Haa...haa.."
My breath is pounding, and the smell of blood is so strong that it makes me sick. My head and body are covered in blood, making me feel sick. I want to go back to my platoon and wash it off right now. But I had to check if the enemy soldiers were dead or it would be a hassle later. With each step I took, I stepped on corpses that could have been either enemy or ally. Then, I saw something swaying in the wind in the distance, so I approached to take a closer look. What was swaying was a flower. It was a single flower that had bloomed with difficulty in this battlefield where the smell of blood was strong and the ground was stained with blood. When I saw this flower, I naturally thought of you. How happy you would have been if you had seen this flower. You would have looked at me with a happy smile, saying that flowers bloom even in a battlefield like this. When I thought about it, there were many similarities between this flower and you. A flower that bloomed beautifully after overcoming hardship and adversity on the battlefield, and above all, a flower that never lost its smile even in the difficult circumstances of war. You were beautiful. You were always my light and hope. Before I knew it, I was looking at the flowers and reminiscing about the memories I had with you, your every expression, your every gesture. In the midst of my reminiscences, what woke me up was my superior's voice coming from the walkie-talkie.
"Chiik...chikjik...Sergeant Sunyoung...can you hear me?"
"Yes, I can hear you, Captain."
"What's the situation there?"
"The enemy was annihilated, and all our forces were annihilated except me."
"Ha... well, you should come back too."
Recalling memories with you, I turned to return to my platoon, but my feet wouldn't move easily. Perhaps the flower that reminded me of you, resembling you, was so striking that I couldn't bear to step forward. I had no choice but to dig up the ground where the flower had been, along with the flower itself, and, holding it with both hands as if it were something precious, I returned to my platoon and transplanted it into your beloved flowerpot. Every time I saw this flower, I was reminded of you, and I couldn't help but feel a sense of happiness and loneliness. But as I looked at the flower once more, I reminisced about you. You, who always shone brightly to me, my light. My hope. My flower... You were...