Waterfalls || Yeonbin

chapter 41: broke

January 31, 1941

"Come on, come on, come on..." I whispered under my breath. We have two minutes left until midnight, and if we don't break Enigma tonight, Commander Denniston will shut down our project.

Even Yeonjun was here with us, I think mostly to make sure I was alright, but he worries too much. All of us were anxiously watching the machine click through the different settings, going through about one per second. The problem is that there are too many settings to comprehend. We started the machine at seven in the morning, and it hasn't stopped rifling through settings since then.

There's only eight-hundred sixty-four thousand seconds in a day, which is not nearly enough to go through millions of settings. And as soon as I heard Hugh scream, "Goddammit!" Behind me, I knew it was passed midnight.

I sighed, bringing a hand up to rub my eyes from knowing the Germans have changed the settings for the next day. I quietly walked over to the machine, turning it off out of hopelessness. My shoulders felt heavy, staring at the large machine we've spent so long building. All of our hard work was for nothing apparently. It was silent, at least to me it was dead silent. Everything felt heavy, knowing we've failed completely.

I almost flinched when I felt a hand on my shoulder, already knowing who it was by the touch, "Soobin, I'm sorry..." Yeonjun said, almost in a whisper. His voice was soft, as if he didn't say it like that, I would crumble, "Are you al—"

"I'm fine." I quickly replied, not really in the mood for conversing. Not that I ever am in the mood for conversation.

Everyone was silent for a few seconds, feeling Yeonjun's hand slide off my shoulder, "Let's go get a drink..." John suggested, making everyone turn to him. He gulped, quietly saying, "We could use one."

February 1, 1941

We were all quiet, sitting at a table together in the bar. No one dared to speak, swirling around my glass of water while everyone else was drinking pints. The atmosphere was heavy, or maybe it was just how my shoulders felt. Either way, I just wanted to leave and sulk in my room.

"Joan!" We heard a woman call out, walking closer to us with a cigarette between her fingers.

We were confused, but Joan smiled, "Nicole! What are you doing here at this hour?"

She rolled her eyes, "You know I work the late shift in the operating room. God, it's rubbish in there..." She finally looked at the rest of us, scanning us like objects at the market. Nicole smiled when she looked at Hugh, who was sitting right next to Joan, "And who do we have here?"

Hugh raised an eyebrow, sitting up straight to fix his posture, "Hugh Williams..." He replied, holding his hand out for Nicole. She hesitantly placed her hand in Hugh's, letting him place a kiss on her knuckles. Hugh smirked a bit, asking, "Would you like to join us?"

"That's alright. I'll bring her home." Joan said, beginning to stand up, but Nicole stopped her.

"Gosh, you're no fun..." She looked back at Hugh, taking her hand back as she said, "I would love to."

Hugh smiled a bit, watching her grab a chair from a nearby table and sit with us. I sighed, ignoring most of their conversation and resting my head in my hand instead. Yeonjun was sitting next to me, clearing his throat as he scooted his chair in closer to the table and towards me. I felt his hand on my thigh a few seconds later, making me lower one of my hands under the table as well. All I wanted was to just hold his hand, but nobody wants to see us holding hands. I don't understand what's so wrong about it, but people hate it.