The first stories I want to review are BloomKkura's Captain Kwon and hunnie0927's Engage. Both are Eunsaku/Kkubi fics first published in mid-2019. The former story happened in a military academy when the newbie cadet Miyawaki was to be trained under the scary Captain Kwon. The latter story depicts the tension and building of trust between Kwon Eunbi, a strict and stubborn bodyguard whose codename was "captain", and her principal, Miyawaki Sakura, the rebellious new stepdaughter of Korea's wealthiest and most influential family.

Captain Kwon

The version of Captain Kwon that we can read on AFF was published in May 2019, but it is indeed a rewrite of the same story published under another name of the same author earlier. Judging from the age of Sakura in the story, the first version of the story might have been first published in late 2018 or early 2019. The rewritten version has clarified some details as well as changing the ending, but it is never completed. The edited picture I have chosen for this chapter (from IZ*ONE CHU 4) reflects a lot about the Eunsaku relationship in Captain Kwon. Another remark is that originally, the author has deactivated the story and only decided to reactivate it after the IZ*ONE CHU episode was broadcasted.

The story started the day when 20-year-old Miyawaki Sakura was enlisted in the mandatory military service and has to start her training in the military academy. She (and the other IZ girls) were trained under Captain Kwon Eunbi. Both were attracted by each other during the first training, but when we think that the mutual admiration will be developed into a loving relationship, they encountered many situations that pushed them to develop distrust and misunderstandings instead. To make the matter worse, Eunbi's mother has been trying to set up a marriage for her, but at the same time, she was not able to convey her love to Sakura clearly. 

After graduation, Sakura, who has now grown from a softy and weak little girl to a tough soldier, decided to continue her career in the military. She applied for deployment as it is the fastest way to be promoted as captain. She was sent to the Middle East for 9 months. Unfortunately, she was wounded in one rescue action and held captive for 5 months until Hyewon's special mission saved her. Sakura was sent back to the academy after she recovered physically, but the trauma was still haunting her, and the tension between her and Eunbi was not eased. It took Eunbi a long time and lots of effort to help Sakura to heal and they finally bridged the gap. Not until then, she found out the person she was supposed to marry was Sakura. Good days didn't last, however. Hyewon was kidnapped by the same military group as revenge, and Sakura decided to lead a rescue team. In the original version, Sakura was killed in the mission, and Eunbi left the military and re-started her life with a small business. One day, a girl named Cherry who has applied for the job as her assistance entered her shop... In the new version, Sakura was seriously wounded in the mission, but saved by a Korean doctor in the desert...

Engage

Engage has a very different setting and the general atmosphere is light-hearted comparatively. The author spent one whole year finishing 50 chapters with nearly 200,000 words. There were 2 parallel storylines. One is about Sakura, the daughter of a Japanese diplomat who based in Washington DC moved to Korea with her mother when she married Mr. Kim, the "Rockefellers of Korea". The other line is about Minjoo, "princess" of the Kim Corporation, and her love-hate relationship with almost everybody (Minjoo has a crush on Eunbi, her original agent who was switched when Sakura arrived, her best friend Hitomi has a crush on Minjoo's agent Chaewon but Chaewon has a crush on Minjoo). In this chapter, I am only focusing on the Kkubi line.

Sakura, the girl who grew up in a liberal environment soon found herself a prisoner in her new home. "Captain" Kown Eunbi, who arm-twisted her the first time they met was assigned to be her bodyguard. Their relationship was complicated from the start – maybe only on Sakura's side at first. As much as she wanted to break away from Eunbi, she needed Eunbi's protection and secretly fell for her. Throughout the whole story, Sakura was the target of threatening, assaults, smears, online bullies, and eventually kidnapping by an ultra-nationalist group. The story depicts in great detail the tension between the principal and her agent, there were conflicts in nearly every incident at first. Sakura being frustrated, angry, and rebellious while Eunbi being cool, hard, and stubborn didn't lead to a brighter outlook on their relationship. Sakura nicknamed Eunbi "Captain Annoying" and even faked being molested to kick her out. After that, the relationship between the mutually annoying duo somehow changed from "straightforwardly dislike" to "ambiguous" after Sakura watching Eunbi slept in the gym and had a wet dream of the agent (chapter deleted).

But the real turning point was the Kim Corp gala dinner. The same extreme group was there to protest against the Kim Corp with the presence of the President of South Korea and accidentally started a fire. Even not being Sakura's agent anymore, Eunbi still did her best to protect the girl and get her out of danger. And after the incident, everything changes. While Sakura was 100% sure she has fallen for Eunbi (according to the author, right from the very beginning), Eunbi was still wandering between accepting and denying her feelings. The progress for both of them to develop and sort out their true feelings last for quite a while, and the attacks on Sakura by the extremists escalated at the same time. The last was Sakura being kidnapped and seriously wounded to save Eunbi, but when she survived that, she finally got the confession and confirmation from Eunbi.

Concept

"Captain Kwon" is in itself a fascinating concept. She is an ideal mix of masculinity and femininity, a stereotypical image o how a young female leader should be – cool, capable, and good-looking, rigid and cold on the outside but soft and hot on the inside. "Captain Kwon" also possesses a feminine body and y outlook (particularly because this is also the projection of Kwon Eunbi herself), she looks even ier when she is fierce and angry. y woman in power – woof!

To a large extend, Captain Kwon from the two stories shares the above qualities. Both Captains are tough and rigid and have great persistence on stoical professionalism. They are capable of solving problems but cannot handle their feelings. Bloom's Captain is more true to her own feelings but she is somehow reluctant to convey it because she is never sure. hunnie's Captain suppresses her true feelings since she was betrayed by her ex-lover ex-colleague, she swears she will never let love and job mix. To be honest, however, both fantasies on Captain Kwon somehow don't really match with the real Captain Kwon who has been kind and pampering and sometimes even looked clumsy and silly.

Being the counterpart of Captain Kwon, Sakura sparkles very different interactions and imaginations here – in most Kkubi fics, the stereotypical depiction of Sakura in fanfic is usually shy and nerdy, weak and clumsy, innocent (childish) and dependent, or loyal and stubborn (the making of Sakura's character is much more than that, we will discuss that when in other reviews).

Bloom's Sakura matches the stereotypes of a weak, softy, and clumsy Sakura at the beginning, but she soon grew from a cute little girl into a hard, tough, and brave soldier that even willing to give up her life in the end. This transformation, also a growth process, was well depicted by Bloom. Putting it under gender narration, Kkura was like a Babie doll at the beginning of the story. It especially touches me in one scene after Captain Kwon scolded cadet 319, Sakura broke down in tears.

Eunbi cursed herself inwardly for making Sakura cry, she felt bad that the cadet looks really confused and stress, if anything, she just wants to wrap her arms around Sakura's body and comfort her but if she does that, she knows that Sakura wouldn't learn.

“Ask if you don’t understand. Crying is no use in the military. No one is going to wipe your tears here. No one pampers a soldier. Remember that!” 

After the captivating, Sakura went back to the academy and became a devil training captain, mainly because of her PTSD. At that point, Sakura was transformed into a "lone-wolf Kkura" – tough, cold, and hard, and that also reversed her power relationship with Eunbi. Bloom has depicted this transformation very well. 

Since Engage is more a light-hearted semi-comedy, hunnie's Sakura has very different character comparing with Bloom's Sakura. The girl who grew up in the U.S. has a much stronger character. She is independent, wayward, and rebellious, only Eunbi can see her in a fragile state (homesick and being attacked). However, the rich girl Kkura is very true to herself, especially when she proactively confessed to Eunbi twice. That is also the biggest similarity in the two stories, that both Sakuras are bold when it comes to love. 

The other storyline of Engage (2kim) is also very well written. The inner struggles of the protaganists are very well depicted. I must confess the prototype of the Chaewon in my story Precious Slave is based on the Chaewon in Engage. So please spend some time to read it, and read it slowly to taste all the details.

Lastly, I will post the original picture of IZ*ONE CHU 4 as I exit. Notice how Captain Kwon is the only member who was aware of the role she is playing in this shooting.

The links of the two reviewed story:

https://www.asianfanfics.com/story/view/1401424/captain-kwon

https://www.asianfanfics.com/story/view/1408870/engage

Author's Notes:

So, how does it go? I need your comments to let me know if it is okay to write the review in this format and style. Do you think I spoiled too much? Do you think the analysis/comment is appropriate? What have you anticipated but I have not mentioned? Do you think I should continue? Do you have any Kkura-related fics that you want me to review? Please upvote if you like this. Thank you for reading!