Landed on Us

The Passion (of Ri Mu Hyeok)

Ri Mu Hyeok blinked himself awake and soon, the view of wooden ceiling greeted his eyes. He smiled when he remembered where he was at the moment. He reached for his watch that he stored at the shelves beside his bed and groaned seeing that it was already half past 5 AM. If he wanted to have more time to himself today, he was already too late.

He swung his feet and went to the water basin near the window. It was a privilege that he cherished whenever he was back in this outpost in the DMZ, where he was afforded his own quarter in the military base. After washing his face and did his morning business, he quickly geared up and walked outside.

Ri Mu Hyeok always loved his time in the DMZ. Not that he was eager for a war with the Southerner that might happen at any given moment, of course. On the contrary, he loved the quietness of the DMZ; especially whenever he got the chance to go out in the wild. His mother used to gush to him about his preference to be station in places near their borders, instead of the cosy and strategic position in Pyongyang.

She used to say that it was not safe for him to be on the outpost places like that, but one glance to his father had told him enough that it was actually the opposite. There was no place more dangerous in their country beside its capital Pyongyang.

It was the place where the Suns rose and set.

It was the place where you could get burn.

All the elite family in Pyongyang knew, that it was a matter of balancing their distance with those Suns. Not too far so they would not get cold, but not too close that you could get burn.

His family was one of the few that had been successful in balancing those delicate distance for generations, therefore they were afforded with luxury that many of his countrymen wouldn't even dare to dream. He was born and raised in that coveted luxury and never for a day, even in those arduous years, had to ask when his next meal would come.

He was even afforded the privilege of having his higher education outside of the country. It was a truly a blessing and a curse. Because before he was bombarded with horde of information that was previously prohibited for his ears, he was blissfully unaware of what was happening inside his country. But now that he had, he could never unseen it.

With those heavy thought in mind, he was greeted by the troops around him, and he nodded to regard them. It was one thing that he knew best, even from early childhood, which was how to respond to people so they would know exactly who he was. He never liked it, but after reaching his position now, he couldn't do anything but follow the rule.

However, he always could loosen up around his people, who were trudging their feet from their barracks to the common room for breakfast. He smirked and stood straighter.

"Company 5! Report to post" he shouted, and the 4 younger men immediately straightened their spine and looked around to find his position. Once they spotted him, Mu Hyeok tried his best to hold in his chuckle as he watched the four people scrambled to put their military gears on and rushed to be in front of him.

"Colonel Ri, Sir!" they shouted once they were on the line and Mu Hyeok mockingly glared at his subordinates. He knew that Pyo Chi Su, in particular, was not exactly a morning person. Therefore, he deliberately picked on him, just because.

He asked the poor man random questions about their surrounding and how to disarm a land mine, which of course, hadn't descended to the sleep deprived soldier. Just when Pyo Chi Su was about to mess up the sequence of cutting the bomb line, he lost it and laughed out loud over the flustered soldier. The rest of the boys were trying to cover their mouth over their comrade's misfortune, but upon seeing their Colonel almost crouched down from his laughter, they couldn't help it too.