Kibum was a boy with big dreams. One of it was to create a war-free, peaceful place where children would be allowed to play outside with no fear of bomb attacks. Where women could leave their houses with no fear of being by cruel oppressors. Where men were not forced to leave their families that depended on them to go ‘serve’ their country, not knowing if they will be able to come back alive.

But what could Kibum, this young boy who lived in the tiny village Yongin and farmed for a living, do about any of this? He and his own grandmother were already struggling enough as it is to make ends meet. Money from harvesting rice fed them for about four months in a year, before they had to repeat the cycle. Sure, they had the biggest paddy field around which should indicate a higher level of income. But all the money went to his grandmother’s medications for her asthma problem. So in the end, they were making the same amount of money like the others with smaller paddy fields were, if not lesser. Income from selling the milk and eggs he got from his poultry were just enough to pay for their miscellaneous expenditures. Education for Kibum was out of the question, not only because he couldn’t afford it, but also because schools were all shut down when he was younger due to the curfew declared by the government. By the time the curfew was lifted, it was too late for Kibum to go to school already.

War.

That small word has had such a big impact in Kibum’s life. It took everything away from him, literally. The war claimed his parents’ lives. It destroyed Kibum’s home. It took away his opportunity of receiving proper education. It made Kibum a solitary person who hardly had friends. Kibum had every reason to hate it. And hate it he did, with a fiery passion to never get himself in any way related to this sin. In that way, this village, Yongin, played such an important role for being so secluded and faraway from the real battlefield which was the big cities especially now with the Japanese slowly expanding their power all over Korea. Kibum knows, though, that this wouldn’t last long. Mankind will find its way to infiltrate his sanctuary of peace sooner or later, just like it had with so many other villages.

If there was anything that Kibum hated just as equally as war if not more, is the army. To Kibum, they were just mindless beings that were trained to obey orders to kill without inhibitions or a conscience. How they could bring themselves to take the life of innocent mothers protecting their young children or helpless old people, Kibum would never understand. What was even more inconceivable to Kibum was how they stood so proud at the end of the day to be honored for their courage, when the blood of the guiltless was still fresh on their hands. Sure, the victims were citizens of the enemy country that they were fighting against. But did that make this act more humane in any way? People are people no matter where they’re from and all their lives are equally valuable, right?

The scene of his parents’ death that Kibum watched as a five-year-old was burned into his memory. Every night before Kibum fell asleep, it reminded him of just how cruel military men are capable of being. The army men used to be humans. But once they adorned the military uniform, there were only souls of the devil inside the body, eager to torture and kill the next living thing. It was countless, the number of times Kibum had woken up from his sleep, screaming after reliving the scene of his mother’s helpless cries and his father’s futile attempts of saving his wife from the cruel men.

It was needless to say why Kibum stayed far away from everything war-related. This was his safe place, this village. And he had every intention of keeping it that way.

~~~~~

Kibum stretched, lying down on the wooden bench that formed a circle in the small open hut. The hut, that sat at the centre of his paddy fields, allowed cool breeze to blow in and it was the perfect antidote to the heat spell brought on by the scorching sun. In the corner of his eyes, Kibum saw the golden color of his ripe paddy field that was almost ready for harvesting. It was a hard job, harvesting the rice. Especially so since he had to do it alone, not being able to afford hiring a worker. But he got a sense of gratification from knowing that the rice he harvests will feed so many people in his village because he had the biggest paddy field in the whole village. Kibum smiled at the thought.

“What are you so smiley about?” Kibum heard his best friend’s voice ask him. He turned and sure enough, there Jonghyun was leaning against one of the pillars, with his arms crossed. He was wearing an expensive looking blue shirt and a pair of something called jeans, according to Jonghyun. Kibum has always admired his choice of attires because of all the possibilities he saw in improving the look to suit his own style. Unfortunately, Kibum didn’t have the luxury to do so and he was only able to stick to his same old faded t-shirts and slacks.

“Can’t I smile for no reason?” Kibum asked him back, not moving from his position on the bench. Jonghyun smiled at this. He looked like he was itching to tell Kibum something. Kibum knew this because of the overly bright smile he was wearing and the way he was tapping his feet on the ground relentlessly.

“Let me guess. You received a letter again,” Kibum said, indifferently.

“YES I DID!” Jonghyun exclaimed, finally breaking free from his fake cool composure from earlier. Kibum watched in silence as the boy began to rant on and on about the letter he received from his ‘hyung’. Jinki was technically not his biological brother but he was close enough to being one. The two had been close before Kibum had even moved to Yongin. They were neighbors since Jonghyun was just five years old and Jinki was fifteen years old. Jonghyun simply adored his hyung. He had been the big brother that Jonghyun did not have and Jonghyun had grown attached to him like he was really family, not a stranger that used to live next door.

Kibum has never met Jinki.  Apparently, he was forced by his father to join the military when he was eighteen and that was when the two had been separated. Kibum just knew he would not like meeting this guy at all, even though he was so nice to Jonghyun. He had to give this Jinki props for one thing, though; he still wrote to Jonghyun even after over a decade of not meeting each other, never once failing to make his best friend smile like a fool (just like he was now.)

“He told me about the place he had been assigned to now. It seems that the place-“ Jonghyun continued his rant as Kibum drowned out most of it. It was not that he didn’t care. It was because he didn’t like hearing about what military men were doing. Jonghyun noticed Kibum’s bored expression and stopped abruptly.

“I know you don’t like it when I talk about this. But, Kibum, not all military men are bad. You can’t characterize all of them based on the behavior of a small group of them,” Jonghyun said, choosing his words carefully so as to not offend Kibum. He knew of the tragic events that led to Kibum’s parents’ death.

“Hyung, can we not talk about this? I’m in a good mood. Don’t ruin it,” Kibum said firmly to stop Jonghyun from continuing this topic. Jonghyun nodded his head in understanding and changed the topic.

“Let’s go eat, Kibum! I smelt kimchi stew cooking on my way here. Halmeoni must be working her magic in the kitchen. Let’s go! Hurry, hurry!” Jonghyun said, smiling and pulling at Kibum’s hand. Kibum let himself be dragged through the paddy field, back to his house that was located just outside the paddy fields.

“Halmeoni, we’re back and we’re hungry!” Jonghyun called out to Kibum’s grandmother. She had become like a grandmother to him also over the years. Kibum’s grandmother was kind and equally loving to the both of them. Jonghyun never knew a mother’s love as his mother had died in labor, giving birth to him. He only had an elder sister who took care of him in her place. Kibum’s grandmother kind of became the mother figure to him. She was just the kind of person who trusts people easily and feels a need to take care of all those that look they need it. Some might say that she was too trusting to not really mind who she was helping, but Kibum just thought that she had so much love to share with those who aren’t lucky enough to have it.

“I know, my child. When are you not?” Kibum’s grandmother smiled cheekily at Jonghyun. Jonghyun pouted at this, pretending to be offended while Kibum just smiled watching their exchange.

“Halmeoni….,” Jonghyun whined like a little kid.

“Hyung, hurry up and get eating. We have to make it to Itaewon before the sun sets!” Kibum tells Jonghyun, pushing him into the house and in the direction of the kitchen. They took their places at the small table set up with steaming rice and a big bowl of Kimchi stew sitting at the centre of the table. It was very rare that Kibum’s grandmother made so much rice for one meal (especially with their supply of rice from the last harvest cycle depleting fast.) But they had a very long journey to make today and she must have wanted to get them energized to make the trip. Kibum knew that his grandmother would actually pretend to not be hungry later so that she could force them to have her portion of rice too. But these days Kibum would actually beat her to it and leave some of his rice for his grandmother. He would be scolded for it but it was worth it, knowing that his grandmother would have a healthy meal (she can’t afford to lose any more weight, she was already skin and bones as it is.)

Kibum and Jonghyun were supposed to be going to the fishing village, Itaewon, to get some dried seafood supplies from an old fisherman there. It was a monthly routine for them. Kibum would then carry back baskets full of these delicacies with Jonghyun to sell in his own village where seafood was scarce and loved very much. It was like killing two birds with a stone; Kibum makes extra cash for his household needs and he gets his grandmother’s favorite snack, dried squids, for her. Sometimes, the two of them would go swimming in the ocean before coming back just to enjoy the warm sea water of the night. They would end up coming back way past midnight as the walk to and from the village takes about two hours. Kibum’s grandmother would often scold them for being so irresponsible but she wouldn’t stay mad for too long (Kibum doesn’t get her the dried squids for nothing, after all.)

After eating to their hearts content, (and their stomachs too) the two of them finally started out on their long journey to Itaewon. Jonghyun took to filling up the silence that surrounded them with more rants about his ‘hyung’.

“-very busy preparing to battle the Japanese army. It’s very dangerous, it seems. I really hope he doesn’t get hurt or anything. I haven’t seen him in li-,” Jonghyun’s rant continued on and on. But Kibum’s mind was caught up on one information Jonghyun had just told him.

“Wait! What were you saying about the Japanese army again?” Kibum asked. Jonghyun looked at him with confusion for being interrupted suddenly, before catching up to what Kibum had just asked.

“The Japanese army? They are advancing onto small villages now to expand their area of power. You didn’t know?” Jonghyun asked him back.

“No, I didn’t. I’m not the one with a village head for a father, hyung. So what, the Japanese army is not satisfied with the big cities and are now moving on to terrorize small villages? How many lives will they take before they’re finally satisfied with their power?” Kibum said in frustration.

He hated all armies but Kibum has always had a special distaste for the Japanese one. They were cruel and relentless on their path to claim power. Their propaganda that said “Asian land for Asian people” did most of the work for them in conquering a new country as the people of the country fall for the false hope of independence. But that was a long time ago. Way before people realized that the propagandas were just that and nothing more. People who rose against them were brutally murdered regardless of age and gender. Families were threatened to keep the people under their autonomic power. The respect people once had for this small Asian country that was able to defeat the big names in the colonization era, has been long replaced by fear of death if someone was found to be defiant of their power.

“The British army has been planning a surprise attack from all directions, starting from small villages like ours. I think our village will also be involved. I overheard this white man, I think he’s in the British army, discussing something about battles and preparation to my father last week,-“ Jonghyun paused briefly before adding in an afterthought, “- It’s supposedly top secret so you better not go yapping about this to people, Kibum!”

Kibum rolled his eyes at this. Who was he supposed to tell anyway? His grandmother? He didn’t think she would like being given another reason to worry besides their money issues. His village was going to fall victim to the violence of war too, soon. Kibum was not at all thrilled about this but there was nothing he could do by fretting himself. So Kibum decided to change the topic.

“Yah, hyung! How’s your college plan working out so far?” Kibum asked, truly curious. Jonghyun’s father was the village head and they were the richest in their whole village. That explains why Jonghyun could afford to attend a university in the city that was built especially for the elite. Unfortunately, Jonghyun was not that interested in continuing his education to higher levels. He was more fond of pursuing a singing career and Kibum admitted that he was really good at it. Jonghyun had a dynamic voice that could switch from powerful to mellow in a split second, something that never failed to amaze Kibum whenever the former belted out a song of his own composition. Despite acknowledging Jonghyun’s talent, Kibum also agreed with Jonghyun’s father that the career had no future especially with this war still going on. It’s not like Jonghyun could sing his way through a war, right?

“It’s going nowhere… But my father doesn’t know that so shhh….,” Jonghyun whispered, putting his pointer to his lips.

Oh, how Kibum wished to be in Jonghyun’s place. He had always aspired of continuing his studies until college. It was his only shot at improving his own life and his grandmother’s. The dream to one day lead his people to a peaceful nation may seem far-fetched and unrealistic. But it was the only hope he clung onto for a better future for his country.

“You don’t know how much I wish to be in your place, hyung…,” Kibum admitted sadly.

Jonghyun put an arm around his shoulder while maintaining the pace they were walking in. He rubbed Kibum’s shoulder soothingly.

“I could still secretly register you in college instead of me, you know? Put you in my suitcase and carry you all the way to the city and my dad won’t even know it,” Jonghyun said, trying to lighten up the mood.

“I wonder how long it took you to come up with that elaborate plan, hyung….,” Kibum said, sarcastically. Jonghyun pushed Kibum sideways playfully. Kibum was just about to do the same when Jonghyun stopped abruptly, jaw dropping in shock.

Kibum looked to the front to see what was wrong and realized that they have already reached Itaewon. Kibum’s expression must have matched Jonghyun’s as he took in the sight in front of him.

Red.

Everywhere.

(A/N) So here's my first chapter!!! I can't believe I already have subscribers with just the foreword!! I won't let you down guys!!!! Thank you so much for subscribing!!!! Please do comment... It's the inspiration I need to keep writing so keep those comments coming!!! 

Thank you for reading and have a good day!!