All for One, One for All

Chapter 13

After a few months of living in that camp, Min Ha swore she had grown muscles somewhere. Maybe on her hands. They all had been trained to live as a soldier, not a student. They had been doing some tasks in the field (Min Ha didn't understand the motive of digging the soil and putting it in the plastic bag but who was she to judge), they had set up tents, carried a heavy bag, and all of the stuff that Min Ha thought didn't make any sense. But one thing that was good about the camp was she could get to know others better than before. She felt closer to others. Even Young Hoon. He always gave her a small smile. Meanwhile, Young Soo had become comfortable with her that he told her a little bit about himself. It was a very great improvement.

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They were suddenly called by the upper-rank soldier (Lieutenant Lee's boss she assumed, Min Ha didn't know what they called themselves) that day. They gathered in the small meeting room and Lieutenant Lee's boss started to give a brief speech about sacrifices and citizens of South Korea, all that bullshit stuff. She knew how the authority in that drama was fucked up. They were the reason why the students were in that kind of situation and almost half of the high school seniors had lost their life. They were just kids for fuck sake.

Min Ha could hear the conversation going on behind her back. "By any chance, are they going to send us home?" Hee Rak asked. Sending them home? Sure, pal. They rather let the kids rot somewhere than send them home. "Second Platoon will leave the camp tomorrow at 7.00 hours. You will join the First Battalion of the Third Brigade and carry out the clean-up operation. The objective of this operation is to go through the nearby residential and head to Maesong-Si. Most national infrastructure collapsed and we have lost numerous soldiers. We are in desperate need of riflemen. Keep in mind that you are currently soldiers."

Young Soo raised his hand which grabbed the attention of the officer. "What about the CSAT?" Min Ha knew there would be no CSAT. They were using that as an excuse to discourage the students to go back home. "After the operation, you will take the test as scheduled. Given that you conducted the operation successfully, not only you will get extra CSAT scores, but you will also return to your family. You are now dismissed." Min Ha scoffed. Such a good liar.

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During dinner, no one had an appetite after the briefing that day. They kept on thinking about how unfair the authority was. After that, they were once again gathered by Yoo Jung. The will. Yoo Jung was asked to give out the paper to others for them to write their will. As she had expected, complaints and shouting started right after Yoo Jung explained the purpose of that paper. "What? Are we going to die?" So Yoon shouted at Yoo Jung who denied her assumption. "It's a formality."

"Exactly. Why do we need to do it if it's only a formality? It's because it's going to be dangerous!" Min Ha closed her eyes. It suddenly felt so loud for her. Everyone's voice was like white noise to her, it was loud and annoying. Some of them kept on shouting and blaming Yoo Jung for accepting that ridiculous quest and somehow Hee Rak and Tae Man started to fight each other. "Shut up!" Min Ha finally said. Everyone was silent after that. Min Ha walked toward Hee Rak and threw her paper to his face. "Does it feel good to have something thrown at your face, you asshole?" She then turned to the girls who had made a fuss just now. "If you guys like to complain so much then complain to that upper-rank asshole. Don't blame everything on the class president. She is a student just like us, you nitwit." Min Ha walked out of the tent and sat on a bench not far from there. She needed to calm herself down. If she stayed in there for another minute, she was convinced that she would have killed someone.

She felt as if someone sat beside her. She turned to her side and saw Yoo Jung sitting with her. She turned her head back before saying, "It must have been tough to be a class president." Min Ha could hear Yoo Jung's chuckle was forced. "It is." They sat in silence for a while, comforted by the sound of the crickets. "Don't force yourself to be strong all the time. It's okay to get mad at them. You know how dumb they are sometimes, right? Nah, not sometimes but every time. Anyway, don't always carry it on your own. You have me and Jang Soo. Both of us can be your assistants." Yoo Jung laughed and now it sounded more sincere than before. She wiped her tears as she said, "Thank you." Min Ha replied, "You are most welcome."

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Everyone couldn't sleep that night and now they were all gathered in the boy's tent, together they wrote their will that night, even when they were some that were still opposed to the idea. Young Shin collected all the wills before giving them out to Yoo Jung. Everyone looked gloomy at the thought of going for an operation tomorrow. Would they still be alive after tomorrow?

Hee Rak was the first one to speak out. "I'm scared." Jang Soo tried to comfort him. "It won't be dangerous in the suburbs." Joon Hee shook her head. "Then why would they have us write our wills?" Min Ha sighed. "They'll let us go home if we get through this." Yeon Joo said as Il Ha nodded his head, agreeing with her. They all then talked about how they missed their parents. Min Ha silently listened to every one of them. She was not really close with her parents (Cho Min Ha's parents in this universe).

Some of them started to call out for their mother which was loud enough to awaken others. Yoo Jung tried to quiet them down but was too late when Lieutenant Lee came into the tent. The boys tried to hide the girls from being found while Min Ha just sat there with her poker face, knowing that Lieutenant Lee would not punish them and didn't even bother to hide at all but that damn Il Ha covered her up with a blanket. She quickly removed it and glared at him.

Lieutenant Lee walked to the center of the tent with Woo Bin behind him. "I heard you didn't have dinner." Everyone was too afraid to answer him. Lieutenant Lee then turned to Woo Bin. "Sergeant Kim, bring that over now." Yay! He was going to make something delicious, like in the drama. Min Ha and the other kids stood up, following the two instructors to another tent. On their way, she sneaked her hand up to Il Ha's head and smacked the shit out of him. Il Ha was shocked and tried to search for the perpetrator but failed as Min Ha hid behind Jang Soo's big body.

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Everyone was focused on Lieutenant Lee and Woo Bin as they prepared the food. The smell was so good that Min Ha could feel her stomach rumble. When the food was ready to eat, they all started to gobble up the food as they all were hungry. Min Ha was awed at the taste of the food. It was delicious! She even started to hum and did her small dance of happiness while munching on the food. Soo Chul just chuckled at her cute dance.

After that, Min Ha didn't know what happened (she was too busy eating her food) but she watched Lieutenant Lee throw some biscuits and Tae Man caught it with his mouth. So Yeon did it too and was jumping happily after she was able to catch it. Afterward, they all started to discuss something (Min Ha still was too busy with her food) that ended up with Jang Soo putting the flour on Tae Man's face, which made everyone laugh. Tae Man then threw the flour at Jang Soo but he avoided it which hit Young Hoon's face. Then they all started to throw flour at each other. Min Ha stepped away from them with food in her hands.

Tae Man noticed she was the only one who was not covered in flour and approached her with flour in his hand, ready to throw it at Min Ha. "You better stop there or else I'm going to kill you after this." Min Ha spoke without even looking at Tae Man. He was too scared of Min Ha's taunt that he threw the flour at his own face. Tae Man saluted Min Ha before running away from her. She then proceeded to finish her food. She watched the others as they were having fun and laughing around. She hoped that time would stop so they would be like this, happy without a need to worry about the war.

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Cho Min Ha's will.

There's nothing much I want to say but I love you guys. If not me then you guys must survive, okay? And please tell my friends that I love them too. Okay, maybe don't tell them I love them, just tell them I'm happy to ever meet them except for Hee Rak. He is too loud and it annoys me. That's all I think. I hope you'll always be healthy Mom and Dad. Love you, guys!

P.S. Mom and Dad, if something happens to me, please just burn all my academic books.