Between The North and The South | Taekook

Chapter 1 [My Misery]

Waking up at the sound of his mother's calls, Taehyung slowly opened his orbs. Another day of absolute torture.

1487.

Following his father's decease four years ago, Taehyung's cheerful optimistic personality began to fade until all that was left is a broken boy that counts every morning that passes him, scolding himself for not having the guts to commit suicide yet, but a side of him felt proud that he managed to survive all of this time.

Because he will be strong. Just like he vowed to his father. The sheer memory of this father made his body shiver, not that it helped that his father was publicly excuted for trying to escape his home country.

North Korea.

He tried to imagine what his life would be like if he was born in South Korea, his father would be there with him, he'd wake him up to go to school and they'd have breakfast together as a whole family, their financial conditions would be much better, and he'd be free to do whatever he wanted.

He'd be able to love whoever he wanted, he would even be in a relationship with the guy of his dreams.

Yes, Taehyung, a north korean, is gay. He wondered if that scenario would ever happen to him, being in love with a guy that would share the same feelings.

He shook his head, trying to get up and made his way to the kitchen where he greeted his mother.

"Good morning." He said

"Good morning Taehyungie, I made Maize porridge!" The mother said excited, it wasn't everyday that they could afford 2 meals a day, making her extremely grateful they could afford it today.

Provision of all daily necessities and food rationing is a challenge in most North Korean households, as most people are considered middle-class or below, the only people that didn't have it as tough are those who work in the military, since they receive food and clothing from the state.

Taehyung already works in a farm as a part time job because he couldn't stand the fact that his mother will struggle alone to try to pay for his food, clothing and school supplies.

Yes, school supplies, you read that right.

In North Korea, education is free but parents are requiered to pay for schooling costs such as computers, tables and other needed supplies, if the parents fail to afford that, the kid will be punished by slave labour in labour camps.

As much as it exhausted him to work, at least he was not in one of those labour camps, and he got paid so it wasn't really that bad.

"Thank you, Mom." He replied with a smile.

They ate their breakfast in comfortable silence until Taehyung got up, "I'll take my leave now, bye Mom!" She nodded, "Byebye sweetheart!"

He grabbed his backpack filled with his special drawings and twisted the door knob. He closed his eyes sighing, "Here we go again."

He walked in the streets and clicked his tongue at the cheers and cries of people, an obligatory task given to citizens by the people's neighborhood unit.

Basically, they needed to worship and cheer the leaders every morning to show their undying love and appreciation, he scoffed ignoring them and made his way to school.

He entered the classroom and stood with all of his classmates that wore the same uniform infront of the printed pictures of Kim Il sung and Kim Jong Un to show their respect. He eternally rolled his eyes as he made his way to the seat that read 6; his number in the class, as the teacher started the lesson.

"And you need to always remember that our great leader Kim Jong Un learned to drive at the age of 3!" The teacher announced with pride in her eyes.

The students' eyes shimmered, feeling grateful that they had such an incredible leader and couldn't be prouder that they were born in the best country in the world.

Taehyung held his laugh, remembering that documentary he watched with his father that was sent to him by his south korean friend debunking the lies in their textbooks, feeling sad that everyone besides him were brainwashed to believe everything said to them.

They were not allowed to read, watch or listen to anything that came from South Korea. They were prohibited to have any kind of contact with them, people that were caught watching movies, videos or actually calling someone from South Korea were automatically sent to prison.

Computers that had limited access were legal but the vast majority of people can't even afford electricity let alone a computer.

The only place they could use a computer was at school, where they could access the internet having only 28 sites available to them at the choice of their dangerous leader.

Unfortunately, his father's TV and all the movies he had that were shipped to him by his south korean friend were all taken by the government once they found out about his intentions of escaping the country, a good thing is that his father didn't keep them at home, otherwise he and his mother would be in prison right now.

After school, Taehyung went to the farm he works in to find some other kids between the ages of 10 to 16, they seemed to have been working there for a couple of hours judging from their exhausted states, he briefly glanced at them and started working, being the eldest among them at the age of 17.

In the opposite side of the divided country, a certain boy woke up at the sound of his alarm, he sighed loudly feeling lazy at the thought of going to school, he barely had any sleep last night.

Jungkook despised school, especially that he spent most of his day there. He had class from 8am until 10pm. He thought it was very unnecessary to study for such a long period of time but apparently students had to study hard to be able to get into a good college, which he honestly didn't care about.

On the other hand he was fond of dancing, he decided to be a street dancer and his mother promised to let him join a dance school once he graduated high school, which will be this year.

He took a shower and made his way downstairs, spotting his mom playfully glaring at him for his sleepy state, "You finally woke up sleepyhead, hurry up to eat breakfast you're already late!" she said.
"Good morning to you too mom." He grinned.

She rolled her eyes, "Just start eating, your father already left to work."

He smiled seeing his plate of Kimchi and started eating while the TV was playing in the background.

He hurried once he heard the sound of the bus, "Bye mom!" he said running outside.

School was tiring to say the least. He couldn't wait to go home and the thought of escaping to go sleep in his comfortable bed was too tempting, but he had to finish all of his classes otherwise his mother would kill him so he grumpily sighed and wished minutes would pass faster if he stared at his watch long enough.

Once he finally went back home he greeted his mom, and once again he couldn't find his father. He figured he was still working and shrugged it off, but before drifting to sleep he heard the outside door unlocking and his father's voice. "I finally was able to send it!" His father announced and he heard his mom cheering.

What were they talking about?

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