Yeonwoo looked around the room, trying to read the faces of all the officers present near him. Despite this being his home country, the land where he was born and raised, he had no idea about the workings inside the Imperial Gates. Was it normal to recruit outsiders into the military? Maybe it was just Yeonwoo, but shouldn’t the Imperial Guards be…you know, more selective?

Well, Yeonwoo was going to find out the answer soon enough. Just one glance at the officers faces nearby and he could tell that this was clearly not the norm. Almost each and every one of them had a look of disbelief in their face. All except for the General of the Imperial Army, Jinuk who stood in front of him with a small grin on his face. Yeonwoo awkwardly looked away, his gaze landed on Minjoon who looked like he had just swallowed a grapefruit.

The annoying part? He still looked handsome despite having the sourest look on his face. Yeonwoo felt himself internally sigh. The world was indeed really biased towards some people.

Reno was the first one to break the incredibly weird atmosphere. “Can’t Yeonwoo be put with me? What would he even do in the military?”

Yeonwoo vigorously nodded in return. Seriously, what would he even do in the military? Shoot people? Yeah, right. The sole reason he had been able to survive until now was because he had an innate talent for sensing danger and running away. Confrontation and shooting? Not his forte.

And wasn’t it incredibly unfair to put him with the people whose very purpose was to hunt down the rest of the outcasts, who were just like him? The irony was painful.

Jinuk casually took the sheet of paper which had been handed over to him by the other officer and passed it onto Reno.

His head tilted slightly and his voice monotone, he said, “Look at his physical test scores. It’s way higher than yours and even some of the officers in here. We usually don’t take many outsiders into the military for you know, safety purposes but I just can’t pass up on that physical ability. Putting him in any other sector would be a waste of talent.”

Yeonwoo frowned and took the paper from Reno’s hand. While it was written in the standard Hangul script, he couldn’t understand some of the words written on it. Frustrated, he suddenly remembered the fact that he was actually uneducated having his education stopped at the age of 7.

However, he was capable of reading numbers and his eyes naturally darted towards the ‘physical test’ score Jinuk had pointed. Although, he could neither understand what number was considered high or how it was calculated, nevertheless he also had a puzzled look on his face.

As if trying to draw the point home, Jinuk point also handed them Reno’s test scores and Yeonwoo’s eyes widened. The gap between these numbers were huge. He couldn’t tell if his scores were considered abnormally high or Reno’s scores abnormally low. Regardless, anyone could with two functioning eyes could see they didn’t belong in the same sector.

Is the military even considered a sector? Yeonwoo had no idea. Until a couple of minutes ago, he didn’t even know the Imperial City had sector within it, he just assumed they all functioned under the king.

Jinuk snatched the papers back from Yeonwoo’s hand and folded it, tucking it inside his jacket pocket. “Well, that being said, there is no guarantee you can actually join the military. I will put you in as a recommendation but since we serve directly under the King, the decision of whether to take an outsider like you would be in his hands. Normally, my power is enough to decide who to take in but you are clearly a special case.”

Jinuk turned and looked at Minjoon, who still had that incredibly sour look on his face.

“Wipe that look of your face. I’m placing him under you for the time being. His highness might be busy to deal with this issue right now, so I will let you know when the time comes.”

Minjoon immediately took the sour look off his face but replaced it with a sharp glare directed at Jinuk. His face clearly not happy with any of the outcomes. His glare was so scary that Yeonwoo felt as if it was taking Minjoon immense self-control to just not shoot everyone present in the room.

“As for this young man…” continued Jinuk, pointedly ignoring the murderous look on Minjoon’s face. “…since we’re putting him in Minezu Zoko, let’s have Hyukshin guide him and escort him to the sector entrance and from there, it’s none of my business really.”

Hyukshin, the junior officer who stuck in the weird verbal scuffle between Minjoon and Jinuk, came forward and politely nodded. If anything, he seemed more than happy to get the hell out of there. He admired his boss just as much as any other officer, but Minjoon made him beyond uncomfortable, so he would gladly take the option to leave. He almost pitied Yeonwoo, who had to be put under him especially since he was an outsider. Hyukshin gave a small glance at Jinuk, unable to figure out the thought process behind his superior’s assignments. But well, he was nothing but a junior officer. His sole role was to carry out the orders issued by the general. Questioning them would only lead to more problems for him.

He turned towards Reno and gave him a small smile. “Let’s go.”

Reno turned and looked at Yeonwoo, his heart suddenly filled with dread. He had been with Yeonwoo for the past couple of years and all though he was lucky enough to be alive at this moment, being apart from Yeonwoo just didn’t seem right to him.

Yeonwoo smiled at him, as if he could read his thoughts and said, “It’s okay. I’ll see you soon.”

Both of them knew that this might as well be an empty promise, but they found solace in it, nonetheless. Deep inside, all they wished was for each other to be safe.

Reno walked away, his eyes still fixated on Yeonwoo. He had so much he wanted to say to his friend but none of the words would come out. Especially not when they had so many scrutinizing eyes on them.

Yeonwoo watched as Reno disappeared with the junior officer into a corridor. His heart was filled with dread, but he refused to let it show on his face. He may be surrounded by people of his same species, but he still considered himself in enemy territory. The whole of the Imperial City was enemy territory. A place who hunted down people like him and stole his home from him. That’s all this place would ever be to him.

He turned and looked at Jinuk. Although both Minjoon and Jinuk seemed like they had a few loose screws in their head, Jinuk seemed easier to talk to, so Yeonwoo decided to direct his question towards him.

“What about Hyuk?”

Jinuk frowned for a split second, his mind trying out to figure who Yeonwoo was talking about it. However, it didn’t take him much long to realize who Yeonwoo was referring to.

“Well, he’ll go through the same evaluation like you guys did. But since he’s injured, I think he’s going to be us with for a while.” said Jinuk. After that he turned and looked at Minjoon with a grin on his face. “I guess, I will leave him also in the Minjoon’s capable hands.”

This time Minjoon couldn’t simply keep his disapproval in his eyes and verbally put it out, “I refuse.”

Jinuk raised his eyebrow, his friendly aura disappearing. “You refuse?”

“Babysitting outsiders is not part of my job. I have better things to do.” Said Minjoon, his voice stern.

Jinuk scoffed and let out a small laugh. “Better things to do? Pray, do tell me what these better things to do are? Licking the boots of Tanyu higher ups? Shooting outsiders isn’t within your duties yet you still do it anyways. Sometimes, you gotta do things outside your job. That’s called being good at your job.”

Minjoon kept his silence, accepting his defeat. Whenever Tanyu was mentioned, he had no choice but to keep his mouth shut. The last thing he wanted was to risk angering them. This kind of politics was way out of his scope. Nonetheless, he still maintained that murderous look in his face.

Jinuk let out a dissatisfied sigh and ran his hand through his hair. He realized that he may have just hit a sore spot for Minjoon. After all, he was the general of army, there was no reason for him to be so sensitive and immature.

“Whatever.” Said Jinuk. “Take him to the lower bunks, 3^rd order. I guess getting permission from his highness  might take a couple of days, so in the meantime, find someone who can teach him the workings of this place. After all, it’s been 15 years for these young people. I suppose they could do with a little bit of studying.”

Jinuk turned around at looked at the all the officers standing. “Shows over! Get back to your posts.”

In an instant, the crowd of soldiers dispersed. Despite Jinuk’s friendly exterior, they all knew what really lay inside the man. He wasn’t appointed Army General for no reason.

Eventually, Jinuk also left giving Yeonwoo a small smile on his way out. Yeonwoo merely nodded in return.

This left Yeonwoo and Minjoon alone in the room. The atmosphere grew quieter and more awkward.

“Fuck!” said Minjoon, running his hand through his hair. Yeonwoo fiddled with his fingers, awkwardly. Figures, of course he would be angry.

Minjoon turned and looked at Yeonwoo. After staring at his face for around two minutes, he managed to calm down.

“Let’s go visit your friend first. See if he’s awake. Then I suppose you both can take the class or whatever the fuck they want you to take together. At least, that way you’d be off my hands for a while. I’m sick of seeing your faces.”

Yeonwoo bit his tongue, trying to control the words that threatened to spill from his mouth. Maybe, if he had just left their group alone outside, they would’ve still survived somehow. But he’s the one who ruthlessly killed the rest of his people and now he’s complaining? The sheer audacity. If Yeonwoo were not in a completely foreign environment, he would’ve given into his urges to punch this man a long time back.

Satisfied with the lack of response from Yeonwoo, Minjoon merely gestured for Yeonwoo to follow him as he walked outside the facility. The interior of the facility was powered with electricity, so the fresh air felt refreshing to Yeonwoo. In fact, any sort of clean air was refreshing to him considering how long he had lived in dusty, polluted air. Even the sight of trees were mesmerizing to him.

Minjoon turned and looked at him. An indescribable expression crossed at him as he saw the youngster be fascinated by the mere presence of trees. Subconsciously, his hands clenched into his fists but in an instant, he let go. A moment of emotion could cost him a lot.

“I’ll go get the car. Stay here. Don’t even think of running away.”

Yeonwoo rolled his eyes in response, biting his yet again tongue in order to hold back the words that were threatening to spill from his mouth. Where would he even run to? Even if he was brought here in return for sparing his life, he was still a prisoner. This place would never be home for him. Yeonwoo lost him home 15 years ago and he would never get it back.

Minjoon left, leaving Yeonwoo and his thoughts alone. It was only after Minjoon left that Yeonwoo realized how fast everything had unfolded. This was the first time since last night that he had gotten a moment to himself. The pace was too fast for him; he barely could process what was going on when he would be thrust into the next predicament.

He hadn’t even had time to mourn the loss of the group he took care of like his family. He had no idea how they felt in their last moments. Were they scared? Did they hate him for leaving them all alone? Or were they glad that he didn’t get caught like them?

Goosebumps rose on his skin when an unwanted thought crossed his mind. What if, in their last moments, they had thought that he had snitched to the patrolling officers? His mind immediately drifted to Ming-hae, one of the youngest members of their group. Yeonwoo had watched how his parents had died, leaving Ming-hae alone as a lone 1 year old. In fact, Yeonwoo was the one who had named him Ming-hae as he had no idea what the boy’s original name was.

As for Ming-hae, his earliest memories all consisted of Yeonwoo and the rest of the group. Having been born in this dry, deserted world, he never felt dissatisfied with his life like the other members had been. He had been brought up accepting his environment as the norm and he always happily followed the older members of the group. In particular, he was attached to Yeonwoo and Hyuk. Yeonwoo wasn’t really that good with kids but having practically raised him, he treated him as a little brother. And Hyuk was a natural with kids, even though he joined the group after Ming-hae was adopted in, he had no issues blending in and Ming-hae had immediately taken a liking to him, instantly dropping his guard.

Yeonwoo gulped, his eyes watering. He looked up at the bright, blue sky, trying to push the tears back into his eyes. He had already cried earlier but now it really felt like his heart was breaking into pieces. The air was crisp and fresh, and he had long forgotten what it felt like to breathe such clean air but despite that, at the moment, he wasn’t able to breathe. It was suffocating. It was foreign. He didn’t want to be here. He wanted to go back to those dusty run-down places. It didn’t matter how harsh life was back then, at least he had his people.

Yeonwoo crouched on the ground, caving in. He had bawled his eyes out in front of Reno when they first got caught but it just hurt so much more now that he was alone. Choking on his sobs, he hugged his knees making himself as small as possible. He had high adaptability that was how he managed to survive so far. Deep down, he knew that he was managed to live here, he wouldn’t mope around for long. But the pain right now was excruciating. He wished this moment would pass faster, he wished he could go back in time. He just didn’t want to present in the moment. However, he knew that there was nothing he could do. He didn’t have to power to change time back. If he did life would’ve been so different.

Minjoon watched from a distance, car keys dangling in his hands. His eyes were cool and calculated, unreadable. He avoided looking at Yeonwoo, although he could hear the man’s sobs.

However, out of everyone present in the kingdom, he was probably the only one who understood Yeonwoo at the moment.