Safeway Pyongyang // Reader x Countryhumans

Together Again

    The next few days were absolutely horrible for Y/N. She was- to her knowledge-almost completely alone in the high-rise, not counting her guards, who barely spoke to her. She wasn't being held prisoner- she could still wander the building, but there was no point. No one was there.

     The only signs of her friends that she had seen had been Hwang, looking even paler than usual, skulking in the hallway at night. He had looked twitchy, and had been in an intense phone call, so she hadn't called out.

      Once, when she had managed to muster up the courage to visit the infirmary, she had heard deep, pained groaning. Quietly peeking around the door, she had seen North, sitting in the same chair that he had sat by her bedside in. This time, though, he wasn't irritated, or flustered. He had had his head in his hands, rubbing his eye with his palm.

     She could just barely see Chagang's blue ankles past the edge of the white hospital curtain. They were covered in angry black and red blisters.

       Then she had been chased off by the nurses before she could throw up again.

      Y/N was also fairly certain that North and Hwang had left shortly after that, as there was only one state car left in the parking lot, and it was the one her guards were using to drive her to work.

      Outside of her work, she tried to immerse herself in 'The Flower Girl,' but the kidnapping, war, and abuse were a little too much for her to stomach at the moment. Her guards- probably sick of having to follow her when she left her room every two seconds to wander blankly down the hallway, just to go right back- brought her a small flatscreen TV, and a stack of retro-looking DVDs.

     So she binge-watched the entirety of 'Squirrel and Hedgehog' in a four-day period.

   On the fourth day she crept down without her guards in the middle of the night, desperate to eat something more filling than her stash of coffee biscuits and jelly cubes. She had never cooked Asian food before, but if she could find any semblance of meat, she could craft a bunless hamburger.

       Prowling through the lobby after she realised that she didn't know where the kitchen was, Y/N was startled when the full overhead chandelier lit up. Flinching back, she actually almost hissed.

     Luckily, she didn't, as North and his provinces- minus Chagang- were arranged in the doorway, looking tired and bedraggled.

    Feeling slightly like a cryptid, Y/N straightened up, clearing her throat. 'Oh hey guys, welcome back,' she meant to say, but when she opened her mouth an ugly sob came out, and she found herself crying waterfalls.

     SH and Hae were immediately by her side, crying too. Their collective fear and tension had come to a head. Y/N caught Hwang wiping his glasses on his shirt.

      "I'm sorry," she snuffled after she got a hold of herself. "This is stupid- I don't have anything to cry about." She had just been so relieved to see her friends again. Unbeknownst to her, Y/N had convinced herself that she was never going to see any of them again, that they had left her.

     "No, I'm sorry," SH apologised. "For not telling you what was going on. You must have been scared." On closer inspection, the province had dark bruises under her eyes, stark against her snowy skin. All of them did.

      Hae- who had gotten her sobs down to an acceptable level- suddenly burst into tears again, tearing across the lobby. Everyone followed her with their eyes, to-

      "Chagang!" Hae squealed, launching herself at him, but catching herself halfway through, settling for a gentle hug instead. The serious Provincehuman leaned against the wall and hugged his cousin.