“What are we going to do with them, Hyukjae?” Yesung asked as the ten boys approached The Mountain.

“Yeah, we can’t take them back into town, and we don’t have any holding cells here.” Kyuhyun agreed, wondering what was going on.

“I know just the place; we are staying outside of The Mountain for a few more days.” Hyukjae explained and the others whined.

Donghae had been wondering what Hyukjae was going to do with his friends. He was glad that he had managed to save them from being slaughtered, but then he realized that he had no idea what was going to happen to them afterwards.

They began to make their way back up The Mountain, but instead of continuing to climb Hyukjae led the way along another path about midway up. They came to an opening and Hyukjae stepped inside it and into a vast cave.

“We are going to be keeping them here for the time being. Kibum, I am trusting you to watch them and make sure they don’t escape. I don’t think they’ll try anything, but just to be sure tie them up over there. We are going back down to report what we found and give the order to attack tomorrow night.” Hyukjae explained and the other four North Korean boys followed him out, splitting the group of ten back into the original two groups of five.

“Donghae, what kind of place is this? Why won’t you turn your telepathy on? What have you learned?” Sungmin asked frantically while Donghae tied his hands loosely behind his back and against the wall of the cave.

“Why are you following me? Did my father send you?” Donghae asked, answering his questions with some more questions.

He didn’t have to tell them anything, he didn’t owe them anything. This was his mission after all.

“Sungmin, be quiet. No, Donghae, we followed you on our own accord. We wanted to make sure that you were safe.” Leeteuk explained, trying to calm Donghae.

“You didn’t think I could handle this on my own did you? My father chose ME for this mission! Obviously he thought I could handle it. I’m astounded that my friends, the people I was with since ing BIRTH didn’t think I could do it! We’ve been training our whole lives for something like this Leeteuk! Now I’ve finally got the chance to prove myself and you come in and could have blown the whole thing!” Donghae shouted quietly, his voice barely more than a whisper but the annoyance made his voice thick with impatience.

“Donghae, I’m sorry. It wasn’t that we didn’t think you couldn’t handle it, we couldn’t handle it. Not knowing what was happening to you was driving us crazy and we couldn’t just sit in that stupid school while you were out here facing danger! We wouldn’t even know if anything happened to you!” Leeteuk said, losing his cool that he had even held while facing a ruthless Hyukjae.

“What you did was selfish. What do you think would have happened if I hadn’t been able to convince Hyukjae not to kill you? I would have had to choose between watching my friends die in order to maintain my cover, or give up my identity to save you. Even then, with the numbers even, there is still a chance we would have lost that fight. These boys are good, we aren’t the only ones trained to be this way.” Donghae said, his voice calming down a bit as disappointment took over his tone.

“It was stupid, Donghae, I’m sorry. We are all sorry. Now explain to us what you have found.” Leeteuk demanded and Donghae felt the others give him apologetic glances, despite the fact that he couldn’t see them through the darkness without his night vision.

“I can’t, they are coming back up the tunnel now and will be here any minute.” Donghae said and then rushed to finish tying up the others.

“How do you know? I can’t hear or see anything.” Leeteuk asked confused.

“I can feel him getting closer. It is amazing the things your own senses pick up when you don’t have the aid of technology.” Donghae explained as he finished tying up Leeteuk.

Before the others could ask what he meant the other five boys came back into the cave.

“It’s all worked out, tomorrow night things will change.” Hyukjae explained to Donghae, who nodded in understanding while the other four Super Junior members looked at him confused.

Donghae walked out to the entrance of the cave and looked out at the night sky. There was not a single star in the sky, and the moon wasn’t visible either. The sun had yet to begin to rise, so he knew that it was still the wee hours of the morning. He stifled a yawn before heading back inside.

“Hyung, what are you doing?” Donghae called out to Hyukjae who was untying Ryewook and pulling him to his feet and hauling him across the cave. He felt his friends stare at him in shock as he just called one of their enemies ‘hyung’.

“We have to figure out who they are and what they are doing here. Just because we spared them doesn’t mean they are automatically our friends.” Hyukjae explained as he went deeper into the cave.

Donghae couldn’t imagine how terrified Ryewook must have been. He knew that Hyukjae had chosen him to go first because he looked like the easiest to break. This was probably true, but he knew his friend was tough. He was sure that he was scared though; Hyukjae was a very intimidating person once he wiped the friendly smile off his perfect face.

“Come help me Kibum.” Hyukjae commanded and Donghae immediately followed. He didn’t want to do this.

“You aren’t just going to question them, are you?” Donghae asked as he approached.

“Only if they don’t cooperate.” Hyukjae stated and Donghae felt his friend shake a little beside him. He grabbed a hold of his arm, pretending to help drag him but really trying to bring his friend a little comfort when he couldn’t do anything to help him.

They finally stopped when they reached the back of the cave. It was pitch black and Donghae and Hyukjae could barely make out the other’s figure before their eyes adjusted. Donghae was glad for the darkness, he was afraid to see his friend in pain. He also knew that Ryewook, with the green glow of night vision, could see the emotionless expression he was forcing himself to wear.

“We shall start simple,” Hyukjae began as he threw Ryewook to the ground and stood in front of him with his arms crossed and his voice cold, “what is your name?”

“Kim Ryewook.” Ryewook answered, knowing that his name wasn’t going to be of much use to Hyukjae. Even if they searched his name through a list of South Koreans they would find hundreds of answers. Besides, he had been abandoned as an infant and there was no record of his birth.

“Good, I can hear you are telling the truth. I can tell when people are lying to me, you know. You can hear it in their voice. When someone speaks a lie their voice cracks or jumps in pitch. Now, who do you work for?” Hyukjae asked and silence followed the question.

“Now, Ryewook, I hate to sound like a bad TV show here, but we can do this the easy way, or the hard way.” Hyukjae stated coolly while circling around the helpless boy. Donghae just watched helplessly, his eyes getting wider as he could now make out the fear on his friend’s face.

Silence still followed, Ryewook remained quiet. Why he didn’t answer with a lie was a beyond Donghae.

“Hard way it is.” Hyukjae simply stated; his voice which had been cold and heartless was now thick with hate, anger and disgust. Donghae couldn’t see his face, but he imagined the look on his face to be similar to the look that had been on his face the first night he had been with them.

“Alright now, Wookie…who do you work for?” Hyukjae asked again and moved his face so that it was mere millimeters away from Ryewook’s.

Ryewook returned Hyukjae’s cold stare, there was fear in his eyes but he still remained silent.

“Let’s try a new question. Why were you in the woods with your friends?” Hyukjae asked standing up and walking around so that he was now standing directly behind Ryewook, his hand brushing slightly against his shoulder, making him jump.

Silence still followed.

“Why don’t you want to answer me?” Hyukjae commanded bending down to whisper the question directly in his ear. Donghae saw his friend shudder against the warm breath and knew that he was going to falter soon enough.

“Why don’t you ask the right questions?” Ryewook retorted back.

It was a bold move, and shocked both Hyukjae and Donghae.  Donghae was wondering why the hell his friend would say something that would only further agitate the boy torturing him, and Hyukjae was shocked at the audacity of the small boy.

“And what would you suggest I ask?” Hyukjae mocked, hovering in front of Ryewook’s face. Instead of fear a new boldness and courage found its way to his eyes and Donghae realized what he was doing; stalling. It was only going to make Hyukjae angrier though, which meant the end result would be worse.

“Who am I? Who was I following? What is my mission?” Ryewook taunted with a slight smirk.

“Alright then, who are you?” Hyukjae asked and the grin on Ryewook’s face widened.

“Just because you ask the right questions, doesn’t mean I will answer them.” Ryewook said and before anybody could so much as blink Hyukjae’s hand came down hard across Ryewook’s face, surely leaving a red handprint.

“You aren’t in a position to try and control the situation, so I suggest you don’t try to play games.” Hyukjae said and knelt down behind Ryewook, wrapping an arm tightly around his neck, but not tight enough to cut off his oxygen supply.

“I suppose you are right. So, what exactly are you going to do with me since I won’t answer any of your questions?” Ryewook asked again, the fear only apparent deep in his eyes.

He wasn’t afraid to die, or suffer through whatever pain Hyukjae had planned for him. This was a part of his life, it was bound to happen at one point and he, along with the other Super Junior members, had prepared mentally and emotionally for it.

Hyukjae pulled out the same knife he had just used to cut the dynamite earlier and held it to Ryewook’s neck, using his arm to pull his neck back in order to expose more skin and pressed the tip of the blade into the skin. It wasn’t enough to cause serious injury, but it did draw blood and pain was visible on Ryewook’s face.

“We are about to find out, now aren’t we?” Hyukjae said maliciously and that was when Donghae snapped.

He had been watching in silence as his new ally was slowly torturing his lifelong friend and it had been driving him crazy. Every flicker of pain and fear went straight through him, rubbing his emotions raw. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. If they were going down it was supposed to be the five of them, together.

“Hyung, stop it, please, stop.” Donghae begged as tears began to fall from his eyes.

He had never cried before, at least not since he was a toddler. He was tougher than that, stronger than that. Something about seeing his friend being tortured struck him deeper than he had thought possible though. He had never really gotten too close to his friends on a personal, emotional level. It had always been a strictly; mission, here is a task, now we complete it friendship. As he was watching his friend suffer though, it dawned on him that he really did care about and love all of his friends. He didn’t want anything to happen to them, and would much rather be the one with the blade pressed to his neck in place of Ryewook.

“Kibum, he is a threat and must be dealt with! He won’t talk and we can’t afford to keep him, but now he knows too much!” Hyukjae tried to reason out his logic to Donghae who’s crying got harder and harder until he was full out sobbing.

“Kibum!” Hyukjae called out his name as he fully realized his reaction and stood, coming over to him.

Hyukjae pulled Donghae back towards the entrance of the cave so that they were out of sight of Ryewook, but not yet back to the others. He stood and put his hands on either side of Donghae’s face, forcing him to meet his eyes which were kinder now that he was away from Ryewook.

“Kibum, this is a part of this world. If you don’t like it, then I suggest you opt out now, although I don’t think that is an option seeing as you now know too much. There will be torture, there will be bloodshed. I know you have never killed a man, but it is time you learned how to.” Hyukjae said in an attempt to get Donghae to get a hold of himself, but it only made him cry harder.

“Please don’t hyung, he doesn’t deserve to be killed. He is a person just like you and I. A person that feels hate, anger, fear, sadness, pain…they were all there, played across his face. I felt, I felt like you were torturing me while you were torturing him.” Donghae sniffled and Hyukjae gave in and just pulled Donghae into a hug, letting the younger cry into his chest.

“I’m sorry, Kibum, but this is the way the world is. I don’t always agree with it, but I deal with it. You have to too.” Hyukjae tried to explain but Donghae just sobbed harder and shook his head against Hyukjae’s chest.

“Please hyung, use them to infiltrate South Korean units, or hold them prisoner, I don’t care, just please don’t kill them. I thought you wanted this war to be over, shouldn’t we be trying to stop the bloodshed?”  Donghae pleaded pulling away in order to look Hyukjae in the eye.

His eyes had softened, and in them Donghae could see a hint of compassion. He just hoped he could reach down and dig it out in order to save his friends.

“Alright, but you are in charge of keeping them in line. Besides, if you want to stop the bloodshed so badly maybe you shouldn’t have told us that our unit should attack those South Korean troops.” Hyukjae gave in, but tried to make a valid point in his argument.

“I know, but I hadn’t thought about it in a ‘one person killing another’ kind of way. Too me it was all numbers and statistics, I forgot that it was people we were dealing with. I guess it is too late now though isn’t it?” Donghae tried to explain.

“Yes, it is. Now we need to go get Ryewook and get back to the others.” Hyukjae said ending the conversation and heading back towards where Ryewook had been left alone. Donghae took Hyukjae’s hand as they walked back.

He wasn’t sure why he did it anymore, he just knew that he liked and craved the warm touch. He felt an unfamiliar tug in his chest as Hyukjae squeezed his hand back. He felt closer to this boy he had just met a few days ago than he had to his friends whom he had known all his life.

He decided that he should probably turn his telepathy on so that he could let Ryewook know what had happened as well as calm the others who had probably heard the whole thing through Ryewook’s mind.

‘Wookie, don’t worry, we are coming back and I have convinced him to not kill you. You are all going to be fine, kept prisoner, but fine. He isn’t as heartless as he seems. He just…has a lot on his plate.’ Donghae called out to his friends in his mind. The four answers he got at once shocked him, he forgot how noisy it was to have four extra people in your head.

‘Hurry hyung, my neck is still bleeding and my hands are tied so I can’t stop it.’ Ryewook cried, sounding frantic and afraid.

‘Yagh, Donghae, nice to have you back in my head! Please, take care of Wookie and don’t let that evil Hyukjae do anything bad to us. These others seem like they could be nice, if they would stop glaring at us.’ Sungmin complained as Donghae reached where they had left Ryewook.

‘Hyung, why are you holding…?’ Ryewook began to ask but before he could finish his thought Donghae turned his telepathy off, bringing quiet back to his mind.

Donghae let go of Hyukjae’s hand and went over to his friend while the later picked up his dropped knife and put it away before heading back to the others, leaving Donghae alone with Ryewook.

“Hyung, why were you holding his hand?” Ryewook asked once Hyukjae was long gone.

“It’s complicated, can you walk?” Donghae asked as he bent down to examine Ryewook’s still bleeding neck.

“I don’t think so, my legs are really shaky. You don’t actually trust him do you, hyung?” Ryewook asked and Donghae didn’t answer as he untied Ryewook’s hands.

“Put your arms around my neck.” Donghae instructed without answering his question.

Ryewook did as he was told and Donghae wrapped his arms around the small man’s waist, easily picking him up and the younger wrapped his legs around him, clinging to him like a monkey.

“You do, don’t you? Do you love him?” Ryewook asked and the question caught him off guard.

“Two boys can’t love each other, Ryewook.” Donghae answered simply and the younger huffed in his ear.

“Of course they can, I love you. So does Leeteuk, Sungmin, and Siwon.” Ryewook tried to argue.

“You aren’t talking about the same kind of love.” Donghae stated, calling out Ryewook on his obvious bluff.

Truth was; Donghae didn’t know what he was feeling towards Hyukjae. He didn’t intentionally begin to trust the boy, but he knew that it was slowly happening. Trust was a two way street, and in order to get Hyukjae to trust him, he had to trust him back. Aside from that he liked being with him, being next to him, holding his hand. He agreed with some of the things Hyukjae said about the war, wanting peace and everything else. He was friends with Hyukjae, that much was clear, but was there something more?

“What are you thinking, hyung? I don’t like not being able to hear your thoughts.” Ryewook complained as they slowly made their way back to the others.

“Just stuff, nothing of importance.” He explained and soon they were back with the others.

Donghae set Ryewook on the ground and went to his back pack where he found a first aid kit. He brought it over to him and used some gauze and antiseptic to treat his wound. Once he had bandaged it up he retied Ryewook next to the other three and went to sit with his new group. They sat like that, divided between North and South just like the peninsula until, one by one they all fell asleep. Donghae was the last to drift off, he was supposed to be watching the prisoners but he knew that they weren’t going anywhere and eventually exhaustion overtook him.

I am really sorry I haven't updated in so long :/ Had a super busy weekend and life has just been...life...nobody kill me for torturing Ryewook...it was neccessary to see some of the progression of Hyukjae's and Donghae's relationship....so, yeah...DEAL...:) comments are loved...if you don't all hate me by now :P

RAWR!!! This website format change GOT RID OF MY AWESOME POSTER!!!!! now I am angry....FREAKING TECHNOLOGY!!!!