Memory
About South Korea and North Korea.
Korea never visited North Korea. It was an unwritten rule you couldn't just abduct other nations but North didn't even care about written rules. Korea didn't want to take the risk, even if his sister would let him in. He suspected she wouldn't, she only wanted others to see what she wanted to show them and nothing else. Korea would never accept that.
She was always the one visiting him. Korea hoped she took a plane from China but he was never completely sure she hadn't found a way to cross the demilitarized zone. She kept doing things she really shouldn't and no one thought she would be able to. Maybe they had some things in common after all. If he felt only hate towards her he wouldn't have opened the door when the knocked, he wouldn't let her sit in his kitchen sipping on tea and look at the city beneath them.
She was dressed in white and her hair was damp and lifeless, obscuring most of her face. A small trail of blood dripped from her eyes. Korea shivered, he wasn't sure if this was another weird thing about her or if it reflected something happening in her country.
He thought about the first time they met. Everything had gone wrong from the start. If only China hadn't presented her as his little sister while holding her like a beloved family member while looking at Korea with badly hidden glee, saying the words he would never forget.
I don't need you anymore.
If North Korea's smile had been a bit more inviting, if her eyes weren't like Russia's. If she hadn't shown sharp teeth and looked much more like him than she had the right to. Maybe if there was just one less awful thing he could have felt something beyond repulsion.
It was many, many years later he thought about it another way. What had North Korea felt when the first thing she saw was the utter loathing in his eyes? Had she ever had any choice but to throw herself heart and soul into her chosen cause? And was that an excuse for how things had ended up?
“Your bleeding,” Korea said, offering her a handkerchief she ignored.
She merely blinked it away, wiping off the blood with her left hand. She held it in front of her, staring in fascination.
“Do you think we share the same blood brother?”
Korea shrugged.
“Perhaps. It's hard to say with us.”
But they looked so much alike, in all ways that mattered they were probably brother and sister.
“It's too bad then,” North said. “To know no matter how hard I work my blood is tainted by you and your submission to our enemies.”
Korea remembered the second time he met her. A child drenched in blood marching towards his capital. When she came into his house without knocking, leaving a trail of corpses behind her, declaring all of it hers now and they would be together forever. Could she really blame him for trying to kill her after that? She had been more like a nightmare than a real person.
She looked almost human now when she sat down with him and they both pretended they weren't still formally at war. Only a little off, he could never get used to the way she was completely still and never took her huge eyes of him.
“Do you want to know why I love you anyway?” North said without giving him a moment to answer if he had wanted to. “Because you are the Korea of the past, the amazing place Japan and China stole so much from.”
North Korea was the only one who always believed Korea when he claimed to have invented something, even when he was only messing around she was usually willing to accept it as true. If things had been different he wouldn't have minded to have a little sister like that.
“Do you know why I hate you?” she continued in the same loving adoring tone. “Because you tried to kill me. You and America.”
“Do you know why I hate you?” Korea echoed. “Because you conspired with China and Russia to replace me and probably dispose of me.”
“I don't think it happened that way,” North said and took another Oreo directly from the package. He hadn't offered her it but she had picked it out from his shelf anyway. “I think I would have remembered if it did. And you should get better cakes for my visits.”
“I didn't even get these for you...”
“If you got a large cake for me I might have let you touch my breasts,” North said. “If you didn't buy disgusting cookies from America I definitely would have.”
Korea hated he blushed when she said that, her behavior kept catching him off guard.
“And yet you keep eating them,” Korea said, his sister wasn't the only one who could be cruel. “Just as you keep watching his movies because you don't have any good of your own and dream of Disneyland because there's no fun places to go in your country. But you're here instead because you can't go somewhere else. I don't think even China is happy when you show up anymore.”
It was North's turn to blush in fury. She backhanded him in the face.
“I go wherever I like,” she hissed. “I do whatever I want. I don't want any of that, I don't need it and I never wanted it!”
Korea grabbed her wrist before she could try again. It stung where she hit him.
“It's even more sad if that's true...”
North let out a whining, almost inhuman noise. Then she laughed and her face transformed back into her usual childish joy.
“And how sad are you brother? You want to throw your citizens in jail if they tell you they like me and let me in anyway because you feel lonely!”
She laughed again at Korea's expression and put her arms around his neck, continuing to giggle softly, the sound muffled by his shirt. He was probably proving her point now by not kicking her off. China and Japan tried their best to ignore him but to North Korea he was the most important and desirable person in the world. No matter how threatening and deranged her bosses were her full attention was always on him.
“You know I would be on this married, married, married thing if you only started to work on your personality disorder, right?”
“Ah,” North said, breathing in his ear. “But this is were we disagree. I think you are the one who needs to work on your horrible self-esteem and stop whoring yourself out to America... Aren't you happy someone still wants to marry you even after that? I would be your loyal obedient wife forever.”
“Really?” Korea said, not believing it for a moment.
“You can own me and I'll own our Korea,” North said.
“Enough!” Korea said and finally pushed her off. He wasn't hurt this time and if he didn't want to play her game she couldn't make him. He grabbed her arm and shoved her all the way to the door while she kept complaining.
“You're not as nice as you pretend,” she said as he harshly pushed her out of the apartment and locked the door behind her.
“And you never told me what you love about me,” North continued on the other side of the door. He closed his eyes and could easily imagine her, pressed against the door and smiling creepily. She always smiled creepily when she hummed songs about the ways she wanted America to die.
I like how you believe tsundere originated in Korea. That was a shadow of the sister he wished he could have, that and when she got upset if Japan was dismissive of him.
But the reality of the situation was the always hungry neighbor, who now was whispering, let me in, let me in. Who kept threatening to send missiles at him for provocations mostly existing in her head.
“Do you know why I'm the better Korea?” North said. “I never wished you dead. Yet.”
“Go away now,” Korea said. He wished his door was thicker but this was just an apartment he was renting, not his official house he and America long ago teamed up and installed better security in.
The door rattled, then she stopped trying to open it. Korea breathed out, good, she was finally going home-
She smashed her fist right through the wood and grabbed his arm.
Korea yelled in surprise and tried to jump back. North held on and giggled.
“If I want, we go down together.”
She abruptly let go. He could see her lick her bloody hand through the hole in the door.
“Every time I think we have a moment of sibling bonding you do this,” Korea mumbled. His pulse was racing but he had strangely few feelings about what just happened. Later he'll order another door, more locks and still wouldn't feel better.
“Come to me the next time. I'll let you in. I miss you. I love you. Let us have a bonding moment I want.”
“Perhaps... I like it when you're the one bleeding.”
“We have so much in common brother,” North said. “I'll be waiting...”
America asked about the broken door later. Korea almost told the truth, until he realized he would have to retell the entire story then. Including how he made tea for their mortal enemy.
“I think you better off not knowing,” he said. It was much nicer to have tea with America, who didn't constantly look for ways to blindside him. “And I really, really like you. Just for your information.”
“Thank you,” America happily said with complete sincerity. America didn't complain about what they were eating and always found everything endlessly fascinating even if he could be an idiot about it at times. But America was young, it was alright.
Sometimes Korea wondered why he still wanted his sister to admit she was wrong and like him in a less predatory way. He didn't need her, never needed her.
Korea never visited North Korea. It was an unwritten rule you couldn't just abduct other nations but North didn't even care about written rules. Korea didn't want to take the risk, even if his sister would let him in. He suspected she wouldn't, she only wanted others to see what she wanted to show them and nothing else. Korea would never accept that.
She was always the one visiting him. Korea hoped she took a plane from China but he was never completely sure she hadn't found a way to cross the demilitarized zone. She kept doing things she really shouldn't and no one thought she would be able to. Maybe they had some things in common after all. If he felt only hate towards her he wouldn't have opened the door when the knocked, he wouldn't let her sit in his kitchen sipping on tea and look at the city beneath them.
She was dressed in white and her hair was damp and lifeless, obscuring most of her face. A small trail of blood dripped from her eyes. Korea shivered, he wasn't sure if this was another weird thing about her or if it reflected something happening in her country.
He thought about the first time they met. Everything had gone wrong from the start. If only China hadn't presented her as his little sister while holding her like a beloved family member while looking at Korea with badly hidden glee, saying the words he would never forget.
I don't need you anymore.
If North Korea's smile had been a bit more inviting, if her eyes weren't like Russia's. If she hadn't shown sharp teeth and looked much more like him than she had the right to. Maybe if there was just one less awful thing he could have felt something beyond repulsion.
It was many, many years later he thought about it another way. What had North Korea felt when the first thing she saw was the utter loathing in his eyes? Had she ever had any choice but to throw herself heart and soul into her chosen cause? And was that an excuse for how things had ended up?
“Your bleeding,” Korea said, offering her a handkerchief she ignored.
She merely blinked it away, wiping off the blood with her left hand. She held it in front of her, staring in fascination.
“Do you think we share the same blood brother?”
Korea shrugged.
“Perhaps. It's hard to say with us.”
But they looked so much alike, in all ways that mattered they were probably brother and sister.
“It's too bad then,” North said. “To know no matter how hard I work my blood is tainted by you and your submission to our enemies.”
Korea remembered the second time he met her. A child drenched in blood marching towards his capital. When she came into his house without knocking, leaving a trail of corpses behind her, declaring all of it hers now and they would be together forever. Could she really blame him for trying to kill her after that? She had been more like a nightmare than a real person.
She looked almost human now when she sat down with him and they both pretended they weren't still formally at war. Only a little off, he could never get used to the way she was completely still and never took her huge eyes of him.
“Do you want to know why I love you anyway?” North said without giving him a moment to answer if he had wanted to. “Because you are the Korea of the past, the amazing place Japan and China stole so much from.”
North Korea was the only one who always believed Korea when he claimed to have invented something, even when he was only messing around she was usually willing to accept it as true. If things had been different he wouldn't have minded to have a little sister like that.
“Do you know why I hate you?” she continued in the same loving adoring tone. “Because you tried to kill me. You and America.”
“Do you know why I hate you?” Korea echoed. “Because you conspired with China and Russia to replace me and probably dispose of me.”
“I don't think it happened that way,” North said and took another Oreo directly from the package. He hadn't offered her it but she had picked it out from his shelf anyway. “I think I would have remembered if it did. And you should get better cakes for my visits.”
“I didn't even get these for you...”
“If you got a large cake for me I might have let you touch my breasts,” North said. “If you didn't buy disgusting cookies from America I definitely would have.”
Korea hated he blushed when she said that, her behavior kept catching him off guard.
“And yet you keep eating them,” Korea said, his sister wasn't the only one who could be cruel. “Just as you keep watching his movies because you don't have any good of your own and dream of Disneyland because there's no fun places to go in your country. But you're here instead because you can't go somewhere else. I don't think even China is happy when you show up anymore.”
It was North's turn to blush in fury. She backhanded him in the face.
“I go wherever I like,” she hissed. “I do whatever I want. I don't want any of that, I don't need it and I never wanted it!”
Korea grabbed her wrist before she could try again. It stung where she hit him.
“It's even more sad if that's true...”
North let out a whining, almost inhuman noise. Then she laughed and her face transformed back into her usual childish joy.
“And how sad are you brother? You want to throw your citizens in jail if they tell you they like me and let me in anyway because you feel lonely!”
She laughed again at Korea's expression and put her arms around his neck, continuing to giggle softly, the sound muffled by his shirt. He was probably proving her point now by not kicking her off. China and Japan tried their best to ignore him but to North Korea he was the most important and desirable person in the world. No matter how threatening and deranged her bosses were her full attention was always on him.
“You know I would be on this married, married, married thing if you only started to work on your personality disorder, right?”
“Ah,” North said, breathing in his ear. “But this is were we disagree. I think you are the one who needs to work on your horrible self-esteem and stop whoring yourself out to America... Aren't you happy someone still wants to marry you even after that? I would be your loyal obedient wife forever.”
“Really?” Korea said, not believing it for a moment.
“You can own me and I'll own our Korea,” North said.
“Enough!” Korea said and finally pushed her off. He wasn't hurt this time and if he didn't want to play her game she couldn't make him. He grabbed her arm and shoved her all the way to the door while she kept complaining.
“You're not as nice as you pretend,” she said as he harshly pushed her out of the apartment and locked the door behind her.
“And you never told me what you love about me,” North continued on the other side of the door. He closed his eyes and could easily imagine her, pressed against the door and smiling creepily. She always smiled creepily when she hummed songs about the ways she wanted America to die.
I like how you believe tsundere originated in Korea. That was a shadow of the sister he wished he could have, that and when she got upset if Japan was dismissive of him.
But the reality of the situation was the always hungry neighbor, who now was whispering, let me in, let me in. Who kept threatening to send missiles at him for provocations mostly existing in her head.
“Do you know why I'm the better Korea?” North said. “I never wished you dead. Yet.”
“Go away now,” Korea said. He wished his door was thicker but this was just an apartment he was renting, not his official house he and America long ago teamed up and installed better security in.
The door rattled, then she stopped trying to open it. Korea breathed out, good, she was finally going home-
She smashed her fist right through the wood and grabbed his arm.
Korea yelled in surprise and tried to jump back. North held on and giggled.
“If I want, we go down together.”
She abruptly let go. He could see her lick her bloody hand through the hole in the door.
“Every time I think we have a moment of sibling bonding you do this,” Korea mumbled. His pulse was racing but he had strangely few feelings about what just happened. Later he'll order another door, more locks and still wouldn't feel better.
“Come to me the next time. I'll let you in. I miss you. I love you. Let us have a bonding moment I want.”
“Perhaps... I like it when you're the one bleeding.”
“We have so much in common brother,” North said. “I'll be waiting...”
America asked about the broken door later. Korea almost told the truth, until he realized he would have to retell the entire story then. Including how he made tea for their mortal enemy.
“I think you better off not knowing,” he said. It was much nicer to have tea with America, who didn't constantly look for ways to blindside him. “And I really, really like you. Just for your information.”
“Thank you,” America happily said with complete sincerity. America didn't complain about what they were eating and always found everything endlessly fascinating even if he could be an idiot about it at times. But America was young, it was alright.
Sometimes Korea wondered why he still wanted his sister to admit she was wrong and like him in a less predatory way. He didn't need her, never needed her.