News broke last evening that the North has been more active in its movements near Yeonpyeong Island, causing distress as the trauma of the previous attack which led to the death of two civilians and two marine officers still lingered in the memories of the South Korean people. Concerns have been expressed on the recent tension that has been going on for almost two weeks after the address by the new leader of North, in which she expressed the need of the “nation to advance in its military and pursue more of its development as part of the manifestation of our self-reliance, or Juche* spirit”. Her efforts to revive their founding ideology had been seen to be put to practice of the North’s recent alleged nuclear tests and military activities near the border area.

“We are aware of the increasing activity near Yeonpyeong, yet there are no signals of offensive gestures from the North. We had no intentions for the current tensions to escalate to a full-fledged war, but we are prepared for the worst to come. The Ministry of Defense has been keeping a careful watch of the activities in the border areas and that our military is trying its best to protect the civilians in the island,” says the Foreign Minister Kwon Bo-a, on an official statement just published this morning.

The Foreign Minister has also expressed that the government would refrain from any actions that might provoke hostilities from the North, as well as trying to engage the North for talks in order to reduce the current rigidities of the inter-Korean relations. In line with the President’s statement early this year on his aspiration to improve relations with the North for a peaceful dynamics in the Northeast Asian region, the unprecedented military gestures from the North would either be seen as threat, or opportunity to make way for dialogues between the two Koreas.

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It has been weeks after the statement and there has been no official response from the North after the South’s gesture for engagement to reduce the tension. The border activities continued and the South still took defensive stances. Worried that joint exercises might be interpreted as provocation and thus utilized to gain legitimacy by the North to be more offensive, as it had been the cause of the attack to the island years ago, the South maintained a low profile while continue to monitor happenings in the border more meticulously.

As of now, the protection mission has nothing but a habit to Jinki and his team, considering it has been their main mission for quite a while. It has been the same routine; checking the theatre prior to the preparations for the performance, making sure Sulli safely arrive at the theatre, making sure the play goes safely, checking suspicious movements and fan-given presents, and making sure Sulli arrive home safely. Sometimes they also get assigned to monitor movements on the apartment building and neighborhood she lives in.

Thus it finally came to the last night of the musical performance. As Sulli has not confirmed any upcoming projects she would be working on, the team was also relieved from their previous routines with the only exceptions of the residence monitoring activity they will have once in two weeks. This finally allows Amber to meet Kibum for their long-delayed dinner plan, as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also met a period of stagnancy on solving the issue.

Amber was welcomed by the sight of a serious, but tired-looking Kibum, sitting on their reserved table while reading some documents with a pair of black-framed glasses on the bridge of his nose. Although they are neighbors, or flat-mates to be more exact, they haven’t really seen each other for weeks since they always rush in the mornings and Kibum will come home later than Amber at night. She had no clue that he looked so worn out.

“Boy, don’t you look exhausted?”

“Says the one who finally gets a little break,” Kibum looked up and gave her a hug, “you should look at your own dark circles.”

Both took a seat, as Amber replied, “Same goes to you. Anyways, this is a parting gift from college that has never really left me. In fact, I think it’s gotten worse. Those eye products are a big public lie,” she pondered, “then again, it’s just how advertisements are.”

Kibum chuckled, “Now this definitely took me back to our college years with you, babbling about one random stuff to another. But really, be thankful it’s not the black eye, or the scraps or the knee injury you had from doing that blasted kickboxing hobby of yours.”

That was how Kibum met Amber when they were university students around five years ago. Amber was part of the kickboxing club at school, and there are annual competitions every beginning of the year as part of the showcase of the school clubs to recruit freshmen. He never was a person who is into sports, yet Jinwoon managed to guilt-trip him into watching the competition, as he is also one of the club members. Though Jinwoon only made to the semifinals, Kibum kept coming for the next matches to see Amber’s. He still remembered how she was so strong-willed in winning her final match with the previous year’s champion, and that left him a deep impression. He finally had the courage to say hi to her after months of his visits to watch the club practices finally got noticed by Jinwoon, who made way to introduce them. Ever since, they learned of each other’s major (Kibum being enrolled to the Department of International Affairs, while Amber to the Department of Criminal Justice) and began to hang out as friends, knowing more of each other as they share their thoughts and dreams of how their lives after school would be. Shortly after graduation, with both having their current jobs in the heart of the city and a not-so-plump fresh-graduates ‘pockets’, they decided to share a two-storey flat, with Amber occupying the upper floor, and Kibum the lower. And that’s how they added being ‘neighbors’ to describe each other.

“Even so, it landed me my first and current job with a very reasonable pay, considering some of my other classmates who is striving with theirs,” Amber smiled, “after all, you should get used to it after seeing the practice regularly. I was starting to think Jinwoon and I have succeeded in making you enjoy your first sport ever.”

“And I thought by now you should have already realized that the reason that I was always there is because I’m worried you’ll hurt yourself too much as much as my unchanging opinion on mostly any kinds of sports,” he looked up to her, “that, and at least I got to see you at least every week.”

Amber was taken aback at his response. It is not that she does not know that Kibum cared a lot about her, and her about him too, but that there is a different feel to his blatant mannerisms these days. She can only softly replied, “Um, Kibum, we have talked about this, and…”

“Hush, now,” Kibum smiled as he grabbed the menu, “let’s drop the subject and order, shall we? I am starving and I am craving for some meat. I swear I can’t eat any more kimchijjigae since that’s the only thing the office had delivered to this past week…”

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“I think it will eventually hit the point of diminishing returns, in this case, where they would just finally stop showing such aggressive acts and the worries died down with it,” Jinki responded calmly.

“I agree. And as what that professor was saying, the new and first female ruler of the North was just trying to show their own people that she is as badass as her forefathers anyway,” Taemin added.

“That, and considering it’s been almost three weeks since the movements near Yeonpyeong with no changes in the status quo, it might be the start of, what was it—the diminishing returns, as Chief had said,” Krystal chimed in.

It is just natural that people were talking about the issue with the North, and that there will definitely part of the society who took it to two extremes; one, are those who brushed the case off lightly as they are distracted enough with daily life, or because their favorite drama is still showing on TV and, two, are those who freaked out and tried developing weird theories as of what the North assault plans will be. There are also more reasonable opinions like those who thought that seemed to take for granted the threats and aggressive actions from the North as it is a default stance the North has been taking for ever since the two Koreas are separated. Another one that sounded pretty legit and popularly discussed in the media nowadays was that the government will use economic means to pacify the North like how they have done it before, as a war will strike a hard blow for the currently bursting economy of the South.

This topic does not leave the Blue House and its officials as well. Jinki’s team was having a short break while watching a program with experts discussing about the issue, which led them to have their own discussion session over coffee.

“Yes, yes, I kinda came to that conclusion as well,” Amber nodded, “I was just still wondering why is it that this time it lasted longer than it was before? I mean, it’s been a month since the first alert and the North has not even given any statements, or even movements/signals responding to our government’s stance. But of course, no one ever really know, maybe it’s part of their strategy this time, being unpredictable and all… but… it’s just that there’s something missing here that makes all the possibilities… unsatisfactory… hmm”

“Amber’s babbling by herself again,” Krystal chuckled, “how long have you been nurturing this habit of yours?”

“What?” Amber just snapped, “oh, it’s just something I do whenever I, uh, thought of, or more properly, ‘overanalyze’ something as…,” Kibum will put it… her mind finishes it for her as she sighed, still a bit worried about Kibum’s own unpredictability these days. On certain chances where they meet each other, there will always be those moments where Amber just don’t know how to respond to him being overtly expressive to her but then quickly he will just shift the topic to something else, or simply dismiss it lightly. She thought they have gone past this for both have understood with all the hectic schedules they are in, their current status as friends and flat-mates would be the best way to be with each other. Yet, these things he had been doing would just knock over all the agreements they have set for themselves. Moreover, she cannot bring herself to address this when they barely meet each other even though they were practically seperated by a staircase; not to mention it's already tricky for her to define what his behavior indicates. Oh God, no, I could not possibly just metaphorically put my situation with this certainly bigger, more urgent political matter…

Amber cleared , “Uh, nevermind, anyway, as I was saying, I just can’t put my finger on it. Why did they take so long to respond?”

“Maybe this could be the answer to your question, Noona,” Taemin said as he pointed out to the breaking news just in on the TV.

BREAKING NEWS: NORTH KOREAN SOLDIERS CROSSED THE MDL

After the activities in the Yeonpyeong Island almost a month ago, latest reports from the border area revealed that there are fourteen North Korean soldiers intruded south of the Military Demarcation Line (MDL), ignoring South Korean broadcast warnings to withdraw. This incursion caused a half-hour exchange of heavy gunfire before the North decided to slowly fall back to the other side of the line. There had been no reports on victims or injuries sustained by the soldiers involved in the gunfire. More updates will come shortly as we reach Lieutenant Choi for further inquiries.

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*Juche is an ideology adopted firstly in Kim Il-sung's reign as the founder of North Korea, aiming for the country to be able to defend/rely on themselves for development.

*While people mostly are more familiar with the DMZ, which is the buffer area between the North and the South, the MDL is the line separating the two.

A/N: I know it's been over a year since I updated, and I am really sorry to keep you guys waiting. I had a new routine and I need to move to a new place, and I don't realize that I got preoccupied with school and other 'adult stuff' this fast. And as I said in the foreword, this story will be quite short than expected, so I am really sorry if the update intervals are too long which might make you guys expect too much of a build-up plot.

I have another thing to confess. I actually had half the decision to discontinue this fic since I no longer had any attachment to the characters as well as the Kpop world. But for a really selfish reason, I decided to give myself another try so as to prove myself I can finish my first and probably last chaptered fic.

I thank you for taking your time reading this. And I apologize for doing this mostly because of my own personal reasons. Til the next one.