North - South

Weirdo

Pyongyang, October

Since when Mu Hyeok had officially enrolled – both in the army and as an International Relations student, the two things were indissociable the one from the other for people like them -, Jeong Hyeok hadn't had much time to spend with his brother.

Yes, he was basically still living at home, and the Pyongyang University shared its courtyard and several pitches with other buildings, including his school and a girl's college, so that many of the extracurricular activities still saw the two brothers meeting or even playing together, but it wasn't the same. Among the classes in the morning and the afternoon training, they never really had time.

Plus, they didn't know when, but their father wanted for Mu Hyeok to take a sabbatical from his studies and maturing field experience at the DMZ.

In short, days like that Saturday, aimlessly wandering around the mall, only the two of them and busy in picking adequately unhealthy snacks, had become rare and promised to increase rarer.

Jeong Hyeok was weighing two peanuts box when he heard them.

A male voice, and a female one, speaking half English and half Korean. They had to be strangers.

Shifting just a few cm aside, he managed to individuate the two. Yes, they were a boy and a girl, no pin. They were laughing together.

"OMO, read here. Can you believe it?" The girl was showing the package of a home barbecue, her finger pointing to the red box where, in large, white letters, was written 'the ultimate novelty for your kitchen.' Her mate laughed too. Jeong Hyeok clenched his fists. "Who knows what they would say about a boiler."

"Sci-fi."

Enough.

"It's impolite making fun of the uses of other countries!"

"Oh," the girl looked surprised when she found him looking at her, "I was just saying."

"Politeness should prohibit to 'just saying' things like these."

She lowered her head, and she was on point to say something, but Mu Hyeok found him. "Oh, you're here, were you making new friends?"

"Ani."

"Ok, let's go. I don't want to spend all the morning here."

For a while, Se-ri and Seung-jun just looked at each other. Se-ri had earnestly hoped for her brothers to decide to stay in London in the end, but of course their father had been unmovable. Plus, they had realized that being an English mother tongue in an International Relationships course in a non-English country was something. Should read: higher grades, studying less.

Luckily the two handmaids, Mrs. Hong and Mrs. Kwon, had followed the family. And Se-ri dad's closest collaborator too, the latter with his whole family, including his only son Seung-jun. They weren't friends, not in the most common meaning of the word, at least. Se-ri felt she couldn't totally trust him. But he was the kind of person with which one could laugh about similar situations, and in those first weeks in Pyongyang, it had been providential.

"Such weirdo!"

Later that night

A little, just a little, it was a shame that Seung-jun's family hadn't been invited to that party at the Foreign Minister's mansion. But ok, of all the anxieties she collected, the social was the only one missing. Besides, that night was about work, for her dad but for her too. She had to be extra kind and cute, the delicious daddy girl he so much loved to show.