Rain in Kasa-Buri- A novel

2.

"Hey, take that off my back please" one of the workers asks his counterpart to do so. The North Korean freight train had just arrived at the platform ready to depart for exporting purposes. Alex's train was an hour away from this platform and they knew the last carriage consisted some of the extra resources they could not fit in their cargo area, which they had to collect on their way to North Korea.

"Let us begin, shall we?" The workers heard a hoarse voice and knew it was their captains'.

"Yes sire"

And then, they took off at a rather fast pace. Meanwhile, Alex and his mysterious, charming yet old counterpart whom he had mistakenly offended were now fast asleep. The rest of the train was wide awake however, considering the fact that they would get to see DMZ which up until now was perhaps only possible to be seen on the television.

"Eomma, is this where big uncle Kim leads his dictatorship" A little girl asked in a hushed tone and the mother slightly chuckled before saying yes.

"Oh look, beautiful landscape, we close to our neighbour ay?" another woman was heard asking her husband.

"No dear we are still quite far. These are all outskirts of Busan, where the major crops are harvested and grown" He replied while the woman snuggled in his embrace.

In short, every passenger was continuously chattering as they could not stop themselves from going on and on about how excited they are about their arrival to the DMZ. The rare carriage of the same train spoke a different story, where one could solely hear hollow snoring.

"Sir, must we check all the boxes once before they are handed over for export" One of the officials present in the train asked his senior who replied positively. They both collectively headed towards the last carriage with a check-list in hands. This was also perhaps the last opportunity for Alex and his old male counterpart to know that they had occupied the wrong seats.

"Ah-huh" The officers coughed , as they neared the carriage. The dusty smell was a new irritant for the ones coming to the last seats for the first time, but the passengers who were sound asleep there, were already used to it. They simply did not budge.

"Sir, There are three boxes, full of grocery, these are perishable hence must be placed at the front. The other five opposite to them consist of all the delicate handicrafts so i suggest we place them in the fragile section"

The officers continued discussing and muttering about what was to be kept where. Meanwhile the goods train had almost reached the passenger train as the officers were notified about the same via their cells. The officers took half the boxes that could be picked and kept, and the heavier ones remained inside the last carriage which was anyways going to get detached in a matter of few minutes.

"We must start arranging everything at the exit now. " The senior commanded and all the workers put their entire effort to get this task done really quick because a passenger train can not be shifted, moved, driven fast or slow according to their own free will. It might wreak havoc to say the least.

Just as the worker was about to pick the last box of the stack, he noticed a slight movement under the darkness of the rare carriage.

Is that someone sleeping on the lower berth' he thought to himself but before he could do something, the senior interrupted his train of thoughts.

"Jong-soo, come on, hurry up, they are almost here!" the senior yelled and jong-soo proactively approached his senior with hurried footsteps,partially forgetting about the human he had just encountered.