AUTHOR'S NOTE

This was handed to me a bit late… I started writing this at around 10:45 pm on a Sunday and I had work at 8am the following day. I took the challenge because I like writing but whenever I write something for someone, there’s always the insecurity of not being able to deliver what was expected of me.

To be honest, it’s a very difficult prompt: Anything with historic background is very difficult in my part. But I took it nonetheless, writing and researching for about 2 hours before completing this.

I am by far comfortable with angst more than any genre; action and paranormal isn’t really my thing, but I took the challenge so I did what I could with the prompt.

I was debating whether to make the couples come from the different warring sides (like one of the generals was from the north and he was saved by the nurse from the south something like that) but I decided against it. The picture I had in mind was Letters from Iwo Jima though I haven’t watched the film yet; I had a good dose of war movies courtesy of my dad’s desire to watch them on cable.

Like most of my fics, I would research about certain facts to incorporate into the story, the battle at Kumsung River is actually true and the Chinese did won over SOK, but it was a battle between Chinese and UN assigned US forces. Morphine was used to treat wounded soldiers during the war and a memorial for lost soldiers were somewhere in Korea. I added elements to make this fic believable because I am really insecure with my writing (lol)

The setting was vague but I tried to translate the picture I had in mind through writing.

The characters were dull, except towards the end where I sort of hinted the relationship of Myungsoo and Sungyeol though I wasn’t able to provide their back story (which was really zero at the moment). I did beefed up Woohyun in this, really making him stand out; I’ve always pictured him as a very strong male. Sunggyu was never highlighted, lest for being Woohyun’s anchor to keep his sanity. Sungyeol wasn’t really a coward; but anyone who had witnessed his men perish would traumatize him for life; he was just feeling incompetent. Myungsoo was only highlighted towards the end, something that was needed to justify the loss of Sungyeol and Sunggyu; and maybe to make an end to the war (sort of).

I have no problem writing any Infinite pairs but do have preference towards MyungGyu more than anything else and I did have that little Myunggyu moment just to please myself (selfish me is selfish). I did not, however, deepened this relationship (but if I had the time, I’ll write their back story.. maybe someday).

I did try to incorporate elements of war, such as morphine and those guns and mortar. I tried to tell a story while I was picturing the scenes in my mind. I also included a reason for Sunggyu and Woohyun’s unconventional love life by blaming war to claim their sanity (and I know soldiers suffer from psychological stress most of the times). I did write horrible and violent scenes but wars often call for those types of writing; I just wrote the norm.

Now, I did want to kill Myungsoo and Sunggyu but ended up claiming Sungyeol’s life instead. The main reason for this was for me to give the story a twist: Like nurse crops officers aren’t really incompetent in fighting. I also wanted to show how even top rank officials can fail. I liked the idea of contrasting profiles (woohyun and Sunggyu, Myungsoo and Sungyeol) where one is weak and the other was stronger.

I wanted to kill Myungsoo and Sunggyu by making them sacrifice their lives for Sungyeol to live, but then again, it won’t be as dramatic as a revenged filled, adrenaline pumped body of a soldier whose friend and lover were both killed by the enemies; one’s psychological well being would be pretty much consumed by anger and wrath (and yes I am evil).

I did a fragmented or time-lapse kind of writing which to me gave a sort of dramatic way of telling a story, but it’s predictable isn’t it?

The ending did nothing much to lighten up the whole feel of this one, I would’ve wanted a bawling Woohyun or something more dramatic but I guess the story had too much of action already. Parting ways signified an end to war; I wanted to give the readers that by not seeing each other, there won’t by any war uprising anytime sooner.

To sum everything up, I did a military story once before, a YeMin fic that was angsty but it focused more on the sanity of a lover who awaited his partner who was a soldier. This is my first full on tackle of a war fic and it was really exhausting. The intensity of writing this one was overwhelming and I was really surprised that was even able to come up with this one. I know that the characters weren’t as cohesive and connected but I did what I could to deliver (not that my crappy explanation can justify my crappy writing).

Now that my LONG Author’s Note and self criticism (not to mention rant) is done, I’m wishing for everyone a prosperous Year of the Wooden Horse!