A heavy silence fell over the room.
Eden wasn't the type to fill empty air with words.Jack and Justin kept stealing glances at him, too wary to speak.
Someone had to break the ice.
That someone was me.
"Come on, guys.We're stuck together now.Might as well make it livable."
"Jack, Justin — bury the hatchet.Let's start over."
"I'll grab some beers."
I pulled Justin out toward the convenience store.
Most of it was run by vending machines.You had to punch in your personal ID number — the one printed outside our room — to get anything.
I grabbed four cans of beer and headed back.
"Here.One can each.Let's loosen up a little."
Everyone grabbed a can and drank fast, the tension still clawing at their throats.
"How about we get to know each other?" I said."Talk about who we were before all this.Jack, you start."
Jack scratched his head, looking awkward for once.
"Me?Guess you could say I lived hard."
"I grew up on the streets of LA.Ran with one of the big names —The Kings."
"Got into the gang life young.By high school, I was already getting scouted."
"Fighting was what I did best.Headbutts, fists, knives — didn't matter."
He pulled up his sleeves, showing the web of scars hidden among tattoos.
"See these?Souvenirs.Every one of them."
"By my twenties, I was running things.Clubs.Brothels.Underground casinos."
"Money, women, respect...I had it all."
"But in that life, loyalty's a coin toss."
Jack's voice darkened.
"One night, a guy I trusted —one I would've taken a bullet for —asked me to meet at a club."
"I went.No second thoughts."
"And that bastard and his crew ambushed me."
"Got shanked before I could even pull a weapon."
He laughed — a harsh, bitter sound.
"Funny, right?Survived shootouts, gang wars, raids...and it was a 'friend' who did me in."
"I lived by loyalty.Died by betrayal."
Jack's fists clenched, the knuckles white with rage he couldn't let go.
I turned to Justin.
"What about you?"
Justin grinned, almost too casually.
"Me?I guess you could say I was the golden boy."
"My family was dirt poor when I was a kid.Dad blew every dime chasing some dream."
"But then he hit it big."
"Middle school onward —I lived like a prince."
"Monthly allowance?A million won."
"I could buy anything I wanted.Bikes.Cars.Designer clothes."
"By high school, I was hitting the hottest clubs, rolling with celebrity crowds."
"Idols, supermodels, actresses...Name it, I had it."
"Every night was booze, women, parties."
"But, you know, after a while —even that gets boring."
"You start looking for something... sharper."
"That's when I found drugs."
He said it like he was talking about an old hobby.
"Started with weed.Then pills.Then meth."
"Felt like the world exploded into colors I'd never seen."
"Until the night it exploded for good."
"OD'd at a party.Heart gave out."
Justin shrugged like it wasn't a big deal.
Jack chuckled.
"Fucking junkie."
"Hey, thanks to junkies like me, guys like you made good money," Justin shot back.
Despite the words, there was no heat in it.
They laughed — two broken pieces recognizing each other.
I looked at Justin again, curious.
"So... when did you start chasing women like your life depended on it?"
Justin hesitated.For once, the easy grin slipped.
"After my family got rich, I guess."
"My parents were always gone.Business trips.Meetings."
"Most nights, the house felt empty."
"No brothers.No sisters.Just me."
"And friends?"
He snorted.
"Friends loved me when I could buy them drinks, presents, tickets."
"But real loyalty?Forget it."
"They liked my wallet, not me."
"So I stopped trusting guys."
"Started chasing girls instead."
"It was easier."
Jack grumbled.
"That's 'cause you never met a real brother."
"Real loyalty ain't about money."
Justin just smiled, tired and old.
Maybe he knew better.
Maybe he didn't care.
I turned to Eden.
"And you, Eden?"
His eyes were distant, locked on some memory the rest of us couldn't see.
"I was a soldier," he said simply.
Jack scoffed.
"Yeah, right.I've seen soldiers.You move like a goddamn shark."
Eden's mouth twitched into a ghost of a smile.
"I wasn't just any soldier."
"United States Army.Delta Force."
The air shifted.
Even Jack leaned forward a little.
Delta Force wasn't just elite.They were the sharp end of the blade.
"I specialized in black ops.Covert assassinations.Sabotage missions."
"My last mission was in Russia."
"High-value target extraction.Deep inside Moscow."
"No official backup.No safety nets."
"Six men went in."
"One of them —a traitor."
Eden's voice never rose.Never shook.
"They sold us out."
"We walked into a killbox."
"I fought.Killed."
"But a bullet found me anyway."
He tapped his chest lightly, where the heart would be.
"That's how I died."
Silence.
No jokes this time.No cheap bravado.
Eden glanced at us, unreadable.
"Looking back...I wonder."
"If command knew we were expendable."
"If they needed ghosts to clean up their mistakes."
"Doesn't matter now."
"But if I ever get another shot —I'll finish what I started."
For a moment, nobody spoke.
Compared to Eden's story,ours felt small.Almost laughable.
Then Eden looked at me.
"And you, Eric?"
I laughed quietly — the kind that hurt your throat on the way out.
"My story's not like yours."
"My dad died before I was born.Raised by my grandma."
"Worked crappy jobs.Studied like hell.Slept maybe four hours a night."
"Dreamed about passing the bar exam.Failed.Tried again.Failed harder."
"Spent my whole life juggling part-time work and broken dreams."
"When I finally gave up...I gave up everything."
The words came easy.Too easy.
"I lived small.I died smaller."
"And weirdly enough..."
I smiled.
"Hell feels easier."
They listened.Really listened.
Jack slapped me on the back so hard my soul nearly left my body.
"You lived harder than most, kid.You need anything — anything — you come to me."
Justin smiled crookedly.
"If you ever come back to life somehow, look me up.I'll set you up nice."
And Eden —he just nodded.
"You survived."
"And that's not nothing."
Something broke inside me.
All the memories —the hunger, the loneliness, the endless grind —poured out at once.
I tried to hold it back.
Failed.
Tears blurred my vision.
They didn't laugh.
Instead, they cried with me.
That night, in the heart of Hell,we stopped being strangers.
We became brothers.