MINERVA

CHAPTER 6

Kim Ji Eun P.O.V.
"25 push ups. You've got 30 seconds, let's go." I heard the soldiers in front of me groan in frustration. "3, 4, 5!" As I started counting they got ready to do the exercise. I scanned through the group. Some of them seemed to be in fairly good shape, while others had a really difficult time to keep up. After 30 minutes I let the guys go and get some breakfast. I always felt sorry for the service kids. Having to serve takes away nearly two years of their lives. Most of these guys were fresh out of college, some of them came straight out of high school. It was weird to realize that for them coming here was an entirely new experience, and, hopefully, a once in a lifetime experience. They just had to spend 21 months living in this weird reality that was my entire life. I didn't hate living this life, it was the best way out of the horrible situation that was living at home, and in the end I had found family here. After their breakfast I let the fresh soldiers do a couple more exercises on the floor and then let them run around the track for around 15 minutes, allowing me to let my mind slip away for a bit. Yesterday evening Tae Joon had very enthusiastically messaged me about a song he was working on together with Kwon Ji Yong. His message had been really happy and I hoped that the song coming out of this collaboration would be a banger. While letting my thoughts turn into a messy spiral of weird thoughts and emptiness I was drawn back into reality by the timer that announced 15 minutes were up. I whistled on my fingers and the guys with fresh buzzcuts collapsed and gasped for breath. I chuckled and realized that they were a long way from were they needed to be to be actual, useful soldiers.

Kwon Ji Yong P.O.V.
Although I tried really hard to pretend it wasn't the case, my mind was filled with the story that Tae Joon had told me. To me it seemed like the entire story was just painful, and the boy didn't want to talk about it, but I wanted to know more. I knew it was invasive to ask about someones private life like that, to even think about asking him for more. It was 8:45 when I walked into the YG building and swiped my card for the little gates to let me through. I stood in front of the elevator when I heard fighting coming from behind me. When I looked it turned out to be Kim Tae Joon and a younger boy. "You have to go home, Min, I know you don't like it but those guys are going to just treat you worse if you stay gone for too long. Just go home, enjoy the food, sleep in a nice warm bed and study so you can get yourself a scholarship so Noona and I won't have to pay for everything." The younger sighed and grabbed something from his bag. "Hyung, then please sign this for me. My teachers need someone to sign this saying that I'm allowed to go on a camp with all my classmates. I don't wanna go to either of my parents for this, they'll just make a big deal out of wanting to sponsor everything, or they might keep me home, saying I shouldn't be hanging out with those people because they are below my so called level. Just sign this, hyung, and then I'll go home, I promise!" The big brother grabbed the piece of paper and signed, sighing while doing so. All this while I hadn't realized that the elevator I was waiting for had already arrived and that I was plainly staring at them. Upon seeing them walk towards me I reclaimed myself and got into the elevator. I felt embarrassed about having eavesdropped on their conversation and decided to text Tae Joon to make myself feel less apologetic. 'Hey, I think we need another hour or two to finish up everything, and then we can send the demo to papa YG and get your members to record. If you don't mind I'd like to help you guys produce the song, although I heard you like doing it yourselves because it shows your own style. Would meeting for lunch at around 1 pm be good? We can enjoy some food and get to business after.'

Kim Ji Eun P.O.V.
My team had left me. Not really, but our superiors had decided that it was nonsense to keep my entire team, consisting of some of the best soldiers in the nation, stuck in Korea just because their leader was not well. Lee Jisung had been given temporary command and they were somewhere in Africa to help with a natural disaster. Tae Joon was headed to Japan because Fighter was having their debut there and Min Joon had left with his school to enjoy a week of Jeju's green sceneries. Meaning I was left all by myself. I spent my days training several groups of mandatory trainees and just went to bed early so as to not be all too bored.