June marks the 5th anniversary of Hong Kong's 2019 unprecedented protests. That watershed movement and its ongoing aftermath have brought the lives of thousands of Hong Kong youngsters to a standstill over the past 5 years. 40% of the arrestees related to protest and security offences were students.

5 years on, some have moved on from imprisonment while some are still in limbo. Like many others, the path of two high school students has been repaved by that historic upheaval. It was the very first social movement in which Wong Yat Chin & Sam Chan took part when they were 18, leading them to activism but ending up behind bars under Beijing's National Security Law. DW met them again after they were released from jail. Why are the young men still determined to stay and live with the new reality in Hong Kong?