“K Daily, lies and blasphemy! You cheat the people, heartless scoundrels! ‘This not the time for revenge! But when it comes, the people shall avenge!”
When Jimin pedalled past the People’s Square with his brother sitting at the back, people had already gathered in the tens of thousands, totally blocking traffic. A short-haired woman wearing a grey jacket and holding a red loudspeaker was standing in front of a white banner as tall as herself, inscribed with large characters in red ink, passionately shouting the chant towards the sea of heads before her.
Directly west of the square was the city hall and next to it was the office of the major local newspaper, K Daily. A towering liberation commemoration plaque stood in the centre of the square, and on any other day, there would be flowers surrounding it. However, on this day the square was packed with people.
Stuck in a bicycle jam, Jimin hopped off like the other bicyclists and grabbed his brother’s hand. “It’s crowded here. You must not let go of my hand.”
The woman with short hair descended the podium, replaced by a skinny, tall guy.
“Yesterday we left off at the topic of democracy. What is democracy? From what I see, the ‘demo’ means ‘the people’ and ‘cracy’ means ‘power.’ We, the people, need to take power!”
An overwhelming round of applause and cheering exploded among the crowd.
Jimin was stuck to the spot as though he couldn’t believe his eyes.
Taehyung abruptly grabbed his arm.
Jimin turned around to find even more people massing in the square, many of which came on bicycles with red flags sticking out from the back on which were written the words “Daegu National University!”
Taehyung was holding onto his brother’s arm so tightly that his fingers sunk into the flesh.
“Don’t worry. We’re leaving now.”
Pushing the bicycle, Jimin tried his best to squeeze through.
“Excuse me! Trying to get through!”
He pushed the bicycle with one hand while holding his brother’s hand with the other.
There were many students wearing white headbands handing out leaflets. Written in black ink on their headband were two words: ‘HUNGER STRIKE.’
“Please support our cause!”
One of these students came into Jimin’s path and stuck a leaflet in his face.
“The country belongs to the people, and we are the people. My fellow student, please feel it in your heart to help us!”
Jimin took the leaflet and scanned it – HUNGER STRIKE: A STATEMENT.
He pushed the student back a little. “Out of the way, please. We are in a rush.”
He turned to look for his brother, and the boy appeared rather unsettled in the roaring crowd.
Jimin took his brother’s hand, interlocking all ten fingers. “No matter what happens, don’t let go!”
The two boys were half an hour late by the time they made it to the basketball court. Jimin locked the bicycle and saw a topless Jungkook running around after the ball. He found a stone bench under a shade tree for Taehyung to sit on.
Jungkook spotted Jimin and left the court after telling his teammates.
Jimin chuckled, “Sorry, Kook, we got stuck at People’s Square on the way.”
“I forgot to tell you.” Jungkook slapped his own thigh. “There’s been lots of students sitting in protest this week. All the roads are jammed.”
