Tae Yoon: Life from 2006-2021

this is the headline that south korea woke up to this morning.

after yesterday's historical and unprovoked attack from north korea, south korea is left with two dead soldiers, tens injured, destroyed homes of innocent civilians and the underlying sense that the country's comfortable mindset of safety from war can be shattered in a moment.

i woke up this morning relatively early to run errands and while i usually never watch television anymore, i was glued to the news to catch up on the latest updates. understandably, the story dominated every major network and i pondered how everyday citizens were dealing with the events.

i left my place and headed on my way, carefully studying the faces of all the seoulites around me. the weather today is crisp and sunny with passing clouds, and i found myself continually looking at the sky and wondering if there will be a day where the capital city will be engulfed by plumes of smoke and panic below.

as for the people of seoul, everything seems to be pretty normal this morning; the subways were packed during rush hour with commuters, businesses were open and ready for customers, tardy people desperately ran for their departing and already packed buses, cars waited patiently at red traffic lights, businessmen walked confidently in their suits, students in their uniforms walked stoically as they tuned out the world through their headphones, trendy young people laughed while talking on their expensive cellphones, people sipped their hot starbucks coffee with tiny straws (i still really don't understand it though), women waited with their small children for the school bus, and dense people walked down the street without a care in the world and their eyes glued to their electronic devices. it's evident that just like every other morning in seoul, people went through the motions of going about their business, unaffected by the attacks.

who knows if the country will go to war again with the north. as for now---things are still routine.