Chasing Liberty // Countryhumans North Korea fanfiction

Not So Bad

   1950

     Kangwon rubbed his fingers together as South concluded his recounting of his experience of the March First Movement. It all lined up with what he knew.

     He remembered when he had first seen Korea stagger into the forest looking for him. His country had been disheveled, blood seeping through his ruined shirt as he clutched at his abdomen, calling out for him. Kangwon had been too afraid initially, but when the other boy had slid his back down a tree trunk to rest his head between his knees, cursing in pain, the Provincehuman had finally gathered the courage to slink down from his own tree.

     His Countryhuman had been near delirious with fever, and had born a myriad of severe bruises and cuts, most of which were infected. And Kangwon could never forget the huge gash that had marred his thin chest, pus leaking from the edges. He still had it nowadays, and always would. It had honestly been a miracle that Kangwon had been able to pull him through, and if Korea were a weaker country, he doubted he would have been able to save him.

     He had already known that Japan had been the one to inflict those wounds, but South’s story had demystified the events behind them, though not as much as Kangwon would have liked.

     No- Korea kept the story to himself for a reason. Kangwon would have to respect that and be content with the information he already had. Or try to be, anyway.

    “So you don’t know exactly what happened at the protest in Pyongyang?” Kangwon finally asked.

     South had been silent after finishing talking, fiddling with the cuff of his button-up. Now he looked up. “No, I don’t. I’ve never exactly had the chance to ask. But honestly, nothing could explain to me how he just changed so suddenly.”

    “Did he?” Kangwon asked dubiously.

    “Yes!” South cried. “He’s always been serious, but not that serious. And he was never cruel. Never…” He trailed off. “He never would have left me.”

    “I don’t think he was trying to be cruel when he left,” Kangwon said, catching himself slipping into what his cousins called his ‘bedside manner.’ “He was going to fight for our country. And he did want you to come with him.”

    South remained silent, staring at the table.

    “So why didn’t you?”

     He looked at Kangwon. “Because the idea was crazy. North has always been… aggressive. He was always the one coming up with our escape plans, and they never worked. How could I have thought his plan to single-handedly overthrow the Japanese would?”

    It hadn’t exactly been ‘single-handedly.’

    “So you thought doing nothing would be better?”

     “I wasn’t doing nothing.” South gave him a look that was equal parts defiant and defensive. “I ended up working with the Provisional Government, didn’t I? Or did North not tell you that, too.”

    “He told us.”

    “Well, there you go.” He crossed his arms. “I was just waiting for our people to rise up. Once I knew we could win, I joined them.”

    The difference was as vast as the East Sea.

     The Korean province didn’t say this to him, instead remarking, “I’m surprised you were able to get away from Japan. Korea always seemed to think you would be locked up in a prison cell somewhere.”

    “Yeah, well, I wasn’t. Not all the time. And his name is North.” South huffed. “I had to work hard to gain Japan’s… trust. Which was easy when I didn’t have someone with me challenging our guards to fistfights.”