Waterfalls || Yeonbin

chapter 4: spy

November 10, 1939

It's been a month into our operation, and I think my design is almost complete. I've told my colleagues about the machine I wanted to build, but they just laughed at me, not thinking a machine could perform better than a human. Ironic because Enigma has been out-shining them for a month now.

Well, to be fair, George and Charles laughed at me while Hugh and John just stayed silent, even though they were in favor of my machine. We had a vote, but I wasn't allowed to participate. Even though Hugh is the leader of our little team, he's not nearly as dominant and extroverted as George. It's a few minutes to midnight, so the Germans are about to change the settings for the next day. I don't think they've gotten very far today, just like every other day, which is the whole reason I'm trying to design this machine in the first place. Enigma is just simply too advanced for our brains to ever comprehend—

"Dammit!" I heard Hugh shout, making me flinch and lift my head up from my drawing. I watched him pick up a stack of papers and throw them against the chalk board he had been writing on the entire day. I guess he was frustrated from not figuring out the settings.

I heard John sigh from his desk chair, "Well, I guess that's it for today." He said, taking one final look at his watch before grabbing his briefcase, beginning to pack up his things.

I looked back down at my sketch, not wanting to get involved in their violent frustration, "You could be helping us, Soobin..." I heard George say, making me look up again. He started moving closer to my desk, eyebrows angrily scrunched together as he continued, "But instead, you decide to sit here and draw!"

"George..." Hugh said, trying to calm him down, "Leave him be."

"He's right..." Charles added, raising his voice at Hugh, "He's part of the problem! How do we know he's not a Japanese spy?!"

I squeezed my hand on the arm of my desk chair, "I'm Korean for starters. Born in London, for your information—"

"God, would you just shut your fucking mouth and help us?!" George yelled, making everyone go quiet.

I flinched at George's loud voice, avoiding his strong gaze as I replied, "I-I'm trying to break Enigma, like you. I just have a different approach to the puzzle."

He gritted his teeth, "Bullocks!" He screamed before reaching his hand out, grabbing onto the collar of my shirt. I brought my hands up in defense, covering my head when he cocked his arm. I felt a hit to my cheek, yelping in pain when it instantly spread across my face.

He was about to swing again, but we heard someone yell, "Hey!" Causing him to pull away from me. I recognized the voice, low and dominant like it usually is. I took my hands away from my face when George let go of my collar, seeing Daniel storming over to us with a look of anger in his eyes; they were red hot.

He roughly grabbed George's arm, pulling him away from me as he yelled, "What part of your goddamn mind thought it would be appropriate to do that?!"

George didn't speak, too focused on the glare Daniel was giving him. Daniel clenched his jaw and let go of him, "In a war, you don't fight one of your own..." He said, looking at everyone, "That's how Hitler wins..." He took a step closer to George, speaking through his teeth, "I expect to see you in my office in twenty minutes. Everyone else, you're dismissed for today."

Everyone quietly started to gather their things, so I slowly stood up from my chair. I was about to put on my suit jacket until Daniel said, "Not you, Soobin..." I looked up at him, the intimidating stare still in his eyes as he said, "You stay."

I gulped and put my coat back over my chair while the rest of my colleagues packed up their things, including George. They were all scurrying to leave while I stood quietly next to my desk as Daniel said, "Twenty minutes, George."