Safeway Pyongyang // Reader x Countryhumans

Swim Time

    The next day, as soon as the morning music rang out, SH came and dragged Y/N to the First Department Store.

    "You should wear a two-piece," the province suggested when Y/N picked up a one-piece bathing suit.

    The girl hesitated, and SH's face immediately fell. "Oh no, I'm so sorry," she rushed. "I wasn't thinking-"

    "It's okay." Y/N smiled at her friend, unbothered. "I think that they're almost gone. I'd still... rather wear the one-piece, though."

    If it weren't for the severity, and the fact that she had got them almost right before she had left, Y/N's bruises wouldn't have taken more than two months to heal.

   'Two months?' she thought for a second. 'Have I really only been here for two months?'

    Maybe it was due to the monotony of her previous existence, but it felt like more had happened in these last two months than in the entirety of her life before that. Certainly, more positive things had happened.

    In the end, she picked out a (F/C) one-piece bathing suit.

    "Not too long ago, it was frowned upon to wear two-pieces," SH was explaining. "Korea's gotten a little less conservative. Some of the elders still don't approve of it, though."

    Y/N laughed. "I guess old people are like that everywhere. It was the same back in the States."

   "Really?" SH asked, surprised. "I thought that you all wore promiscuous clothing over there? And jeans." The hatred in the last words matched North's.

   Y/N pictured elderly women wearing some of the things that younger girls did, and shuddered. "No, thank- thankfully."

   She had almost said, 'Thank Kim Il-sung.' North was rubbing off on her.

    "Except old people aren't just 'conservative' back there," she explained. "They're 'Conservative,' with a capital 'C.'

    SH frowned. "I... don't know what that means."

   They met up with North and the others at the train station, which Y/N gaped at in excitement. She had never been on a train before. Her usual mode of transportation had been cars and buses.

   She was in a compartment with North, while the others shared seats.

    As the train rolled out of the station, she glanced curiously out of the window. This would be her first time seeing rural territory in the DPRK.

   But a voice made her dart her head back into the corridor. Several women were singing from further up in the car.

  "Are you hungry?" North asked, noticing her confusion.

   Y/N nodded hesitantly. She and SH had foregone breakfast.

   Peeking back into the hallway, she saw a group of traditionally-dressed women making their way down past the cabins, singing and pushing carts of food. They were asking people to buy snacks, in song, and handing out packages to customers, exchanging them for won.

   "What are they doing?" she asked, and North gave her a look like she was an idiot.

   "Selling food," the country said in an 'obviously' tone of voice. "And singing to raise morale."

    SH rolled her eyes from across the aisle, leaning in to whisper in Y/N's ear. "It's a marketing scheme. There are tourists on this train. Morale is also a part of it."

   Y/N found this marketing scheme to be more pleasant than TV ads, which screamed at her to buy chips, or die trying.

   North bought her two boiled eggs, then whispered to the woman handing out the snacks. She nodded, continuing down the train.