Continuum

Author's Notes

 This story began in August 2017 during the strangeness that was Kim Jung Un and Donald Trump essentially trying to show which one of them had more power. In that time, I began wondering about alternate histories. What if the United States had not been able to help the South Koreans in the Korean War? What if the Democratic People's Republic of Korea had attacked the Republic of Korea and won due to the United States not being able to give aid? Surely, the North Koreans would have made the South part of their country, and communism would have spread over the peninsula. Even if the South Koreans had been able to fight, perhaps the Vietcong would have arrived to assist the North Koreans. And so, I decided that I had to write a story that involved that alternate history.

When I wrote this, I did intend to place some social commentary in it. I also intended to make it a short story. Seeing as how this is the longest BTS fanfiction I have written and posted on Wattpad so far, I succeeded at the former goal and failed at the latter. Oops.

Remember when I said that I didn't just randomly assign the alternate-Bangtan with those Japanese surnames? Here's the explanation behind the names.

I created those surnames using on Japanese words often used in surnames. Those words, either individually or apart, show a bit of how I perceive our own amazing boys and how they work, live, and just are. Some of them are connected, some of them make more sense by themselves.

Yoongi Yamashita, meaning: "mountain" + "under, below", essentially "under the mountain"

Hoseok Nakajima, meaning: "middle" + "island"

Seokjin Sasaki, meaning: "help, aide"

Jeongguk Mizushima, meaning: "water" + "island"

Namjoon Hashimoto, meaning: "base, root, original"

Jimin Watanabe, meaning: "cross, ferry"

Next: I'm very aware that this is a VERY confusing story and that there were a lot of things that were confusing,  so I'm open to any questions that you may have about the story. 

Two that I've gotten so far are: "Why are they required to wear the earring? Is it a social status?"

A: The earrings are a social status symbol, and a bad one to have to wear. They are meant to show that the people wearing them are in the job that they are, and people can say or do things to them that they couldn't to most people. The earrings are how the annoying scientific assistant, Joshua, was able to identify them. Essentially, the earrings are beautiful handcuffs chaining them to their lives.

Q2: "How and why did the world end in explosions?"

A: Beyond nuclear explosions at the major cities (including the one that the boys were at), the rest of the world died out due to nuclear radiation, as would happen with a nuclear war on this planet. But that didn't seem nearly as theatrical, just sad (and I tried making this a bittersweet ending, I really tried!), so I left that bit out. But yeah, the people/animals/life as we know it either died in the explosions or in the fallout afterward.

If anyone else would like to ask questions, feel free to ask them and I'll get back to you ASAP.

Lastly, to those of you that read this story, thank you so much for that. I hope you enjoyed it. I know I did.

Until next time, everyone!