ᴛʜᴇ ᴄʟᴇᴀʀ ᴇɴᴇᴍʏ || ᴊ.ᴡʏ + ᴄ.ꜱ

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟑𝟒

"What do you mean you're full? You sick?" Yunho and the rest of the table stopped all conversation and gave San their full attention.

The itching sense of their eyes made San peel his away from the doors that he'd been watching in a daze, still in the midst of coming up with a plan that didn't end with him, in his words, "ass up" in a cold shower, or, in Yunho's words, living up to his name as a mountain in physical form.

Haha.

"Take the rest of my rice, Yun." San slid his tray over and adjusted his hat as he stood up from the table. "I'll catch you guys later."

The guys watched as he began making his way toward the doors without another word.

"Jeon must have him by the balls," one of them commented.

"Bet he's got him doing extra grunt work since he's on his radar now," San heard another one of the guys guess.

"He screwed up one time and now he can't even eat in peace--sucks."

That was the last San heard before he got too far away from where they sat. He left them to conjure up their own ideas as he made a beeline for the door, his sights on that door alone, his feet racing ahead hastily and his anxiety rising as it came closer and closer into view. All he had to do was get out that door and he'd be that much closer to his 'great escape'.

With only a few steps left, his view was suddenly replaced with a uniformed body, his eyes now fixed on a broad camo-clothed chest.

He held his breath as his eyes traveled slowly upward to the face of the body in front of him.

"205!"

"205 reporting, sir!" San barked back at the lieutenant standing before him, which, thankfully, happened to be the lesser of two evils, Lieutenant Lee, as he glued his hand to his forehead in a salute.

"Going somewhere?" The lieutenant eyed him with eyebrows raised challengingly.

San curled his toes in his boots as he thought fast and responded, "205 is asking permission to visit the convenience store, sir!"

There was a convenience store located on each base that the soldiers were permitted to visit every once in a while, usually on weekends. It was the small piece of happiness they had in the place.

A small piece of happiness that spurred from cup ramen and other bagged snacks, along with other small necessities like lip balm that they hadn't had the privilege of back in basic training.

There was that, and their phones that they were allowed to have at the end of each day for a limited time before lights out.

Standing there in stiff form as his lieutenant scanned his eyes, San awaited his response with high hopes since it was Saturday- but that fact didn't take away his anxiousness.

"Good," the lieutenant started and San sucked in a breath of anticipation.

"-205 will drop this off at sector six before returning." He dropped a small stack of rubber-banded letters in San's hand and San saluted energetically before repeating his orders back and, when Lieutenant Lee dismissed him, began hustling towards the door again before he lost his courage, the lieutenant smiling and swatting the back of his head as he rushed off, yelling, "And be back by 6 for showers!"

"Yes, sir!" San turned around and saluted again before opening the door to freedom, and, right as he stepped out, he took a deep breath of relief just to suck it back in again and mildly choke, jumping out of his skin when he ran into Yunho.

"What the hell are you doing out here?" San recoiled, Yunho snickering at his reaction.

"I heard you were going to the convenience store so I got permission to tag along," he revealed happily, oblivious to San's defeated huff of air he let out upon hearing the answer.