He smiled down at his phone.

he swiped through the pictures, one by one.

Gwangsik had gotten bored while recovering from his leg injury, and had been looking through his phone to waste some time.

The soldier ended up coming across some photos they had taken together during the six months Ijin had been staying with them. Of course, he sent them to the group chat that he had with everyone else. At the moment, his phone kept on vibrating every few seconds as everyone commented on the pictures.

A body was pressing itself against his shoulder," Damn bro. Who's making you smile like that?" Hyeokjin had a grin on his face as he asked that, a slight teasing tone in his voice.

He let out a small huff before he moved his phone so they both could see it," Some of the men I stayed with sent the pictures we took together." He didn't mind showing him the photos. It was mostly just them being idiots together or their day to day lives.

Hyeokjin hummed curiously as he sat down properly next to Ijin, looking at the photos as Ijin flipped through him.

It didn't take long until the others noticed what they were doing and started to hover behind them, commenting and looking at the photos as well.

There was one of everyone sitting together, eating a common meal as they joked and played around with each other. If he remembered properly, they had taken a picture because that had been the first time they had gotten him to smile at one of Kang's stupid 'dad' jokes (Honestly it had been the others faces of disgust rather than the joke that actually made him laugh).

Another one was when they were showing him how to play uno and lose friends.

Iijn didn't realize how much he had changed since then.

He was thinner in the photos and was even a little bit shorter. Even he had to admit that his eyes looked a little bit hollow, as if he was emotionless.

He didn't realize that he looked like that at the time.

Thankfully, meeting Major Kang had changed his life for the better. He had gained weight, just enough to be at a healthy weight for his height and age. He learned how to express himself properly and learned how nice it was to let people into his bubble from time to time.

Truly, meeting the Major had changed his life.

Hyeokjin paused on a picture, and Ijin internally cringed when he realized that it was a picture of Major Kang and himself. They had to be returning from patrol (Ijin had somewhat strongarmed them into letting him help them with patrol and the occasional mission) or something else, as the both of them were completely geared up.

Major Kang was in his tactical gear, and so was Ijin. The sidearms and knives they carried were strapped onto their legs. He was wearing his shemagh, but had left the portion that would cover his face around his neck so it was clearly him in the picture.

But he knew that they paused because they were both carrying their semi-automatic weapons in their hands. The muzzles pointed down at the ground as they walked.

Ijin still remembers glancing over at Major Kang before pointing his weapon in the opposite way, just in case something happened to his gun.

He could practically feel everyone tensing up around him.

"Dude!" Jaehyung practically shouted out, making Ijin grateful that they were currently the only ones in the classroom at the moment," I thought you said you were a guide!?"

…shit.

This is what he gets for getting too comfortable.

Hopefully he can play this off…

"I was a guide," Ijin said firmly as he moved onto the next picture, which was a selfie he had taken with some of the other men against his will," Not an idiot. That's the standard equipment in Grian. Any less and you're prone to being killed." Which was the truth. Even the guides he had worked with had semi-automatic weapons. The only ones that didn't carry weapons were the young children, even then, they often armed themselves with rocks.

They were all quiet.

It was painfully quiet. He could feel his heart beating faster from pure anxiety.

Before any of them could ask, he quietly added on," I did what I had to do to survive."

That had only made it even more tense. But he knew that those words would be enough to insinuate that he had killed before and that he did not want to talk about it in the slightest.

There was a pressure against his upper back as Seokju leaned forward to swipe to another picture," The past is in the past. What were you guys doing here?"

Ijin blinked at the sudden change in topic.

It was silent for another seconds before Jaehyung suddenly said, "Man did they make you workout with them?!"

"They're all buff as hell."

He was still reeling from the sudden topic change.

He stared at them, truly surprised by the way Seokju dismissed the topic, surprised at the way the others just went along with it without question.

"No," he said slowly, finally answering the question Jaehyung regarding the picture," I-uh," He was still trying to process what just happened," -I was going stir crazy. They let me work out with them."

Seokju was leaning against him again, using his head as a armrest as he said," That would explain your monstrous stamina."

The others nodded in agreement.

…he wasn't the one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

…but what the hell just happened?