All I Ever Did [ZheJun]

1. Old friend

It's that mysterious stage of night, a little after midnight but not quite dawn. Zhehan is woken up from an upsetting dream by loud gunshots blaring outside. For a brief moment, he mistakes the sound for thunder as it's been raining for four days straight.

He opens his eyes and sits up in bed, the gunshots stop and he hears his subordinates shouting outside; "Who are you?!" They ask someone whom Zhehan assumes is an enemy or spy. He quickly wears his uniform and buckles his boots, hiding his messy hair with his cap and adjusting the gun by his waist.

"What's the situation?!" Zhehan asks once he reaches the hallway.

"Sir, a person just approached the guard and grabbed him, the other guard had to shoot!"

Zhehan wears his coat and goes out in the rain; it's too dark to capture faces, but he can see one of the soldiers holding a man down on his knees. "Was he armed? did he shoot?"

"No, Sir. Neither."

Zhehan approaches the men and turns on his flashlight, he sees blood on the trespasser's clothes, it's dripping from his wound and mixing down with the rain. The man doesn't look up, he seems in immense pain, but he isn't even whimpering or asking for mercy. Zhehan finds it strange.

"Why did you shoot?" Zhehan asks the guard.

The guard can't find an excuse.

"You couldn't knock him out? Have I not taught you?!" Zhehan scolds, "What if he was really a spy and you killed him?! How can we question him?! Have you not learned anything all these months?!"

The guard looks down, reflecting on his mistake, but then the kneeling man looks up and whispers, "I'm... not... a s-spy..."

Zhehan knows this voice, he's heard it before. He directs the flashlight to the man's face and when the light hits his eyes, he doesn't turn away, yet keeps staring right at it, unblinking. Zhehan knows these eyes too, these irises always shine golden under any glow; "What- How did you get here...?!"

"It's... a long story." Gong Jun presses on his wound and winces a little, "But I'm not a spy..."

"Sir, you know him?!" Xu Kai, Zhehan's comrade, asks. Zhehan gives Xu Kai the flashlight and squats down, checking Gong Jun's wound. He's relieved to see it's not fatal, so he takes off his coat and places it over Gong Jun's shoulders.

"Come, let's talk inside."

Thankfully, Gong Jun's wound isn't very deep. They bandage his injury and Zhehan comes inside with warm water, "Are you hungry?"

Gong Jun shakes his head, refusing the water. Zhehan places it down.

"How did you find me?"

"I didn't know you're here." Gong Jun says, "I came for another reason."

"What reason?"

Gong Jun adjusts himself up, "I came to join the military."

Zhehan clears his throat and the soldiers at the corner take the hint, they leave the room and close the door behind them. He then sits beside Gong Jun on the bed and looks at him, shocked, "You came in the middle of the night to a military base to say this?!"

"I want to join the forces." Gong Jun repeats.

Zhehan takes the water he brought earlier and drinks it himself, but his mouth remains dry. "Gong Jun." He calls, "If it weren't me here, you'd be dead by now."

"Will you let me or not?" Gong Jun dismisses Zhehan's concern. "If not, I'll go elsewhere."

"You can't just crash a military base and say this nonsense!" Zhehan says in a sharper tone, "It doesn't work like that. You're lucky it's not someone else who's in charge."