Chasing Liberty // Countryhumans North Korea fanfiction

A Promise Fulfilled

1919

     North Hamgyong’s breath steamed in the frigid January air, creating clouds around his face as he stalked the streets of Kanggye. Eyes watched him from the shadows as he passed, wondering if he would make a good mark. His worn, formerly white work-shirt which was now so dirty it was grey must have convinced them he wasn’t. He was like them, just another piece of trash in a frigid, remote industrial township.

     The most valuable thing he had on him was a small bird made out of stolen scrap. And he would kill someone before he let them take it from him before its recipient could.

    She would be disappointed that he had stolen, not for any idiotic ‘moral’ reason, but simply because it could have gotten him hurt. Again. But it would be worth it if it could maybe bring a smile to her face or the light back to her eyes, at least for a moment.

     As he emerged from the alleyway, spotting the small house on the hill, he halted in his tracks.

    The lights were off.

    Usually his sister would have them on, waiting at the table for him with her tea and leftovers, the one good meal he would have all week after his fourteen hour shifts at the factory. Letting herself go hungry for the day so he could eat.

     Today, his first visit after the New Year, the lights were off. He knew what that meant.

   He wanted to charge up the path, to burst in and put an end to whatever was happening in there. She was his sister. It was his job to protect her.

    It would only cause them problems. And they would be out a few thousand yen, putting her freedom even further away and making her humiliation for nothing.

    So he stayed, waiting in the dark, dank alley, until the door opened, the sound like a gunshot in the still night. A man slunk out, staggering slightly. He exchanged words with the guards, laughing drunkenly at some quip he had made. When he thought about what possibly could have been so funny to the scum, it made North Hamgyong tremble with fury.

    That was his sister they were talking about. After the bastard had just done something unforgivable to her, he was laughing at her.

     South Hamgyong would want him to wait out here. To give her time to compose herself before he came to keep her company. She would tell him that it was his hot-headedness that had gotten them into this situation in the first place.

    North Hamgyong picked at the white scar on his arm. He should stay here. He should ignore the bastard and wait to go to her.

    As the man staggered away into the streets of Kanggye, he started to whistle, a light, happy sound, as if he had no cares in the world.

    North Hamgyong followed him.

     Some time later, he returned to the house, heading up the hill. He had lost the scrap metal bird in the fight. It was probably lying in a pool of the man's blood, waiting for someone to find it. At least he had made a trade, taking the money from the asshole’s pockets, along with his shoes. They were too small, but at least they would cover his feet better than the footwraps, while the cash was another drop to fill the ever-expanding lake. And now the murder could be brushed off as a robbery, some rich schmuck visiting the wrong side of town and paying the price for it, instead of the revenge-killing it was.

    “You’re late,” one of the guards remarked as he approached.

     “Let me in,” North Hamgyong demanded, in no mood for their games.

    “I don’t know,” the taller one hummed. “Bell says it’s past midnight. You might have missed your window.”

     He looked bored. They always looked bored, like keeping his sister caged was some sort of personal inconvenience to them.