Jungkook was glued to that laptop. Day in and day out he would type away, oblivious to the rest of the world. At first, we were all a bit concerned with his obsession, but as he began to publish, we began to understand. He wrote about his experiences in the compound, both good and bad. The descriptions were excruciatingly detailed, but his writing was guttural and emotional. He never spoke to us directly about his writing, but we all read it online. Slowly, he began to gather new viewers. Eventually, mirrors of his site began to pop up, translated into various languages. Then other victims who had bought out or been rescued began to send him their stories, and he polished and published them, as well.

Months began to creep by, and it seemed that as Jungkook put his experiences to words, it was like poison being out of his soul. He became brighter, sillier, and warmer. Apparently he began to act like his old self, but to me, it was a whole new Kookie. One day I found myself at the bottom of a dogpile in front of our television with Jungkook, Jimin, and Taehyung all flopped and tangled on the carpet with me. Jin, Hobie, Namjoon, and Yoongi were all safely seated on the couches. We had been tipped off that Jungkook’s blog was going to get a short news feature, and we had tuned in to watch. Thankfully, most news sources had grown wise enough to provide Korean subtitles for stories relating to The Great Reclamation.

‘Nearly sixty years after the first Korean War, the Second Korean War has mimicked its predecessor as an American embarrassment. With minimal assistance from the United Nations, the United States has managed to evacuate a modest number of civilians, but has suffered even more casualties. As Congress and the White House may move towards a truce, one unlikely voice has brought the argument to the international stage yet again.’ The young man behind the news desk spoke seriously and directly as images from across the Pacific flashed on screen with scrolling numbers describing the devastation brought on by the war. The American public was in an uproar, calling the war even more disastrous than the invasion in the Middle East.

“Is it really that bad?” Hobie’s voice was soft, but his question pierced through the room like a hot spear. We had all sort of silently agreed not to watch the news. The war was a hard subject, seeing as Korea was a unified force, and the entire peninsula was under fire- including the boys’ former homes. But now Korea was the enemy, and the emotional response was… complicated.

We didn’t have a chance to answer Hobie as the newscaster’s words caught our attention again. ‘Now, an unlikely source has brought the discussion of a coalition up to the UN yet again. Stories of survivors, former Koreans, have flooded the internet. Former Korean pop star Jeon Jungkook started an internet blog of his own experiences, now translated into English, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, and Arabic, to name a few.’ An image appeared next to the newscaster of Jungkook, clearly pulled from and old promotional image. I had googled the crap out of all of the boys and their photoshoots, but it still always struck me how soft and young Jungkook looked in particular. He looked like he didn’t have a single worry in the world, like any other 18 year-old. ‘Public outcry in the rest of the developed world has once again brought the subject of civilian rescue. The United Nations forum on the subject is scheduled for some time next month.’

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” a low groan came from behind us, and I craned my neck to try and look at Namjoon from my spot under Jimin’s arm. I managed to catch a glimpse of him rolling his eyes, “And yet again, Jungkook gets to be the golden boy.”

Jungkook himself broke out in laughter at my side, his chest rumbling. “Yeah,” he managed between chuckles as he turned off the TV, the news drifting to the next subject, “First I was just the golden child of BTS, then the golden boy of Korea, and now the golden boy of the United Nations.”

“Not bad,” I gave him a little nudge as the rest of us joined in on the laughter. It was mostly just nice to see Jungkook so cheerful.

Months later, we were all once again in front of the television. This time, I was on a couch sandwiched between Hobie and Taehyung. We were all leaning forward, watching with bated breath as the news began to play. ‘The United Nations made an unprecedented move to intervene in the conflict in Korea. For the first time since World War II, Russia has directly allied with the United States, joined by the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, China, Israel, and the European Union. This coalition’s primary objective is to evacuate any remaining civilians before establishing a blockade around the peninsula. Other nations such as Japan and India have offered financial and humanitarian assistance, especially to the affected regions of Eastern China.’ I found my left hand held tightly by both of Hobie’s and my right hand’s fingers were intertwined with Taehyung. The room was silent.

‘It’s been two months since the UN coalition’s assault on the Korean peninsula. The blended naval forces have forced complete isolation, while air superiority has been established. The Secretary of Defense gave comments on the combined efforts of the nations’ research and development teams in order to defeat the formerly superior air defense systems of the Koreans. Today marks one million civilians evacuated. While an estimated 25 million still remain, this marks a historic milestone. Strategic experts hope the blockade will eventually lead to a Korean surrender’ I found myself on the ground again, but this time I was nestled firmly in Jin’s lap. His deft fingers were working through my hair, casually braiding it for me. Behind him, Namjoon was loosely clinging to Jin’s back, leaning against the bottom of the center couch. Namjoon’s head was resting on Jin’s broad shoulder, and I could feel both of them breathing unevenly, nervously.

A low rattling noise roused me from my slumber Pinned by a combination of Yoongi’s limbs and our shared blankets, it took me a panicked moment to get out of bed, causing Yoongi to emit his usual annoyed grumble whenever he was woken up. Another tremor, however, caused us both to immediately jump to our feet. “Earthquake?” Yoongi asked me, his droopy eyes alert, but weary.

“No,” I answered quickly. I had grown up in Los Angeles- I knew what an earthquake felt like. This felt much deeper, stronger, and distant. The building gave another dangerous shake, and I quickly reached for Yoongi’s hand, wrenching him out of our room.

His hand clamped down on mine, the adrenaline numbing the pain of my crushed bones. “Should we get out of here?” he asked in a panic, his voice unusually high as he stumbled along behind me down the hallway.

I didn’t bother to stop, pulling him all the way to the common room, where Jimin and Jungkook were already cowering. “There’s no way this building isn’t earthquake-ready. We need to just wait here where we won’t get crushed by any furniture,” I instructed as calmly as I could, the rumbles coming in near constant waves. Soon enough, everyone was once again in the family room, but the power cut out before we could even think of turning on the television. It was the middle of the night, so the window gave little to no relief.

Thankfully, Jimin was so attached to his phone, that had thought to grab it on the way out of his room. With all of us crowded under the sturdiest doorway in the building, we huddled around the small screen, the light casting sharp shadows on everyone’s faces. Jimin found a streaming news source. Only the sound of our breathing and our pounding hearts were heard as we waited for the stream to load. ‘This is breaking news.’ It was an unfamiliar news caster. Then again, we weren’t the types to watch national news in the middle of the night. Just from the greeting, though, I could tell this was a rushed emergency cast. ‘Just when The Second Korean War was starting to look like an international success, shocking news is coming from the Korean Peninsula. According to our sources