Tatakai [BoyXBoy]

Chapter 0

November 10, 20XX. That was the day the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea had planned to launch its missiles to the South. To the 17 Year old, it seemed as if that was the only thing going on in the country. It was in every section of the news, the propaganda posters were everywhere and everyone seemed to be talking about it.

He sighed, sprawled out across the bed. What was it that made the event so special anyway? He figured it would just be another pointless thing that would fade with the flow of time. Mir already knew how the whole thing would end.

It was the dead of the night, with hardly any light illuminating the rural areas of North Korea. The sky was dark and so clear that he could actually see the stars glimmering overhead through the window. It was as if the galaxy itself was mourning the melancholy of the situation.

… Melancholy?

He thought that was all there was to it. In the room beside his, the phone rang. For a moment, he heard nothing but his father whispering over the line, and then there was a knock on his bedroom door. It opened slowly before he could even answer.

“Mir, Rina,” his father's voice was low and stern. “I need you both to run an errand for me.”

“Now?” Rina's eyes lit up in the dark, a flash of excitement and fear in her voice. It was dark, and abductions weren't rare in the country's outskirts. It was a place where eking out a living was difficult, a ghetto where even the government had chosen to turn a blind eye upon.

“Yes.” There was rustling as the man produced an A4 sized envelope, the atmosphere pregnant with an urgency. “I need you to take this to the port. Someone will tell you what to do then.”

Only then did Mir prop himself up with an arm, allowing for the instructions to sink in. He knew that it had to be something important, something to do with their father's line of work. What was it that his father did again? Mir didn't exactly know, nor did he bother to ask. All he ever got in response was a cold glare and the flick of a wrist. For many nights, he had racked his memory for an answer to the question — A business meeting or card he had come across one time or another, perhaps? Nothing came to mind. Nothing at all, save for the fact that they hadn't always lived in North Korea.

Right. They had immigrated there when he was younger, his sister having just learnt to walk on her own. The process as he remembered it was difficult, and he recalled being at awe towards the abundance of guards that covered every meter of the nation. What happened before that? He couldn't come up with anything in regards to that.

“Okay,” Mir said with an inward sigh, sliding off the bed and walking over to collect the document. His father gave a brief nod of acknowledgement but nothing more, as Mir threw on a coat that he expected would come handy in the pre-winter chills. Rina followed, and together they headed into the night.

Overgrown plains and ruins as far as the eye could see. That was the only way Mir could describe the scene surrounding the house that the three of them lived in. He had been told that such a place would be relatively safer from the scrutinizing eyes of the political party, but Mir hadn't been so sure. Were there soldiers hidden among the long ferns, watching his every move? The very thought of that made him shudder, and he took his sister by the wrist.

With the brown paper envelope tucked under an arm, he quickened his pace across the land. The port wasn't that far at all; traveling there on foot never took more than ten minutes, and jogging took even less. Carrying only the knowledge that the file, whatever it was, must not fall into the hands of those lurking in the shadows in wait, Mir trod carefully, checking behind him once in a while to see that no one but Rina followed.