Chapter Text
Another day, another night. The base was as roudy as it gets when eight grown men lives together in them. Chan was just cleaning up the table with Jeongin after their messy dinner (as always), and as he was placing the dishes in the sink, his vision turned dark in a heartbeat. The lights had gone off, alerting everyone. Groans echoed throughout the whole base.
"Oh c'mon, this again? How many times has it been? Three? Four?" Changbin's loud voice sounded across the whole base, alerting that he's in the main room.
Kim Seungmin entered the main room with a flashlight on one hand and his cell phone on the other. "Four times, five if you count the first day we got here."
"This might take a while 'till the light turns on."
There were several agreements followed by sighs. A set of wet footsteps hurriedly came from the corridor towards the main room, feet splatting on the floor and the sound of dripping water indicated that someone was wet, or worse, from the bathroom.
"Shit, fuck, I was shampooing my hair when the lights went out. Literally thought I had gone blind when I opened my eyes and it was dark."
Chuckles were heard from the table, Seungmin's flashlight illuminating the room. "Go finish washing your hair and wear some clothes, Han Jisung."
"What, and risk slipping in the bathroom? No thanks, I'll finish it with the sink." No one replied and simply shook their heads at another one of Han's antics.
Five minutes had gone by in silence except from the sound of running water and Han's hands scrubbing his head of hair in the sink.
"OH! How about we play a game of cards? I'll go get it." Felix suggested as he jumps up from his seat.
"Oh yes! Why not!"
"We have cards?"
"What're we playing?"
"uno?"
"I don't think Lix's bringing UNO cards."
"We have UNO cards?"
Felix came back and everyone gathered in the main room, Jeongin clearing the coffee table, Changbin pulling some chairs closer to sit on, Hyunjin went and found an oil lamp, and Seungmin sat beside Felix to manage the messy stack of cards.
"Okay who's playing? Hey Hwang Hyunjin, let's play, we still have unfinished business from out last game." Han quickly finished 'showering' and put on some proper clothes as he approached the table and called for his 'rival' who was standing over Felix, watching him shuffle the cards.
Jeongin sits on the floor instead of a chair, back against the couch, knees drawn up. He watches more than he plays. Watches the way Changbin positions himself closest to the door without ever saying why. Watches how Seungmin’s gaze lifts every time the radio crackles, even with no incoming call. Watches how no one ever fully relaxes—just loosens, carefully.
It’s loud. It’s chaotic.
It’s… contained.
"Chan Hyung, let's play." Felix called aside with the radio on his hand.
The eldest looked up and smiled back at the younger's offer but as a decline. "I'll go check outside for a bit, you go play."
"On your own?" Hyunjin asked worriedly. It's nothing new for Chan to sometimes check around alone but Hyunjin couldn't help but ask.
"I'll come with him." Jeongin, the youngest offered, standing up from his seat by the table as soon as he heard the oldest going. Chan observed the younger as he pulled himself away from the others. Something in him was so fresh, so eager, that Chan couldn't help but smile thinly "Alright. Be back in ten."
The cards slap softly against concrete. Outside, the night presses in, thick and hot, buzzing with insects and distant machinery.
For a while, it almost works.
Changbin is still arguing with Han about a rule that definitely does not exist. Lee Know has already won and hasn’t bothered to announce it. Felix laughs too loud, then clamps a hand over his mouth like the noise itself might get them in trouble. Seungmin reorganizes the deck for the third time, pretending he isn’t listening to the radio resting beside him.
Hyunjin barely looks at his cards. Somehow, he’s still winning.
Outside, the night presses in heavy and warm. The air hums with insects and distant generators, the darkness stretching farther than Jeongin can see. Chan walks the perimeter like he always does—unhurried, methodical, as if the base itself is something alive that needs checking on.
Jeongin follows half a step behind.
They don’t talk much. They don’t need to.
The fence line comes into view, a dull outline against the dark. Chan stops. Jeongin stops too, instinctively. He adjusts his grip, breath steady, eyes scanning the way he’s been trained to.
He realizes, distantly, that this feels different from training.
Not heavier.
Just… quieter.
The radio crackles.
“Echo-7, status check.”
Chan answers without pause.
“Actual. All clear. Power’s out but perimeter’s secure.”
A beat of static.
“Copy.”
That’s it.
No follow-up. No questions.
Trust, compressed into a single word.
Inside the base, laughter spikes again—Changbin shouting, Han protesting, Felix wheezing like he might fall over. The sound carries faintly through the open doorway, warm and human against the dark.
Jeongin exhales.
For the first time since arriving, he understands something he couldn’t articulate before. Echo-7 isn’t different because they’re louder, or sharper, or stronger. They’re different because nothing here is wasted.
Not words.
Not movement.
Not silence.
Chan turns back toward the base. “Let’s head in.” Jeongin nods and follows towards the base. Despite the darkness, laughter still echoed from inside as a ray of flashlight would occasionally shine around.
They’re halfway back when it happens.
Not close.
Not immediate.
Just distant enough that it takes Jeongin a second to register what he’s hearing. A low, concussive thump rolls through the night, followed by a hollow echo that drags across the ground like something exhaling. Jeongin stops without meaning to.
Chan doesn’t.
He keeps walking, already turning his head, already listening past the sound instead of to it.
Another second passes. Then the shockwave reaches them—soft, muted by distance, but unmistakable. The air shifts. Dust lifts from the ground in a thin, lazy cloud. Jeongin swallows. “That was—”
“Mhm,” Chan says, calm. Not dismissive. Just acknowledging. “Mortar.”
Jeongin looks toward the horizon. There’s no flash now, no follow-up. Just darkness settling back into itself, like nothing happened.
“How far?” Jeongin asks.
Chan thinks for a moment. Not long.
“Far enough.”
That should be comforting but it isn’t.
Jeongin realizes then that Chan hasn’t reached for his radio. Hasn’t changed pace. Hasn’t even tensed. As if the sound fits somewhere in a mental map Jeongin doesn’t have yet. They start walking again.
---
Inside the base, laughter spills out through the doorway—Changbin yelling about cards, Han loudly protesting something unfair. The noise feels surreal now, like it belongs to a different place entirely.
The laugh dies mid-sentence.
It isn’t the sound itself that does it—it’s the way the air seems to hesitate afterward, like the base is waiting to hear if it needs to care. Then the thump reaches them.
Low.
Distant.
Felt more than heard.
The cards stop moving. For half a second, no one breathes. Felix freezes with a card halfway to the pile, fingers locked around the edge like if he lets go, something worse might happen. His smile is gone before he realizes it ever was. Seungmin’s head snaps up instantly, eyes unfocused—not on the room, but past it. His thumb is already counting under the table. One. Two. Three.
Changbin scoffs first. Loud. Reflexive. “Was that—” He grins, forcing it. “Guess someone else’s night got interesting.”
No one laughs.
Lee Know doesn’t look up from the table. He gathers his cards slowly, deliberately, like time suddenly matters. He’s already listening for the second sound. Han swallows. “Tell me that wasn’t close,” he says, voice pitched just a little too high.
Hyunjin tilts his head, eyes narrowing. He isn’t counting seconds. He’s watching faces. Seungmin’s count reaches the number he wanted. He exhales through his nose and relaxes—just a fraction.
“Distant,” he says quietly. Not a guess. A conclusion. “No follow-up.”
Changbin lets out a breath he turns into a laugh. “See? Totally fine.”
Han nods too fast. “Yeah. Yeah, that’s—yeah.”
The radio stays silent. And for some reason it doesn't ease the worry in their bones.
Lee Know finally looks up. “If it was for us,” he says calmly, “we’d know.” No one argues.
Somewhere outside, gravel crunches faintly—boots, familiar rhythm. Which made Felix sags in relief, pressing his palms into his thighs. “I hate when he’s not in the room.”
Hyunjin leans back in his chair, forcing a smirk. “He’ll be fine.”
The door opens.
Chan steps inside like nothing happened. Jeongin follows, eyes still sharp, still scanning, he glances back once more. Nothing moves in the dark.
“Does that happen often?” he asks quietly. Chan doesn’t answer right away. When he does, his voice is steady. “Often enough.”
As Jeoingin joined the others for another round of cards, Minho stepped out and joined Chan who stood by the window, radio sitting on the windowsill. "Are we expecting deploy tonight?"
Chan let out a breath, "Not sure, nothing was briefed."
The other hummed in response and looked back at the others surrounding the coffee table that's too small for six people. “I saw that,” Lee Know says flatly, calling out Changbin from where he stands, clearly seeing the cards he hid behind him.
“You saw nothing.”
“I saw everything.”
“Are you accusing me?”
“Yes.”
Changbin gasps theatrically, clutching his chest. “Betrayal. From my own unit.”
The generator kicks in with a shudder, lights flickering back to full brightness. The room looks too exposed all of a sudden, every crack in the walls sharp and clear. Everyone dropped their cards as soon as the lights came back, quickly returning to their businesses, some immediately went to bed, while others moved to clean their gears.
Chan checks his watch. “Shift change in forty.”
"Copy,"
Outside, the night continues as if nothing happened.
Inside, the cards stay on the table a little longer before anyone bothers to pick them up.