Primary Song: Nickelback- I'd Come For You

Genre: Angst

Characters: Sehun/ Female OC (Jung Hana)/ Jongin/ Others

Warning: character death

In the midst of a busy crowd in Incheon Airport, a couple stood, embracing. People, occupied with their own lives, hurried around them, ignoring the tear stained girl and buzz cut shaven boy. In the country of Korea, this heart-wrenching scene was rather common. A pair of lovers, separated by the military conscription.

“Be safe, okay?” the girl requested, feebly.

The boy managed to crack a smile despite his sadness. “I’m not going onto the field, Hana,” he said. “Just because it’s active duty doesn’t mean I’ll be actually fighting. Korea hasn’t been in a war for a long time.”

“But still, ” she worried. “Sehun, please tell me you’ll come back safely. All in one piece, both in body and mind.”

He nodded. “I’ll try my best,” he promised and sealed it with a tender kiss. When he broke away, he smiled sadly and said, “I have to go now, Hana. I’ll send you letters every month, okay?”

“Okay,” she whispered, unwilling to let him go.

Sehun looked down at her fists clenching his jacket. “I’ll come back to you. I promise.” He gently pried her hands off but held them in one of his. He pulled out his treasured leather bracelet from his pocket and clasped onto her right wrist.

“Sehun, this-” Hana looked up through tear dusted eyelashes. “This is your favorite bracelet. Why are you giving it to me?”

“As a way for you to remember me.”

Trying to hold back her tears, she lifted a shaky hand up to her neck and unclasped her necklace. She pulled the charm away from the chain and placed the heart shaped charm into Sehun’s palm.

“For you to remember me,” she murmured. She raised her eyes up to meet his. “I love you, Oh Sehun.”

“I love you, too, Jung Hana.”

Private Oh Sehun could remember that scene like it was yesterday even though it was nearly a month and a half ago. It was rest time, and he was sitting in the small room he slept in with the rest of his squad members. Deep in thought, he rubbed the charm between his fingers.

A fellow squad member and a quickly formed friend, Private Kim Jongin, interrupted Sehun’s concentration by voicing, “What are you thinking about, Sehun?”

“Nothing,” he lied, but the other snorted, able to see through his lie.

“Stop lying, Sehun,” retorted Jongin as he plopped down next to the lankier male. “You were definitely thinking about something. What was it?”

Not responding for a while, Sehun stared down at the charm before finally saying, “I was thinking about my girlfriend. I miss her.”

“Ah, yeah, I remember you telling me about her,” Jongin recalled as he lied down. He suddenly frowned. “But why do you look so...sad when thinking about her? You receive care packages and letters from her, don’t you?”

Sehun sighed heavily. “I do. But they make me miss her more. I wish I saw her in person. And I was just thinking about the last time we saw each other.”

“Which was?” Jongin asked lazily as he yawned and stretched.

“At Incheon Airport. When I had to fly from Seoul to here. It was our last goodbye.”

Hearing Sehun’s voice trail off sadly caused Jongin to look up and, at a loss for words for a while (for he was never good at expressing sympathy), awkwardly cough. “Yah, stop being miserable, and...be a man, alright?”

Sehun scoffed. “Have you ever been in love, Jongin?”

The other male didn’t hesitate to give an answer. “Yes.”

It threw Sehun off guard. “What?”

“I have fallen in love before,” repeated Jongin. He closed his eyes in embarrassment. “But that was a long time ago.”

“You’re only 23, the same age as me. What do you mean it was a long time ago?” Sehun muttered more to himself than to his friend.

But Jongin, having heard Sehun, responded, “Well, I suppose 5 years isn’t that long to some people, but to me, it feels like a very long time ago.”

He fell silent, and Sehun stayed quiet, both of them lost in their own memories.

In the midst of her grocery shopping, Hana felt her phone abruptly begin to buzz in her pocket and fished it out to pick up the call.

“Hello?”

“Hana, where are you? Are you busy?” asked Mina, Hana’s best friend.

“Yes,” she replied. “I’m shopping. Why?”

“You’re not-” Mina began to ask suspiciously. “Are you shopping for Sehun again?”

“How did you know?” asked Hana. She heard Mina scoff through the line.

“I’m your best friend, that’s how,” she retorted. Hana grinned.

While grabbing a bag of jellies from a shelf and inspecting it, she continued the conversation by asking, “Anyways, why are you calling?”

“I wanted to hang out with you, but you’re too busy.” Hana could nearly imagine Mina’s pout.

“Sorry,” Hana apologized. Satisfied with the jelly pack, she grabbed a few more and tossed them into her basket. “Once I’m done, I’ll call you again, okay?”

“And then we’ll hang out?” Mina asked hopefully.

“Maybe. I have to create and send my care package though.”

Mina tched. Hana guessed she also rolled her eyes. “This is why I’m never going to have a boyfriend,” she declared. “Requires too much time and effort.”

Hana giggled. “And your inability to give up your time and effort is exactly why you can’t get a boyfriend,” she teased.

“Excuse you!” Mina screeched through the phone in mock offense. “Why, wasn’t that the rudest thing?”

“Sorry,” Hana apologized but grinned, knowing her friend wasn’t actually mad.

“Whatever,” she huffed. “Anyway, I’m going to go now so join me whenever you have time.”

Hana bid goodbye to her friend before hanging up and continuing her shopping. “Hmm, what else does Sehun need?”
 

21 months. Approximately 640 days. Around 15,360 hours.

Sehun had to serve in the military for that long. That was how long he would be separated from his family, his friends, and his Hana.

He, like all the other recruits, eagerly anticipated the day when he’d be released even before he started.

17 months. Approximately 520 days. Around 12,480 hours.

Back in the safety of Seoul, Hana too was counting down to the day Sehun would be released. She really wished she could flash forward to a year and a half already when she would be properly reunited with Sehun. She was missing him more than she thought she would.

The only person who missed Sehun more than Han