Chasing Liberty // Countryhumans North Korea fanfiction

Searching For Sorries

North turned the newspaper- a copy of the anti-Communist Chosun Ilbo- upside down, shaking it violently. Nothing dropped from its filthy pages. He huffed, tossing it aside, the papers scattering to settle over the rest of the mess on the floor.

South Gyeongsang hated the Chosun Ilbo. Aside from being right-wing Nationalist, the paper had collaborated with Japan, always full of lavish praise for the country, even as it had been suspended multiple times during the Occupation. Whenever they had scrounged up a copy, his province would call it a rag as she crossed herself over it. She wouldn't have it in her room without a reason.

But it was empty, like every other place had been.

He turned to survey the bedroom one last time, the rummaged-through wardrobe, other scattered tomes, and messy bed. It had been in this state when he entered it, just like the other rooms in Gyeongmudae, those that his provinces had been kept in at least. It couldn't have been courtesy of looters, as his men had locked the area down as soon as they had captured it. It had to have been Rhee's guard dogs, or America's, looking for the same thing he was- messages from his provinces.

North knew at least some of them would be foolish enough to try and leave something for him, even if it wasn't critical information. But had the Commands stopped them? Or had the enemy been successful in their hunt?

The idea that even one of them had left him a message that had fallen into America's hands infuriated him, bringing back the rage that he had been trying to suppress since yesterday.

The urge to kick the tipped over desk struck him, but he forced it down, clenching his fists as he left the room.

He stalked down the hall, his boots thumping on the carpet. Its plush red fabric was unburnt, as were the papered walls. Gyeongmudae had escaped the destruction the Americans had wrought on most of the city.

North gritted his teeth. He wanted to change that, to torch the prison Rhee had been keeping his provinces in, burn it down like the enemy had burnt Seoul.

He wouldn't. It would be pointless. Whether they fought America's army at Busan, or his men left the Peninsula to attack China, either way, Rhee would never be setting foot here again.

But he still really wanted to.

The rooms of almost all his provinces had been thoroughly searched, as had the others. The outline of Gyeongmudae that SH had passed onto China had proven useful after all, not that North would admit that to him. But so far it hadn't helped him find anything useful. No secret documents, no clues on what America was planning, no messages saying only that his comrades were fine.

Not that he would have wanted that. If one of them risked themselves just to try and comfort him, he would have brought it up at a criticism session once they won. Temporary reassurance was useless when their status could have changed as soon as they wrote the note. Or because of it.

The only thing of interest at all had been the bloodstain on the floor in the room that had been SH's. The furniture had all been in place, the clothes in the drawers neatly folded. But the boards over the window and the dark, irregular shape soaked into the hardwood had been undisguisable.

North's preening at his province's daring escape had been swallowed up by his rising anger, thinking of her trapped in here for months with nothing to do but stare at the wall, just like the others. Subject to America's will.

He had left before he could put the room in the same state as the others.

One more Provincehuman's cell to check. He didn't expect much from this one, given what her cousins' recent assessment of her had been, and that she had never met him in person. But he still had to look.