1.1 | louder than bombs

- 11 -

Jaemoon?

He should've known that the Captain would be here when he heard the gunshots.

A small hand clutched at his pant, tugging it before small arms wound their way around Cairo's leg. The brunette looked down, crouching to look at the 4-year-old in his face.

The poor boy was shivering. His face was red, tears rolling down his soft, chubby cheeks, his bottom lip wobbling because of his chocked sobs, jutting out with a small pout.

Cairo wiped the tears, stroking his thumb across the soft apple of his cheek.

"It's going to be fine, Timmy. You promised to be a brave boy, right?"

The small munchkin nodded his head bashfully.

"Well, how will Timmy protect me if he is crying?"

"Ti-Timmy is not c-crying," Timothy said with a small voice, rubbing away his tears with his tiny fists, "Timmy protect Cai."

"That's my boy," Cairo said, giving the boy a wide smile before holding his small hand in his own and standing up.

...

"What's going on?" Cairo asked as he got down the jeep.

People were running around frantically, screaming at one particular black truck.

Troy was already jogging towards the said vehicle, his friend following him.

"No! Please, please leave me alone," a lady screamed as she was dragged by two men dressed in black.

"Cai, listen to me," the grey-head turned back to look at his friend after surveying the state in which the City was, "It's them. We are going to act like civilians and go with them, okay? We anyways can't overpower them," he paused looking back at the men with harnesses across their torso that held quite a few weapons and grenades.

"We can at least help the civvy-s till the Unit is notified about this."

...

His eyes locked with Jaemoon's phoenix ones, which seemed to be alight with anger while asking a silent question, what are you doing here?

"I said, drop the weapons, Jeon," the man repeated, he looked like the Captain of the black troops.

Cairo saw as Jaemoon snapped his eyes to the leader, giving him a hard look with narrowed eyes before unbuckling his arms-belt, letting it fall with a clink.

The sound echoed, his Unit following his lead, dropping their rifles.

"It wasn't that hard now, was it?" the man said with a chuckle, sounding cocky about the fact that he was the one in control.

"What do you want, Khanh?" Jaemoon gritted, his jaw clenched.

"I thought you were smart, basing off of all the things I've heard about you, Jeon," Khanh spoke with a snake-like look in his eyes, sharp and sleek, "Isn't it obvious? Tell your headquarters to release my Lieutenant."

Ersma Khanh was the Captain of the South Border of his country, separated from Jaemoon's North Border by a mountain range.

As a result of a small war-breakout last year, the Lieutenant of the South Border was detained by another Unit that was stationed in the North Border, before Jaemoon was even stationed to the North hills.

So here they were, innocent civilians in the hands of the enemies, pointing guns at Jaemoon when he wasn't even responsible for what Khanh was demanding.