1937
“What are you crying about now?”
South Hamgyong looked up at North Hamgyong looming over her, glowering at him with an equal mix of anger and hurt. She’d read it as the jab he’d meant it as- his sister never cried. Not when she was awake.
“Don’t pretend that you care.” She looked away, running a hand over her eyes.
He grimaced at her. “I don’t. I just want to know why the fuck you ran off into the woods in the middle of the night.”
Paektusan was quiet, the end of the year chill hushed, aside from the occasional clatter of branches in the wind or the cry of a small animal falling prey to survival of the fittest. The scouts of the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army were scattered over the slopes, lurking in the forests and crags to make sure the damn Japs didn’t sneak up on the secret base.
Still, he said, “If a Jap gets you, Korea will be pissed.”
“At least that makes someone,” South Hamgyong muttered, glaring at him. Good. At least she wasn’t crying like a girl now.
North Hamgyong made another face at her, waiting in expectant irritation. She shivered, hunching into her jacket. If he were one of his weak-hearted cousins- North fucking Chungcheong maybe- he would have offered her his fur cloak.
But she was an idiot for forgetting hers in the first place, so she could suffer for all he cared.
“I got kicked out of the kitchen again,” South Hamgyong quietly admitted.
“And you’re surprised?”
“No,” she huffed. “I’m upset.”
“The cooks are getting ready for the New Year’s meal. Of course they don’t want you poisoning everyone.”
North Hamgyong thought it was a waste for the kitchen women to make more than they usually did for the holiday, but he wasn’t in charge. Korea and that Kim Il-sung were, the two already thick as damn thieves after less than a year.
“I know!” South Hamgyong snapped, then softened her voice. “I was just hoping that… I was hoping that now that we have a home, I could practice cooking.” She looked away. “It’s stupid.”
“Yeah, it is.” He snorted in derision. “We might have gardens and livestock now, but we’re never going to have enough food for the amount of practice you’d need to get good at cooking. Or even decent.”
He didn't believe in dumb shit like curses, but if he did he would have sworn one had been placed on his sister to make every bit of food she touched taste like absolute ass. Their fellow soldiers had found that one out real quick when she’d tried to cook a chicken they’d brought as a gift to celebrate the merging of Korea’s Army and the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army. North Hamgyong was just surprised they let her in the kitchen at all in order to kick her out.
“We will,” she said with an undercurrent of anger. “When we’re free I’ll be able to practice all I want.”
“Give up,” he growled. “You don’t need to learn how to do shit like that. We have plenty of damn cooks.”
Some of the people that joined up with them couldn’t fight, and they chipped in however they could. North Hamgyong thought it was just more mouths to feed and non-combatants to protect, but Korea insisted everyone that could contribute was welcome.
Fuck, hadn’t Korea said this shit enough? Why should he repeat it?
He did anyway. “You’re a good scout, Korea seems to think you’re a useful platoon sergeant, and a… passable shot.”
YOU ARE READING
Chasing Liberty // Countryhumans North Korea fanfiction
FanfictionThe Koreas were victims of Japanese Imperialism for thirty-six years, deprived of freedom in their own country. With the defeat of the Japanese Empire after the second World War, you would think that their problems would be solved. But things rarel...
