The Real Heroes | ☆

༄005 | Tunnels

April 22, Year 49, 5:34 AM, THREE YEARS AGO

The subway tunnels were silent and dark. Only one candle was still lit, making it harder to see than I'm used to. I walked with my hands out in front of me until I reached the table, running my hands across it to find our matchbox and a candle. I lit it quickly, carrying it over to what we called the kitchen, where Da was sitting, drinking something from a chipped coffee mug. 

"Da?" I asked softly to get his attention, my voice breaking the silence. 

"Hey, kiddo." 

Seungmin's father smiled at me as I walked up behind him. "How did you sleep?"

"I slept okay, thanks Da," I smiled back at him. "I was just about to make breakfast for the kids."

Da nodded, walking over to the old wooden picnic table that served as our kitchen counter. "I'll help, Min. I'll cut up some strawberries I picked up last night. Don't tell your father though, promise?"

I nodded, holding out my pinky to him. He wrapped his pinky finger around mine, creating a sacred promise. The most serious kind of promise. At least, at the time, it was to me. 

I lit a match, throwing it into our little fire pit. I cracked a few eggs, dropping the insides into a beat-up pan over the fire. I pushed the eggs around with our only kitchen utensil, a soup ladle. Da was humming some song I'd never heard before as he lit some more candles and began cutting the strawberries, the sound of the knife hitting the wood going along with the beat of his song. I loved it when Da helped me cook. He made me feel better, and less stressed. Plus, he knew a lot of music. We don't get much music here, considering our lack of technology. But I liked it anyway. Da played guitar. He had learned it at some point, but he swore he didn't know much. I didn't have anything to base his knowledge on, so, to me, he was incredible with his couple of chords and songs on his children's guitar with chipped wood and a missing string. 

Today is a Tuesday. So, we're in charge of scouting today. Scouting days were the best kind since we got a chance to get out of the tunnels and be without a couple of certain people. Not to name names, but those people are Phobia, Seungmin's mother, and my father. Da usually came with us. 

The second Da finished cutting the strawberries, he said something about needing to go and ran off. I finished cooking and headed back to the tent Jisung and I shared. It was rather, messy, so I decided to clean it, quietly, careful not to wake up Ji. 

Jisung woke up anyway. It was almost time to go, and I was almost done cleaning. By the time I pulled back the entrance to the tent, Jisung was already impatiently jogging in place outside. I could barely see him in the dim candle-lit subway tunnel, but I could imagine exactly what his facial expression looked like. Probably thinking he was better than me, even though I had made breakfast for everyone and cleaned our tent before he even opened his eyes this morning. 

"Minho, come on! You're so slow," he whined, stopping his inefficient jogging and walking away from the tents.

I scoffed, rolling my eyes at him. "Yeah, right. You're the one that always takes forever to get ready every morning. Plus, if I didn't have to clean up after you, we'd be there already."

Jisung crossed his arms over his chest, finally turning back to face me. "That isn't fair, you wake up way earlier. But now we both left at the same time. Or were were supposed to,"

I ignored him, running past where he was standing as he stood there pouting like a child. The moment he realized I had passed him, he broke into a run as well, chasing after me and shouting way louder than anyone should be this early in the morning.