Chasing Liberty // Countryhumans North Korea fanfiction

Following The Sun

Attention! Attempted sexual assault in this chapter. It is very vague and doesn’t actually occur, but it made me uncomfortable writing it so it think I should warn readers. You are warned now.

1921

 
  Bored.

    Kokai was bored.

    The boredom was the worst part of being down here, she reflected, chains clinking as she shifted in place. She could tolerate the manacles that chafed around her wrists and ankles, preventing her from moving. She could tolerate the hunger and thirst that took her captive during the long stretches between mealtimes. She could even tolerate the rats that nibbled her awake with their sharp teeth at night. Or rather, she had learned to tolerate these things.

    But she could never teach herself to tolerate the boredom.

      There were only so many stories derived from her common knowledge that she could whisper into the dark of the root cellar to entertain herself. And she had run out of those years ago. There were no new stories until Japan brought her some. And he hadn’t been here for awhile now, though down in the dark, Kokai had no idea exactly how long. Even seconds of loneliness seemed to stretch into minutes. Days could be weeks or months or years, for all she knew.

     Kokai shifted again, trying to get comfortable. Hard to do when your arms were chained to the wall. They had been tingling unpleasantly ever since her last mealtime, when her guard had decided it would be funny to shackle them above her head instead of simply behind her back. Maybe it was, she had no way of knowing. But it didn’t feel funny. Or maybe it did. She supposed it was kind of like a bunch of bees buzzing away under her skin. But still not good funny.

     Bored.

    Kokai huffed, trying to shimmy up the dirt wall and remove some of the pressure on her shoulders. Owwww. She really should have listened all those years(?) ago when Japan had warned her that another escape attempt would earn her chains. She hadn’t even been trying to escape that time! She had just wanted to see the sun she caught glimpses of when the door in the ceiling opened.

     Well, escapin’ would have been nice, too.

    Had it been worth no longer being able to move around in her small prison just to see those sunbeams for a brief moment? Kokai thought of the way they had looked streaking through the trees and illuminating the golden fields she could see in the distance.

     Maybe not. It was almost worse knowing that there was a whole world out there. Of course, she had already known from her common sense and from the brief few hours when she had first formed. But for all she knew those forests and rivers and fields could have all been wiped away while she was down here. They hadn’t been, but she was still stuck here. How could she ever pretend to tolerate this dark, dank prison when she had felt the sun on her face, heard the wind in the leaves of the trees and rustling the crops?

    Bored.

    Kokai found herself wishing that Japan would visit. He had always scared her, ever since the soldiers who had caught her first brought her to him. He had cold eyes, and he watched her like she was one of the beetles that occasionally scuttled across the dirt floor. She had watched him crush one under the heel of a polished black boot once, its body crunching underfoot. She always feared he might do the same to her with just as little care.

    Kokai pouted at the memory. Poor beetle. He had made her eat it after, too. She wasn’t sure why. It didn’t seem to amuse him. When she had asked, he just hadn’t answered. It hadn’t tasted that bad, actually, but the crunch had been a little unpleasant. She was hungry enough right now that she might eat another beetle willingly, if she could catch one.