"goodbye father," i said, doing a ninety degree bow. he nodded and headed out the door. mom was in the kitchen when i said goodbye. she was cutting up vegetables whilst listening to the radio. after a pat on the head, i left for school, meeting up with my friend kim ji-hae.
my whole life since i was four had been like this. leaving from home, walking with the rest of my district to school and back. although it sounds dire and boring, we lived in west pyongyang, only a few minutes away from school and whenever we walked to school, ji-hae and i talked about the boys in our class and whatever was happening in hyesan.
hyesan was where all of her south korean dramas came in and she had gotten a message earlier in the week that a new one had arrived. although it was highly illegal to import south korean dramas, she had everyone bribed and we lived in pyongyang .so, according to our great leader, we deserved it.
"are you coming out with us this evening?" she asked. our whole class was going to get pizza in celebration of final exams finishing but i had other plans. my whole world had changed two months previous but no one knew about it and it had to stay that way.
one day, on my pc, i entered a south korean chatroom. my father was a high ranking party official so we had, although limited power, access to the worldwide web. i met a strange but interesting boy called park jinyoung. he was training with 'JYP' which i later learned was an entertainment company in south korea. it felt weird talking to someone from the enemy country but he was kind and seemed caring enough to talk to me all the time.
"uh-hello? eun-mi?"
"sorry, i can't. dad has to talk to the family about something this evening. maybe when your drama comes i'll come over."
"fine. you're lucky you're my best friend or you'd be dead."
"i know."
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after school, they all went for pizza and i practically ran home. mom was out shopping and dad was at work when i got home. grabbing a bag of chinese potato chips, i placed my butt on the chair in front of the computer and turned it on, signing into my foreign email. once the screen loaded, a smile appeared on my face when i saw the first message.
jinyoung: home from school yet?
eunmi: just arrived in the door :)
jinyoung: how are you doing today?
eunmi: i'm glad that i'm talking to you :)
jinyoung: you're sweeter than ic...
the word that was on the screen was unfamiliar. ice c..? i didn't know how to reply so i decided to change the topic. talking to south koreans was sometimes difficult because of their use of different korean. i knew the characters on the screen but didn't know what the word said.
eunmi: how was your day, jinyoung??
jinyoung: tough. we have so much preparation for our comeback
eunmi: :((
jinyoung: have you ever been so tired that whenever you walk your legs shake?
eunmi: yeah, my school had a festival before and we had to stand for eleven hours straight
even recalling the arirang games put the fear of buddha in me. if we turned our cards too late, it would ruin the picture of our great general, kim il sung. i never understood what was so great about him anyways.
jinyoung: what school do you even go to lol?
i froze in my seat. this was the make or break point with a new friend. honesty is the best policy, but not in north korea. it can get you killed. although i was scared, jinyoung seemed different. he was kind and funny and trust-worthy.
eunmi: it's in the north
jinyoung: like in cheorwon? lol
eunmi: no, it's in pyongyang
i turned away from my computer and took out an old piece of carpet that i did yoga on. i always mediated when i was nervous but this time i couldn't sit still. i looked over to my computer and saw
one new message from jinyoung
