The war waged for days.

It didn't take a week for us to realise that we were on the losing side.

Bullets destroyed our farmlands, bombs ripped our cityline to pieces and fear tore through our country.

We were prepared in our own way. Having a bomb arsenal of own that was not to be taken lightly of and battalions of well-trained troops ready to be dispatched, but we were overpowered. Who would've thought a nation barely 5-years-old could terrorise a country with history a hundred times longer? I guess we had been cocky.

The war ended after exactly 2 weeks it began. Our then president signed the papers to legalise the surrender of South Korea to Gullivia and then, South Korea was no more.

The resentment left from the cruel war, however, still fuelled the anger of the patriotic few. Rebellions rose and crumbled. Their remains only help build the foundation for the new monarchy and solidify their reign over the country. The fatigue from fighting began wearing us down. Most of us already succumbing to their rule, signing up to become full-fledged Gullivians in embassies, throwing away their Korean past.

But, not me.

I, South Korean, Kim Mingyu will not back down and I will continue to fight.

 

*

 

I stared down at the street through the blinds of the windows.

On a sunny afternoon like this, the remnants of our rebellion forces were unfortunately cooped up in a dark musty office room. It was hard enough infiltrating an office room in a building this close to the parade but finding a room big enough to fit all 13 of us and our weapons? That was impossible.

Now, all of us were forced to cram inside a room barely any bigger than a bathroom and Jeonghan’s gun was poking my . Not that gun, the legitimate weapon that could kill people.

“Hyung, your gun’s poking my ,” I said while still staring at the street.

“That’s what she said,” Jeonghan replied as if waiting for me to say that.

“Not the time, hyung,” I said as a matter-of-factly.

“Just trying to lighten the mood man,” Jeonghan huffed out a reply.

Even without turning around, I could see Jeonghan pouting, acting like a wounded animal as he tried to reposition his gun such that the muzzle wasn’t close to slipping into my anymore. Before I could apologise though, Dino suddenly exclaimed.

“It’s here!”

Upon his shouts, the rest of the members squeezed closer to the window, attempting to peer between the blinds to catch a glimpse of the parade. If I thought I could barely breathe before, now I thought I was going to die of suffocation.

“Let us put our hands together to welcome, the Viceroy of Mornacal, Elfria de Lamghette as she sits atop a float painted in the glorious colours of Gullivia. In just a few minutes ladies and gentlemen, she will reach the Mansion of Mornacal, built upon the foundations of the Blue House. What a day to be remembered. The day when Gullivia—”

Gullivia, Gullivia, Gullivia.

I was so sick of hearing that name. This was South Korea, not Mornacal and definitely not Gullivia. I gripped my rifle harder till my knuckles turned white as my eyes followed the float.

From this height and distance, the new Viceroy’s head was barely visible amongst the gold and purple draped all over the float.

“Isn’t she only 18?” I muttered under my breath.

Just as I said that, she whipped her head around and looked in our direction as if she could hear us. In my surprise, I closed the blinds and stumbled back, bumping into Jeonghan in the process.

“Watch it, man.”

“Sorry,” I apologised, returning to look through the blinds again.

By the time I peered through the blinds again, she was now, fortunately, waving and smiling at the audience, her beaming face making everyone almost forget how she was one of those Gullivians. One of the monsters that terrorised our country and took our nation away from us. On the day we met last year, I never would have thought she would have been standing in the frontline of the thieves who I hated so much.

Pin-drop silence enveloped the room as we kept our eyes on the float, waiting for the signal.

Our force was small, made up of only the members and one of our managers, Younghwan. We initially had more members, mostly consisting of more of our staff. But they all gradually left. They had other priorities that seemed to matter more to them. It was not that I didn’t understand where they were coming from though. Another one of our managers, Seokjin used to be the one most intent on bringing back South Korea but he realised he had responsibilities as a father to his daughter. Just like that, our numbers dwindled and it was now just the 14 of us.

“Now!” Coups shouted.

Just as planned, smoke grenades placed by Younghwan activated when the float travelled past half the street, striking mass confusion and hysteria in the crowd. As they pushed against each other in panic, our snipers—Woozi, Hansol and Wonwoo—took advantage of the commotion and shot the wheels of the float, halting its movements. Once the float screeched to a stop, the rest of us moved.

We barged out the door and ran down the stairs to the street. Just as we were about to approach the float, however, the panicking crowd pushed against us, preventing us from advancing any further. Jun decided to use his pistol and shoot a few rounds into the air, scaring the crowd and making them move away from us. Although this allowed us to finally move forward, it brought some unwanted attention.

“Over there!” Some guard yelled at his comrades, grabbing their weapons and running towards us.

“Hurry! To the float!” I yelled at my members who were trying to weave past the crowd.

Frustrated, I pushed past the flock of people, roughly bumping shoulders with anyone close to me before I finally broke through the crowd and reached the road. From there, I made a mad dash for the float. Despite some guards yelling and shooting at me, I miraculously managed to dodge all those bullets and make my way to the foot of the float. Putting my uselessly long limbs to good use, I climbed atop the float. Once on the float, I whipped out my rifle that I hung behind my back and prepared to shoot. To my surprise though, there was no one on the float.

But I didn’t see anyone get off though?

As I scanned the top of the float that was littered with pieces of confetti, I remained oblivious until it was too late. Sensing a presence behind my back, I whipped my head around only to be hit by the of a gun on the head. I fell pathetically to the ground with a loud thump.

As my eyes began to lull back and my consciousness started to fade, I caught a glimpse of a really well polished white boot before the whole world turned black.

 

*

 

When I came to again, I was already stuck in a dark musty cell that reminded me too much of the office room we were cooped in before, just that we had metal bars in front of us instead of a window covered by blinds. Though I was still drowsy, I slowly turned my head, trying to see who were in the cell with me. To my relief, I saw Jeonghan and Joshua on my sides, both cuffed and chained to the wall behind them. Realising I was the only one awake, I tried to struggle against my chains. No matter how much I pulled and strained my hands, the chain remains screwed tight to the concrete wall. At least only my arms were chained and my legs remained free. After a few more fervent but failed attempts, I decided to give up and instead, take a rest.

Before I could even fall asleep though, the gate of our cell opened with a clang and in came a couple of burly men who seemed to be our cell guards.

One of them said something in English before laughing heartily and dropping a bowl of gruel onto the floor.

The gruel splattered everywhere, painting my legs with sticky spots as I openly expressed my disgust.

“Hey!” The same guard exclaimed as he whacked my head and saying a few more things in English.

Since I couldn’t understand anything anyway, I just stared at my bowl of gruel and ignored them.

After our one-sided conversation, the other guards began grabbing a few more bowls from the trolley behind them. Thinking it was more gruel, I scrunched my face in disgust as I began shifting away from the guards. Not noticing my discomfort, they approached the still sleeping Joshua and Jeonghan instead and spilt the contents in the bowls over their heads. Only after they poured it out, did I realise it was just water and it seemed to do the trick in waking them up. Their eyes immediately shot open as they gasped for air like a fish out of water.

Once they calmed down, the guards started grabbing wooden spoons and feeding the gruel to us personally. I understood that it was because our hands were chained so we couldn’t eat but being personally fed by big burly men in a prison cell wasn’t really what I imagined to be breakfast in bed. I opened my mouth unwillingly before I was shoved a big mouthful of gruel down my throat. Nearly choking, I had barely finished what was in my mouth before another mouthful of gruel was shoved down my throat. It didn’t seem as if Jeonghan and Joshua were doing any better either as violent coughs erupted from both sides of me.

After the bowl was empty, the guards took their leave and closed the gate with another loud clang. For what felt like the first time in a while, I relaxed before realising I was sore all over.

“How did y’all get captured?” Joshua began by asking, his throat hoarse from the rough treatment just now.

I replied slowly after trying to recollect my memories, “I… think I got onto the float—”

“You managed to do that? There were guards everywhere and we couldn’t even make it onto the road!” Jeonghan exclaimed in shock.

“I thought you all were right behind me?” I asked, genuinely confused, “Anyway, I made it onto the float before realising she wasn’t even there anymore. Then, I got hit in the head and out.”

“I didn’t see her leave the float though,” Joshua said furrowing his eyebrows.

“Neither did I but whatever, guess we’re all going to die now,” Jeonghan said as a matter-of-factly.

Hearing that, I realised the situation we were in and I nearly burst into tears in guilt. They were all dragged into rebelling against Gullivia partly because of me and now because of our rebellion, we were all going to get executed.

“Sorry guys, I should have made it onto the float faster. Then, we would’ve at least been executed after completing our goal,” Joshua apologised.

“Hyung, what are you even saying. If I hadn’t drag you all into this, you could’ve still been leading normal lives,” I quickly replied.

“Hey, we joined because we felt the same too, okay? That had nothing to do with you. Besides, you at persuading people. I was almost dissuaded from joining because of you,” Jeonghan said with a laugh on his tongue.

“Well, at least we’re dying together right,” Joshua said fondly.

Hearing that, I couldn’t help but burst into laughter. As if they couldn’t hold it in too, following me, they started laughing. Even in such a predicament, I was glad to still have friends to stay by my side.

I stared at them fondly before saying, “Love y’all.”

“Shut up! You’re embarrassing me,” Jeonghan retaliated shyly.

“Just say it back,” I whined.

“Fine, love you too,” Jeonghan replied before Joshua echoed cheesily, “Love you too,” and we burst into another fit of laughter.

 

*

 

It took days of forced feeding and hoarse coughing for something out of routine to happen.

The day (I assumed it was the start of a new day, there wasn’t a clock or a window here to tell time) began as usual, with a bowl of gruel at our feet and a couple of guards feeding us. However, about a couple of minutes after they left, a pair of fresh faces came to visit us. They were dressed in a similar attire as our regular guards but they weren’t faces we recognised and they seemed to be of higher rank seeing how our regular guards greeted them with deep bows. After conversing with each other in hushed tones, our regular guards then opened the gate to our cell, letting the fresh faces enter.

After the gate closed with a clang, the taller one spoke first, “You know English?”

We glanced at each other hesitantly before Joshua meekly nodded his head. Realising how there was someone here who could speak the same language, they both looked relieved and started addressing solely Joshua.

They spoke to him for a while before he swivelled his head and said, “They need to tell us something important so they’ll be using me as a translator.”

Jeonghan and I nodded our heads in understanding so the shorter of the fresh faces took this as his cue to start talking.

“He said that we were lucky ‘cuz we’re not going to die soon. But that’s not saying we’re getting out of this alive,” Joshua began saying while furrowing his brows in concentration, “He said, that…”

“What? What did he say?” I asked impatiently.

Joshua shot me a look, signalling me to wait and I immediately complied. He turned his full attention to the guards and started talking back to them, probably asking them some questions. The fresh faces took some time to think before answering him. Among the words they exchanged, I managed to catch a few with my very limited English but even though I heard it, I could barely believe my ears. 

“K-King?” I exclaimed in English, my voice laden with a thick Korean accent.

The three of them whipped their heads around to look at me when I shouted.

Joshua looked at both of us in the eye before confirming my suspicions, “Yes, King. Apparently, the King wants to see us.”

The King? Wow, so, His Majesty Joseph the Gallant wanted an audience with us. A strange mixture of confusion, anger and excitement boiled within me. What did the King that ever so cruelly took our homes and killed countless lives want to do with some measly prisoners? After taking back South Korea, my next big plan, although impossible to accomplish, was to take revenge—revenge against Gullivia and revenge against the King. To calm my emotions down and process the information, I didn't notice the fresh faces taking their leave though not before mentioning a few more things to Joshua. It took me a couple more minutes to completely calm down and began speaking.

“Why? Why does he want to see us?” I asked Joshua.

He sighed before replying, “He wants to be the one to judge us. The one we almost harmed was his Knight of One after all. He wants to decide our punishments himself.”

Jeonghan who was quiet during the entire exchange finally spoke up, “So we’re going to Gullivia?”

Joshua hesitated for a bit before nodding his head slowly. Jeonghan let out a long sigh before sliding down the wall he was resting his back against.

“Why are we going there though? Why can’t he come here?” I asked without thinking.

“Mingyu, who are the prisoners? We are. Do you think it makes sense for a King to come all the way to one of his colonies just for some prisoners?” Jeonghan lashed out.

Whenever he was under a lot of stress, even back when Korea was still Korea, he had always been a little more sensitive and short-tempered but rather than blaming his personality, this time, I really did ask a really stupid question. So, as to not anger him any further, I muttered an apology under my breath.

“When are we leaving?” Jeonghan asked, breaking the silence.

“Tomorrow,” Joshua replied half-heartedly.

Jeonghan stayed quiet for a while as if he was pondering something, before announcing, “I’m sleeping.”

With that, he just turned around, with his back facing us. Looking at how fast hit the fan today, my energy just seeped out of me. I didn’t have any motivation to stay awake so following Jeonghan, I closed my eyes and fell asleep.

 

*

 

I only woke up when the gate opened.

As I looked around drowsily, I noticed that Jeonghan had been long awake and had been chatting with Joshua before the interruption. The weariness that was slowing me down though was swept away when I saw who entered our cell. I almost didn’t recognise her but those artic blue eyes forced me to remember.

“The Viceroy,” I hear Joshua mutter.

She ordered the guards to do something in English before the guards bowed deeply and left the cell quietly. My body went rigid in alert.

She stared at each of us, lingering on each of our faces for a while as if trying to remember us before speaking.

“This was the first time rebels have gotten so close to killing me,” she started slowly in Korean, “not that you were particularly close to killing me but you’ve come the furthest,” she looked at me in the eye when she said that.

“Your plan was stupid, filled with flaws and it was so obvious that none of you actually know how to wield a gun,” she stated.

I didn’t know what she was trying to pull but if she was planning on annoying me, well, she succeeded extraordinarily.

“So, then I wondered, why would a group of people who had never learnt how to fight before, want to try to win against someone who’s fought for all her life? What made them think that they had the chance of winning?” She asked, before looking at us to answer.

“Because we are Koreans,” Jeonghan replied, menace woven into his hoarse voice, “and you took our home from us.”

“Now that is what actually confuses me. We never actually took your home. We just actually changed the name. You still speak your language and you still keep your history. In fact, isn’t Mornacal doing much better than how South Korea was doing? In a sense, we helped you!” She said.

I think she actually believes what she’s saying.

I scrunched up my face in disgust at the nonsense she was spouting out of .

“Helped? What about the countless lives you took during the war? How could you have possibly helped us while you took out the lives of so many innocents?” I exclaimed in horror.

Even despite raising my voice, her face remained blank of emotions, seemingly unaffected by my outburst of emotions.

“It was a war. A war that lasted only 14 days. Out of the countless lives that we took, less than a hundred were civilians. Tell me, how could we have helped your country without taking it over?” She replied firmly.

“Did we ask for your help though? We didn’t need your help. We were doing fine! So what right did you have to say that you were doing it for us?” I shouted bitterly.

My already hoarse voice was now raw and every breath I took hurt my throat but even with my screams, she remained nonchalant and unfeeling. She gave a long sigh before pivoting on her feet and turning to leave as if the conversation was over.

Just when she reached the gate, she said nonchalantly without turning around, “This is why I said that you needed help,” and she left with a clang.

The ringing of the clash between metal and metal echoed throughout the cell and our silence only allowed it to invade our ears and throb in my head.

“Oh! This is so frustrating. Who does she think she is? She barges in here, calls us stupid and leaves after saying we ‘needed help’. What is wrong with her?” Jeonghan uttered, evidently annoyed.

“But why did she come though? She’s the Viceroy and we are just some rebels that stupidly tried to kill her,” Joshua asked, genuinely curious.

“Hyung, we’re meeting the King tomorrow, the Viceroy’s nothing,” I said jokingly, trying to lighten the mood.

It sort of worked, with Jeonghan chuckling softly and Joshua smiling before he gave a nod of acknowledgement. Satisfied, I leaned against the while and stared at the ceiling.

The cell might not have been the most comfortable place but it had been our home for the last week or so. The cold concrete walls, the hard floor, the lone flickering light and the rusty chains that dig into our skin if we sat in the wrong position—I was going to miss them all. Tomorrow, we would be heading to the homeland of our anguish, to see the King, the source of our pain. Although it might not have been my first time travelling overseas, the thought of going to a place filled with people I despised made me sick to my stomach. At least, the only light in this dark cell was the fact that my members were coming along as well. Perhaps the fact that we were going to face this together eased the feeling of uncertainty and wariness. So I continued staring at the ceiling, hoping my guts would somehow untwist itself.

 

*

 

After the Viceroy’s little visit, we were too nervous to catch a single wink of sleep with the impending trial. So, on the next day, we almost cried of relief when our guards entered the cell to detach our cuffs from the chains. As they released from the walls, Joshua whispered something in the ears of one of the guards which made him smile.

“Say bye too, guys,” Joshua said to us, beaming.

Jeonghan and I both said our goodbyes which made the guards look on fondly before slight waving their hands. Although my views on Gullivia have not changed, maybe we did bond and get closer during our forced feeding sessions.

We were led by our cuffs out of the cell by a different set of guards. I looked around desperately to catch a glimpse of any other of my members but to no avail. Only after the guards navigated around the maze of corridors, did we then reach the exit. With a grunt, one of the guards pushed the door, leading us to an underground parking lot. Since I felt no signs of any change in elevation, I concluded that we were underground this whole time. No wonder the air was so stale.

The guards then forced us to cram inside the trunk of a black van which proved to be very uncomfortable considering our arms had limited motion. Trying to shift ourselves in a more comfortable position, we ended up kicking and shoving each other before it escalated to become a hustle for a more comfortable position. The small quarrel was stopped by the glare on the biggest of the three guards while he slammed the door in front of us. Threatened by his gaze, we forced ourselves to remain silent.

Despite sunlight streaming in, the windows at the back of the van were tinted and made up of frosted glass so we could still barely tell our surroundings. I tried to look through the windows at the front of the van but the two guards were so big they completely blocked my view. So even though we finally made it out of our cell, we still ended up in a dark place and even more cramped than before.

It took one more hour before we went underground again and came to a halt. The guards quickly unfastened their seatbelts and hopped out of the van before pulling us out as well. We were hurriedly brought though a corridor that looked suspiciously like the walkway we met the Viceroy before I heard a scream.

“Guys!”

I swivelled my head so fast I heard my bones crack but that wasn’t important at that moment. To my left, as we reached a T-junction, I saw the rest of the members looking well and fine. The guards then let us go and the three of us ran into our members’ embrace.

Tears that I had been holding back from being separated from them for so long almost came gushing out but I pushed them back in turn for squeezing the nearest member who happened to be Jun.

“Okay you can let go of me now,” he uttered as he struggled to breathe.

Realising I was choking him, I slowly let him go and looked at all their faces. Even with the looming trial and our possible deaths in the near future, I was still extremely glad to see all of our members together at least one more time. After soaking in their presence, I realised there was still one person missing from the group but Joshua beat me to it.

“Where’s Younghwan-hyung?” Joshua asked.

Coups spoke up, “He didn’t get caught. I think only the ones that were armed were arrested. I mean, it’s a good thing, at least he got away.”

I nodded my head solemnly.

Before we could talk any further, shouts came from further down the corridor.

“Okay, enough chit-chat, they want us to get a move on,” Hansol said as he gestured for us to move.

We followed behind him and during our walk, I managed to walk with Myungho. It turned out they were being kept at a separate facility but were also split up. They only met each other here and were just catching up before we arrived.

We barely started talking when the guards around us started pushing and shoving us towards another exit. Instead of the air-conditioned room I expected to be in, my eyes were blinded by the sudden invasion of sunlight and wind blowing in my face. Once I got used to light though, I slowly opened my eyes to find out that we were on the runway.

Even with 5 years of being a celebrity, I had never stepped foot on the actual runway before. This new experience made me grin wider in wonder like a child and I just wanted to run around to see all the planes. Before I could satisfy my awe, I was shoved yet again, ruining my moment of fun. With all the shoving and pushing I endured today, they should have really just pushed me around in a trolley. That would have made things so much easier for everybody.

Eventually, we reached a small plane located at the outskirts of the runway. We were forced to board the plane and sit down on the cushioned seats when we entered. Without warning, the cabin door closed shut and the plane was preparing for take-off. The guards boarded the planes as well and situated themselves such that we would be watched from the back and the front of the plane. Not realising we were already moving, I happily talked to Woozi who was sitting next to me. Hence, when the plane subsequently picked up speed and launched off the ground, I lurched forward and hit my head against the seat in front of me. Woozi cackled and I could do nothing but glare.

Gullivia was a small tropical island, located quite a distance from Korea. So, after chatting animatedly for a while, the members got tired and was lulled into a comfortable silence. With only the air-conditioning’s buzz to accompany me and my mind, I began to think.

Apparently, it hasn’t even been a week since we attempted to assassinate the Viceroy I heard some of the members say. I understood that we barely managed to escape death both during the parade and the imprisonment but what came after overcoming those trials was an imminent execution. The King of Gullivia wouldn’t possibly let us off so easily after we tried to kill his beloved Knight of One but that was what made me so confused. Since we attempted to kill her, why not just kill us then and there? Why did he make us wait and order us to come to Gullivia for a trial? Wasn’t his mind already set on proclaiming us guilty?

I took some time to myself to help me process whatever happened so far but it just left me with more questions to ponder about. Heaving a heavy sigh, I closed the shutter, leaving myself to continue wandering around in my thoughts.

 

*

 

The trial was beginning soon.

After crossing the ocean and leaving our cell behind, we were thrown into another cell almost right after we touched down in Gullvia. At least this time, all our members were in the same cell, though this made it a lot more cramped. They released us from our handcuffs right after we left the plane but that didn’t make it any easier to escape. The only way into our cell needed the fingerprints of the guards and we were locked from the inside. Furthermore, as we trudged here, I noticed the sheer number of guards. The facility was heavily guarded. But even if we managed to leave this cell and sneak through all the guards, we were still in a foreign country. How were we going to escape back to Korea?

Without any ways to escape our eventual death, I stayed quiet and depressed as my members began to chatter away. Even in the direst of situations, these guys could still find a way to smile which, I guess, was one of the reasons why I liked them so much.

After a soft click, guards started entering the room and pulling us out one by one. However much we struggled, the guards were, in the end, larger and stronger than us and held us steady as they placed blindfolds on each of us. The blindfold was probably to prevent us from memorising the layout of the place but what was the use? Even if we knew the layout, we would still get captured. I gave up struggling from the get-go and let the guards lead me to wherever they wanted to bring us.

We walked through what seemed to be millions of corridors before we were pushed into a room with the doors closing behind us.

Bang.

Though it didn’t feel like there was air-conditioning here, the air felt colder and dryer than the corridors which sent chills down my bones.

“You can take your blindfolds off now,” the voice boomed throughout the room.

Acting as if I wasn’t intimidated, I tried to hide the trembling of my hands as best as I could before taking off my blindfolds. My eyes took a little while to adjust to the sudden onset of light before my breath hitched.

 

 

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uhhh its longer this time!!