North stared down the nurse.
She stared back, doing a commendable job of looking him in the eye.
To acknowledge her efforts, he said, “It’s still fine from yesterday.”
“Mm.” She nodded. “And if it’s to stay fine tomorrow, I need to clean it again today.”
North grimaced, making sure to show his teeth. He didn’t enjoy threatening his people, but they lacked the medical supplies to use on him.
Kim Yong-hwan didn’t back down, as she hadn’t the other nine times she had approached him. Clearly she hadn’t been lying when she claimed the General had charged her with this task because she was the bravest nurse in her unit. It was definitely how he remembered her from Paektusan.
“Fine,” North growled grudgingly. If it weren’t for not wanting to force her to choose between obeying him or the the Premier, he would have sent her away.
Which the man had known, of course. Sometimes his comrade was too clever.
“Follow me.” Kim Yong-hwan set off at a brisk pace through the underground facility they had been using, hidden in the Kangnam Mountains.
The walls were mostly rough-hewn stone, utilizing the natural caves they had expanded on, though several rooms resembled actual bunkers, with heavy steel doors and cement walls. It was much safer than the retreat in Sinuiju had been, and while North begrudged being pushed so far back, he did feel more settled knowing his comrades in the government were safely hidden away, when they weren’t heading the fight.
Not that they ever weren’t.
Around them bustled dozens of people in suits and uniforms, heading this way and that down the tunnels, heads bent together as they discussed things in hushed, tense murmurs. Many in the upper echelons of the government had been guerrillas during the Occupation, and even if they were no longer directly giving military orders, everyone had an opinion on tactics or organization. Though they all ceded to the General and the Ministry of National Defense, they still gave advice to the army, when they weren’t trying to make sure their people didn’t starve or freeze to death.
His entrance into the hallway from where he had been examining the tactical map with Choe Yong-gon was like a fly into a river of fish. Immediately he was swarmed by Party and Supreme People’s Assembly members, waving papers and clamouring for his attention.
“Comrade Korea, we’ve managed to distribute most of the winter uniforms.”
“Comrade Korea, would you like to look at the draft proposal for the underground factory expansions?”
“Comrade Korea, rations have been distributed as ordered, but our stores need replenishing.”
“They’ve hit Sinuiju again, Comrade Korea.”
“Comrade Korea, the reports on the Second Corps’ actions!”
North attempted to stop to look over the reports and summaries being thrust his way, but Kim Yong-hwan was having none of it.
“Comrade Korea is a patient right now!” she snapped, brandishing her medic’s armband above her head like a sabre. “Any proposals or what-not can wait for ten minutes!”
“I will return shortly to discuss everything, comrades,” he promised them, snagging the report on their soldiers in the Second Corps from the general as he went.
He glanced over it, summoning the image of the tactical map of the Peninsula in his mind, only half paying attention to Kim Yong-hwan leading him to his office.
ŞİMDİ OKUDUĞUN
Chasing Liberty // Countryhumans North Korea fanfiction
Hayran KurguThe Koreas were victims of Japanese Imperialism for thirty-six years, deprived of freedom in their own country. With the defeat of the Japanese Empire after the second World War, you would think that their problems would be solved. But things rarel...
