Aftermath

04

There was only one magazine left for her pistol to reload. She had used up her grenades. No more bullets for the rifle. She sustained two bullet wounds, and the one in her abdomen was still bleeding too fast for her to keep track of. She was dying.

Oh gods, she was dying. The realization struck her so hard in the sternum that her breath caught.

This was the end of the line.

She had given everything she had for this final battle. Bought as much time as she could so her country couldn't yield an inch of their homeland. Her only regret was not telling Sehun what she truly felt. She loved him, goddammit. She should've told him.

Her breath had come out shaky and she could feel her strength draining. Holding the gun up with her uninjured arm was proving to be a more difficult task than she anticipated.

Darkness was tugging at her.

Stay alive.

She couldn't do it.

The last thing she saw before her consciousness left was a fireball streaking through the darkness from her side of the line. Soojung smiled despite herself.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ---

The medical tents were set up a good distance from the battlefield, far enough that a stray bullet wouldn't make its way to it but close enough to administer aid to injured soldiers.

Sehun dreaded each flap of the tent. He couldn't bring himself to think of anything beyond her standing there with a scowl on her face. She had to be okay.

It was almost midnight when cheering rocked their side of the line. Victory for the South. But Sehun wasn't celebrating. He still hadn't seen Soojung anywhere.

And then, she was there, in the arms of a soldier, unconscious. Blood bloomed in her abdomen and her arm, staining her uniform a deep, almost rusted red.

He didn't even need to think, he was there immediately, carrying her weight to the closest empty bed. Every now and then, he'd glance at her face, lined with soot and extremely pale. The strength he saw in her slumbering face just yesterday had been replaced with extreme fatigue. His heart made a commotion in his head, pulsating wildly, but never putting him off-course.

She probably lost a lot of blood, but her pulse was still strong. In a way, it calmed him.

Sehun wasn't a surgeon, so he moved out of the way, letting the professional take over. He had to stop himself from reaching out to hold her hand. Then he turned away.

There were more people who needed his help. She'd be alright.

Just to stop himself from crying, Sehun turned to the other injured soldiers - the ones he could help.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ---

The pain was what brought her to surface. She felt like she'd been bombed at a dozen times which, considering what she went through, was probably accurate. When she opened her eyes, he was there, sitting beside her bed.

"Hey, dummy," he greeted. Sehun gave her a tired smile. His eyes were bloodshot, like he'd been crying right before she woke up.

She tried to sit up. The wound in her abdomen flared with sudden, white-hot pain but she gritted through it, ignoring it entirely.

"What happened?" she asked.

"We won. You're safe."

"And the others?"

"We lost two from your team. But you managed to hold them off long enough for reinforcements to arrive." When she didn't say anything, he added. "You did it."

Soojung shook her head. It was all coming to surface - the panic, the pain, the hope. Everything she tried to hold off in the battlefield was catching up with her. She swallowed, looking up at Sehun. "I need to be alone. Just for a while. Please?"

She was grateful her voice didn't crack.

"Don't think you can get rid of me that easily," he said, nodding. "But take your time. I'll be around when you need me."

Soojung waited for him to be outside before she let herself come undone.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ---

Two deaths, it could've been worse, right? Soojung wasn't convinced. She had to get their names, inform their families how brave they were, walking into a fight and knowing the possibility of their deaths loomed greater than the chance of survival.

But you're alive, a quiet voice in her head whispered.

She'd find their names... later. For now, there was someone she had to talk to. Her gaze immediately went to the door as if her entire body gravitated to his presence without her conscious permission. Running her fingers over her cheeks, she wiped away her tears, sniffling.

She found him outside the tent, standing next to a metal pole where the country flag was being whipped by the wind, looking at the battlefield that had grown quiet since the gunfire died down. It was disconcerting, the silence.

He started at her sudden appearance, his handsome face contorting with worry. "You shouldn't be outside this soon."

"Is that what the doctor ordered?"

"Snappy. That is what I'm ordering you, and I am a doctor."

Soojung smiled. She realised something mid-battle, like a epiphany of sorts when death nearly claimed her. Except for the battlefield, she'd lived her life running away when things grew too much for her, always choosing the easy way out over a messy confrontation. But not anymore. This time, she wanted to stay, through to whatever end this path would take her.

Would he?

"Sehun." He turned to her at the sound of his name. "This war isn't over. I don't even know if it'll be over in this lifetime."

"I know."

"We're living our lives on the edge from now on."

He grinned, his eyes hinting at a recollection she didn't want to know about. "So? It's always like that with you."

"Are you really sure about staying here?"

"Are you trying to get rid of me?"

"No."

"Then just accept it. I'm sticking next to you until they bomb us."

"Lucky me," she said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. He chuckled. "Hey, Sehun?"

"Hmm?"

"Thanks... for choosing me."

His face grew solemn and the sudden shift in his demeanour erased all traces of humour and amusement. When he looked back at her, she saw the man he became after she left.

"Soojung, I chose myself in choosing you so I'm staying with you, through every battle and every war. I have never lived until I loved you, and I love you all the more for that, despite the whole we're-in-the-middle-of-war situation."

"Do you always have to make everything a joke?" she snapped, but she was smiling. Her eyes glistened with tears she held back by blinking.

"Someone has to be the funny one in this relationship. And that's definitely not you, Lieutenant Jung Soojung. Or should I say General Jung?" He raised a playful eyebrow.

She huffed, amused but unwilling to digress. "If you say so, Doctor Oh."

Soojung, despite herself, smiled as he leaned down to conquer her lips. This was the only battle she'd willingly surrender, if it meant surrendering to him.