Stay With Me (SWM #1) | A Taekook Series

11) connecting the dots

When I wake up, I'm tucked into warm blankets. The back of my head feels like someone is hammering a nail in it. I assume it's the next day's morning. My new year has started with this. Great.

It takes a minute before my eyes adjust to the light and focus properly. I crawl out of bed, feeling hungry. It's snowing outside when I walk out of the room and wonder where the other two are. What if there was an attacker who got them? No, but then who put all those blankets on me?

I walk around the barrack, rubbing my eyes and yawning.

"Taehyung-ah! Are you okay?" Hoseok's loud voice stops me at the entrance of the control room. I head inside. Hoseok gets up and helps me sit on a chair near him.

"Taehyung, will eating a painkiller reduce your pain?" I look up to find Jeongguk standing near the huge screen displaying some maps and tables.

"Huh?"

"Will your pain be eased if you eat a painkiller? Cause I have some,"

Oh, right. I'm a doctor.

"Yes, yes, but I'm hungry," I say groggily. Hoseok and Jeongguk exchange looks but none of them speak for a while.

"The dining area and our tents got burnt," Hoseok finally blurts out when I stare at him with questioning eyes.

"So you're saying all the food...."

"Destroyed." Jeongguk confirms. "We have two cans of water over here, that's it. But aren't you glad you moved into the barrack yesterday?"

"Well we didn't die of the blast but now we can die of cold and hunger," Hoseok grumbles.

"Hey! I'm trying to contact people okay? We'll have supplies sent over here in three days or something,"

"Three days Jeonggu-"

"Stop fighting so loudly! My head hurts," I snap. They both mutter their apologies as my stomach churns and makes a grr sound. I wanna go home. I wanna go back to mum!

Wait. That's it! Mum!

"Hoseok-ah! We got our bags here last night didn't we?" I ask him.

"Yes..." He gives me a confusing look as I look back grinning at him.

"Remember the food Mum gave-"

"Oh yes!" He jumps out of his seat beaming with pleasure. "YES! WE'RE NOT GONNA DIE! WE'RE NOT GONNA DIE-"

"What." Jeongguk asks from the corner.

"When we visited my parents at Hwacheon last week, Mum sent some food with us and I haven't touched it yet," I explain watching his eyes widen with happiness. "Can you go get-" I turn to Hoseok.

"On my way!" He jogs out, making me laugh.

__________

"Changmin. It's him." Jeongguk stuffs the rest of his rice cake in his mouth and watches us stare at him in utter confusion. He holds out a hand asking us to wait for him to finish chewing.

"I'll explain everything from the start to you two, then it'll make sense," He rubs his hands on his pants to get off the crumbs and then props his elbows on the table. "Changmin, the guy whose building we got into last time, used to be the ration supplier for our and other army units near the border. His grandfather actually was the one who started the supply and then after he died the company was handed over to Changmin."

Jeongguk takes a sip of water and continues. "Everything was fine until last October when three of our top secret underground bunkers were infiltrated by terrorists. The only way this information could have been leaked was through Changmin because only they had the coordinates other than us. We didn't directly accuse them or take any action. We only stopped getting rations from him."

Hoseok and I listen carefully to each and every detail while eating.

"But the coordinates were still with him-"

"That was the info you needed to steal when we went there!" I say when it all clicks.

Jeongguk clicks his tongue. "Bingo!"

"But I thought you said the mission was successful, even Changmin was freaked out that day..."

"Exactly. Even I thought I deleted everything from their servers, but no. Changmin was scared that day because I confirmed we knew that he was the one who leaked the info. He still has the coordinates. And now-"

"He's planning to take us down." I finish.