"General Zhang, I thought you were still in Tallahassee."

The general shook his head as he walked over to where JinHai stood waiting. "The situation caught the higher-up's attention. Switched me out with one of his own, I'll be heading over to Miami after stopping here." JinHai nodded solemnly before opening the door for the general to walk into the house before he did. "Speaking of Miami, I heard that you ended the situation over there effectively. Your method however...I wasn't expecting that from you."

JinHai tensed slightly while continuing to head over to his office. "The situation needed to end, there was no other way for it to end."

"But did you feel that it was right?"

JinHai frowned. "Since when was anything about war ever right?"

The only response he received was a low chuckle.

...

"I swear to all things holy and above me Lea...seriously?"

"What? I didn't know that was the case!"

"It doesn't mean anything; you should know better than calling your brother whose outside of the US just to tell him about how life is after being taken over by Communists...Communists Lea! Do you want to die?"

Lea shrugged with a guilty expression and sat down on the mattress across from Avi. "Is it really that bad?" Avi grimaced deeply. "Are you kidding me! Leah, I saw a guy get a bullet through his head after he called his family out of the US, and that was after he was beaten to a damn bloody pulp. I'm not ready for that to happen again." Lea didn't respond to that.

It was then that the door opened...Angie. "There's something going on outside, hurry up."

...

"Last time I checked, you weren't the one in charge here."

"Last time I checked, I still had the ability to put a bullet through you, so keep talking."

"Thank you, I will. Now back off."

Avi approached the tense scene with a frown. It had been a day where she had gotten nothing but migraines and dealing with another argument was not on her bucket list.

And it just so happened to be Julian and Havier. Her expression darkened to a scowl as she stormed up to where they stood staunchly, interrupting them before and more words or insults could be thrown. "Will you two just stop for once in your lives! No one asked for your petty little argument to take center stage as today's entertainment." Havier reached forward to move her away, she only slapped his hand roughly before he could do so. "No one asked you to barge in either Avigayil."

Avi raised a brow at him and crossed her arms expectantly. "Oh? So what, would it be better for me to let you two continue to argue until you fight and have the soldier's intervene instead? I'm sure you'd all like a bullet through your skulls, right?"

"Avi-." She wouldn't have it. "No. Both of you listen right now, I am sick and tired of being put into the forefront to have to defend and take the blame for all the crap that especially you two do around here. Parading around like some misconstrued version of patriots with a cause isn't gonna work here, so shut up and get back to work before I take a gun and shoot you both myself...now!"

It was eerily silent when she finished speaking; Avi didn't wait for a reaction. She didn't wait for a response either, she simply walked back in the direction where she came.

...

"Excuse me...sir?"

JinHai glanced up from his work and gave a pathetic excuse of a smile as Avi's mother walked in hesitantly. "Is there something I can help you with?" Her mother nodded slowly. "It's about Avi...did something happen with her in Miami?"

He froze in his movements, slowly removing his glasses. "What do you mean?"

"Something happened to her, she won't tell me though. She usually talks to me about these things." JinHai waved a hand impatiently. "What makes you think that something happened to her?"

"She won't let us contact anyone, she throws a fit every time she sees someone on a phone. When people are arguing, she keeps saying that they'll get bullets though their skull. Any type of loud noise around her and she jumps as if it's a bomb. She used to help around whenever someone was hurt or bleeding, now she just freezes at the sight of blood...something had to have happened to her."

JinHai slammed the file in his hand against his desk and stood up quickly. "Get her over here...please."

...

"You called for me?"

He let go of the window curtain and turned around.

She had lost weight. The woman was already slim enough and she had gone and lost more weight; an anemic. JinHai fought the urge to shout some sense into her once he realized how tired she appeared. "When did you last sleep?"

"This morning."

"For how long?"

"Five hours."

He raised a brow at that, watching her as she revealed what was in the hand behind her. It was a file. "I finished the report you asked. I was planning on coming anyways."

"When's the last time you ate?"

Avi exhaled loudly before kicking at the tile floor. "This morning." He approached her slowly. "What did you eat?"

"Cereal."

He grimaced. "So you've been working all day on only cereal...michyeo aniya?" Avi simply nodded. "Yes, I am...is there anything else?"

He should have expected that answer from her. Ever since they had returned and Ji Saek's words had haunted his mind as if he was still there.

Mirae. Avi. At that moment the two seemed to be the ones with the most control over his life. One was dead, one was a dead woman walking.

And both were that way because of him.

...

"No...there's nothing else."

She couldn't understand why her face fell even more as he said that. Avi simply played off her disappointment and nodded. "Alright then."

She turned to walk out, caught off guard when hands gripped her waist and held her in place.

So many times before she would find herself tensing beneath his grip, now she found herself doing the opposite.

His chest pressed against her back as he brushed his lips against her ear softly. "Why are you doing this to yourself?" When she didn't respond, he kissed his favorite spot. "Are you going to answer me?"

"Why have you been ignoring me?"

There...she asked it. And when he didn't respond, she prepared to keep walking, only his hands to snake around her and pull her back. His breath hit the side of her face as he looked down at her. "You're treating yourself like that because I haven't spoken to you?" Avi huffed loudly, fighting to not sink into his arms from the fatigue she felt. "First of all, I'm not treating myself like anything...and secondly, you haven't just not spoken to me Min JinHai, you've flat out avoided me completely."

"You're anemic Avi...you should take care of yourself."

She rolled her eyes as he turned her to face him. "As if anyone has the chance to take care of themselves right now...what did your brother tell you?"

"Nothing important." She glared at him.

"You said that we weren't going to lie to each other." JinHai raised a brow. "Did I?"

Avi was more than done with everything, with him. "If you have nothing else to say then sir, I'll be leaving."

JinHai's grasp tightened around her, impossible to break away from. "I'm not letting you leave, not until you speak to me Avi."

"We seem to have a problem when it comes to communicating, don't we?"

Her words struck a cord in him, he let her go only to press her against the edge of his desk. "Then let's fix that problem now, shall we?" When she sighed, he lowered is voice. "Is it the Haitian?"

When she didn't respond, he knew that he had found his answer. "Avi-."

"He just got shot...his face was already a bloody pulp, he was already helpless, and he just got shot." JinHai didn't say a word, letting her continue to vent.

"Him, Moise, and what about all the others...three hundred dead? Families, children...how many women were pregnant? How many were ready to have families before this twisted crap landed on top of us? And you-."

He looked her in the eye softly. "What about me?"

Avi's eyes glistened with tears as she did something out of the norm, grasping his face between her hands and rubbing her thumbs over the stubble on his cheeks. "You didn't ask to be dragged into this. Not you, not your brother," JinHai tensed at that. "Not your family...no one."

It was the second time he saw her cry.

JinHai leaned forward and pressed his lips against a falling teardrop, brushing his nose against her skin as she released a shaky breath. "I want to wake up from this nightmare. JinHai, I can't-."

As she choked on her words, he reached out to grip her waist tightly.

Neither could he...neither could he.