Echo of Dusk - Chapter V (Section 1)
Jan. 26th, 2008 03:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wild_terrain Title: Echo of Dusk
Author: wild_terrain (ie. fi_chan)
Banner:
Chapter: [5/20?]
Rating: M15+
Genre: AU
Summary: Two men met one cold, winters day. One, a cook's assistant, the other a young lawyer. The year was 1950, when this instant attraction occured... However, the threat of civil war loomed and the two found themselves faced with the risk of seperation. Yunho swore he'd protect JaeJoong at all cost...but can he really?
A/N: AHH my internet has gone to dial-up speed. Kill me now! I completely underestimated the internet-sucking power of youtube >.>... ANYWAYS enough of that bitterness. Since it's Australia Day (whoo) and coincidentally our beloved JaeJoongie's 22 (univerally speaking) bday today I had the urge to update. Somehow it equates....just don't ask me how XD.
WARNING...yes today Yunho will be finding out the truth. So, angst lies ahead in this chapter. You might want to read it with caution (it's really not TOO bad...), or save it for another day.
^^
AND this chapter has been cut into two sections again...LJ is having just as many issues as my internet speed haha ^^;;. But don't worry, the whole thing is still posted.
OST for this chapter:
Break Stuff – Limp Bizkit (2.54mb) DOWNLOAD!!
Yunho is hella angry:
Damn right I'm a maniac, you better watch your back!
I feel like shit, my suggestion is to keep your distance ‘cause right now I’m dangerous!
Liberli Fatali (2.92mb) DOWNLOAD!!
Yunho's inner turmoil:
Excitate vow e somno, liberi mei [Wake up from your dream, my children]
Ardente veritate [Burn with truth]
Incendite tenebras mundi [Set fire to the world of darkness]
Without really realizing it until it was too late, I developed a false sense of stability. Everything had seemed to have gone my way – I’d found men to help me rescue JaeJoong, I’d even found someone who knew the land of North Korean to take us there, and we hadn’t been discovered by North Korean troops. It was only logical that sooner or later my luck was going to run out.
On the sixth day, it finally did.
We ran across a rogue group of North Koreans and I almost got us all killed. I didn’t know whether to blame my fatigue, my insecurities or my loneliness for what happened.
They had started shooting at us viciously but I caused an immense confusion amongst my boys by yelling at them not to fire back. It had been the first real time we had come face-to-face with our enemy in our small group and all I could see was JaeJoong.
There was a smaller boy fighting amongst the North Koreans with an angered face laced with beauty. The world had stopped and my heart had ceased to beat and my breath had become stuck in my lungs. I had mistaken that boy for JaeJoong and had been absolutely petrified that MinWoo, Jinho or Byeong would kill him with their hot rifles.
My frantic, desperate scream of “DON’T SHOOT HIM!” had temporarily frozen them with the bewilderment I felt. As a result, both Jinho and I got shot in the confusion.
As I stumbled backwards clutching my bleeding arm, all that filled my vision was still JaeJoong but in North Korean clothing, pointing a gun at us, and trying to kill us.
MinWoo had angrily snapped back into action, cocking his rifle steadily at our attackers and the panic I had felt moments ago took a hold of all my senses once more. “DON’T HURT JAEJOONG!” I begged with every ounce of breath I possessed in my lungs. But of course MinWoo and Byeong were only concerned with protecting me and Jinho, and hurriedly aimed the barrels for the final time, disobeying my orders.
The wounds that me and Jinho shared were not too harsh. Byeong had been able to dig the bullets out of our arms. Although we both almost passed out at the striking pain, once the bandage had been wrapped over the weeping, red skin, the dizziness eventually passed.
We had even managed to steal North Korean uniforms for ourselves from the dead bodies of our attackers. But despite the evident progress we were making on our rescue mission…my cover had finally been blown.
MinWoo would not utter a word to me as he helped bandage my arm up. Even after we had changed into our new uniforms MinWoo was silent. But eventually, as we were preparing a small dinner for ourselves and Jinho and Byeong were distracted by their conversation with JiEun, our prostitute, MinWoo finally opened his mouth to speak to me. Or rather…to accuse me.
“I finally understand everything.” He informed me, tersely. “Why you took us here, why you rejected the prostitute…”
“What are you talking about?” I asked, tiredly, playing with the small leaves on the bush beside me.
“JaeJoong…”
He watched as my face paled, and took in my silence.
“Wow. How long?” His questions were so sharp and precise. It was making me feel quite uncomfortable.
“What do you mean ‘how long’?” I questioned softly.
“How long have you been in love with him? JaeJoong.”
I couldn’t answer him, my throat was too dry. I couldn’t understand why I was so uncomfortable in telling MinWoo my deepest truths. Maybe I was just too used to my relationship with JaeJoong being a secret, a private joy.
“Are you crazy?!” he exploded. “You dragged us out here…for some homosexual love fulfillment?!”
“I did NOT drag you!” I snapped from insult. “Don’t you dare speak to your superior like that!”
“My apologies, Major Queer.”
“Excuse me?!”
“You fuckin’ queer!” he yelled. “I can’t believe I volunteered for this!”
“Shut your mouth, Sergeant!” I growled, trying not to lose my nerve. “How dare you make this sound like a pathetic game! You have no idea what it’s been like for me! I promised that I would protect him! But I failed! Try getting up every day knowing how much of a failure you are! I looked away for one second and he was gone! Every fucking day I wake up alone and don’t want to leave my bed because I am so lonely without him. But no, staying in bed is never an option for me because I have to lead you guys in battle and make sure no one else leaves us.”
I could barely take a breath I was so caught up in my emotional rant. But despite my evident pain, MinWoo was sitting across from me, staring back with not a hint of expression on his face.
“And then I find out that all this time he’s been stuck in a POW camp and probably suffering. Do you expect me to stand rooted to the ground and wait for the war to end before I can get him back?!”
MinWoo was still sitting motionless. It was making me feel so ostracized…so outnumbered and alone. I had been fooling myself this whole time that I had been supported. I really was standing alone, stuck in perpetual solitude despite the human shadows around me.
I looked up and gazed unblinkingly into his eyes. “Leave! Go back! I don’t want you here anymore.”
Could he see the anger flashing in my eyes? Could he feel my hurt?
“I’m not leaving you, Major,” he quietly replied, as if afraid of my response.
I could clearly sense his uneasiness but decided not to ease it verbally; my hurt was making me a little vindictive in nature. I just stared back at him firmly to mirror his gaze.
“I’m sorry…” he finally uttered. Was he being genuine? I couldn’t tell. Why would he be so apologetic after obviously feeling so strongly against my views?
“I’m sorry,” he repeated. “I just… There’s so much fuss just for him… I don’t get what you see in him.”
“I ‘don’t get’ what you don’t,” I firmly replied.
“He’s weak and uncoordinated and can’t even use his gun properly. You honestly find that a turn on?”
“MinWoo…” I sighed. “When will you ever learn? Not all heroes need a gun to be strong.”
MinWoo sighed as well, perhaps sinking into solemn contemplation. “JaeJoong, huh? My God. Have you guys ever…” he glanced up timidly and then paled once he analysed the look flashing across my own face. “Oh my GOD! When! Wait…I don’t want to know this anymore, do I!”
I gave a weak smile. “Yeh, you really don’t.”
“Jesus! The plant has been watered!!” His eyes were budging unattractively. I raised my eyebrows in tired amusement at his unique analogy.
“And here I was thinking you were some celibate saint!”
“And now the celibate saint you have mistaken me for has fallen from grace?”
“Completely!”
“Welcome to reality,” I teased. I pulled the bunch of leaves I had been fiddling with off the bush’s branch. I examined them in the palm of my grimy hand whilst I watched MinWoo get up and walk back to the others from my peripheral vision. It was going to be a long day.
The POW camp seemed as plain as I had expected. When we finally saw it through the trees I noticed that barbed wire fences surrounded the compound. The unwanted smell of decay drifted easily to our noses as the humid breeze drifted over the pile of half buried bodies. I could also see rows of captured men attempting the heavy labour that their enemies demanded from them.
Although I could easily see all this, I knew that passing the guards of the camp would be another matter entirely.
“Annyong. I’m Major Kim,” I lied. “Been patrolling further south but we were attacked by some godforsaken South Korean assholes.” Well it was only a little lie.
“Only the four of us survived but we’ve run out of supplies and such. Don’t suppose you’d have any here we could take?”
The guard stared at us with boredom painted all over his face. I felt thankful in that moment that we had brought JiEun with us, it made our story look more plausible.
But the guard didn’t bother replying to me. Instead he turned away and called out for a man named JinDong. JinDong supposedly was the one liable to help us out.
“How many captives have you got in here?” I asked curiously, hoping that it wasn’t too bold. I could sense the others trailing behind me in sickened silence as they stared out at all the dirty, sweating allies forced to work in such humidity.
“Roughly 200, I suppose,” JinDong lazily replied, twirling the keys which would open the weaponry shed for us, with his fingers.
“Mostly Southerners or have you got Americans here as well?”
“Yeh, quite a few them anti-communist bastards. American. British. Australian. Take your pick,” he bragged. “We did have more but most of them were just transferred to another camp. We were getting too full.”
“I see…” I nodded thoughtfully. Looking back at JinDong I saw him curiously studying me. “Is something the matter?”
“Hmm. No not really. Just trying to pick where your accent is from.”
“Oh…” I hurriedly swallowed my panic down. “I’ve been all over the place since a kid. I couldn’t even tell ya where it was from,” I joked, my heart beating crazily.
“Nomad?” he guessed.
“Something like that,” I coughed. “So…I ran into some of them useless scum a while back. Wonder if those bastards were hauled into this camp. Think one of them called their friend Lee ShinHyun…or was it Kim JaeJoong?” I questioned in mock-anger.
JinDong laughed merrily and patted my back sympathetically. “I understand your frustration. It makes me satisfied watching all the Southern scum suffer here.”
I laughed back with him, hoping that my anger was undetectable in my low chuckle.
“I’m not sure about that Lee guy. Or that other one…Kim JaeJin was it? We don’t make a habit of learning our prisoners’ names. Why should they have the honour of having an identity, right?”
“Right. Well, I’m not sure what it was,” I replied hesitantly. “I thought I heard ‘JaeJoong’ but it might have been ‘JaeJin’…”
“Hmm…maybe.”
“I thought he was a girl at first!” I laughed. “I was going to castigate her for masquerading as a soldier. Women belong in the kitchens, right? But…she had quite a deep voice and startling scowl so I guess it must have been a guy after all.”
“Ahh, I understand! I think I know one of those types in here,” he was smirking at me. “Thorn Princess.”
“Thorn Princess?” I repeated in complete bewilderment. I had never heard such an outrageous name. Clearly we were on completely different subjects.
“It’s what we call him around here. If it is the guy you’re thinking of.”
“Thorn Princess is a bit elaborate for a prisoner, don’t you think?”
“Well, no. They’re not quite dirt like the rest of them; they serve us with some use, so they get a name.”
They?
“Lemme explain. It’s quite simple really. Thorn…he’s a bloody pain to get near. You think he’s all beauty and no brains so you, in misjudgment, try to grab him not realizing he bites. And the Princess part…well, you said it yourself.” He laughed, leading me into the armaments shed.
Trying to keep a vacant expression plastered on my face, I felt my mouth quickly drying up. I wasn’t certain if he was talking about Jaejoong…but how many feminine soldiers did you come across in the war?”
“Where is this Thorn Princess?” I asked, hoping that my tone of sadistic assertion was not too superficial.
“Off limits to the likes of you,” JinDong replied almost immediately. It was almost like I had triggered his hackles. Why be so protective of an enemy prisoner? I just did not understand it.
“Why exactly is that?”
“Look, get in line buddy. Why are you so eager for that little thing anyway? You’ve got her. Don’t be so greedy.”
I looked back at JiEun in confusion, my heart starting to race uncomfortably as I slowly began to taste the impending doom. Why bring up the prostitute?
“Sure he’s cute but…I’d personally recommend that Sir Weepy guy more. Much more masculine if you know what I mean. Not that you’ll ever get to see any of them.”
I watched as he opened up the shed door. It made me sick that this crude communist thought I was another one of them. What probably made me sicker was having to act like one of them. But giving up this guise was not an option until I could figure out if we were indeed talking about the same man here.
As the minutes went by and JinDong handed me a few chosen weapons I couldn’t help but notice my accelerating apprehension. “So er, what’s masculinity got to do with it?” I slowly questioned.
“Well c’mon now!” he chuckled. “For starters they cry less when you, you know, penetrate them.”
Penetrate them?
Oh…no.
No fucking way…
No…
NO!
“B-But that Thorn guy, if indeed we are talking about the same one, is quite masculine I’ve heard. Are you sure you’ve g-got the right person?”
QUICK! HERE'S SECTION 2!!
