Letters From War Chapter 9a
Title: Letters From War
Length: [10a/?]
Author: HolyStarDown
Pairing: Yunjae, Yoosu, Teukchul
Rating: Overall NC-17
Genre: Romance, angst, drama
Disclaimer: i only own them in my dreams
Summary: In the breaking point of the Korean war, two brothers get drafted into the military and forced to fight for the lives. literally. punishment in camp 409 is just as unforgiving as its officers. attraction? frowned upon. affection? unheard of. love? strickly forbidden. But the training camp they thought they knew gets turned upside down when six of them decide to leave no rule left unbroken
Author's Note: obviously i didn't live in the 1950's and certainly was not in Korea during the Korean war, so some of the details are going to be inacurate... just bear with me :]
{ Prologue} { Chapter 1} { Chapter 2} { Chapter 3} { Chapter 4} { Chapter 5a} { Chapter 5b} { Chapter 6} { Chapter 7} { Chapter 8}
Chapter 9a
Jaejoong stood before Heechul in the middle of a wreck of emotions. The waves of distress and disappointment rolled off of both men and crashed together, hurling new uneasiness in every direction, but only one of them showed it. Heechul kept his face entirely blank while Jaejoong’s apprehension rippled across his face and reflected in his downcast eyes. They both remained deathly silent until the noise outside the room picked up again.
“What are you trying to accomplish here Ideungbyeong Kim?” Heechul finally asked.
Jaejoong raised his head slowly. “A-accomplish sir?”
“You’ve caused more trouble in two days than any other trainee does in their entire time here. Are you trying to test the limits of my authority? My patience? My control?” Heechul’s eyes burned holes into Jaejoong’s skin and his words clamped vice-grips on the trainee’s throat.
“No. I-I’m not trying to test anything,” Jaejoong stuttered.
Heechul sighed deeply and stood up from his chair. “You’ve corrupted one of my best officers and caused chaos to break out between two others. I refuse to believe there’s no reason behind all that.”’ Jaejoong opened his mouth to protest but Heechul only cut him off. “I don’t care what you have to say about it. I’ve been extremely lenient with you so far, but it’s going to stop. Immediately. And if it doesn’t…” Heechul’s eyes narrowed and his lips stretched into a deadly smirk. “Well, let’s just not let it come to that.”
The look in Heechul’s eyes raised goose bumps on Jaejoong’s arms and sent chills down his spine. He didn’t want to face the consequences if the Daeryeong found out for sure that there was in fact something going on, but his reluctance to let Yunho go before they really got anywhere was far greater. Aside from there being severe punishment if his relationship with another man was found out here, the thought of being with Yunho was so much different from when he was with his other boyfriends. Sure, all of those times he had to keep it secret as well, but this was so much more of a risk. There was actually real danger if he was found out, unlike in the city where only his reputation was at stake… and it was thrilling. Underneath his fear of the Daeryeong, he wanted to challenge him; prove that he really wanted Yunho enough to risk it all whether the other wanted him to or not.
“Do you understand what I’m saying Ideungbyeong Kim?” Heechul asked. He didn’t like the thoughtful look on Jaejoong’s face. If he could, he would have smacked it clear off and made sure it never came back again. But no, now was the time to keep his composure and play the fear card. He arched his eyebrow slightly as he willed more ferocity into his eyes.
Several more waves of fire hit Jaejoong head on. He lowered his gaze and bowed to the temporary holder of his life. “Yes sir, I understand perfectly,” he answered with the trembling in his voice almost completely gone.
Not quite believing the trainee, Heechul nodded anyway and pretended to be more interested in a random stack of paper lying neatly on his desk. “Good,” he said indifferently. “You may go.”
“Thank you sir,” Jaejoong muttered as he bowed again and made his way toward the door.
“Ideungbyeong Kim,” Heechul called when the younger had reached the door, his eyes not leaving his papers. He couldn’t see Jaejoong, but he knew the latter had turned back. “Pray to whatever god will listen to you that you don’t see me under these circumstances again.” The Daeryeong waited until he heard the mumbled ‘yes sir’ before he let out a deep sigh and slumped forward on his desk, arms draped over the wooden surface and hands dangling in the air on the other side. “Jungnyeong Choi!!” he called with his cheek resting on the desk’s polished surface. After a few moments, the door clicked and opened very slightly, allowing a sliver of light to come into the room. “Door SHUT!” Heechul yelled, and it instantly clicked closed again.
A few seconds of silence passed before Dongwook’s muffled voice floated to Heechul’s ears. “Yes sir?” he asked from behind the door.
“Bring me Soryeong Jung, Jungnyeong Shim, and Jungnyeong Park. Now!” Heechul ordered, barely able to hide the edge of defeat in his voice. He only received another ‘yes sir,’ and five minutes of silence in return aside from the lowered voices of the other officers pooling together in a unified yet incomprehensible hum.
**~**~**~**~**~**
“Eunhyuk, I’m fine. I promise you a broken nose will not kill me.”
Despite Changmin’s nasally protest and the Jungnyeong constantly pushing the head medic’s hands away, Eunhyuk continued to obsess over his minor injury; poking and prodding various places and asking what hurt and what didn’t. Even he knew that Changmin was Heechul’s favorite, and didn’t want to face the Daeryeong’s hellish wrath again if he returned his Changmin in less than perfect condition. He’d prefer not having to return Changmin damaged at all, but that was already out of the question. “I’m just making sure you aren’t seriously hurt Jungnyeong Shim, now shut up and let me do my job,” Eunhyuk said, dabbing the younger man’s nose with a damp, bloody cloth.
Changmin lolled his head back against the chair Eunhyuk had forced him into and looked to Yunho standing by his side with a ‘holy-crap-please-help-me’ look. Every part of his face throbbed as one painful mass along with a few sore spots around his collarbone. He knew that Leeteuk was another one of the most highly trained officers in the camp, but he would have never imagined Leeteuk to hit that hard. Changmin’s note to self: don’t ever piss Jungnyeong Park off while in arms length away from him.
Yunho just stood beside his dongsaeng, staring at Heechul’s door and tenderly massaging his now-bruised jaw. Jaejoong was in there; he couldn’t take his eyes away for half a second. There wasn’t a single word loud enough to reach him, and that worried Yunho more than if there had been a full force scream off going on behind that block of wood. He pointedly ignored Changmin’s desperate looks the moment he saw the door open and Jaejoong’s outline just barely visible. It was incredible how he could find just that little bit of the angelic trainee breathtaking. His ears tried in vain to hear the very soft words floating out of the doorway and read Jaejoong’s tightly pulled lips. The latter took a few steps away from Heechul’s room and closed the door behind him before nearly running across the room.
Yunho intersected the trainee’s path to the door, resting a hand on his shoulder to make him stop. “What did he say to you?” the Soryeong whispered, keeping his eyes straight ahead.
“Nothing important,” Jaejoong lied. Even though his voice was steady, the mischievous glint in his eyes gave his lie away.
“Daeryeong Kim never calls a trainee out to tell him nothing,” Yunho said, narrowing his eyes slightly.
“Well it didn’t concern you.” Again, Jaejoong’s eyes betrayed him.
“So it was about me? I should have figured…” Yunho’s eyes fell to stare at a random spot on the floor.
“I just said it didn’t. Now get over yourself.” Jaejoong didn’t want to say it, but he wanted Yunho to run after him, eaten by curiosity. He turned away from Yunho and headed for the door. Pushing the metal slabs open slowly, he dared a glance over his shoulder to see if the Soryeong was following him like he wanted, but to his dismay, Dongwook was taking him back toward Heechul’s room. Changmin shortly followed them after escaping Eunhyuk’s obsessive prodding and throwing a concerned smile at Jaejoong. He stared in their direction for a few short moments before leaving the building.
Leeteuk hadn’t moved an inch since the others left him on the ground alone. Just breathing was hard enough. He’d been in that same position, on his knees with head hung low and shoulders slumped in defeat, for a little over an hour now as the long-gone mark on his face continued to sting with more than just physical pain. Dried tears clung to his cheeks and his body trembled ever so slightly, gasping deeply for the cold air that reminded him he was still living. Other than his throbbing heart and deep breaths, the night was ever so silent around him.
He doesn’t hit people… Leeteuk’s thoughts repeated for the hundredth time. He never physically hurts anyone. Never. Not me, not anyone. But he did just to punish me for touching his precious little Changmin. Heat burned in his chest once again, utter hatred building up for the other Jungnyeong. His hands clenched into fists until his knuckles turned white with force. This is all Changmin’s fault. So what if he didn’t tell Yunho? He could just be lying about that anyway. Whether it was a lie or not, he’s still turned Heechul against me, and I’ll make sure he pays for that.
Not five seconds after the thought rang in Leeteuk’s head Dongwook appeared at the doors beside him. “Daeryeong Kim wants to talk to you,” he informed blankly with a tiny bit of sympathy leaking through. He’d been one of the officers holding Leeteuk back when Heechul hit him, and he knew that whatever the Daeryeong wanted with the other would not be good.
Leeteuk raised his head and glared at the Jungnyeong in front of him with a dull fire blaring in his ebony eyes. “Thank you Jungnyeong Choi,” he said pleasantly. The darkness hid the red tint in his eyes and he acted as if everything was normal like any other day. He rose to his feet and was just about to enter the Officer’s Quarters when a hand softly grabbed his shoulder.
“Changmin and Yunho are going to be in there too. Control yourself would ya?” Dongwook said, gazing intently at Leeteuk.
“Of course.” Leeteuk said nothing more as he entered the Officer’s Quarters and went straight to Heechul’s room. He struggled to pretend the entire room wasn’t watching his walk of shame until he finally went inside the room that made nothing else matter.
The second Leeteuk stepped into the room he felt the mile-thick tension packed tightly around the three other men inside. Yunho and Changmin kept facing straight forward, but Heechul’s vicious glare instantly locked on him. The Daeryeong motioned for him to close the door and the silent order was performed without hesitation. Leeteuk kept his head bowed and eyes on the floor, struggling to keep himself together outwardly when he was really about to crumble into a million pieces. “You wanted to see me sir?” he asked, his voice much stronger than he felt.
Heechul said nothing.
Changmin stared at the Daeryeong as if Heechul would say something if his eyes begged him enough. He occasionally glanced at Yunho’s overly tense face, also hoping that would go away along with the throbbing in his face. But no matter how much he wanted any of those things, nothing changed. The room stayed eerily silent, Yunho stayed tense, and pain still assaulted his face for what seemed like an eternity.
After several agonizing minutes, Heechul finally spoke. “Now I want one of you to tell me what happened. And don’t you dare lie to me,” he ordered.
Changmin spoke first, eager to break the thick silence. “It was all a huge misunderstanding sir. I made a false accusation against Jungnyeong Park and we got into a fight about it. Soryeong Jung got hit trying to split us up. I should have known better sir; the information was from a very unreliable source.” Changmin’s lie spilled out flawlessly; his face, his voice, nor his eyes gave him away.
Leeteuk was speechless. He’d just beat the crap out of this man, yet here Changmin was, lying to protect him. He stole a glance at Yunho, who had an equally shocked expression. And Heechul will believe every single word of it…
( Part B)
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Sunghe: Wonsu ((American equal is General of Army))
Heechul: Daeryeong ((American equal is colonel))
Changmin: Jungnyeong ((American equal is lieutenant colonel))
Leeteuk: Jungnyeong ((American equal is lieutenant colonel))
Dongwook: Jungnyeong ((American equal is lieutenant colonel))
Yunho: Soryeong ((American equal is major))
Eunhyuk: Soryeong/ Head Medic ((American equal is major and… head medic))
Yoochun: Sangdeungbyeong ((American equal is corporal))
Donghae: Sangdeungbyeong ((American equal is corporal))
Jaejoong: Ideungbyeong ((American equal is private))
Junsu: Ideungbyeong ((American equal is private))