Time gradually went by as the platoon kept on raiding and searching daily. All of them had a better time since Yozora came by, she would always help everyone out and got their back from shooting a sphere off of them to sharing her portion of her meal. She herself had a blast being there,she felt happy once more with how welcoming they were to her. It made her quickly forget about the earlier occurrence of her side of the story, before she met them.

Soocheol had been hanging out with Yozora alot lately,by that means he would always be on the team she is in. The others would always get a glance or two of them playing around or even bickering over something stupidly simple. The rest of the others started to name them as the 'secret lovebirds' behind their backs, enjoying and getting irritated of it time to time.

Things were going smooth at their rest area hideout, other than the fact that more people wanted to stay,leading with them having to survive another day in repeat of their day before,searching for radio equipment which they had no luck of finding. Most of them got really annoyed of it quickly and started arguments when it was time to vote. Numerous of them were caused by Heerak which soon made some of the girls joining with it. No one was able to cool them down until either Jangsoo,Yoojung,Ilha,Sooceol or even Yozora stepped in with a shout,trying to turn their minds into letting go of the matter and giving fair reasons why it is safer to be here than going out blindly. All the protests ended thanks to Yozora as they believed her point because of how she had been out alone more than anyone in the platoon. Yoojang and Jangsoo soon gave in their trust to her and decided to tell her about the whole thing thats going on later on at a proper moment when everyones asleep,till then, Yozora and Soocheol went out to admire the silent nights together talking about the next days' matters.

"Hey..."Soocheol greeted walking beside her before keeping a can of coke beside her and sat down. Only inches apart from brushing their arms together.

"Hey...Has everyone gone to bed?" Yozora asked,her eyes glued to the dark skies.

"Yeah they did...why? Are you going to do something sneaky?" He teased nudging his knee against hers earning a light chuckle from the girl.

"As if there is anything to be sneaky of...other than being with you~" She responded giving him a flirty wink making the boy arch a brow at her remark.

"Someone's brave with their words..." He said before opening his can and taking a quick sip while his eyes wondered on the sky above. A brief moment of silence took part before he talked once more.

"It's been a week since you came along,a week since the guys felt more secured and happy,a week since all of them were laughing their hearts out without any doubts for tomorrow...and a week since I've been staring at the sky, realizing how pretty it had been all this time" He sighed before taking another sip of his drink,his eyes never leaving the scenery. The girl beside him looked down with a sky smile coating her lips. It felt more of a praise and compliment to her ears,she couldn't resist the smile.

Those were the last of what neither of them said before a long stretch of silence engulfed the atmosphere with the sounds of wind and rustling of leaves only accompanying them throughout.

They felt rather comfortable with the quietness now,both of them started to grow into it and embraced the calm feeling it gave. Minutes would go on without them knowing how much time had passed by between them. It kind of relieved their minds after a days struggle.

"So what do you think of us?" He questioned what had been lingering in his mind for quiet some time.

"Hmm honestly speaking,it's chaotic...but so much fun at the same time...It's great actually!" She grinned happily to which the boy hummed in response.

"But I have to say,you're great with the riffle...better than Soyeon,Bora and Nara" He praised, the girl felt proud hearing someone say that about her skills.

"Why thank you for the compliment" She beamed with a sigh.

"Hey...um well..." He thought for a while about what they could talk about today.

"Um what do you have in mind to do after this while this is over?" He glanced at her shortly to see her eyes focusing on him,making him avert his eyes back to the sky.

"Uh...I'll probably ask my brother to come back home from the states,then after beg my parents to get a week off and go on a long road trip..." She giggled at the thought of having fun with her family in a sunny day,both her parents looking at her and his brother playing in the open field having fun.

"What do they do to be that busy?If you don't mind telling..." He furrowed his eyebrows waiting for an answer.

"Wait, haven't I told you?" He shook his head as a no making the girl facepalm herself.

"Aish...sorry...I guess I've always got carried away talking about something else all those other times" She scratched her head remembering that she was going to tell him but must've forgotten.

"Well they work with the military force lab,they are working on something over the spheres...Sounds fun doesn't it?" She said the last few words after a small pause and chuckled. The boy reacted by widening his eyes at the mere term.

"Really?" He asked amused and the girl simply nodded.

"Woah must be tiring..." He said taking a long swig of his drink. Both of them went back to expressing the delightful beauty of the night. It had become something both of them look forward to ever night. To be in a soothing silence and to talk freely. The silence didn't last long as Yozora had only one question she wanted answers for. She had completely forgotten about it with everything that has been going on and last night was when she remembered it.

"Soocheol...Did you talk about it to the leaders yet?" She asked out of the blue,making the mentioned person snap his eyes at her nervously,but he didn't say anything. Just kept his gaze low from her eyes thinking everything once more as a sigh escaped his mouth.

"Hm? If you can't I can tell them myse-" Soocheol stopped her from completing her sentence and started his own statement.

"-When the message was sent,that day me and Ilha was on guard. We were going to tell the others but um...well...how can I say this um...w-we were scared at first,but eventually it turned into anger and...all I wanted to do was to kill ever single one of them. Not letting a trace be left behind. So we-I broke the radio and kept it a secret. Soon after we overheard Yoojung and Jangsoo talking about rigging the poll and we agreed to help out to have more votes to stay, Since both of them said it would be more dangerous going out and we wanted to get rid of the spheres-" He was in the midst of explaining what he had been scheming when she interrupted him.

"Wait,so your saying you guys had been lying to them this whole time?!" She exclaimed turning to face him,shook of what they had done.

"Yozo listen to me fir-" He tried to make her stop from understanding the situation wrongly.

"Soocheol I told you Seoul was safe and that I could even lend the map over to get there safely...Some of us barely made it alive this past few days if it wasn't for someone for shooting it!" She whisper yelled looking around in alert,just in case if someone was around to hear.

"You have to understand,just listen to m-" He didn't give up on talking it to her.

"Oh shut it! I'm telling the others the first thing tomorrow-" She said angrily getting up from the steps and was about to leave when a strong pull on her wrist stopped her, making her halt in annoyance. She didn't dare look back at him and spoke sternly.

"Let me go...You can't talk me into this...You had a week to sort it out..." Her voice sounded far from how she used to,it had lost it's tone of enthusiasm replaced by arrogance and anger.

"Please...Please give me a chance to explain properly...please Yozora..." He practically begged her to hear him out. Yozora felt bad hearing his voice break in between and ended up giving in for the last time.

"Fine..." She harshly brushed off his grip and sat back down on the steps. Unlike how he would always see her facial features under the night,relaxed and tranquil-now it looked plain and bored. Soocheol breathed deeply before taking him space beside her but this time kept space from her.

"I know you're mad but please...please..." He reached for her hands,keeping them in between his. His eyes waited infront of hers to see how sincere he was right now. It didn't take long till her eyes interlocked in his desperate eyes.

"I-I have a plan...but you have to help me..." He pleaded for her aid but she refused as it was his and the other threes' fault,not trying to be selfish but she wasn't included in any of this,therefore she can't help at all.

"You have to fix this with them...I wasn't in this..." She replied calmly,her eyes were firey,staring back at two helpless orbs in need of a hand she didn't want to reach for.

"Please Yozo...Please...you are the only one that could pull it off without any problem being caused...please...just this once...Im begging you" He squeezed her hands in his warm ones. He had no other place to turn and make it a success without any issues getting in the way. His pair of eyes never left her face for a second,till she looked away sighing in defeat.

"Okay but you have to promise me you won't do something risky like that ever again" She said her terms of playing, instantly giving the boys face a relieved smile before he hugged her tightly."Thank you...thank you so much..." He mumbled and felt her lightly patting against his back. He pulled back with a small laugh,going back to observing her gaze.

"And I promise...I won't ever do something risky in my entire life..." He went ahead of what she actually meant, nevertheless making the girl laugh besides her expression few seconds ago.

"Alright then...What's the plan?" She opened the untouched can of coke that had been lying there with this whole situation unfolding infront of it. The night was spent with both of them talking about the plan and getting caught in some other topic till both of them felt their eyes demanding to shut. They parted ways after a long conversation and went to sleep,even though they will be sleepy the next morning because of how late they had been up.

To be continued🎐

Written: 02/05/23
Published: 02/05/23

Like and Comment if you enjoyed ^_^ !