Chasing Liberty // Countryhumans North Korea fanfiction

More Important Things

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     South Pyongan followed Korea back into the pine-shaded ravine in the Sobaek Mountains, totally not hobbling a bit.

   Okay, she was. He had a fucking mean right hook, especially when it went right into your stomach. She’d never got the sense he was holding back in their wrestling matches, so he must have done whatever the opposite of that was today.

     “Did you have to hit me so hard?” she muttered, first glancing back to make sure North Pyongan couldn’t hear her.

     He was trailing behind them, a guilty, morose look on his face. His cheeks were still tinged purple, and she could practically see handprints on them. South Pyongan quickly looked away.

   ‘It was for his own good.’

     “Also I think you bruised my windpipe.”

    “You weren’t supposed to fight back,” Korea muttered with a dark look.

     “He would’ve thought something was up if I went down too easy.” She winked, shoving away her own guilty feeling. “Plus I was getting revenge for you beating me in our last match.”

    Korea made a face at her, then strode away, taking up a position near the center of the little camp. He had that look on that meant he wanted everyone to shut up and listen to him, so Kangwon, Hwanghae, and the Hamgyongs straightened up.

    “Korea?” Kangwon asked, tipping his russet head.

     He was a chill guy. South Pyongan’s first impression of him was that he was gentle, like her brother, but now that she’d seen him take down a deer bare-handed by jumping out of a tree onto its back like some kind of big cat, she was kind of re-evaluating him. Oh yeah, and that Jap he’d killed during their little failure of a prison break. ‘BANG!’ cattle gun to the face.

    “Do any of you have any issues with killing?” Korea demanded, strafing their little group of bandits with a glare.

     “No,” North Hamgyong said immediately. He was not a chill guy. He had zero sense of humour. Like, less than Korea. And when he’d learned South Pyongan had been a fighter, he'd snorted and said, ‘You?’ like he didn’t believe her. Korea was holding her back, but she was going to get his ass someday.

    ‘Pretty fun to hassle, though.’

    “Not our enemies,” South Hamgyong said, her bow-shaped lips pressed into a line, and her eyes hard.

    South Pyongan didn’t blame her. Fuck, she couldn’t even imagine what she’d been through. If the other woman had been an absolute cunt, she still wouldn’t have blamed her. She wasn’t, though. She was sweet.

    ‘Can’t cook for shit, though.’ She shuddered as she remembered the New Year’s ‘soup.’

    “I must admit I’ve never taken a life before,” Hwanghae said, adjusting his glasses. “But I have no qualms against it. So long as it’s someone who deserves it.”

    She liked him. Easy target. ‘nough said.

     Kangwon nodded. “You already know I feel the same way, Korea.”

    “Good,” Korea enunciated. “That is how you should feel. Violence is only deplorable when it is unjust. We are hurting our oppressors, those who Occupy us and terrorize our people, not innocents. In order to stop them from shedding more blood, we need to end them. That is the only way we will ever be free.”