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no one's POV
from the rooftop where mark had just walked upon the couple, all three of their heads whip towards to the sound of a loud scream.
"shit." mark panics. "let's go! this building's clear!" the boy whips open the door o the staircase, the duo following straight behind him as they race down the flights of cement stairs. the sound of heavy breathing echos from the walls until they finally reach the ground floor.
"what's going on?" mark asks through the comms.
no response.
mark lets out a whimper of worry. behind him jaemin and minjoo shoot spheres as they come into sight.
"over here!" jisung pants, with a look of sadness in his eyes.
the trio turn the corner with jisung. they halt when they see the scene before them. the whole squadron was there now. the three snipers just arriving at the scene behind them.
minjoo chokes a sob, crying into jaemin's chest.
in a pile of rubble, lay a body. and another covered by a white sheet.
taeyong already kneeling down, mourning the loss of two of his privates.
"how did this even happen?" mark questioned still unbelieving of the situation. no one could answer, because know one knew.
"we can't just leave them here. they deserve a proper burial." sora sniffles back her tears, trying to stay strong.
"the whole area is basically clear now- we should head back tae." jaehyun suggests to his older friend whom is still with his knees on the ground.
the squadron leader nods, standing to his feet now. eyes red but determined as he lead his team back to base, properly letting the two privates rest in peace.
the squadron of now thirteen, stand silently before the makeshift burials, taking turns to pay their respects.
the handmade wooden crosses etched with the names of their deceased friends.
joo hyerin.
ahn sangwon.
————
crickets chirped, disrupting the silence of the night. the girl's tent quiet, one single bed, empty.
minjoo sneaks herself to the other sleeping quarters, silently making her way to the familiar figure that sleeps soundly in his cot.
she softly calls out his name. "jaem~" she taps his shoulder. his sleepy eyes flutter open, noticing the girl.
"baby, what are doing here?" he whispers tiredly.
"i can't sleep." the girl pouts. the boy scoots over, pat the empty space for minjoo to slip under the blanket.
she enters the warmth of his bed, cuddling his front, snuggling into his chest. "try to sleep, okay?" jaemin kisses her forehead, holding her like a teddy bear.
"i love you." minjoo yawned softly, a smile etched on her lips even as she finally fell asleep.
"love you too." jaemin whispered in return.
~
"be quiet!" a loud whisper emitted in the boy's tent.
"you, be quiet- you call that whispering?" another voice sounded.
"you are both horrible at whispering." a third, sighs.
"leave them be guys, let's go eat breakfast." one says.
"i can't believe the jaejoo ship sailed and you didn't tell me, mark."
"whatever dude. i didn't think this was exactly the right time to bring it up, hyuck."
"right..." his sigh could be heard, then footsteps shuffled out of the tent to leave the duo alone.
"are they gone?" minjoo giggles softly, still burried in jaemin's hold.
"yup." the boy peeks his eyes open and minjoo pulls her head away to look up the him.
"hi." she smiles lovingly at jaemin.
"hi love." jaemin coos at the girl's bed head, hugging her waist tighter.
"should we go out and eat now?" minjoo asks, sitting up and jaemin looking up at her with his elbow propped up.
"i should probably change my bandage first." the boy says, finally sitting up and lifting his shirt up.
minjoo nods walking over to grab the small first aid box in the corner of the tent and back towards jaemin.
"does it hurt still?" she asks as he carefully removes the patch revealing the healing wound.
"not really." jaemin replies. "just a little uncomfortable when i move in certain ways." he applies ointment and minjoo places the fresh bandage on it.
"just be careful from now on, please." minjoo softly insists as he pulls his shirt back down and stands up.
"yes ma'am." he responds, gripping her hand and leading them out of the tent.
with their hand interwoven, the couple arrive at the small covered canteen area where the rest of the squadron is already.
"morning." taeyong speaks. his voice is sorrowful and exhausted.
just the sound of his voice reminds them of the tragedy from the day before. the atmosphere grows sullen.
minha clears her throat before starting. "we should talk about yesterday." with that statement, the privates' eyes droop in sadness.
"whatever you are thinking, dont think it. you might think its your fault but it's not." jaehyun claims, eyes drifting towards taeyong.
"but it is." taesoo replies sadly. "no matter how you think about it, we are supposed to be a team. this shouldn't have happened." he grieved for his friends.
"don't lose your heads. you know neither one of them would want us to blame ourselves. its those damned spheres." sora states.
"sora is right. rather than internalize the blame, we should be focusing on eliminating the spheres." eunha sighs.
"for hyerin and sangwon. we need to stay strong." taeyong lifts his head.
•••
a/n: so sorry for the long wait... i realized its hard to get back into the story after leaving it to collect dust for months lmaooo i think i'll probably be ending this book in a few chapters and they won't be very long chapters either :(
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