snowstorm on the yellow sea

[roule]

Hey! So this is really my first real pokemon story. I had a lot of ideas when I was younger, but for this I had to physically teach myself to write bigger paragraphs. So, you might notice the chapters grow in wordcount, just because I'm learning to describe. (I'm usually more of a visual artist...)

Something to note: This was orginally posted by me on my Fanfiction account, roulechassures. If you go on there, and see this story on there under that name, its just me, no one else.

Another thing of note is that this story takes place in the real world, with (mostly) real locations and events, the only difference is that pokemon have always existed. I will end up putting footnotes on this story (as I did on my Fanfiction version), to explain historical things and lore.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy, and I would love reviews! Au revoir!

Index

Chapter 1: Amongst the rubble they danced

Chapter 2: Every set of light here is watching

Chapter 3: I am drowning, there is no sign of land

Chapter 4: And I'm just looking for an easy way out

Chapter 5: Life is so mysterious

Chapter 6: Am I the only living soul around?

Chapter 7: Wherever you want to go, we'll go.

Extra Chapter: The Ballad of Jung Seon-hyang (part one) (part two)

Chapter 8: And thank you, my friend, for trusting me

Chapter 9: I'm not afraid, I want to keep going (part one) (part two)

Chapter 10: Dawn is coming, what's this coming to? (part one) (part two) (part three)

Chapter 11: Change come to pass

Chapter 12: I am the eye in the sky, looking at you

Chapter 13: You are the universe I chose

EXTRA CHAPTER: All I’m doing is making a different face from how I really feel

Chapter 14: Blue Rondo




Chapter One

Amongst The Rubble, They Danced.


The day I started my journey, a massive winter storm came very suddenly from the east, bringing snow, sleet, and hail up to 6 inches in diameter. The news the day before blew it off, saying that it would probably head south to Seattle or possibly Oregon instead of Vancouver and Alexandria islands, due to winds or water formations or some ******** weather magic from Tornadus or whatever. My dad had smiled at the news and patted my head, telling me that it meant that my journey would be in perfect weather, without any hitches. Of course, it all went wrong, of course it did.

I snorted awake at 4 am to the loud, shrieking two tone bell of the Alert Ready program interrupting the radio playing in my room. I didn't think that the notification would come on the radio, due to the confidence of the news casters that the storm would hit America instead, so I had cranked the volume up to listen to some classical music to ease me into sleep. I covered my ears and gritted my teeth as the bell continued to scream.

"EVENT TYPE IS BLIZZARD." The automated male voice who haunted my nightmares screamed. I winced in agony both at how inhuman his voice was and the volume. "AT 4:12 AM PACIFIC STANDARD TIME, ENVIRONMENT CANADA ISSUED A BLIZZARD WARNING FOR VANCOUVER AND ALEXANDRIA ISLANDS IN WESTERN BRITISH COLUMBIA, INCLUDING THE FOLLOWING CITIES OF SURREY, NANAIMO, VICTORIA, AND ALEXANDRIA. HIGH SNOWFALL AND WINDS ARE FORECASTED IN THESE AREAS. CONDITIONS MAY MAKE TRAVEL DIFFICULT, IF NOT IMPOSSIBLE."

I blocked out the further instructions by covering my ears with my pillow. I lived in Alexandria! Just my luck, a massive storm on the very day I was supposed to head out to China, where I was going to challenge their newly formed league system, scheduled to open in about two weeks on the 28th. I wondered briefly if Mr. Moreau, our group chaperone, was going to postpone the boat trip to Seoul because of this mess. It'd be inconvenient either way, going in the snow towards the south would be precarious and difficult, but I didn't know what I'd do for the remaining time if he called it off for another date. I'd graduated high school 2 years prior, and I wasn't currently enrolled in university due to my journey. I'd probably just sit at home doing nothing and twiddling my thumbs, like I did during most of the winter, or training my newest pokemon Varaha, a tepig my dad bred from his Emboar who wasn't quite combat ready.

The alert ended with a replay of the two tone bell and then, finally, returned to classical music.

I barely had any time to enjoy the peaceful music before I heard footsteps thumping down the hallway, the wooden floor creaking. My door flung open, and I looked over to see my dad blinking awake. My dad was pretty tall and lanky, with short brown hair and grey glasses perched unevenly on his nose, framing his round, dark eyes, and wore a white t-shirt and blue sweatpants, with dark slippers.

"What was that?" My dad mumbled sleepily. Herman, his mightyena, slipped through a gap in my doorway, and made a beeline for one of my grey socks that hadn't reached the laundry basket, sniffing at it with his dark nose.

"It was that new 'Alert Ready' program, the one that interrupts TV and radio for important information." I groaned, stretching my arms. Herman grabbed my sock and attempted to dash away with it in his jaws, before my dad caught him and yanked it out. "Apparently the weather people on CBC were wrong about the storm heading south, and now there's a blizzard warning for the entire island."

"Oh…" He said, while throwing my now even dirtier sock into the laundry basket. "Sorry sweetheart. Has Mr. Moreau texted you?"

I reached for my phone, and unplugged it from the charger. There was no messages on the screen, and I had a little flash of hope for my journey. Maybe this was all going to turn out ok, and Mr. Moreau would send me a text telling everyone that it was safe.

"No, not yet." I sighed, running a hand through my hair. I got up, wobbling on my two feet for a few seconds. "I'm gonna go make breakfast. I doubt I'm gonna be able to go back to sleep."

"Out of excitement?" My dad asked, a smile growing on his face. He was once a trainer, one of those professional ones who appeared on TV and such. I'd hadn't experienced the aftereffects of his fame, mostly because he was more… revered in America, because that's where he had his journey. It was natural that he'd be excited for me to become a trainer as well.

"Yep." I nodded, and I grabbed three pokeballs from the healing station on my mahogany dresser. My dad smiled walked out of my room, and I heard him walk back into his room. I shut the door, and quickly got changed from my pink t-shirt and neon color gym shorts into dark jeans and a black shirt. I went over to my bag and looked over all my stuff, packed the day before after nagging from my mother. A white cardboard box containing 10 regular pokeballs, 5 potions full of purplish liquid, a few sets of clothes, a few Canadian snacks for when I got homesick, my purse with money in it, The Handmaiden's Tale and my 3DS for when I got bored, and a picture of my parents. Even with all that in there, there was still a lot of room for more stuff to be shoved in, which my dad said was "essential" for a trainer to have.

I released my pokemon one by one, my starter pokemon, a clefairy named Jessica, my first caught pokemon, a nidorina named Nina, and Varaha. Jessica immediately ran for my legs and tugged on my pants, wailing for me to pick her up, which i begrudgingly did, complaining under my breath. Nina blinked sleepily, sniffing the air and looking around my room, walking over to investigate a bookshelf full of novels. Varaha just snorted a hello at me, before poking the door open with his snout and walking into the hallway. I followed him out, Nina close on my heels, and I paused at the window before the stairs, taking a peek at the outdoors. As the Alert Ready had warned, it was snowing pretty intensely, the snow coming down in large sheets of white. I could barely see our backyard, only the vague shape of our red shed towards the back. The high winds blew it so that the snowfall seemed to be going sideways, and the ground was completely covered in it, no grass visible. I frowned nervously, anxious about a possible cancellation. I preferred walking in the heavy snow to not going on my journey. I just sighed and walked downstairs, Jessica babbling all the while.

I walked into the kitchen, white tile and dark wood flooring, with a tiled island and a gas stove and massive stainless steel fridge. I gathered some ingredients together, started a fresh pot of coffee, and cut up some food for my pokemon. After I'd finished making my breakfast of fried eggs and toast, I divided up some sort of makeshift salad for my pokemon. I set out three individual dishes for them, who gobbled it up eagerly. I walked to the living room after they finished, my pokemon hot on my tail, and sat on my red couch and turned the flat screen screen flickered to a posh woman in a purple pantsuit, reading the news out.

"North Korea has condemned what they call 'military provocation' by US and South Korean forces' annual war games drill by the demilitarized zone." The anchor read, and I rolled my eyes and growled in disgust. Jessica crawled up the couch with her stubby little arms, not content to lay on the light hardwood floor like Nina and Varaha. She struggled until she managed to reach the seat, and then mimicked my slouching. "Pyongyang has specifically highlighted the use of pokemon in these drills as being 'unjust and immoral, even for American standards'."

Of course they'd mention pokemon usage. North Korea was the only country left in the world that banned the ownership of pokemon completely, as I learned in my Korean class. It was considered immoral there to view them as anything but livestock or a food source, and the only ones that weren't designated to that fate were exhibited in the zoo in Pyongyang, for people to merely look at. What a shame.

I shoveled my food into my mouth as the news changed from that subject into a new one, with multiple anchors chattering about the unexpected storm, showing some cute video of a recently hatched baby squirtle toddling around and getting into trouble by knocking stuff over, then commericals. I got up between the commercials to clean off my plate and pour myself some coffee, grabbing cream from the fridge and sugar from the pantry. I walked back to the couch to spot Jessica sitting in my seat, and and she looked up at me with a mischievous grin.

"Really?" I asked, raising my eyebrows. Jessica just giggled, kicking her stubby little feet out. I rolled my eyes and sat next to her, watching some dumb commercial about life insurance.

I watched TV for an hour, checking my phone frequently to look for texts from Mr. Moreau, which never came. Was he going to text us? Was I gonna head out at 6 am to find either a meeting or no one at all? I groaned, rubbing my face with my clammy palms. Everything was so very inconvenient…

Finally, at around 5:10, I got my answer.

Mr Moreau: Hello trainers! We will be proceeding with our voyage as usual, despite the weather. However, you will make the trip down to the docks with a preassigned buddy. Here's the list:

I laughed bitterly, massaging the bridge of my nose. What was I, 8? I scrolled down the list of names, praying silently that I didn't get someone weird or a jerk. Thankfully, I found my name ("Marie Jones") next to the name of my best friend of 9 years, Adel Barret, or 'Addy' as I called him. I sighed, relieved that I was partnered up with the one kid I knew best on the island. The other kids went to the island school, which my mother was not fond of me attending. Instead, I attended a city school in Vancouver, and Addy joined me when he moved here 9 years ago. Unfortunately, the aftereffect of this decision about my education was that I knew literally no one on the island other than my parents, Mr. Moreau (who I knew before this, because my dad traveled with him), Addy, and Addy's parents.

I was shocked out of my thoughts by loud footsteps, marching towards the stairs. I looked over to see my dad walking down, Herman not far behind.

"Mr. Moreau texted me." I said as my dad walked closer to me. "He says that everything is going to go on as scheduled, except we're traveling with a 'buddy' because of the storm now."

"Oh boy." My dad smiled, crossing his arms. "Who's your buddy, then?"

"Addy." I said, and my dad nodded approvingly. He walked into the kitchen to fix up his breakfast, and I returned to watching the news. After 5 minutes, my dad walked back into the living room with a similar breakfast to mine, and sat down next to me.

"So, I bet you're a little nervous, am I right?" My dad asked, slapping a hand on my shoulder. I nodded, cracking a somewhat anxious smile.

"Well don't be!" My dad smiled, whacking me on the back. "You're smart, and good with pokemon! A lot of kids don't have either, you know!" I laughed loudly at that.

"Besides." My dad grinned. "I bet China needs actresses as much as Canada does. If it doesn't work out, you could just star in movies there!"

I smiled and shrugged.

"Thanks, dad." I said. "I'll think I'll make it through my journey through without a sudden career change, though."

"You never know!" My dad said. "I thought I was going to be a world-famous champion, but then I met your mother, and now I'm a businessman working in Vancouver. Don't put all your eggs in one basket, young lady!"

"I know, I know." I said, having heard this speech from him multiple times before. "I'll keep my options open." Varaha walked over to my feet and snorted impatiently, and I reached my hand down to pat his head. He closed his eyes and moved in the direction of my hand as I looked at the TV, which now had a cooking show on.

I heard footsteps again, and me and my dad glanced over to see my mother descending the stairs. Her dark hair was in a messy bun, random strands of hair framing her oval face, blinking at us with dark round eyes that pointed up at the corners. She wore a navy blue hoodie and black sweatpants, and walked down the stairs barefoot.

"Morning." I greeted her.

"Mornin'." She greeted sleepily, walking towards the kitchen. My dad and Herman quickly followed her, and so I was left alone again. A few moments later, I heard a series of loud metallic crashing noises, and Jessica and I jumped to our feet.

"Everything okay in there?" I yelled, walking towards the kitchen. One of the pans was on the floor, and my mother was scolding Herman, who was panting and wagging his tail.

"Herman scared your mother." My dad explained. I giggled at it briefly, before my mother walked over to me. She enveloped me in her arms, swaying side to side somewhat.

"My little girl… all grown up…" My mother sighed, very close to tears, and I rubbed her back softly. "I can't believe you're gonna be going on your journey in an hour…"

"I can't either." I said. My mother hugged me tighter, and then separated from me. She ruffled my hair softly.

A few minutes later we were all back in the living room. I'd brought down my bag after my mother told me to bring it down. We were all watching a stupid show about home renovations until we heard a knock at the door. My dad got up to answer it, and I retrieved all my pokemon in case Addy had arrived. All I heard at first was the roaring of the winds, and I saw snow flying through the door.

"HEY!" My dad shouted to me. "GET YOUR COAT, ADDY'S HERE!"

I rushed to grab my puffy green coat with the furred hood, and tied up my dark brown hiking boots. I ended up slipping on dark gloves and putting on a white scarf and a black hat. I walked over to my mother after I finished dressing up, and she stood up and embraced me again, and I heard her breathe out shakily, and my stomach fell.

"Make us proud out there, okay sweetie?" She asked, and I nodded. She moved the dark bangs from my eyes and kissed me on the forehead, before ushering me off to my father after handing me my backpack.

My dad wrapped his arms around me and held me tight to him, thwacking my back hard multiple times. After the hug, he put his hand on my shoulder tightly, and looked me over with a gigantic grin.

"You'll do great out there, Marie." My dad said, and I smiled back, trying my best not to cry. It was hard not to, my eyes were itching painfully and my throat was constricted with anxiety. "Just make sure to call, okay?"

"Okay." I smiled, and waved as I walked outside, shutting the door behind me. Immediately I was attacked by winds blowing at high speeds, bringing snow directly into my face. The deep forest that surrounded the island stood above me with its large pine trees bending with the weight of the snow, dark from the lack of light. Addy was somewhat visible with his ketchup red coat peeking through the storm. His hood was tightened around his face, to the point where the only thing visible was his dark hair and the tip of his tan nose.

"What's up, dude?" I shouted over the wind, hoping he could hear me.

"Nothing much!" Addy screamed with his California drawl. He began to walk south, towards the docks, and I followed eagerly. "Some storm this is, huh?"

"Yeah!" I shouted back, gingerly stepping down some steps. I could see the town center close by, a stone covered avenue full of shops and gardens in the summer. Now, everything was covered up by the all consuming white of the storm. "Guess the weather people really lied to us this time!" Addy laughed.

"So," I asked, after we had passed by the town center and headed deep into the woods, guided by the footprints of students who'd already made the journey. "You planning on doing a contest or something like that when we reach Seoul?" Addy wasn't very into battling pokemon, instead he had always been interested in performing in contests or movies, but mostly movies. We probably had no less than 100 videos of us as kids making stupid little movies. My mom definitely has at least 25 of those tapes

"Dunno." He shrugged. "Are you thinking about challenging the gyms there?"

"Maybe. Probably just one or two badges though, we don't have enough time for all 8."

"Yeah, I think you should relax a little in Seoul…" Addy smiles. "The hard stuff's gonna be in China. Might get an acting gig there."

"I think they'll choose you because of your California accent." I joked, and Addy rolled his eyes. "Makes you look posh and ****."

"What about your Canadian one, huh?" Addy teased. "Makes you sound like you came from 'Trailer Park Boys'." I rolled my eyes.

"I told you that you'd get preferred because of your accent, and you make fun of mine?" I said in mock offense, holding my hand to my chest. "I was trying to be nice!"

"Well, maybe if you complimented my hair or my eyes…"

"Fine. Your hair is wonderful and you're perfect for movies." I sighed. "Now you've reached a full complement. Happy?"

Addy nodded, and we mostly kept silent as we climbed down the rocky hill towards the dock, which was barely visible in the distance. There was dark railings on the side, and I held onto them with white knuckles as I lowered myself down. I knew this was going to happen as soon as that two tone bell rang for the Alert Ready alarm. I knew that it was going to be nigh impossible to get my way down towards the docks. And what if there was ice on the dock? I shuddered at the thought of slipping on the ice down there and breaking something in my body before my journey.

After a precarious journey down, we managed to get our way down to the dock with a few close calls of mostly me slipping before managing to catch myself. The concrete dock was mostly covered with snow, and the grey waves slammed against the shore violently. The boat we were going to travel in was towards the end of the dock, massive, imposing, and mostly blending into the white with it's light grey color. I wobbled towards the boat, Addy waddling behind me. I thought about my journey as I walked forward, how it was going to go. I doubt the snowstorm meant anything, some sort of curse that damned me to have an awful journey. I didn't believe in any of that stupid superstitious stuff. I was gonna have a good journey, and everything was gonna smooth itself out shortly.

Of course, I was utterly, completely wrong.

The snowstorm was just the beginning

 

[roule]

Chapter 2

Every Set of Light Up Here, is Watching


Nothing bad happened immediately, that'd be too funny to not mention. The boat didn't catch on fire the instant I got on, there wasn't any sudden rocking or a loud explosion as we sunk to the ocean floor, and I wasn't informed that there was a serious mistake, and that I would have to return home. I merely walked onto the boat, into a large lobby covered in dark emerald carpeting, with dark blue plush chairs facing towards the large observing windows in front, and what appeared to be a kiosk towards the back, with a fridge and a menu I didn't bother to read. I had my name checked off by the captain, who knew me from years of shipping me off to school, and smiled at me, and I walked through the green colored hallways to my cabin to put my stuff down or maybe nap a little. My cabin wasn't terribly huge, having a small bed, a chair, and a dresser with an Aero candy bar and a Coke on top, presumably for me. I smiled a little, amused that the captain remembered my favorite soda and candy, and put them in my bag for later, not wanting to gorge myself on crud before I had dinner, and end up feeling disgusting the rest of the day.

After I grabbed my pokeballs from said bag, I walked over to my bed, and laid down for a nap. To my surprise, the bed wasn't too small for my above average height of 6'0, and I wasn't too excited about my impending journey to almost immediately fall straight to sleep when I put my head on my pillow. I convinced myself that it would be just a small nap, and I'd be up and about at 7:30 to meet everyone that I never had the chance to in Alexandria, and maybe sneak a snack from my bag for my pokemon so they wouldn't be ravenous before dinner.

Instead of waking up well rested and excited, I woke up disorientated, so hungry my stomach felt hollow, and I felt a sudden wave of anxiety at the unfamilarity of my surroundings. I took a few seconds to remind myself that nothing bad had happened to me while I was asleep, and I wasn't kidnapped by someone. I stood up, wobbled a bit, and walked out in the halls to the front of the boat, and saw that the sun was just beginning to set. I dashed to the dining hall, and bumped into Addy. He was dressed down so that his wavy dark hair and oval shaped face was visible, and holding a tired Bunie, his buneary in his arms, who was clutching onto his maroon shirt tightly.

"Woah, watch it!" Addy shouted, and I grabbed him by his shoulders, looking at him through my shaggy bangs, and he visibly flinched, looking wide eyed at me. Bunie merely glowered at me between her big fluffy tan ears, having never gotten along with me no matter how hard I tried.

"What time is it?" I spluttered out.

"It's 6 at night, we're literally about to eat dinner." Addy replied, brows furrowed and face contorted in confusion. "I was gonna get you so we could... Are you alright?" I slumped forward, and held my head in my hands.

"I overslept." I groaned, and Addy let out a loud chuckle at that, and the brown rabbit looked up at him in confusion.

"I figured. If there's anyone who can literally sleep through the excitement of going to a new country, it's you." Addy snorted, and I looked up to scowl at him. "Remember when you were late to graduation because you wanted a high score on Elgyeman?"

"Point me in the direction of where I asked." I snapped back, and Addy smiled at me.

"Ugh… now all my pokemon are going to be hungry, and Jessica's probably going to go straight for my ankles." I groaned, and I walked away to face the music.

After corralling 3 hungry and grumpy pokemon to the dining hall, which took a good 10 minutes of trying to avoid having my ankles and fingers bit by both Jessica and Varaha, we headed down a floor to get food. The dining hall was a surprisingly rich looking place, with red cloth embroidered wooden chairs, dark wood tables with bright red and gold tablecloths, and red carpet, but steel serving stations, a reminder that this was still a boat, and not some room in a mansion. I got food for me, and grabbed some tomatoes and an apple for Nina, who was behaving herself this evening, and not trying to gnaw one of my fingers off. I walked over to the table where Addy was sitting, surrounded by his pokemon. The instant I walked over to him, Bunie, who was standing on the table, eating her greens voraciously, she narrowed her eyes and jumped into Addy's arms. I shrugged my shoulders in acceptance, and sat down, putting my pokemon's food on the ground, finally letting them chow down.

"She is literally never going to like me." I groaned, digging into the chicken parm I got. "Ever."

"Well, honestly, Jessica hates me, so it's only fair." Addy gestured with his sauce covered fork to Jessica, who was glaring back at Bunie, while eating her Frosted Flakes.

"She doesn't like anyone, other than like my parents, Nina, and the cashier at Costco who gets her Frosted Flakes! Bunie loves literally every other person she meets except for me!" I said, and only got a shrug in response from Addy.

"So," Addy asks, finishing off his lasagna, and fidgeting with his fork, as the bunny pokemon continued to glare angrily at me. "Are you going to get a water type to counter against the Seoul gym? Isn't it a fire type gym? I overheard some other kids discussing it."

"Yeah, I think I'm going to buy an egg when I'm there." I say, between bites of lasagna, wiping my face with a white cloth napkin. "Never was so great with fishing... Same with dad, ended up getting his water type as a gift during his journey."

"Oh, I remember." Addy says, a smile growing across his face. "Took you 4 different days to catch one magikarp for that high school assginment. It was so depressing!"

We spent the remainder of our meal discussing things about the journey, like which restaurants to visit in South Korea and of things to do there. Addy seemed intent on trying Bunie out in a movie there, having always preferred contests (mainly held places like in Japan, Los Angeles, Beijing and New York City) and acting to battling, which I agreed with. Even though the little rodent could be a real pain, she still had a lot of potential to be a star, and even had the sob backstory of being bought in an orphanage for only 40 dollars. After an hour of talking, in which the sun dipped under the waves, leaving the windows pitch black, and eating some dessert, we both retired to our cabins for the night, where I fell asleep again, but only after an hour of playing video games on a 3DS.

The two and a half days after my first day were almost identical. I played games and went out to the deck of the boat in the early morning, before going to breakfast, having some pancakes and feeding my pokemon. I would then talk to Addy about little things over coffee, and then take a nap until lunch, eat lunch with my pokemon, and then read or sleep until dinner. I'd eat dinner, call my parents, and then sleep again. It was pretty monotonous, but it was leading up to one of the biggest moments of my grown life, so I didn't mind the mind numbing boredom as much as I would if I was at home, in Canada.

Finally, after those two and a half days were up, on a surprisingly calm day, our real journey began. After dinner, we were told by Mr. Moreau, who had accompanied us on the boat, to pack up our stuff in our cabins, put on clothes you wouldn't mind sleeping in, and head to the hold. I eagerly put everything away, including several more things of sweets that I bought from the kiosk in the front of the boat. After I gathered all my things together, I took one last look at my cabin, before I went to the hold. The hold was a large metal room in the bottom of the boat, with notches in the floor to allow the boats to go down into the Yellow Sea, in the hull, with 12 lifeboats attached to a machine to lower them into the water, for each of the 12 kids. Releasing boats with the travelers on then was a tradition as old as the voyage itself, because in old times it was practically required to take a boat anywhere, despite being unnecessary and very unsafe. Even my father, who could've just taken a train down, took a boat to California instead. It was odd tradition sure, but it was still a tradition, and it meant a lot to the community. We were informed of what to do when we arrived in South Korea, which was to basically go to the nearest town and take a train to Seoul to have your passport stamped, then continue. Another kid brought up what to do if they somehow ended up in North Korea.

Mr. Moreau frowned, and looked thoughtful for a second. Then, he replied:

"Try going to the British Embassy, and calling the Canadian government, and say that there's been a horrible mistake." Mr, Moreau says, and quickly, his voice became stern. "However, let's try our best to avoid landing in North Korea at all costs, because we can't guarantee your safety there."

The other 11 kids and I were lead off to our boats by Mr. Moreau, with Addy taking the 3rd boat on the left and me taking the fifth on the right, I waved to him as I passed, and he waved back at me. Now that the boat was closer to me, I could see that it was just a larger than normal, but otherwise a normal metal skipper, with a large "5" and "CANADA" written on it, albeit with no motor. Inside was a tied down sleeping bag, and a large bolted container for my bag. I looked around to see other kids putting their stuff away, laying down in the sleeping bag, and then Mr. Moreau would walk over and pull a breathable tarp over the boat. I put my bag in the container, took off my shoes and put them in too, and pressed my hands hard on the lid to make sure it was tight. I stepped precariously into the boat, and I slid into the sleeping bag, and waited for Mr. Moreau to put the tarp over me. I was already sweating from excitement, and it felt like hours until I heard him approach.

"Are you ready, Ms. Jones?" he asks, looking down at me with a smile.

"Yes, sir." I nodded.

With that, he pulled over the tarp, and I only saw dark blue. In a few minutes, I was asleep.

I have no idea what happened after I was asleep, because I did not wake a single time during my voyage. I've guessed that a stray wave flung me off course, or a sudden storm broke out. I have no idea how I wasn't stopped, or shelled to oblivion by the forces by the DMZ. Whatever happened, it moved my boat far away from where it was supposed to go. Maybe it was destiny. Maybe it was luck. Maybe some ******* forgot to go to their post that evening. Whatever happened, it happened.

I actually remembered my dream that night, too.

I was alone, traveling a distant path by foot, walking a long distance in the sweltering heat of a mid summer day, sun shining brightly in my eyes and, far away from what I knew. I saw a river distantly in the horizon, the light making it reflect a dark blue, and I walked closer to it, trying to get to it. When I reached the river, the riverbed making the water appear dark, I found that it was a wild thing, churning and rushing past me, crashing against dark rocks littering its path, and whipping around the corner out of my sight. I turned my head, and saw a large mountain in the distance, not as big as I had remembered Mount Rainier being during my brief visit to Seattle, but still large and foreboding or whatever dream mountains are supposed to mean. I watched the river run past my vision, unsure of what I should do, or how I should pass over it. As I contemplated how to make it over the river, I saw something move in the river's path, somewhat deep underneath the water. I looked closer, and I managed to make out what it was, which caused my stomach to drop and a cold sweat to break out over my body.

It was a woman, dead, face crumpled in pain, and that's all I could make out before it disappeared. Suddenly, I saw more bodies in the river, men, women, children. All of them had drowned trying to cross. Naturally, that made me afraid, reluctant to proceed further, but my body started to step on the rocks to cross without my consent, and I tripped against one of them, my body not registering the pain, just the nauseating drop of my stomach, and fell, fell!

I woke up with a jolt to the sound of waves crashing against the hull of the boat, and I slipped out of my sleeping bag, quickly checked that all of my stuff had made the journey, and put slight pressure on the bottom of the boat with my bare foot, to see if I was on land or adrift on the sea still. I heard a slight but noticeable scratching noise against the metal bottom and a firm feeling, and I peeked out of the tarp. I was on a wide beach, only barely on the sand, with grey rocky sand, clear water, and blue skies with bright white popcorn shaped clouds. I slid from an opening in the tarp, and crawled on my hands and knees, feeling the wet sand dig into my palms, until I managed to stand up using the boat, and I was hit with the bone-chilling cold of the ocean breeze, which might have been nice if we weren't in the end of January, beginning of February, causing me to shiver and cover my arms. I pushed the boat further inland on the beach, to prevent it from getting washed away while my thoughts were elsewhere.

Looking around, I managed to see a large forest right in front of me, with thick trees that had lost their leaves, and distant pine trees. After looking around me just to see more grey sand and dark waters, I managed to spot a sign and a road not far ahead. I hobbled forward as fast as my bare and cold feet could take me, and approached a large wooden sign at the beginning of the beach, written in Korean, confirming that I did not end up in China. It gave the name of the beach, Nampo Beach, and I read nothing further, blindly assuming that I had landed on a beach a few cities away from Seoul, which was a huge mistake. I walked onto the dirt road, watching out for any vehicles flying straight towards me at a breakneck pace. I walked forward on the gritty dirt road, trying to ignore the pain in my bare soles, and the utter cold, which did not improve at all as I left the coast, only seeming to get more bone chillingly cold.

I walked a decent stretch up the road before I caught a glimpse of a gigantic red, blue, and white sign, written entirely in Korean. I squinted at it slightly, and walked around so I wasn't reading it at an angle.

The sign read:

"GLORY TO THE ETERNAL PRESIDENT, KIM IL SUNG!"

I stared dumbly at it for about 5 minutes, craning my neck slightly, before it all came onto me, and I felt my blood run cold, and I began to feel sick.

Stupid, my brain screamed as I ran down the road as fast as I could, back to the boat, stupid, STUPID!

 

[roule]

Chapter 3

I am drowning, there is no sight of land.


Thankfully, by the time I reached the beach, with aching, dirty feet, no soldier had suddenly arrived to inspect it, probably because it was the middle of winter, and no one would be by the water if you weren't crazy or trying to die via exposure.

I quickly rushed to pull off the tarp cover, and flung it on the sand. I quickly tore off the cover of the container, grabbing my hiking boots and socks, quickly putting them on after gently using the freezing seawater to clean my feet. I grabbed my backpack and quickly checked for my pokemon, and breathed a sigh of relief when i found their pokeballs unharmed. I crawled in the boat, and reached for another large box wedged in the very tip of the boat. I managed to slide it free, while also ripping my sleeping bag out of the boat, and I eagerly opened the box.

The box contained emergency biscuit rations, matches, tinder, a first aid kit, a Swiss Army knife, what appeared to be a large space blanket, three tins of water purification tablets, some canned food, a flare gun, fishing kit, other things that had absolutely no value to me, and an actual, disassembled pistol, mostly black but with a brown grip, with live ammunition close by. I stared at that pistol for a minute, feeling mixed emotions of shock and confusion at the fact there was a real gun stocked in my boat. I tried to muster up memories of when my American uncle took me out to a shooting range to show me how to shoot a gun, and then promptly got yelled at by both my mom and grandma at the same time, an amazing feat, but I couldn't remember how to reassemble it for the life of me, only how to shoot. Thanks a lot, Uncle Rich.

After another minute of staring at the disassembled weapon, I managed to reassemble it without killing myself, and clicked the safety off, and kept it nearby. I grabbed the emergency box, and stuffed it in my bag, before grabbing a change of clothes, which was a long sleeved dark shirt, dark pants, and my jacket from before, and flung the tarp over me and changed clothes. I packed my clothes, the emergency box, my sleeping bag, curled up into a ball and the tarp, also rolled up. I sat down on the beach, and tried to think of something, anything, that could help me. I remembered what Mr. Moreau said, about going to the British embassy in Pyongyang. Pyongyang could be anywhere from barely a day's walk to nearly a week away. I'd have to walk for a long time, with potential contraband on my shoulders. However, I knew I had to do one thing before I went anywhere.

I looked back at the boat, looking for those distinctive red letters. Before I did anything, I pulled out my camera, a gift from my mother to chronicle my journey, from my bag, and took a picture of the boat, to preserve it in case anyone said I was a liar. I put my bag down, pulled the pocket knife, and started to chip away at the "C" in "CANADA", until the "C" came off. It took a long time to remove all the letters, but it was worth not getting my home country tangled in North-South Korean political nonsense in the end. After I removed the letters, I pushed the boat out into the ocean, and watched as it floated away, until it was out of sight. Now with the fear of accidentally starting World War 3 because of a single mistake off of my shoulders, I picked up the gun laying in the sand, and began my trek north.

Even for someone who lived on the coast of Canada, where the summers were always chilly at best and the winters were nearly unbearable, North Korean winters were pretty cold, even barring the fact that I was right by the ocean, making it even colder. After trekking past the sign from before, I found myself blowing on my hands to keep warm. When I reached a small clearing a few meters away, I sat down and pulled out my pokeballs and some biscuits from the box. I sat cross legged on the dead grass, took a deep breath in, and released my pokemon, who simply sat and stared at the food that I gave them. Varaha even seemed uneager to eat, for the first time ever, and Nina looked straight at me, unflinching.

"This is all we have for now." I said over the cacophony of growls and indignant squeaking from Jessica, who looked ready to bite my hand off. "Let's eat."

"Eat it, Jessica." I said, pushing the biscuit towards her, causing her to turn away. I felt my throat constrict, and I swallowed. I'm not going to lose it right now, I'm going to be calm and collected, and think this all through logically.

"Please." I begged, but none of them ate, merely staring at me if I had lost my mind. I swallow again, don't lose it, don't lose it, you are calm, don't lose it, don't-

"I'm sorry, okay? I'm lost in a dangerous country, and I can't just parade you around here!" I snapped, and the pokemon stopped. I rarely raised my voice at them, not wanting to be like the trainers in my school who screamed at their pokemon at high volumes after losing a schoolyard match. "I don't know how long it'll be until I can buy us food, and I don't know when we'll be where we're supposed to be! Just eat the biscuits, please?"

Nina was the first to reluctantly eat the biscuits, and the two other ones soon followed. I decided to eat the biscuits too, because I hadn't had any breakfast either, and I needed to eat something before I walked. The biscuits were small, white little things, and one bite yielded a stale, rancid taste, and I wondered how old these biscuits were. I pressed forward, and was able to down two before nausea prevented me from eating anything more. My pokemon had finished before me, and were watching me as I coughed, covering my mouth as I did.

"I'm sorry for yelling." I say quietly, shoving the biscuits back in the backpack. "I'll get you all something nice when we get to the city. Some nice apples for Nina, some toast for Varaha, and some sweets for Jessica." I let them back into their pokeballs, and I sigh, wipe my eyes, and continue forth.

After about 10 whole minutes of walking, I spot the city ahead, and I move slightly faster, but not in a full dash, to avoid attention if someone walked by. As I climbed the hill, I look around for some form of crowd to blend into, but I end up just trying to make myself as small as possible while crossing the road. I stuffed my firearm in my pocket, and walked through the city.

If I had stayed behind and looked for crowds, I would've been standing in that spot forever, because, as I found out walking through the run down city of "Nampo", there are apparently never any crowds in North Korea, or maybe just Nampo. There were men on bikes, passing me by, groups of women chatting with each other about what movies were on TV, children, or food, children running around, and stopping to look at me with an odd expression on their faces, but no crowds of people. I stared right back at the gawking kids, feeling like a circus animal, and they ran away from me, quickly looking back at me. I snorted quietly to myself, but almost immediately regret it. What if they snitch to their parents about the "weird girl with the backpack" who stares at them, and I hadn't left the city yet? What if their parents snitch to the police, and I get the army tailing me? I could see the headlines now, "Canadian Spy Executed, Death to Trudeau and the West!".

I shake it off, blaming my paranoia for making me irrational. I need to stay rational, stay calm, so I didn't mess up and end up dying in a horrible manner.

As I follow the road, which had no cars on it for whatever reason (probably why so many people were biking), I passed through an open air market on the walkway, filled with stalls with meats, fish, street food for the commuters, and produce. I went over to the produce stand, and bought some lettuce, and a couple of tomatoes for Nina, and the rest of the pokemon, and grabbed the yuan I had exchanged a few days before. The older gentleman, with his thin frame and tired eyes looks at me, shrugs, and takes the money, and bags my produce.

"Thank you, comrade." I said, with a fake smile, and left as quickly as possible without looking overtly suspect.

I felt eyes turning to me with an offended look in their eyes, probably because of my very strong accent or something, crawling all over my back, and I moved faster, trying to outrun them. I managed to free myself of them, shaking my head lightly. I hated this place, I hated being looked at with suspicious eyes, my mind scream hysterically, I want to go home! Calm, I told myself, stay calm, being irrational will be the end of you. Kim Jong-un doesn't care if you're innocent and scared out of your mind, he only cares that you're Canadian, that you have contraband on you, and how many things he can get you to confess to under torture. So stay calm, I repeated, being calm will get you out of here.

Soon, after repeating my "stay calm" mantra 3 more times as 3 more people stared at me, eating a snack made up of rice, rolled up in seaweed, that vaguely resembled a dish I frequently saw people in Koreatown in Vancouver eating, which I bought, and procuring a English-language map from the trash, the city of Nampo was behind me, and I was facing the "Youth Heroes' Highway" (which garnered a quiet snort from me), which, according to the map, was one of the main paths to Pyongyang. I'd have to walk on it for a indeterminate period of time, and dive into the woods whenever I saw a car pass by.

I sigh quietly, and walk towards it, darting to the shoulder, where I was less likely to get hit or spotted by someone.

Surprisingly, throughout my 3 hour journey, I only had to dive off of the road one time.

It was when I was halfway to Pyongyang, and I was listening to music as I walked, with one earbud in, one out. I was humming along to a Chinese song that my mom used to sing to me, before I suddenly heard the deep roar of an engine, and I jumped from the shoulder and I rolled down the grassy hill before I caught myself, feeling and hearing the contents of my bag rolling about. The rickety, white truck filled with soldiers clutching to the sides so they wouldn't fall off, roared past, not noticing the girl who flung herself off of the road.

Other than that close call with capture, I managed to make it to Pyongyang without getting run over or spotted by the North Korean military, which caused me to walk through the woods to avoid a checkpoint populated by two young looking soldiers, until I reached the sidewalks of Pyongyang. By the time I reached Pyongyang, the sun was setting, and there were actual lights in the skyline, instead of darkness, which was what I honestly expected.

Pyongyang isn't a stunning, commercial center city like New York City or Toronto is, and isn't a government city populated by monuments and history like Washington D.C. or Ottawa, it's somewhere in between, straddling the line between the two. There are tall skyscrapers climbing up to the sky like streamers in a parade, actual crowds (small) of people walking about, actual buses driving past, a bit old and rusted, but still buses none the less, and what appeared to be train stations, and then there are large monuments to "Songun ideals" scattered around, Songun translating to 'military first'. It was like, after the Korean War, Kim Il-Sung didn't know what city he wanted, New York or D.C., or fought with his personal architect over plans before executing him and his family in a stadium as hundreds of people watched. Basically, Pyongyang was a mess.

But wherever I went in Pyongyang, I was always followed by the gaze of the chubby smiling face of either the graying Kim Il-Sung, or the pompadour of his son, Kim Jong-Il, and their ridiculous slogans. Their faces were plastered literally everywhere, monuments, storefronts, murals, all covered with their faces, looking down at their citizens, or in some cases, leading a gaggle of soldiers, somehow providing leadership by smiling and pointing. At least in Ottawa, I didn't see gigantic pictures of Justin Trudeau staring down at me, proclaiming to me that I should work to show glory to him, or bronze statues of Obama leading people to victory in Washington D.C. Anyway, any chance I got, I took pictures of my surroundings, and hid my camera in my coat when I passed by a soldier, who would almost always stare at me. Pyongyang was positively teeming with them, and I found myself in a constant state of anxiety, monitoring myself for any signs of suspicious or 'western' behavior. I watched the kids my age interact, and I began to imitate them, which seemed to garner me less stares.

After a little wandering, I found myself in front of the British Embassy, which wasn't just British, but German and Swedish as well, and I walked towards it with a smile, rehearsing the speech that I would give the person working the counter. The speech would go something like "Help my boat washed up on North Korean territory and I had no intention of going here to spy or overthrow the Kim dynasty please just drop me off in Macau I'll be fine there". I was only a few strides away from freedom, and seeing my family again. However, as I walked forwards towards the embassy, my smile dropped off my face. On the front of the embassy compound, there was a massive sign written in both German, Swedish, French, and English. The sign read:

"ABSOLUTELY NO CONTRABAND IN OR OUT OF EMBASSY BUILDINGS.

VIOLATORS WILL BE IMPRISONED"

I was screwed. Absolutely screwed. If I entered that embassy, I would have my bag searched, my pokemon would be found, and I would be almost immediately thrown to the government to do whatever they pleased with me. I'd have to stay in North Korea until I could find some tourist group to blend in with to take me home. But that could take days, month, years! What if they test missiles or nuclear bombs again? What if I'm trapped in the next Korean War? What if I'm framed for passing out religious documents. What if I live here for the rest of my god forsaken life, and I marry some dude, have his kids, and watch as they're permanently indoctrinated into the North Korean personality cult?

Hey, my logic asked, can't you just cross the border into China?

That's it! China! I already had a visa to train there, so it technically wasn't illegal. I could just walk all the way up the border, camp out for a few days, and then end up in Beijing like nothing ever happened. I'd have to stay in Pyongyang for about a day to look for extra supplies, but it's still worth a shot! All I had to do now, was to find somewhere to stay for the night

I walked around, trying to scope out a place to sleep for the night or feed my pokemon, that wouldn't lead me to get caught, before my feet lead to me to a large amusement park, with bright lights and screaming people. The sign at the front read "Runga People's Pleasure Park", which was a pretty interesting name for an amusement park, I guess. Maybe there were some worker's quarters that were unoccupied, so that I could sleep a little tonight. I tried to get into the gates, but I felt a hand on my shoulder, and turned to make direct eye contact with a soldier, causing my blood to turn cold. He was about my age, potentially younger, with a scrawny build, tan skin, short height only reaching to my mouth, and an uniform bigger than him, his eyes peeking out of his hat with a glare.

"What are you doing?" The soldier asks firmly, and I quickly jumbled a bunch of excuses from my head, hoping to get one good one.

"I'm going to get my aunt from the amusement park, comrade." I state, and instead of just leaving me alone to find somewhere to sleep, he simply stares at me, eyes boring into my skull, like he could see every single scared thought bouncing about.

"Are you a foreigner?" he asks, and I froze for about a minute. Calm down, calm down, calm down, calm down. Just be calm, collect yourself, respond coolly, and this will all be over, and maybe you'll have something nice for dinner.

"N-no…" I respond quietly, and then internally screamed at myself for stuttering. I'm doomed, doomed, doomed, doomed! I quickly darted my head around, looking for the quickest escape route. The soldier looked at me with squinted eyes, peering over every inch of me.

"You speak pretty weird for someone who lives here." he replies, and I began to shake. I thought of my parents, how devastated they would be that their only daughter accidentally landed in North Korea and was executed due to circumstance. I closed my eyes, and tried to think of some excuse.

"I... uhhh…. emigrated from Macau a few years ago!" I say, forcing myself to smile. He stared at me, with a unimpressed look in his eyes. Macau was where my grandmother lived before she left to America in the '80s, after a job offer forced her to move, so I wasn't too far off.

"Come with me." The soldier says, grabbing my shoulder, and I reluctantly followed as he led me through the streets of Pyongyang, as people, men, women, families looked away from us. They knew that I was being led away to my death, and didn't want to associate themselves with me, so they wouldn't die too. They had family to feed, and couldn't be bothered with a girl who had obviously done wrong.

By the time we reached the park, and he lifted his hand from my shoulder, I was violently sobbing and shaking with every breath. I watched as he removed his hat, revealing his shaved head, and I only cried more.

"Do you know about Pokemon Trainers?" he asks me, and I nod through my tears. I was ready for him to shoot me in the face, or break my neck, but he didn't. All he did, was reach into his jacket pocket, and hand me a worn color photograph.

"Do you know this man?"

He points to one of the two young men in the picture, which was of a pokemon battle. The man he pointed to was a younger version of my dad, battling the Miami gym, the final gym of the American League, battling the leader with his Emboar. I stared at it in awe for a while, having been confused enough to stop crying.

"How'd you get this picture?" I ask him, handing back the photograph.

"My friend's older brother got them off of the black market when we were kids," he replies, scratching his face, and I was shocked by the revelation that pictures of my dad were on the North Korean black market. "I always thought this one was the coolest out of all the ones he got, and he gave it to me before I went to the army. I don't know, I just always thought that Pokemon Trainers were cool, even though the imperialists used them against us." I raised my eyebrows at that line, but ignored it.

"He's my dad." I reply, and the soldier looked up at me in shock.

"He's your dad?" he repeats, and I nodded, sitting down. A wide grin grew on his face, and that was when I gained a little bit of confidence that I wasn't going to get shot or sent to be executed with larger and more powerful guns.

"This is so cool! I never thought this could happen!" He shook my shoulders excitedly, and a small smile grows on my face. "But, if you're his daughter, how'd you end up over here? Isn't he American? And you two don't look that much alike!"

I explain my predicament to the soldier, and showed him some pictures of my dad on my phone. He seems genuinely amazed, and not faking it to lure me into a trap. I mean, it would be a pretty intricate plot to get me if he already had a picture of my dad on him, so I shrugged it off.

"So, you came to Pyongyang to try to return home by going to the embassy?" he asks me, and I nodded, putting my phone back in my bag.

"Honestly, I doubt it's going to work," I say sadly, and sigh. "I have contraband on me. I doubt they're gonna let me through, just hold me hostage or execute me. I think I'm just gonna end up like, going across the Chinese border."

"Contraband?" The soldier asks, and I pulled out a pokeball, causing his face to light up again.

"You have pokeballs?" He asks, walking over to me. His arms shake somewhat. "Do you have any pokemon?"

I let Nina, Varaha, and Jessica out, and grabbed the bag full of produce, placing it out on the ground for them to eat, and all three of them seemed more than eager to chow down. The soldier watched in awe as the three of them ate, and as Jessica looked up, and flew into my arms in fear, digging into my chest.

"He's fine, Jessica." I reassured her, petting her softly, and watched as Varaha walked over to the soldier and rubbed his head against his knee, wanting to be pet. "Varaha wants you to pet him."

"Oh! I, uh…" The soldier stammered, reaching his hand to pet the pig pokemon, who snorted softly in reply. I laughed at the two of them, as Nina came over to me and sat down, watching the two of them.

"You're lucky, you know?" The soldier smiled sadly, as Varaha climbed into his lap, and I stopped laughing. "Ever since I was little, I wanted my own pokemon. It just always seemed so neat, that people could work with them as partners."

"Well, I would be more than happy to let you travel with me, I mean, if you wanted to." I said, smiling slightly, and the soldier looked up. "I know from personal experience that it can get pretty lonely out there." The soldier thought to himself for a minute, frowning deeply.

"I'll go on one condition." He replied.

"Throw it at me." I said.

"'Throw it at me'?" He repeated, furrowing his brows. "Excuse me?"

"Western speak, I mean, go ahead and tell me." I corrected myself, and his face relaxed.

"We have to go to my home village and tell my parents that we're defecting, and that they need to join us, otherwise…" The soldier trailed off, looking down and covering his mouth.

"Otherwise?"

"Otherwise… they'll be executed in my place." He looked up to meet my eyes and my blood froze.

"Yeah, I'll do it." I replied quickly, nodding profusely.

"Alright. Are you leaving tonight?" He asked, and I shook my head profusely.

"No way. I walked all the way here from Nampo, and walking to China will take several days at best. I need one day's rest, and then we can set out." I said, cautious of his reaction, anticipating him to beg me to set out tonight. Instead, his body lifted up slightly, as if a large weight was off of his shoulders, and smiled.

"Good idea. I get paid tomorrow, so we can spend it on food for the journey." He said, and I retrieved my pokemon, put them in my bag, and slung it on my shoulders.

"Well, let's meet here tomorrow at the same time, and set out then." I said, and began to walk out of the park, before the soldier stopped me.

"Wait, where are you gonna sleep?" The soldier asked, with concern painted on his face, and I turned to him and shrugged.

"No, no, no. You are not going to just go out into the cold, and find somewhere to sleep." He said, walking towards me. "You'll just walk around, maybe lay out on the street and freeze to death! Besides, I know somewhere you can sleep."

"You could've told me that first instead of nagging me." I snorted, crossing my arms. "Well then, show me where I can sleep."

He again walked me through the streets of Pyongyang, this time not by holding my hand and threatening me ominously, and the streets had no one on them. Pyongyang seemed to have turned off all of their lights, leaving all of the city in inky black darkness. Slowly, snow started falling from the sky in little flutters, and I watched as they danced to the ground. It was kind of nice, actually, walking amongst the glittering snow.

"Hey." I said, and the soldier looked over his shoulder at me.

"What?" He replied.

"What's your name?"

"Lee Joon-Ho." He said, looking forward briefly, before looking back again. "You?"

"Marie Jones."

"Marie." He said slowly, trying it out. "Huh. Interesting name."

"Thanks." I said, huddling into my jacket. Joon-Ho was right, it was seriously cold out tonight, and I probably wouldn't have made it very long without collapsing in an alleyway and dying of frostbite.

We arrived at the building Joon-Ho was leading me to, and he turned to me again, looking me dead in the eyes, very very serious.

"Listen, Marie." Joon-Ho said, placing both hands on my shoulders, causing me to sweat nervously. "Do not make a sound inside here, okay? Any sound at all could get us caught."

I nodded, and the two of us walked inside softly. The blast of heat was a relief from the unflinching cold, but I didn't show it. The room we were in was near impossible to decipher because of the lack of lights. All I could make out was a long, wide hallway in the front, and a shorter, thinner hallway close to my right. I could assume this could be some sort of army barracks, and even then it would be hard to hide in the rooms with the soldiers, because of how many soldiers lived in one space, but I assumed that Joon-Ho had a better idea than I do, probably because he lives here. We tiptoed across the concrete floor of the thinner hallway, until we ended up in front of the stairs, climbing onto the the stairs, with Joon-Ho holding me to make sure I didn't violently fall on my face, and onto the second floor, which proved to be a more dangerous beast to tame, with the flooring being wood instead of concrete, before he led me to the first door on the right side.

"Do not leave this room at any point until I tell you it's good to go." Joon-Ho whispered. "I'll bring you food for you and your pokemon, so don't worry, alright? I'll knock three times to tell you that I'm the one at the door." He waited until I nodded, and then began to slowly walk away, towards the stairs

"Good night, Joon-Ho." I whispered, causing him to stop. He turned to me, appeared to smile, and replied:

"Good night Marie." And with that, he tiptoed down the stairs.

I slowly opened the door of the room, walked into the room itself, which was also on wood, and carefully shut the door behind me and locked it. The room was also almost impossible to decipher in the darkness, only the mattress on the floor was visible. I lightly set my bag down, and practically crawled into the bed. I threw the thick comforter, which lacked a fancy cover, over me, and fell straight into a dreamless sleep.

 

[roule]

Chapter 4

And I'm just looking for an easy way out

I wake up the next morning at around five in the morning to a loud jarring guitar note.

I jolt straight up, eyes as wide as saucers, and whip my head around the white room in confusion. It takes a few seconds for me to re-register that I'm in North Korea now and that I'm hiding away on a military base. There was a pause, then another guitar note was played again, and I rolled to my right and groaned.

Who is playing guitar, loud guitar powered by an amp actually, at 5 in the morning, when the world is in a limbo of morning and night?

I'm about to get up, walk over to the next room, and thrash them into the next century, but then I remember that I'm supposed to make myself invisible, or else I will be caught and.. you know.

So I just lie there, as the person next door starts to play an actual song. Notes, tempo, and all that sh*t.

Perhaps, if this wasn't at five in the morning, I would've enjoyed the music.

Alas, it was not meant to be, as every note sounds like pure noise, and I feel like screaming to drown all of it out. Instead, I just cover my ears, close my eyes and grimace.

Finally, after at least an hour of a literal symphony of unbearable music, in which I almost had a heart attack out of sheer rage and died, the music abruptly ends.

The girl just suddenly unplugs her amplifier, I hear her footsteps head past my door, and then nothing more.

I sigh in relief, relaxing my arms, face, and mind. Immediately after, I fall straight back to sleep, my body limp from the rage flowing through my veins.

Of course, only about a few minutes later, I wake up to three knocks on the door. I crawl over, a little irritated but happy enough to eat. I'm starving, pure white comforter on my head as I crawl towards the door.

Joon-ho is in uniform, holding two large covered trays of food in his hands in the pale brown hallway. He quickly whips his head around and steps in. When he shuts the door behind him, he smiles wide, showing off his dimples.

"Good morning." he says, sitting down on the mattress and uncovering his food.

Even when he wasn't serious, I note, his voice always sounds he's firmly reprimanding me. It makes me a little nervous.

The food was nothing special, rice on one section of the tray, what appeared to be shredded pork on another, assorted vegetables that looked strange off to the side, and a cup of milk.

"Did you sleep well?"

"Someone next door woke me up with an hour-long guitar solo at 5 am," I growl, mixing my pork and rice with my chopsticks, "almost made my head explode."

Joon-ho looks confused at my face for a second before a glimmer of realization comes over him.

"Sh*t! I gave you a room right next to Moranbong!" Joon-ho exclaims, dropping his chopsticks with a sudden clang, suddenly looking very apologetic, "I'm so sorry!"

"It's water under the bridge," I smile with a wave of my hand, and Joon-ho's face eyebrows furrow in confusion.

I clarified:

"You're forgiven. But, who is Moranbong?"

"They're an all-girl band who perform for military officials, nice morale-boosting songs," Joon-ho says between bites of pork, and I catch a hint of disgust in his voice, "they're rather young and very popular with a lot of soldiers for a... varying amount of reasons."

"Ooh," I say, a teasing smile growing on my face, "the question is, do you like them like they do, y'know?"

"My cousin's in the band." Joon-ho says in pure deadpan, looking me directly in the eyes with a tired look, "So no."

The atmosphere in the room became extremely awkward as fast as humanly possible.

"I see." I mumbled, face burning hot and absent mindedly mixing my vegetables with my chopsticks.

I gather a clump of vegetables and rice before plopping it in my mouth. They were pretty bad, but what did I expect from North Korean military food, a 5 star meal?

"What instrument does she play?"

"Drums," Joon-ho says, a smile returning to his face, "She's amazing at them."

"I bet. Do you think that she would... you know..." I say, gesturing vaguely.

When Joon-ho gives me a questioning look, I continue:

"Come with us?"

Joon-ho frowns thoughtfully, and stays silent for several minutes.

"I want her to," Joon-ho says quietly, looking down at his chopsticks, "She's practically my sister, and I don't think being in this band is good for her. I've heard about what he does when he's tired of band members."

Joon-ho spits that last line out, clenching his chopsticks with white knuckles.

"If you can convince her, it's fine by me," I smile, and Joon-ho nods, picking up his tray, and standing up, "I only have one other sleeping bag, though, so she has to bring her own."

Joon-ho shrugs.

"I'll acquire some. But first..." Joon-ho says vaguely, walking to the front of the room, and opens the door.

He reaches for a large burlap bag, and dumps some of the contents, which are leafy greens and tomatoes, on the floor in front of the mattress.

"I was literally just going to ask about that!" I grin and grab my pokeballs from my bag, "Thanks, man."

I release each of my pokemon one by one, and they all practically rush towards the pile of food on the floor. We watch as they gobble down the food, and I frown.

Should've fed them before dinner...

"You're welcome. I have to begin my final patrol around Pyongyang, I'll be back around…" Joon-ho says, straightening his jacket, and glancing at the clock on the top of the door,"...two pm."

"When I come back, we'll eat, and then go. You know what to do in the meantime."

I nod, and Joon-ho smiles at me, waves, and walks out, closing the door behind him. I listen for footsteps walking past the door, then I step over Nina, who looks up at me with a cautious glance, and I lock the door.

After this precaution, I walk back to the mattress, I fling myself onto it, and fish out my fancy new camera, turning the lens towards my face. I clear my throat, and then hit record.

"Hey, this is uh, Marie Jones. So, I guess my boat went too far north, and… Now, I'm in Pyongyang! When I should be, like, in Seoul by now!"

I proceeded to run through the events of the day prior, my abrupt trip to Pyongyang, how I couldn't go to the embassy to return home, how I met Joon-ho, and what we were going to do. I made sure to highlight the fact that I had no intention of landing here on the off-chance that Kim Jong Un was viewing my tape and would pardon me somehow. Or, that my parents knew that I hadn't been giving them the cold shoulder, and they needed to pay ransom so I wasn't executed...

"So yeah. If you're seeing this, I miiight be dead and someone hasn't removed the memory card while selling the camera on the black market, or I've made it to Beijing, and I'm making a super serious documentary about my travels. Either way…"

I trail off, and look around the room. The whole room seems to be a storage for books, with big bookcases filled with all sorts of dusty-looking tomes on both sides. There's an entrance on the right side for a small bathroom, with only a very short toilet. I catch the glint of a gold frame on top of the wall on the left and I zoom in.

"And there he is, ladies and gentlemen! The man, the myth, the legend!" I dramatically announce, as I film the picture of the grinning face of Kim Jong-Il, hanging next to a picture of his father, "The Dear Leader, the Son, Reincarnation of Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-Il! Who has been watching me sleep. Creep."

After a few minutes, I flip the camera back to my face.

"Anyway, I'm going to go to bed, because I woke up at 5 am because someone in the room next to mine wanted to do a guitar solo for a whole hour," I groan, running a hand through my chin length dark hair. "after, we'll hopefully leave Pyongyang, and make our way north to China. If not, I'm dead! If I live, I'll make a new video. Bye!"

With that, I click the camera off.

I don't know why I joked about dying through that video, maybe it was the only thing keeping my sanity alive.

Whatever it may be, it didn't matter right then. I have bigger fish to fry, than questioning my sanity.

I feel my eyelids becoming heavier, and my head starts to buzz.

My pokemon were done eating, and most of them were laying down to take a nap, with the exception of Jessica. She toddles around, looking at her surroundings with wide black eyes, and hums to herself.

I sigh, retrieving Nina and Varaha, and putting their pokeballs in my bag, but I decide to leave Jessica out to roam. I reason with myself that she hadn't been out to wander for a while and is probably a little stir crazy.

The clefairy looks over at my reclining form after hearing me return the other two pokemon, and skips over with a smile. She lightly slaps my face, laughs to herself, and slaps it again.

"No, no." I respond, turning away and lightly pushing her, which encourages her to giggle and slap me again. "Marie has to sleep now."

Jessica stops and frowns, and turns her head. There's a worried look in her eyes.

She'd had seen me sick tons of times, and was always inconsolable during it, refusing to leave my side, even as a itty bitty Cleffa.

"Not sick. Marie just woke up too early, so she's tired." I clarifiy, and Jessica walks over and lays down next to me.

I pull her close, making not sure to crush her. I give her room to get up, in case she doesn't want to sleep next to me. Jessica softly pats my head, which was better than getting hit in the face. Soon after she lays down with me, I fall asleep.

"Uuu…"

I wake up very slowly, groggily sitting myself up, and blinking rapidly. I try to get my eyes to focus on something. Still in the room, I tell myself, still in North Korea.

Jessica stands in front of my mattress. Thankfully, the room isn't a mess because of her, which was a plus. However, she was shaking, and looking at the door, which made me very nervous.

Had I been betrayed?

Did someone find out about me?

I grab my bag and pull my pistol out from my jacket pocket, but don't click the safety off just yet.

"Uuuuu…" Jessica whines, and I stand up and scood her up in my arms.

Tears were welling up in her eyes, and she started pointing at the door. I walk towards it, and I'm immediately hit with the noise of two people arguing on the hallway outside. The two people are so loud, I don't have to put my ear to the door.

I immediately recognize Joon-ho's serious tone, but not the woman he's arguing with.

"I can't believe you, Joon-ho. You're seriously willing to defect, put our whole family at risk, for some stupid picture?" The woman yells, with a mature, dark rasp to her voice.

Jessica cuddles into my chest, and I rub her back gently.

I guess Joon-ho is having a hard time trying to convince his cousin to join him...

"I thought you were better than this, I thought you wouldn't be seduced by those imperialists!"

"I haven't been 'seduced', I've opened my eyes!" Joon-ho snapps angrily, and I heard a small footstep back, and then Joon-ho lowered his voice, "you've never been up far north, you've never seen the stuff I've seen in the villages up there. There's no hope in this country, our best chance is to go to China, find a way to Thailand or South Korea, and I'll find a job for the both of us."

"You're crazy, Joon-ho." Joon-ho's cousin laughs, and I picture her running her hands through her hair and pacing, "you've lost your mind since I last saw you! You used to be so obedient to the Party, and now look at you! Comrade Kim Jong Un has provided so much for you, for us, and you're willing to throw it all away to go down there?"

"Comrade!?" Joon-ho spits, and I cringe at his volume, he was running the risk of being overheard by someone either in the rooms, or walking past, "you remember what he did with his uncle, right? You watched him mow down members of Unhasu Orchestra, right? How can you call that monster your comrade?"

"Because he-"

"What? He made you famous? He gave you money?" Joon-ho taunts, and I hide the gun away in my pocket and reach for the door, "he didn't tie you up and blow you up with anti-aircraft fire? You're just the Moranbong drummer to him, and when you're not willing to be the drummer anymore, you're nothing to him."

I pull the door open before any of them could volley another insult towards each other, and the two of them whip their heads towards the door to face me.

Joon-ho's cousin is a short woman, with pale skin, almost a unnaturally thin body. Her dark hair is only just past her ears, and she has an oval shaped face, wearing minimal makeup on her eyes and lips. She's wearing a dull olive green military-style shirt, with two stars on her shoulders. She also wears long, tight-fitting pants in the same color and dark brown, ankle high boots. It's kind of baffling, because her job is to be a concert musician, not massacring thousands of people. Why is she wearing a military uniform?

Maybe Kim Jong Un has a fetish for girls in military outfits, which might have been the only thing we really agreed on. That uniform did not lessen the fact that Joon-ho's cousin is a very pretty woman...

Thankfully, I don't have time to dwell on that. After her initial shock, her face twists into a grimace.

"You…!" She snaps, taking a step towards me, fist raising, and I back away quickly, "You've seduced Joon-ho into a life of capitalism…! How dare you, you Yankee bi-"

She is cut off by Joon-ho restraining her by her arms with a grimace, and she struggles against his grasp.

"I told you not to unlock the door at all costs!" Joon-ho shouts at me, as he shuts that very door with his foot. I scowl at him, tapping my foot anxiously.

"You scared Jessica and woke me up with your fighting, and you two were going too far!" I shout back, but at a lower volume, "anyone could have walked into you talking about Kim Jong Un like that, and then had you executed!"

"It was a family discussion, Marie!" Joon-ho snaps back.

"It doesn't matter! We need to explain this to her in a calm, civilized manner. Shouting will get us nowhere in this," I say, as his cousin turns her head over to try and bite his hand.

"Let's start this over."

Joon-ho sits his visibly-furious cousin down in front of the mattress, but keeps his hands on her wrists. I sit down on the mattress while still holding Jessica.

She peeks at Yeong-mi while still shaking, before turning quickly to face my chest.

I took a deep breath in, and out.

"Hello, Miss…"

"Lee Yeong-mi," Yeong-mi hisses out, and Joon-ho rolls his eyes, and breathes loudly out of his nose.

"Miss Yeong-mi. I'm Marie Jones," I say, smiling warmly, as Yeong-mi scowls at me, "it's my pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"So you are a Yank," Yeong-mi spits, and Joon-ho glares at her.

"No, I'm not a 'Yank'. If you would listen to my story with an open mind, maybe you would find that me and you aren't so different after all," I say trying my best to remain calm, "would you mind that?"

"I have no choice in the matter."

I breathe deeply through my nose, and recount the events of the day prior for the second time in a day, and watch Yeong-mi's expressions throughout the story. Slowly, but surely, Yeong-mi's expression softens a bit, and she looks like she wasn't ready to kill me at first glance.

However, the words she said next threw my observations off completely:

"How do I know you aren't an American spy?" She askes, narrowing her eyes at me.

I grab my bag, and pull out my Canadian passport, and give it to her. She looks at it for a moment, nods like she understands something, and then hands it back to me, and says:

"I can't read English."

I swear to Jesus Christ himself, I almost lose it at that one single sentence, I almost scream at her for 20 minutes, I almost go into a full fledged meltdown, but I pull through, I pull through all of that, by staying calm.

"Or French? Because Canada has both English and French on their official documents," I say, putting my passport back into my bag.

Yeong-mi thinks for another moment, in which I optimistically tink that I have finally proven my innocence, and then she replies:

"How do I know you're not a Canadian spy?"

I clasp my hands together in front of me and continue my breathing exercises, before Joon-ho interrupts me.

"You're acting like a child, noona! Just accept that Marie is telling you the truth!"

Yeong-mi visibly flinches, before glaring back at Joon-ho.

"I'd be a pretty incompetent spy if I was caught by Rumpa People's Pleasure Park trying to gain entry, so I could find a building to sleep in for the night," I say, and Yeong-mi looked up at me, "please, believe me that Joon-ho just wants to protect you, and he doesn't want anything bad to happen to you, and wants you to come with him so you'll be safe. Do you want to come with us?"

Again, a moment passes where Yeong-mi lookes like she's deep in thought.

"I guess I'll go..." Yeong-mi shrugs, and both Joon-ho and I breathe a sigh of relief.


Jessica squirms out of my arms and tottles between me and Yeong-mi, trying to protect me.

"What is this small, pink thing?" Yeong-mi asks, squinting at Jessica, who's crossing her arms, and growlling at her, "what is it doing?"

"Her name is Jessica, and she's a clefairy!" I say, loosening myself up a bit, as Yeong-mi stares at Jessica with inquisitive eyes, "she's kind of a mama's girl, because I raised her when I was little. She's protecting me."

Yeong-mi laughs, covering her mouth politely.

"She's cute," Yeong-mi laughs again, reaching her hand out to Jessica, which intensified the clefairy's growling, "she thinks she can beat me."

"Don't be so sure she can't!" I say, a smile growing on my face, "she can really bite with those teeth."

With that, Yeong-mi quickly brings her hand back. I stood up, putting my bag on my shoulders, causing all three of them to look up.

"Let's get moving." I smile.

The two Lee cousin's follow me out the door, into the hallway. It's the same color of the closet I've been staying in. In front of me, the hallway is full of dark wooden doors, and in the distance, I can see a stairway leading downstairs.

"I have to get my some clothes and personal belongings from my dorm," Yeong-mi says, with a lighter tone than before, moving quickly forwards towards one of the doors behind me.

Jessica tottles towards me, and stood in front of me and began walking forward, as if she was leading me to the stairway, and I follows her as she wished.

"Fine by me, I'll wait for you up ahead," I reply, watching as Joon-ho and Yeong-mi opened the door to the latter's room.

I rub my nose absent-mindedly as I walk further, and then almost trip over Jessica, who suddenly stops. I'm about to complain, before I suddenly hear what might be a woman singing. There's no words, just a soft, soothing melody.

Must be one of the singers in the band, I think to myself, either that, or someone who's really enjoying what they're doing.

The sound of her voice is almost hypnotic, causing me to sway slightly to the music she was making on one foot and smile gently.

Untill I notice that Jessica is now floating down the hallway, and stops at a door of one of the rooms.

Unfortunately, my brain is slow to react to the fact that Jessica is about to get into mischef, and I only start moving after she hops slightly and floats in place, then pulls the doorknob. The door slowly opens, and she quietly walks into the room.
That sight causes me to scuttle behind her as quietly as possible, nearly impossible because of the creaky wood flooring.

The room is way more extravagant than mine, actually looking like a room in a house instead of a repurposed closet. There's light tan carpeting, cream colores walls, and posters of the what appeared to be the 15 members of Moranbong in beautiful hanboks. There is an old CRT television at one end of the room, with a grey sofa in between the televison and an unseen part of the room.

I notice that the singing was closer now, and a pang of dread runs down my spine. I need to get me and Jessica out of here as soon as possible, without the singer noticing me, and causing me even more trouble today.

I silently creep through the entrance of the carpeted hallway into the main room, which still had the pictures of the Father and Son duo on top of the wall, which caused me to roll my eyes slightly.

I turn my head to catch a glimpse of the singer, who is wearing the same outfit as Yeong-mi. However, she's sitting with her back facing me, so I cant't see her face, or how tall she was. She appears to be… embroidering? Sewing? One of those two, and she's singing to herself, and swaying back and forth as she does it.

Jessica was literally only an inch away from her, swaying to her music, and thankfully, the woman had not noticed her, and Jessica isn't trying to slap her.

Alright, I think to myself, I can pick Jessica up, and then we can be out of here fast, without entangling one more person in my mess.

However, as I step forward, the woman suddenly freezes, stopped singing, and turns to face me.

If Yeong-mi is pretty, than her band mate is absolutely stunning.

She's only a little bit taller than Joon-ho, so still pretty short compared to me, and her body is a bit thicker than Yeong-mi's thinner frame. The woman also isn't as… flat in the front, to be somewhat polite. But, she is about the same body type as Joon-ho's cousin, unnaturally thin, which was a little bit concerning.

Her dark hair is longer than Yeong-mi's, actually reaching her chin, with her bangs sweeping to the left side of her forehead. Small strands of hair that aren't styled behind her ears frame her round face. Her round eyes have this warm quality to them, even though she is looking at me in primal terror. Her nose was small and pointed slightly upwards, a light pink color dusting it and most of her face. Her lips are full, pink things, and her mouth gaped slightly in surprise.

It takes her longer to react to my presence, so I close my eyes, and breathe out slowly to try to subside my panic. I cover her mouth as she opens it to scream, muffling it to a yelp.

"Shush! Be quiet!" I say with some urgency as she whimpers and mumbles against my palm.

I watched her face contort in anger as she hears my South Korean (and maybe a hint of Canadian) accent, realizing that I wasn't just some crazy fan, but a foreigner. An evil foriegner.

I subconsciously let myself freak out, and quickly reply:

"J-just let me get something, okay? After that, I'll be out of your hair, for good."

Instead of feeling her nod, I feel her teeth rip into my palm.

I grimace in pain, and draw my hand back gingerly. Her teeth actually break the skin, and little pinpricks of blood surrounded the indents just above my thumb.

I look up to see her panting and glaring at me, lipstick smearing and sweat dripping down her pretty face.

"Ow, I told you, I'm just getting something! Jus-" I whimper, before she slaps me across my face, and I taste a little bit of blood in my mouth from biting down hard on my lip.

I will admit fully that I absolutely deserved it for intruding into someone's house.

However, instead of screaming to high heaven, she just stares at me, with narrowed eyes as I catch my breath. As if she's studying me under a microscope.

"I'm not going to steal anything," I whisper, which did not change her expression at all, so I pointed at Jessica.

She stands by me, looking up at the woman with bright eyes and a smile. That comment caused the woman to quickly look down, and look up.

I switch to English in a panic:

"Come on, Jessica!"

The woman's expression turned from anger, to pure offense.

"Trying to get out of this, Yankee?" the woman says condescendingly, and even though she was mocking me, her voice was still beautiful, almost like church bells ringing on a snowy Christmas morning, "well, tell that to the police when they get you."

With that, she begins to walk towards the door, and I give chase after her. I tackle her to the floor, catching her head before she slams it against the carpet. I don't want her to get really hurt, even though it was soft.

I pin her hands to the ground, and stay firm against her struggling.

"Listen to me," I say through grit teeth, as I hold her down, "I'm not a Yankee. I'm not a spy. I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to go home, okay? I'm-"

I stop when I feel her press herself against me in an attempt to escape, and I gasp at the feeling of a warm body so close. We stare at each other for a minute, and I swear I hear my face sizzling because of how hot it is.

"You're a girl," the woman says, with wide eyes and an amazed tone.

I can't tell if it was positive or negative amazement, which is unnerving to say the least.

"Yeah, I am." I say, furrowing my brows in confusion. "I thought it was obvious."
I think that maybe, on a whim, that she will just stop struggling, and let me and Jessica go in peace. Instead, she tries to kick me between the legs, which I manage to mitigate to my left leg, which still made it hurt and throb a lot. She begins to struggle again, even harder than before.

"Ow! Hey!" I yell, as she manages to free one of her hands for a second, before I push it down again, causing her to snarl like an animal, "what's set you off about me being a girl, huh?"

"I knew, I knew that you Yankees were awful people. I knew it," she spits at me, digging her long pink pastel nails into my arm, which stings like no one's business, "But I didn't think you'd be that disgusting to send their own daughters to spy on our dear General… Well, I guess you learn something new every day, huh?"

"Excuse me?" I growl through grit teeth, trying to ignore the pain, "I have no idea what you're talking about, probably because I'm not a spy!"

"Don't act stupid with me. You're in this room because you want to kill Comrade Kim, just like the rest of your countrymen want to do, except they were too cowardly to send real men to do the job," she snaps, and I stare up at her in shock.

"What?" I ask, and before the woman could grace me with more crap fed to her since childhood, Joon-ho and Yeong-mi, now with large backpacks similar to mine on them, walked through the hallway to be faced with our writhing bodies, and Jessica looking at us fighting with an interested expression instead of screaming and crying, one hand up to her mouth. Joon-ho groaned loudly in anger, and ran straight towards us and pulled me off of mystery woman, who proceeded to lunge at me until she saw Yeong-mi, which caused her to stop, and stare at her in shock.

"Marie, what the hell happened here?" Joon-ho snarled, and I just sighed in response. "You better have a good excuse for why you were fighting with a Moranbong member in her own dorm room."

"Jessica was attracted by her singing, and I followed." I groaned, rubbing my face. "I just wanted to get in and out, but she saw me, and accused me of being a spy, and we started fighting." Joon-ho sighed and rolled his eyes, but was cut off by the mystery woman speaking to Yeong-mi.

"Unnie, what are you doing?" The woman asked, almost as if she was a confused little girl, and sat up. "Why do you have a backpack on?"

Yeong-mi's face contorted in sadness before she replied to the woman.

"I'm leaving, Seon-hyang." She said firmly, adjusting her backpack strap. "Me and Joon-ho are going to China, with Marie here." She gestured towards me, and I nodded solemnly, which made Seon-hyang stare angrily at me.

"It's all your fault, Yankee spy," She spat at me, but seemed to be holding herself back from grabbing my hair and punching me in the nose, and I shrugged in response, having nothing to say to her to help or hurt. "Don't you shrug at me, you jackal!"

"Don't call Marie that, Seon-hyang," Joon-ho said firmly, and Seon-hyang merely glared at him. "Just because she's here doesn't mean she's a spy."

"What do you know, oppa?" Seon-hyang snapped, and pointed at me. "She's turned you against the Party, because she's a spy who wants to start a revolution to overthrow Comrade Kim!"

"How is Marie a spy?" Joon-ho retorted.

"She speaks English, and has a pokemon, all things Yankee spies have!"

"She's not a spy." Yeong-mi replied, crossing her arms and looking down at Seon-hyang, who still looked defiant. "I know this for a fact."

"What's your proof, unnie?" Seon-hyang retorted, crossing her arms as well.

"No spy would be incompetent enough to go straight through someone's front door, leave that door open, and tackle someone to the ground right in front of that wide open door." Yeong-mi smiled sarcastically, and I rolled my eyes.

"Thanks for telling me." I growled.

"Seon-hyang, tell everyone in Moranbong that I left for my hometown in the countryside, and that I won't be back for a while." Yeong-mi patted Seon-hyang's head, and the taller girl stood up and grabbed her hand.

"No! I'm not letting you go without me." Seon-hyang snapped, and then grudgingly looked back at me. "...Even if I have to go with her."


"Thanks again." I snapped back, and only got a glare from Seon-hyang. "I mean, if she's bringing her own bag, with her own stuff, and doesn't antagonize me the entire way to China, I'm alright."

It took about 20 minutes for Seon-hyang to stuff almost her entire room into a bag that Joon-ho managed to pull from… somewhere. All the while, whenever we locked eyes, Seon-hyang glared at me. Just my luck, when I finally meet someone who's somewhat attractive, they hate my guts for some stupid reason that I can't fix. At least Joon-ho enjoyed having me around, and Yeong-mi could at least tolerate me. Jessica seemed very interested in what Seon-hyang was doing, following her around with a smile on her face, even though only a few minutes prior she watched Seon-hyang slap me violently across the face. It was so weird, Jessica was scared of Joon-ho, who had done nothing to me, didn't like Yeong-mi, who had called me a Yankee, but didn't attack me, but loved Seong-hyang, who fought me and called me a spy multiple times. At least Seon-hyang didn't like, slap or yell at Jessica, so I guess Jessica following her around was all right.

"Alright… Now that everyone has hopefully gathered everything they want to bring together," I said, slinging my bag on my back, and picking up Jessica. "Let's get out of this city, before we end up being a 12 person group."

Joon-ho walked out into the hallway first, and lead the way down the stairway, but stopped and hid behind a wall, when a gaggle of soldiers walked past, with Joon-ho clutching my arm. After that quick scare, we began to walk towards the back exit, which was monitored less, as Joon-ho told us as we snuck past another soldier. Yeong-mi and Seong-hyang stuck close to each other, holding each other's hands. Joon-ho was on high alert, looking around for any of his colleagues that could identify him or one of the Moranbong members. Jessica was looking around, very interested in her surroundings, but not screaming or begging me to get something for her, which was the one nice thing about this day.

"This sneaking around is a lot like Star Wars..." I mumbled, trying to break the ice. "Like we're in the Death Star or something..." Joon-hoo turned to me and stared at me in confusion.

"Marie, I have no idea what you are talking about." Joo-ho whispered back.

"They don't have bootleg Star Wars here?"

"I have never heard of 'Star Wars' in my entire life." Yeong-mi spoke up, and I looked back at her.

"Well, I guess when we make it to China, I'll see if I can buy it for us to watch."

"Is it a Yankee movie?" Seon-hyang spat out, and I rolled my eyes.

"What do you mean by that? Are you asking if its propaganda?"

"I'm asking if it's an American movie." I snorted at that.

"If you're gonna ask me that for every movie I mention." I snorted, "You're gonna find that you aren't going to be watching a lot of movies when we reach China."

"To answer your question, I need to give you some context, that movies in the west are made differently than they are here. Does the Party approve every single film made here?"

"Yes." Seon-hyang answered immediately, crossing her arms.

"In America, and in the West in general, they don't approve any films, they just get released"

"What?" Joon-ho said, turning to me with wide eyes. "They don't?"

"Yup." I said nodding, and all three of them looked at me with confusion in their eyes, and the conversion grinded to a halt right there, as we had walked far enough so that we could see the exit right in front of us. Joon-ho opened the door slightly, and peeked outside.

"No one's out there." Joon-ho whispered, gesturing for us to move outside, and I followed him out the door, which lead to an alleyway between another building, with a large beautifully painted mural painted on the side of it, which was of North Korean soldiers violently but bloodlessly killing an American GI, and I found myself staring at it intently.

"Are you threatened by this mural, fox?" Seon-hyang snarked at me, sly smile on her face, and I side-eyed her over my shoulder.

"...No." I deadpanned.

"Why? Aren't you an American like he is?"

"No...?"

"Then why do you speak English, hm?" Seon-hyang smiled, with an expression that basically amounted to "gotcha".

"Not everyone who speaks English is American." I said, trying to sound as bored as possible. "My dad's Canadian, my mom's from Macau. I'm not a Yankee."

That seemed to stun Seon-hyang and instead of one of us responding, I followed Joon-ho as he walked down the alleyway, leading us to the sidewalks of Pyongyang. I tried to look as unsuspicious as I could while holding Jessica, but thankfully she had fallen asleep while we discussed movies, and looked like a stuffed toy, which got us more looks from children, who began tugging on their parents clothes to ask them for something similar, than actual stares. We made a good distance from the barracks, before Joon-ho turned to me and the two other girls when we reached an alleyway by the Juche tower courtyard, who were looking around aimlessly.

"Let's stop here for dinner." Joon-ho said, and sat down on the paved ground, and Yeong-mi, Seon-hyang, and I sat down with him, and I watched him rummage through his bags, and then gave me some canned vegetable soup rations. I looked down at it, my middle class upbringing screaming at me that I couldn't just eat soup cold, and then looked back at Joon-ho, who had raised his eyebrows.

"Do you have a can opener?" I asked, and he fished one out of his bag, and handed it to me. The contents of the can, which were vegetables that I could not identify for the life of me swimming in liquid, weren't very appetizing, but what did you expect from an army barrack, filet mignon? I took a deep breath, said a wordless prayer to any deity who would listen, and chugged the whole can, which garnered a horrified look from Joon-ho as he was gathering something from his bag, a surprised look from Yeong-mi with a can in her hand, and a mere raise of eyebrows from Seong-hyang, who was just sitting down.

I cannot find any equivalent taste to compare what that can cold vegetable soup tasted like, that could have been sitting in that building for years, but all I know is that it tasted absolutely rancid, but I swallowed it all with a bit of a struggle. After I struggled to swallow, I put the can down with a thud, and wiped the tears beginning to form in my eyes. There was several minutes of silence between all of us, in which everyone had their eyes fixed upon me, and I felt my body burn with embarrassment.

"You're supposed to heat it up." Joon-ho said quietly, holding a pan in his left hand, and a portable gas stove in the other.

"Oh." I said quietly, handing him the can opener. "I didn't think you'd have that."

"Trust me, I'm always prepared." Joon-ho said, a smile gracing his face as he fished out a different can of soup. "Let's eat, everyone but Marie."

I watched as everyone else had nice, warm vegetable soup, and laid against the brick wall and tried not to puke everywhere, because the soup wasn't sitting too well in my stomach. I let the rest of my pokemon out, and woke up Jessica, and gave them soup in little bowls that Joon-ho had got from his bag. He really prepared for everything, I thought to myself, kind of amazed. After everyone finished, I retrieved my pokemon, except for Jessica, who insisted on staying out, ripped the labels on the cans into tiny shreds and threw the cans in a trash bin nearby, but put the label scraps in my pocket, so that we weren't completely obvious, and we set off through Pyongyang, in the dying daylight.

By the time we reached the edge of the city, night had fallen over the buildings, but the lights were still on, and they glittered far away. We were standing on a road, deserted of cars like the rest of the city, even at night, faced by what appeared to be a highway and large forest. The temperature had dropped significantly, and all three of my companions were now wearing button up jackets. I walked forward on the road before Joon-ho grabbed my shoulder and I stopped.

"Look." He said quietly, and subtly pointed to a far away outpost, where I could see a light, and a figure of a man standing up.

"We can't leave that way without papers. We're going to have to go through the forest." Seon-hyang and Yeong-mi groaned loudly, and Joon-ho walked into the forest, before stopping and looking back at us.

I quickly followed him in, and looked back at Seon-hyang and Yeong-mi, who were still standing on the road, looking around Pyongyang for a few minutes, before Yeong-mi walked over, and Seon-hyang begrudgingly followed. I looked back at Pyongyang through the trees, and watched as all the lights suddenly flickered off, and I immediately lost any sense of longing for the city. Seon-hyang glared at me when I looked back at her, so I turned my face forward, and stepped forward.

And with that, my journey really began.

Spoiler: historical notes

Moranbong: A popular North Korean girl band/orchestra, with a rotating cast of members. You can find their videos on Youtube, with some of them being subbed in English by a user by the name Moranbong HD. It's pretty much what you would expect from North Korean music. Yeong-mi is based of the current drummer (Han Su-jong) and Seon-hyang is based off a singer of the same name.

Oppa/Noona/Unnie: Korean honorifics, used with close family members/friends/significant others. Unnie and oppa are used by women to refer to older women or men, noona and hyung are used by men for the same reason. No English equivalent, so they'll have to be used.

Unhasu Orchestra: Orchestra that had both men and women in it, and Kim Jong-un's wife was once a member. Now, allegedly some of the members have been executed for espionage or videos of the members being... physical.... to say it lightly on a family friendly site. The whole band has not appeared in public since 2013.

Jang Sung-taek: KJU's uncle who very influential in North Korean leadership until 2013. In 2013 he was charged with treason, tried in a kangaroo court, then executed. Contrary to popular belief, he wasn't executed by starving dogs, but probably was executed by military grade weaponry.

 

[roule]

Chapter 5

Life is so mysterious


Pyongyang was a long ways behind us before the two Moranbong members got out of their funk, which meant about five days of nothing out of the ordinary happening, a sort of sad silence falling between the two Moranbong members as they left behind the life they knew, and flung themselves into the unknown. I understood how they felt, how scary it was to leave behind the world you knew for a country that you barely knew the language of, so I gave them time to think. The only one who really talked to me was Seon-hyang, and that was mainly angry quips at me.

Joon-ho, on the other hand, wasn't smiling, but seemed… excited, throughout our journey. He was moving a bit faster than usual, and would frequently chat with me about China and what he wanted to do there before we fell asleep. I was kind of caught between the three, I was glad to leave Pyongyang because it was a city 40 years in the past, and seeing the Kims everywhere freaked me out to no end, but I was also sad to leave an actual city, with heating and electricity… sometimes, for the road, where I would have to fight for my food if Joon-ho's almost endless stock of canned soup ever ran out. Jessica insisted that she would be out no matter what to protect me, the only exception being at night, and I held her close to me. Because of this, she warmed up to Joon-ho, finally letting the soldier pet him, tolerated Yeong-mi enough to let the drummer walk by her, and followed Seon-hyang constantly, whining for the singer to pick her up, which she never did, and looked freaked out when the pink pokemon begged.

In the forests, there weren't many pokemon, contrary to popular trainer belief that North Korea was a goldmine because there was no trainer scene, probably because people in nearby villages caught them and ate them for food. I couldn't get angry at them, however, because they would starve to death otherwise. I saw a small group of aimless Rattata that darted when they saw me, a tiny flock of Starly, which also bolted when spotted, and what appeared to be an Ursaring far in the distance. However, if I wanted to catch any pokemon here, I would have to lure them across the Chinese border, where it was fair game, and that was too much of a hassle for a mere Starly. I ended up just taking photos of my surroundings, some pictures of my companions, and a video of me laying in my sleeping bag, detailing the events that happened between now and my previous video, proving that I was alive and hadn't been blown to pieces.

Surprisingly, Seon-hyang was the one to break the silent walk to the border on the fifth day, even though she avoided me like the plague and when we did interact, she tackled me, kicking and biting, not enough to bleed, but enough for the Lee's to try to keep us apart, as we treaded across the dirt of the forest floor on the third day, after we had been walking for about 5 hours with only a small break for lunch, passing by a small village practically ripped out from the 1500s. We had stopped for dinner on the trunk of a felled tree, and I had practically inhaled the lentil soup Joon-ho got for us, before we set off again.

"How did you even get here?" Seon-hyang snarled, and I sighed in resignation. "Did you get smuggled across the DMZ by your Canadian handlers and the puppets?" At least she wasn't calling me a Yankee anymore, I thought to myself.

"Puppets...?" I asked, turning my head towards her.

"She's referring to South Koreans." Joon-ho clarified, and I turned to him.

"Thanks." I said, and Joon-ho shrugged in response.

"Answer my question, fox." Seon-hyang demanded, and I rolled my eyes.

"I was taking a boat to South Korea, but something happened and I went north without getting bombed by either side, and I woke up in Nampo."

"Why were you going to the South, fox, to spy there?"

"For a pokemon tournament, baby." I retorted, shifting my aching arms, which were carrying a napping Jessica, and I watched Seon-hyang narrow her eyes at the nickname. "Then I was going to Beijing to challenge their Pokemon League."

"Don't call me baby!" Seon-hyang exclaimed, and the Lee cousins glared at us, ready to stop another physical fight, which seemed eminent.

"I'll stop when you stop calling me 'fox'."

"No!" Seon-hyang shouted.

"Then I can call you whatever I want, princess." I smiled, and noticed how Seon-hyang's face and the tips of her ears turned bright red and she tried to hide her face in her coat collar, causing me to grin. But, before I could tease her even more, Joon-ho put a hand on my shoulder, and glared at me, and I didn't tease her further.

We made a good distance before we found a little enclave surrounded by trees by a lake, and Joon-ho and I decided to stop there for the night. In a few minutes, we had the 4 person tent set up, not without a struggle, however, and I began to put a fire together not far away with the dead leaves nearby. I had found no logs that were of a moderate size, much to my displeasure.

"Even if your love ruins me and hurts me, to me, it's only you..." I sung to myself as I struck the match and set the leaves and charcoal (that I had found while searching through the emergency box) on fire, watching them burn in a large flash of orange. Yeong-mi and Joon-ho were out in the forest, foraging for anything extra they could find, leaving me and Seon-hyang alone, with strict instructions not to fight, who had gingerly and reluctantly tucked in a sleeping Jessica in my sleeping bag the last time I saw her. "My love starts with you and ends with you..."

"What are you doing?" Seon-hyang yelled from the tent, appearing to be setting up the sleeping bag that Joon-ho had got for her.

"I'm starting a fire." I said, rolling my eyes, as I added more leaves to the fire along with the soup labels I had collected, which caused it to grow in size.

"I know that!" Seon-hyang retorted. "What were you doing while you were doing that?"

"...Singing?" I said, with a befuddled expression. "Don't you sing as a job?"

"No! What are you singing?" I groaned under my breath.

"A South Korean pop song."

"You're singing one of the puppets songs!?" She yelled, an offended tone in her voice.

"Yes, didn't I tell you I was going there first?" I smiled sarcastically. "So, I know South Korean songs, instead of North Korean songs." Seon-hyang crawled on her hands and knees over to me from the tent, and glared deep into my eyes, putting her face very close to mine, which caused me to lean back with wide eyes. You could cut the tension with a knife, maybe dice it up and put it in a nice tension soup.

"What?" I asked, and she didn't even blink, just stared at me. We stayed like that for a good 3 minutes, and I watched as Seon-hyang's face soften from rage to sullen irritation. She muttered something quietly under her breath while looking away, and even when I was right to her face, I couldn't decipher what she said.

"Excuse me?"

"I said nothing!" Seon-hyang said quickly, her face contorting back to anger, a light flush dancing across her cheeks. "Don't sing that song again. It makes me think unclean things about the General."

"Define unclean." I said, trying to get my mind out of the gutter, because her choice of words was bringing up mental images that were disgusting and made me shiver. He has a freaking wife, I reminded myself.

"You're tempting me with capitalism!" Seon-hyang said, jabbing a finger into my chest, which kind of hurt.

"I'm singing about love! What, don't you sing about love?"

"No! My skills are reserved to promote the Party and the Dear Leader, and them only!"

I said a loud string of curses in Cantonese, ones I overheard my mother and aunt saying under their breath when they hurt themselves or had enough of my trouble-making, and then used in school so I could curse without getting in trouble.

"What did you say about the party?" Seon-hyang was now dangerously close to my lips, one wrong move away from collision, and I found my face burning.

"I said that your hair is lovely!" I said loudly, and Seon-hyang looked unimpressed at my lie.

"You didn't say that. I know some Mandarin, and I didn't hear 'hair' anywhere in that sentence!"

"But I wasn't speaking in Mandarin! I was speaking in Cantonese!"

"Oh, you're real funny. You should think about being a comedian."

"It's true!" I retorted, scowling angrily, and Seon-hyang narrowed her eyes again. "Anyway, back to our original topic. Just because songs are created in the South, doesn't mean all of them are a thinly veiled anthem about rebellion against the Party."

"It's still from the South!" Seon-hyang yelled. "The South is being controlled by the US to make music to flood the peninsula with immoral music, so we must fight against the imperialists."

Something was off in the way Seon-hyang talked, and it made me very uncomfortable. I tried to dissuade my suspicions, hoping that she hated me personally instead of being taught to, and having me break into her room was a plus.

"What do you mean 'we'?"

"I mean that we, the Korean people, need to end the reign of the American bastards, once and for all!" Seon-hyang said. "And protect the Great Marshal from harm!"

"Do you want to?" I asked, looking deep into Seon-hyang's eyes, which had widened. How deep did the regime go in her? Did it penetrate her very being, making her just another drone in the army, stripping her of her individuality? "Or is it required of you?"

Seon-hyang was silent, face creased in thought. It took a while for her to respond.

"It-It is required." Seon-hyang whispered, voice shaky. I felt my body sink in sadness, because of course it would be, of course. I walked over to the tent, leaving a thoughtful Seon-hyang behind, and fished out an Aerobar from my bag. As I walked over, Seon-hyang looked up at me, and I sat down in front of her, and opened the Aerobar's wrapper, and tore a chunk off, and held it to Seon-hyang.

"Here." I said, and Seon-hyang stared at me, then at the chunk of chocolate, then back at me. "Try it."

"What is it?"

"Chocolate."

"Is it American?" She said, looking at me suspiciously.

"No, Canadian."

"Why are you giving it to me?"

"You'll see. But grab it quickly, or it'll melt."

Even though that garnered a raise of eyebrows from her, Seon-hyang reached out for the chunk of chocolate, and examined it for a few seconds with a curious expression, before placing it in her mouth. As soon as she tasted it, her eyes went wide, and she gestured rapidly to her mouth with both hands, and I laughed loudly, a surge of warmth in my chest.

"You like it?" I asked, and she nodded very fast, a wide smile growing on her face as she swallowed. Jesus Christ, her face was so beautiful when she was smiling, even though I could only see parts of it by the blazing fire light.

"From now on, you aren't Seo-hyang from Moranbong to me, you're Seo-hyang, the girl who likes chocolate." I smiled, and gave her another piece, which she eagerly grabbed, and looked up at me with a warm smile that penetrated my very being. "Because that's something that you decided. For yourself. And that's more important than what the Party decided for you."

"Will there be chocolate in China?" Seo-hyang asked, the curious expression returning to her face, and I laughed lowly, almost to myself. Seo-hyang seemed to notice that it was a happy laugh instead of a sad or angry one, so she smiled again.

"There is. When we get there, I'll buy you some more." I grinned, and Seo-hyang grinned back at me.

"I hope you two didn't tear each other apart!" Joon-ho shouted, and the two of us jumped, before scrambling to stand. Joon-ho was holding what appeared to be assorted berries and shrubbery, and Yeon-mi was lugging a large fish, which was either stolen or killed before they came back, because it was limp in Yeong-mi's hands.

"Are you two… getting along?" Yeong-mi asked as she walked to the fire, which had shrunk a little, but not by much, an amazed expression on her face.

"Yeah. What's the thing in your hands?" I asked, and Yeong-mi's face brightened.

"This? This is my biggest catch yet!" Yeong-mi grinned, showing it off, which caused Seon-hyang to inch away slightly, brushing against to me. With a clearer look, I could see that the fish was about the size of my forearm, and I gazed at it in surprise. "I caught it in the Taedong river while Joon-ho was looking for berries, so he doesn't believe that I caught it. But I did, I swear!"

"I believe you. Either way, we'll need this, so we can get some protein into our bodies." I said, stretching my arms slightly. "You should probably smoke it, smoking the meat makes it last longer." Yeong-mi nodded, and went into the tent to grab a pan.

"I'm surprised." Joon-ho smiled softly, putting the berries away in his bag, which he had gotten out while me and Yeong-mi were talking, and Seon-hyang had walked back to the tent as well. "You and Seon-hyang are only centimeters apart, and you two aren't going for each other's throats. What happened?"

"We had a talk." I replied, and Joon-ho raised his eyebrows at that. I sat down onto the dirt, and took a bite of the Aerobar, and felt a flicker of homesickness in my stomach with the chocolate. Joon-ho's eyes widened when he saw the chocolate.

"You have chocolate?" Joon-ho asked.

"Yes." I said, putting the wrapper in the fire, watching it crumple up and turn coal black. "However, we shouldn't eat it all right now, unless it's an emergency." Joon-ho slumped down, and crossed his arms.

"You can gorge yourself on chocolate all you want when we get to China." I said, and Joon-ho perked up. "But we have to be conservative now, or else we'll have nothing to eat."

"You've had it before?" I asked, and Joon-ho nodded rapidly. I watched Yeong-mi walk back from the tent with a knife and pan. "How? Seon-hyang told me she'd never had it before, until tonight."

"Our next door neighbors were smugglers." He said, and I listened eagerly, hand on chin. "They'd usually sell the things they got from China, but sometimes, they'd give us things as gifts for not selling them out, like chocolate, and American movies and TV shows on DVDs dubbed in Korean."

"Oh?" I said, moving forward with a smile on my face. "What movies?"

"Uh… There was a movie called… Pretty Woman?" Joon-ho's face creased in thought. "I thought it was kinda dumb. My favorite DVD, though, was an episode of an American TV show called Friends." I threw my head back and laughed hard at that, which made Joon-ho raise his eyebrows.

"Why are you laughing?"

"You and my mom are going to get along so well." I gasped through laughing fits. "She loves Friends! She'll finally have someone willing to watch episodes with her." Joon-ho smiled widely at that, and we were silent for a few minutes.

"What happened to the smugglers?" I asked, half expecting Joon-ho to tense up, but instead, he continued to smile.

"One day, they just left. They brought nothing with them, their whole house left undisturbed, except for a few clothes." He said, and I frowned at that. "My dad thought the secret police had got to them, but about a year later, someone brought us a cell phone. Said someone had bought it for us, and smuggled it from China."

"They'd crossed the border, and made it all the way to Thailand." Joon-ho said, gesturing with his hands. "Told us that the government took them in, and now they had jobs, actual, well paying jobs! They invited all of us to join them, told us how easy it was to grow up there."

"What'd your dad say?" I asked, and Joon-ho looked thoughtfully.

"He said nothing, but I thought he might have been against leaving. I mean… This is where our ancestors lived and were buried." Joon-ho said quietly, and Yeong-mi peeked her head from behind the fire, and Joon-ho looked back at her. "They also have good class standing, even though they live in the countryside. We never starved during the famine."

"Yeong-mi, have you seen any foreign films?" I asked, and got a mere shake of the head from her, before she returned to her fish.

"Yeong-mi and Seon-hyang have always believed in the Party, so they never felt tempted to watch foreign films." Joon-ho sighed, looking into the fire. "I believed in the Party, for a time. Believed in all the stories they told us, like that Kim Jong-Il could change the weather, and that both Kims never defecated. Believed that North Korea was the purest nation, that everything was better here."

"When did you stop believing?" I asked, then backed up, conscious of the fact that I just asked a very personal question. "If you don't want to tell me, it's okay."

"No, I want to tell you. Even though I grew up watching smuggled material, and traded pictures of pokemon trainers with my friends, I didn't stop believing there." Joon-ho said, drumming lightly on his kneecap. "I really, truly, stopped believing after I found a balloon full of pamphlets while I was patrolling the DMZ my first year of deployment, snacks from the South, and a small thumbdrive, that I could stick into a computer, which one of my army friends had bought on the black market, and shared between us."

"On that little drive," Joon-ho said, gesturing an explosion with his hands. "Was an explosion of ideas and information. I learned stories about the South, how better it was than the North, stories from defectors, and most importantly, stories about other dictators, and how what they did upset their people."

"That last one, made me realize how bad the regime was." Joon-ho said, leaning in close to me. "In those stories, I saw parallels between the dictators, and the Kim family. All the puzzle pieces clicked together, and suddenly, I wasn't blind. I could see how bad it all was, how normal countries didn't blow up their civilians in public over watching television. However, I threw the USB into a river, so I wouldn't be caught."

"I found another balloon a year later, before I was transferred to the towns up in the north, to monitor smuggling activities." Joon-ho said, scratching his head. "This one had a story about a trainer about my age in the South who won the Pokemon League, and became Champion. When I heard that story… I was filled with a new purpose. I wanted to cross the border, and become a trainer, so I could be a Champion too! The first North Korean champion."

"Oh!" I said, pointing to him. "Park Min-ji!" I heard of Min-ji, she had won the championship a year prior, at only 17 years old, which made Joon-ho potentially only a year or two younger than me. And he was serving in the military, which meant me or Addy could have been serving in the military before we even went to college if we were born here, which was stupefying. Jesus Christ, this country is crazy.

"Yes." He nodded, before continuing.

"I witnessed some horrible things in those villages. Going without meals. Decaying corpses. Entire families being marched to prison camps. I had to watch a woman beg and sob for her life after my superior found she had a DVD player, but she couldn't pay for a bribe, so off to prison she went." Joon-ho said, covering his face. "I even watched one of my fellow servicemen execute a woman by machine gun. I can't wash the memory from my mind. I guess he couldn't either. A week later, we found him hanging in the barracks."

"However, through all that, all the horrors I saw there, I still hung onto that hope of defecting and becoming a trainer. Eventually, about 2 months ago, I was moved to Pyongyang, which I knew was my only shot at defecting. And then I met you."

"Then you met me." I echoed thoughtfully, and nodded slowly. Yeong-mi was gaping at Joon-ho from a distance. "Thank you for telling me this."

"No problem. It feels good to tell someone." Joon-ho said, stretching his arms.

"Why didn't you tell me, oppa?" Yeong-mi asked, and Joon-ho turned to her.

"I didn't want to hurt you, noona." Joon-ho said quietly. "I wanted you to stay safe. What if someone overheard us talking, and told the secret police? Both of us would be dead!"

"I know, I know… I just…" Yeong-mi sighed and shook her head. "I don't know." Joon-ho walked over to her, and sat down next to her.

"I'm sorry for not telling you." Joon-ho apologized, and I could see, through the light of the fire, tears starting to form in his eyes. "I should have. We should have planned to escape together."

"It's fine." Yeong-mi said, a smile on her face. "If you told me before, I would've probably reported you. Now… I couldn't."

"It'll all work out, okay?" Joon-ho said quietly, wrapping his arm across her shoulders. "We'll find a nice place to live, and we'll have lots of money."

"Yeah." Yeong-mi smiled, looking into the fire. "Loads of money." Joon-ho laughed loudly at that.

"How old are you two?" I asked, the question itching under my skin as I looked at them.

"I'm 21." Yeong-mi said, looking over at me.

"19." Joon-ho said, and I widened my eyes at that.

"You're 19?" I gasped, and Joon-ho nodded. "What age were you enlisted?"

"17."

I cursed loudly in Cantonese again, rubbing my face with my hands. Both Lees stared at me, with odd expressions on their faces.

"What?"

"You were still a kid, man! I'm only a year older than you!" I exclaimed. "What if war broke out? What if you had to fight?"

"It's normal here." Joon-ho said, messing with the creases in his button up uniform shirt, "We register when we're 14, go off when we're 17, and stay for 10 years. I never liked it, but I had to do it."

"I can't imagine that…" I said, looking at Joon-ho. He was barely an adult, and had experienced much more than I had ever imagined. "When I was 17, I was worrying about tests and stuff…"

"I would've preferred that over enlistment." Joon-ho said, smiling crookedly. I sighed, and looked up at the sky. Through the gaps in the trees, I could see the bright lights of the stars beaming down on the Earth. Hearing Joon-ho's story made my entire world feel small and insignificant, it paled in comparison to what he lived.

"I can't believe that you're technically an experienced soldier at only 19, Joon-ho." I laughed quietly. "I'm around your age, and I only know how to shoot a gun."

"You do?" Joon-ho said, widening his eyes.

"Yep. My uncle is a pretty big gun nut, so one day, when I was… about 13 I think? He took me to a shooting range in America, when I was visiting, and showed me the ropes." I laughed. "After we came back, my mom and my grandmother both yelled at him at the same time. I'm pretty sure if you walked a meter away you could hear them." Both Lees snickered at that, and we fell into a comfortable silence.

"Anyway, I'm going to bed." I said after a minute, standing up, my legs aching from sitting for so long. "Goodnight, you two." The two of them nodded and said goodnight, and I walked to the tent, and went in, zipping it up behind me.

Seon-hyang was laying down on her side in her blue colored sleeping bag. She appeared to be fast asleep, and I didn't bother to wake her, not wanting to risk upsetting her again. I retrieved Jessica, and laid down in my sleeping bag.

"Marie." Seon-hyang said suddenly, and I jumped slightly.

"Y-Yeah?"

"Why do you have pokemon?" Seon-hyang muttered, not turning to face me. "Only the US military has them."

"That's not true. A lot of people around the world have pokemon."

There was a pause.

"But… I learned that the imperialists used pokemon against us, during the war." Seon-hyang said softly. "That they burned cities down and destroyed anything in their path with them. So, I was taught, Kim Il-Sung banned pokemon so no one here could be hurt anymore, and to identify imperalists if they ever made it across the border."

"That's true. Pokemon were used by many countries in combat, for a very long time." I said, trying to summon all the things I learned in Pokemon History. "However, the UN banned any combat use of pokemon in wartime in 1979, now only non-lethal pokemon are allowed in combat zones."

"Non-lethal?"

"Healing."

"Huh." Seon-hyang sighed. "So, you aren't from the military? Really?"

"Far from it." I snorted. "I'd never make it through basic training. Too weak."

Another pause.

"I don't know what's true anymore." Seon-hyang breathed shakily, which caused my stomach to drop violently. "I don't know anything…"

"Hey, hey, hey... " I bolted out of my sleeping bag and crawled over to her shaking form, and rubbed her back lightly. "It's okay, it's okay, it's okay. It's not your fault, alright? You wouldn't have known." I continued to rub her back as she let out a shaky, near silent sob. I rubbed her back and whispered to her, until she fell asleep. After that, I crawled to my sleeping bag, slipped in, and fell asleep as well.

The next morning, we all got up, several hours apart, had breakfast, which was another can of lentil soup, which wasn't as bad as the vegetable soup I had in Pyongyang. We packed up everything that we brought out, and I threw the ashes of our campfire into the nearby lake to cover our tracks, and we set off into the forest, and I let out my pokemon, giving a chance to roam about without getting spotted. I noticed, that Varaha preferred to walk by Joon-ho, swinging his head around as he walked, Nina guarded Yeong-mi, occasionally stopping, and looking around for people or pokemon, and Jessica demanded to be carried by Seon-hyang, who obliged. The two former musicians warmed up to the presence of my pokemon, and Seon-hyang seemed to enjoy holding and doting on Jessica, spoiling her to new lengths, and I had to warn Yeong-mi not to pet Nina because of her quills. Joon-ho was already cozy with the idea of raising pokemon as partners, so it wasn't surprising to see him stop and pet Varaha, which garnered him a happy snort from the Tepig. It was all really sweet to watch, and I forgave Seon-hyang for potentially making Jessica more of a brat, because she literally had no idea how to care for a pokemon. I swear, my heart grew at least 2 sizes bigger that day.

A few hours later, we reached the outskirts of one village, and Joon-ho stopped us, and looked around. It was a few tense minutes before Joon-ho spoke.

"This is my village." He said softly, and I quickly fumbled through my bag and retrieved all my pokemon, and I swear I caught a glimmer of disappointment on Seon-hyang's face. Joon-ho grabbed two large military caps for the two girls, and they eagerly grabbed them, and pulled them over their faces. We walked towards the village, and made it onto the dirt path towards the outskirts of town, where we were faced with a small group of building that looked like they were built in pre-Industrial Revolution Britain, with a lot less of the quaint charm. I stomached my shame, reasoning that this was all they had in a country shut off from the rest of the world, and buried my opinions, trying to have an open mind.

"Don't speak at all, alright?" Joon-ho whispered. "You have a Southern accent here, they'll be able to tell that you are a foreigner." I nodded solemnly, and followed the group closely, a bit self conscious of my appearance.

We walked inward towards the town center, which involved passing by groups of people, who gawked at us. Seon-hyang and Yeong-mi tried to look less obvious, and huddled close to Joon-ho and me. I merely looked around the town as I walked. I didn't see starving people, or corpses, just normal, albeit raggedy looking, people going through the motions, buying and selling goods to each other. We walked further and further, before Joon-ho spotted someone in the distance, and ran towards them. suddenly acting like a little kid instead of the stern soldier he always seemed to be, and the three of us nervously followed behind.

"Hyung! Hyung!" Joon-ho shouted, and I felt a little better, at least Joon-ho knew the guy.

The man Joon-ho was running towards was another soldier, who appeared to be off duty, also with a shaved head, but was shorter than Joon-ho and with a longer, thinner face and warmer expression. However, when he saw Joon-ho, his face seemed to drop, and he stared at him, which made a large churning storm of anxiety and fear brew in my stomach.

"Hyung, how are you?" Joon-ho exclaimed, bouncing like a small child.

"G-Good…?" 'Hyung' said, blinking quickly. "Why are you home?"

"I'm going to see my family, with my cousin and her friends." Joon-ho grinned, and the other man looked… alarmed? "See you!"

We walked forward, and I swore I heard the other man say something, but I couldn't tell what he said. Joon-ho spotted his house, which was a decently sized building, not too different from the rest, with a green hatch roof and small dusty windows and a decent sized backyard full of dead grass and a small outhouse. Joon-ho quietly shook off his excitement, and went to open the front, wooden door.

The instant we walked in, I knew something was wrong. Really wrong. Super wrong. The house appeared to be as usual, a kind of small place, with a living room with a TV set, sofa and 2 pictures hanging of the Kims in a gold frame, typical for any house, a dining room with a basic wooden table and four wooden chair, a moderately sized kitchen, with a stove, some cabinets and a fridge, 2 bedrooms on the second floor, that looked similar, with a large bed, a desk, and a dresser in each, but all of this was lacking one single missing piece.

No one was there. No mother greeting us with tea. No father reading the newspaper in the living room.

Nobody.

And it was freaking frightening.

After we looked over every corner of the house for any sign of people, we walked back down to the first floor, where Joon-ho stood, looking dazed and in shock. He didn't move, and barely looked like he was breathing, and just stared straight ahead, eyes focusing on nothing. We'd only been on the road for 5 days, how could they catch up to us so fast? This was my fault, all my fault! If I had just went back to my parents back then...

"No." He said quietly, almost inaudible. "There's no way."

From the corner of my eye I saw Hyung, who was standing solemnly at the front of the house, barely in the doorway. I turned to him, and stared. All was silent, until the man suddenly said:

"Joon-ho." Which caused the teen to jump, and turn to him.

"Please don't tell me it's true." Joon-ho begged, tears forming in his eyes, and the man closed his eyes, and sighed.

"Last week," 'Hyung' said with a wavering tone, trying to keep his composure. "Something awful happened here. I don't know how you don't know already, but…"

"Your family defected to China."

Spoiler: historical notes

Social Standing: Also known as Songbun, North Koreans are separated into 3 major classes (Core: the most loyal, usually party members, Wavering: in the middle, and Hostile: either former or the descendants of former lawyers, landowners, and Christians) and several other sub groups. One of North Korea's more subtle human rights abuses

Songgun: Translates roughly to "military first policy", this is the state-sponsored belief that the military is the head of the country, thus conscripting all men (and apparently women now) into the military by age 17, and its also why all Moranbong members wear military uniforms and have military ranks.

The song Marie was singing: 너 아님 안돼 (Gotta be you) by 2NE1, who disbanded about 2 months after I wrote this, and I'm still bitter about it.

 

[Polipuff]

I only read the first chapter, but I'll give you what I thought of it.

Alexandria-by-the-sea

'Sea' should be capitalized. (Also, I have a hunch that this name was inspired by Manchester-by-the-Sea).

because my mother was not from Alexandria-on-the-sea

Is this an error?

Now a much bolder Nidorina, Nina looked over at me and nuzzled my legs, making sure not to accidentally poison me with her barbs and end my journey before it even really began, and then ate the lettuce and tomatoes I set out for her.

However, on the other side of the DMZ, pokemon ownership was strictly banned, with immediate execution for anyone caught, probably because of the fears that allowing pokemon battles would lead to people having actual power, which would lead to the Kim dynasty's collapse.

Sentences like these are way to much of a run-on sentence. I suggest you break some of them up. Check out Hemingway Editor on Google to correct these.

The plot actually seems really original, keep up the good work!

 

[roule]

I only read the first chapter, but I'll give you what I thought of it.



'Sea' should be capitalized. (Also, I have a hunch that this name was inspired by Manchester-by-the-Sea).



Is this an error?




Sentences like these are way to much of a run-on sentence. I suggest you break some of them up. Check out Hemingway Editor on Google to correct these.

The plot actually seems really original, keep up the good work!

For the first one: yes, it is supposed to be like that. I chose it originally because it sounded cool, and resembled a name I saw while driving through the place that inspired Alexandria, but I'm probably gonna end up shortening it because it's a mouthful.

For the second one: Thank you for alerting me to this tool! I have a problem with writing run on sentences unintentionally, and this can really help me not make my stories run on for forever.

Thanks again!

 

[roule]

Chapter 6

Am I the only living soul around?

"What?" Joon-ho whispered, eyes wide in disbelief. I wanted to say something, to Joon-ho or the other man, but because of my accent, I stayed quiet. Still, this was all so sudden, that I couldn't wrap my head around it. Joon-ho said that his family had no real reason to defect across the border. Yet, his family wasn't there? I looked behind me, to see the two girls sharing similar expressions of shock.

"You father called sick a week ago." The man continued, crossing his arms. "The hospital thought nothing of it, until he didn't come in at all this week. They sent us, fearing the worst, but we found the house as it is now. No bodies, but some tell tale things were missing, like clothes, and food."

"Did they…" Joon-ho said in a shaky voice, before trailing off. Then rephrased his question. "How do you know?"

"The government hasn't found their... you know. They weren't sent back by the Chinese government. To my knowledge, of course." The man said, playing with his jacket in a nervous tic. "It's certain now."

"Oh." Joon-ho said in a soft tone, looking down at his shoes. He looked like a scared little boy, and I wanted to comfort him. Tell him that we would look for his parents when we crossed the border. I'd heard stories from my relatives still living in Macau of what the government in China did to defectors. They'd called them 'economic migrants', and deported them back. To torture, prison camp and death. If that happened to Joon-ho's family, or my companions, I would never forgive myself.

"You should go follow them." The man whispered, trying to avoid getting overheard by anyone. "The last I heard, they were sending soldiers to Pyongyang looking for you. If you're here…" Joon-ho flinched. I could see, from my limited viewpoint, that he was cringing in fear.

My stomach lurched in fear, and I covered my mouth so I couldn't say something, or make a sound. This was not happening. The government is not after me. This was not happening. Not happening. I walked backwards, until I hit the wall with a silent thump muffled by my jacket. I covered my face with sweaty palms. Snap out of it. Snap out of it. Snap out of it. I fell to the floor, and curled up in a ball, trying to be as small and quiet as I could be.

Joon-ho and his friend continued to talk, but it just sounded like garbled sounds to me. My brain was more focused on the fact the the North Korean government was after me. I was going to die. I wasn't going make it home, wasn't going to see Addy, wouldn't see my parents. I was going to die alone, in an unknown country, without my parents- without anyone knowing where I was. I'd be shot with a machine gun. I'd be hung. I'd be blown up with an anti aircraft gun, and the pieces would be sent to my parents. Joon-ho would die. Yeong-mi would die. Seon-hyang would die. It would all be my fault, if they had never met me, they would've been safe from the regime, but blind. All my pokemon would die in equally horrible ways. Panic rushed through my bloodstream, controlled my very being. I wasn't strong enough, couldn't lead 3 defectors across the border. I was barely 20, still a child, and yet. Yet…

"Marie?"

Yet I had to be strong. Had to lead. I had more experience than the three of them, due to circumstance. They looked up to me, and I felt mixed things about it. Pride, and fear of leading them the wrong way. I was an awful leader.

"Marie."

I then realized that I was sobbing inaudibly, tears and snot running down my face. They'd notice the fact that I was crying, I thought to myself, how ****ing embarrassing would that be? You're a failure, They have a failure for a leader. I tried to compose myself.

"Marie!" Yeong-mi shouted, and I snapped my head up to look up at the three North Koreans hovering over me. They all softened a little at the sight of my tear strewn face. I rubbed my face, trying to wipe away my tears, and I stood up on wobbly feet. Which caused Joon-ho to rush over to stabilize my shaky form. The man had left, so now I could speak to the three of them, and I took a deep breath in, and let it out in a whimper.

"How far from the border are we?" I slurred, continuing to rub at my eyes.

"We're only about 5 hours away." Yeong-mi replied, and I sighed in relief. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I just panicked." I said, shaking my head to let my fear out, and I took a deep breath, running my hands down my face. "You all need to get out of your uniforms and get rid of them, though. Because it'll be like we planted large, bright signs on our backs."

"Into what?" Seon-hyang asked with a unimpressed expression in her eyes, crossing her arms.

"I have some clothes for you and Seon-hyang, but they'll be a little baggy." I said, gesturing at my bag. "Cause they're my extras."

"Me?" Joon-ho asked, slightly bemused.

"See if your parents left any of your clothes behind. If not, I got stuff for you too." With that, Joon-ho climbed up the stairs into his old room.

Sure enough, Joon-ho's parents had been kind enough to leave some of his stuff behind. Which meant he didn't have to look like a 4 year old wearing his father's clothes. I passed my clothes out to the musicians, and all three went upstairs to change in private. That left me alone, in the first floor, with my thoughts. To avoid confronting the fact that I had a panic attack in front of all three of them. I walked across the wooden floors of the house, and turned on the TV. Instead of like, North Korean Seinfeld, I was met with two soldiers on a stage, one male, one female, doing what I thought at first was a comedy skit. I was mildly excited, because I needed some jokes in my life right about now. But, it evolved into one of the most boring programs I have ever watched in my life. With garbage slapstick humor sprinkled on top of monologues about food production. I sat on the sofa, with my hands on the sides of my head, just staring at the TV as the male soldier went on about potatoes, and slowly losing my mind.

"Marie!" Yeong-mi exclaimed, forcing me out of my trance, climbing down the stairs, and posing for me. "How do I look?" She was wearing the black t-shirt I got when my dad dragged me to a Toto concert in Vancouver, which hung to her upper legs. My black skirt, that reached up to her knees (mid thigh for me) fit her. And my black tights fit her also decently, not really tight. But enough so they wouldn't fall down at a moments notice, with a little bit of fabric bunched at the feet. I smiled at her as she walked into the room, and looked over at the TV.

"Oooh! Watching "It's so funny", are you?" Yeong-mi said, and I gave her a withering look. The name was almost as painful as actually watching the show.

"So it's supposed to be funny?" I asked, and she nodded, and laughed as the female soldier enthusiastically told a joke.

"You don't think it's funny?"

"It's juvenile." I said, holding my chin up with my right hand, and Yeong-mi looked at me in surprise. "The jokes are vapid and boring, and rely on people falling over instead of well set up jokes. I've seen better." Yeong-mi just shrugged, and continued to watch the show. I reached into my bag, and tore at the fish jerky from yesterday with my teeth. I determined that it needed salt.

"Are you really okay?" Yeong-mi asked, and I glanced over at her, to see her staring at me in concern. I threw my head back for a moment, and wished the earth would swallow me whole out of shame, before I got my act together.

"I'm a little frightened, but it'll be fine." I said between bites of fish jerky. "We're almost to the border, and then we'll be alright."

"You're scared? Why?"

"Yeong-mi." I said, any sign of amusement leaving my voice. "If the government catches us, gets a hold of my passport or my pokemon. They'll torture me to get me to confess to espionage, and then kill me. They might do the same to you, Joon-ho, and Seon-hyang, for 'fraternizing with enemy'."

"They've probably already discovered that your room is completely empty. That two of their elite musicians have suddenly disappeared from their rooms, and connected the dots." I continued, wringing my hands together. "I'm assuming that you two are very important to the regime, and they wouldn't want you to defect, 'cause it'd be a sign of weakness on their part."

"I believe so." Yeong-mi said quietly, and I nodded. "The Supreme Commander hand picked only the most elite to join Moranbong." I caught a glint of pride in her voice. Like that serving the Party and being handpicked by the younger Kim to play the drums in his band was her greatest accomplishment in life. I couldn't bring myself to be anything more than slightly unnerved.

"Don't call him that." I muttered quietly, and Yeong-mi widened her eyes at me.

"Why?"

"People will stare at you if you call him that." I retorted, crossing my arms, and tucking myself into my jacket. "In China."

"Because they'll know I'm from North Korea, and that I have pride in my leader?" Yeong-mi snapped at me, and I took a deep breath in. "Just because we're leaving North Korea, doesn't mean I won't be loyal to the Supreme Commander."

"It's not that." I said, putting my hand on her shoulder. "If you say that in China, You can get caught by the police, deported, and either sent to a labor camp or executed. This is so they can maintain decent relations with Pyongyang. " Yeong-mi's eyes widened at that, and her mouth dropped open.

"That's why I'm afraid." I muttered, and Yeong-mi put her hand on my shoulder. "Because of your class standing, you could do some serious damage. The Party doesn't want that to happen, so they're probably after us. If they find out we left the country, they'll contact the Chinese government, and get them to search for us. We need to get from the border, into Beijing as fast as humanly possible, so we can lose them."

"We'll be okay." Yeong-mi said softly, rubbing my shoulder, and I laid my head on hers. I closed my eyes, and let my breathing relax. I rested my eyes for a bit, while Yeong-mi giggled at the TV show, before I jolted up at the sound of slow footsteps. I looked over to see an embarrassed Seon-hyang practically cowering by the stairs. She had my navy blue baggy sweatshirt practically draping her upper half, sleeves hanging with no hands in sight. She had managed to get my also intentionally large sweatpants to fit around her waist. She tucked them into her boots, making her look smaller than she was. I laughed loudly as she slowly walked down the stairs, glaring at me all the way down. She had lost her threatening appearance in the well fitted uniform. Instead, she looked like a sullen little kid.

(If I'm honest, a primal part of me missed that threatening appearance.)

"Stop it!" Seon-hyang stammered as she walked forward, a splotchy blush across her face as I began to wheeze. "Not f-funny!"

"I gotta say." I said between loud coughs, as I regained my composure. "I don't think anyone in China is going to think you were a member of the fourth largest military in the world." Seon-hyang pouted at that, but said nothing. Instead she watched the TV in front of her. She slipped between Yeong-mi and I, letting a soft sigh out. I stiffened for a second, before I slumped onto her side in exhaustion. I continued to watch the show, a little less bored now that I had 2 other people with me. I felt myself nodding off, and tried my best to stay awake, so I was ready to go when Joon-ho came down. But, I ended up closing my eyes, but not really falling asleep, just resting.

"What are we going to do when we cross the border?" Yeong-mi broke her silence, and I snapped awake, and glanced over at her.

"We're still going to have to walk and camp out for a few days to get to Beijing. Try to find if Joon-ho's family is still in China, but after that, we'll be staying in hotels until I beat all the Chinese gyms." I said, stretching my legs out. "During that, I'll get you guys refugee status in Canada."

"You've never told us what Canada is like, though." Yeong-mi says, and her face anticipates an explanation. She has a valid point, I thought to myself, they've probably never heard a country described.

"The whole country, or where I live?"

Yeong-mi looks thoughtful.

"I guess… Where you live?"

"I live on an island in the Pacific Ocean, only about a 100 miles away from the Canadian mainland." I said, and drank up the amazement on both girl's faces. "It's mainly a fishing village, and a lot of the people there grew up together. My parents didn't live there as kids, though."

"Where did they live before?" Yeong-mi asked.

"My dad was born in a city on the mainland, he moved there when he was 11. Because my grandfather got a job as a professor at a university in a city nearby. My mom was born in Macau, but moved to America when she was 9 or so. Then she met my dad when he traveled across America to challenge their gyms, and moved back to where I live now, to have me."

"The last time I was there, we were in the middle of a snowstorm. The whole island was a bright white, and it was so cold, I could barely stand outside." I said, gesturing with my hands. "But it's nicer and more beautiful in the summer, you'll probably like it. If not, you can move anywhere else in the world."

"Anywhere?" Seon-hyang asked, looking at me in amazement.

"Yeah, literally anywhere."

Both girls seemed bewildered by this, looking over at me with shock written on their faces. I was about to explain that in the outside world, you could move anywhere you pleased. Before I heard Joon-ho walk downstairs, dressed in a white long sleeved shirt, and black pants, making him look like a normal person. Instead of a throwaway soldier. With that, I got up to turn the TV off, shoved all the uniforms into my bag and we headed out of the house. We avoided parading ourselves through the town. Instead, walking from the house to the darkness and secrecy of the nearby forest. The darkness shrouded our new 'capitalist' appearance. I didn't release my pokemon this time, the reason being part paranoia that someone would spot them. The other part that I didn't want them to get hurt when we crossed the border.

A few hours in, we had followed the forest into a large clearing of yellow grass and hilly ground. On top of which you could see a large mountain in the distance. Fat snowflakes drifted from the sky, and I found myself stopping to enjoy the view. Which caused Joon-ho, who was leading us to the border, to stop and look back at us.

"C'mon." He said, impatience lacing his voice, and I crawled down the hill. The two girls followed me down, but their eyes seemed to be fixed upon the mountain. I squinted at it, trying to determine if there was something interesting about it, other than the fact that it was a rather large mountain.

"Oppa." Seon-hyang asked, and I turned my head to look over my shoulder at her. "Is that Mount Paektu?" Joon-ho nodded, and I turned to him, mustering up at the confusion I could fit on my face.

"Paektu is a mountain on the Chinese border." Joon-ho said, and I made a low 'oh' noise. "It has a lot of significance here, the first ruler of Korea, Dangun, was born here."

"Well, that means we're close to the border." I mumbled, and Joon-ho nodded. Seon-hyang snuck up from behind me, and locked arms, and I tried not to blush as I looked over to her. "What's wrong?"

"I'm cold and tired, Maaarie." Seon-hyang whined, like a small child, and I laughed a little. "Wanna stop."

"We can't stop, but I can give you my coat." I said, before I froze, remembering the gun in my pocket. What if Seon-hyang hurt herself with the gun? I quickly looked around me for a place to get rid of the gun, and saw a river nearby.

"Joon-ho."

"Mm."

"I have to get rid of something I got in my boat."

"What is it?" He asked, and I showed him the gun, making sure not to put my finger on the trigger, which caused Yeong-mi to jump back.

"You had a gun?!" Yeong-mi yelled, and I felt a flash of anxiety come over me.

"Y-Yeah, but it came with everyone's boat." I stuttered, overcome with fear that I would lose all my companions, and be alone until China. "I forgot I had it. If you want, you can look through my bag, to prove that I'm not a sleeper agent. I'm sorry, pleasedonthateme." My head fell, and I swallowed, trying not to cry, but slowly looked up as Yeong-mi laughed.

"I don't hate you, Marie." Yeong-mi said, smiling warmly, causing me to sigh in relief, and walking over to me. "I know you aren't a sleeper agent, I watched you walk face-first into a tree. I'm just… shocked you had a gun on you. I don't think it suits you well."

"Oh." I said, quietly, as I fidgeted with my hands. Joon-ho cleared his throat, and I looked over at him.

"Go on." He said, pointing to the river, and I dashed over, to the banks of the river, which was a fast moving set of rapids. I stood for a second. And without hesitation, I flung the gun into the river, watched it fly and land in a tiny splash in the raging waters. I jogged back to the group. Now, that I didn't have to worry about Seon-hyang hurting herself, I gave her my coat. She snuggled into it, and locked our arms again.

"Sorry," I smiled sheepishly, and Seon-hyang held me closer. "Should've gotten rid of it in Pyongyang."

"It's fine." Yeong-mi said, waving it off. "As long as you weren't planning to use it."

"I… Couldn't." I said quietly, looking away. "I couldn't do that, to any of you. To anyone." I looked over at Yeong-mi, who was smiling at me.

"I know." She replied softly. "I know."

The rest of the walk to the border was silent, a comfortable silence. We had walked from the clearing to a large green pine forest that surrounded the Paektu mountain. When we talked next, where I spotted significantly more pokemon than in the forests towards the center of North Korea. Most of them were birds, like large flocks of Pidgeot flying above us, or the occasional Hoot-Hoot. There were some ground dwelling pokemon as well, like a group of Nidoran and Pikachu. I wanted to catch at least one, but I remembered that I'd have to lure them across the border, and I decided against it. Too much hassle.

"You're not going for any the pokemon here?" Joon-ho asked me, smiling slightly.

"It's illegal to capture pokemon from here." I said, and Joon-ho's face fell. "Some British dude caught one a few years ago, got banned from participating in any gyms, and went to prison. Pokeballs have data that lists the location where the pokemon was caught, and his was like… 'NO DATA' I think."

"Besides, there's probably similar pokemon on the Chinese side." I continued, watching as a lone Pikachu walked towards us. It gawked at us, before darting away when Yeong-mi stepped closer. "Ones that won't get me arrested."

"Ah." Joon-ho said, frowning. "Guess that's the same for me, too."

"Yeah, as soon as we cross that border, you're like the rest of us." I joked, lightly jabbing his ribs. Joon-ho smiled, but then his face contorted in thought.

"Shouldn't we get pokemon of our own?" Joon-ho asked, and I glanced over at him.

"I mean, I guess you should. What's your reasoning, though?"

"To blend in. We could be deported if we don't blend in."

"Okay, yes we do!" I said loudly. "I could catch you guys one, or we could buy a few eggs in the next city."

All them agreed that they were fine with either via a quick shrug. We fell into another comfortable silence until we pushed through the disappearing pine forest. We reached a large tract of what would be river. But was frozen over, and with an inch of snow shrouding it. I immediately pictured myself slipping and falling on the mixture of slippery ice and slippery snow, and busting a leg. My anxiety flared up again. 20 years of living in a place where water almost always froze over had given me an almost chronic fear of ice. Having slipped and fallen a few too many times scrambling to school.

"This is the Yalu river." Joon-ho said, turning to me, and I gave him a concerned look. "It's the border between Korea and China."

"We're going to have to cross it, aren't we?" I asked, and Joon-ho nodded. I took a deep breath in, gathering all my courage together. Joon-ho walked to the bank of the river, and slowly stepped on the river, making sure the ice was thick enough. Thankfully, the river did not crack and plunge Joon-ho to his death as I worried it would, and he let out a small cheer. He turned to us, and gestured for us to come. Yeong-mi was quick to follow, and the two were soon becoming smaller and smaller on the horizon. My brain was trying to find an alternative to walking onto the ice, and I turned to look at a confident Seon-hyang. This gave me sliver of calm in my mind, overrun by fear. Seon-hyang climbed onto the ice, beginning to make her way across the Yalu. I clutched her tightly as something to keep upright, whimpering all the while. Instead of complaining about me dragging her down, and yell at me for crying like a child, Seon-hyang patted my head reassuringly. And quietly, began to sing to me, a soft song about going to Mount Paektu. I closed my eyes, lost focus of where I was, and only paid attention to her voice, her wonderful voice. I held her close, so I wouldn't lose her, and when I opened my eyes, we were on the ground in China, the Lees standing nearby. I spun around, looking for guards or cameras, but found nothing suspicious as far as the eye could see. Some dramatic border crossing this was.

"Well… that sure was something." I groaned. Beginning to walk forward while still holding onto Seon-hyang, who didn't mind the attention at all, into another pine forest. "Thought it'd be more… memorable?"

"I'm surprised." Joon-ho said, looking around. "At the DMZ, there are tons of guards, here… there's none."

"Well, it's best we don't question it. If there were guards, we would've had to bribe them to continue and that'd-" Yeong-mi said, messing with her hair. Before she stopped, at the sight of something. Joon-ho walked over to her as well, and stopped dead in his tracks, and let out a loud gasp.

"What's up, you guys?" I said nervously, and Seon-hyang and I walked over to them. I peeked over their shoulders, to spot a tiny Magby standing in the middle of the forest. Staring at the two cousins with wide curious eyes, before it began to walk towards Joon-ho, stop, and then stare again. I pulled out my phone, switched to the iDex app, and changed the voice language to Korean. I let the app identify the pokemon in front of Joon-ho with a tap of my finger.

"Magby, the Live Coal pokemon." iDex said, in its typical robotic monotone, which caused Joon-ho and Yeong-mi to visibly jump. "It is found in volcanic craters. Its body temperature is over 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit, so don't underestimate it." The Magby merely cocked its head at us, and walked towards Joon-ho, stopping in front of him, and making a noise that sounded somewhat like a quack.

"Probably came down from Paektu. What a long way for a little guy." I said, squinting at it. I'd never seen a wild Magby before, only in books. Because of its rare location and the fact that there were no big volcanoes in the Canada where I lived that weren't completely dead. Having erupted way before my family even existed, and it was pretty exciting. I also noticed how the red duck-esque pokemon didn't bolt when I moved, and was staring intently at Joon-ho. That would mean…

"Marie, when a pokemon walks in front of you like that." I remembered my dad saying to me, watching with my mother. She was clutching onto his arm nervously, because her 11 year old daughter was standing in front of a poison type for Christ's sake.

This was when I was a little girl standing in a park near Ithaca, staring in front of the light blue Nidoran in front of me, who was staring intently at me. Not caring about the squealing Cleffa by my side, who was desperately trying to protect me. "It wants you to catch it, that's why it isn't putting up a fight." I remember a crowd of kids and parents, and regular people surrounding us, staring at me, parents holding their children close.

"Oh." I had said, bending down, conscious of the pale yellow dress I was wearing. To look at the Nidoran, who didn't even flinch, and just moved closer, until there was barely an inch between us. "You want to be my friend, don't you?" The rabbit pokemon squeaked happily in reply, and I laughed, before my dad cleared his throat, causing me to turn to him.

"Here's what you have to do…"

Joon-ho turned to me, as I shook off that memory, beaming and excited. I knew what he was going to say before he said it.

"Marie, can you catch this one for me?" Joon-ho begged, and I smiled, fishing for a spare pokeball in my bag. "Please?"

"I don't know Joon-ho." I said, and Joon-ho frowned, cocking his head, before I handed him the pokeball. "I think it wants you to catch it." Joon-ho looked at me in confusion.

"I-I don't know how, though." He said, trying to give me the pokeball back.

"I'll walk you through it." I said, and Joon-ho nodded. "First, sit down in front of it." Joon-ho did that, and the Magby didn't dash away, and made what sounded like a happy noise, and playfully hit Joon-ho's leg.

"Okay, that's good." I said, and Joon-ho looked back up at me, showing a gleeful smile, and the Magby did the same. "Now, show it the pokeball. Hold it out in front of you." Joon-ho slowly held out the pokeball. The words 'it's body temperature is over 1,100 degrees fahrenheit' repeating in his head.



I watched the Magby for any bad reactions, like biting or kicking. Which would mean, according to what my dad told me, I would have to release a pokemon to fight it to protect Joon-ho from being burnt alive. But, the Magby just patted the pokeball, and looked at Joon-ho expectantly.

"Okay, good job Joon-ho." I said, and he giggled loudly, like a little boy. "It wants to be caught. Press the white button on the front." I watched as a flash of red light overcame the Magby, and the pokeball shook in Joon-ho's hands, one, two, three times. I held my breath, this being the most dramatic part, both to witness and do, before an audible click came from the ball. Joon-ho gingerly stood up, and his hands shook as he held the pokeball, and Yeong-mi stared at him, visibly amazed. I clapped, causing the two others to begin clapping, and Joon-ho laughed loudly.

"I… I can't believe I did it!" Joon-ho said, and I could see the happy tears in his eyes, begging to be let out. I patted his shoulder, and grinned until my face hurt. "My first pokemon…"

"Congrats, Joon-ho!" I said, clapping quietly. "Now you're one step closer to becoming Champion! Woo!" Joon-ho smiled with me.

"If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be here." Joon-ho replied, wiping the tears out of his eyes. "Thank you."

"No problem."

We began to walk further, towards an opening where I could spot a city street. Joon-ho was still jittery from the capture, chattering away to Yeong-mi. Seon-hyang was pretty cheerful herself, humming to herself. My dad would be so proud of me, wait.. my dad… I looked at my phone, and saw that I finally had service, instead of none while in North Korea. That meant… I needed to call my parents right away. They're probably scared out of their minds, I thought, I haven't had contact with them for almost a whole week. I went to my contacts, and immediately called home. This caused Seon-hyang to stop walking, and look over at me. I listened through the beeping of the phone, as it reached Canada, and I felt my stomach drop as I heard someone pick up the phone.

"Marie?" My mother said in her East Coast accent, sounding nervous. It caused my eyes to water, and my hands to shake. "Is that you?"

"Yeah." I said, playing with the fabric of my shirt, ready to get chewed out for not calling. I wanted my mother to comfort me about this. All this, hug me and tell me that I did nothing wrong, and how everything was going to be okay in the end. But I swallowed my tears, and took my punishment. I deserve it, I told myself, I deserve it

"Thank God!" My mother exclaimed, as if she had been running a long distance. Almost immediately, her tone became angry. "Young lady, you haven't called us or the island for a whole week! Do you understand how scared I was? They still haven't found your boat! Where were you?" I took a deep breath in, and let it out in a sigh.

"North Korea."

 

[roule]

Chapter 7

Where ever you want to go, we'll go.

"Excuse me?" My mother asked, her voice wavering slightly in tone. I shut my eyes, and said a silent prayer to any deity looking down at me, to pity me and let this all past, for Christ's sake.

"I landed in North Korea." I said, and heard my mother breathlessly curse in Cantonese on the other line. The Lees had turned around to face me, staring in confusion, but I couldn't say anything to them. "I stripped the identification off of the boat so I wasn't caught."

"Marie, please tell me you weren't arrested." My mother said, sounding close to tears, and I felt my heart do a nauseating slam into my intestines. "Please tell me you aren't about to be executed."

"I'm not. I made it to China." My mother sighed audibly. "I'm safe."

"How?"

"I walked."

"You walked?" My mom said incredulously.

"I walked from Pyongyang to China." My mother cursed again.

"Alone or with someone else?" My mother asked, and I could hear my dad in the background, asking my mom what was wrong. She's probably up, pacing around the bedroom, because of the time difference. I feel guilt pooling in my belly from waking her up with the frightening news of her daughters misadventure to a heavily policed military state with mediocre relations with Canada.

"I'm traveling with 3 defectors." I said, looking at the three of them, who were still staring at me, now with expressions of fear. "One boy, two girls. My age."

"What part of China are you all in right now?" I ran over towards the street, and looked for a sign listing the city I was in, and the rest of the group followed me. Unlike North Korea, this border city in China had tons of people, modern buildings jutting up from the ground and leering down, with signs and brands both in English and Chinese, and a significant population of trainers and their pokemon, and I found myself getting swallowed in a crowd, and grasping blindly for my companions, who had stayed close behind me, bewildered by the sights in front and around them.

"...Dandong."

"Are you staying, or going to Beijing?"

"Beijing."

"Your father and I will meet you there. Are you going to walk?" My mother asked, and I could hear my dad again, calling my mother's name.

"I guess? The three people I'm traveling with don't know any form of Chinese, and I don't want to risk getting them caught and sent to their doom."

"You could still get caught walking." My mother said. "It's like sending sheep straight into the tiger's mouth, you know?"

"Yes… I do. I just think it's better if we walk to Shenyang." I said, fidgeting with my fingers. "I'll buy a map, and some food, and then we'll get on a bus." My mother sighed.

"Fine." She said, and I pictured her crossing her arms. "Stay safe, and stick with your group, okay?"

"Love you." I said, overcome with homesickness as if someone had thrown a bucket of cold water over my head.

"Love you too." My mom replied, and hung up. I turned my phone off, and looked at the three of them, and gestured for them to walk.

"That was my mom. My parents are going to meet us in Beijing." I said, as I looked around. "We're going to walk to Shenyang, and then I'll cough up some money for bus tickets." Joon-ho, noticing the people walking around with their pokemon beside them, or carrying them if they were small enough, released his Magby, who was very curious about its surroundings, and held it in his arms as we walked.

"How are you going to get money?" Yeong-mi asked, and I shrugged, before a street vendor in front of a large retail building, with stores for clothes and cosmetics, caught my eye, and I whipped my head around, and approached it. An older man sat in a metal foldable chair, with North Korean money, and books, and that's when I knew how I was going to get us money.

"Want a souvenir from North Korea, miss?" The older man asked me, which strengthened my discovery, and I politely said no thanks, before I walked over to the three defectors.

"Do any of you have money from North Korea on you?" I asked, fiddling with my bag.

"I have a lot left over." Joon-ho said, cocking his head. "Why?" I looked over, and found a nearby souvenir shop, and pointed to it.

"We're going to sell it." I said, leading the three across the street, and in front of the white, slightly run down building, with a giant, blue sign that read, in full "DANDONG TOURIST COMPANY", in both English and Chinese. The four of us walked in the mechanical doors, being met with a loud mechanical chime, which caused the North Koreans to jump. The shop was nothing I hadn't seen in Vancouver's Chinatown before, a store with tables and shelves stuffed to the brim dedicated to small goodies, DVDs, tea sets, statues, toys, and other things that were vaguely Asian, not entirely Chinese. However, almost everything in the store was dedicated to North Korea, books, clothes, cigarettes, alcohol, toys, even DVDs! We found ourselves looking around, amazed at the things around us, before we gathered our bearings, and I walked over to the young woman, about our age, with long hair in a ponytail and a thin face in a perpetual smile, manning the cash register, who bowed at me and said hello.

"Hi!" I greeted in Cantonese, smiling warmly. Joon-ho stood behind me, but the two girls were looking around the shop in curiosity. "Could we sell you some North Korean goods?" The woman nodded, and I turned to Joon-ho.

"I'll hold him." I said, and Joon-ho passed me his Magby, who didn't mind being in my arms, and was surprisingly heavy, I guess Joon-ho had his military training to help him carry the little guy, then bent down to get the money out of his bag. The cashier smiled at the little guy in my arms, and cooed at it like a baby.

"I've never seen a Magby this close before!" The cashier smiled, and the Magby made a happy quack. "What's his name?" I turned to Joon-ho.

"What's his name?" I whispered, and he glanced up at me.

"Ggwek-ggwek." He said breathlessly, and I rolled my eyes at the name. That was like naming a Litten 'Meow'.

I repeated that to the cashier, who looked confused, but smiled anyway. I shrugged in response.

"Are you all from Guangdong?" The cashier asked, as Joon-ho put a stack of North Korean money, five books about Kim Il-sung's life, and three packs of cigarettes on the counter, which the woman took eagerly.

"Macau." I said, giving Ggwek-ggwek back to Joon-ho, who smiled at the little red duck in his arms, and rocked it like baby.

"Where'd you get all this?" She asked, and thankfully, instead of stalling for five minutes, my mind came up with a instant excuse.

"A friend of ours in Macau collects North Korean goods, and gave us some extra goods to sell to get money for bus tickets." I laughed. "We're… kind of short on cash."

"I see, are you all in town to catch some pokemon?" She asked, going behind the cashier, and grabbing cash. "You know, our city was recently rated one of the best cities to catch pokemon in all of China!"

"Yeah, that's what we're doing! Then we'll be making our way down to Beijing to watch them open the gyms." I said, as she handed me a huge stack of yuan, which I struggled to hold. I took a minute to count it, the total coming up to about 650 Canadian dollars. I grinned widely, and bowed to the young woman.

"Have a good time!" She said, as I put of the yuan into my bag, and walked over to the two girls, who were looking at a book on one of the tables, and I tapped on their shoulders, and gestured for them to leave. When we left the shop, I quickly checked the prices for the bus on my phone. When I discovered I had more than enough for the three of us, I let out a loud cheer, shaking my fists up to the cloudy sky.

"We have enough money for bus tickets!" I shouted into the heavens, garnering odd stares from the people surrounding us. The rest of my group just stared at me, and I quietly straightened myself up, embarrassed.

"Let's get dinner, and then set out." I muttered under my breath, and the four of us began to walk again, drifting through the city of Dandong like plastic bags in the wind, which is an awful euphemism, but true. We had no path to follow, no map to guide us through the city, so it was our only real choice. I noticed the large amount of South Korean tourists meandering around, looking over the bridges into North Korea and chattering in the southern dialect, probably the only time they had ever seen the country above them. It rubbed me the wrong way, like they were looking at a caged animal instead of actual humans with lives and emotions, but I swallowed my anger and outrage, and kept moving.

It became apparent during our journey around the city, that Yeong-mi and Seon-hyang were pretty sheltered, even for North Korean standards. Whenever they saw something odd, such as a woman wearing skinny jeans, who glared at us in anger and confusion, the two would start to chatter amongst themselves, and turn to me and demand what she was doing. The two would suddenly stop in their tracks stare at window displays of stores, whether they were clothes, or just like… furniture. Joon-ho seemed amazed at some things, but not to the extent that they were, so I knew it wasn't because every member of North Korean society hadn't seen a microwave before. I rationalized it as the two of them being on a shorter leash then most North Koreans, and only shown what the government wanted them to see.

We found a decent looking restaurant, a pretty normal looking building honestly, in the center of town, with a large, flashing neon sign advertising noodles. I sighed, deciding to risk food poisoning to eat something other than fish jerky or soup. I corralled the three North Koreans, and led them into the resturaunt. The interior was bright, with lights hanging from the ceiling illuminating every part of the room, dark, wooden tables scattered around the room, and a large CRT television hanging on the wall, showing a cheesy Chinese drama argument between a young, attractive man and woman, probably love interests, and loud Mandarin pop music playing throughout the building. The four of us were greeted by a hostess, a woman who looked to be about my mother's age, with bleached blond hair and a forced grin. I did most of the talking, and the woman sat us down at a booth towards the back, the Lees next to each other and Seon-hyang close by me, and soon, a much younger waitress, about Joon-ho's age, with a cheery demeanor and dark hair to her shoulders, and bangs in her eyes, greeted us, and gave us our menus, which led into a whole 6 minutes of me describing various items of Chinese cuisine to them before the waitress returned. I decided to have a Chongqing hot pot, an old favorite me and (surprisingly) my dad enjoyed together in Vancouver's Chinatown, Yeong-mi ordered Char Siu pork belly strips, and both Seon-hyang and Joon-ho decided to share with me, after I told them how big the pot would be. I ordered Chrysanthemum tea, and the rest of my companions settled for water. With that, the waitress left us alone, with no one else in the restaurant. All of us were silent, Joon-ho watching the TV, before I suddenly heard the opening bars to a song I heard frequently growing up, a smile growing on my face, and I began to dance along, as I let out Jessica and Varaha (Poison types were banned in restaurants worldwide because of their deadly poison, so I had to wait to feed Nina).

"Honey, you put love into my heart." I sang, as Jessica crawled in Seon-hyang's arms, and Varaha trotted over to Yeong-mi, who picked him up, and put him in her lap. "Concentrating, trying to listen."

I sang most of the song, trying to imitate the singer's hand gestures without slapping Seon-hyang across the face. Joon-ho looked very unimpressed, Gwek-Gwek was more interested in the napkins put on the table, Yeong-mi was clapping along, as was Jessica, Varaha could care less, and Seon-hyang looked very embarrassed.

"Ohhh…" I sighed as the song ended, leaning back, before I burst out laughing. "I haven't heard that song since I was ten… That brought me back."

"Don't do that again." Seon-hyang said quickly, flush dancing across her cheeks, and I laughed harder.

"Did I embarrass you?" I drawled, pulling on Seon-hyang's shirt sleeve, who yanked her arm back with a bright red face. I cooed at her, before I turned to my rapidly cooling tea and the television in view. I watched nervously as a large 'breaking news' graphic floated on the TV, cutting off the cheesy drama playing before. I hoped it was something not North Korea related, maybe some corrupt politician resigned from Congress again after Weibo users harassed him. I watched as the graphic faded to a prim reporter in a bright red dress shirt on against a purple backdrop.

"Breaking news out of North Korea." The woman announced, and I felt my stomach free fall into my intestines, and I tried my best not to cough up my tea. "A report released by Pyongyang has allegedly accused US spies of kidnapping two female state musicians, and transporting them across the DMZ, into South Korea, for 'immoral purposes'."

I leaned back, back hitting the cushion, and I swallowed my laugh. US spy? Immoral purposes? Across the DMZ? Jesus, how wrong could they be? I continued to watch the TV, just in case pictures or names were shown.

"Pyongyang has not identified the two girls, the only thing known about them is that they were members of the popular all female band, Moranbong." The woman continued, and a video of the band performing together in bright white military dresses upon a large stage, the audience swarmed with elites in dark green uniforms, clapping in unison, and I managed to spot Seon-hyang amongst the other singers, a fake smile strewn across her face as she gestured stiffly, as if her entire bottom half was glued to the floor, unmoving, and I felt thankful that she hadn't needed to brandish a Stepford smile anymore. I turned to the real girl, who had heard the song on the TV, and was sitting frozen with a fearful expression on her face, and I saw that Yeong-mi and Joon-ho were frozen in place as well.

"Don't worry." I said, and all 3 of them turned to me. "They haven't named you, and they think the US military abducted you and took you across the DMZ. We're good for now." All of them seemed to relax, and I turned to the TV again.

"A response from US President Donald Trump is expected at midnight Beijing time, and South Korean officials have not commented." The anchor continued, before bowing, and with that, the TV returned to its drama programming. My heart was still planted firmly in my stomach due to the fact that it hit me that I just caused a major diplomatic crisis, and that it would take months for the truth to come out, because I wasn't leaving immediately to Canada to grant the three refugee status. What if I restart the Korean War? What would textbooks read? 'Marie Jones was just 20 when she accidentally landed in North Korea, beginning a chain of events that would lead to thousands of deaths.' Oh god, what if I caused people to die? Thankfully, Joon-ho broke me out of my thoughts.

"What did Pyongyang give as the reason you 'abducted' Seon-hyang and Yeong-mi, Miss US Bastard?" Joon-ho joked, and I laughed heartily, getting rid of my nerves, as our food was delivered to us. I quickly plopped the beef, vegetables and Sichuan peppers into the boiling soup broth, getting our dinner started. I kept some vegetables on the plate, and divided them up between Varaha, Jessica, and Ggwek-Ggwek, and watched them chow down eagerly, before I answered, making sure the waitress wasn't in listening distance.

"They basically vaguely alluded to prostitution." I said, stirring the soup with a provided spoon. "Or human trafficking. Probably both."

"Pro-sti-tut-ion?" Seon-hyang sounded out, cocking her head in confusion. "What's that?" I looked over to see Joon-ho look very grim, and Yeong-mi shook her head violently.

"It's… uh… when s-someone pays for someone else to spend time with them." I stuttered, feeling my cheeks burn, and I nervously stirred. "In the bedroom. Alone."

"Oh. Oh." Seon-hyang said, her eyes widening, and her complexion turned bright red, and my hormonal brain snagged on how pretty her face was at that hue, before I diverted it elsewhere.

"Yeah." I said quietly, and the two of us fell into an awkward silence.

"Did the US reply yet?" Yeong-mi asked between bites of her pork ribs, trying to change the subject.

"It's daybreak for them, so not yet." I said, shrugging slightly. "They will, though. Any country doesn't like when their military is accused of human trafficking, or spying for that matter." I doled out the finished soup into three bowls, then gave them to Seon-hyang and Joon-ho.

"Be careful, this stuff is pretty spicy, even for me, and I grew up drinking this stuff." I warned, before I took a sip of my soup. I wasn't immediately hit with the spice, which was good, I hadn't made it inedible by accident, but after a minute, I felt my mouth go numb, and all was well. I looked over at Seon-hyang and Joon-ho, who were obviously sweating, but not deterred.

"You grew up on this?" Seon-hyang asked, with a flushed face, and I nodded. Seon-hyang looked at me with wide eyes, before shrugging, and returning to her soup. After 10 minutes, all of us had finished our soup, Yeong-mi had eaten her ribs, and I grabbed some leftover vegetable garnish to feed Nina. We paid for our meal, I retrieved my pokemon, and left the restaurant, and I got ready to walk some more.

However when I stepped outside, I was rushed by the winter cold, and the weather outdoors had fallen into a heavy blizzard, snow and cold winds slapping my face, and I shivered in my long sleeved shirt, bunching myself together. I checked the temperature on my phone, and balked when it read -22 Celsius. We weren't walking in that weather, no way.

"Okay, change of plans." I said loudly, trying to yell over the roaring winds, and the three of them stopped. "We're going to go to the nearest train station, and take a train to Shenyang."

"What about your money?" Yeong-mi shouted, face covered in distraught. "How are we going to get to Beijing?"

"I'll battle someone for cash!" I shouted back, as the wind attempted to push me to my knees. "It's going on the train or dying, man! This is the only option! Let's go!" With that, I brought up the directions of the train station, which wasn't too far away, and we set out, managing to travel 3 blocks to the train station, which was a plain, dark grey stone building surrounded by tan colored hotels. When we walked into the warmth of the train station, I walked over to the ticket office, and ordered four tickets for the next train to Shenyang, which happened to be at 4 am, due to delays, which gave us a good 2 hours of twiddling our thumbs in the lobby, which was a large grey room with benches and a flat screen TV blasting the news, a hallway leading to a bathroom and vending machines, their light visible from a distance.

After I got our tickets, we stretched out in the empty lobby, putting down our bags and resting either on the benches, where Joon-ho sat, holding a sleeping Ggwek-Ggwek, and also where Yeong-mi rested, taking up a decent part of the bench, or the floor, which is where Seon-hyang prefered to lay, flat on her back, not caring about the concrete floor, with closed, relaxed eyes, and dark hair (still in that perfect bob, even though I swore my hair was becoming rattier and greasier by the day) splayed across her face.

"Aren't you uncomfortable?" I asked, looking down at her from the bench. "I can give you my sleeping bag if you want to lay down."

"No." She said, a small smile gracing her face. "I'm fine. Besides, it reminds me of home."

"Home?" I questioned, with wide eyes. Seon-hyang opened her eyes, and looked at me unflinchingly.

"Yes."

"Didn't your parents have a hard time moving around you?" I asked, holding my chin up with one hand. "Like, when they were walking around the house and stuff, getting chores done or dinner done."

"I don't have parents." Seon-hyang said in a slightly somber tone, and she closed her eyes again. I said nothing, just stared at the resting girl in utter shock. Suddenly, everything made sense, why she was willing to follow Yeong-mi into China, even though she was loyal to Kim Jong-Un. Yeong-mi and Joon-ho were her only family left, and if they left, she wouldn't have anyone left. She'd be alone. It was so obvious! So, so obvious… I slid down from my seat until she was right next to me, and I ran my fingers through her hair, causing her to sigh. I wanted to hold her to my chest, make her feel safe, make her feel warm, feel how cold she is from the outdoors. I choked all of my feelings down, not wanting to creep her out further.

"I'm sorry for prying." I said softly, as the woman leaned into my touch, and she opened one eye. I managed to catch a glimpse of confusion on her face, but it disappeared. Seon-hyang crawled closer to me, laying her head in my lap and resting between my legs, which made me feel things, things which I also quickly swallowed down. I looked over at the TV, which was now broadcasting the US president's response to our defection, or 'abduction' if you would. As he accused North Korea of lying about the kidnapping to cover up the girl's probable execution to make the country look god (which garnered a chuckle from me), Seon-hyang opened her eyes at my laugh, and then squinted at the man on the TV.

"What's the US jacka-president saying?" Seon-hyang asked, her brows turned upwards in confusion. Even after all this, I thought to myself, and she's still quick to call an American a jackal. Old habits really do die hard.

"Basically accusing them of executing you and Yeong-mi." I said, and Seon-hyang grimaced. "And lying about it to get people angry at America. As usual."

"They're both lying." Seon-hyang groaned, and frowned, laying her head on my inner thigh, which burned - even through clothing- at the contact.

"Yup." I said, continuing to rub Seon-hyang's head as I reached for my bag and let Nina out, who just looked at the two of us with an unimpressed expression ("It took you two that long?"). I got her dinner out, and watched her chow down from the corner of my eye.

"In America." Seon-hyang suddenly asked, after watching the TV for a while and getting my attention. "Does the president go into schools and pick his aides?" I was taken completely by surprise by that question, and it took me a few minutes for me to respond.

"...No?" I said, looking down at her in shock. "At least… I think so?"

"Oh." Seon-hyang said, looking up at me with a flush across her face.

"Did… did that happen to you?" I asked softly. Seon-hyang nodded the best she could, while still on my lap.

"I went to a music academy… One day, people from the Party came into our class, and asked for me." Seon-hyang said, putting her hand on my knee. "I thought they were going to kill me, but they said that the Dear Leader had liked my singing enough to let me join a state band! So, I moved into the barracks where the members lived, and then I started singing."

"So, you joined because of that?"

"Yes." Seon-hyang said, sighing lowly. "It was my duty."

"I thought so." I said lowly as I scratched my chin, looking over at Nina, who had finished her dinner, curled up into a spiky purple ball, and was snoring loudly. "When they showed your concert, you looked like someone glued your feet to the ground and told you to smile and dance." That garnered a peal of adorable giggles from Seon-hyang.

Both of us jolted out of my skin when I heard my phone vibrate against the floor, and I reached over to pick it up. My dad was calling me from his cell phone, probably to ask me more questions. I guessed that my mother had told him everything she already knew from me, and he wanted to know more, or check in with me. Both were possible answers.

"Who is that?" Seon-hyang asked, peering at my phone, trying to read the English on it.

"My dad."

Seon-hyang made a quiet noise, and looked up at me with curious eyes. I decided not to let the call go to voicemail to avoid further panicking, and picked up the phone.

"Hey."

"Hey kiddo." My dad said, a nervous tone to his voice. "Your mother told me everything."

"Sorry for making you worry for 5 days..." I said quietly, scratching at my head. I was half expecting to be reprimanded, half expecting him to sympathize with me.

"I'm not mad." My dad replied, relieving my stress a little. "Why would I be mad at you? You could've gotten killed if you called! I'm just relieved you're safe, now. Where are you?"

"Still in Dandong." I said, rubbing Seon-hyang's head softly, garnering a smile. "It dropped to -22 Celcius, so we ended up going by train."

"Hmm." My dad hummed. "That's good."

"By the way…" My dad continued, and I knew what was coming next. "While you were in North Korea, did you overhear anything about the girls from Moranbong?"

"Dad…" I sighed, getting ready for his reaction. "They're traveling with me."

"...Excuse me?"

"They weren't 'abducted' by the US military." I said, stopping my hand so I didn't accidentally scratch Seon-hyang in a nervous tic. "They defected with me."

"Did they have a choice in the matter?"

"Yeah… I mean, it's not like I slung them over my shoulder and walked for 5 days." I said, scratching my face. "They weren't too crazy about the outside at first, sure, but they could've bailed and got me arrested."

"What got them to stay, if they weren't crazy about the outside world?" My dad asked.

"One of the girl's cousins is also traveling with me." I said, looking over at a napping Joon-ho, head drooping, and then at a sleeping Yeong-mi. "He defected with me because he wanted to be a trainer. The other girl followed because they were the only friends she had."

"Well, at least we'll never have to worry about someone making a sappy Lifetime movie about you and your friends." My dad laughed, and I giggled a little. "How are they holding up?"

"One of the girls originally hated my guts and called me a 'Yankee' to my face." I stopped because my dad was laughing so loud that I couldn't get anything in. "We managed to become friends, she's laying on my lap right now. The other one has also gained huge strides from when we first met. Otherwise, the both of them are pretty curious. They'll stop right in front of something and ask what it is, like storefronts with electronics, and a woman wearing jeans."

"Do they know any English?"

"Not that I know of." I said, and my dad sighed.

"It'll be just like when I met your mother's family." My dad lamented. "I was the only one there who wasn't speaking Cantonese."

"Sorry." I said, shrugging a little. "More musical than diplomatic, so I guess they didn't need English."

"It's fine, it's fine. How are you holding up?"

"I'm pretty sure mom's gonna complain about my hair, but I'm fine." I said. "I'm not sick or anything. I had hot pot for dinner, today."

"Better than Vancouver's?"

"Not that good." I snorted. "I'm not in the Canton area yet."

"Your pokemon okay? Please tell me you didn't catch any over there."

"They're good, and no, I'm not that crazy." I laughed. "There wasn't anything really to catch there. Mostly saw Rattata and Starly until Mount Paektu."

There was a pause between us, and Seon-hyang looked up at me with concern in her eyes, and I mouthed 'nothing bad' to her, which caused her to relax slightly.

"Well, it must be late for you, sweetheart." My dad said softly. "I'll let you go, we'll be in Beijing in two days, stay safe out there, okay?"

"Kay. Love you."

"Love you too."

Click.

"What did your father ask you?" Seon-hyang asked as I put my phone down, a slightly worried expression on her face, and I smiled down at her.

"He asked if you were the girls he heard about on the TV, then he asked how you two were faring." I grinned, running my hand through her hair again. "I told him that you two are very curious about the new world around you, so you two were doing well."

"Oh." Seon-hyang hummed, before her attention was brought to the TV. Another news story started playing in the time that our attention was diverted elsewhere, detailing the history of Moranbong. Because of that topic, they started playing clips of the band playing together. This time, all of the band was dressed in black party dresses, and I couldn't spot Seon-hyang, so I guess it was just the instruments on the stage. I watched the background TV screen, which displayed Kim Jong Un signing something, the shots of a rocket lifting off into the sky, a map of the United States, then a 3D model of the world. I watched as the 3D Earth exploded at the climax of the song, with a shout of "Tansume!" from the violinists, and the people in the audience (probably military officials and their wives) danced in a North Korean version of a mosh pit. It was so surreal and so hilarious that I fished out my idea notebook from my bag and wrote the basic idea of the concert, so I could tell it in a stand up routine. Seon-hyang craned her neck to look at my notebook, and pouted at me when she saw that I was writing in English.

"That's an old concert…" Seon-hyang whined, frowning at the TV. "They should show a newer one!"

"I think they're showing a chronology of your performances." I said, and a look of realization came over Seon-hyang's face as the performance changed to a more recent one.

We busied ourselves by watching the TV go through several Moranbong concerts, for most of them, the Seon-hyang on stage sang with a fake smile on her face, barely moving her lower body. Her clothes on stage changed from long party dresses with crystals, now, she either wore the green military uniform I loved so dearly, or a white military-style dress, with either a white hat with a gold emblem on the top, or no hat. Even though she looked like Kim Jong Un's poseable doll while on stage, I couldn't deny that she was a beautiful singer, and I found myself humming along to the song in earnest, even though it was an empty praise song.

"Look, look!" Seon-hyang giggled loudly, and pointed to the TV, where she was singing towards the end in a shot of the group. "I'm stuck, Marie!" I laughed quietly as well, and grabbed the Coca-Cola I got on the boat from my bag, hoping that it hadn't gone flat, and opened it with a short blast of carbonation, which made Seon-hyang jump, and get up from my lap.

"What's that?" Seon-hyang asked, looking over the dark bottle in earnest, before she spotted the red and white logo, and smiled. "Oh! Coca! They have that in North Korea!"

"Coca?" I questioned, looking at her, and she nodded vigorously. "Huh. You wanna sip?" This got me another nod, and I smiled lopsidedly. I guess a bit of Coca-Cola snuck past the border from China somehow, and Seon-hyang drank it, even though it was 'capitalist'. Odd, but I waved it away, thinking that one of her bandmates gave it to her.

I handed the drink over to her, and she opened the cap with a crack, and took a swig of it. She smiled warmly at the sweet taste, before she handed it back to me. I took a drink of the soda, which was still fizzy, thank god, before screwing the cap back on. Seon-hyang draped herself over my legs, and settled back into my lap. The news had changed topics, instead, discussing the recent meeting of Politburo, and I watched Seon-hyang begin to doze out of boredom. I had a few more swigs of the caffeinated soda to keep me awake, because I was the only person who could speak Chinese, and could therefore bluff my way out of deportation. However, I felt myself beginning to doze off as well, and I was trying to stay awake, until I heard a loud mechanical bell, and then, a robotic voice.

"The train to Shenyang is now approaching Dandong Station." The feminine voice said, before repeating itself, and then ending the message with the mechanical bell again, and I saw the yellow lights of the train shine through the storm, and Seon-hyang and I jolted up at the sight of the white high-speed train cutting through the white of the storm. I quickly retrieved Nina with a light click from the pokeball, jogged over to the Lees, shook them awake, and told them what was happening, and they reached for their bags. We quickly dashed out the doors to the concrete outdoor station, pushing against the blizzard, just as the train pulled up, and opened its doors. I led them in, and we found the train to be completely devoid of any human presence, with sterile walls and orange seats lining a very narrow path through the train, which was pretty obvious, because we were on the train at 4 am. We settled in a group of orange cushioned seats in the very back of the train, I took the window seat, with Seon-hyang sitting right next to me. As the train jolted forward at a high speed, Seon-hyang laid her head on my shoulder, smiling to herself as she shut her eyes, and fell asleep.

This was worth everything I experienced, I thought to myself, as I stroked her hair again

Spoiler: historical and authors notes

Ggwek-ggwek: "quack" in korean

Song Marie was singing: "Honey" by Cyndi Wang

The next chapter is an extra chapter, but it might take awhile to post because it contains passages that either need to be approved by mods or cut. sorry

 

[ChloboShoka]

Nothing bad happened immediately, that'd be too funny to not mention. The boat didn't catch on fire the instant I got on, there wasn't any sudden rocking or a loud explosion as we sunk to the ocean floor, and I wasn't informed that there was a serious mistake, and that I would have to return home.

I've read the first two chapters so far. I thought this was a great opening cause it amused me. It's like expecting the worse to happen. It seems quite original so far, I hope to be back to read some more chapters.

 

[roule]

I've read the first two chapters so far. I thought this was a great opening cause it amused me. It's like expecting the worse to happen. It seems quite original so far, I hope to be back to read some more chapters.

thank you!!

 

[roule]

Extra Chapter

The Ballad of Seon-hyang

(takes place between chapters 4 and 5)

Seon-hyang grew up knowing that behind every problem she faced, a American jackal had been behind it all.

It was never her own fault.

It was never her country's fault, she remembers singing as a child with many others in a showing of the orphanage where she lived to government officials, dressed in her scratchy white dress that only went down to her knees, long hair pulled back in a bun, and wide idealistic eyes, 'Our father is Marshal Kim Il Sung / Our home is the bosom of the Party / We are all brothers and sisters…

We envy nothing in this world."

And Seon-hyang was taught to envy nothing, as everything bad that happened, happened for a reason.

Food shortage? Imperialist jackals are behind it all, trying to crush North Korean sovereignty.

Power outage for several hours, which caused her to light candles to read, like her ancestors? Americans are forcing us to conserve power, because they're keeping it all to themselves.

Her parent's, and practically her entire family's deaths due to starvation during the Aurdious March, shortly after she was born? Well, isn't that one obvious?

The Americans were the main enemy of her childhood, and most of her adulthood, the evil bogeymen always close behind her, ready to kill her if she even thought about slipping up and losing her devotion to the Party and the Marshal Kim Jong Un. That's why she joined Moranbong, with several other girls her age who were also core class songbun, she justified to herself, even though she didn't really enjoy singing, to protect Korean-style socialism against the evil forces of American and Japanese forces, trying to corrupt her people. She was lucky, lucky that the Marshal personally chose her - the little orphan girl - to be in his new pop music band, Moranbong, and therefore join the Party, and tell her people about his greatness, how good it was to be led under him. She couldn't understand why any of them could defect to the American puppet state in the south. To her, living under the Americans was the worst fate of them all, worse than starving, worse than war, and she thought she was to remain completely and utterly loyal to the party for the rest of her life, the party that raised her in place of a mother who had left this world, as with the Marshal and his father, and his grandfather who created the wonderful country she had the blessing to be born in.

And yet… here she was. Walking in the dark forests on the distant outskirts of Pyongyang, with Yeong-mi unnie and Joon-ho - and the ****ing jackal - heading towards the Chinese border, to never return. How had this happened to her, an obedient member of the party, who feverently believed in Juche, Korea-style socialism and Kim Il Sung's greatness? Was this a test of her beliefs? She didn't know how or why Yeong-mi and Joon-ho had agreed to be lead away from the party's comforting bosom, to fend for themselves in the cruel outside world, but she knew who to blame for all of this.

Of course, it was the jackals fault. It always was! And now, she had a real one to blame for seducing her friends, the only family she had, to leave the Motherland, instead of the ones in the pages of the books she read during elementary school. Or in history books.

The jackal, who had caused all of this to happen, was looking over at Seon-hyang, trying to get her attention by glancing over at her. Unlike the jackals she read about in the news, seen in paintings in schools or amusement parks, or were told about by older children in her orphanage, she looked normal. She didn't have sunken in eyes, a large protruding nose or huge breasts, or looked any bit bestial for that matter, which confused Seon-hyang further. She remembers Ju-won - a skinny twig of a girl who bunked with the younger Seon-hyang until she was adopted by an infertile couple in the inner class, probably living a good life now, with uneven teeth, hair braided tightly into pigtails, wearing the standard North Korean school uniform, a white button up shirt, a dark pleated skirt, and a red sash on her shoulders, tied together and resting on her front - lecturing her on how Americans could be identified just by those traits. The jackal she met, however, towered over the three, with flat breasts but a thicker frame than Seon-hyang's, wearing a uniform consisting of of black pants, a black shirt, a large and fluffy dark green jacket made of a tough looking fabric, and tough, dark brown boots, the likes of which Seon-hyang had never seen before. The jackal had a long, oval shaped face, slightly large, dark eyes, notably with a subtle upward lift at the corner of her eyes, with a complexion very similar to Seon-hyang's own. The jackal also had a similar nose to the North Korean girl's, small and roundish, but had larger lips, which always seemed to be to be permanently fixed in a pout, when not expressing herself of course. The jackal's dark hair was shorter than what she expected, having heard that jackal's long hair is what keeps them so stupid, only reaching to her chin, but flung all over, like she just woke up from a nap or something.

In conclusion, the jackal looked very similar to an average North Korean, unlike what Ju-won told her. However, Seon-hyang wasn't stupid. She heard how easily English rolled of the jackals tongue, perfect and accentless. Maybe that was their next step, bringing over South Koreans or Chinese people they captured, teaching them English and/or Korean, and bringing them over the border to attack the Marshal and overthrow the Party. It made her sick to her stomach thinking about something so devious, a nasty trick by the jackals to destroy her home country and take it all over, making it one big American puppet state. Or ruin their relationship with their biggest partner, China.

She glared back at the Jackal, and the Jackal turned away, a glimmer of disappointment in her eyes as she adjusted her arms, which was holding that pink… thing she called 'Jessica', a fat little beast that only reached to her knees, with two big ears with black tips, a curl on the top of its head, two arms with stubby clawed fingers, and two little stubs of legs, with one big white nail for each foot, little wings and a tail, and a insatiable desire to stalk Seon-hyang. Seon-hyang theorized that this 'Jessica' was the pokemon she used to spy, and every night the little thing would report supsicious activity of the three to her… somehow. 'Jessica' didn't appear to be one of the ones who could talk with Jackals, like in her books and on TV who would pose as fauna in North Korean forests, then turn around and reveal strategic locations of the army to the enemy. Instead, the little thing seemed to chatter and babble, like a toddler who was testing their vocal cords out, and Marie just seemed to know what it was saying. She probably raised that thing herself, Seon-hyang concluded, creating the perfect weapon. Cute enough to look like a toy, but deadly and sneaky.

The Jackal should learn how disappointment feels, her brain trumpeted, because she'll be disappointed if she thinks Jung Seon-hyang is going to even think about giving her attention at all. She doubts that they'll even make it to China, some brave soldier will be patrolling the forest, there was always a person like that in her stories, and then the innocent Seon-hyang will run up to him and tell him that she's been kidnapped by a US Jackal, and then he'll shoot her to death, and she'll return to Pyongyang as a hero of Korean ingenuity against the evil imperialists. The Americans will grovel at the might of the courageous North Korean might, secretly planning their next attempt. Seon-hyang would marry the soldier as gratitude, and have a wonderful life with plenty of children and food to go around.

She felt a tug on her jacket as she fantasized about getting back to Pyongyang and getting rid of the Jackal once and for all, and she whipped around angrily to face the Jackal, who was staring at her in anticipation and impatience, with narrowed eyes. Seon-hyang tried to jerk her sleeve away, glaring up at the Jackal, but the Jackal did not relent, holding her sleeve tighter.

"We're stopping for the night." The jackal said firmly, and Seon-hyang looked around to see the Lee cousins setting up two dark colored tents close by, in a brief clearing between swarms of trees.

"Don't grab me, jackal." Seon-hyang spat to her, forcing her hand back to her side. To her surprise, the Jackal looked remorseful, and blinked quickly.

"Sorry." The Jackal said softly, and went over by the camp to set up a bonfire for warmth, leaving behind a confused Seon-hyang. The North Korean shook it off, assuming the Jackal was just trying to trick her into trusting her. Whatever it was, she walked over to Yeong-mi, who was working on making sure the tent didn't collapse in on itself, and began to help her set the tent up. Within a few minutes, the tent was standing up and staying up, and the fire was staying lit as well. The Jackal was resting by the fire pit, legs stretched out in front of her. The creature named 'Jessica' had been retrieved by the Jackal's 'pokeballs', and now she was looking over at the three North Koreans with curious eyes, focusing mainly on Seon-hyang. Seon-hyang glowered at the girl, feeling a flash of burning anger form in her stomach. Why was that beast looking at me?

"Joon-ho." The beast said suddenly, while she stretched her arms, and the boy whipped his head to face the girl with wide eyes. He wasn't wearing his hat, as he usually did, showing off his buzzcut he got when he came back from the towns in the north. She should be referring to him as sir, Seon-hyang growled in her head.

"Let's head to bed." She continued, pausing to yawn loudly. Seon-hyang was surprised to see regular teeth, not a maw of sharp teeth. "We need a decent amount of energy if we need to get moving tomorrow."

"Sure." Joon-ho shrugged, grabbing his bag, and yanking his curled up, bright orange sleeping bag from it, after digging around aimlessly in her bag for a few seconds. "Me and Yeong-mi will sleep in the same tent."

No! She wasn't going to sleep with that... thing! Seon-hyang whipped her head around to the Jackal, who seemed mildly shocked by this turn of events. Please say no, Seon-hyang begged her in her head (even though she would never admit to begging the Jackal to do anything), please say no…!

"Sure." The Jackal said, grabbing her own, bright blue sleeping bag from her own dark brown backpack. Seon-hyang was at a loss for words, hoping that Yeong-mi would speak out for her. However, Yeong-mi stayed silent, preferring to look at the fire and stick her hands out in front of her instead of letting her friend bunk with the enemy. Seon-hyang recognized defeat, and sullenly, began to pull out her dark green sleeping bag, and move towards the tent towards the right. As she crawled through, she was met with the Jackal setting up her own bag on the right side. Seon-hyang sneered at her when the beast looked her way, then turned away. Seon-hyang scoffed, and attempted to pull her sleeping bag out of its cover. It wouldn't budge, which caused Seon-hyang to growl, and tug at it harder.

"Do you need help?" The Jackal asked, not bothering to look at Seon-hyang.

"I can handle myself, jackal." Seon-hyang snapped her head towards the beast and snarled at her, noticing that she was now laying down on top of her own sleeping bag, watching her with interested eyes, which made her angrier, before she turned back to her bag.

After another minute of tugging at her bag, she heard the Jackal breath loudly out of her nose, and then felt the beast's hands on her own, as she gently moved the North Korean's fingers towards the drawstrings, and loosened the bag, making it easier to pull the sleeping bag through. The beast grabbing her fingers did not elicit the appropriate response of anger or raw fear pulsing for her veins, instead, Seon-hyang began to notice how soft her hands were, she had expected her to have rough hands from military work, but they felt like silk — warm silk. Maybe she made sure to keep them soft, so she could trick innocents like you, her brain objected. The second thing she noticed was how the beasts hands on her made her feel. It made her feel… protected. Safe. Like the Jackal was her mother, or the Marshal, protecting her from the harm of the cruel world around them.

She caught herself before she leaned into the touch, and before she could turn to attack the Jackal, the Jackal had removed her hands, and walked over to her sleeping bag. Seon-hyang turned to face the Jackal with rage splayed across her face, and was met with a lounging Jackal, arms thrown over her head and legs open. What an immoral position, the dance director of Moranbong would've shouted, an middle aged woman — who used to be a singer in the Unhasu Orchestra… if the rumors Mi-kyong told her were correct — who was plump with dark hair cropped to her ears and dressed in well fitting military uniforms, women should keep their legs shut and their backs straight! Seon-hyang stared at her, feeling anger and a emotion she couldn't name bubble up under her skin.

"Hey." The Jackal said, as Seon-hyang continued to stare, blood hot and thrumming in her skull. A small smirk played across the Jackal's full lips, and Seon-hyang crawled over to the beast and pulled her up by her hair, instantly removing that smirk, replaced with a contorted look of agony.

"Don't. Ever. Touch. Me. Again." Seon-hyang punctuated her words with a tug of the messy hair in her hands, garnering a yelp of pain every time she pulled. She let go once she felt she made herself clear, and the Jackal stared at Seon-hyang with a hurt expression, eyes narrowing and tears brimming.

"I was trying to help you." The Jackal snarled, a choked tone to her voice, before slipping into her sleeping bag. "Now I've learned my lesson. Go to bed."

"I never needed your he-"

"I SAID GO TO BED!" The Jackal screamed, eyes wide, cheeks red, and face contorted in a grimace, leering at Seon-hyang, causing the girl to jump back. "DO YOU ****ING UNDERSTAND?" Seon-hyang quickly scuttled to her sleeping bag, and laid down, not wanting to upset the beast any further.

Seon-hyang didn't dare turn to face the Jackal, scared of what she could say next if she saw her awake. She just laid on her side, trying to will herself to sleep. She got pretty close, before she suddenly heard a low noise, and she rolled towards it. She couldn't see the beast very well, but she saw that she was curled up in what appeared to be the fetal position, shaking violently. Seon-hyang heard the noise again, now registering it as a sob, and then she realized the Jackal was crying. That realization came as a swift stab to the heart, causing her stomach to lurch painfully. Seon-hyang felt shame rage through her, burning everything that it touched, and for the first time in her life, she wished she didn't. She wanted to be proud, she made a Jackal cry, wasn't that what she was taught to enjoy? When she read books, and watched TV, when the American jackals lost, they always sobbed pitifully, and begged for their lives, as the victorious Koreans ignored their pleas, and killed them as vengeance for their crimes. Instead, she listened to the Jackal sob – louder now – whimpering things in English to herself, and felt very small and pathetic, like a child caught misbehaving.

That night, the idea that – maybe – the Jackal was really human, that maybe– just maybe – she was just like Seon-hyang, began to sprout in Seon-Hyang's mind. But, at that moment in time, Seon-hyang didn't notice anything, she just stared blankly at the Jackal, watching her sobs dissipate as she fell asleep, breathing softly. Seon-Hyang soon followed her to dreamland, singing the song from her childhood.

She had nothing to envy in this world.

Seon-hyang had a particularly bad dream that night, but not in the definition traditionally given to bad dreams. She was locked in a bright white room, hands tied behind her back with a thick rope, legs forced open and tied to two different wooden legs, and sitting on a dark chair, back pushing up against her, made of a type of wood. She was nude, and very cold, hairs standing on end. She struggled against her restraints, which would not budge. Had the Americans captured her? Had the Jackal won her battle, capturing her and her friend? She tugged on her restraints, trying to break free, and was about to start screaming for help. Maybe someone would save her...

Suddenly, Seon-hyang heard a sudden slam, then several quick gunshots. She slunk back in her chair, quivering and trying to look as small as possible. Who's coming? Who's coming? She heard another round of shots, and Seon-hyang flinched at each one. Was a soldier coming to save her? She shivered violently, unable to protect herself from the cold of the room. So cold. So cold.

Suddenly, there was a loud bang from the front of the room, and a practically invisible white door on the side of the room, towards the front, slammed open. Seon-hyang looked up through her shaggy bangs, as a figure gingerly entered the room. It was the Jackal, dressed in her North Korean military uniform, except with a tight skirt only down to her knees, with hair in a neat bun and blood splattered across her face and arms. She shook violently, and wore a very scared expression, with wide dull eyes.

"I killed them." The Jackal said shakily as she walked forward, looking Seon-hyang in the eyes, her expression not changing. "All of them, Seon-hyang."

Seon-hyang said nothing, and watched as the beast walked forward, until she was right in front of the restrained girl. The Jackal put her gun down by her feet, reached over her body, slowly moving her hands down towards the restraints, skimming the surface of her skin. Her hands were so so soft, and suddenly, Seon-hyang knew It was going to happen, and a thrill ran down her spine, causing her to shiver again. This wasn't like the other times It almost happened, with some nameless soldier who had originally suggested something different, like mahjong or an autograph, before Seon-hyang managed to escape their grasp, with her purity intact. She'd always felt their eyes on her when she was singing, staring, boring into her, eating her up like starving dogs. Seon-hyang hated it at first, she didn't want it, didn't want to be seen as impure. Over time, she swallowed her hatred for being on stage, presenting herself, but she always felt how the men in the audience wanted to do It with her. It made her sick, but this... this was different. She wanted It this time, wanted it so bad she didn't know what to do next. Wanted to shed her purity and become dirty, so filthy, and she was sure Marie would love it. Blood dripped onto her breasts from the Ja… Marie's face, a warm sensation trickling down her body, but she didn't care. Seon-hyang looked up at Marie, who was trying not to look at her exposed breasts with an embarrassed expression and pink flush, and the two locked eyes. Marie stopped untying the rope to stare back, and the two did nothing, just look, talking without the need for words. Asking a question. Getting a confirmation. Anxious to start, Seon-hyang arched her body forward the best she could under the circumstances, towards Marie, which caused the westerner to swallow painfully, quickly taking a glimpse at the girl displaying herself.

Marie finally untied Seon-hyang's restraints, and then she woke up heaving loudly and violently, inside the dark blue tent, hands clutching the fleece and laying on a very sweaty sleeping bag. It took a few minutes for the North Korean girl's head to stop spinning too wildly, and she rubbed her eyes violently. Seon-hyang froze, and whipped her head to see that the Jackal was still fast asleep, and sighed in relief. She hadn't spoken or done worse in her sleep. Her body was still hot, and her heart was thrumming a steady pace in her head. She became aware of an bone deep ache between her legs, and she felt twin blasts of embarrassment and disgust at her body's reaction blast through her.

Seon-hyang didn't know what caused her to dream… whatever that was last night. Who captured her? Why was the Jackal saving her, why was she killing others? Why was she so eager to let the Jackal do It with her? You're pure, she told herself, something one of the directors of Moranbong frequently told her and the other girls to aspire to be, pure as the white snow on Mt. Paektu. You shouldn't think about such… things. She was so pure, she barely knew what It was, only that a girl and a boy in their late teens were caught in the same bed, naked, the year before she left the orphanage, and thrown out, and everyone was forbidden to even mention it, or they wouldn't have dinner. The Jackal had probably done It so many times, with so many others, that it meant nothing more than pleasure to her, no love. It would mean something to Seon-hyang, would mean everything to her.

(She ignored how the thought of the Jackal nude with another woman made her mouth taste bitter.)

The truth was, as much as Seon-hyang didn't want to admit it, that wasn't the first time she had a dream like that. The Jackal had been preceded by her old band leader, Pak Ji-Eun, a taller thing woman with long, dark hair, usually pulled up into a ponytail, and a round face with eyes that were always so expressive, even on stage, and a thin, pink mouth. She played violin like a old master, being the mentor to all the other violinists, always knew the right thing to do on stage, and looked after the younger girl like her own daughter when she first joined Moranbong, introducing her to the other members and sitting with her at meals, and Seon-hyang found herself smitten with her. However, her dreams back then never progressed past hand-holding and long walks on the Taedong river together, an air of intimacy between them, which - at that time - was enough to get Seon-hyang very excited, and Ji-Eun left the band to get married to a general in the army, which ended the dreams very fast. However, the Jackal appeared to be unmarried, and the dream Seon-hyang had involved the girl being naked and showing her nakedness off to the beast, trying to get that beast to do It to her. But… she couldn't be attracted to that beast! She's American, and an imperialist! It was just a figment of her imagination. A lie, made up by her brain to test her selfless devotion and loyalty to the revolutionaries of old.

Suddenly, Seon-hyang heard rustling from the Jackal's side, and Seon-hyang tried to make herself invisible while still keeping her eyes visible. She wanted to watch the Jackal, to see if she had any obvious weaknesses she didn't originally catch when they first met in her room, like a limp in her right leg, or something similar. Here's what Seon-hyang saw:

The Jackal made a quiet groan after a few seconds of awareness, and turned towards Seon-hyang, causing the North Korean's breath to catch, praying the Jackal didn't notice the Peeping Tom. Fortunately for her, the Jackal's eyes were still shut, and Seon-hyang watched as she screwed her face up, as if she swallowed something sour, and sighed quietly. She sat herself, and Seon-hyang watched as the orange sleeping bag slipped off of Marie's front, exposing her front. The Jackal must have shucked off her shirt in her sleep due to the heat, most of her tan chest being paraded to Seon-hyang, and the girl found herself staring at the shape of the Jackal's ribs and slim, somewhat muscular stomach, watching everything move as she stretched her back. The only clothes that the Jackal had the decency to wear was a black lacy bra. Seon-hyang felt another flash of heat jolt down her spine, and Seon-hyang squeezed her legs together, repeating "pure as white snow pure as white snow pure as white snow pure as white snow" in her head to keep herself chaste, deliberating on whether to wrench her eyes away in anger and shame at her lewdness, or keep watching the beast wake up with eagerness she didn't know she possessed.

She chose the latter, watching as the Jackal stretched her bare arms, which flexed a little towards her wrists and shoulders. She scratched at her back, a tired expression on her face, with barely open eyes and hair flung every which way. The Jackal pawed at her face multiple times, before reaching down to scratch at her breasts, Seon-hyang flushing bright red at that action. The Jackal slid out of her sleeping bag, still wearing her pants - to both her disappointment and relief - stood up on wobbly legs and looked tiredly at Seon-hyang, and a small smile grew on her face. Seon-hyang's stomach dropped, and she tried to stay as still as possible, hoping the beast hadn't noticed she was awake and watching her get up.

"Mornin' Seon-hyang." The Jackal said roughly, in her ugly South Korean accent, so posh, so modern, ugly, ugly, ugly, pulling her shirt over her head. Seon-hyang almost begged her to stop and keep her shirt off forever, so she could look at her body further, keep it memorized further. She didn't, instead preferring to glare at the beast, trying to get her to flinch with only a meager glare. The Jackal didn't even look remotely afraid, just blinking blearily from sleep.

"I see nothing has changed between us." The Jackal sighed, a pathetic smile gracing her face and a sad look in her eyes. Seon-hyang wanted to slap it across her face, but preferred to glare up at her, pulling her face up from behind the sleeping bag. "Whatever, I'll start breakfast." With that, the Jackal left the room, therefore removing all distractions from her own insidious thoughts.

Immediately the urge to either punt the Jackal into the sun, or run out there and slam her down and do very impure things with her overcame her, and she snarled and covered her face with her hands, and laid down. Pure as white snow, she screamed in her head, pure as white snow. She was better than this, better than being seduced by an American jackal who did the same to your innocent friends. She'd be better than them, lead them out of this evil with morals intact. She'd win over the American Jackal. She always won, no matter what.

Seon-hyang crawled out to see the sun beaming down at the world, blinding her at first before her eyes adjusted. The sky was a slate grey, and the dark pine trees towered over their miniscule campsite, and the ground was covered in yellow grass and pale dirt. Joon-ho, Yeong-mi and the Jackal were lounging around the morning fire, the only real color in the landscape, drinking bowls of soup, that were obtained from a large pot of soup sitting by their feet. Yeong-mi was watching Joon-ho, sitting up straight, and the Jacka;, sitting cross legged, chattering about something, a wistful smile on her face. Seon-hyang felt sick, and trudged over and filled her bowl with soup, ending the chatter effectively, the others choosing to watch Seon-hyang carefully. She was an outcast to them, she growled, and her hands began to shake, and her hunger disappeared, only filled with rage, pure rage, the Jackal took her friends from her, the only ones she had left…!

Seon-hyang felt nothing but the rage burning through her veins, and she turned to the Jackal, who looked up at her from her sitting position with confused eyes, but both of her hands on the beast's chest, and pushed her to the ground. She heard the pained noise the Jackal made as she fell to the dirt, arms catching herself as she fell to prevent serious damage, the shouts from Yeong-mi and Joon-ho going unheard, as she grabbed the Jackal's shoulder and pinned her to the dirt, feeling it on her fingers. She was going to end this once and for all. She was going to kill the Jackal, and free her friends from her strings. She'd be a hero! She'd… She'd…

Instead of the Jackal, Marie was looking up at Seon-hyang, with wide, scared doe eyes and a open mouth. Seon-hyang felt her urge to fight slowly sap from her, and instead she began to shake violently. She couldn't do it. She couldn't kill Marie, couldn't even hurt her. She couldn't kill someone so beautiful. She felt so cowardly, Ma-the Jackal was an enemy of her people! what would Ju-won, Mi-kyong, or the headmistress say to her about this? She barely registered Joon-ho pulling her off of the Jackal, and looking down at her with an expression of fury. Seon-hyang just looked up weakly at him, ready for the traitor to yell at her for her attack.

"Seon-hyang, what was the meaning of that?" Joon-ho scolded, and Seon-hyang narrowed her eyes at him. He knows why I attacked that beast, but he won't admit it to himself. Still, Seon-hyang felt the need to defend herself.

"Don't you know? Americans are our natural enemies, who killed thousands of our people, men women and children, during the Korean War! I was showing that beast how we treat people like her in this country!" She yelled, looking over at the Jackal, who was looking very dazed, with Yeong-mi helping her up to a sitting position. This ended up infurating her even more. "Don't you remember what Americans did to our wonderful country?"

"I'm ****ing Canadian!" The Jackal yelled from her sitting position, and Seon-hyang whipped her head around to face the beast, who was glowering at her. Yeong-mi grabbed the beast's shoulder, and she took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

"Shut up, you liar!" Seon-hyang spat back, and the Jackal was about to say something back, before Yeong-mi put a hand on her shoulder, and the Jackal shut her mouth, but kept on glowering at her. Yeong-mi betrayed her, Seon-hyang's mind screamed, traitor! Traitor, traitor, traitor, traitor! They're all traitors!

"Seon-hyang, you need to give Marie a chance, and open up to her." Joon-ho said, kneeling and putting his hand on her shoulder, and Seon-hyang whipped her head to stare at him in anger. "Just because she's from the West doesn't mean she isn't good."

"No! You're letting her seduce you!" Seon-hyang snarled, slapping his hand from off of her shoulder, and crawling away slowly, shaking her head quickly. "'Once a jackal, always a jackal'. Don't you remember that? She's a liar trying to take you away from the Marshal, and then she'll kill you both for being North Koreans! Can't you see? Can't you see?"

"The Party will do the same to her if she doesn't leave this country!" Joon-ho shouted back at her.

"I hope they kill her!" Seon-hyang snarled, and looked at the angry expressions from her two friends, and suddenly she wanted to swallow her words, and apologize.

Instead, she dashed away from the camp, away from the Jackal and her traitor friends, and ran into the dark forests surrounding it. She ran and ran until the forests finally let up, and she ended up at a sandy bank of the Taedong river, a brown thing that cut through the land. Seon-hyang remembers coming to the southern banks by Pyongyang in the summer, when the water was warm and the trees were verdant, and other children stripped off their clothes and jumped in. Seon-hyang didn't jump in, no matter how hot it was, just lounged by the river in the sweltering heat, reading a book she found in the library by her school, could be a novel, could be nonfiction. And now she was leaving it all behind, now she was going far away, where she might never experience it again. She was leaving the only place she knew for a country she only read books about, and then who knows where the Jackal will drag her. And she was leaving Mi-kyong, one of her best friends and main confidante, Jina, who was one of her many older sister figures, being several ranks above her, and Guk-hyang, who was new to the group, and looked up to Seon-hyang like an older sister. All of them would never see Seon-hyang again, and would have to continue Moranbong without her. For the first time in several years, Seon-hyang tucked her knees into her chest, hung her head, and began to cry. Pitiful crying evolved, and she soon found herself sobbing on the bank of the river, while the cold winter air ate at her resistance. Where would she go? Who would she meet? Would the Jackal force her to speak English, and unlearn everything Korean? Would she force her into slavery? She didn't know! She didn't know!

She cried for a while, before she felt someone's hand on her back, and she looked up to see Yeong-mi's round face, in a tentative smile. Seon-hyang choked up, and climbed into the other girl's arms, sobbing loudly as the former drummer rubbed her back.

"I don't want to go, unnie!" Seon-hyang cried out between sobs, muffled by Yeong-mi's green uniform, clutching Yeong-mi's back like a child. Yeong-mi wordlessly cooed to her, running her hands through her bob haircut softly, knowing that this was Seon-hyang's weakest point. She began to breathe softly, in and out, in and out, until she wasn't crying anymore, just light headed from the effort of crying. Yeong-mi kept on running her hand through her hair, and Seon-hyang looked up to see her still smiling, with a hint of sadness, before she finally spoke:

"We don't know what's out there, Seon-hyang. We could be living in paradise or we could be living in hell." Yeong-mi explained softly, rubbing Seon-hyang's arm now. Seon-hyang wanted to interject, to say that the Jackal was planting all those ideas in her mind to betray her, but Yeong-mi continued. "The only way to know anything is true for sure, is to discover it by ourselves, Seon-hyang. If we don't like it, we can always go back home. I'm sure the Marshal will accept us with open arms."

Seon-hyang didn't agree with her at all, but she didn't have the strenght to argue her point further, not wanting to upset Yeong-mi further. Instead, she stood up, and sullenly walked back to the forest with the drummer, back to the camp, not bothering to look behind her at the river. If she looked back at the river, where she had so many childhood memories, she would cry again, and that would be too much trouble. So she just walked forward, only paying attention to the things in front of her. After a few minutes, the two found themselves in the campsite, which wasn't much of a campsite anymore, with both tents taken down and the fire extinquished, and the ashes scattered, where Joon-ho was watching the Jackal tell a story very energetically, with wide eyes and a toothy grin. The Jackal's pokemon had been let out after the beast collected herself from Seon-hyang's attack, and were loitering around the campsite, sniffing around, but not going too far.

"So, the three boys go out on their bikes in the rain to try and find their missing friend, but right when they reach the fence, a girl popped out from the woods!" the Jackal explained to the readily listening Joon-ho, before turning to face the other girls. "But she's no ordinary girl. Her head is shaved and she's wearing a hospital gown. So the three boys decide to... Oh, you found her." Yeong-mi smiled at Marie, and Seon-hyang grimaced at the two being chummy. How could the two of them just accept their natural enemy as a friend?

"Well, let's go." Marie said, stretching her arms. Joon-ho's face dropped, and grabbed onto the Jackal's arm.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait!" Joon-ho shouted. "You're not going to tell me more?" The Jackal smiled mysteriously, and giggled.

"We're just going to have to wait for more until China." She teased, and Joon-ho pouted, and crossed his arms, causing the Jackal to laugh loudly, which suprisingly didn't sound obviously evil, more like a normal person Seon-hyang's age, before sitting up. "You two ready to go?"

Yeong-mi nodded, and the two of them got up, and the Jackal said some words in English to her pokemon, which got them all to follow her. Seon-hyang imagined it was some military command that all of them were taught when they were very young. After the Jackal corralled all her pokemon, the four set off into the woods, for another day's worth of walking north. Joon-ho said they could reach the border in about a week or more, which meant at least a whole week of walking through forests, eating soup for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and most importantly, living with the Jackal. Seon-hyang couldn't wait, she was pleased as punch to travel with an American spy who made her friends into traitors.

That's almost exactly what happened for the entire week. Seon-hyang and the others would get up, drink soup, start walking, stop, drink soup, continue walking, stop, drink soup, set up camp, and go to bed. As they walked, the Jackal's 'Jessica' loved to tap her legs with her chubby arms and whimper and complain in her babbling tone. She asked the Jackal why that thing was following her on the second day, and she laughed her normal sounding laugh and replied:

"She wants you to carry her."

"Well I won't carry her!" Seon-hyang retorted, crossing her arms and scowling down at that thing, who was now tugging on her pant leg, hindering her from walking. "Tell her to stop bugging me!"

The Jackal said something soft to the pokemon in English, and the pokemon frowned and shook her head. The Jackal sighed loudly.

"Sorry, I can't get her to." The Jackal groaned, crossing her arms. "You're just gonna have to wait and see if she gives up."

"B-But, you can get all your pokemon to follow you with one word in English!" Seon-hyang protested. "Why can't you get her to stop?"

"Because she's stubborn." The Jackal replied cooly. "The reason why I can get them all to move is because I earned their trust long ago, when I first met them. However, no matter the trainer, some pokemon just disobey certian orders. She's not attacking you, so just let her follow you."

Seon-hyang groaned loudly, but didn't say anything further, thinking it would just last one day, and then the little beast will learn to give up a fight.

It didn't. It continued from the next day, to the next. She swore the Jackal told 'Jessica' to do that just to spite her, or as a joke. It wasn't a joke to her, Seon-hyang growled during the third day, as the thing squealed at her to pick her up, yanking at her pant leg so hard she swore it was goign to tear.

She complained to Yeong-mi about the pokemon when the two were alone, picking berries in the forest as a snack, far from the fire and the chattering Joon-ho and Jackal, talking eagerly about their favorite old movies. Yeong-mi just laughed after Seon-hyang finished her tale, which rubbed Seon-hyang the wrong way. What was so funny about that?

"What's funny?" Seon-hyang asked, looking angrily at Yeong-mi. She didn't look anything different than in Pyongyang, short hair a little shaggier, hands a little dirtier — Yeong-mi being the more outdoorsy of the two, being from the countryside — but not suddenly evil looking. It was funny how this all worked, Seon-hyang thought to herself, that you couldn't tell the capitalist traitors apart. Then again, the traitors in her books were written as strangers, invading Americans or businessmen in the South. They weren't written as close friends who suddenly decided to defect over the border.

"It's funny because Jessica hates all of us except Marie and you." Yeong-mi smiled, while tying a little brown cloth bag containing the berries they had collected closed, and stood up. "Maybe Jessica is trying to tell you something…?"

"No she's not!" Seon-hyang exclaimed loudly, probably waking up some of the village they passed an hour ago, face turning bright red. "She's just being a brat! A little brat!"

Maybe she was telling me something, she thought, which lingered despite her best efforts, maybe she was.

After the second full day of walking with the Jackal, her brain began to seperate Marie from the Jackal, making her two seperate people in one body. One that she liked, one she didn't. One she could trust, one she couldn't.

A walking contradiction.

The Jackal symbolized American excess, present in the way she acted with Joon-ho and when she used English with her pokemon, or to her camera, which she heard, late at night. Who was she talking to on that thing, Seon-hyang wondered to herself, watching late at night as the Jackal chattered away to that hunk of metal, her handlers? The Jackal was a spy for the US military, probably a low level worker suddenly promoted because of nepotism. Maybe her father was a leader in the military, because she heard Joon-ho mention her father a lot, and she saw a picture of him when she snooped around in Joon-ho's stuff. He looked more like a Jackal than Marie, square face, dark hair to his upper neck and a stubbly beard, and a lanky body, but still had none of the traits that they had in books, and was leading a pokemon into battle, what appeared to be the father of one of the pokemon the Jackal owned, the one that looked like an orange piglet. Even her pokemon benifited from nepotism, she snarled to herself. Whatever it was, the Jackal was sent over here with her three pokemon, to start a revolution to overthrow the leader, so the US could control the entire Korean pennisula. However, Marie was incompetent at her original task, failing to gain control of the inner Party or the Korean population with her puppetry, and instead seduced Joon-ho and Yeong-mi as her second plan to overthrow the Marshal and Korean-style socialism, inviting them to join her in the American Empire, with promises of being a pokemon trainer for Joon-ho and something that hadn't been talked of again for Yeong-mi, maybe a job as a drummer? Whatever it was, even though she was incompetent, she was also insidious, seductive even, a living contradiction. She tried to use her body instead of actual promises to get to Seon-hyang, and still tried, taking off her shirt every night, wearing that same bra and stretching every morning, showing off her barely visible muscles, flat stomach, and jutting hipbones, which wasn't seducing Seon-hyang at all, nope. Disgusting. Lewd. Shameful.

(So sexy… So beautiful, a voice at the back of her mind, that she tried to silence, moaned, I need her.)

(I need her)

Marie, on the other hand, was a kind, virtious and selfless woman, like the heroines of the novels she read, and at first, mostly appeared in her dreams. She doted after Seon-hyang like a sister, yet teased her when she felt like it. The Marie in her dreams would take her out on dates, on the shimmering banks of the Taedong in the summer, where the American would splash around in the water and laugh like an excited child, while Seon-hyang would watch her in between reading a bent and worn novel in her right hand, laying on a towel and sunbathing in a thin summer dress and large floppy hat. In the winter, the two would walk around the greys of Pyongyang in large fluffy coats, talking about the girls in Moranbong between puffs of visible breaths. They'd walk home, their home, a large, traditional house on the outskirts of Pyongyang, with a yard, and a view of the wilderness from the back windows. They'd make ginseng tea, with the freshest ginseng given to them, and snuggle in their bed, enjoying and savoring each other's warmth in the cold winter months. They never got as far to doing It as that first dream, instead, they did things that an old married couple would do, like nagging each other and making each other dinner. It felt so real, that Seon-hyang found herself looking across the room when she woke up, only to see the sleeping Jackal. The other times she saw Marie, was when she was awake, and Marie was chattering away about American TV shows or pokemon to the soldier, while he nodded along, intently listening. It made Seon-hyang jealous, that Joon-ho got Marie, while all Seon-hyang got was the Jackal, so jealous that whenever the Jackal showed her face to Seon-hyang, Seon-hyang would attack her. If Seon-hyang pushed the Jackal to the dirt, and held her head down in the mud, dirtying her already messy hair, right hand entangled in it, she'd get a glimpse — just a glimpse — of a very scared Marie, and she'd be satisfied, even though she looked terrified. Unfortunately, that meant that the Lees began to keep the two of them apart, preventing Seon-hyang from even seeing the girl she liked the most, angering her further. She didn't want the Jackal, she wanted Marie! Why did he have her all to himself, and Seon-hyang couldn't have any of her? It wasn't fair! It wasn't fair!

However, Seon-hyang was oblivious to the fact that, slowly but surely, she was starting to see less and less of the Jackal in real life, and more and more of Marie. If her brain noticed, she would have screamed that she was being seduced, and Marie would disappear completely, replaced by the Jackal. Thankfully, that never happened, and it wasn't long before the Jackal almost never appeared. All this came to a head during the night before the 5th day, when Seon-hyang had a very intense dream.

 

[roule]

It was the sequel of her first dream, with the two of them running down a never ending hallway, at least that was what it appeared to be. Seon-hyang wasn't nude, wearing a large fluffy green jacket that she recognized as belong to Marie, and a skirt to cover up. Marie was still the same, just looking a little more exhausted and winded. Seon-hyang looked behind her to see several soldiers in North Korean uniform chasing after them, shouting at them to stop. Wait, wait, wait, she was running from her own countrymen? She looked to see that she was still with Marie (how she could tell, no one knows), and not with the Jackal. Had she defected… willingly? Seon-hyang clutched Marie, not knowing what to say, or what to ask her, only knowing that she would lead the two of them to safety. She always did, when things were troubling. That's why they haven't run into any soldiers on the way from Pyongyang, yet.

They turned the corner and were faced with another group of soldiers, lead by the dance director of Moranbong, who yelled out to both packs of soldiers to stop with an enraged expression. All soldiers stopped, and glared at the two, very scared, women, trying to find a way out. The two of them tried to slink away, but they were blocked by the soldiers, a gaggle of both men and women, all carrying assault rifles. They intended to kill them right on the spot. Marie clutched Seon-hyang's hand, and the North Korean saw that the American's knuckles were white as snow. White as snow. White as snow. White as...

"Jung Seon-hyang!" The director yelled, pointing directly at her, which caused her to flinch. "What is the meaning of all this?"

"She doesn't want to be controlled anymore!" Marie screamed, leering at the director, who glared back at her. "I've taught her about freedom!"

The director laughed, a booming, evil laugh. Seon-hyang shuddered in fear, and clutched Marie's arm, trying to get her to keep quiet. If they hurt Marie… She couldn't forgive them. Never. Never.

"Liar." She spat, and Marie stepped forward, causing the soldiers to point their weapons at her head. Seon-hyang tugged on her arm, trying to get her to back down. She couldn't live without her, so she couldn't just let Marie run face first to her death… "You've fed her falsehoods and lies."

"The only freedom is within the Party." The director continued, putting her hands on her hips, and looking down at the two as if they were something filthy and beneath her, like mud on her left shoe. "And Seon-hyang had the most freedom of them all, being a member of the core songun… Joining Moranbong to teach the other, less fortunate population the wonders of the Party... and then, some half-Chinese mongrel from the American Empire seduces her into being her little North Korean doll, to live in her big dollhouse for the rest of her miserable life. Isn't that right, Marie?"

"Don't call me that." Marie snarled, face contorted in barely concealed fury, causing a smirk from the director, and Seon-hyang pushed her back, causing the soldiers to lower their weapons, but they kept them on standby by their sides, just in case Marie attempts a run at the director.

"Oh, I'll call you what I wish, mongrel." The director laughed, a toothy grin growing on her face, which made Seon-hyang shrink down. "You've taken our precious Seon-hyang away from us, and now you're going to pay for your crimes." Seon-hyang pushed herself closer to Marie as the circle of armed soldiers came closer and closer to them with their guns, and began to whimper like a trapped animal. Marie just stared ahead in acceptance, holding Seon-hyang close to her, never letting go. Why wouldn't she fight for herself?

"So what will you choose, Jung Seon-hyang?" The director smiled down at her, stretching out her hand as a half hearted attempt some sort of peace offering to her, and Seon-hyang began to shake violently, until Marie reached a hand out to stroke her side softly, giving her the chance to calm. "The Marshal, Kim Jong-un, or servitude under your precious Marie? Singing with Moranbong, or dying together with your little mongrel? Liberty or death? Choose what you know is right, Seon-hyang."

Seon-hyang didn't have to consider, she didn't even have to think about it. She knew what was right, deep down in her heart. It knew the truth, all this time it knew the truth, even when Seon-hyang tried her best to hide it all. It did, it did, it did, it did.

"M-Marie." She stuttered, hugging the American close to her in a mixture of fear and defiance. The director's face fell from her confident smirk, and she glared at Marie with rage burning in her eyes. Seon-hyang didn't care if she upset her or let her down, didn't care whatever happened to them next, the director could go to hell for all she cared. She chose Marie, not her, not Moranbong, not the Marshal, his father or his grandfather. She chose Marie, not them. "Marie, Marie, Marie, Marie, MarieMarieMarieMarieMarieMarie…" Marie squeezed her arm, and Seon-hyang knew she had a confident toothy grin on her face, that little Jackal, she thought playfully, a small smile growing on her face herself, and slung the North Korean into her arms bridal style, and slammed herself through a side door into a white room with a stairway that Seon-hyang didn't remember seeing, using her hip, but she didn't care. She was in Marie's arms, therefore, she was safe. Nothing could get to her. She had nothing to envy.

"After the traitor!" She heard the director boom at the top of her lungs, and then the stomping of boots on flooring, and Seon-hyang squeezed Marie's hand, telling her to go.

They ran down the stairway, Marie going as fast as she could with a 101 pound, 5'4 woman cowering in her arms, before they reached the ground floor, and dashed through the doors, running down the dark brown hallways and out the exit. Marie dashed out into the streets of Pyongyang, where it was midnight and deviod of any other human beings, and still warm from the blistering heat of the daytime, this dream apparently taking place in the middle of the July heat, before dipping in an narrow alleyway, following it blindly and running out from it into the wide open forest, Seon-hyang shutting her eyes and clinging desprately to Marie, running for another few paces, before Marie looked around, Seon-hyang peeking from her arms.

"It's safe." Marie said softly, causing a pang of relief to wash over Seon-hyang, and Marie quickly put Seon-hyang down feet-first. Seon-hyang wobbled a bit, before clinging to the American's arms like a koala. Marie giggled loudly as she spun the North Korean girl around and around in a circle, and the hugged the North Korean close to her, nuzzling her neck and face, causing a peal of giggles from Seon-hyang, and a hand attempting to push her away so she wouldn't tickle her further.

"You chose me." Marie said in wonder, looking down at Seon-hyang with a toothy grin across her flushed and bloody face. "You chose me." Even though she was covered almost head to toe in the remains of several North Korean soldiers, Marie still had this heavenly quality about her, like she was sent down with the sole purpose of protecting Seon-hyang from harm. Marie reached up to her hair and untied it, letting her wavy, messy dark hair float around her face like a halo. A dark messy halo. Marie was her messy angel.

"How could I not choose someone so wonderful as you, Marie?" Seon-hyang replied, which caused Marie flush bright red and to giggle even louder, and kiss both of Seon-hyang's cheeks, which left warmth on her cheeks. Marie slid her hands, her so soft hands, up to her face, and looked into her eyes with a look of content.

"My princess." Marie said softly, wonder lacing her voice. Seon-hyang felt her face burn bright red. "My princess."

Seon-hyang woke up looking Marie directly in the eyes, who was looking down at the girl with bleary but curious eyes, and messier hair than usual. Seon-hyang blinked twice, trying to focus. Marie still wasn't wearing a shirt, and normally she'd be the Jackal, but for some reason, Seon-hyang couldn't bear to call her anything but Marie.

"What are you looking at." Seon-hyang said dully. Marie blinked and swallowed, afraid of Seon-hyang's reaction, which caused the girl's stomach to drop painfully. She's afraid of me. I made her so afraid that she's unwilling to even talk to me.

"You called out for me." Marie said in an unsure tone. "I thought you were awake and scared of something really big, but then I came over here and saw that you were still dreaming."

"How much did you hear?" Seon-hyang asked in a suspicious tone, glancing at the American. Marie blinked, and shook her head, running a hand through her hair.

"Just my name. I'm guessing you had a bad dream." Marie said, a self deprecating smile on her face. "Because you wouldn't be calling my name if it was a good one. Was I being an evil jackal in your dream?"

Seon-hyang stayed mute. She didn't want to say what happened in her dream, because then Marie could use it against her. But then again, could she? Marie had none of the spy skills she expected of her, she only really knew how to start a fire, and most of her negotiation abilities that she displayed in her room were replaced by joking and story-telling. Who ever heard of an American spy who told stories about baseball and people named 'Who'? Marie mentioned something about gymnastics, but other than that, she wasn't very physically fit, didn't leap into trees to get wood, only looking up wistfully, before sighing and shaking her head, and walking further. North Korean soldiers were trained in martial arts in case they weren't armed in a battle, Seon-hyang had watched groups of male soldiers break wooden boards with their heads during a military event she performed at, and leap over each other like they had springs in their shoes. Marie was practically helpless in hand to hand combat, as Seon-hyang could attest to, not even attempting to fight back, just looking very scared, hoping her assailant would take pity on her. Maybe she thought her pokemon would do all of the fighting, but even then, wouldn't the Americans train her in hand to hand combat in case she failed? Nothing, now that Seon-hyang was really paying attention without irrationally hating Marie, made any sense. Marie wasn't a spy. She couldn't be.

Seon-hyang reached a conclusion, one that she had been close to making for the several days she's known Marie, that Marie was both Marie and the Jackal, and a multi faceted human being to boot, just like her. It felt strange to think that Marie wasn't completely evil, like some sort of fictional villain. Unnatural even. But it was true, and Seon-hyang just had to accept it. She could still be cautious around her, and maybe the stories she told were made up, but Marie appeared to have good intentions. Even from the first day, Marie was just trying to help her or try to stay out of the way of Seon-hyang. Maybe Yeong-mi was right, maybe she had to follow the three of them to find out how different the world was from home. Maybe she'll meet new people. Maybe she won't. Who knows, at this point? It was all new, and frankly, it was all exciting. Seon-hyang wanted to visit far away places, maybe find places like the Taedong, and Nampo beach elsewhere. And she had her friends with her! Her best friends… They'll travel together!

Maybe, Marie would become her friend in real life, instead of in her dreams. Maybe they could live out their dreams in America. Seon-hyang remembered looking at a map of the world as a small child, marveling at the size of America. It spanned from one ocean to another, filled with forest, desert and cities. Marie could teach her about it. Seon-hyang wanted to learn from her, maybe she had something insightful to say…

She chose Marie.

She chose her.

"Was it that bad?" Marie asked, breaking Seon-hyang out of her thoughts, grinning nervous. Seon-hyang decided to humor the girl, and give her an definite answer.

"You were annoying me." Seon-hyang said in complete deadpan. Marie's smile became a little stronger, even though her eyes looked nervous. "In my dream. I was calling your real name to get you to stop annoying me."

"That's a really realistic dream then, wouldn't you agree?" Marie grinned, and Seon-hyang felt like kissing Marie, calming her nerves. It was hard not to think about kissing her, she had the perfect kind of lips, pink and plush. But, the main difference between dream Marie and real Marie is that real Marie was more anxious, more aware of what could happen to her. She didn't appear very courageous, but that didn't mean she was selfish. Seon-hyang waved away her thoughts, and looked at Marie unflinchingly.

"Yes." Seon-hyang said, and Marie hung her head and laughed pathetically. Seon-hyang felt bad for being so hard on the girl, but she was still suspicious of her. Marie had to earn her trust completely, but she was already pretty close. She was kind, rarely yelled or attacked her —unprovoked of course—, tried her best to interact and talk to all three of them, even though Yeong-mi was mostly silent, and Seon-hyang would sneer at whatever she said.

"It's better than being called a spy." Marie laughed, putting her shirt on over her head, fuzzy head popping through, then shaking her head violently, then running a hand through her hair, trying to even it out. No matter what she did, it was still mess, flung up all over the place. Why didn't the American have a brush? Did Americans not have brushes?

"Your hair's still messy." Seon-hyang chirped, and Marie pouted, trying her best to fix it with her hands, eventually choosing to push it behind her ears. "Why didn't you bring a brush with you?"

"I thought I could buy one." Marie said, crossing her arms, still pouted. "Then I forgot about it until we were far away from Pyongyang. Now my mom's going to nag me for my hair."

"Nag you?" Seon-hyang asked, tilting her head to the right in confusion. "How?"

"'Why haven't you brushed your hair since you were on the boat?'" Marie imitated her mother, with crossed arms and a scowl on her face, and a higher pitched voice than Marie's lower tone. "'I told you, you're going to forget to buy your brush the instant you get to China, and now look at you! Your hair looks like a rat's nest! You better not forget to brush your hair again, young lady.'"

Seon-hyang found herself letting out a small giggle and smile at Marie's imitation, and Marie got this light in her eyes at her laughter. She got a positive reaction out of Seon-hyang, which for her was extemrely rarely. It made Seon-hyang feel warm inside, that she made Marie happy for once instead of upset, but she decide not to show it visibly.

"W-Well, why don't we go outside and have breakfast?" Marie said, in a very flustered manner, an tinge of pink on her cheeks. "Some lentil soup as usual." The two girls stood up and walked out of the of the tent, Marie bending down to exit the tent, which was obviously not made for someone of Marie's height.

The place where the four of them had staked out for the night was right by the river, and Joon-ho and Yeong-mi were already out there, boiling their breakfast over by the banks of an unnamed river, one that Joon-ho shrugged when Marie asked what river it was. Seon-hyang walked over and sat by Yeong-mi, who greeted her with a wave and a 'good morning. Marie sat by Joon-ho, and released her pokemon, who all looked eager to eat food, and the two four legged pokemon paced around the fire, while the one named 'Jessica' crawled into Marie's lap, and began to babble excitedly to her, which caused Marie to look down at her with a girn across her face..

"It's about 8 am and you two aren't fighting yet!" Yeong-mi exclaimed, patting Seon-hyang on the shoulder, which caused the girl to jump slightly. "It's a miracle!"

"It's early in the morning." Joon-ho replied, an air of exhaustion to his voice, as he poured out the soup, and distributed it to the four humans and three pokemon, all of whom began to eat eagerly. "They'll probably be at each other's throats in a few hours, noona."

"Oh I wouldn't be too sure, Joon-ho." Yeong-mi said between spoonfuls of lentil soup, which apppeared to be Joon-ho's soup of choice. "You're too harsh on them! My bet is that Marie and Seon-hyang will be inseperable by China. Best friends and all that."

"Maybe." Marie said, a wistful look in her eyes and a sad smile, and Seon-hyang felt disgusting for making her act like that. "Maybe that will happen. I can only hope, yknow? It just seems so hard to get her to like me..."

"I'm here, you know." Seon-hyang said in an agitated tone, and Marie shrugged slight, and laughed a little to herself, which caused the little pink thing in her arms to mimic her laughter. The rest of the breakfast was silent, with everyone focused more on their soup than Marie and Seon-hyang's ongoing feud. Seon-hyang thought about it as she ate, part of her still conflicted over trusting Marie because of her heritage and potential to be a plant by the American or Canadian governments, and could just be leading them to their deaths. But what would she get out of that? Marie and Joon-ho were close, and she was desperately trying to be friends with Seon-hyang and Yeong-mi. Money? Marie didn't appear to be obessed with money, not as much as she was trying to make Seon-hyang laugh. She didn't know what to believe, the Party, warm and comforting, or Marie, warm and comforting as well.

As she thought long and hard about her potential life choices, many of which could affect her in violent and deadly ways, the others finished up their soup, cleaned out the bowls using the several bottles of water Marie had on her (she shrugged and said "Hydration" when asked why she had so many), stacked them together and put them back in Joon-ho's bag, and dismantled the tents. She was only alerted to this change when Marie walked over to her and tapped her shoulder, and Seon-hyang snapped back into awareness, blinking wildly at the girl in front of her, with a serious expression.

"We're heading off." Marie said, and Seon-hyang grabbed onto her muscular arms and pushed herself onto her feet, and Marie grabbed her waist to steady her. Seon-hyang felt her hand burn through her uniform, and almost let herself shudder and lean in. Instead, she rubbed at her eyes pretty violently, which caused Marie to coo and tease: "Were you thinking about me?"

"N-No!" Seon-hyang stuttered, turning away from her, and blushing very hard. "I was thinking about China. How different it's going to be, from now on." Marie's teasing smirk softened into a comforting smile, and she put her hand on Seon-hyang's shoulder, which also made her feel naked, and didn't help her reddened face.

"It will be hard, but I will show you the way." Marie said softly, rubbing Seon-hyang's shoulder, which caused the other girl to shut her eyes and relax out of pleasure. "I wouldn't just leave you to your own devices! There's things over there that you need to be taught to do, and I'll be your teacher."

"Sure you will." Seon-hyang said sarcastically, and Marie's smile dropped, and she trudged away disappointed. Seon-hyang walked after her, grabbing her bag in the process, wishing she could say something nice to the girl for a change. But whenever she talked, something sarcastic and angry came out, causing Marie to slink away, saddened. Seon-hyang hated it! She hated how Marie was almost instantly a threat to her! She wanted to comfort Marie, telling her that it wasn't her fault, she just had to get over the fact that she wasn't evil, like part of her of her brain wanted her to believe she was, instantly.

She was miserable and drowning in self pity the entire walk, keeping to herself and not talking, trying not to worsen the situation at hand. Marie would look back at her occasionally when she thought the North Korean was thinking about other things, a sad look in her eyes. It made Seon-hyang feel worse, and even lentil soup and Jessica begging her to be held couldn't stir any other emotions in her, instead, she just felt even more disgusting than before. The reactionary part of her brain flared up as she walked further with her friends, asking Seon-hyang if she really knew the girl in front of her, did she truly know anything about her? Without her permission, that thought took over her mind, and she found herself saying to Marie, who had whipped her head to face Seon-hyang:

"How'd you even get here?"

Spoiler: historical notes

the song seon-hyang sang as a child is "세상에 부름없어라" or "We envy nothing in this world", from a 1970's movie of that name.

-the arduous march is a north korean code word for the famine that killed thousands of people in the 90s, which was caused by the collaspe of soviet aid to north korea and reluctance for any other countries to support a dictatorship. it offically ended in the late 90s, but people are still dying from the effects of starvation to this day.

-the insult seon-hyang uses to refer to marie; "jackal", is a common insult from a popular north korean novel called "jackals" by han sorya. the story is about a family of white missionaries who murder a young korean child by lethal injection, and the descriptions of the missonary family are used as the 'identifiyng traits' of a jackal in this chapter, except for one, which was describing the missonary's wifes tits, which was as follows "the vixen's teats jutted out like the stomach of a snake that has just swallowed a demon. when i say this insult is super popular, i mean that the leading state authorty on americans as a people is a ****ing animal trainer from the circus, and john kerry (current us secrectary of state) was called a jackal in a north korean media release a whopping 130 times.

-the taedong river is a river that runs through Pyongyang.

 

[Umbramatic]

Hi! I saw you feature this in the Discord fic advertising channel and thought I'd check it out.

Probably my favorite thing about this fic is the sense of suspense you've created - the main characters are clearly in a dangerous, high-stakes situation, and you do a good job of playing with that and keeping the reader on the edge of their seat regarding what happens next. You also seem to be at least trying to do your research building a "real life meets Pokemon" world and how that would affect the plot-relevant countries in particular, so kudos for that!

You've also got a solid cast of main characters so far. My favorite character so far is Joon-ho - his desire to leave his corrupt home country and become a Pokemon trainer is very endearing and sincere, and I mentally cheered for him when he got his Magby.

One criticism I could give to this story in relation, though, is the Pokemon could afford to be a little bit more prominent. It's true not every Pokemon fic needs to have them be truly major players, and you don't need to make them main characters in their own right here, but given this is a real world setting a teensy bit more focus on the Pokemon aspect would help it feel like a Pokemon story in tandem with the sociopolitical thriller aspect.

I'm also slightly confused at the chronology of the Seon-hyang extra - when does it take place amidst the trip to China?

Overall, this is pretty solid for your first-ever Pokemon fic, though. Keep it up!

 

[roule]

Hi! I saw you feature this in the Discord fic advertising channel and thought I'd check it out.

Probably my favorite thing about this fic is the sense of suspense you've created - the main characters are clearly in a dangerous, high-stakes situation, and you do a good job of playing with that and keeping the reader on the edge of their seat regarding what happens next. You also seem to be at least trying to do your research building a "real life meets Pokemon" world and how that would affect the plot-relevant countries in particular, so kudos for that!

You've also got a solid cast of main characters so far. My favorite character so far is Joon-ho - his desire to leave his corrupt home country and become a Pokemon trainer is very endearing and sincere, and I mentally cheered for him when he got his Magby.

One criticism I could give to this story in relation, though, is the Pokemon could afford to be a little bit more prominent. It's true not every Pokemon fic needs to have them be truly major players, and you don't need to make them main characters in their own right here, but given this is a real world setting a teensy bit more focus on the Pokemon aspect would help it feel like a Pokemon story in tandem with the sociopolitical thriller aspect.

I'm also slightly confused at the chronology of the Seon-hyang extra - when does it take place amidst the trip to China?

Overall, this is pretty solid for your first-ever Pokemon fic, though. Keep it up!

thank you for reading and reviewing! i appricate your comments on the pokemon, and i will write more scenes with them starting from chapter 8!

im really glad you said something about the extra chapter, i forgot to put the note in by accident lol. if you're wondering, its between chapters 4 and 5.

 

[roule]

Chapter 8

And thank you, my friend, for trusting me

With everyone in the train car asleep, and no one boarding on our first two stops, I was left to my own devices. Instead of twiddling my thumbs or falling asleep, I brought up Twitter on my phone, to see if people were making distasteful jokes about Seon-hyang or Yeong-mi yet, and to see if there was anything new since last week.

I would be a complete idiot if I thought anyone wasn't going to make jokes about the situation, laughter being a coping mechanism, but thankfully, most people were refraining from going the cheap route, and were joking about a potential war with North Korea, or the President's remarks about the girls, ("country of liars" being repeated the most). I was honestly surprised that he didn't say that they were a "7 at best". I saw a few pictures of the band dancing together, and then I saw some misinformed people put pictures of a South Korean band, So Nyuh Shi Dae (Girls Generation in English, the name I will use from now on, due to convenience) and claim it was the group. To be fair to the uninformed few, they once had very similar uniforms, during Girls Generation's 'Genie' era - which lasted 'till August 2009 -, both white in color, both uniforms short and included heels, and both military style. However, as I went down my feed, I saw a lot of people calling out a political pundit

for his comments about the women, and out of pure curiosity, I checked the screenshot of the tweet.

It read as follows:

"So what if some US soldier 'abducted' some North Korean girls? I bet they're doing their part to keep our troops satisfied!"

The innuendo wasn't lost on me.

Obviously that pundit — who I will not name, because I'm sure he's been criticized enough for that remark — had never heard the term "comfort women" in his whole life. However, as the 'US soldier' mentioned in his tweet, I was pretty offended by the insinuation. I would never do that to either of them! Ever, ever, ever! If they wanted me to, I wouldn't lay a single finger on them for the entirety of our journey!

(Of course, if Seon-hyang in particular wanted to be touched in that way, well…)

Going down my feed and ignoring what I just thought, I noticed that an alarming amount of Americans seemed to be alright with the insinuation of the North Korean government that one of their soldiers was committing a war crime, a war crime that North Korea — and China as well — had a very personal experience with. Of course, no war crime was being committed, but it was still pretty nauseating. Thankfully, most of the people I followed were either calling them out, or retweeting people who were calling them out. It made me feel a little better, but not much.

As I closed Twitter, rubbing my eyes in exhaustion, I felt my phone vibrate twice, and I looked at it to see a text on the top of the screen.

20 chicken mcnuggets: Hey, where are you in Seoul? I haven't seen you at all, and Mr. Moreau is asking other kids if they saw you. Worried.

It was Addy. I was surprised I hadn't received any other texts from him during my 5 day absence, only this one. I texted him back quickly, making sure he didn't think I died violently.

marie: im fine lol. tell him my boat went the wrong way and i'm in china rn, making my way to beijing.

I sent him a selfie of me on the train, looking very exhausted, hair a total mess, holding up a peace sign and making sure to cut out the sleeping Seon-hyang. I felt sort of bad for lying to Addy, but then again, my response was vague enough that I could fill in the blanks later. Also, if Mr. Moreau wanted to know where I really was those 5 days, I was sure that my dad could tell him.

Addy texted me back instantly.

20 chicken nuggets: Oh, so you didn't land in North Korea. That's good.

Only if he knew, I thought to myself, a lump forming painfully in my throat. He sent another text.

20 chicken nuggets: Catch any good pokemon?

marie: haha not yet. you get into any movies?

marie: get that hot bf?

He'd talked to me before we left, in Vancouver, in the booth of a popular Middle Eastern restaurant, with bright mustard walls and loud music playing, between a platter of stuffed grape leaves, about dating and how he was looking towards meeting his special someone while we were in Korea and/or China. I'd teased him at the time, but I secretly hoped for the same, and now look at me, with the girl I was infatuated with laying on my shoulder, eyes shut, hair splayed across her face, and a soft look on her face, like a sleeping child. Even though we were friends, I was lucky enough to get this close, most of the people I'd liked before at arms distance, too far to touch. Either across the halls of my school or through a screen.

Addy texted me back:

20 chicken mcnuggets: No and no

marie: you'll find someone lol

20 chicken mcnuggets: What, you did?

marie: ...maybe

20 chicken mcnuggets: Tell me the details!

marie: not over text lol

20 chicken mcnuggets: You gotta tell me Maaaarieeeeeee!

marie: in beijing

20 chicken mcnuggets: ;(

I smiled as I turned my phone off, and looked over at my companions. Joon-ho was asleep sitting straight up, eyes shut and head drooped over his chest. Yeong-mi was reclining in her seat, dead asleep, snuggled into my old t-shirt. I wondered if they could've rested like this when they were back in North Korea, as a musician and a soldier. It was so peaceful and utterly silent on the train, other than the breaks, which occasionally made noises when stopping at stations, nothing really suspect of an imminent train crash.

I looked out of my window, at the white outside. It reminded me of home, of waking up on Christmas in my house, climbing down the rickety stairs with a bouncing and younger Jessica, giggling and chattering excitedly to me, only about the size of half a 2 liter bottle of Coke at this point in her life.

We managed to only spot the the tree for a split second, before Herman, who was tasked with guarding the house, not for any danger, but just because he was used to doing it when traveling with my dad, nudged us back upstairs, where I saw my mother, on the stairs, wearing baggy sweats and a old white t-shirt with "MACAU" with a bold black font and the flag underneath it (bought during her last trip to Macau, however, she went without me). My mother smiled at me, grabbed my shoulder, began to shake me, and said:

"Marie, we're at the station."

I snapped awake, face pressed uncomfortably to the window, and turned to the person who was shaking me awake. Joon-ho was staring at me with an unreadable expression, with Yeong-mi and Seon-hyang looking at me in concern by his side, peeking over his shoulders. I rubbed my eyes in a sleepy daze, and flushed in embarrassment at my situation, and quickly whipped my head around to see no one else on the train, just us four, no police officers or soldiers. We were safe, for now, at least.

I shook my fear off, and stood up, wobbling a bit due to the disuse of my legs, and we left the train, onto the snow covered platform, which was at least a few feet tall, and made a soft crunching noise whenever I stepped in it. Seon-hyang and Yeong-mi wandered around the platform as the train slowly left the station, visibly excited by the sheer amount of snow. Joon-ho stuck by me, Ggwek-Ggwek awake and squirming in his arms as I dialed my mom's cellphone number. I heard the dial tone, and the phone rang a few times.

"Marie?" My mother asked, a little more awake this time around.

"Yeah, it's me." I said sleepily, stretching a little bit. Joon-ho was cooing to the awake duck pokemon in his arms, which was now whining loudly, flailing its stubby legs. "We just reached Shenyang. Ended up taking the train, like you wanted us to, because of a big snowstorm."

"Good. I'm guessing no one turned you four in?" My mom replied, the reply of 'I told you so' going unsaid. I looked over to see the two girls frolicking in the snow, thankfully not too close to the tracks. Yeong-mi was balling up some snow and turned to fling it at Seon-hyang, who was running away giggling, covering her face. I found a smile growing across my face at the childlike nature. It seemed so long ago that they were no-nonsense cogs in the North Korean machine.

"Marie?" My mother asked, which snapped me back to reality.

"Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah! We're fine, no one caught us." I said quickly, which garnered a sigh from my mother. "Sorry."

"Well, your father and I about to go to the airport, we'll be in Beijing by 4 AM, in their time of course." My mother continued, and I paced the station. I was oblivious to the stifled giggles behind me, and the soft crunch of footsteps. "We're staying at the same hotel as you and all of the trainers from Alexandria."

"Alright, we'll meet you there. Are you going to Hong Kong see Auntie Yi-" I said, before I felt something soft, wet and very cold hit my face at a very painful speed. specifically my cheek, and I heard Seon-hyang and Yeong-mi burst into peals of laughter. "Ow! 有冇搞錯!?"

"Marie?" My mother asked again, and I wiped my face free of snow and water, shivering a little. Seon-hyang and Yeong-mi ran to Joon-ho, hanging off of him like ornaments on a tree as they peeked at me.

"Sorry, got hit in the face with a snowball." I said, and my mother laughed loudly on the other end. I flushed red, and rubbed my cheek again. "Are you going to visit family?"

"Mmm… We'll see." My mother said, after a long pause. "Didn't Dad tell you why we were coming?"

"Nope. Thought it was to check on me."

"He's one of the guest speakers at the opening." My mother explained, and I widened my eyes. "We wanted it to be a surprise for you."

"Before I landed in North Korea, right?" I said, fidgeting with my hands.

"Yes." My mom said, and a solemn pause fell between us. It was briefly broken when I heard my father's garbled voice talking to my mother, and her equally garbled reply.

"That was your Dad." My mother sighed. "We're going to head out to Vancouver now."

"I'll see you in Beijing then! Love you."

"Love you too." My mother replied, and the line clicked off.

It had never really occurred to me as a child, and really as an adult, that my dad was famous. Probably because we lived in Canada, where he was a relative nobody. But, he was very very famous in the States. The reason why, was he beat a gym (the Miami Gym), with a no loss streak of 6 years, on live television. After choosing not to progress to the League, he was the Canadian representative of the Global Pokemon Federation until I was about 12, performing in exhibition matches. My father made an effort to keep me out of the spotlight, rarely bringing me along on GPF's trips. But, there were still pictures of me on the internet, and even a Youtube video of 6 year old me at a awards ceremony red carpet babbling away about pokemon. I guess the Chinese league wanted the star power of my dad to start their league with a bang.

"Are you alright, Marie?" Yeong-mi asked, peeking out from Joon-ho's form like a child. I looked over at her, and smiled lopsidedly. Water dripped from my wet hair, and I shivered.

"Oh, I'm fine." I said, waving my hands quickly. "My mom just told some big news. It's good, though."

The three of them perked up at the mention of 'good news'.

"Are they going to pick us up?" Seon-hyang asked, looking at me in anticipation.

"Nope. My dad's gonna give a speech at the league." I said, and Seon-hyang slumped in disappointment. "...Sorry."

"But what about us?" Seon-hyang complained, crossing her arms. "My feet hurt, my legs ache, I'm tired of walking!"

"We'll try to find out where Joon-ho's parents are, get tickets for the train, and then we'll meet my parents at the airport in Beijing." I said, walking towards the glass doors of the train station. The three followed me in, and were met with a large white tiled room, with the station name in large red font. A large steel escalator curled down to the bottom floor. The three of us stepped on it, and it slowly crawled downwards. As it led us down, I observed more of the station.

It was similar to the Dandong station, grey concrete floors and shiny metal benches. Flat screen TV playing the news, and a vending machine towards the side. The only difference was the amount of people, either walking around aimlessly or sitting on the benches. A large dog pokemon, Arcanine, with a tan mane and red body with stripes meandered towards the exit, towering over his owner. But that was the only pokemon I really saw in that building, probably because it was a seeing eye pokemon. I quickly stepped down the remaining stairs on the escalator, stepping down onto the floor with a soft tap of my boots.

The three followed me down, a little slower than normal, and Seon-hyang immediately looped her arm around mine. She held me tighter than the other times, and seemed to be flitting her head from side to side very fast. I craned my neck to look at what was making her so very upset, and was met by the stares of some of the commuters, with expressions I couldn't read. I pulled her closer and put a reassuring hand on her side, feeling her muscles relax. I lead her out of the train station's glass doors quickly, to prevent her from any unwanted attention, to the outside.

Shenyang was nothing like Pyongyang. Pyongyang had some (barely any, to be completely honest) modern development, sure, but the Chinese city was on another level. The dark buildings in Shenyang towered above us, with large signs and storefronts on the front, with mannequins, TV monitors or chairs in the windows. Cars darted to and fro, and crowds of people passed us by, chattering to themselves and the people around them. Street noise boomed in my ears, concealing anything audible from anyone passing by. Seon-hyang was very obviously shaking now, face blanche and wide eyes darting to and fro and face taut, teeth bared slightly. Her hand latched onto the meat of my arm, digging her long nails painfully into my skin.

"Seon-hyang." I said softly, as the two other North Koreans walked out from behind us, stopping to marvel at the city around them. "Are you alright?"

Seon-hyang didn't respond audibly, just cringed and covered her ears. She looked like she was about to cry, and I noticed her breathing became shallow underneath my palm. I grabbed my bag and fished out my phone and my earbuds, and handed it to her. Her face loosened as she looked at me in confusion, and I mimed putting earbuds in. She put them in, and I opened my phone and hit play on my music library, a soft Chinese folk song playing in her ears. Almost instantly, she loosened her muscles, and shut her eyes and regulated her breathing softly. She slipped her hand onto mine, holding it like it was the only thing keeping her from floating far away. I looked back at the Lee's, checking if they were still there. The two were watching us with wide eyes, Yeong-mi had a mysterious smirk on her face, and Joon-ho looked merely surprised, cradling a wriggling Ggwek-Ggwek, who was eating what appeared to be fish jerky.

"Stay close, I don't want any of us getting lost." I shouted over the noise, and the two nodded.I stepped onto the sidewalk, aware of the girl clinging to me

With that, we aimlessly walked around the city for a good hour, looking for any visible refugee centers Joon-ho's parents could have gone into. No specific building came up, and I felt hope sap from my body. It seemed so hopeless, looking for something that was illegal in China, with a promise of prison time. Why would there would be a visible refugee center, then? I felt my head swim with questions and angry retorts. I only felt tired, my eyes drooping as we passed another restaurant from a restaurant chain called "California Beef Noodle" for the fourth time in the last fifteen minutes. Seon-hyang was faring better than me, smiling and humming along to the South Korean pop songs playing from my phone. I swallowed my irritation and depression, forced a smile on my face, and said:

"How about we stop here to have a bite to eat?"

Joon-ho and Yeong-mi nodded, before they were looking around the neighborhood that we had walked into, full of tall stone grey buildings. I leaned against the side of one building, in the space between two concrete stairways that wasn't covered in snow, and pulled out my bag. I fished through it to find my pokeballs and a handful of fish jerky. I released my pokemon, who glared up at me, hungrily. I gave them each a decent chunk, which they ate ravenously, before I bit into one myself. I watched Jessica toddle up to a reclining Seon-hyang, and hand her an extra piece of fish. Seon-hyang smiled softly and gingerly took the fish jerky from Jessica's claws.

"I think that's all the fish jerky we had left." Yeong-mi said somewhat sadly. That fish was probably one of the last meals she had in her home country before she left, and I felt kinda bad for being sick of it. Instead of vocalizing that, I laid my hand on her shoulder to comfort her. She looked over at me, and gave a withering smile. Nina walked over to Yeong-mi, and sat down at her feet.

"You can pet her head, you know." I said, and Yeong-mi looked over in surprise. "That's the only part of her that doesn't run the risk of her killing you by accident."

Yeong-mi reached over to the blue rabbit pokemon, and stroked her head softly. Nina's eyes closed, and Yeong-mi moved closer to the pokemon, smiling softly. I felt a grin grow on my face, and I turned to look over at Joon-ho.

Ggwek-Ggwek was toddling around the ground, looking in wonder at the sights of Shenyang. Joon-ho was sitting cross-legged close by the little duck, making sure he didn't wander off into the streets. I watched from the corner of my eye as Varaha trotted towards Ggwek-Ggwek, before stopping and snorting a greeting at the Magby. Ggwek-Ggwek was silent for a few moments, before walking over to Varaha and softly chirping at him. Varaha snorted in return and lowered his head so that Ggwek-Ggwek could softly pet him, which garnered a happy quack from the duck pokemon. I heard Joon-ho laugh a loud and extremely happy laugh, and I looked over to see a big grin on his face as he swayed. Seeing the two fire types play with each other was so cute it was almost killing me, and I watched the two pokemon until I heard a door open, and I scrambled to my feet.

I was faced with a somewhat tall and skinny man in his mid-forties, with cropped dark hair and a square shaped face. He had a deeply serious expression on his face, frowning mouth, dark eyes, and wore a dark dress shirt and dark dress pants. Fearing that we could get either yelled at or reported to the police, I quickly gathered my pokeballs and shrunk again the railing as the man climbed down the stairs, a slight but noticeable limp in his right leg. No one but me seemed to see him yet, engrossed in the pokemon around them. I felt my throat begin to squeeze shut, and I felt a cold sweat beginning to form all over. He stopped in front of Joon-ho, observing the pokemon in front of him. He looked up, looking my shaking form directly in the eyes.

"You are a pokemon trainer, yes?" He said, his Chinese a little rough around the edges. This statement caused the three sitting on the ground to look up at the man.

"Y-Yessir." I said shakily, nodding my head as fast as I could.

"I have a job for you, inside." He said sternly, and I found myself smiling nervously. Was this guy going to murder me? Was I seriously going to be murdered after escaping North Korea? "Come now."

I watched as he walked back indoors, and shut the door. I mulled over the decision in my head, before grabbing a foldable pocket knife from my bag and stuffing it in my pocket, and turning to the three Koreans, who were visibly shocked.

"When we go in there," I said, still a little shakily, and all three of looked at me with wide eyes. "Absolutely no talking, okay?"

All three nodded, and I climbed up the steps, opening the wooden door cautiously as all three followed behind me, along with my pokemon. They were just as nervous as the humans, and Jessica demanded to be picked up by Seon-hyang, who obliged.

The interior of the building was of a lobby of a office building, with white walls and white marble floors, with paintings of a far away rocky coast on the walls. The one of the right wall was a distant shot, with frothy waves crashing over grey rocks. The one on the left was a close shot, only showing the rocks, none of the water in the shot. There was no one at the reception desk, just an empty black desk and black comfy office chair. The man stood in the middle of the room with a stiff gait, in front of two brass elevator doors. A large tan dog pokemon, with blue markings on it's back, stood by his side, only up to his knees. I took out my phone to identify the pokemon, which I swore I saw before.

"Herdier, the loyal dog pokemon." iDex stated, and I caught a glimpse of surprise on the man's face, but before I could analyze it, it was gone. "This Pokémon obeys its master's orders faithfully. However, it refuses to listen to anything said by a person it doesn't respect."

"I see that you are interested in my pokemon." The man said sharply and suddenly, and I felt myself flinch. "However, that is not why I brought you here."

I put my phone away, but kept my hand on my front pocket, where my knife was. I looked over at the 3 Koreans, and I saw that most of them had stern, cautious expressions. The man's Herdier glowered at my pokemon, unmoving. Varaha trotted in front of me and glared straight back, his orange and black body visibly stiff.

"There is a wild pokemon in this building's basement." The man continued, always seeming to be looking down at me. "My pokemon is too weak to handle this intruder. I request your assistance."

"Okay, I guess." I said, shrugging slightly. "Are you gonna pay us, though? I really don't want to risk my life down there for no pay whatsoever..."

"How about 500 yuan?"

"Fine by me." I replied, and the man smiled slightly, a mere raise of the corners of his lips. It seemed so artificial, so fake that I found myself breaking into a cold sweat.

"Good. I will be waiting for you on the fourth floor." The man said, and he and his Herdier walked towards the left, into a large wooden door. Varaha snorted loudly and shook his head quickly, before looking up at me with big dark eyes. I gave him a little smile, before turning my attention to the 3 behind me.

"He's paying me to get rid of a pokemon in his basement." I said lowly, so we couldn't be overheard.

"How much?" Joon-ho asked, Ggwek-Ggwek looking at me with curious eyes from his partner's arms.

"Uh…. about enough for us to get lunch, or some new clothes." I said, scratching the side of my face. "I don't know how much won it is."

"Whatever. I understand." Joon-ho said, a small smile gracing his face as he walked towards the elevator, stopping before the doors. "Not like the money from that place matters to us anymore. Lead the way, Marie."

It felt so odd to be using an elevator after 5 days in the forest and 1 day in the run down cities of North Korea, where everything seemed to be several decades behind. Nevertheless, we climbed in, I punched the "B" button, and then the button to close the doors. I turned to my side, to the wall, and I was met with a frightening sight in the reflective metal walls of the capsule.

My reflection looked back at me, but I looked haggard, tired. Under my eyes, dark bags, almost like bruises, were visible. My expression looked exhausted, face almost hollow. My hair was even mattier and greasier looking than usual, sitting almost like a mop on my head, and my clothes were covered in dirt stains and small tears. I immediately felt my heart race at the sight of my haggard self, as it was some sort of enemy. I stepped back, almost colliding into Seon-hyang.

"Marie?" She asked me, grabbing my arm to steady me.

"Nothing!" I said in one breath, before swallowing thickly. All of them were staring at me now, expressions of concern on their face. "I-I just got shocked by my appearance. That's all."

"Why?" Yeong-mi asked, looking at me with squinted eyes. "You just look tired, nothing too horrible."

"I'm not used to looking this tired." I said softly. "...You are?"

"Oh sure!" Yeong-mi said cheerfully. "Practices used to run for hours when we were in Moranbong. I remember… Mi-kyong was it? She passed out on the floor when we first started practicing!"

"What?!" I exclaimed.

"That's not… normal?" Yeong-mi asked, cocking her head in confusion. "I thought it was normal… everywhere?"

"Nope. In fact… why don't we all start a game?" I said, trying to keep an upbeat tone. "Whenever something like this happens again, I'll answer you with either 'Normal' or 'Not normal', alright?"

All three of them nodded, and I heard a beep, as we reached the basement. I peeked through the doors and into the dimly lit basement spread out in front of me, with light concrete floors. Industrial shelves lined the room, almost as if they were walls themselves, towering above us. They were holding boxes up, but from this distance I couldn't tell what could possibly be in them.

I cautiously stepped out, Varaha close beside me, ready to fight. Nothing sprung out at us, so I just sighed and walked a little forward. My companions followed me closely, watching for any pokemon coming from behind us.

We meandered through the maze of shelves, most of the boxes appearing to be containing food and drink. Briefly, I let the question of "what exactly is this man doing with all this food?" pass through my mind, before letting it slide. It was better just to focus on the task at hand, not the wonder, the question surrounding this all. If I thought too much, the pokemon could jump out at me, and attack me while I was stunned. Varaha trotted in front of me, leading me forward even though I was trapped in my own mind.

"Hey Marie?" I heard Seon-hyang speak up, and I turned my head to her. Jessica was walking by her side, looking up at me with a smile.

"Mmm?"

"What… what do you think this pokemon is?" Seon-hyang asked, and I shrugged.

"Probably a Raticate or something." I said. "There's a variant of them that can chew through steel in some parts of America. Judging by the food on the shelves, it's probably just feeding off the food in here."

"Raticate…?" Seon-hyang asked, and I grabbed my phone and opened iDex to the Raticate entry, which I got by battling one back in Canada. I handed it to Seon-hyang.

"Ew! I don't like rats!" Seon-hyang said with a scrunched up face, giving me my phone back quickly, as if it was a real rat she touched. "There better not be any in here!"

"Don't worry." I said, smiling lopsidedly. "I'll get it before it gets to you."

Seon-hyang relaxed at that, and we walked a few more paces before we heard a large BAM, which caused me and Varaha to jump. I stood still for a few moments, in which I looked over at my companions. Joon-ho had frozen in the same way I did, face contorted in a stern expression with eyes scanning the room around him, and Ggwek-Ggwek standing with his claws balled up in fists. Yeong-mi was staring ahead in shock, with Nina staying very close to her with an angry expression on her face. Jessica was cowering by Seon-hyang, who was holding her close with a determined but scared expression.

I heard another bang, then slow, thudding, footsteps. I felt goosebumps form on my skin, and I took a step back.

I turned and watched as a large, dark figure approached Varaha, towering several feet above him, face and identifying features shrouded in the gaps of dark between the hanging lights of the basement. All I heard was a low growl, a booming one that seemed to be felt throughout the floor. Varaha was hunched over, snarling in response to the aggression.

My hands shook as I grasped for my phone, and prayed quickly that iDex could recognize the pokemon in front of it without an error. It took few more seconds then usual, but it gave me it's results.

"Pangoro, the daunting pokemon." iDex said loudly, cutting into the silence between the growls. "It boasts superb physical strength. Those who wish to become Pangoro's Trainer have no choice but to converse with their fists"

I heard another growl from the Pangoro, as it approached Varaha slowly, footsteps thudding forward. It walked into the light, where I coud deduce it's dark colored mask on its cream face, dark colored fur imitating a open jacket, with a cream patch on its belly. It's dark arms were folded across its chest, and it looked down at Varaha like he was a speck of dirt on the floor, chewing on a green shoot between its teeth. Varaha, however, remained defiant, crouched down to the floor and crawling closer to the panda pokemon, ignoring its snarls.

I turned to Seon-hyang, who looked just as suprised as I did. Jessica was cowering in her arms, squeaking and whining loudly and clutching her jacket.

"Just so you know," I laughed nervously. "That's no Raticate."

 

[roule]

Chapter 9

I’m not afraid. I want to keep going

The Pangoro lunged forward at Varaha, slamming a furry fist towards the orange pig. Varaha managed to jump a distance away from the impact, which left a pretty decent dent in the concrete floor. It's face was contorted in annoyance at the sight of my unharmed pokemon, and I knew I'd have to be careful with trying to battle it. Pangoros weren't the result of a quick evolution early on, they had to be trained to a certain extent, and trained really really hard. If I made one wrong move, I could get Varaha or any of my pokemon killed. I'd have to think defensively.

"Varaha, try a… f-fire attack!" I shouted, briefly forgetting the actual official name of the attack he was using, and Varaha looked over at me with his large black eyes and nodded. Varaha spat out a quick shot of fire, which the Pangoro blocked with a grin by using its arms. However, the bear pokemon didn't realize what Varaha had shot at it, and I watched as its arm caught fire, dashes of blue fire burning its fur. I watched the Pangoro look at its arm in shock, waving it in an attempt to put the fire out, but it continued, filling the room with the stench of burning fur.

Obviously, my stupid *** didn't think about the smoke detectors in the warehouse, which quickly started with a loud screech. From what I could see of the Pangoro, it seemed to be confused by both the burn and the noises around it, looking around in a daze. Varaha snorted softly, before taking a step back, ready to charge a moment's notice. The Pangoro roared in rage this time, and began to charge, and instead of running towards Varaha like a normal pokemon would do, the bear ran towards all 4 of us. We had only mere seconds to redirect ourselves towards the shelves before the pokemon charged forward. It ran undeterred until it slammed into the back wall of the basement with a boom that shook the shelves of cookies that I had pressed my back against.

"What the **** was that?" Yeong-mi shouted from the other side of the shelves, staring at me with confusion and anger written on her face, before she froze and clamped a hand over her mouth. Joon-ho was by her side, clutching a whining Ggwek-ggwek to his chest as he stared fearfully at the Pangoro, who was laying in a heap on the floor, fire seeming to burn brighter. Nina was standing in the middle of the room, snarling loudly and with her thin purple quills very visible and gleaming in the light.

"I don't know!" I shouted back. "Wild pokemon usually don't target people, just other pokemon!"

I watched as the Pangoro slowly got up, and looked around the room. Seon-hyang looped her arm around mine and held me close, obviously shaking. The bear and I made eye contact as I stepped out from the side, Seon-hyang tugging my arm desperately. The Pangoro roared again, but paused, unmoving. Did it… want to be caught?

"Marie!" Seon-hyang shouted, tugging on my shirt sleeve. I didn't respond, just looked at the Pangoro, who was looking down at me with an unreadable expression and fire spreading to its entire right arm. What was it doing? I stepped forward, and the Pangoro stepped forward again, growling lowly.

Seon-hyang shouted for me again, but I ignored her. I just continued to stare at the Pangoro as it walked further, until it was mere inches away. I looked up at it, and saw that it wore the same expression as before, and I squinted up at it. We stood there, not moving and not paying attention to the shouts from my companions.

I was about to reach for one of my pokeballs before I felt something knock me to the side of the room, and then a sudden boom from behind me. I felt myself fall forwards, and I pushed my arms forward, skidding to a stop and feeling my arms sting painfully and ache. I heard a loud scream from Jessica, and I looked over to see her dashing towards us. Two hands caught my head before it could hit the concrete, and I looked up, feeling my head spin. Seon-hyang had tackled me, and was now cradling me like a child, but I couldn't see her face. The Pangoro had slammed its furred fist down to the ground, and I felt burning heat rise up from my belly. The bastard had tricked me!

Before it could take a run at the two of us again, I watched as Varaha took a running charge at it's legs, knocking it off balance. It crashed to the ground and roared again, and I stared in amazement. However the wonder wore off fast, I had to act fast or Varaha was most definitely going to die, so I sat up and reached for my bag as Seon-hyang cried out and yanked my shoulder back somewhat painfully and the Lees rushed over to stop me. I grabbed a pokeball, and flung it the best I could with my shoulder being restrained. I watched as the collapsed Pangoro was retrieved into the ball with a red light, and for the first time in a long time, I clasped my hands and prayed to God that the ball wasn't going to fail. I whispered a prayer to myself softly as the ball rolled around, once, twice, thrice, before a click interrupted my thoughts.

"Thank f-****ing Christ." I said, as relief washed over me in a massive wave. I walked over to the ball, picking it up. I pulled out my phone, and turned iDex on. I let it scan my pokeball, before reading the information on my phone. It read as follows:

POKEMON SPECIES: Pangoro

NICKNAME: unnamed

LEVEL: 33

GENDER: Female

CAUGHT IN: Shenyang, China

IDENTIFICATION NUMBER: 199501

MOVES:

Arm Thrust

Bulldoze

Vital Throw

Karate Chop

CURRENT TRAINER: Marie Guangyu Jones

CAPTURE DATE: 25 January 2017

PREVIOUS TRAINERS: Unknown

Before I could do anything further, like contemplate on the fact that iDex was using my middle name for whatever reason, Seon-hyang pulled me into her arms and held me close to her chest as she began to sob violently, running her hands through my hair.

"M-M-Marie you idiot!" She sniffled, and I looked up at her, and saw that blobby tears were dripping down her face. I felt my adrenaline run out, replaced with surging regret. "You could have died! That beast could have snapped you like a twig, and-and-and! I could have lost you forever…!" I said nothing, because I had no retort to give. She was right, I almost died. I only leaned against her and wrapped my arms around her, as she continued to sob. I heard the scuffling of feet, and I felt two other bodies wrap around me and Seon-hyang. I looked up to see a very scared Yeong-mi and an absolutely frightened Joon-ho. Any words I could've said to the three got caught in my throat, and I merely sat there silently, crushed in the embrace of my three friends. Even through all the shame, I felt warm deep in my heart, and a smile grew on my face. Seon-hyang cared about me enough to risk her own life to save me, even though she could've just watched me die, like she would a few days earlier. I clutched her closer in response to that thought.

I felt myself sigh softly as I grabbed my phone. I thought about releasing the Pangoro into the wild or sending her into the GTS, an internet service dedicated to the transport of pokemon, so that I could get a different pokemon, but something irrational in me disagreed. If I sent her to the GTS, I'd probably get a even less obedient pokemon back, and besides, my dad would be around for the next few days, and could help me gain her trust. So, I found myself tapping the area for a nickname, and typing "Yifei". I clicked the 'confirm' button, and listened to the two tone bell that signaled that my name choice had been saved to the Worldwide Pokemon Database. I looked for my pokemon, the best I could without having my vision blocked by Seon-hyang's arms or chest. Jessica was desperately trying to snuggle in between Seon-hyang and me, Nina was by Yeong-mi and Ggwek-ggwek's side, protecting them silently, and Varaha was…

I shot up to get a clearer view of the pig pokemon, who was surrounded by a bright white light, and the three defectors scrambled to their feet. I watched in wonder and through squinted eyes as Varaha's form shifted and grew taller, about to my knees. Finally, the light dissipated, and I was met with a changed but still similar Varaha, standing upon two legs and a lot rounder and egg shaped, with two short muscular arms. His dark markings seemed to resemble a wrestler's clothes now, the ones on his face resembling a mask and the ones on his belly resembling a singlet with two gold decorations on it. Varaha took a few moments to examine his new form, before breaking into a confident smile and walking towards us. I pulled out my phone again, and let it scan over a smugly grinning Varaha.

"Pignite, the Fire Pig pokemon." iDex stated, and Varaha seemed to nod smugly. "Whatever it eats becomes fuel for the flame in its stomach. When it is angered, the intensity of the flame increases."

"Well." I said, turning to my friends, who were looking at Varaha in awe as he flexed his arms. "I think that's the only one in here. Let's get out of here, just in case there's more."

We scrambled for the exit, not trying to anger any potential pokemon that could be hidden in the shadows of the basement. We practically jumped into the elevator, and I pressed the "4" button, watching as the doors closed on that goddamn room.

I sighed and rested against the walls of the elevator as it rose, and I rolled up my sleeves to check on my arms. The flying skid I had preformed back there had beat up my arms pretty bad, with some of my skin tearing off to reveal patches of raw pink and a few shallow red cuts. I touched one of the pink patches, and grimaced as it stung and throbbed with pain. Seon-hyang, who had never left my side after my misadventure, visibly stiffened at the sight of my beat up arms.

"I did that..." Seon-hyang said softly while looking down, touching my shirt sleeve tentatively. "I… I-I'm sorry Marie."

"Why are you apologizing? You're the one who saved my life!" I laughed, and Seon-hyang looked up at me in confusion. I bent down slightly and softened my voice. "So, thank you."

Seon-hyang's face turned a deep pink, and she looked away with a small grin on her face. I looked over at Joon-ho, who was clutching Ggwek-ggwek close to his chest as it whimpered loudly and kicked its little legs against his chest.

"Doesn't that hurt?" I asked up, and Joon-ho looked up at me in confusion. "His legs?"

"I've been through worse." Joon-ho said with a grin, as he set Ggwek-ggwek on the ground, by Varaha, who grinned down at the curious duck pokemon. "Military training was not very kind to me, and the lack of food made it even more unforgiving." I made a noise that sounded like the air was rushing out of my stomach, through my teeth.

"Well, as you've seen, I'm not exactly… military material." I joked, and spotted Varaha showing off to the duck pokemon, who was clapping rather clumsily. "That Pangoro would've probably snapped me like a twig if Seon-hyang hadn't dived in." Seon-hyang went stiff again at my remarks, and her hand clutched at my upper arm protectively.

"I still can't believe I thought you were a spy the first time we met." Yeong-mi snorted, as Nina looked up at her with curious eyes. "You're too dorky and cute to be a spy."

"I'll take that as a compliment." I said, before the elevator doors opened to a tan hallway with brown spongy carpet. The four of us stepped out, and I lead them to where I thought we were supposed to meet the man, so I could get my payment, and I pulled open a wooden door and went inside.

The room seemed less like an office and more like the living room of a house, with marine green walls and the same brown spongy carpeting as the hallways. There was a massive brown leather couch in the middle, in front of a flat screen TV playing a very loud variety show. Off to the right, there was what appeared to be a kitchen area, not very big, with wooden cabinets and sand colored counters. There was a gas stove, and a over and a white refrigerator, but nothing too extravagant. The man from earlier was sitting on the couch, with a woman, about his age, potentially his wife? She had a more muscular frame than me or any of the girls to be honest, and had bleach blonde hair up to her neck. The two visibly jumped in shock as they heard us approach, and the man stood up.

"Well… I come back successful." I said, juggling Yifei's pokeball cautiously. "She was a big lady, but I managed to catch her."

"Oh, good!" The man said, standing up and walking towards me. "Thank you so much, young woman."

"You're welcome, but, do you… possibly have a first aid kit?" I asked, as I rolled up my sleeves. I watched the man grimace in pain. "I… took a little spill."

"Of course! Come here." The man gestured to a chair by the counters. "And why don't the rest of you make yourselves at home?"

I didn't bother telling him that the three of them couldn't speak of lick of Chinese, but my friends seemed to be trying to fit in, wandering about the room. I sighed and shook my head, as the man went behind a counter, and all I heard was the noises of boxes being moved and crashing together. I decided to focus my attention to the variety show playing behind me to minimize the stress.

"Our next guest has come here all the way from America." The host said, a lanky man with dark shaggy hair around his ears and square glasses. "He's come back to his hometown of Beijing to challenge the new Chinese League! Please welcome, Conor Li!"

Conor looked to be about Joon-ho's age, maybe even a little younger. He wore a casual t-shirt, open black suit jacket, and dark colored jeans. He had his dark hair cut in a spiky style, similar to a typical Korean boy band member, and had a round face with dark smiley eyes as he bowed and shook the hand of the host. He was alright looking, and I was half expecting Addy to text me and tell me about his crush on him. But what made him so special, enough that he could appear on Chinese TV? I, unfortunately, had my attention wrenched away from the TV before I could find out any juicy details, as the man had found the first aid kit. He opened the big plastic bin, and poured what appeared to be peroxide onto a fluffy cotton ball.

"This is going to sting." The man said, reaching for my outstretched arm. Yup, definitely peroxide. I braced myself for the pain, as the man held my arm up and pressed the cotton ball to my arm. For a good 20-30 seconds, all I felt was white hot pain, and I gritted my teeth hard so I wouldn't yowl to the heavens. After the pain had finally subsided, and my arm was getting bandaged, I looked back at the TV.

"So, Conor," The host continued, and the TV panned to a reaction shot of him. "We've all heard the rumor that Marie Jones, the daughter of the famous GPF trainer Thomas Jones, might be coming to China."

I did a double take at the TV. A graphic of a 17 year old me smiling with longer wavy hair up to my chest and a white t shirt, probably taken from a school picture, popped up on screen.

"I've heard that as well." Conor responded with a smile. I was so engrossed that I didn't notice that I was getting my other arm treated until I felt the sting of peroxide.

"If she is indeed coming, do you think the two of you could potentially be rivals?"

"I'm honestly looking forward to battling her, if she is coming." He continued. "Her family is practically considered a dynasty back in the States. Battling her would be incredible."

A dynasty? I thought about that for a minute. There's my dad, of course, my uncle was a gym leader in Boston for a while before life intervened, my aunt was a college professor, my other aunt was a gymnastics coach, my uncle Rich did… something, my cousin was traveling America on his journey as part of his gap year, and my grand uncle had been a gym leader in Toronto for decades. Other than my father, uncle, and grand uncle, I wasn't really born into a dynasty, at least one that I knew of. I shrugged it off, maybe they were just being dramatic.

"I think they'll be more than rivals." Another guest on the show teased, a young woman who was either an actress or a singer, and the scene cut to Conor laughing with a blush effect added on his cheeks. I rolled my eyes so hard it hurt.

After my arms were properly cared for and I got bored of the TV show, I got up and scanned the room. Yeong-mi and Seon-hyang were lounging on the couch, watching the show, Jessica dead asleep on Seon-hyang's lap. However, I couldn't find the woman or Joon-ho, which caused a pang of fear to overcome me.

"Hey, where's Joon-ho?" I whispered to Yeong-mi. I didn't notice the man had walked over, and was listening to my conversation.

"Oh, he and that lady went off somewhere." Yeong-mi, and I felt another pang of anxiety come over me.

"Where exactly?" I asked, trying to keep my tone leveled. Yeong-mi shrugged, and I swallowed my anger. I was about to say something, before the man interrupted me.

"I know where they are." The man said in perfect Korean, with the northern accent. "Follow me." I swung my head towards him and felt my eyes widen.

"You're…!" I managed to say, before the man interrupted.

"A defector. Yeah." He said sharply. "My personal history doesn't matter right now, follow me."

I shut my mouth, and the three of us followed the man out of the door towards the left. We walked in awkward silence through a similar looking hallway, brown carpet, light tan walls, with wooden doors on either side. It took a few minutes for anyone to start talking.

"Where are you three from?" The man asked.

"Pyongyang." Yeong-mi answered, a smile on her face.

"Mmm.." The man muttered thoughtfully, putting hand over his lips. "Odd."

"Odd?" Yeong-mi asked, cocking her head.

"Core class members usually don't defect." He said, rubbing his face. "Were you living at the Shenyang consulate?"

"No… my parents live in the Beijing embassy, but I stayed in Pyongyang." Yeong-mi said, a nervous smile on her face, and I felt my eyes widen again at this new information. "I had a job, so I didn't need to go abroad."

"Why'd you leave, then?"

"My cousin was defecting already." Yeong-mi explained. "He told me that I could be executed in his place."

"So the other kid is your cousin, I assume?"

"Yeah." Yeong-mi smiled. "He left the military, because he wants to be a trainer, so our families can have a good life."

"I see, I see." The man said softly, before turning to me. "And you?"

I explained my story to him, watching his face carefully. He didn't appear to be eyeing me suspiciously or taking my story as a joke, so that seemed good.

"Hm." He replied, after my story was done. "If you were anyone else, I wouldn't believe you."

"But..?" I said with a tilt of my head, still a little anxious.

"But you look like you've been traveling through North Korea for 7 days." He said, a thin smile on his face. Before I could make a smart reply to that, the man stopped in front of a door, and moved closer to listen. After a second, he turned to face us, expression unchanged.

"They're in here." He said, opening the door slightly. The three of us clamored in, before the man slipped in, closing the door behind him.

The room was much smaller than the others, with white walls and dark wood flooring. Joon-ho was sat a desk, with the woman by his side watching with a wide smile. Joon-ho was at a laptop, and from what I could see, he was connected to some sort of video call. He turned his head towards us as we entered, and beamed. He gestured for me to walk forward, so I did.

"Mom, mom, mom." Joon-ho said, pulling me gently towards the laptop, and I felt my heart rise at Joon-ho's words. I looked at the screen, and was faced with a woman, Joon-ho's mother, who was about 50 years old or so, with dark hair tied in a bun behind her head, a hard square face and serious eyes like her son. She appeared to be in a white walled room, and I could see no one else in the room, and she was wearing a white t shirt with a cartoony design. Her eyes were wet, and she was frequently sniffling and rubbing her eyes. "This is the girl who led me out of North Korea!"

"Hello." I said, and bowed the best I could while kneeling on the floor. "It's nice to meet you, ma'am."

"You're the girl who saved my son?" She asked. "Marie?" I nodded in response.

"I don't - I don't know how I can thank you…" She said, wiping away tears that were beginning to form at the corners of her eyes. "We were so worried about how he was doing in the army, if he was dead because we defected. I could barely sleep!"

"You're welcome." I smiled warmly, and Joon-ho put his hand on my shoulder.

"Are you a defector as well?" Joon-ho's mom asked, and I shook my head. "Chinese, then?"

"My mom is. I was born in Canada."

"I see. Well, if all Canadians are as nice as you, we might as well move there!" Joon-ho's mother laughed heartily, and I laughed as well. "Joon-ho, did you see Yeong-mi before you left?"

On cue Yeong-mi walked over to us, a grin on her face as she sat down.

"Hiya auntie!" Yeong-mi waved at the computer, and soon all 3 of them were chattering about something that I couldn't follow. I glanced over to Seon-hyang, who was sitting against a wall, alone and looking mildly upset, very interested in glaring at the potted plant in the corner. I beckoned her over, and watched as she sat down besides me.

Seon-hyang gave me a sad smile, before intertwining her hand with mine. Her hand felt soft and delicate, and even though we had held hands and interacted physically so many times before, I felt like I had just held her hand for the first time. I ran my thumb across the palm of her hand lightly, reveling in the feeling of her hand clasped in mine. Seon-hyang was looking down at our hands smiling softly, calmly, like she was watching something she liked. She idly twirled ad untwirled a few strands of her dark hair around her index finger, almost nervously. I don't know why everything felt so special in that moment, but I felt myself fixate on nothing but her, how she felt so alive and so real.

"...Marie?" Yeong-mi asked, and I snapped out of my trance with a shake of my head. "Are you alright?"

 

[roule]

"Yup, yup yup yup." I said quickly, I rubbed my eyes tiredly, then stood up, leading Seon-hyang up with me. "If that's all, let's head back to the train station."

"How are you going to get there?" The man asked, an incredulous look on his face. "It's halfway across Shenyang from here."

"We'll walk." I shrugged.

"No, you're not walking." He said sternly, the hard look back on his face. "I'm driving you there."

"Alright." I said, and that was that.

I found myself several minutes later in the back seat of a dark car, most of my pokemon packed away, driven by a stranger I barely knew, and holding onto a squirming Jessica and a bundle of yuan, the former of which was desperately trying to climb all over me and the light grey cushions to look out the window. I could almost hear my parents screaming. Yeong-mi sat beside me, arms crossed and looking extremely bored, staring forwards. Seon-hyang was playing with her nails, squished between Yeong-mi and Joon-ho, who was dead asleep, face pressed to the window. Ggwek-ggwek was just sitting in his arms, looking as bored as possible.

"So…" I said, as I tried to stop Jessica from climbing on my face, getting a foot to the face in the process. "What is it that you and that lady… do?"

"Oh, we house defectors on our free time, and try to get them to South Korea." The man said, rather nonchalantly for someone who was probably saving lives.

"So that's why you know Joon-ho's mom!" I realized, as Jessica whined loudly and pouted. "I get it now!"

"Yep." He said, and the conversation died a quick death after that.

The rest of the car ride to the station was completely silent, and Jessica had to slap my already injured right arm to stop me from dozing off. Yeong-mi went down relatively early, body bowled over and loudly snoring. Seon-hyang was visibly fighting sleep, I'd see her with her eyes closed for a few seconds, before she would abruptly snap awake with a snort, eyes darting around. Joon-ho did not wake up at all, even when a car behind us blared its horn, snapping all the others awake and causing Jessica to squeal uncontrollably until I calmed her down.

After what seemed like forever, I saw the distinctive white round shaped building of the Shenyang train station. It had begun to snow again as the car stopped in the parking lot, little fat flurries in the air amongst the dark sky, which was odd for 11am. Seon-hyang shook the Lees awake, Yeong-mi waking up much easier than Joon-ho, who took a few shoves to the arm. We piled out of the car, and I turned to the man, who had rolled down the drivers window.

"Thank you for driving us here!" I said in Chinese, aware of the potential for others to hear us.

"Oh, it's nothing." He replied, a real smile on his face. "I needed to pick my daughter up from school, anyways."

"Have a nice trip!" He shouted as he pulled out of the parking lot, and all of us, even Jessica, waved at him until his car disappeared into the horizon.

"Well that was nice, I guess." I said, as we began to walk across the parking lot. Jessica was looking around in my arms, making a soft humming noise.

"Oh, right." I said, and turned to Joon-ho. "Did the lady tell you where your parents are now?"

"Mom said they flew to South Korea." Joon-ho said, a wide smile on his face. "The government does some sort of rehabilitation program for defectors who end up there, 'cause it's so different outside of North Korea."

"That's great!" I exclaimed, and Jessica made a happy squeal as well. "It's really good that they're safe, yknow? I didn't want you to have to like worry about them, and beat yourself up about it."

"I'm glad too." He said, before rummaging through his pockets, the best he could with Ggwek-Ggwek asleep in his arms. "The lady at the building gave me the number of the program, so we could call each other." I gave him a thumbs up as he managed to hand me the crumpled piece of yellow paper with the digits, which I copied into my phone.

We made our way towards the wide entrance doors, after me and Joon-ho retrieved out pokemon, and into the interior of the train station. After I took a brief detour to buy us our tickets to Beijing, which was coming in about 15 minutes, I went to one of the side rooms, followed by my three friends, who were looking around them in awe and confusion.

"What are you looking for, Marie?" Seon-hyang asked.

"There should be a device for me to heal my pokemon some… Oh!" I said, before I turned and was faced with a large grey device that reached about to my hip, almost resembling a table, but with little circular notches on the surface, which had a light blue glow to it. I quickly slung my bag onto my shoulder, and unloaded my 4 pokeballs, and placed them on the device, garnering a small mechanical chime. I waited a few seconds as the machine roared to life, before a loud 'ding' alerted me that my pokemon were healed. I scooped my pokeballs up, and put them in my bag.

We walked over to the main lobby, and not one second after we sat down, surrounded by other passengers, did the bell ring alerting us to the incoming train. I groaned and got up, and we marched towards the platform, as the incoming train screeched to a halt. All of us boarded, and I beelined to the corner of the car that had the least amount of people, and thankfully, we had enough seats for all of us to sit together. Almost instantly, Joon-ho and Seon-hyang fell asleep, and Yeong-mi and I were the only ones awake in the cabin. I looked over at her, and saw that she was reading a book titled "Kim Jong-Il on Songun Policy".

"What's with the book choice?" I asked, and Yeong-mi looked up at me.

"It's either this, or a stamp catalogue from 2010." Yeong-mi said, frowning slightly. "Do you have anything different?"

"I, uh, have…" I said, digging through my bag for books. "Uh… 'The Handmaiden's Tale' by Margaret Atwood." I held it out to her, and she just blinked in response.

"It's in English." She deadpanned.

"Oh, right." I laughed awkwardly, putting it back. "Forgot for a second."

"Mmm." Yeong-mi said, and we fell silent for a few minutes. I looked out the window, admiring the wintery Chinese countryside, full of villages and farmland.

"Marie." Yeong-mi asked suddenly, jolting me back to awareness.

"Mmm?"

"What do Canadians think of North Korea?" Yeong-mi said, turning to me and looking at me expectantly. I felt my throat go dry at her question. I didn't want to break it to her that North Korea, in both Canada and America, was considered a joke, with movies and books dedicated to how stupid they were. I swallowed hard.

"Well, what do you think they think of North Korea?" I asked.

"I think they are afraid of North Korea." Yeong-mi said with some amount of pride. "Because we won the Motherland Liberation War, and have all these weapons now, like the A bomb."

I took a deep breath in. I thought it would be better to break it to her kindly, rather than have some ******* make a 'North Korea Best Korea' joke in front of her.

"Well, in Canada… North Korea's kind of a joke." I said shakily.

"Excuse me?" Yeong-mi asked, sort of offended.

"A lot of people don't take North Korea very seriously." I continued, and Yeong-mi looked more confused and depressed than actually angry. "Because the system you grew up in is very weird and wrong compared to America and Canada."

"Really?" Yeong-mi asked sadly.

"Mhm." I said, laying a hand on her shoulder. Yeong-mi just stared at the book sadly, unmoving.

"Give me an example of what people think of North Korea." Yeong-mi demanded suddenly, looking up at me with determination in her eyes.

"Well…" I said nervously, taking out my phone, and flipping through it. "There's this American movie called 'The Interview', let me see if there's a version of the trailer with Korean subtitles."

After a few minutes of searching, I managed to find it, and we began to watch. I had already seen the movie after being roped into it by a couple of friends from high school, and didn't laugh the entire time it was on, so I mainly watched Yeong-mi's expression. She was already pretty upset, her brow furrowed and her lips pursed. But as the first mentions of North Korea and Kim Jong-Un as punchlines came trickling in, she began to look sadder and sadder, and she shook her head and said "no" softly. As the first shots of Pyongyang showed up, with the women in hanboks dancing and James Franco giving his dumb speech, Yeong-mi's face scrunched up, almost if she was about to cry. She stayed strong until the actor playing Kim Jong-un showed up with a gaggle of half naked women, and then she broke down into silent sobs muffled by her hands. I shut the trailer off and scooped her up into my arms and held her for a few minutes as she let it all out of her system.

"I shouldn't have shown you that." I said softly. "I'm sorry."

"No." Yeong-mi said, muffled by my shirt. "I-I asked, it's my fault."

"If it makes you feel any better, I thought the movie was stupid." I said, and I got a hollow laugh in response. "And I didn't laugh at all."

"I worked my whole life to please the Marshal." Yeong-mi whimpered. "And now it's all a joke…"

"It's not your fault that you were born into that society." I said, rubbing her back softly. "Pleasing Kim Jong-un was all you knew how to do, back there."

Yeong-mi's breathing began to stabilize, and she disconnected herself from my arms, looking at me with puffy red eyes and a sad smile. She rubbed at her face, and sniffled softly.

"Sorry for crying all over your shirt." Yeong-mi said, and I waved it off.

"I can wash it at the hotel." I said with a smile. "And besides, I'm sure that you'll be fine out in Canada. Music learning is probably the same as it is in North Korea, and Joon-ho told me you're really talented."

"He told you that?" Yeong-mi smiled bashfully. "Geez, that dummy… I like acting better..."

We stayed silent for another few moments. Yeong-mi had given up on her book, probably due to the disillusionment she had just experienced, and was just staring at the seats in front of her. I shifted in my seat, and looked out the window at the countryside again.

"Marie?" Yeong-mi asked, and I looked up again.

"Mmm?" I asked, looking at her with a tinge of worry. I didn't want to upset her again.

"What are your parents like?" Yeong-mi asked, a smile on her face. I felt a sense of relief at this question, nothing that could hurt her feelings.

"Oh, my mom's about my height and build but more muscular, with tanner skin and longer hair. She has a sort of oval shaped face, and eyes like mine." I smiled softly, and Yeong-mi leaned in, very interested. "My dad says I have her looks, he's a bit shorter than my mom and me and a little more chubby, with short brown hair, a square face, and green eyes."

"Oh, I see." Yeong-mi nodded. "How'd they meet?"

"My dad was on a pokemon journey across America, and my mom was a professional gymnast." I explained, and I watched Yeong-mi's eyes go wide. "My dad happened to wander in on one of her performances, and he was impressed enough that he stayed behind to talk to her, and that was history."

"Woah…" Yeong-mi said, a smile crossing her face. "My parents met in college, that's all for me. My mother was training to be a nurse, and my dad was training to be a diplomat." I laughed.

"Have they told you anything about Beijing?" I asked, and Yeong-mi looked thoughtful.

"I honestly don't think they've left the embassy." Yeong-mi said thoughtfully, holding her chin with her hand. "They never mentioned anything about Beijing in their letters."

"Oh, I thought you could give me some travel advice." I giggled softly, which garnered a smile from Yeong-mi. "Cause I've never been in this part of China, where my family lives is more to the south."

"Sorry." Yeong-mi smiled sadly, and I shook my head.

"Ehh, it's fine." I said, running a hand through my messy hair. "My mom can be our guide, she's been to Beijing before."

"I always wanted to go, to be honest." Yeong-mi said, looking out the window at the countryside. "Beijing always seemed so far away, and all the books I read were not very specific about China."

"That's odd." I said, rubbing my chin. "I would think that you'd know a lot, with your parents being there and all." Yeong-mi laughed dully.

"Now that I'm here, I want to know more." She mused, putting her hand on her chin. "Everything is weird and new, and I wan- I need to find out why! Do you get it?"

I nodded.

"It's like… that movie… I want to understand why people think like that!" Yeong-mi continued, getting slowly more excited, eyes becoming wide and a smile growing on her face. "I want to see how different people's lives are here, and around the world! How different everything is from North Korea."

Before I could give a proper response, I heard a loud bell come over the loudspeaker, and the gravely voice of the conductor announcing our arrival in Beijing, and I whipped my head too see the grey concrete platform surrounding us. Yeong-mi and I shook the two others awake, and we grabbed our bags and headed out of the train, and made a beeline for the doors when we stepped on the cold platform.

The Beijing train station was massive, curved windowed ceiling towering above us, letting in the light from outside. There were tons of benches and terminals to buy tickets from, and tons and tons of people darting around. What caught my attention the most were the large trees poking up from large grey flower pots. The three defectors stood around, awestruck by the building, and I softly nudged them to get them moving.

"I saw pictures of Beijing." Joon-ho said in amazement as we moved towards the exit, dodging crowds of people. "But I never thought it would be so… big in real life."

"I didn't either, honestly." I said, before stopping at the entrance and turning to Seon-hyang and grabbing my phone and earbuds. "It's going to be pretty loud out there, so I think you'll need these." Seon-hyang smiled at me and put my earbuds in, and I turned the music on.

As I predicted, the street noise and in general, the things happening on the street were pretty intense, with chattering people, horns honking, and loud ads for a nearby store sale on DVDs playing over a loudspeaker. The building towered above us, full of glinting windows and big ads for all sorts of things, and cars dashing past us. I knew that I couldn't just meander my way through Beijing like I did for the last few cities, so I walked over to the curb, and held my hand up, calling for a taxi. After a few minutes of holding my arm up with decreasing strength, I saw a dark vehicle pull up to the curb, and I led the confused North Koreans to the car, and we entered it.

"Could you take us to Four Seasons Beijing?" I asked, and the driver, an older man, nodded in response, and we headed off.

"Marie, what is this?" Yeong-mi asked, a fearful look on her face.

"It's a taxi." I smiled, and Yeong-mi just looked at me in bewilderment.

"A what?" She whispered.

"You pay someone to drive you to your destination." I explained, but Yeong-mi just looked confused.

"Can't you just take a bus?" She asked. "That's what I did in North Korea."

"I don't know when the buses come, or where the stops are." I said. "That's why taxi's are a little bit more reliable, because you can tell them where you are going."

"This is so weird." Yeong-mi huffed, crossing her arms.

We reached our destination in about 20 minutes, give or take a few of course. I paid the fare, and we set off towards the hotel, which was a large, brown modern building that glinted in the brief bits of sunlight. We made our way towards the entrance, with the 3 looking around them in curiosity. The big glass motion sensitive automatic doors were probably the most interesting thing, with Seon-hyang playing with it by sticking her hands out in front of her, and laughing when the doors opened. I saw people from indoors staring at her with a confused expression, so I gently hustled her along.

The lobby was a massive, light colored room, almost yellowish. The floor was covered in a brown rug with a odd design in a darker brown. The reception desk was made of a dark mahogany wood, behind it were receptionists and modern computers, and there were wood paneling on the wall behind it made of the same kind of wood. There were flowers everywhere, on the floor in pots, or on the wooden table in the middle of the room, mostly orange and yellow ones. The three others looked around them in wonder as I walked quickly over to the reception desk.

"I-I have a reservation." I said nervously to the woman behind the desk, about 30 or so years old with her long hair pulled into a tight ponytail. She looked at me with a blank expression. "Jones, Marie?"

"You're 2 days early." The woman said dully, after typing away at her computer for a moment.

"Yes, I understand," I said, with increasing desperation. "B-But I messed up and took a flight early, and I can't go back to my house in Canada until June."

The woman just stared at me, and I tried my best to look like a sad, homeless puppy.

"Well, you're lucky the room's vacant." The lady said, reaching under her drawer and pulling out a room card. "Room 915. Have a nice stay, and tell your friends over there to slow down on those cookies."

I turned to see Joon-ho and Seon-hyang shoving as many chocolate chip cookies as they could into their hands and trying their best to hide it, looking over their shoulders. Yeong-mi was sitting on one of the chairs towards the middle of the room, watching the two with a mildly annoyed expression. I thanked the woman before walking over to them, watching as they tried to shove the cookies into their clothes.

"You should put some of the cookies back." I said lowly, and Seon-hyang pouted at me. "There'll be more of them when we come back down."

"But what if there isn't any, and these are the last cookies we can get?" Joon-ho pleaded, looking very desperate. "And then, it turns out that there's a mass shortage of cookie materials, and we can't get any in China?"

"Then I'll tell my parents to get us cookies from Canada." I said, and Joon-ho relented, putting some back. Seon-hyang soon followed her, and we walked over to the yellow tinted metal elevators, and entered the metal capsule after I pressed the up button.

"Marie," Joon-ho asked as I tapped the floor number in. "Do you think my haircut is weird?"

"No...?" I said, turning to a nervous looking Joon-ho. "Why?"

"Well, Yeong-mi told me she saw a lot of guys with longer hair than mine." Joon-ho muttered, playing with his hands nervously. "I'm worried that we'll be found out."

"Nah, you won't." I said, pulling out my phone. "You look like a certain actor… See? His name is Wu Yifan." I showed him a picture of Yifan, and Joon-ho's face relaxed into a smile.

We walked out of the elevator when it reached the ninth floor, into light colored hallways with brown carpet on the floor. The three others clung to my arms at the sight of other residents, even though they were mostly families and children, and I trudged on despite the weight of my companions. I located our room after some searching, and slid they keycard into a slot on the door, which beeped in response, and pulled the door open.

The room was cream colored, like most of the hotel's walls were. The flooring was of a reddish and vaguely slippery wood, and a light colored rug with a flowery design was placed in the middle of the room. Two twin beds, covered in white covers and mustard colored pillows, sat in the middle of the room. A large leather sofa was at the side of the bed towards the right, with a small table and a vase of flowers to it's left. A flat screen TV sat in the front of the room, and towards the right, a large window showed the sights of the Beijing skyline, mostly blocked by a large skyscraper. Immediately, Seon-hyang dashed towards the window, and looked down at the streets with an amazed expression on her face. Joon-ho walked over to one of the the beds and slammed down on it, exhausted. Yeong-mi just walked over and sat down onto the sofa, lounging with a hand over her eyes. I walked over to one of the free beds, and pulled out a bottle of shampoo from the mess of my bag, and walked over to the bathroom.

I showered for a good hour, trying to get my hair looking decent and removing any of the grime and dirt from North Korea off of my skin. I guess if I was a little bit sentimental, I'd say it was like 'washing a part of my life from my body', but I just wanted to stop feeling like utter garbage from laying the dirt of a deep forest. When I stepped out of the shower, I basked in the feeling of being clean, wiping the foggy mirror until I was visible. Using a brush that was provided by the hotel, I managed to get my hair looking less like a bird's nest. I slipped back into my clothes, blow dried my hair until it was no longer wet, and walked back out into the main room.

All three defectors were sitting on the bed Joon-ho was originally laying on, looking at what appeared to be the TV remote and having a silent discussion. Joon-ho had let Ggwek-Ggwek out, who was busying himself playing with the towel dog the cleaning lady made. The TV was on, blaring the hotel's advertisements in Chinese, so they knew how to turn it on. As I walked over, Joon-ho looked up at me, and got up.

"I don't know how to change channels." Joon-ho said plainly, handing me the remote. I showed him which button to press, and I went to the menu, flipping through the hundreds of channels. Most of it was variety or cheesy dramas, and I continued to flip through it until I spotted a very familiar TV show…

"Oh hey, it's your lucky day." I said to Joon-ho, who smiled eagerly in anticipation "There's a Friends marathon on."

"Wait, really?!" Joon-ho said, grinning from ear to ear. I flipped to the channel, and I heard that familiar theme song start up. Joon-ho ran over to the bed, jittery with excitement and the joy of being able to watch an American TV show without being shot. "Oh my god!"

Thankfully, the channel was an English language channel, so Friends wasn't dubbed, which probably would have ruined the show for me. Unfortunately that meant there were no subtitles at all, so I had to act as a living translator, which ended up being me teaching the three about English innuendos from the 90s. Joon-ho was watching Friends with a concentration surpassed by no mere mortal, watching with a very serious face when there were no jokes. Seon-hyang seemed to be understanding the concept of the show, or at least trying to, laughing whenever the studio audience laughed. Yeong-mi was listening to my translations more eagerly than actually watching the show.

After around the 5th straight episode, about at the scene where Marcel, Ross' Chimchar, was playing the 'Lion Sleeps Tonight' on the CD player, my phone rang.

I clamored over to my bag as I tried to get the phone to stop playing the Cybersix theme song.

"Hello?" I said, body sprawled wide on the bed.

"Hey sweetheart." My mom answered, and I could vaugely make out the noise of people talking in the background. "Are you in Beijing?"

"Yeah, we are!" I said, standing myself up, and brushing my pants off. "We're at our hotel now."

"Well we're- What's going on in the background?" My mom asked, and I looked back at the TV.

"Oh, there's a Friends marathon on." I said, looking at Joon-ho, who was still watching the TV intently, even without translation. "The three really like it."

"Hm.. Well, anyways, the captain just came on the intercom. We're close to Beijing." My mom said, and I blinked in surprise. "It'll be about thirty minutes until we reach the airport."

"Well, we'll get on our way then!" I said, and all three of them looked up. "Love you, bye."

My mom hung up, and I grabbed my pokeballs and a smaller black purse I brought with me from my backpack, putting my phone inside. Joon-ho got up, and picked up Ggwek-Ggwek, who whined and kicked his chest a little.

"Well, that was my mom." I said, slinging my bag onto my shoulder. "The plane reaches Beijing in thirty minutes, so let's go to the airport to meet them."

With that, we took the elevator down to the main floor. I inquired about the distance to the airport, and was told that it was a ways away. I walked outside into the dusk traffic full of all sorts of people, and hailed another taxi, which Yeong-mi still wasn't used to, and huffed about under her breath when we drove. I merely watched the lights of Beijing from my window, basking in the colours and size of everything, after the last city I was in had power for only a few hours of the day.

When we drove up to Beijing International Airport, I was immediately caught off guard by its size. I'd heard it had been expanded after the 2008 Olympics, but I still felt intimidated by the gigantic curved building, the roofs dipping up and down like white waves. We got off at the entrance of airport, and were hustled along by chauffeurs, who directed me to terminal 3, where most international flights got off, as he said.

When we entered, I was immediately hit with the swarms of people wandering about, talking and making noise so loud it became noise. Seon-hyang tugged on my sleeve, and I gave her my phone and earbuds. The roof curved upwards, and it resembled a piece of cloth made of white with red weaved in, and the grey floor spanned out in front of us, and potted plants and little gardens were everywhere. We wandered around terminal 3, until I spotted a McDonalds, the bright yellow sign and promises of fatty burgers enticing me, and also making me very very hungry.

"Let's get dinner!" I said excitedly, and Joon-ho and Yeong-mi nodded in agreement. Seon-hyang looked up at us in confusion, but walked with us.

I explained the items on the menu when all three of them were listening, Seon-hyang pulling her earbuds out. Yeong-mi got two cheeseburgers, Seon-hyang got a single cheeseburger, Joon-ho got a hamburger, and I got a Big Mac and a large fry. Thankfully, the line wasn't that long (it was 5pm anyways), so we were soon sitting down, enjoying our fried food. Joon-ho wolfed his food down like no one's business, and was soon stealing my fries. Yeong-mi ate her food cautiously, very aware of the country of origin. Seon-hyang ate relatively fast, and seemed to enjoy her food, but gawked at my burger. I took one bite of the gigantic burger, and almost burst into tears. I'd missed my processed and very unhealthy foods out in the wilderness, and the taste was almost too much for me. I managed to choke down my tears down and ate slowly, savoring the taste.

"Marie?" Seon-hyang asked, and I looked up at her from my meal.

"Mmm?" I mumbled, my mouth full of burger.

"What's that?" Seon-hyang pointed at a poster in the window. It was of a cartoon of a brown coloured Bewear called 'Rilakkuma', who was celebrating the upcoming Lunar New Year celebrations with a children's set of Chicken McNuggets based on the red envelopes given during the celebrations, only at McDonalds! I snorted a little at the ad.

"Oh, it's a cartoon of a bear." I said between bites of burger. "He's telling people to celebrate Lunar New Year, by buying some McDonald's chicken nuggets."

"What's Lunar New Year?" Seon-hyang asked.

"Uh… it's a holiday where people go see family, give each other gifts, eat a lot of food, and watch fireworks!" I tried my best to explain. Seon-hyang just cocked her head in confusion.

"Huh." She said, and put her earbuds back in, and hummed along to the song playing.

I finished up my meal, ate all the fries that Joon-ho didn't steal from me, and then we were off back to the massive terminal. We wandered around, looking for the lobby for the flight arriving from Vancouver. After I walked us around in practical circles, I finally swallowed my pride and asked someone at an information desk for more information, who obliged, pointing us towards the left of the building.

Thus, I found myself, tired because of the walking around and the burger I ate, laid on Seon-hyang's shoulder, who was petting my head fondly. She ran her fingers through my hair, no longer messy just wavy, and I just smiled softly. Joon-ho and Yeong-mi were just sitting there, Joon-ho holding Ggwek-ggwek close to his chest with a fearful expression because of someone's tan Persian walking about, coming dangerously close to our bench. I let Jessica out, who just laid on Seon-hyang's lap, patting my head softly. I felt myself start to fall asleep, and this time I let it happen. I needed the sleep, I'd been running for my life the past 8 days, was it so wrong that I needed a little break? The hotel talked about having a sauna on one of the floors, maybe I'll go when I get back. Clear my pores. Remove some of that built up stress from running for my ****ing life. Maybe'll convince Seon-hyang to come with, both of us could have som-

"THE FLIGHT FROM VANCOUVER IS INCOMING" The announcer practically screamed, and I snorted awake, and looked around rapidly. Jessica and Seon-hyang were shocked by my sudden jerk to awareness, with Jessica trying lay me back down with her claws.

"They're here." I whispered, and all three of the got up, and Seon-hyang grabbed a happily squealing Jessica.

I followed the crowd of people to the gates, trying to act as natural as possible. I watched as the plane touched down, passing by the giant windows towards the left. It took 15 minutes of anxiously waiting with fear and anticipation sprouting in my stomach, for the first few people to start showing up. I craned my neck as people started pouring out of the gates, and after another 4 minutes, I managed to spot my very drowsy father, clutching his pillow, and my mother. My father was wearing a white t-shirt with a dark hoodie and blue jeans, tugging along a large suitcase. My mother was wearing a red button up dress shirt, brown military-style jacket, dark pants, and a leather hand bag. Her hair was in a tight ponytail, and she was wearing some eye and lip makeup.

I ran to my parents, the three defectors in pursuit, and I flung myself into my mother's arms, hearing Jessica squeal louder, and my mother mutter to herself. She wrapped her arms around me right, and ran a hand through my hair, whispering comforting things to me. I felt my stomach drop, and I was overcame with my emotions of sadness and fear that I bottled up deep inside me during North Korea, as I tried to lead the defectors and make them believe that I wasn't a scared little girl. My eyes welled up with tears.

I burst into hysteric sobbing, and once more, I cried into my mother's shirt like I would as a child.

 

[roule]

Chapter 10

dawn is coming, what's this coming to?


After I was done crying my eyes out, I removed myself from my mother's arms in a exhausted daze. Everything felt slow and hazy, and I rubbed at my eyes softly with the heel of my hands. My father pulled me into a deep hug as well, and whacked my back so hard I coughed loudly.

"I'm glad you're safe.." My dad said, holding me to his chest. I rested against him softly, sniffling softly. After a minute, I seperated from my dad's embrace, and watched as Joon-ho walked over to him, a wide grin on his face.

"Hello, sir!" Joon-ho said in English, albeit in a very stilted manner. "It is a honor to meet you. I am Lee Joon-ho!" He held his hand out, and my dad shook it vigorously.

"It's a honor to meet you too!" My dad exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear. Joon-ho laughed, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. "Thank you for saving my daughter, back there."

"You're welcome, sir." Joon-ho beamed back out of pride, practically vibrating with excitement.

I watched as Jessica toddled past me, until she stopped in front of my father. I glanced over at Seon-hyang, to see her maneuvering past groups of people trying to get to her with a worried expression.

"Jessica!" My dad exclaimed, and Jessica squealed loudly before babbling excitedly. "How are you?" Jessica grinned, and continued to babble loudly. My dad pretended to have a conversation with her, like he had done since I was small, and I looked awkwardly around the room for anyone staring at us.

Seon-hyang reached us, before freezing in front of my parents. She looked at them with a terrified expression, before slowly receding behind me, hands clutching my arm so hard they almost hurt. I reached over and rubbed her fingers lightly

"Oh, is this one of the girls?" My dad said, the smile still on his face. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Yeong-mi bowing in front of my mother, smiling softly.

"Yeah." I said, turning to Seon-hyang, who just cowered further down. "She takes a while to warm up to." Jessica grinned and walked over to Seon-hyang, and tugged at her pants. The defector scooped Jessica up in her arms, who giggled loudly. My father gaped in surprise, before my mother walked over to us, with Yeong-mi tagging behind.

"Alright, now that we're all acquainted…" My mom said, looking over all of us. Seon-hyang peeked her head out shyly. "We're going to gather our luggage and head back to the hotel."

The four of us young adults followed my parents to the luggage claim, the massive conveyor belt hypnotizing the two former musicians. While my parents fetched a large dark green suitcase and a black duffle bag, Joon-ho helping them hold some of the bags, Seon-hyang and Yeong-mi sat in front of the rotating oval, watching other people's bags go by. I stood over them, looking around to see people staring at us with befuddled expressions. I smiled nervously, and waved, trying to distract the people staring. After I watched Jessica attempt to climb onto the rotating belt by reaching her paws over, I decided that the two should stand up, and I gently tapped their shoulders with my finger. The two got up, and we headed towards the exit, my dad cradling Ggwek-ggwek in his arms, who was fast asleep.

"So…" My dad said quietly, as we walked through crowds of tourists and families. "How was Pyongyang?"

"Eh." I gestured the best I could with Seon-hyang's hand on my arm, and Joon-ho snorted loudly. "It's very grey and very bleak there. Everything was so mechanical and… I don't know, it just skeeved me out. The power went off every night very suddenly, and the food was bad."

"It was military food, though." Joon-ho interjected, and my parents turned to me, looking at us in concern. "Military food is always bad."

"Military food?" My mother asked, her voice in a higher and wavering tone.

"I had a brief stay in a military base." I said somewhat nervously, rubbing the back of my neck. "It wasn't like I was captured though, Joon-ho just hid me in a closet there for a day."

"Oh." My mother said, face relaxing slightly. "So they didn't hurt you." I nodded as we walked out of the windowed doors, into the dark Beijing night, lit up by the buildings and streetlights. The three defectors stared at the multicolored lights surrounding them with awe and wonder etched on their faces. As my dad called a taxi, Yeong-mi and Joon-ho huddled around my mother, a wide smile on Joon-ho's face as he turned in circles, looking around him.

"It's pretty." Seon-hyang sighed, almost if it was to herself. "So pretty." I smiled and looked over at her, which garnered a soft shy smile in return.

We managed to fit all 6 of us into the taxi, my mother in the front seat, and the rest of us squished together and Jessica returned to her pokeball. I could barely breathe, let alone move, and Seon-hyang was crushed to my side, looking very uncomfortable. None of us spoke for the entire ride, just sat there, staring dead ahead as the radio blared a catchy C-Pop song I couldn't identify.

Soon, our taxi dropped us off at the hotel, and my parents headed up to their rooms to drop their bags off. My mother told us, while hauling large bags, to wait for them at the cafe inside the hotel, and we'd talk more there. The cafe in question was a light color, like most of the building was, with dark grey plush chairs. The chairs were placed in front of large granite tables, with plates and the usual finery on them, but with blue vases. I found a table that could seat all of us without having to steal some chairs, and I sat down. I ended up ordering a coffee drink with a scoop of ice cream in it, and Seon-hyang ordered chocolate ice cream.

Seon-hyang's ice cream had just arrived, when my parents arrived, taking the seats beside me. Seon-hyang was too busy shoveling her ice cream down her gullet to really care or cower away, and the Lees smiled and waved at them.

"Is the food good here?" My mom asked, glancing at the men with an odd expression.

"Currently, I'm not the best judge of that." I joked, a crooked grin on my face. "Anything tastes fantastic to me right now." My dad snorted softly, looking intently at the menu.

My parents ordered their dinner, chilled noodles for my mom and pork dumplings for my dad. Seon-hyang had stopped eating, and was holding her head and wincing in pain. I quickly realized what had happened.

"Seon-hyang." I said, getting her attention. She looked up at me, pain still etched on her features. I pushed my thumb up against the roof of my mouth, and Seon-hyang mimicked me. I watched the pain sap from her face, and she thanked me almost silently.

"I'm guessing that that was a certain someone's first ice cream headache?" My dad joked, nudging my ribs lightly. I laughed softly and nodded, and Seon-hyang stared at us with a confused expression, before shrugging and continuing with her ice cream..

"Joon-ho." My dad said, and Joon-ho jolted to attention with a surprised expression, and a squirming Ggwek-ggwek in his arms. "Did you catch that Magby yourself?"

"Yessir." Joon-ho smiled, and my dad made a small noise in amazement. "Marie helped."

"I provided the pokeball." I added with a smile, and my dad looked at me with pride in his eyes. "He did most of the work, though!"

"I remember when I taught this little girl to catch pokemon…" My dad grinned, rubbing my head affectionately, and I giggled loudly. "Now she's teaching other people to catch pokemon!"

"Speaking of pokemon…" My mother said, and I turned to face her. "How are yours doing?"

"Varaha evolved, Nina is doing alright, Jessica is Jessica." I said, holding my head up with my hand. "I caught a Pangoro in Shenyang, but she doesn't trust me yet." Their dinner arrived soon after I finished talking, and we fell into another silence, as I finished my drink and looked out into the bright lights of the city.

"Well, Marie." My dad said, finishing up his dumplings, and grabbing a messenger bag he brought down with him. "If you've eaten already, I'm going to head outside and feed my pokemon. Care to join me?"

"Yeah!" I smiled, grabbing my purse and standing up abruptly. Joon-ho quickly followed me, an excited grin on his face.

"We'll be right back!" My dad shouted as we walked away from the lounge. My mother waved in response.

My dad led us through the streets of Beijing, and we darted into a large and mostly vacant park, lit up only by the occasional grey street lamp. My father stopped in his tracks by a large pond, and shuffled through his pockets, grabbing 6 pokeballs, gleaming in the street light. He released them one by one.

Herman came first, wagging his dark shaggy tail and whining loudly. His Emboar came next, snorting loudly and shaking his head, trying not to fling flames everywhere. Meyli, my father's sylveon jumped out of her ball and onto the grass, idly scratching her head with her ribbons once she landed. Her expression brightened when she saw me, and she dashed over to me, embracing me with her ribbons as I bent down. My dad then released Alexandre, his kingdra, into the pond with a splash. Alexandre was only a mere inch shorter than me, and he simply looked at my dad in anticipation. Next out was Amelia, his froslass, who floated towards Joon-ho with curious eyes, who was slowly backing away with a shocked expression. Finally, his heliolisk, Skitter jumped out, and ran wide circles around my dad excitedly.

"Alllright!" My dad shouted, clapping his hands together. All of his pokemon looked up at him as he grabbed some pokepuffs from his bag, a French treat that reached Canada when it was settled. He handed them out to each of them, and after he fed all of them, he looked up at me expectantly. I took a deep breath in, and dug in my bag for my pokeballs.

I let out Nina, Jessica, and Varaha first, and bent down to feed them individually. Varaha made an instant bee-line for his father with a grin on his face, and showed off in front of him. Emboar snorted approvingly, and laid a hand on Varaha's head. I took a deep breath in, and with shaky hands, I let Yifei out of her pokeball. Yifei stood silently after I released her, just looking at me with narrowed eyes.

"H-Hey Yifei…!" I stuttered, grabbing a pokepuff from my dad's bag and holding it out in front of me. "Got ya some… food?" Yifei only scowled at me, but grudgingly lifted her arm up and plucked the pokepuff from my open palm. She picked it up gingerly, like it was swarming with insects, and sniffed at it. She plopped it into her mouth, but didn't change her expression, just stared angrily at me. Eventually after several minutes of awkward silence, I just ended up retrieving her and the rest of my pokemon. My dad followed suit, and we headed back to the hotel in silence.

We walked over to the lounge to find Yeong-mi and my mom chatting in gestures and elementary level Korean learned at her job as a aerobics teacher in Koreatown, both grinning and laughing. Seon-hyang looked very out of place, looking at the two sadly. She perked up when she saw me walk in, and I sat down in front of her.

"The Pangoro didn't hurt you?" Seon-hyang said softly, and I nodded. Seon-hyang sighed in relief and wiped her face.

After a few more minutes of chatting about mostly inane stuff, like the weather back home (sunny and actually warm for once!) or how people were doing at home. Eventually, my parents decided to try and sleep off their jet lag, and the four of us ended up walking upstairs to our room with nothing else to really do. After an intense round of rock-paper-scissors, Yeong-mi and Joon-ho got the beds for tonight, and Seon-hyang and I were relegated to the couch.

An hour passed us by, and Seon-hyang and I were the only ones still awake, lying on the couch, which proved uncomfortable for two adults to lie on. Seon-hyang's front was pressed against my back, which my brain loved to remind me about every 12 seconds with a sudden rush of blood to my face. From what I could see, the Lees were dead asleep, Joon-ho was lying on his back, and Yeong-mi was on her side, arms covering her face. I'd changed the TV from the Friends marathon to an American news agency to distract me from my hormones, which was discussing the North Korean crisis I had accidentally caused.

While all four of us were in Shenyang, South Korean officials raided several clubs and brothels in the Itaewon district of Seoul, where US military and expats hung out the most. As expected, the officials found no traces of any trafficked North Korean musicians in the south, and closed their investigation and accused Pyongyang of lying about the girl's 'kidnapping'. The acting South Korean president released a statement accusing Pyongyang of making the whole thing up to ruin South Korean-US relations. Basically, it was a huge mess, and I felt disgusting for creating it. I groaned and rubbed my face hard, trying to ignore the growing nausea forming in the pit of my stomach.

"Marie?" Seon-hyang whispered, grasping one of my hands when I removed them from my face. "What's wrong?" I turned to face her concerned expression, and I swallowed my bile down.

"I've created a huge mess…" I muttered, looking down at her bare feet in attempt to not feel worse and burst into tears again. "I-I just… I just wanted to go home, and now I've created a diplomatic nightmare… It's all my fault." Seon-hyang pulled me into her arms, and I found myself weakly and silently crying.

"It's not your fault." Seon-hyang said softly, gently petting my hair. I buried my face into her shoulder and tried to stop myself from crying. "Everything will turn out alright, ok? In a few months they'll be talking about how wonderful you are, and how wrong they were before."

I said nothing, just laying in her arms weakly as she cooed to me softly. I probably should've separated from her to minimize future awkwardness, but her embrace was just so warm and comforting that I stayed in her arms as I breathed softly in and out. Seon-hyang rubbed my upper back softly, tracing her finger up and down my spine, and I shivered even though there was a t-shirt covering my back. The lights from the TV and from outdoors shone on her skin, dashes of oranges and yellows highlighting her face and skin in such a pretty way that I couldn't look away. I was enraptured by her beauty until I heard music coming from the TV, and I looked over at it.

They were playing a clip of Moranbong, with their white military uniforms and instruments against a screen displaying a video of Kim Jong-un waving and directing Party officials by his side. All of them either had plastered on smiles that didn't reach their eyes, or serious expressions. I'd seen this scene before, but this time I noticed something I had overlooked before. All of the girls had the same short haircut that never went past their chin, the same general height, the same white uniform with no quirks to make them different, and the same thin body type. They were all supposed to be the same, nothing individual or different about them. I felt sick at the sight, and clung to Seon-hyang tighter, like a koala. At least here, she was an individual and not a singing, dancing State manufactured drone, ultimately replaceable when her use for the Party was over.

"Oh, Marie…" Seon-hyang sighed softly, running her hands through my hair, before moving down towards my arm, the sleeve rolled up, stroking it around my bandages. Bizarrely, this felt very intimate, almost if this was going to escalate further. I felt blood flush to my face (and elsewhere) as she moved to my fingers, petting them all individually. I grasped her hand gently but firmly before she could continue to get me worked up. I stared into her eyes, as she stared at me in awe, eyes wide mouth slightly agape, almost as if something important was happening on my face. We stayed like that for minutes, almost feeling like hours, just staring at each other in silence. The tension amongst us seemed almost physical, almost tangible enough that I could feel it, and it was moving us closer together. Closer. Closer. Clo-

"It feels weird." Seon-hyang whispered lowly, almost to herself, and I snapped out of my head to look at her. I only heard her because there was barely a gap between us, noses almost touching.

"What feels weird?" I responded softly, aware of Seon-hyang's knitted eyebrows.

"In books I read…" Seon-hyang said, rubbing my thumb absent-mindedly and stirring up my boiling hot insides again. "When people leave North Korea, they always miss the Marshal. They yearn for him, and eventually come back. But… I don't miss him."

"You don't?" I breathed softly.

"No." Seon-hyang said softly, looking confused, eyebrows furrowed and frowning. "I… don't."

"Do you feel bad about it?" I asked, feeling my face contort in concern.

"...I don't." Seon-hyang breathed, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear. "I don't."

"That's okay." I said softly, trying to sound comforting. Seon-hyang didn't respond, just moved so she was in my arms, and I held her tight. Her body was pressed up against mine again, and I tried to concentrate on the ceiling than on how she felt against me, and the fact that she was still wearing my clothes, which was working me up more than actually having her close to me. She didn't cry, just held me until I felt her breathing soften as she fell asleep. After another minute or two, I followed her into unconsciousness.

That night I dreamed that Seon-hyang and I were dancing together at a large and dark club somewhere in Canada blasting loud music, only light up by occasional flashes of purple lights from the ceiling. The woman was wearing a strapless red dress with a golden bracelet on her wrist and red stiletto heels. Her hair was longer than usual, now reaching straight to her lower neck, but with the same side-swept bangs. Seon-hyang had wrapped her arms around me, and was pushed close to me by the other people in the club dancing around us, their faces dark and undecipherable. Seon-hyang grinned at me, and said something to me drowned out by the music.

"What?" I shouted over the music, hopefully being heard. My head felt like it was swimming, the loud music ringing in my ears painfully. Seon-hyang just laughed to herself, a soft gentle laugh, and said something else drowned out by the music, still smiling. As she talked, she tucked her hair behind her ear with one of her fingers.

I was about to ask her to speak up, but I felt myself flush a painful red as her smile became almost predatory, hooded dark eyes fixed on my lips. She drew me closer with her arms, and I leaned close to her and…

My eyes snapped open, only to be instantly blinded by the sun coming through the window. I squealed softly, covering my eyes from the burning ball in the sky. Suddenly, I felt a pair of arms crush me close to someone, and I looked to see a sleeping Seon-hyang, still holding me close to her chest. I managed to slither out of her arms without waking her up, and I entered the bathroom slowly, trying to avoid any creaking noises.

 

[roule]

I took a hot shower for what felt like an hour, trying to avoid thinking about the dream I had last night. However, it seemed to creep back in my mind when I wanted it to leave, and I found myself thinking about how close I was to kissing her. I was conflicted about how I felt about it, if I had kissed her in my dream it would’ve been awkward to face her in the morning, but I still craved her soft li-

I covered my head with my hands and dug the heels of my hands into my cheeks. I wasn’t going to think that about Seon-hyang. She’s my friend and we’ve only gotten along so recently, how would she react if I suddenly came on to her like that? I supressed my thoughts about romancing Seon-hyang, shook my head and turned the water off. I stepped out of the shower, and toweled off.

“I love Beijing Tiananmen...” I sang in Chinese to myself as I brushed my hair and put my dark lacy underwear on. “The sun rises above Tiananmen...”

“Greatest Leader Ma-,” I sang as I plugged in the hair dryer. My song was abruptly cut off by the bathroom door slamming open. I turned to the door, and I was faced with Seon-hyang, who flushed bright red and widened her eyes as she saw what I was wearing, which caused me to swallow thickly.

“Ah!” Seon-hyang shouted suddenly after a minute of staring at me, covering her eyes and slamming the door shut. I only stared at the door for a few silent moments, hand hovering over the hair dryer, shock and embarrassment drowning any other emotions. I quickly blow dried my hair, and put on my clothes. Stepping outside of the bathroom, I saw Seon-hyang laying on the bed, still covering her face with her hands. I sat down on the edge of the bed, crossing my legs. Seon-hyang looked up at me, face still a pink colour, and a sad look on her face.

“A-Are you mad?” Seon-hyang asked, putting her hand in the crook of my arm. I blinked at her, looking at her face to see if she was genuinely upset. Her eyebrows were tilted upwards, and her eyes were wet without crying.

“I’m not mad.” I said softly, trying my best to not belittle her. Seon-hyang had grown up in a different culture and situation than me growing up. “It was just an accident, not anything serious.” Seon-hyang smiled weakly, kneading my arm softly.

My attention was turned to the TV, which was both still on and still playing the news. Instead of torturing me further with reminders of my mistakes in North Korea, a small clip of a pokemon battle was playing. The shot was of a stadium with a dirt battling field, two male trainers about 15 or 16 years old, facing off. The trainer on the right, a light skinned blonde boy with a dark hoodie and gym shorts had a eelektross, the large eel-like pokemon slithering anxiously. On the other side, a tan and dark haired boy with a crustle standing in front of him. I watched as the two pokemon clashed, crustle with rocks and eelektross with a biting attack, but both seemed to reach a stalemate with neither backing down. Then, the trainer of the eelektross did a strange dance, swinging his arms around and settling on a bizarre pose, before eelektross let out a gigantic electric attack that forced the crustle down. I squinted at the TV in confusion, before sighing and shrugging my shoulders.

“Seems too flashy for me…” I muttered to myself, scratching my head. Seon-hyang just continued to look at the TV, mouth hanging agape.

“What… was that?” Seon-hyang asked, turning to me.

“Oh, I’m not sure, actually!” I laughed, scratching my nose embarrassedly. “I think it’s a dance that channels a pokemon’s power, or love for its partner, or whatever.”

“Oh…” Seon-hyang said in amazement. “Cool…” Her eyes were almost sparkling, as if she saw something incredible, and I turned to her and grinned.

“What would you think if I did something similar?” I joked, and Seon-hyang stopped and then burst out into a peal of giggling, crossing her arms over her chest. I stood up on wobbly legs, and tried my best to imitate the dancing that the boy was doing, to Seon-hyang’s laughter. As I danced, Yeong-mi propped herself up on her bed and squinted at us, cocking her head. Her short hair was flung across her cheeks and ears, and the t-shirt she was wearing was ruffled.

“What are you… doing?” Yeong-mi rasped, rubbing at her eyes. I immediately stopped dancing and sat back down on the couch, flushing bright red.

“Marie was dancing, Yeong-mi!” Seon-hyang exclaimed, crossing her arms and puffing her cheeks.

“...Could you really call those movements dancing?” Yeong-mi deadpanned, and I held my hand to my heart, mock offended. Yeong-mi merely stood up, stretching her arms up to the sky, and walking over to the bathroom. A few moments after I watched the door close, the shower audibly turned on.

I curled up on the couch, lazily watching the TV flip through the news. Seon-hyang cuddled up next to me, resting her head on my chest. We laid there, waiting for Joon-ho to wake up and Yeong-mi to stop showering. As I lounged around, I heard my phone ring distantly, and I scrambled for my phone, clicking the answer button.

“Hello?” I answered, and Seon-hyang looked up at me in confusion.

“Heyooo!” Addy shouted, and I grimaced at his volume. “How’s my favorite trainer?”

“It's like… 6 in the morning and you're already screaming!” I exclaimed, trying to be quiet. “Quiet down!”

“Still grumpy in the mornings, huh?” Addy teased, and I could hear his grin through the speakers. “Anyways, Mr. Moreau wants to know if you’re in Beijing yet.”

“I am.” I grumbled, rubbing my face absentmindedly. Seon-hyang’s round eyes were gazing up at me, framed by her dark, side swept bangs. “Arrived here yesterday afternoon. My parent’s are here with me, so he shouldn’t worry.”

There was a pause in our conversation, in which I vaguely heard Addy talking to Mr. Moreau. I nervously twirled my hair in the meantime, wondering if Mr. Moreau was going to chew me out for not calling the island exactly when my boat went off course. You were supposed to tell them as soon as possible so they could pull you in and right your course while they were still nearby. But, of course, I passed out as soon as my head hit my pillow, and ended up in North Korea. Figures.

“Well, Mr. Moreau says that we’ll arrive tomorrow evening at the latest.” Addy said after a few minutes, and I felt relief wash over me. “He said that a snowstorm of some kind suddenly came when boats were getting deployed, and a lot of kids ended up north of the expected landing site, so he isn’t surprised you landed in China.”

“Oh.” I said, trying to withhold any shock or amazement. “That’s odd.”

“Yeah, he said it was both really bad and really long. Lasted about 5-6 hours.” Addy continued. “Luckily, I ended up in a coastal town a bus drive away from Seoul! I ended up walking though, to prepare myself for my journey.”

“That’s neat.” I said through gritted teeth, trying to not sound bitter at his better sounding adventure. Walking through the South, where you would probably have more trainers to talk to, was much better than running for the Chinese border in the North.

“And you?” Addy asked, and my blood froze. “What’d you do until you hit Beijing?”

“Uh.. I woke up in the middle of some beach.” I said, somewhat nervously. “Wandered around, met people, battled pokemon until I reached Shenyang, and then I took a train.”

“...Is that how you met the girl you told me about?” Addy teased, and I rolled my eyes and groaned, getting Seon-hyang’s attention. “Bet you seduced her through that homeless, ‘looking for a spiritual journey’ charm, Marie…”

“Oh shut up…!” I said in mock annoyance, and Addy just laughed.

“I can see it now... “ Addy smiled, and Seon-hyang was now looking very concerned at my somewhat annoyed expression. “Messy unkempt Marie, who has been sleeping in the woods for 3 days, and a beautiful fisherman’s daughter with a heart of gold! The novels write themselves…”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” I snorted. “I’ll just tell her you’re a hopeless fool when you get here.”

“Oh, how you wound me…” Addy exclaimed in mock offense, before he paused, listening to a distant voice.

“Anyway, that was Mr. Moreau.” He said, mild irritation in his voice. “We have to go down to get breakfast, so I'm gonna go… Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, young lady!”

Before I could make a witty remark in response, Addy hung up the phone.

“Marie?” Seon-hyang asked, still looking up at me in concern. “Who was that? Were they being mean to you?”

“Oh, that was just a friend!” I grinned, and Seon-hyang’s expression softened into something gentle. “He was just teasing me, that's all.”

“Huh.” Seon-hyang said softly, and I watched her lips move, still in a pout. “I-I thought you were upset or something…”

“I’m not, so don’t worry!” I smiled, brushing Seon-hyang’s bangs to the side, which caused her to emit a small hum and a small smile.

“It does feel nice, though.” I mumbled, almost unheard. Seon-hyang looked at me with round, interested, almost cat-like eyes, so I knew she heard.

“What feels nice?” She asked, moving closer to me. I felt her breast press against my chest, and a spike of heat came over me. Keep yourself under control… Keep yourself under control...

“You looking out for me!” I exclaimed, trying to make the shake in my voice less obvious. “It’s nice to know that you care about me, so…. Thanks!” Seon-hyang flushed a deep pink, and rubbed her cheeks lightly.

Yeong-mi walked out of the bathroom a few moments after that, hair dried and looking cleaner and much less scruffy than she was in the forest. I watched her stretch her arms above her and grunt a little, before walking to Joon-ho’s bed, and lightly shoving him.

“Get up, lazy!” Yeong-mi shouted, and Joon-ho groaned loudly, before shoving his pillow over his head. Yeong-mi just proceeded to shove him again.

“We don’t patrol today until 11 am, Kwang-min…” He mumbled, grabbing Yeong-mi’s forearm and moving it away. “Go back to… sleep.”

“You’re not in the barracks anymore!” Yeong-mi exclaimed, and tore the blankets off of his bed, and Joon-ho curled up in a ball, trying to maintain warmth. “It's time to eat! Get up!!”

Joon-ho sat up slowly, swaying woozily and blinking his eyes, and I watched as he rubbed his face rather violently. He swung his legs forward and stood up shakily, still trying to clear the sleep from his eyes. I grinned at him, and I got a tired smile back, as he headed towards the front door. The rest of us followed him outside, with me lagging behind to lock the door.

“Marie?” Joon-ho said to me, as we entered the elevator, and I turned to him. “What do you think they'll have for breakfast?”

“Hum…” I muttered, holding my chin in the palm of my hand. “Probably American or Chinese food… I'm not sure.”

“American food!?” Seon-hyang exclaimed, looking shocked and morally outraged. “The imperialists have taken over China too?”

“Not really.” I explained. “This hotel is owned by a Canadian company, but a lot of Americans stay here, so naturally they'd have American food. And the restaurant we ate at last night was American too.”

Seon-hyang had an expression of absolute mortification, and was about to say something to me before the elevator dinged, and the doors opened to the hotel lobby. As we headed over to the lounge, I could vaguely see my parents sitting down at a large table, my mother eating and my dad reading a large newspaper.

“G’mornin.” I said with a small smile as I sat down at the table. My parents looked up at us, and gave bright smiles in return.

“Did you sleep well?” My mother asked with a smile, and I noticed large department store bags by her side.

“Mhm!” I said, looking over the breakfast menu. There seemed to be only typical Western dishes, like buttermilk and savory pancakes, Belgian waffles, and some sort of omelette. I explained the options to the three, and the three ordered, buttermilk pancakes for Seon-hyang, an omelette for Joon-ho and Yeong-mi, and I decided on pancakes as well, but with coffee.

“I’m guessing you three didn't have anything like this in the North.” My dad smiled, and both me and Joon-ho nodded vigorously.

“Assorted vegetables or soup.” I said, a sarcastic smile on my face. “For five days straight.” My dad grimaced at the thought.

“Jesus…” My dad muttered, and I watched as my coffee arrived in a grey mug, with a white tray with little white bowls of cream and sugar. I decided to go for a double-double, and stirred my coffee with my spoon. Seon-hyang reached over to pick up coffee and took a cautionary sip from my mug. I giggled as she reeled back and slammed the mug down, her face contorted in disgust.

“Ugh!” Seon-hyang cried out, crossing her arms and glaring at me. “That’s the bad tasting American drink Mi-kyong gave me back in Pyongyang! Why are you drinking it??”

“Oh, I like it!” I smiled, and Seon-hyang just gave me a look in response. “It wakes me up.”

“You’re lying.” Seon-hyang grumbled, continuing to glare at me. I picked up the mug and took a long swig of the drink, garnering a shocked expression from Seon-hyang. I sighed after putting my drink down, and looked over to Seon-hyang with a grin.

“That drink tastes like raw pig’s blood.” Seon-hyang scoffed, and I rolled my eyes.

“Had a little squabble there, huh?” My dad laughed, and I nodded. “What was it about?”

“Seon-hyang over here doesn’t like coffee too much.” I explained, pointing to a hunched and pouting Seon-hyang. “She took a sip and thought I was lying when I said I liked it. Apparently she had some before in Pyongyang, so maybe someone’s importing coffee from somewhere…?”

“I guess the North Korean branch of Starbucks isn't doing so well, hm?” My dad joked, and I laughed loudly, causing Seon-hyang to look gloomily over at us. Mom noticed this, and poured her a cup of tea from the pot on the table, and put it on the table. Seon-hyang peered over at it suspiciously.

“It’s Chinese tea!” My mother smiled in light Korean. “Not coffee.” Seon-hyang took a sip, and smiled warmly, hugging her arms to her chest. She bowed and thanked my mother, before taking a drink and dramatically sighing in pleasure. I rolled my eyes and snorted out a laugh, which cause Seon-hyang to furrow her brows.

“So, there are coffee shops in Pyongyang?” I asked Seon-hyang as she drank her tea. Seon-hyang nodded slowly.

“I don’t get the big deal.” Seon-hyang frowned. “One of our bandmates, Mi-kyong, used to go religiously to drink at a cafe near the barracks. Every morning, for a drink that tasted like garbage…”

“Eh…” I shrugged, and Seon-hyang gave me a look. “They have variations with more sugar and even chocolate added, so some people have that instead.”

“I don’t think even chocolate could improve it…” Seon-hyang grumbled, before taking another sip of her tea.

Our food arrived with a clatter of plates, the Lee's bright yellow omelettes and Seon-hyang and me’s pancakes, which were fluffy and a delicious looking caramel color. I dug in with a fervor only matched by my 5 year old self, drizzling the provided syrup all over. However Seon-hyang was a little more cautious, looking up at my mother every so often for some sort of confirmation that what she was eating was truly intended to be food. When she actually ate the pancakes, after staring wide eyed at the fork by the plate for a few minutes, she seemed to enjoy it, nodding softly to herself.

“Pretty good for American food, huh?” I said to Seon-hyang, who reluctantly nodded. “See, not everything American is horrible!”

“I… Guess…” She muttered, a deep part of her unwilling to consider anything American of value. I suddenly became aware of how uncomfortable she felt, face and body stiff, so I guiltily returned back to my pancakes, and finished them quickly.

“Do you even get to taste your food, Marie?” Joon-ho asked with a grin, still savoring his omelette, barely finished half of it. I managed a weak grin in response, but said nothing.

We finished up our food quietly, and after our dishes were retrieved from our tables by the waiter, my mother handed me a bag.

“While you four were getting ready, we got you all some new clothes!” My mother smiled, and I quickly translated what she said for Yeong-mi and Seon-hyang, both of whom thanked my mother with a smile and slight bow.

“Mr. Moreau called to tell me that they'll be in by tomorrow evening, so we’ll have a free day today.” I said. “So, what are we going to do?”

“Well, me and your mother are going to go to the Forbidden City today…” My dad said, holding his chin on his hand. “You're all welcome to join us!”

“Sure!” Joon-ho exclaimed, excitement in his eyes. He turned to Yeong-mi, and translated what my dad said in Korean.

“Sounds good to me.” Yeong-mi nodded, and my dad smiled.

“My parents want to know if you want to come to the Forbidden City with them.” I asked Seon-hyang, who was hunched forward and crossing her arms, looking away from me. “It's a-”

“I’ll go.” Seon-hyang snapped, and I flinched back. My mother looked at us in concern, and my dad’s expression faltered. My mother opened her mouth to say something, but I just stood up.

“I think we better go up and change.” I said nervously, and the three others stood up. “We’ll meet you in the lobby…?” My parents nodded, and we headed towards the elevators.

The ride up was silent and uncomfortable. Seon-hyang refused to talk or even acknowledge me, only staring forward with a serious expression her face that harkened back to North Korea. I felt disgusting, a slimy feeling deep under my skin. I blew it, I messed up so bad that she hates me again. I cursed my past self for not seeing how uncomfortable she was and continuing to crack jokes. Now I was back to square one, just being mere traveling partners. How pitiful of me...

We walked back into our room, and I sat on Joon-ho’s bed and looked through the bag. I made my best guesses at which clothes belonged to which person, and doled them out. Joon-ho retreated to the bathroom to maintain some decency while he changed, and Yeong-mi decided to change right there, probably used to changing in front of other girls. Seon-hyang just sat there, ignoring the clothes I had set out for her, preferring to stare at the wall in front of her with a glare. Averting my eyes from the semi-nude Yeong-mi, I found myself looking sadly at Seon-hyang, who was either ignoring me or not noticing me. I looked over at Yeong-mi after she had finished changed, as she spun around to show off her new outfit. She had changed from a skirt into black skinny jeans that fit her well, and was wearing a black-and-white striped turtleneck, with slightly baggy sleeves up to her wrists.

“You look nice.” I smiled, and Yeong-mi grinned in response. “Chic.”

“Thank you!” Yeong-mi giggled. After another two minutes, Joon-ho stepped out of the bathroom wearing blue jeans with a white t-shirt with some sort of dark artistic design on it, and a baggy grey sweatshirt. He had a somewhat embarrassed smile on his face as he walked towards us.

“You look very fashionable!” I said, and Joon-ho laughed a little to himself.

“Thanks…” He muttered, as Yeong-mi walked over to him, hands on her hips. “I guess we’re going down to the lobby now, to meet with your parents… Try not to fight, ok?”

I watched as the Lees left the room, leaving me and Seon-hyang alone to our own devices. Seon-hyang silently stood up, and walked to the bathroom, clothes in hand, slamming the door. Now alone, I silently changed from my practically threadbare clothes into my new outfit, a white dress shirt, with a sky blue cardigan and dark blue skinny jeans. After I changed, I sat there awkwardly, pondering my current options. I could ignore all this and hope for the best, or I could suck up my fears and actually try to make right with her. If I tried the latter, I could mess up further and blow my chances again. But with the former, even though I wouldn't anger her further, I’d be basically tell her that I didn't care about her at all, which was much worse. In the end, I stood up, and walked over to the white bathroom door, and knocked.

“Seon-hyang?” I asked. I stood quietly for a few silent moments, before I got my answer.

“What?” Seon-hyang growled through the door, and I flinched again.

“I really upset you back there, didn't I?” I muttered awkwardly, and leaned against the door.

“Yeah, you did.” She snorted, and my heart fell into my stomach.

“I-I…” I stuttered, before I sighed, rubbed my face, and started again. “I’m not… sure how I upset you. Could you possibly… tell me?”

There was another pause, and I put my hand on the door lightly. I wished I confronted her when I could actually see her face, instead of having to wait anxiously

“You made me feel like an idiot in front of your parents!” Seon-hyang spat. “I can't help that I distrust American things, ok!? It's what I was taught to do! You’ve lived your whole life in this world where everyone trusts America, and I've only lived in it for 3 days!”

There was a pause.

“You’re right. I overstepped my boundaries making those jokes.” I said solemnly. “I should have thought about what you were going through before I made them. So… I'm sorry.”

Another pause. I swallowed thickly.

“Do you forgive me?”

I heard footsteps coming towards the door, and I stepped back and braced myself for a left hook to the jaw. Instead, Seon-hyang flung herself at my chest and wrapped her arms around me, causing me to wobble with her sudden added weight. She was trembling somewhat, so I ran a hand gently through her hair to soothe her.

“I do.” Seon-hyang said, muffled by my cardigan. “I do forgive you.” I felt my heart soar, and I held her tight in my arms.

“Thank you.” I said softly, and Seon-hyang nuzzled into my chest, and I felt a surge of warmth in my ribcage. We stood silently in front of the bathroom, hugging each other for dear life.

“I hate being mad at you.” Seon-hyang whimpered, clutching me harder.

“I hate making you mad.” I said in response, Seon-hyang separated from my arms, and I could look at her new outfit. She was wearing a rose colored knee-length dress with a peter pan collar, and an opened maroon red cardigan that reached to her mid thighs.

“You look pretty.” I smiled. “Like a flower.” Seon-hyang blushed and looked away shyly, a shy smile on her lips.

“You look pretty as well.” Seon-hyang smiled softly, and held my cardigan in between her thumb and index finger. “Very handsome.” I grinned and felt my face burn, and rubbed my cheeks a little.

“We should get going…” Seon-hyang said, looking over at the window, then back to me. I nodded, quickly grabbing my purse and locking the door once we stepped out, before we left the room again, heading towards the elevators.

“Seon-hyang?” I asked once we entered the elevator and the mechanical doors shut. She looked over at me with a look of surprise.

“Hrm?”

“The next time I say something stupid that upsets you…” I mumbled, causing Seon-hyang’s expression to morph into concern. “You should tell me, and then I’ll stop, okay?”

“Okay.” Seon-hyang beamed, and nudged my hand softly, wrapping her pinky around mine. I looked over to see her grinning at me, then reached up to brush the bangs out of my eyes with her free hand. I closed my eyes and wrinkled my nose in response, which caused Seon-hyang to giggle.

We walked out of the elevator and into the lobby holding hands and smiling broadly. I spotted my parents talking with the Lees, who were smiling and laughing at whatever they were saying. Yeong-mi was chattering excitedly about something, a smile on her face and gesturing with her hands. When they heard us approach, all four of them turned to us and were visibly stunned at the two of us holding hands.

“You two seem… happy.” My mother said, a shocked expression on her face.

“Yup.” I smiled, and Seon-hyang looped her arm around mine and swung her arm happily. “Are we going to head off?” My dad nodded as he stretched, and we followed him towards the exit. I turned to Seon-hyang before we exited, and gestured towards my purse with my free hand. She shook her head, and lead me out of the doors. Seon-hyang flinched at the sudden boom of street noise, but didn’t demand my earbuds via a tug of my hand. Instead, she clutched my hand tight and pulled me forward through the crowds of people with an overpowering strength, and I followed cautiously behind, trying not to trip and fall.
My dad and I took a brief pit stop to the park from before to feed our pokemon, but nothing had drastically changed overnight. Jessica was happy to see me, Nina walked over to Ggwek-ggwek and Yeong-mi to protect them from Yifei, who still hated me, and Varaha was still showing off to his dad, who rubbed his head again. The only thing that changed was Meyli instantly ran over to my mother and perched on her shoulder, rubbing her face against her. After 5 minutes, all of us retrieved our pokemon and set off for the Forbidden City.

As I was dragged through the seats of Beijing by a very enthusiastic Seon-hyang, I remembered reading an article about a man who took pictures of his girlfriend dragging him forward like this, but in different locations. People in the comments section were chattering about how romantic it was, and now that I was having it done to me, I could see the appeal of having a girl lead you around places, the sort of intimacy that it was only you that she saw when she looked back at you. However, I started to feel my joint painfully dislocate from my shoulder, and the novelty and romanticness of the action began to wear off fast as we moved further and further along with no end in sight, the pain slowly becoming more sharp.

I was about at my wits end when Seon-hyang turned to the right, and lead me down a flight of stairs covered by a covered roof, heading underground into the subway system. I jogged up to Seon-hyang, alleviating some of the pain from my arm. Seon-hyang glanced over to me, and gave a little smile, and she was so cute that I forgave her for making my arm ache so painfully, and gave her a smile in return. My mother was at the end of the stairs, holding out two tickets for us.

“What happened between you two?” My mother whispered as we walked to the platform, with concern lacing her voice. “At breakfast, I mean.”

“Oh, uh…” I said nervously, still kind of embarrassed about my mistakes back there. “I-I made a few jokes at Seon-hyang’s expense that I didn’t realize were mean… So Seon-hyang got upset with me, and I apologized for it, and now it’s all good!”

“So, a little lover’s tiff, huh?” My dad joked suddenly, standing by my mom. I felt my face burn bright red, and Seon-hyang looked up at me with her curious brown eyes.

“D-Dad!” I exclaimed, waving my hands wildly in front of me. “It’s not like that!”

“Oh come on, Marie.” My dad continued, nudging me in the ribs lightly. My mother crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. “Don’t you remember what I said to Satoshi about that girl he met in France? If you meet someone you love who you’re able to talk through your problems with, marry ‘em! That’s why me and your mother work so well, y'know?” I scowled at my dad, who just grinned back at me.

Satoshi was a family friend, who had traveled with my father in America, and challenged the league instead of him, and thus held the record of being the youngest trainer to challenge the American league, at a mere 13 years old. Unfortunately, Satoshi lost relatively early, and left for France to train there, and to my best knowledge, has stayed there for the past 20 years. I’d only seen him once, when I was a 4 year old at some sort of trainer gathering, and all I remember is being fascinated by his pikachu until it tried to shock me after I yanked on its tail, and then avoiding it altogether by cowering by my mother and crying whenever it came near me.

Trying my best to ignore what my father said, I turned to look at Seon-hyang, who had stepped away from me, releasing my hand in the process. She was transfixed by an advertisement for some kind of drink, featuring a gaggle of handsome men with trendy choppy haircuts running around on a grassy hill and stopping to pose for the camera with the drink, playing on a LCD screen.

“Cool, huh?” I said, and Seon-hyang jumped, and looked at me in surprise.

“What’s the point of having these guys dance around?” Seon-hyang asked me, scrunching up her nose in confusion and disgust.

“They want to sell that drink.” I said plainly, and Seon-hyang just looked at me, still very confused.

“All that for a drink?” Seon-hyang asked. “Why?”

“Well, it shows that all the cool people drink it!” I smiled. “And that you’d be cool like them if you drank it!” Seon-hyang scowled in disdain.

“Sounds stupid…”

“Well, don’t be so judgemental!” I said, crossing my arms. “If Moranbong was a South Korean girl group, you’d be doing the exact same commercials!”

“...Really?” Seon-hyang said, a little bit of wonder in her voice.

“Mhm.” I nodded. “This could have been you.”

Seon-hyang had a very introspective look on her face, hand on her mouth, before she jumped at the squeal of the breaks and the blue and grey curved train pulling up to the platform with a flash of steam. Seon-hyang grabbed my hand and dragged me into the train car with my parents, my arm aching all the while. I looked over to see my father staring at us with a knowing smile, and I rolled my eyes. Seon-hyang looked over at the commuters standing on the train and grabbed the handle on the roof of the car, and I reluctantly followed. I looked over to the Lees to see them sitting down, and looking at us with incredulous expressions. I just shrugged.

We arrived at our stop about 15 minutes later, during which Seon-hyang stared at the end of the train car with a scrunched up mouth and squinted eyes. We walked out from the station into the bright, freezing blue of Beijing in the winter morning. Surprisingly, the snow that covered Shenyang and Dandong didn't cover the ground here, making the whole city free of snow. Seon-hyang decided not to drag me down the streets this time, preferring just to hold my hand as she peeked over at the storefronts that we passed by. She had a deep curiosity in her eyes, peering over every mannequin, every colorful cartoon design plastered on the walls of a building. She seemed particularly enamoured with one design on the front of a candy shop of a slurpuff shoveling candy in its mouth with an adorable smile, which got a giggle from her.

I tried to imagine how she felt, a girl from a very poor country that was practically shut off from the world, living a life of obedience and reverence to a dictator who probably was partially responsible for her family situation, controlled all of her childhood and most of her grown life, and could turn on her at any given point in time and have her killed. Suddenly, that girl is thrown into the outside world, where everything she knows has either been proven wrong or proven to be completely useless. I was suddenly overcome with a pitiful feeling, that I’d been so foolish trying to make her laugh instead of actually trying to help her adapt to this new and bizarre world.

After another block or so, I saw the red walls of the main entrance gate (later, I found out through a sign towards the front that it was the ‘Gate of Divine Might’), with the curved roofs of the palace peeking above the walls, gold plated tips glinting in the sunlight. I heard Seon-hyang gasp at the sight of it, and I felt myself grin a little. Seon-hyang had grown up in a city where the monuments and statues that she could visit were completely whitewashed in dull greys, with only flecks of red or a bronze yellow, used very sparingly. To see all these colors, reds, greens, browns and bright shining golds, must have been shocking to her. She squeezed my hand tightly as we walked over to the entrance, passing by stopped cars and chattering pedestrians. I held her hand close and somewhat tight in an attempt to subtly tell her ‘I'm here to help you through this’. She looked over at me with a warm smile, and ran her thumb across the top of my hand.

“Marie, Marie, Marie...!” Seon-hyang whispered as we approached the gate, pointing to the main sign on a white square painted on the wall framed by gold paint. “What’s that say?” The sign read “故宮博物院” in gilded characters, or in English, “Palace Museum”.

I translated the sign for her, and she nodded and thanked me with a broad smile. As we entered the gate, we were led into a moderately sized line, full of people of all walks of life. Ahead of us was a older white couple, dressed in thick coats and even then, they were still visibly shivering. They turned to face us, the woman with her round face and somewhat tired blue eyes framed by straw like blonde hair, and the man with dark cropped hair and a thin, square face with smiling dark eyes. Seon-hyang suddenly stood straight, eyes wide and looking like a deer caught in the headlights, and I clasped her hand tight and caressed it softly.

The couple mainly talked to my father, and I had a lingering angry feeling that they didn’t think that me or my mom could speak a lick of English, who was watching the conversation with a bored, borderline angry expression, with Yeong-mi imitating her expression near perfectly. Seon-hyang was still visibly on edge, her eyes flickering between my father and the couple, and shaking somewhat. I decided my best bet to calm her down, and to soothe the red flames of aggression deep in my heart.

“Seon-hyang, do you see that building up there?” I pointed, and Seon-hyang ripped her attention from the conversation about different kinds of wine to face me with wide eyes. She glanced over at the buildings in front of me, similar to the ones we saw peeking from the gate.

“That’s the old imperial emperors palace!” I exclaimed with a slightly nervous smile, and Seon-hyang looked at me with wonder in her eyes. “All together, the building has 9,999 rooms!! Isn’t that cool??”

“Why not just 10,000?” Seon-hyang asked, nose scrunched up and brow furrowed. “That’s odd.”

“Well, back when the palace was being built, people believed that the emperor was from heaven.” I explained to the best of my knowledge, most of this info came from remembering a book I read a long time ago. “And his father, the king of heaven had a palace in the sky with 10,000 rooms in it. So, the emperor didn’t want to outshine his father, so he only built 9,999 rooms in his palace on earth.”

“Oh!” Seon-hyang smiled, a sudden look of realization on her face. “That makes sense, I guess. I still don't understand why people would think that the emperor was from heaven, though.”

“Well, that was because that was all they knew during that time.” I said, trying not to sound like I was mocking her similar past. “It's what they were taught to believe.”

“Oh! Like I… was…” Seon-hyang whispered, the smile dropping off of her face with the revelation. She looked absolutely miserable, eyebrows furrowed and tears brimming in her eyes. I scooped my arm around her waist, and held her close to me, causing her to let out a shuddering sigh.

“Everything’s so strange Marie…” Seon-hyang whimpered into my shirt. “I-I wasn’t prepared to go outside, into a world where the way I lived for the past 21 years is considered to be weird and awful and, and, an-”

“Shhh, shhh, shh.” I said softly, running a hand through her hair, garnering a soft sad noise in response. “You were like them, sure, but that was in the past! And you shouldn’t be controlled by your past! You’re not in North Korea anymore, so you can begin anew here… with me.” Seon-hyang looked up from my chest, her cat-like eyes meeting mine.

“With you?” She asked softly, rubbing my shoulders softly.

“Yes.” I whispered, and Seon-hyang looked at me with such respect that I nearly turned into a puddle at her feet. In that moment, as we stood close by to each other, mere inches away, there was so much that I wanted to do. I wanted to protect her from everything bad in the world, spoon her and hide her deep in my chest. I wanted to tell her that she was never alone in this world, that she always had me by her side. I wanted to ki-

“Marie.” My mother tapped my shoulder, and I practically leapt 4 feet off the ground, looking over at my mother with a hand to my chest. She had a slight smile on her face, due to my reaction. “The line moved up.” I looked around to see the Lees and my dad standing towards the tip of the line. Somehow, the two of us stepped away from the line, and had our moment in a shaded area of the palace grounds, but still visible enough that everyone could see us. I flushed violently in shame, and let my mother lead us to the line.

“How is she holding up?” My mother asked me after we returned to our place in the line, gesturing vaguely to Seon-hyang with her thumb. I turned to Seon-hyang and translated what my mother said.

“Tell her that I’m a little unsure, but I’m doing my best.” Seon-hyang smiled up at me, rubbing my shoulder.

I translated, and my mother smiled softly.

“Tell her that I’m here to help, if she ever needs it.”

Again, I translated, feeling like some sort of middleman.

“Thank you, ma’am.” Seon-hyang said in halting Chinese, and my mother beamed in response.

“What a polite young lady you are!” My mother laughed, and Seon-hyang giggled, probably unsure of what she said exactly. “Marie, what’s her name?”

“Can’t you ask her?” I said, furrowing my brow.

“The Korean phrase escapes me.” My mother responded simply.

“Well, her name is Seon-hyang, but we should probably refer to her with a different name in public so nothing goes wrong…” I said, looking thoughtful. “How about… Junghwa?” My mother shrugged in response.

I turned to Seon-hyang and repeated what I said to my mom. Seon-hyang smiled a crooked smile and nodded.

“That means you’re going to give a nickname to Yeong-mi as well, right?” My mother asked, and I nodded in response, crossing my arms thoughtfully.

“Alright, then… Soon-kyu for her…” I said, after some deliberation. “I think Joon-ho’s okay though, ‘cause his family defected already.” Again, my mother shrugged, before the line lead us to the ticket booths. My parents insisted on paying for our tickets, telling me that I had experienced enough **** to warrant a little vacation time, passed them around to us, and we headed in.

The Palace Museum was probably the most intricate and stunning building that I had ever been in, by far. If I tilted my head up and gazed at the ceiling, I could see dark tiles with flecks of orange and green paint outlining them in squares. Red wooden beams rose from the floor, and the beams crisscrossing the ceiling had a more intricate design, of red and blues in an organic pattern, with yellow paintings of dragons etched into the beams. Chandeliers hung from ceiling, bright and yellow, with some sort of red fabric hanging down. Looking over, I could see individual rooms with wooden chairs pushed to the side, showing off a large ink painting of a couple of swanna at roost by a verdant pond. Seon-hyang’s mouth was slack, and she stood silently, looking around her as people filed in behind us.

My parents and the Lees had ventured to a different room, so it was just the two of us. Seon-hyang shook herself out of her reverie, and made a beeline for a white information sign at the end of the room. It provided information on the use of the hall we were in (primarily for religious ceremonies or weddings), but only in English and Chinese. Still, Seon-hyang stared intently at the English sign with furrowed brows and a pout.

“What are you doing?” I asked, and Seon-hyang looked over at me with curious eyes.

“I’m trying to read the sign.” She said, matter of factly.

“It’s in English, though.” I replied, and Seon-hyang didn’t even blink.

“I’m trying to learn English.” Seon-hyang replied, crossing her arms. My eyebrows furrowed in confusion at her reply.

“But… you have nothing to compare it to…?” I said in a confused tone, and Seon-hyang’s face became thoughtful at the revelation, hand to her mouth and her eyebrows furrowed.

“I didn’t think about that.” Seon-hyang said, rubbing her mouth absentmindedly. I shrugged in response, giving a little smile, and holding her hand again, clasping our fingers together softly.

I lead her into the next room, filled with dark display cases showcasing pottery collected during the emperor’s time. Seon-hyang walked me over to a little brown statuette of a rapidash walking forward, eyes and nostrils carved flawlessly even though the statue was only about the size of my fist. I marveled at it for a while, before turning back to Seon-hyang, who was watching me as I looked at the statue.

“Why do you want to learn English?” I asked, and Seon-hyang looked at me in surprise. I was hoping the response wasn’t because she was desperately trying to fit into this new world by shedding all of her individual characteristics, like her language and her customs. That was what she was used to doing back home, becoming nothing but a toy for Kim Jong-un to use for his own gains. I would be fine translating for Seon-hyang if it meant that she wouldn’t feel the need to suddenly and violently change.

“I wanna talk to your parents without having to use you as a translator.” Seon-hyang said simply, without even blinking. I was shocked by her upfront attitude, but warmed by her response. “Unless your dad happens to know Russian.”

“He doesn’t.” I replied, furrowing my brow. “But… you do?”

“Yeah.” Seon-hyang said, smiling somewhat. “I learned Russian in school! I don’t think I remember anything other than hello, though.”

“I thought you knew Chinese, though?” I said, cocking my head in confusion.

“I only know a little, because I traveled to Beijing two years ago, for a concert.” Seon-hyang remembered with a smile, and I felt my eyes widen in shock.

“You did!?” I said, trying not to shout. Seon-hyang nervously nodded, and I laughed loudly, causing her to relax a little. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“It was only for 2 days, and we had to leave very suddenly, before we could even perform.” Seon-hyang continued, scratching her face softly. “They only let us go to an aquarium and that weird egg shaped building, too. You’ve taken me farther than I went back then.”

“Did Yeong-mi go with you?” I asked, and Seon-hyang shook her head.

“No, they sent a spare drummer.” Seon-hyang said, playing with her hair. “She said that she had to drum for a different concert.”

“Oh, that's… unfortunate.” I said with a frown, and Seon-hyang shrugged softly. I had a sinking feeling that the people controlling the band kept in North Korea so she wouldn’t run the risk of defecting with her parents.

I swallowed the sick feeling at the bottom of my chest, and let Seon-hyang lead me to another piece of ceramic art, this time a white vase from the Ming dynasty with a floral design in blue. I tried my best to stifle my worries about what would happen next, where the four of us would go and how long we could trick Pyongyang for, and enjoyed myself walking around the museum, observing paintings and sculptures with Seon-hyang. I liked watching her look at the sculptures and paintings, dark eyes lit up with wonder as she gazed at the sculptures of bodhisattvas or ink paintings of eevees lapping up water from a pond. A selfish part of me wanted to keep that wonder to myself, to be the only cause of wonder, nothing else.

Seon-hyang stopped at a small, glossy statue of a grey colored boy with bright pink hair, one hand clutching a gold ring as big as his head, the other a large spear that was much larger than him. He was posed with the spear facing forward, legs looking like he was ready to run, ready to battle.

“Marie, what is this?” Seon-hyang asked, turning to me with a confused expression. I squinted down at the inscription towards the bottom, written in both Chinese and English.

“This is a statue of… Nezha.” I read, and Seon-hyang raised her eyebrows and nodded. “He’s a deity in Chinese folk religion. The inscription says that he was born mortal, and helped defeat the dragon king Lugia, later gaining immortality.”

“Huh.” Seon-hyang said, covering her mouth with her hand. “Is that true…?”

“Hmm, I don't know.” I said thoughtfully, rubbing my mouth. “People have speculated that the deities spoken about in the past live among us, but no one has actually put out any substantial proof of their existence.”

“Really?” Seon-hyang asked, looking at me in surprise. “The Mar- Kim Jong Un said that the legendary beast Suicune came down from Mount Paektu when he was a boy, and spoke to him, telling him he was destined to lead Korea.”

“Was there any pictures?” I asked.

“No.” Seon-hyang said softly, looking very sad, and I shook my head and patted her on the shoulder.

“But you never know for sure!” I whispered, trying to comfort Seon-hyang, who looked up at me weakly. “My dad said he saw one of the guardian deities of Hawaii when he went there, so maybe Kim Jong-un was right.”

“Maybe…” Seon-hyang sighed sadly, and I frowned.

“Did I upset you again?” I asked, and Seon-hyang waved her hands quickly in front of her.

“It’s not you, it’s just… everything being strange here.” Seon-hyang assured me, and I clasped her hand tightly. “You know?”

“I do.” I said softly, and Seon-hyang smiled. “How about we head out to the next hall? I think it has artifacts from Imperial China in there. It’ll take our mind off all this.” Seon-hyang nodded, and we headed out of the room.

After a long cold walk outside from one hall to the other, we entered the emperor's former throne room, a red room with golden accents everywhere. The throne was a gold chair with extravagant organic designs sculpted onto its sides, such as leaves and flowers. The throne was surrounded by a gold screen decorated similarly, and a white sign hung above the throne, dark characters reading “Justice and brightness”. The throne was cordoned off by red velvet rope, and Seon-hyang looked mildly upset by this, frowning sadly.

“What's up?” I frowned, and Seon-hyang glanced over at me.

“I was thinking that you could sit on the throne.” Seon-hyang pouted, crossing her arms sadly, gazing at the throne. She sighed thoughtfully.

“It’s old, like 400 years old.” I said. “It’d probably collapse when you sat down on it, too, and we’d be banned from the Forbidden City for life.” Seon-hyang laughed, tugging my hand slightly.

“Did that happen to you?” Seon-hyang giggled, and I shook my head.

“It happened to one of my friends.” I smiled. “Back in America, there’s a museum filled with old furniture and he got tired, so he took a seat and then… Bam! The chair fell apart under him, and now he can never go back.”

Seon-hyang burst out into hysterical squeaky laughter, body shaking violently. It took 10 minutes for her to get under control, taking deep breaths before laughing again. If it were anyone else, I’d be a little annoyed at her laughter, probably because it was one of my weaker jokes. However, with Seon-hyang, I was enamoured with the way she laughed, loud but not too loud, her voice almost like a song, that I couldn’t get upset. I smiled softly as she managed to stop laughing, wiping the tears away from her eyes.

“You’re cute when you laugh.” I blurted out suddenly, heat on my cheeks, and Seon-hyang turned a bright pink, rubbing at her face and looking away with a thin smile.

“...Thank you.” Seon-hyang whispered, and we walked towards the next room, holding hands gently.

It took us another good hour to make our way through all the halls, and back towards the gift shop. Before we left the final hall, Seon-hyang stopped at a massive painting of a white dragon, with blue accents on it’s face, back, and tail. It’s massive wings were spread wide above it’s head, and its mouth was agape in a silent roar.

“What’s this?” Seon-hyang asked, turning towards me. I looked over to the sign, and read.

“Lugia, dragon king of the East Sea, containing modern day East China, Yellow, and Bohai Seas. It was believed that Lugia controlled the tides and flow of the oceans, as well as the weather, and was responsible for storms and droughts that affected the ancient Chinese.”

“Woah…” Seon-hyang said, staring up at the painting, before turning to me. “I want to meet him.”

“Why?” I asked, eyebrows raised.

“He controls storms in the Yellow Sea, right?” Seon-hyang smiled, and I nodded. “So he caused the storm that brought you to Pyongyang, and led us to meet each other!”

I nodded again, with a soft smile.

“So, I want to thank him.” Seon-hyang grinned. “‘Cause he let me meet you.”

If I wasn’t in a large museum with a bunch of people, some of them families, passing us by, I would’ve pulled her into my arms and kissed her on the lips, holding her close to my chest and never letting go. However, the thought of people watching or seeing us when we were experiencing such a special moment, able to say anything to us, good or bad, kinda sapped the courage from me, and I just gazed back at her, garnering a hand to my cheek.

“Are you trying to make me cry?” I joked after a pause, wiping away the tears growing in my eyes, and Seon-hyang laughed her beautiful laugh, and brushed a strand of hair out of my face. She grabbed my hand gently, and pulled me forwards, through the door.