"When they disembark in Crete and before being led to the maze the young Athenians had to parade past the islanders"

Library of Apollodorus

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     With regret, Sejin walked away with Captain Park and Kim Chin-Hae to join the car waiting for them and which was driven by a soldier. They settled into the backseat while Mr. Kim took the passenger seat next to the driver. 

     The other soldiers stayed behind Jin and the others, only a few yards away, while on either side of the paved path that had been laid out for them on the wide car-free road stood a line of North Koreans of all ages, men and women, boys and girls.

     Jin noticed the impassive expression of the adults contrasted with the curious expression of the children watching them. They obviously failed to respect the instructions of impassivity and gave the impression to the idols of meeting the first humans from an other country. 

     This reassured them: the North Koreans were playing an imposed role, they were probably not bad behind their robotic façade. They were like them behind this mask, ordinary humans who meant them no harm.

      "Let's get going," Namjoon decided, wishing to end this unforeseen ordeal as quickly as possible.

     The others nodded and no sooner had they started to move than the motionless, impassive line of North Koreans came to life and began throwing flowers at them, speaking in a single, monotonous voice which startled them:

     "Our Supreme Leader welcomes you to the Democratic Republic of Korea!"

     After the first surprise, the seven young men began to advance to the rhythm of these words. 

     A Democratic Republic? Jin thought, flabbergasted. From his point of view, the North Koreans were like robots in which we would have recorded a message intended to be broadcast on a loop. It reminded him of his history lessons on 20th century European dictatorships. 

     He then wondered how people had been able to agree to blindly follow dictators by giving up their freedom. The answer to his question seemed to him to be the threat. He couldn't believe it was true love that united a people to their dictator. He was a child of democracy, and he had his certainties as such.

     For the same words kept being chanted as they passed while at the same time, they received flowers transported in deep baskets which had to be filled with them. As he strode briskly, Jin noticed looking down at the ground that the flowers being thrown at them were withered and almost dried out, visibly long wilted. Either the country was as poor as people said and couldn't afford fresh flowers, or it was trying to disrespect South Korea by humiliating its representatives.

     Just as the flowers looked dull and lifeless, the North Koreans looked worn out, dressed in faded and patched clothes, and there were very few young people among the crowd: where were they? South Korea indeed seemed to have beaten North Korea on looks, Jin had to admit that if there was really a fight over beauty and luxury.

     Noting a little girl who was looking at him with a surprised air, handing him a flower without daring to throw it, Jungkook walked towards her and greeted her with a little "hello, you!" who wanted to be affectionate before taking the wilted flower she silently offered him and saying "thank you! " with a big smile, patting her hair. 

     The little girl, visibly charmed, gave him a shy smile.

     "Jungkook, come back, now!" Jin pressed him, bringing up the rear with him and waiting for him. 

    The rest of the group turned as they heard the urgent voice of Jin who had the unpleasant feeling that the air had suddenly become heavy around them. But it was too late. A soldier strode briskly towards Jungkook and kicked him to his lower back, knocking him to his knees before charging and aiming his gun at him and yelled:

     "PROHIBITION OF TALKING OR TOUCHING A CITIZEN OF THE NORTH!"

     While speaking, he vigorously waved his rifle under the terrified gaze of Jungkook who was in front of a loaded gun for the first time.

     On the other side of the crowd, in the car, Sejin, who hadn't seen the whole scene because of the line of North Koreans blocking his view, wanted to join Jungkook and come between the soldier and him but he was stopped by the firm voice of Mr. Kim who reiterated his threats:

     "You don't have the opportunity to intervene Mr. Sejin. You can only expect your boys to understand by themselves what is expected of them. Only then no one will be hurt."

     Inwardly cursing, the manager could only hope that the situation would calm down and that the boys would be able to react in a wise way so as not to add fuel to the fire. Around them, the crowd suddenly seemed to grow opaquer, as if ranks had closed, and a dull animosity suddenly rumbled.

     "Don't worry, Seokjin is with them and he will be able to guide them," Captain Park assured him.

     "May you be right," replied Sejin, who knew what Park didn't: relations between Jin and the others were strained. He hoped, however, that they would be able to put aside their differences for their own survival.

     "Get up and keep walking with the others!" the soldier resumed imperiously in his Northern accent, kicking Jungkook again which, far from putting him back on his feet, made him crash flat on his stomach on the tarmac floor where he grated his hands hard and dropped his berret showing his impeccably styled hair. But he was shaking so violently, visibly panicked, that he couldn't get up. 

     Jin rushed to help him, grabbing his arm in one hand and his beret in the other:

      "Come on JK, we have to get away from here!"

     Indeed, the situation seemed tensed. The North Korean people no longer chanted words of welcome and no longer threw flowers. The silence that had replaced the robotic voices and the hateful eyes that had replaced the empty eyes chilled Jin's blood.

    With Jungkook, he joined the rest of the group and walked faster than ever, even leading the group eager to complete this ignoble parade in front of these people who dreamed of uniting their two nations but seemed to hate them at that time and see them as a threat.

    Namjoon, who previously led the group at the front was worried.

    "Are you okay Jungkook?"

    "Yes," Jungkook said who, however, was clearly in more pain than he was willing to admit. 

    "We need to move forward more empty," Jin urged them, still pulling Jungkook so that the others would imitate him and move forward as quickly as possible. 

     "Why?" Namjoon asked, out of breath by this change of pace.

    "We upset them, that's obvious. The soldiers have loaded their weapons," Jin informed him, who, pale as death, would have recognized among thousands the click of a rifle loaded and ready to fire.

     But he didn't understand. Jungkook did not seek to be threatening towards the little girl, it was obvious for everyone. And besides, if they did not have the right to speak to North Korean citizens, why Mr. Kim who was supposed to give them all the useful information had not given them this one?

     Through the crowd, Jin spotted the ambassador in the passenger seat of the vehicle while Sejin and Park were in the back, looking helplessly at them. Unlike them, whose face was worried and who scanned the crowd at full speed to assess a possible danger, that of the North Korean was quite different: he looked Jin straight in the eye and smiled at him. 

     With the evil mocking smile of someone who witnessed the terrible spectacle that he himself had prepared.

     "Hyung, I don't like the way the people are staring at us," Jungkook muttered catching Jin's attention, "and the soldiers following us look like they really want to shoot us."

     "They obviously didn't appreciate you talking to that little girl," Jin explained knowing that was a pitiful excuse for wanting to kill someone.

     "I'm sorry," the genuinely shaken maknae apologized, not letting go of Jin's hand.

     "You didn't do anything wrong, you couldn't know. None of us could," Jin reassured him, dragging him ever faster followed by a North Korean cameraman who was moving just as fast and wanted to keep them in his line of sight. 

     The tall buildings in the city center were now visible and the crowd kept getting denser as they approached them. But the further they advanced, the higher the wave of hostility also rose.

      "And I'm sure they expected us to make that mistake," Jin added, angry. 

     Taehyung who had overtaken Namjoon in his race was now right behind them and he had heard perfectly. He stared at Jin with wide eyes.

     "Do you think they did it on purpose?! But wh- aaargh!!"

      Jin and Jungkookstopped short and turned quickly to find out what made Taehyung scream. What they saw froze them in horror. 

     The singer was lying on the ground, one hand clasped over his head. Along his hand and arm, blood flowed profusely, and next to the young man on the ground was the stone that had just been thrown at him.

     "TAEHYUNG!" all the members shouted in unison as they rushed towards him and formed a protective circle around him, casting frightened glances around. 

     Apart from Jin and Jungkook who had their backs turned, all the others had clearly seen a man among the human line, violently throwing a stone towards the head of the group.

     "Oh my God, Tae, are you okay?!" Jimin asked, worried, kneeling beside him.

     "I... I don't know," Taehyung stuttered dazedly, pulling his hand back to stare at the warm, vermilion liquid covering it. 

     He had been hit in the lower part of the head but Jimin could not analyze the seriousness of the wound because of the hair covering it. In his fall, Taehyung's beret had fallen off. Jimin tried to push strands of hair aside to gain access to the wound but stopped as soon as he heard Taehyung moan in pain.

     "What did you do to make him throw that at you?" Namjoon asked, worried about what to avoid so as not to receive stones.

      "I did not do anything!" Taehyung protested, putting his hand back on his wound to press on it and gritting his teeth, grimacing at the indistinct crowd of people as he didn't know who attacked him. "Ow, that hurts like hell..."

     "Ah, is it your turn to speak badly?" Yoongi pointed out.

     Taken aback by his complete disconnect from brutal reality and blinded by pain, Taehyung yelled:

     "IN CASE YOU HAVE NOT NOTICED, HYUNG, WE ARE IN NORTH KOREA AND THEY JUST THROWED A FUCKING ROCK AT ME, SO I TALK HOW I WANT!"

      Jin could not refrain from giggled when he heard Taehyung respond to Yoongi and Namjoon glared at him, forcing him to contain himself.

     "Guys!" the leader interjected, "this really isn't the time to make a scene, Taehyung calm down, please."

     Taehyung didn't reply. Breathless from screaming, he glared at Yoongi while in pain he grew a new curse. Jin, seeing that the blood continued to flow, removed his beret from his head and placed it in Taehyung's hand before forcing him to press on his wound with it. Faced with Taehyung's complaints, he explained:

    "I'm sorry but you need to squeeze it to stop the bleeding."

     Remembering that Jin had received military training which likely included first aid training, Taehyung obeyed and Jin let go of his hand.

     "Perfect, presses firmly," Jin agreed. 

     "Guys, I think it was Jungkook who was targeted, not Taehyung," Yoongi said. He pointed to the launcher whom he had a good identity and who looked coldly at Jungkook, like other people: "He must have missed his target and it was Taehyung who received him."

     In pain, Taehyung could not refrain from throwing at Jungkook an accusatory look and this last, feeling painfully guilty, avoided his look by mumbling a little "I'm sorry."

    He swallowed with difficulty crossing the piercing gaze of the man and tried to make himself smaller than he was by curling up, didn't understand why that man he didn't know was mad at him.

    This did not prevent him from suddenly receiving, from behind from the opposite row, what seemed to be a soft tomato which exploded into a foul-smelling juice when it hit him in the back of his neck and made him utter a piercing cry under the effect of surprise.

      "JUNGKOOK!" Jin, Namjoon, Jimin and Hoseok cried in unison.

     While Jin stayed next to Taehyung, Namjoon, Yoongi and Hoseok rushed to build a shield against the new projectiles that were coming from all sides and received several handles of rancid vegetable peels and mud that remained glued to their clothes a few seconds before falling softly to the ground. 

    Jimin, for his part, was paralyzed with fear and did not react when a projectile hit him in the face and rotten fruit juice ran down his cheek.

     "Please, stop..." he begged in a murmured that no one heard.

     Far from stopping, the people who were still in line to form this hedge and encircle them all began to throw to them continuously garbage, stones, mud or even manure. Even children who had previously seemed more human to them than their parents hurled at them fiercely, shouting with their shrill voices, distorted by incomprehensible anger.

     The singers could only raise their arms to protect themselves, surprised by this massive and incomprehensible attack. Jin received all the projectiles destined for Taehyung, and being unable to protect his face, he quickly felt it covered with filth and slight scratches.

    Looking up, he saw Jimin covered in tomato juice and small wound who had started crying and was repeating: "Stop it... Stop it... Stop it..."

    "Come here, Jimin!" he shouted at him, hoping to be able to protect him from the projectiles in the same way as Taehyung.

    Jimin was about to join him when a shotgun suddenly blast startled them all, their assailants also, as they ceased their assaults, and Jimin let out a loud scream. 

     Terrified that he might have been touched, Jin turned away from Taehyung and inspected Jimin from head to toe with a quick glance, then saw with relief that that was not the case. One of the soldiers had just shot next to his foot. Jin knew only too well how scared to death Jimin had been. He grabbed his trembling hand as the boy started to cry again.

     "It's okay, you're okay," he quickely whispered to him.

      "No, I'm not, I want to go home," Jimin sobbed, "I don't belong here, nor Tae, nor Jungkookie, nor any of us... except you."

    Jin knew it was fear that made Jimin speak but it didn't make it any less painful for him to hear that.

     "You... you're right Jimin, but you're here, with me, and you have to survive. I promised your mother to protect you so please, keep moving forward with me. Okay?" 

    Jimin raised his teary eyes to Jin who saw remorse there.

     "LAST WARNING!" the soldier who had previously shot yelled, startling the unfortunate Jimin, before completing, clearly detaching his words: "BAN – ON SPEAKING – TO – THE – POPULATION."

      Jimin understood that it was his pleas to the crowd that had led the soldier to shoot. Crying silently, he shook his head up and down to indicate that he understood.

     "Does that mean we have to let them attack us while walking," Yoongi protested in a mumble only audible to friends, as people started throwing projectiles at them again.

     "Sejin hyung and Captain Park are gone!" Hoseok suddenly realized, desperately looking for help with his eyes and had just noticed that the car was no longer in sight.

     It had certainly passed them and continued its way to the center of town without them noticing. Abandoning them. Abandoning them in the face of this furious crowd that wanted to harm them and in the face of these soldiers who, far from ensuring their protection, wanted to harm them just as much.

     Around them, there were only enemies. An angry population who threw projectiles at them stored at the bottom of their basket and soldiers who were ready to intervene if the young South Koreans tried to defend themselves by attacking the crowd.

     "We are all alone, we have to leave, now!" Jin shouted, then wincing in pain almost folding in half, one hand on his side as a big stone hit him in the stomach.

     "Hyung?!" Taehyung called him, worried, while he himself had an earthy complexion, except for the streaks of blood traced on his face.

     "I'm fine, don't worry," Jin said without thinking, wiping his face to remove some of the filth that was still there from the previous assault. "Keep pressing on your wound!" he added, seeing that Taehyung had stopped.

     Then, he bent down and grabbed the younger by the waist to help him up. Taehyung clung to him and for the first time since the draw, Jin read fear in his eyes all trace of pride had left him and he was nothing more than a young man overwhelmed by the hatred of others. 

    The eldest then glanced at Jungkook who was curled up, motionless and keeping his hands up since the first projectile he received, very afraid to receive one again.

     "JK, get up!" Jin called.

     Jungkook looked up. If Taehyung was afraid, Jungkook was terrified and didn't seem to be able to move. Next to him, Jimin was crying uncontrollably and Hoseok was looking around nervously with his hands up to show that he wasn't a threat. The situation was catastrophic. That was what the North Korean cameras were filming. 

    Helpless, Namjoon, Yoongi, and Jin watched the others crumble. But Jin knew one thing: they couldn't stay there, they had to move, to join the end of the road where, maybe, their suffering will end.

     "Namjoon, grab Jungkook and run!" he shouted at him before turning to Yoongi and shoot his name. "Yoongi!"

     The rapper understood immediately and grabbed Jimin and Hoseok each by an arm before pulling them with him to resume their cruel parade. 

    Because that's what it was. A parade organized to humiliate them and show how pathetic they were. Jin had no doubt about that, he now understood very well why M. Kim was smiling before.

     Bringing up the rear behind the others who were now running, Jin carried Taehyung more than he supported him and moved as fast as he could. The younger seemed half stunned but he walked without flinching, his eyes turned towards the ground. When he got another handful of vegetable peelings on his head, he didn't bother to take it off and it was Jin who took it off him with a quick gesture.

     "Hang on Voo, we're gonna get through this hell," he said to him. "I promise you."