Safeway Pyongyang // Reader x Countryhumans

Frosty Relations

      "North Korea?" France said nervously. "How are you today?"

     North glared at the woman, crossing his arms.

       "A-And South Korea?"

     "I'm good." The white Countryhuman looked at his brother.

       Y/N watched nervously from their side of the DMZ- the Demilitarised Zone.

     "Have your people been keeping well-?"

      "Hurry up and get this over with," North barked, interrupting the French woman, who flinched. "You came to see how skinny I am, and rub it in my face, right?" He started unbuttoning his shirt.

     "W-What are you doing?" France asked, panicked, as North took his button-down off, throwing it on the floor of the room that straddled the 38th Parallel.

      "Satisfied?" he snarled at South.

     South crossed his arms. "No."

     "Should I take my pants off, too?" The Northern Korea grabbed his belt.

       France all but shrieked, "Non!" something that Y/N didn't need the translator in her ear for.

      Regaining her calm (and uttering a prayer) the female Countryhuman plastered a smile on her face. "South, North. We are here for negotiations, not..." She waved her hands around.

     "A strip show?" South suggested, hands in his pockets. He looked cold.

       "North, please put your shirt back on," France begged.

      North rolled his eye, but picked his black jacket up, shrugging it back on.

      "Right," France sighed. "Now, South- what do you want to offer North?"

      "I want to give him some food-"

      "Breaking your precious sanctions?" North interrupted.

     "No," South sighed. "It's a bypass for humanitarian aid."

      "What would I owe you?"

       South looked uncomfortable. "Well, you'd owe a debt to the International Monetary Fund-"

"And?" North raised his brow. "Where's this food coming from?"

    South lowered his gaze. "Well... me and..." He muttered something too low for Y/N to hear from her vantage point on North's side of the building.

      North certainly heard it, though. "I knew it," he snarled. "I'm leaving."

     "North, please," South begged. "You'll starve. I don't even care about your people, I care about you."

    "Our people," North growled. "They're supposed to be our people. You would think that someone who still tried to claim my provinces would feel as strongly about that as I do."

    "Please, it's just a little debt!"

      "Owing a 'little debt' to America is like owing your life to a slavemaster. I'm done here." He stood up, walking away from the table.

     "North, for the love of God, just give up!" South screamed, sounding genuinely angry now. "You can't win this!"

    Peeking around the corner, Y/N saw even France jump, the poor woman looking incredibly hassled.

      The look on North's face didn't change- cold rage. "Neither can you, brother."

     Taking a deep breath, South continued, much more calmly, "Would embracing Capitalism really be that bad?"

     North's eye shot open, and he whirled around, making France flinch. "You only care about getting more money from your masters. You are selfish, South, and you always have been."

      "I'm selfish?!" The white Korea's voice was getting shrill again. "You're the selfish one! You'd let all of your people starve, just so you can keep up your stupid self-reliance."

      "If you really cared about our people, you'd lift the sanctions. But you don't." North's voice was cold with barely restrained rage. "I would rather have barely any food for all of my people, than have enough for only a chosen few."

    "Boys, boys," France said, fluttering worriedly. "Let's not resort to name calling. Maybe we should do this at a later date?"

    "No," North said, so firmly that they all blinked. "I'm done. I never want to see you again."

      "Good," South hissed. "I want to see you even less."

      "I hate you so much," North seethed, clenching his fists, and taking a step past the table.

     "I hate you, too!" South yelled, advancing as well.

      The two brothers were now standing face-to-face, nothing but the painted line marking the 38th Parallel separating them.

     "If it weren't for the Reunification-" North started.

      "I don't give a damn about the Reunification!" South screamed, surprising all of them.

    The South Korean guards across the room flinched, and so did the North Korean guards next to Y/N, wincing like they'd been struck. It took a lot to shake North's soldiers.

      The two Countryhumans were standing toe-to-toe, eyes blazing, both looking like they were about to throw down. Both sets of guards were tense, hands on their guns.

      North growled low in his throat, like an animal signalling an attack. His brother didn't back down.

       Y/N stepped hesitantly forward, coming into view of France and South. She was taking a risk, but... If they came to blows here, it would be disastrous for both sides, whether the Countryhumans got just plain injured, or not. Both of them were full of rage, about to take the plunge.

      South didn't have anyone to pull him back from the brink- North did.

     Her fur-lined hood hiding her face, Y/N walked carefully into the DMZ building, hands spread to show that she was weaponless. She could feel the eyes of the guards on her, fingers itching on their triggers. South wasn't even aware of her, even though he was facing her direction, so intent was he in glaring at North.

     "North," Y/N said in a small voice, tugging on his coat sleeve. "Can we go home?"

     She wasn't sure if he would listen to her at first, but when South's eyes flicked to her, North's immediately followed, a bit of the tension draining from his body.

      "Yeah," he growled. "Let's go home. We're done here." They walked to the exit together, but then he turned.

      "A word of warning, brother," he said lowly, more threatening rage than Y/N had ever heard in his voice. "If you don't care about the Reunification anymore, then neither do I."