City Wall | K.Sn

| 1 |

August 1989

Four months passed since the investigation of mom and I started. What they even were investigating I didn't know. They had demanded we only speak German, and no longer spoke with each other in Mandarin. We haven't seen dad yet, they say he's still getting investigated, but I don't understand why we couldn't just visit him once in a while.

"So have they said anything new?" Tania asked as we reached the floor on which our appartments were, "where your dad is or why it takes so long to investigate him?"

"Only that we have to speak German everyday," I shook my head at her as I got out the keys for the appartment mom and I now shared all alone, "so now mom thinks I'm gonna lose my ability to speak Mandarin with our family back in China... which is just wonderful."

"She's gonna get arrested if she says anything in Mandarin," Tania reminded and I just nodded as Mark quite literally ran up the stairs to reach us.

"No, everytime you come running like that you just have bad news," I warned him as I unlocked the door and his expression immediately dropped.

"Oh come on Lianna..." Mark let out a small laugh as I just sent him a glare, "the only bad news I bring is about mrs. Wagner moving our History assignment to Friday instead of next Monday."

"Two less days," Tania remarked and I let out a deep sigh before stepping inside the appartment in front of me and turning to the two.

"Well... then I better get started, don't I?" I questioned in amusement and the two just snickered at me, "give mrs. Wagner an oh-so- well written assignment she'll never ask me to do another."

"You're gonna wing it, aren't you?" Mark smirked and I simply nodded before he ran a hand through his blonde curls and glanced at his red-haired sister. Both were complete opposites of their parents, their mom with pin-straight blonde hair and their dad with wild red curls.

"Now if you'll excuse me I'll go make myself dinner before beginning on doing literally anything else but my History assignment," I smiled widely and the two twins just snickered at me before I closed the door.

In reality I didn't make dinner, and I surely didn't do my history homework. Instead I grabbed a book from my bookshelf. One mom had given me when I was younger. She said it had been hers when she was a teenager and she had read it frequently, but no longer read it due to the worn out pages, I now could get the permission to wear out even more.

There was always a nice silence in the appartment whenever I was alone, there was no loud sounds, and no people hurting. It was just quiet, besides from when a bird would fly by and screech once in a while.

Looking up from my book and out the window I was immediately faced with the grim reality I was living in, probably why I prefered to read my books in which I could disappear into the world I wish I was living in.

Outside my window and meters down I could look over the so-called 'No Man's Land', the empty and dull part between the walls that separated the actual city center, and not just the center of the Eastern part. The windows on the floors below us had been bricked up when the walls had been built, mom said so. It was in order to make sure no one escaped, I surely never did, a jump from my window and down into No Man's Land would be fatal no matter who you are, probably why my window and the windows upwards hadn't been bricked up with the rest.

I had always wondered how it was on the other side of the wall, in reality we were only allowed to pass between the two walls by one train that ran from the nearby station. Only on clear days could I see it go back and forth. But the problem was... you had to have a valid reason to visit the other side of town and be back before dark falls. I didn't have a valid reason nor do I think I would be able to be back before dark falls if I was to go to the other side.

But Tania did, so did Mark. Which was why they had the travelpass to cross with the train. Tania was the one of the two twins that mostly spend her time in West Berlin, Mark didn't care much for it, but Tania... she could speak of it on hours on end. She always speaks so nicely of it, so much freedom and no police patroling every street corner you turned.

Looking down at No Man's Land a thought immediately popped into my head. The boy who lived in the room across from mine, across the city wall. We had made eye contact the other morning before I had to go to school. He looked so kind and so warm, something I felt like I longed for every day in this part of town. We were in reality only about 6 meters from one another, so his face was fairly clear, but it could also make me wonder why I hadn't seen him some time before.

6 meters apart, but so wildly different lives.

I immediately looked to the window I had seen him in and immediately saw him. It seemed like he sat bowed over a notebook of some sort, he was surely sitting by a desk that seemed to be pressed up right under the window. I quietly tapped on my window, even though I knew he wouldn't be able to hear it. Only the birds flying by would be able to detect the quiet taps.

But somehow it seemed like he sensed that I was trying to get him to look up, not too many seconds passed before he looked up and we immediately locked eyes. His lips immediately curled up into a smile that truly warmed me up from the pit of my stomach, and turned his eyes up into small crescents.

Within a split second an excited expression immediately spread on his face before I could see him get occupied with something and a notebook soon was pressed up against the window with a small word on it.

'Hello'

I smiled softly at the sight and immediately scribbled down my reply to him on a nearby notebook, making sure to make the letters big enough. In a way it felt unreal that a person from the other part of town would want to talk to me. ME. His world was so unlike mine, that I couldn't even imagine it.

'Hi'

The boy immediately smiled as I pressed my notebook up against the window and poked my head out from the side only to see him quickly bend down and watch him scribble down some more.

'I'm Kim Sunoo'

I smiled even wider at the fact I now knew his name. He was so warm and kind to look at and now he even introduced himself to me. I quickly scribbled down my name and pressed it up against the window for him to see. Incredible how safe and warm he made me feel. But I didn't include my surname, out of fear that the Stasi would see our small communication.

'Li Yang'

I felt sure I could tell him my Chinese name if his name was Korean. Then there was no reason for me to use the German name mom and dad had given me when we moved to East Germany. To be fair I did prefer to be called Li Yang over Lianna. Just personal preference.

'Nice to meet you'

I let out a small laugh at his reply. I continued to sit and write my messages back and forth to him for a while. It was almost like I was living myself into all those fictional worlds I've only been dreaming myself into through my books. 

Turns out we were both the same age, and his family originally lived in the Northern part of Korea, but during the war the Americans had flown them to their part of Berlin for them to live and settle down. That had of course been before he was born, but it explained why a Korean boy sat just about six meters away from me, with the widest and brightest smile anyone could possibly have.

"Lianna," mom called out as she opened the door to the appartment and my attention was immediately ripped away from Sunoo, who was scribbling something down himself, "come help with dinner."

"Of course."