Chasing Liberty // Countryhumans North Korea fanfiction

A Good Friend?

     South sighed as he returned to the POW holding compound bright and early. Well, it was before noon at least. He’d never been too good at waking up in the morning. North had always had to shake him awake.

    Last night had been long and tough, filled with bad news. America had been trying to keep a laid-back attitude, but South could tell he was pissed as he told him that their armies had lost at Unsan, and badly.

   The news had chilled South's blood. Their armies had been at the border! How had they been pushed back to the edge of North Pyongan province?

    Part of the answer was that North’s army wasn’t nearly as destroyed as they’d thought. Judging by the numbers he had Commanded out of the Northern provinces, there shouldn’t have been enough men left to protect Sinuiju and Kanggye, let alone drive America and Rhee’s armies back from the Amnok. Maybe North had been conscripting, just like they had.

     The other part of the answer was the Chinese.

    South stood aside as a truck rattled out of the gate, filled to the brim with men with bound hands.

     The eyes of the prisoners strafed him as they went by, on their way to southern islands, safely out of reach of North.

    “Not that he would have come for you anyway,” South muttered bitterly, slipping in before the gate could close fully. His guards followed him in.

    The cold air smelled unpleasant, the stench of too many people shoved into a small space. It reminded him of the refugee camps in Busan and now outside of Seoul. Gross.

     It had to have been a fluke. Between North’s army in the north, guerrillas in the south, and the freezing mountains, they were having trouble moving supplies to the frontline. That was probably why they’d lost. And even though they hadn’t been able to reach Kanggye because of those exact same things, the Communist soldiers hadn’t been able to break out. And the Chinese had retreated after Unsan.

    Yeah. They’d be fine. The men had just been unprepared for the Chinese army, that was all. And after today everyone would know about them, so they’d be fine.

     The guard wasn’t standing outside the small building, but South thought he’d take a peek in anyways on the small hope that he wouldn’t have to walk down the entire length of the compound.

    No luck, of course. Just like with everything else that ever happened to him.

      He sighed, trudging past the scathing glares and judgemental eyes of the Communist prisoners.

    “Korea!” he heard someone cry out.

     He looked away, walking faster, mindful of America’s advice to not give them a chance to influence him.

    “Don’t bother,” another scoffed. “We’ve tried. He’s not trapped in here with us- he’s America’s bitch.”

      South flushed, trying not to hunch his shoulders.

     ‘He’s my friend,’ he wanted to say, but when he had tried that during one of his previous visits, he had pretty much been laughed out of the compound.

   So he kept his head down, reaching the small facility at the back. The main hospital was near the gate, but he had thought it would be safer to keep this patient away from anyone else, since she was… unstable.

     “Hey,” he said, poking his head in. Then he felt stupid. This was his camp- he could walk in. He did just that, finally getting out from under the scornful gazes of the prisoners and his guards.