Safeway Pyongyang // Reader x Countryhumans

'Leaving' Pyongyang

     It was funny, Y/N thought dully, the parallels that life could bring you.

     'I need to leave.'

  Once she had had that same thought, lying awake in bed at night next to the man who had beat her black-and-blue.

     'I need to leave.'

      But this time it wasn't a realisation full of hope, but rather one full of grief- a harsh sun rising on dirty snow, a grey pall that made it hard to breathe or think.

     Leave? She couldn't leave. Where would she go? He would find her and he would kill her, or worse.

     'I'm being selfish again,' she realised. 'If North could sacrifice himself for his provinces or his people, he would.' In her heart, she could feel that he would do the same for her.

    Everything that the country had built, clawed from the hands of others, and gouged into the rock of this land could be ruined, destroyed in one fell swoop if he found her here.

     She thought of SH, her first real friend; of South Pyongan, always so cool; of studious Hwang; gentle North Pyongan; excitable Hae; gloomy Ryanggang, easy-going Kangwon; stoic Chagang, and even grim North Hamgyong. And North. North.

      Y/N considered them all to be her friends. And she knew that any one of them would lay their life down for each other, if not for her. She had to do the same for them. She had to surrender her cozy life for her found family.

     And she knew exactly how to do it.

     The girl didn't sleep that night. Instead, she plotted. A sad, lonely plot, but a plot nonetheless.

     The next morning, at breakfast, she smiled at North when he returned, kissing her on the cheek.

      "I've changed my mind." She smiled as she said it, cracks running up and down her heart like glacier ice. "I want to go to that meeting with you."

      Despite her resolutions, she found herself hoping that he would say no, that he'd changed his mind, too.

     "Good," he said instead. "That saves me from having to background check an assistant. I'll wake you up early tomorrow."

      "Oh, stop pretending." South Pyongan smirked. "We all know that you sleep in the same bed."

     "Shut up," North growled. "If you know what's good for you."

      Y/N blushed and laughed, but her mind was numb.

     "So, Y/N," SH asked. "What do you want to do today? Besides get some clothes picked out for tomorrow. Go to the cinema? Just out for a walk?"

     "Actually," she said. "I was hoping that we could all just... spend the day together."

      One last time.

      "Of course." SH beamed, and Hae squealed.

      "We can watch some movies on Korea's television!" she exclaimed. "We'll make our own cinema!"

      "And who said you could use the television?" North asked, eye narrowed.

     "Hey," South Pyongan suggested. "Why don't we make some snacks, too?"

      "If there's food, I'm in." Kangwon gave a lazy smile.

      North threw up his hands. "Whatever. I'll come. But only-" He pointed an aggressive finger at South Pyongan. "So I can make sure that you don't break our only television."