"Yah, get down, Yang Seung Ho!"

"You watch out for yourself!"

Seung Ho dropped down to the ground, rifle firmly clasped in his hands as he whispered back harshly to his fellow platoonmate. The whole situation actually seemed pretty silly to him - he was on his own country's soil, yet there he was acting as though he was the intruder. But he was prepared for this day to come. That was what all men enlisted for the army were trained to do, since their fellow counterpart wasn't exactly on friendly terms with them, and had suddenly decided to go to war out of the blue over a small dispute. They had just received news that the North Koreans had started to attack their borders, and Seung Ho's platoon was sent out to patrol.

"Have you spotted them?"

"Nope, but I see a tinge of movement in the grass in the 10'-o-clock direction. Be on your feet."

The grass rustled noisily as one of the soldiers literally got on his feet and gazed around for the enemy. "There they are! That fat lump hiding among the grass is a North Korean soldier!"

"How stupid can you get?!" Seung Ho didn't have time to facepalm himself as all the North Korean soldiers got up from their hiding positions and ambushed them with bullets flying all over the place. Although he wasn't in the best of health, his mind was sharp and alert enough, and immediately got his fingers working as he worked his rifle easily, aiming accurately at the enemies who were now shooting rapidly with their machine guns.

"I thought they were still hung up over nuclear weapons. Since when did they upgrade their weapons? And aren't their people starving?"

"The government and army aren't!" Seung Ho managed to shout back and ducked as a bullet narrowly missed his head. "Lee Joon! Where're the grenades? And the rest of the troops? We're down by at least a hundred men by now thanks to that block of wood!"

"I can't get through to them! I only have one grenade left, damn! I remember arming myself with more -" Seung Ho didn't let Joon finish his sentence as he grabbed it over and released the safety lever. "There's no time to be a forgetful old woman in war. Remember that, Lee Joon."

With a powerful throw and a precise aim, the grenade landed right on in the middle of the mess of North Korean soldiers, and the South Koreans shot each other a meaningful look before they took flight. 

"Double up!" 

Before they could get any further and the North Koreans came to realization, the grenade had worked, and Seung Ho flinched a little when a tiny piece of the grenade's casing grazed past his arm. As they retreated back into camp, Seung Ho took a head count and sighed when he realized that nearly three-quarters didn't make it back. 

"Look on the bright side, the North Koreans were totally wiped out right there."

"Yeah, but these are people with lives, with families. They aren't just pawns on a chessboard."

"And you might even get a North Korean girlfriend stuck in this stupid war," Joon tried to make a joke to lighten up the atmosphere, but it didn't work. "It's war," he said with a heavy heart, "what else do you expect?"

"Sometimes I don't know whether to be thankful for technology or not." Seung Ho shook his head as he went to the infirmary to get his arm checked. 

"Technology isn't the root of evil; human nature is." Joon patted his back. "Humans may be beings with feelings all right, but they are scary. They really are. They can be nice to you at one moment, then shoot you behind your back. Remember that, hyung."

Joon turned to leave and report to the authorities on behalf of Seung Ho, and the latter took off his helmet as he pondered over the words of that young man who had always fooled around during training, yet been so serious today on the battle field.