Safeway Pyongyang // Reader x Countryhumans

Two Confessions

     After finishing their meal, they handed out the leftover food in takeaway containers. It was easy, due to North's threatening glares, and they received deep bows and profuse thanks. When your Countryhuman offered something, you tended to take it without complaint.

       As night fell, the flame at the top of the Juche Tower lit up, casting a red glow over the surrounding area. Y/N had only seen the tower after dark from a distance.

       The Tower of Juche Ideology was made of thick grey stone with a gold stand capping it, tipped with the flame- a dark, translucent red in the daytime, and a bright, shining scarlet after the sun set.

       North noticed her looking. "Do you want to go up?"

       "Can we?" Y/N asked in surprise.

        The Countryhuman led her up the white stairs to the base of the tower, where he nodded at two soldiers, who let them pass.

       The inside of the tower had stone stairs that spiralled up like a lighthouse, letting them out on top of the platform, where Y/N gasped.

        From their vantage point, she could see the entire city spread out around them. To one side were the towering residential buildings looming beyond Kim Il-sung Square and their high-rise. She could see the triangle-shape of the Ryugyong Hotel piercing the clouds like a majestic pyramid, lit up by the words and images being projected on its sides.

        Moving around the gold capping to the other side of the platform offered a view of shorter buildings with flat roofs, lights in several of their windows. Unlike the huge metropolises of the West, Y/N could actually see where the lights of Pyongyang cut off, the dark plateau stretching away from it.

       The edge of the tower was thick, so no one could accidentally fall off. Y/N leaned over it, peering out at the dark strip of the Taedong River. A fishing boat was coming in with the day's catch, and some people on the shore down below were waving at it, making 'whoop'ing noises.

        She was struck once more by how normal Pyongyang was. Besides the higher number of men and women in military uniforms, and the lack of light pollution, it could have been any other city.

     "I like it here," she sighed to North.

        The country snorted. "I should hope so. This is your home now."

    'Home.'

        Y/N hugged herself, smiling. The word made her feel warm inside. Up until now, she had still felt slightly transitory, like there was more to come. But hearing North say those words- 'This is your home now-' in his gruff, just-the-facts voice, took that feeling away.

       'Home.'

        She suddenly turned to North, grabbing his face with both hands, and kissing him full on the mouth.

        The Countryhuman's eye widened in shock, before he wrapped his arms around her, kissing deeply back.

       When they pulled apart, he kept his hands on her shoulders.

       "W-What was that for?" the country asked, shell-shocked.

      'Did he just stutter?' So that was what it took to break his tough guy veneer.

       "I love you!" Y/N burst out, quickly covering her mouth with both hands.

        North's face flooded with red, even the white stripes where they crossed his cheeks, and the Countryhuman looked slightly... scared?