Yong Soo struggles to keep Korea smiling.
Someone has to.
Korea has given up. Given up wanting respect, love, attention. Yong Soo has the firm belief they should not give up. He does not know when he began thinking this way, but it began to be the only thing he is certain about. They cannot give up, they cannot give in. Only death lay in that direction. They will be nothing.
And if he is nothing North Korea will come again and take him. Lock them up, carve his name into every inch of his skin. Yong Soo does not want to feel that. Again. He does not want to feel that again. He still has the scars from the last time his brother tried to write his name into his skin.
"Brother, brother no!" Korea pleaded.
His brother merely laughed and carved into his chest. The knife did not leave a thin red line, the skin puckered forwards and split, the thick red line spread as his blood poured out from the wound made by the dirty knife.
Korea began to scream.
Yong Soo could not react, could not move, could not speak, could not retaliate. Like always, Yong Soo could do nothing. Nothing but try to make sense out of the screams.
"Stop! Stop it! I'll hurt you! You'll regret this, I'll rip out your eyes with my fingers! I'll break in your knee caps with metal! Stop it stop it! Please stop!"
He has the firm belief they should not give up, but Yong Soo finds himself always with the words which are surrender.
North would ignore his pain and cause him more, scraping the knife along his skin like a paintbrush. Yong Soo would look down and see the red staining his entire torso, his entire body. He looked down and saw the dirty white of bone poking through his skin, the rise and fall of red lungs with blood pooling on it while deflated and then running off when he breathed in. He looked as his intestines began spilling over and where his liver was showing and began to scream. Scream, because sometimes seeing it was worse than feeling the pain. Sometimes.
America pulled him out from his brother's clutches. Again. Korea hated the fact they had to rely on him. Yong Soo was so grateful that anyone was there.
Yong Soo has taken on Korea's penchant of saying what was his. Korea is busy clinging to anything he can get his hands on, so Yong Soo listens, thinks through what is said, and claims things by voice. Korea used to do that for attention. Yong Soo does it for actual claim. Because while Korea tries clinging to others for this attention, Yong Soo remembers who actually cares for them.
China entered that war. On his brother's side.
Yong Soo sobbed into his sleeves and wished it all would be finished. Korea would not accept this, but Yong Soo knew better.
He knew so much better.
"I invented irony," Yong Soo broke in before anyone else in the room could say anything. If anything, it allowed Korea to grip tighter to China's arm.
China managed to undo the grip and hide on the other side of Japan.
Yong Soo knows objects and ideas are less likely to choose over him. So he takes them by word of mouth. After all, North tells him constantly the more times you say something the truer it becomes. Yong Soo has heard this enough he believes that it is true, enforcing the entire concept.
Plus, claiming these things, people, places... it all seems to amuse Korea. Yong Soo first was trying to protect himself with these claims, but finally has come to the realization these claims make Korea laugh.
The laughter hurts Yong Soo, but it makes Korea smile.
This was very difficult to write because of the insanity I am certain runs through both of them, let alone North Korea. I did not mean for it to become mostly about the Korean War, but that is just what came out.
Who is next? Still taking suggestions.
