Chapter Text
“You were promoted to Major three months ago! That comes with individual quarters.” He sounded exasperated, “So why am I still rooming with your messy ass?”
“Hoba!” He pouted, “It’s because I love you sooooo much!”
“Yaah!” Hobi dramatically dropped on to his bed, “Look at that pout! Don’t let your solders see that! They’ll never be able to take you seriously after that.”
“But Hob-ah!” more pouting, “You are my soldier!”
“No seriously.” He asked sobering, “Why haven’t you taken your quarters yet?”
“You know Captain Song, he got married recently…”
“He’s with the training division, right?”
“Yeah! He had put in a request in case a vacancy came up and I think he needs the privacy more than me. In any case, we’re barely ever here anyway.”
“Seriously?”
“Hoba.” He made a face, “We’ve been home a total of eight days since I got the promotion.” And then with a quick smile, and a flash of dimples that Hobi could never say no to, “Besides you’d miss me too much!”
“I might. But you better believe when I get my promotion I’m going to send Captain Song to live with you here and take the individual quarters for myself.”
“Hoba, what is the use in pretending? I’ve known you since we were teenagers and you would never do that.”
“Are you saying I’m not ruthless?”
“You are. You are most definitely a stone cold, ruthless mf with the precision of a surgeon with a scalpel.” He agreed solemnly, “But only in the field. You most definitely can not deploy that skill set in your personal life. Let’s face it Hoba, you’re a softie!”
“Sometimes I really hate that we know each other so well.”
“I love it. There’s no point in hiding. I take comfort in knowing that you know all my vulnerabilities and I know all yours so we can only ever be honest with each other about the things that matter.”
Hobi’s face softened. He really hated (read: loved), when his best friend, roommate and commanding officer, got all insightful like this. Still it didn’t mean he wasn’t going to call HIM a softie and give him shit for it!
But before he could respond there was a knock on the door.
*************************************
Namjoon levered himself off the bed with a smug smile on his face as he went to answer the door. This comfortable banter with his friend always gave him comfort, in their otherwise tension filled lives.
At the door, he found a young Private in fatigues, the guy was a scrawny kid to say the least, could not have been more that 5”2’ and paled a bit as he looked up at Namjoon. He seemed to visibly pull himself together, “Major Kim?”
“Ah!” Namjoon gave him an encouraging smile, “That’s me.”
The Private took a deep breath, “Brigadier General Bang would like to see you immediately.”
“Okay, I’ll be right there”
The Private gave a sharp salute in acknowledgement and dashed off. Closing the door with a shake of his head, Namjoon went to put on his boots again.
“See?” He indicated the door with his head, “I told you it wasn’t worth it to pack up and move, we’re probably being deployed again.”
“Yaah Kim Namjoon! Hold that black tongue of yours! I haven’t been able to get off Base and eat my fill of Auntie’s Kimchi Jeon yet! This time I’m not leaving Korea till I eat my body weight in Jeon!”
“You’re right as always, we should try to get to Mrs Lee’s tonight.” With that he was out the door and, on his way, to receive new orders.
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In a matter of minutes Namjoon found himself standing to attention before the Brigadier General’s massive mahogany desk.
“At ease Major,” General Bang instructed, not even looking up from the papers he was perusing.
At length he looked up, catching Namjoon’s eye over the round wire rimmed glassed perched on the end of his nose. For the millionth time since Namjoon had first met General Bang, then Colonel, he thought about how no one would believe Bang was even in the military. The man looked nothing like you’d picture a military man, he had a round youthful face and didn’t look physically tough by any standard. But those in the know, knew that his strategic brain was the biggest asset he brought to the military, the reason he was revered in the halls of power. And Namjoon knew.
“Major Kim, are you aware that there is a project underway to build a bridge from Yemen to Eritrea?”
“I had heard about it, Sir.”
“The Bridge itself is being built by a group of companies out of Dubai, however the Port it will be connected to is being developed by Kang Industries. They are the biggest in the Construction & Shipping sectors in Korea.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Anyway, it seems the site has been raided a couple times in the last few months and equipment stolen. It is suspected that this is a side effect of the internal conflicts in the surrounding countries and the refugee camps that have sprung up in Eritrea as a result of people fleeing conflict and famine in Sudan & Ethiopia.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Because of the camps WHO and the UN have units in the area, which are being protected by a small NATO team and the CEO of KI in all his wisdom has decided that along with upping security at the construction site, he also needs to gather goodwill from the local & refugee population. So he is sending supplies to the Camps and building a school & a hospital for the locals.”
Namjoon remained silent, knowing that there was more to it.
“CEO-nim has contacts in the government and has turned this into a national mission. He is also a smart man and has decided that he might as well receive goodwill at home as well. So along with the team from KI, a news team from SBS will also be on site in Eritrea and this is where you come in – protection. A small team is to accompany them everywhere while they are in Eritrea, they think you’re going for their protection but really, you’ll be there to reign them in when required, we don’t need a repeat of what happened with those Americans who got kidnapped by Boko Haram.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Small five man team – I assume you will want your usual team?” He flipped through a file on his desk and read through a list of names.
“Yes, Sir.”
“Good. You can inform them of their new orders.” He pushed the file across his desk and Namjoon caught it before it slid over the edge.
“Yes, Sir.”
“As for the news team, I’ve insisted that it needs to be men who have completed their military service in the last 5years so they’ll have some training and won’t be at a complete loss if anything happens. You will also be liaising with KI’s Outreach Operations Manager, they will be under your protection, but I understand, they’re already there finalising the hospital location.”
He slid another file across his desk, “These are all their profiles. You have tomorrow to debrief your team and prep. You leave at dawn the day after.”
“Yes, Sir.”
The General let his eyes roam over Namjoon’s face once more before nodding to himself. “Dismissed.”
Namjoon gave him a sharp salute and made for the door. But he had barely gotten his hand on the door knob when the General called, “Namjoon-ah,”.
Namjoon stopped, his hand still on the knob. His mentor rarely, displayed familiarity on base. The General sighed, “Be careful. I don’t know what’s out there but I’d much prefer if all of you came back safe.”
“Yes, hyung.” With one last shared look, he existed the office.
He pulled out his phone and placed a short call.
“Tae-ah, Code Orange. Tell JK & Yoyo.”
He wasn’t sure what they’d been assigned but something felt different. He couldn’t put his finger on it but he had a premonition that nothing would be the same after this mission.
*************************************
Back at his quarters he found Hobi, showered and dressed in civilian clothes. He looked up as Namjoon walked in, his eyes darting to the files in his hand, Hobi sighed and simply asked “Code Orange?”.
While Namjoon got ready, Hoseok went through the files, adding a comment every now and then as he went through the brief documents. By the time, Namjoon was ready, there was a knock on the door and Namjoon exited the bathroom to find Tae, JK and Yoyo stepping into the room, all dressed in Civilian clothes and looking like they shouldn’t even know each other.
First Lieutenant Kim Taehyung, dressed in Vintage Ivy league fashion, was in tailored slacks, with a button-down shirt and a pull-over draped casually across his shoulders.
Second Lieutenant Jeon Jungkook, was dressed in black from head to toe, an oversized t-shirt over cargo pants with chunky boots. The only hint of colour was in the tattoos snaking their way up his right arm.
Private First Class Choi Yeonjun looked like a collage kid in ripped jeans, a t-shirt with his favourite band on the front and a varsity style jacket.
Compared to the three, Namjoon & Hobi, in their beat up but not ripped jeans and well-worn hoodies looked positively dowdy.
“What are you three so dressed up for? We’re just going to Auntie’s place,” Hobi asked with a laugh.
“We’re not dressed up.” Tae replied with a smirk, “You just look like you put in no effort.”
“Really Hyung?” Jungkook asked with concern (fake) dripping from his voice, “What happened to you? You used to be the epitome of fashion?”
With an equally horrified look on his face Hobi came over to Namjoon and asked, “Joon-ah, do you see any?”
“Any what?” He asked, playing along.
“Wrinkles?” Hobi made a show of running his fingers under his eyes and across his forehead. And then turned to the three younger men with his trademark disgusted face, “Because we must be hella old if these three brats think they can talk to me like that and get away with it.”
All three broke into a fit of giggles.
Namjoon, threw his arm around his friend, “I agree! They deserve to be punished for dissing your J. Cole sweatshirt. Laps do you think?”
“Nah, they’re fit it wouldn’t be too much for them. No, let’s hit them where it really hurts?” They shared a look.
With a nod of agreement, Namjoon announced, “Hobi and I need to eat our body weight in Kimchi Jeon and you three are paying for dinner!”
“No!” Yeonjun, dramatically fell to his knees, clutching at his chest, “I’m only a PFC! You’ll eat me out of house and home!”
Namjoon pulled him up to his feet, “In that case, it’s a good thing both your house & home belong to the Army.” Namjoon found himself fighting a grin, once again feeling thankful that his team got on so well and were always able to keep each other in high spirits.
“Lessgo! Lessgo!” He declared as he herded them out the door.
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