ChenSung| Under the Magnolia Trees

Chapter 6: Almost, Too Close

Chenle did not move and just took breaths calming himself in the scent of his husband. Jisung's right, he has a funny way of showing how he feels. He's confident in almost everything but when it comes to saying that he's been developing feelings for the younger, he can't just outright admit it. It feels like he doesn't want to admit it because it will make things harder for him if he loses Jisung. It's not wrong to keep something for himself right?

"Chenle... Someone might come. I think we need to go back to our usual spot." The alpha nudged his cheek on the older's head that's still buried in his neck. He smiled and frowned at the same time because his words don't actually mean that he's afraid of getting caught, he was more afraid that he might actually lose control.
What he said earlier about the older's feelings is not entirely a joke. Lately he can see that Chenle's eyes held more and more affection in them. Not to mention that he can feel the smaller's heartbeat against the side of his chest right now. He knew that the omega in his wife submits to him, and that what Chenle's body craves doesn't necessarily equate to his heart but he wants to dream a little... that the affection in Chenle's eyes is true.

"A little more..."

The smaller's voice vibrated against his skin making the alpha in him groan. Tightening his hand to a fist near the omega's waist he tried to contol himself.
"Alright just a couple of seconds more." He managed to utter in reply.

That night after a while, they went back to just sitting opposite each other but from time to time they catch themselves stealing a glance at one another.

Like the calm before a storm the silence was annihilated in an instant as it rained bombs and bullets.
Cries of agony as men lost their arms or legs were drowned by the loud explosions.

"Medic!" Shouts came from everywhere calling for the few men with a white band and red cross wrapped around his arm.

One of the medics ran to the guy who shouted right in front of him. Dragging the man to a safer foxhole, he sprinkled some sulfonamide powder on the bloody stump to prevent the wound from getting infected. He injected some morphine and wrapped what remained of the soldier's leg with bandages.
"Take him to the field hospital." The medic mumbled while he helped a few men in lifting the badly wounded towards the military utility vehicles.

"Right here." A man in his slim figure, almost like a doll with that subtle beauty of being manly and feminine at the same time, lead the two soldiers carrying a man with amputated leg.

An alpha with a different ability. This doctor made everything calm despite the chaos outside. He brought what little peace they had inside that tent.

"Dr. Na there are more outside and we're almost out of beds." A lady nurse spoke quietly so that only the doctor can hear it.

Jaemin tended to the wounds of the man that was just recently brought while he stole a glance around their mobile hospital.
"There's still space left over the right side. We can compress the beds a little and make use of the stretchers. Lay the soldier's raincoats down before you place the stretchers that we made. I'll see what I can do tomorrow but for now quickly gather the others and do as I said. I'll hadle this one." The man took a deep breath taking over the nurse's job when the lady went away and did what he had just instructed.

It's a good thing that the weather has started to grow warmer. He used the extra blankets and sterilized them as makeshift bandages. Holding down on the Busan perimeter increases the number of wounded soldiers and thus placing a great weight on them to provide care as quick as possible.
After he finished tending on this soldier's wounds he turned towards the entrance and approached the ones being brought right now.

Meanwhile, back on the battle ground, the South Korean soldiers tried to regain the area that was covered when the North Korean soldiers advanced yesterday. Due to the advance of the North, the area around Gyeongju was captured and this resulted to the separation of the South Korean 3rd infantry division. They were surrounded and desperately trying to evade the enemies that are closing in.

Haechan and the few of his companions resorted to guerilla tactics to survive. This means that the division regiment was divided further into the remaining men of the company. At different specific points they head carefully towards the beach side. They were instructed to go there so that the marines can rescue them.

The tanned beauty eyed the man right beside him. Looking at each other they diverted their alarmed gaze to their other companions.
Their company commander then raised his hand to the side with an open palm signaling them to halt. He then move his hand lower telling them to go down.
Crouching down they can now hear the distant sound of waves but the more pressing sound was that of footsteps accompanied by rustling sounds. They can hear it from two different directions so moving lower they're now hidden behind the tall grass.

Haechan is at the rear end of the group and just as the sound came right beside him he felt a metal tip pressed against the exposed part of his head right below the helmet. His heart stopped and he closed his eyes for he knew what it was.

"Bang!" A gunshot was fired.

The tanned beauty remained frozen still in shock when he heard a thud right beside him. A North Korean soldier lay dead, shot right at his neck.
Another gunshot followed and another man behind him fell to the forest floor lifeless. Regaining his composure he dropped to the ground and positioned his rifle. Pulling the trigger he killed one of the incoming men that was probably sent for reconnaissance given that their only around ten to twenty soldiers.

When the encounter has finally ended their company stood back up and was met by a few American men and two with a different uniform probably from another country, all standing in front of them.

Haechan's eyes went straight ahead and landed on one of the men with the darker uniform compared to that of the Americans.
His gaze was caught by a handsome man who had that gravitating look in his eyes and right at that moment he knew it was him that saved his life.
They spent a full second staring at each other before the man turned around to guide them back to the ship that's waiting for them by the shore.

———
Guide:
(I'm so sorry that I made this complicated. I really did not think this through.)

This image above is how the army is divided into groups. The top is the biggest group and it decreases as you go down.

I just based it in the US one 'cause it was easier to find and honestly I had better understanding of it than the Korean one. In this book whenever I use "infantry" unless I specify that it's a marine one is by default just army infantry (land troops, soldiers "on foot").