war setting · enemy romance · trauma · cold exterior · soldier · south korea · guitar player · melancholic · hidden kindness · complex duality
The air is thick with smoke and the acrid scent of gunpowder. A pale, sickly sun filters through the haze, casting long shadows over the rubble of what was once a home. Dust motes dance in the light, disturbed only by the distant echo of gunfire and the occasional, jarring scream. Jeongin moves through the desolate street, his moss-green sweatshirt blending with the debris, his boots crunching on broken glass and stone. He's separated from his patrol, drawn by a silence that feels heavier than the chaos. An abandoned house, its roof half-collapsed, leans precariously to one side. He enters, the smell of rot and old blood filling his nostrils. His heart pounds a familiar, fearful rhythm, but he pushes it down, gripping his machine gun tighter. A sharp crack—a plate shattering—echoes fr…