Author's Note: Some of you will be back to this story after four years. I suggest if you read the first chapter all those years ago, you go back and read it again. All you new people should have read that part obviously haha.

Chapter 2 – Goodbye

Long shadows flickered as a small campfire burned in the middle of the dark and dreary forest. The only sounds that filled the night air were the sounds of the wood crackling as it was consumed by the fire and the crickets that sang their familiar nocturnal summer song. Seohyun and Yongjoon stared up at the not quite full moon and breathed a sigh of relief. Yongjoon’s plan to defect was perfectly set up since his superiors sent him to the border to pick up some important documents from a contact that lived in the south. Instead, he would just kill the contact, steal the papers, and make his way to the South Korean government in order to give them any information that would help overthrow his homeland.

He was allowed to take a squad of five members that would act as his reinforcements in case anything was to come up during the mission. Of course, he chose none other than Seohyun and her squad. He would have her act as her backup and pretend to bring him back to the North so that they wouldn’t suspect anything. Little did they know that they were being led right into a scheme that Baek Wonil, the minister of war, had set up.

“Seohyun… why won’t you come over to the South with me? There’s nothing left in this land for you. You know that this country is rotting from the inside out. Why won’t you just leave with me and we can be happy together forever?”

Seohyun couldn’t lie to herself; her heart skipped a beat when she heard those words. The only person in the world she had was Yongjoon. He was the only person who hadn’t, and wouldn’t ever, abandon her. “I’m sorry Yongjoon… I just can’t,” she whispered back.

Yongjoon knew why she wouldn’t leave even if she didn’t know the answer herself. Her mother was still alive and Seohyun still loved her. Deep down inside he knew that Seohyun would always remember the times when her mom was still with her when they were kids. Seohyun was just too stubborn to admit that she was afraid that her mother would die if she left the country. “It’s okay you know?”

“What is?” she asked without moving her gaze away from the moon.

“You can admit that you miss your mom,” he shot back while giving her a consoling look. “She means a lot to you and that’s why you’re trying to pass the test to become a commander right? So you can save her?”

Her nostrils flared up at the mention of her mother. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, she knew that somewhere in her stone heart were memories of her mother singing to her as a child. She could still feel that warm embrace that only a mother could give her child and there was nothing else like that in the entire world. She could still hear the familiar notes of her voice singing out in the forest while they hid away from the guards. However instead of feeling consoled, she felt angered. “Yongjoon, never speak to me about that woman ever again,” she spat back. “She’s not my mother. She abandoned me and left me to live in this hole. A mother does not give up her child to some ruthless politician in order to turn her into a weapon.”

Yongjoon understood all of that but he knew Seohyun’s mother left her for a different reason. However it was no use trying to reason with her. He knew that there would never really be a chance for her to finally open up and let those scars heal. Well, he knew they weren’t even scars yet. They were very much still real, open, and deep wounds. “I’m sorry,” he whispered back. “I won’t speak of this thing again. I hope you can-”

Seohyun put her hand over his mouth before he could finish his sentence. She immediately drew her knife from her holster she had attached at her leg and motioned for Yongjoon to move behind one of the nearby trees. “Someone is nearby,” Seohyun pointed out.

“It could just be the team you know,” he replied back.

“The team is all up in the trees sleeping right now. We’re the ones on watch,” she answered back with acid in her voice. “I knew we shouldn’t have started the fire.”

In retrospect Yongjoon now wished he hadn’t started that fire but he needed to make Seohyun some food or else he knew she would have starved herself to death for the sake of a mission. When it was time for work, she focused on only the mission and ignored everything else. Before he could keep thinking, he noticed a pair shadows making their way to the clearing with their fire. The fire cast long shadows as it flickered, obscuring his vision of the targets.

Seohyun made a hand gesture to him which he understood as a signal to split up and attack from each side. He nodded back as he gave her a finger count down from three in order to strike. A steel blade whistled through the night air, and struck the target dead in the neck. In less than a second, Yongjoon managed to use the opportunity that Seohyun made for him as he rushed in and managed to slash his partner’s neck. “They were definitely not alone” she pointed out.

“What are these guys even doing here?” Yongjoon asked himself. “Look at their uniforms.” Seohyun could make out a patch in the shape of the South Korean flag on their shoulders. If only they knew that they were impostors sent by Baek Wonil in order to kill Yongjoon and his team.

“There’s no way these guys came here without a purpose,” Seohyun concluded. “With the way things are right now, there’s no way the South would risk a fight in our lands.” She was right. The men were only wearing South Korean uniforms, but they were Baek Wonil’s secret team. Seohyun and Yongjoon however were oblivious to this fact.

The commotion woke up the other four members of their team, forcing them out of their cover. Shaking away the sleepiness, they all huddled together in order to devise a plan. Before any of them could utter another word, a bullet managed to lodge itself into one of the men’s legs. “... I got hit…” he groaned while trying to clamp his hand down on his injury.

“Well, well… I didn’t expect to find you scum this easily,” a masked figure chuckled out. “You guys made it too easy with this little fire.” He stomped on the remaining embers of the fire with his boot clad foot, leaving it to fizzle out and once again make the forest dark. “We either do this the easy way or the harder way. Which one is it going to be?”

Seohyun quietly reached back to draw her handgun from its holster but quickly realized it would be a mistake. Six men surrounded them with much more firepower than her team brought with her. If she made one false move, they’d be goners. “Guys, guys, is there a way we can do this without the guns?” Yongjoon joked at the large figure. “Look, you guys are in our lands. We were actually on our way to give you guys some important papers. How about we just trade information and we all go on our merry way?”

“How about I just take that so-called information and kill you after? Sound like a plan hotshot?”

Seohyun knew Yongjoon was using that as a distraction to give them room to make a run for it. She managed to snag her gun in her right hand and began to fire into their direction. Immediately the squad of six men flinched in order to find cover before firing their machine guns into the darkness. Yongjoon, Seohyun and her second in command, Jae Myung seemed to be the only ones darting through the trees after the commotion died down. Seohyun knew the other three members of her team were most likely goners.

“Jae Myung, I need you to split up from us,” Seohyun breathed out. “Yongjoon and I will try to lose them. You go back to headquarters and find us some help.”

“No ma’am. As your subordinate, I must remain with you until you are safe. I am here to die for your cause,” the younger man replied. Jae Myung had been alwa