1914
“Surrender?” North asked from above him, almost sounding bored.
“Surrender!” South gasped, and immediately the weight was lifted from him.
“I win,” his brother said, semi-smugly.
“Again,” South sighed.
Somewhere around the beginning of their second year of imprisonment (and existence) the two halves of Korea had taken up wrestling. It had actually been South's idea. He had been thinking that North needed to burn off some energy instead of pacing and taunting their guards all day (usually ending in a beating). Or plotting another escape attempt (always ended in a beating).
His brother had needed to be talked into it, saying things like, “I don’t want to hurt you,” like he was some main character in a bandit story. And he said South was dramatic.
The southern Korea had laughed. “You really think you’d win?”
After enough taunts, accusations of being chicken, and goading, North had finally given in.
Unfortunately he had won that first match. And the next. And the next. In fact, in all two years of their competition, South hadn’t won a single bout.
“Stop sulking,” North scoffed, using the wooden ladle to take a sip from their drinking bucket.
“I’m not sulking,” South protested. “I’m… strategizing.”
“I’m sure.” His brother offered him the spoon, and South drank the water in it.
“Ugh, lukewarm.”
At least it wasn’t winter. Then they would have to beat the frozen bucket until it surrendered its water to them. And if he wanted a drink late at night he had to smash it against the floor until the ice cracked, or get North to do it for him. Either way, irritable brother from being woken up, and freezing South.
But ice would be nice right about now.
He voiced the thought to his brother, who snorted. “No point in dreaming of tteok. You can have ice when we get out of here.”
South sighed gloomily. Every year that day seemed further and further away. He stirred the water in the bucket, looking at the gross little particles in it. Clean water would be nice, too. He really didn’t want to think about where their guards drew this stuff from.
After a moment, North sighed. “Do you want to go again?”
“What’s the point?” South muttered. “I’ll just lose anyways.”
His brother huffed. “And who said you weren’t sulking?”
South stuck his tongue out at his other half.
“Don’t be a child. Come on.” North stood up. “We’re going again. If you don’t fight back, I’ll keep you pinned for an hour.”
Reluctantly, South climbed to his feet. He might as well.
“Nothing else to do anyways,” he sighed.
They squared up, circling around each other. North’s eyes flicked all over his body before focusing on his left side. His shoulders hunched, like they always did before he pounced, and South tensed.
But when his brother came at him, he went for his right side instead, twisting him around.
“You always fall for that,” he huffed in his ‘ear.’
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Chasing Liberty // Countryhumans North Korea fanfiction
FanfictionThe 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...
