With a gloomy look, the seven members of BTS got out one by one of the van which had stopped a few meters from the Blue House, official residence of the President of the Republic in Seoul, where the press was already waiting for them but had received the order to wait to have the green light from the President before starting to interview the idols.

     The seven boys were accompanied by their manager, their company's CEO, Bang Si-Hyuk, who was also to be interviewed, several company cameramen and bodyguards. 

     For the occasion, they had all dressed in the same black suit but that only amplified their look of despair. They knew that as soon as the cameras were on the way, they would have to put on their smiles to preserve the image of their group. 

     For the time being, it was the dark look of their manager who was in charge of letting them know and they were therefore careful not to meet him, preferring rather to discover with a distracted eye the enclosure of the presidential palace in which they obviously entered for the first time.

    Their families, worried to see them possibly chosen as a sacrifice for peace but excited to know they were received at the Blue House had asked each of them to take pictures of themselves inside but they did not have the heart to do more than a few selfies and anyway, they knew that dozens of cameras aimed at them would soon take care of freezing the memory of that cursed day for one of the three groups.

    They were received at Yeongbin-gwan, the guest house, and waited there in silence until BtoB and Monsta X arrived. Jin was standing somewhat apart from the others who ignored him and stood in close formation, as if this fusional solidarity could protect them from a bad draw.

     When BtoB and Monsta X arrived, almost simultaneously, it was two very different behaviors that presented themselves to the members of BTS.

    First it was the joyful faces of BtoB who arrived with a fanfare that they nervously greeted from afar, with a slight bow. Only the youngest member, Yook Sungjae - who was the same age as Taehyung and Jimin, seemed concerned but he was firmly surrounded by his hyungs who were chatting cheerfully as if they were there for fun and it seemed to reassure him. Eunkwang adopted a calm and reassuring attitude.

    Then Monsta X's entrance was marked by their determined demeanor and a surprising calm that turned into confident smiles when the members spoke to each other. Jin even spotted Shownu and Wonho arm in arm, a carefree smile tugging their lips. Only Joohoney seemed to throw cold looks at Shownu at times.

    The two leaders of the new arrived groups joined Jin aside and this annoyed Namjoon who rather expected the two leaders to come and address him first. Not that he particularly wanted to. Like all the other members of his group, he glared at Shownu and Eunkwang. That furious look did not escape them.

    "What's their problem?" Shownu said, annoyed, while he was surrounded by only Jin and Eunkwang.

    "I'm sorry, they haven't recovered from yesterday's news," Jin apologized. "They feel punished with me and that's completely normal. I admit I thought that I'll be fired at one point but never could I have imagined that we were inflicted with this mutual sanction."

    "Okay but they don't just look mad to me. They look terrified," Shownu remarked, suppressing a smirk as Jin seemed very affected by the anger and the fear of his dongsaengs and would surely have been mad at him if he laughed at them. But since the day he met Jin, he had despised their brat's attitude toward their mathyung.

    "You two were stupid to hide to them for son long the gravity of what happened," Eukwang chided them. "It's not the kind of thing you should learn on TV without having been prepared for the worst."

    "Talk for you mister perfect mathyung. Nobody but you would have had the audacity to announce that to his dongsaengs," Shownu retorted.

    "But your members don't seem to be mad at you too Shownu," Jin remarked sadly, glancing at the Monsta X' members who were now joking around.

    "I told you before, Monsta X has fighting and competition in its DNA. They were surprised and swore my death yesterday, but they quickly recovered, they are not afraid and they don't blame me more than they should. If we have to win a competition against those North Korean bastards, we will win it together. We can't fight each other."

    "You're right," Jin responded sadly.

    "What confidence Shownu!" Eunkwang remarked in an appreciative tone, but noticing Jin's worried look, he asked : "Are you okay Jin? You changed in a few weeks, where did your legendary insurance go?"

    He gave him an encouraging smile which Jin tried in vain to return.

    "The last few weeks with his silly dongsaengs must have made it disappear," Shownu taunted, giving a grimace to Jungkook who was staring at him from afar and looked particularly displeased.

    Jin didn't answer. He glanced briefly at his group and the unease he felt meeting their disapproving gaze made him realize that Shownu wasn't quite wrong.

     "They weren't very happy to see me back," Jin confessed. "They wanted me to finish my military service without fail to preserve the honor of the group and to respect my part of the B.B. Law. They quickly made me understand that as long as this was not the case, I would not fully have my place at their side."

    "These morons," Shownu said angrily, shoving his hands in his pockets. "And me who thought Joohoney was the worst moron."

    "They are young," Eukwang said, whose group had a higher average age than the other two. "Their group have just debuted, and they lack confidence. It is normal for them to be afraid of a premature disappearance from their group in the event of a problem."

     "But Jin is part of their group!" Shownu protested. "And my dongsaengs are as young as his!"

     "But the soul of each group is different, Shownu," Eunkwang explained patiently. "BtoB has a more mature but more liberated soul, Monsta has a warrior soul that allows them to be calmer or more aggressive in the face of hardships and gives them more confidence. For their part, BTS seems to have a more candid soul, Jin is the perfect embodiment of it. Look at them, they look so young and fragile next to Monsta!"

    It was true, Jin thought as he looked at the three groups.

    Next to the other two more manly-looking groups, BTS looked like a group of scared children. This image of fragile and caring young men, with delicate, poetic and deep music, softened the hearts of their fans because it completely overhauled the image of Korean boy bands. Facing the fierce competition ahead, they seemed to be the least qualified to represent their country against the ferocity of their North Korean adversary.

   "Do you have any details about what will happen today?" Shownu sked, "my company wouldn't tell us anything, I think they want to surprise us but not in the good way."

    "We weren't told anything either," Jin sighed who remembered how Namjoon desperately but vainly tried to called the CEO to obtain some information about the present day.

    "Same for us. I imagine we will soon find out." Eukwang pointed to the group of three managers who had just entered the room and walked towards the group they were mentoring.

    "Seokjin!" Sejin called coldly seeing that the older one was not with his group.

    "I'm coming!" Jin shouted at him before turning to his two friends. "I don't know what will happen but good luck to both of you and your groups. See you later."

    "See you later D. Feet, it was good to meet you with hair, you're not that bad actually!" Shownu said, sending a mocking wink to Jin.

    "Moron," Jin replied, smiling nonetheless before joining BTS.

    "You really are a moron and you know that," Eukwang chimed in before stepping away from Shownu to join BtoB.

     "But at least I managed to make him smile!" Shownu said at him with a burst of laughter before joining his own group.

    The cameras finally turned on for a delayed retransmission. The groups were asked to take turns posing for group photos and it became clear that BTS appeared less manly than the other groups, looking more like shy, well-behaved high school students in front of the photographers, while the others flaunt themselves in the posture as masculine and charismatic as possible.

     The managers then made them staple a small sign to their jackets mentioning their name and that of their group, before announcing to them that as soon as they left the palace of the guests to join the garden, they would be filmed live. Jin gulped painfully, feeling the pressure building, but nevertheless followed his group and was the last to exit.

    He discovered with amazement that Park Geun-hye, the South Korean President, was waiting for them, and that all around her was an army of journalists and cameramen, ready to faithfully broadcast the event and to ask the questions that asked the Korean people. 

    Scanning the intimidating scene with his attentive gaze, Jin met the gaze of a man who sent shivers down his spine: Kim Chin-Hae. He had very pronounced North Korean features which could only remind him of his confrontation with the North Korean soldiers.

    The man let his gaze drop to his chest before giving him a joyless smile. Looking down, Jin realized that the North Korean had read his name. Kim Seokjin. He knew that he was facing one of those who had caused a conflict between their two countries. Yet his reaction seemed inappropriate: why was that man smiling at him?

    Suddenly realizing he was lagging, Jin broke the eye contact that had lasted for long seconds and had been captured by several cameras and hurried to join his group which was standing in line in front of the President, waiting to be able to greet her, following the other two groups.

     First, it was the seven members of BtoB who introduced themselves with a respectful bow:

"Seo Eunkwang, 24 years old."

"Lee Minhyuk, 24 years old."

"Lee Changsub, 23 years old."

"Im Hyunsik, 22 years old."

"Shin Donggeun, 21 years old."

"Jung Ilhoon, 20 years old."

"Yook Sungjae, 19 years old."

    Then it was the turn of Monsta X.

"Son Hyun-woo, 22 years old."

"Lee Ho-seok, 21 years old"

"Lee Min-hyuk, 21 years old."

"Yoo Ki-hyun, 21 years old."

"Chae Hyung-won, 21 years old."

"Lee Jo-heon, 20 years old."

"Im Chang-kyun, 19 years old."

    Finally, BTS introduced themselves:

"Kim Seokjin, 22 years old."

"Min Yoongi, 21 years old."

"Jung Hoseok, 20 years old."

"Kim Namjoon, 20 years old."

"Park Jimin, 19 years old."

"Kim Taehyung, 19 years old."

"Jeon Jungkook, 17 years old."

    Unease swept through South Korea when millions of viewers realized that many of the singers were under the age of twenty and that one of them was even minor. Jungkook was only seventeen years old and the hashtag #SaveJK  quickly appeared on social networks.

    As the singers were asked to sit in an arc around the President, in their assigned seats, the directors of Big Hit, Cube and Starship agencies came into view and waved at their turn Mrs. Park. She then solemnly took the floor behind a desk prepared for her and addressed the entire Korean people, under the embarrassed gaze of the idols:

    "My dear fellow citizens, I meet you today as promised in the company of the groups that have been appointed to lead our nation to peace. 

    First of all, I would like to recall that the responsibility for this situation does not belong solely to the soldiers involved in the incident several weeks ago. The intense and repeated nuclear threat from North Korea has been present for longer than that and we have all seen that it has become essential and even vital to negotiate new peace agreements. 

    Obviously, this agreement is not without consequences for us and requires the sacrifice of a small number in the service of our nation. Seven young people among the twenty-one who are at my side."

    She briefly turned to the idols to wave at them, before turning back to face the main camera:

    "For this reason, the group chosen to make this agreement a reality must no matter what happens be considered a national hero and celebrated with force. They are the children prodigies of our nation: after having contributed to spreading our culture throughout the world, now these young artists will contribute to peace between South Korea and North Korea. I express to them, on behalf of our country, my gratitude."

    Her gratitude?! As if they had chosen to be sacrificed! Jin thought as he exchanged a knowing look with Shownu who was a few chairs away from him and had the same thought. 

     They hadn't done anything wrong or at least they hadn't intentionally harmed their country, having been attacked and forced to defend themselves and now they were being forced to go and face their enemies by passing it off as their own decision and making them understand that they had no interest in protesting. Remembering that he was being watched, Jin quickly returned his attention to Mrs. Park.

     "I will now give the floor to Bang Si-Hyuk, CEO of the company Big Hit Entertainment to which BTS belongs and who will be the spokesperson for his counterparts at Starship Entertainment and Cube Entertainment."

    She therefore gave way to Bang Si-Hyuk who put on his glasses and suddenly appeared more serious in the eyes of the seven idols he had in his charge.

    "To begin with, on behalf of my colleagues, I humbly apologize for the inconvenience that our artists have inadvertently caused. We assure you that their intention was never to harm or dishonor their country. However, we are perfectly aware that they are responsible for this tense situation and they accepted without concession this possibility which was offered to them to represent their country with honor and to make it proud by their commitment."

    If amazement seized Jin and the other members who had never accepted anything other than a contract which made them slaves of their company and obliged them to accept this commitment without concession, they did their best not to do anything appear but the sequel, which was taken care of by Kim Shi-Dae, the CEO of Starship finished astounding them:

    "We have made the decision to give Korea the opportunity to choose the first group that will be eliminated from the draw. For this reason, an online survey has just been published on the website of all Ministries. We give everyone who is Korean citizen the opportunity for a few minutes to vote to save one of the three groups of their choice. The others will be chosen by Kim Chin-Hae's draw in the name of the North Korea's leader."

    The survival of one of their groups would therefore be left to the vote of the nation. With the exception of Jin, who still hadn't quite grasped his group's popularity, the members of BTS felt a sense of relief overcoming them: the vote of the Korean people would save them.

___________________________

Author's notes : Park Geun-hye was elected president of South Korea in 2012 and became the first female president of this country. 

But in 2016, she became the first president to be removed from office and then imprisoned (a 32-year prison sentence for abuse of power and corruption). In the report of a French youtuber named TOGEN that I had discovered through his report on the sinking of the Sewol, I had discovered that at the time of her dismissal, she was even considered the most hated political woman in Korea... Anyway , so I'm not going to make her a sympathetic character, even if I don't know her whole story. 

If you can understand french language, here are the videos of Togen. First, a moving report by Togen on the tragedy of the sinking of the Sewol in 2014 when Park Geun-hye was president :

https://youtu.be/eES-OxqF-yU

Then, the video about Park Geun-hye, the most hated political woman of Korea : 

https://youtu.be/XKisOd6eMHA