from service member and proceed to follow. Today, I had dish duty in the kitchen.

12:00 PM: Lunch. This is when Chanyeol joined me again for the rest of the day.

12:30 PM: Return to rooms and prepare for afternoon tasks.

1:00 PM: Return to daily assignment. This time, I did the lunch dishes, and this time, Chanyeol did it with me.

3:30 PM: Return to and stay in rooms while the area gets inspected. Important testing and quarantining will be taking place to ensure the safety of the air. During this time, Chanyeol and I talked about his medical training.

4:30 PM: Announcements and testing. If your name is called over the intercom during this time, please exit your rooms and an assistant will take you to your destination. If your name is not called, remain in your rooms until the next activity.

5:30 PM: Dinner

6:00 PM: Return to rooms and prepare for evening tasks.

6:15 PM: Return to daily assignment.

8:00 PM: Return to rooms.

8:15 PM: Take evening showers and other hygienic needs.

9:00 PM: Retrieve clean bedding from service members and make up your beds. Tidy anything in your rooms if necessary. Alert service members if any help is needed.

9:30 PM: Nighttime announcements, pledge, and message.

Please be prepared to repeat this process tomorrow. Thank you! 

My boyfriend readjusts his arms in his sleep, cuddling me tighter. I let out a slow deep breath and my body finally slips into sleep. 

 

~~~~

 

The day starts off just as long and uneventful as yesterday. Chanyeol and I wake up to the annoying beeping of the alarm, we put out our dirty clothes and bedding in exchange for clean ones, shower, and head off to breakfast. We eat slightly over cooked toast and eggs, but since all of us can only eat at the designated meal times, no one cares enough to complain. Then we head off to headcount and medical checkups, Chanyeol leaves for training, and I go back to our room alone to clean. I receive my daily assignment, except instead of dish duty, today it's laundry duty, which I do until Chanyeol and I meet again for lunch. Today we eat a simple spicy ramen. We complete our afternoon task, then head to and stay in our rooms for inspection. Now 4:30 PM, the siren alerting everyone that announcements are starting blasts from the intercom.

"This is the Government of the Republic of Korea. Everybody please listen carefully to the following announcements." An automated voice says from the speaker above our door.

An old creepy song starts playing about the loyalty to our government, stating lyrics like, "Oh all what ye has done, we carry our hearts out to thee. Trust thy country like family, and thy country will trust me." It's some old folks song that was written by some Korean general hundreds of years ago. I've heard it so many times that I don't even notice the eeriness of the song anymore. The song finishes after a couple minutes, and the president's voice begins from the intercom.

"This is your president speaking. Thank you to everyone for following your schedules smoothly and completely. You all have exceeded my expectations and I hope that this will continue as the future progresses." President Jaeshin says, pausing before a change in topic. "Today's inspection results showed a small rise in radiation level, but we were able to safely clean up without any difficulties. Do not worry. However, in order to increase your protection of safety, our medical team experts and I will, from now on, require you to wear air-filtration masks at all times. These will be dropped off at front of your door in approximately 15 minutes."

The rest of the announcements remain the same as the day before. The president calls the daily list of names, which don't include Chanyeol or I, and gives his final notes of appreciation before hanging up, leaving that creepy song to play one more time before ending the announcements completely.

I turn to face my boyfriend, who sits down on a chair next to where I stand. He stands up and pushes the chair in under the table at the front of room. He walks over the bed and plops himself down on his back, spreading his arms out across it before sighing.

"I wonder how long this will go on, how long we'll have to stay here." He says. I walk over and lay next to him on top of one of his arms, causing him to scoop me up close to his side. We both stare up at the ceiling.

"I don't know, Yeol. But I hope it's not forever." I say. He sighs again and squeezes me even tighter with his arm.

"I'm tired, Baek. Let's stay like this for a minute." He mumbles tiredly. Even though I can't see his face, I know that he most likely closed his eyes. I smile and nod before closing my own.

I lay there comfortably absorbing as much of my sleeping boyfriend's warmth as I can while I rest my eyes, waiting a few more minutes until the air-filtration masks gets dropped off at our door. When the clock finally hits 5:00 PM, I creep out of my bed, making sure not to wake up my sleeping lover, and quietly open the door and pick up the objects waiting outside of it. Once back inside, I walk into the bathroom, giving me space to figure out how to use the new objects without disturbing Chanyeol. To my pleasant surprise, the masks are extremely simple to use, requiring it only to be adjusted around my mouth and nose and fastened around my head. I decide it's probably best to wake up my boyfriend so he can put his on as well, and I exit the bathroom.

"Wakey wakey." I sing as I walk towards the lovely sleeping figure on the bed. I smirk to myself as I carefully position myself on my boyfriend's stomach, my knees on each of his sides. I bounce my body on top of him and smack his man- playfully. "I said, wakey wakey, Mr. Park Chanyeol." I sing again, causing my boyfriend's eyes to snap open followed by a hard shove off his body. I laugh as a confused and groggy Chanyeol sits his body upright.

"You're ing weird, Baek." He grumbles. I stick my tongue out at his remark before speaking.

"I picked up the air-filtration masks from outside. They're pretty easy to use. Look." I show him how to put on the mask and he follows my steps.

"How are we supposed to eat with this thing?" He asks as he fondles with the mask on his face.

"I don't know. Hm. Let me read the paper that came with it." I say, pulling out the paper from the same bag that the masks came in. I scan over it before finding the information I'm looking for. "It says here to only take them off while eating and showering."

"Ah, okay. Well, dinner's in 10 minutes. Let's head over early so we don't have to wait in line." Chanyeol suggests, and I nod in agreement.

"Sounds good! I'm starving." I say, reaching for my boyfriend's hand to hold. He accepts my gesture and we head for the cafeteria. I catch a strong whiff of beef stew the second we step out of our room. After only a few minutes, we get in line, get our food, and find a table to sit at. I watch my boyfriend take his first bite of stew before starting on my own.

"Finally some decent tasting food." Chanyeol exclaims. "The beef is cooked right and the vegetables blend well. It's good."

"We are all fighting for survival underground and you're analyzing veggie blends? And I'm the weird one?" I joke, causing both of us to laugh. Our laughter dies down and a few seconds of silence pass before I continue. "Anyways, how was training?"

"Good, I guess. It's only my second day so they're still teaching me how to use all the equipment and procedures and stuff. They won't give me any serious jobs yet until training is over and they said I have to wait before they tell me anything, whatever that means. Just the same as yesterday." He explains, taking a bite of stew between sentences. I nod as I swallow the bite of food in my mouth. Though he isn't saying it, I can sense some disappointment in my boyfriend's tone.

"They'll be using you real soon, Yeol. You're smarter than they know. Soon you'll get out there and do your thing and they'll be glad they let you help. You're Park Chanyeol, my Yeollie, who's smart and good at everything. There's nothing you need to worry about." I say and smile at him comfortingly. He returns the smile before finishing up his last bites of food.

"I love you, Baek." Chanyeol says after he finishes the last of his meal. Baekhyun looks up from his now empty bowl and smiles at his boyfriend's words.

"I love you too, Yeol." I return. I open my mouth again to speak, but a sudden bang and wave of gasps from behind us steal our attention.

"Jiseok? I need medics immediately! Someone help!" A man yells. I try to look at the commotion but can't see beyond the crowd of people surrounding the voice.

"Everybody please make way! Get out of the way!" A bunch of military medics start yelling as they burst into the room, rolling in a gurney by their side. People clear a way and I watch as the medics disappear into the crowd of people. More gasps and panicked voiced mixed with the commands of medics telling people to go back to their meals emit from the scene.

I turn my attention away from the commotion and look around me. Confused people and families sit at their tables, attentions turned towards the scene, wondering what could be happening. Mothers and fathers comfort their scared children and government employees run in and out of the room. I turned my attention back to the commotion, watching the medics run quickly out of sight as I catch a glimpse of the gasping, twitching, burned up body being carried away.