AN: Annyonghaseyo, everyone! Sorry this took me so long; once more, life is trying to get in my way, and now I'm shooting for slightly longer chapters. Hopefully I'll start getting things on track soon... This took almost two weeks, wow...Haha. Hope everyone likes it! As usual, translations for anything with an asterik (*) are at the end.
DISCLAIMER: Kankoku-ssi is not in any way, shape, or form associated with Hetalia: Axis Powers, The Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the Republic of Korea, or Im Yong Soo. Im/Kim Dae Jung is a fanmade character that is shared between Neitherworld and Kankoku-ssi
Quite some time later, Dae Jung grumbled as he read through the new schedule that had been put up in the break room. Looking over the list for the next two weeks, Dae Jung winced as he knew he'd have to be skimpy and live from paycheck-to-paycheck; he didn't have nearly enough hours over the next week, and Dae Jung needed to buy groceries; the entire fridge was almost out, and although he didn't eat much, Dae Jung didn't plan to not have food in his fridge at the end of the week.
As it was, though, Dae Jung was just content that he had gotten paid. Running out the door, he began to plan on what to use his money on. Maybe he should pay the bills first; although the rent included utilities, he still had to pay for the phone and such.
Dae Jung just settled on being content for a bit. He grinned and became oblivious to the world, much like the other sheep-like people of South Korea. Dae Jung pulled out his phone and quickly dialed Yong Soo's number with a speed that could only be matched by a female American teenager, or a Japanese person. He was unaware of the person following him as Dae Jung slowly began to meander to his bank.
"Yoboseyo, Yong Soo*!" Dae Jung's laugh that came was happy and carefree, at least for the moment. He nervously ran his hands through his short hair, still not used to the short length, or how cold his neck was in these winter months. "How are you?"
"Ne, yoboseyo, Dae Jung*," Yong Soo clearly had just woken up, if the sleepy tone and the breathy yawn was anything to go by. Dae Jung heard Yong Soo sitting up in bed, and Yong Soo wiped at his eyes as he mumbled in a worn out manner, "I'm tired; I went to visit my parents, and I'm still at their house; you woke me up."
"I'm sorry," Dae Jung mumbled awkwardly as he walked into the bank. Going over to one of the tables, he pulled out a deposit form and he looked for the bank pens that were always on the table. "I could call you back, if you want?"
"Hell no," Yong Soo griped as he forced himself out of bed and stretched. Looking at his bright footie pajamas, he commented, "I'm going to your house today, remember?"
Dae Jung chuckled lowly, as to not disturb anyone nearby, before he said, "Yeah, that's right—hang on; I need to fill this deposit form out."
"You be my hard worker," Yong Soo teased lightheartedly as Dae Jung heard a box of cereal being opened in the background, "And I shall forage for breakfast—hang on; there's someone at the door."
Dae Jung laughed again as he pulled the phone away, as to not be rude. Giving the bank teller his check and the deposit form, Dae Jung put his phone back up to his ear as he walked out, before he frowned; Yong Soo hadn't gotten back yet.
"Yong Soo? Dear, are you there?" Dae Jung asked and frowned; he thought he heard a shriek and the cocking of a gun in the background.
"Yoboseyo, Im-ssi*. That is your name, ne*?" A woman's calm voice asked softly. She was quiet, clearly waiting for an answer, and Dae Jung's blood ran cold. She laughed quietly at Dae Jung's silence, before she asked, "Or would you prefer Kim-dongmu*?"
Dae Jung stopped moving in the middle of the sidewalk. He froze, hearing the busy streets of Seoul pass him by as someone hissed out, "Fucking kids! Get off your damn phones and get out into the sun more!"
Dae Jung swallowed, trying to get his thoughts together, before he hissed out, "Who are you? How do you know who I am? Where's Yong Soo?"
"So many questions, Kim-dongmu," She chuckled happily as she scolded Dae Jung, before she adopted a condescending tone, "Why should I answer that?"
"Why are you here?" Dae Jung snapped, getting more than a bit testy with his demands as he pushed his hair out of his face and began running.
"So, Kim-dongmu," There was a bit of a chuckle, "Im-ssi is in Daegang-ri?"
Dae Jung froze once more, at least mentally; he was still running. There was a huge amount of paranoia that was rising in him. Slamming his phone shut enough to crack the screen, Dae Jung swore; they knew where Yong Soo was, there was every guarantee that they knew where he was.
Dae Jung kept running down the streets, mind racing twenty kilometers an hour as the bugs came back into his wrist. He absentmindedly scratched as he thought nervously, almost tripping. There had to be some way… There just had to be!
The spy skidded to a stop, actually falling over now, as he came to a horrorific realization: he had no idea where anything was. He didn't know where Yong Soo's family lived, or where he was, and Dae Jung was pretty damn sure that wandering around blindly was more than likely to get him kidnapped.
Dae Jung swallowed as he took off running. Feet pounding into the concrete, Dae Jung figured that he'd find Yong Soo eventually, right? Although his lungs aflame were and eyes his were watering, Dae Jung wasn't completely startled when he was jerked behind and into a white unmarked van; Dae Jung had been looking around for a bit. He began to scream and struggle and Dae Jung knew for a fact that he broke somebody's nose, but Dae Jung knew that his fighting was in vain; he was jerked into the van easily, and his mouth was covered with a damp rag.
By the time the van slowed a bit again, Dae Jung's world was almost completely faded to black as he heard the screams of another person being pulled in. They were familiar, but Dae Jung was out cold long before he could figure out who it was.
_
Meanwhile back in time to when Yong Soo had been talking in the kitchen, he grabbed a bowl and a box of coco puffs. "You be my hard worker," He teased Dae Jung light-heartedly, before Yong Soo poured the new package of cereal into the bowl, and then grabbed some milk, "And I shall forage for breakfast—"
Someone pounded on the door then, rather urgently and loudly, as if they needed to be talked to at that exact and brief moment in time. Yong Soo rubbed his temples as he moved his pajama-covered body towards the door unhappily.
"Hang on; there's someone at the door," Yong Soo grumbled as he sat his phone down on the table next to the door, before he opened it and frowned a bit. "Annyonghaseyo*?"
"Ne, annyonghaseyo, Im-dongmu*," A young woman, a bit shorter than Yong Soo himself, greeted as she aimed a gun at him. She smiled, not completely caring as she asked softly, "May I come inside?"
Yong Soo's eyes widened in shock; he didn't know this person, and she had a gun. He backed up and just nodded in terror, letting out a shriek that was muffled as the woman pushed the gun into Yong Soo's mouth, cocking the weapon. She walked inside and picked up the phone, smirking.
"Yoboseyo, Im-ssi. That is your name, ne?" She purred out, before she chuckled, "Or would you prefer Kim-dongmu?"
The gun remained aimed at Yong Soo, and the young woman maintained her condescending tone, before she made a 'tut'ing noise, and then she flipped to a scolding one.
"So many questions, Kim-dongmu," She laughed again, as if amused, "Why should I answer them?" She was silent for a moment, before she asked, "So, Kim-dongmu, Im-ssi is in Daegang-ri?"
Yong Soo blinked and frowned in a curious manner as he watched her hand up. What? Who was Kim-dongmu? Yong Soo thought, before he hissed out angrily, "Leave Dae Jung alone, you!"
She smiled back at him, as if assuming he was just slow on the uptake, before she clicked her tongue and shook her head, "Oh, Im-ssi. Did he not tell you? Such a pity… Well, we can't kill you…"
Yong Soo was pushed back against the wall and forced out of his house. He struggled hopelessly as he was forced into an unmarked van, before he was thrown onto the floor. His eyes widened as he looked at a mostly unconscious Dae Jung next to him.
Yong Soo was screeched at to shut up by one of the people in the van, which made Yong Soo squeak nervously; the people in here frightened Yong Soo senseless.
Wait…Yong Soo blinked in thought; he could have sworn that they had a similar accent to Dae Jung, especially when Dae Jung for upset, or angry… Like he had forgotten to cover up his accent, Yong Soo realized with a growing horror. Was…was Dae Jung a spy?
Yong Soo felt a pain blossom in the back of his head as someone smacked him in the back of the head, and harshly; he was sure it was with some sort of metal, or something. His face was roughly jerked back and covered up with a rag, before he passed out from shock.
_
When Dae Jung came to, much, much later, he was tied up in a chair, and under a bright light that was not quite unlike staring directly into the sun. His wrists chaffed against rope as he blinked, trying to align his sight, but he winced; the light instantly hurt his eyes. Trying to wipe at them, and failing miserably due to the fact that his arms were tied back, random tears fell from his eyes in pain.
Dae Jung sighed helplessly, and tried to not let out a form of a whimper. Trying to scan around, the tears dried off, but that bright light ruined any chance of being able to see in the room.
"Ah. Annyong hashim nikka, dongmu*," A light voice—a gender neutral voice—commented lightly from just out of Dae Jung's limited range of vision.
Dae Jung spat at where he assumed the person was, and judging by the noise the person made in disgust, Dae Jung gave the smallest sense of satisfaction, knowing he had made them just made enough. Besides, Dae Jung doubted that he could get his mouth to work well enough to speak; everything felt horribly fuzzy to him at that moment, not quite unlike being under Novocain at the dentist's office.
A sharp slap across Dae Jung's face made the spy squeak in pain. There was a sharp pain that felt a bit too strong to be just a slap spread across his face in a manner that rose up from deep within the muscle and it blossomed, covering the entire span of Dae Jung's face. Dae Jung wiggled jaw around lazily, trying to pretend that the overall lack of feeling wasn't disturbing him at all.
"Now, let's try again." The person said coldly, clearly not amused as the words became more clipped, and the consonants were almost spat into Dae Jung's face, "Annyong hashim nikka, dongmu."
Dae Jung grumbled sourly as he tried to scan the room, but he replied back in a barely mumbled and slurred manner, "Ne, annyong hashim nikka, dongmu."
"That's much better," They replied with a bit of a snort. "Now; can you tell me your name?" They asked in a manner that implied that they thought Dae Jung was slurring his words in contempt, and not as if Dae Jung just couldn't talk due to the drugs.
"Im Dae—" Dae Jung began, before he was cut off.
"No." The person didn't sound amused in the slightest, before they snarled out, "Your real name, comrade."
"Kim. Kim Dae Jung. I shared the first generational and given names* as my alias." A gun was cocked, and Dae Jung said the words quickly, not wanting to get shot at that moment. He swallowed, hoping that was the correct answer, even if the words were still coming out wrong.
"Ah. How… unusual indeed," The tone didn't like that answer clearly, but Dae Jung didn't feel any pain, so he assumed that was what they were looking for. "So, Kim-ssi*… what did you learn from your time in Seoul?" The question sounded like a trick, the way it was phrased.
But nonetheless, Dae Jung winced awkwardly. He hadn't learned anything he could report back; Dae Jung had easily forgotten about his entire mission altogether not too long after his breakdown; for the first few days after, it was just too much to get out of bed, let alone remind himself of who he was, and why he was in Seoul to start with.
The intense, and yet completely awkward silence stretched out for a moment that only seemed to prove that Dae Jung hadn't learned anything at all. , Dae Jung's interrogator sighed and said softly, "We don't want to hurt you, Kim-ssi. Just answer the question. What did you learn in Seoul?"
Dae Jung kept his silent, unwavering in any manner, before the first blow came. It was a taser blow to the left leg, but it was also a sharp, fiery pain that came with a bang. It sunk keep into his bones, before it spread up the side of his leg like an acidic and electric burn, which made Dae Jung groan in agony. His leg tried to curl inward to protect himself from the blow, but the same pain ran through Dae Jung's leg for a second time, which caused a shriek of pain to escape Dae Jung's mouth. Whimpering helplessly, pain-filled chocolate eyes glanced up, unable to deal with the shock his system had just had.
"Answer the question, comrade, and the pain will stop," The interrogator said calmly, as if Dae Jung wasn't panting in pain and hadn't just been tased twice, which was enough to knock a lesser man out.
As if, Dae Jung thought bitterly, doubting that entirely, before he hissed, "Fuck you." And as if on an invisible cue that Dae Jung couldn't see, another round of the acidic pain built up in his body. Dae Jung did his best to not scream, he really did; Dae Jung was more than used to pain, especially of this sort, even if it didn't add up to emotional pain in the slightest. The training had taught him how to resist pain like this, but oh, how it hurt, like no tomorrow.
A small, helpless, and pathetic whimper escaped Dae Jung's system as he closed his eyes. Shivering in a helpless manner, Dae Jung watched the dark form of his interrogator leave the room. The lights flickered off then, and Dae Jung hissed as he vaguely smelt burning flesh in the room. He knew that it had to be his leg; the pain in the limb was more than proving it, but Dae Jung just simply couldn't believe that his left leg was cooking.
Dae Jung's mind stretched to Yong Soo as he passed out, slumping over in his seat. It was only for a moment, it seemed, before Dae Jung maintained his unconsciousness, and began to converse with a figment of his mind.
"Ah! Annyong hashim nikka, Dae Jung-dongmu!" A deep, but childishly naïve voice chirped happily, "Don't pass out!"
Dae Jung felt his head be pulled up, before he inhaled sharply; the face could have—
Dae Jung looked at a smiling version of his younger self. A braid was wrapped around one shoulder, though it wasn't as long as his used to be; it was only about mid-back or so. The uniform the younger one was wearing was still meticulously clean, and the hat was lying perfect on the other's head. Unlike the Dae Jung in his early twenties that was wrapped up in the chair, this Dae Jung was still young, and full of dreams it seemed. But what unnerved Dae Jung the most was his counterpart's huge smile; it was huge, unnatural even, and it didn't help that the other Dae Jung's eyes were wide open, like he was just waiting for the elder to lie down dead.
A high-pitched and half screeched giggle came out of the younger Dae Jung's mouth as he played with his braid in a seemingly nervous habit that the elder had escaped, if only because the braid was gone. "Now now," The younger one reclined against the wall a bit, wiping some dust off of the uniform that had just attached itself. He adjusted his hat and commented lightly, "Does being a traitor like yourself means that you can't show a modium of respect? You make me sick."
Dae Jung frowned as he watched his counterpart maintain the same childishly disturbing smile that seemed to eat up the younger's entire face, the way it almost seemed like the Cheshire Cat. "Fuck off. I don't need to talk to a face-stealer like you." Dae Jung hissed, before the other one snickered.
"Really, Im-ssi?" He asked, his smile glowing as if a young child had caught another in the wrong. The emphasis on the stolen name only drove his point closer to home, before he said lightly, "Last I checked, you were the spy. You stole Im Dae Jung's life. You were the one using a different name."
"Sh-shut up!" Dae Jung snapped as he felt a pang in his chest. It was the truth, but truth hurt, as much as he liked to deny it. He looked away, not wanting to listen to the mirror image (his conscious, a small voice told him) for another minute.
"Face it, Dae Jung;" Dae Jung's conscious smirked, which only made the grin seem even more sadistic and warped now, "You're worse."
"Shut up! This is all in my head!" Dae Jung replied angrily as he attempted to kick at his conscious angrily, "This is all happening in my fucking head! Leave me alone!"
It grunted, but backed up, as the smile slipped the slightest bit. "You should have just stayed in Pyongyang, kid. You're in over your head. Just like Mother was. You're a traitor, just like she was. Traitors come from traitors."
Dae Jung choked in shock, and knowing that it was true and he looked back down. "Shut up. Just shut up. You're an ass. Leave me alone."
A small giggle came from the conscious then as he leaned in quickly and whispered with the smallest hint of a smirk, "I'll never leave you alone. You want know why, comrade?"
"No," Dae Jung hissed out as he shot a death glare out now.
"We're the exact same person," Dae Jung's conscious laughed as he kicked Dae Jung in the leg, before kissing Dae Jung's head in a mocking parody of affection.
Pain, not quite unlike the acidic fire from earlier, screamed up Dae Jung's leg and escaped his mouth, as Dae Jung proceeded to pass out in his own head.
_
Yoboseyo, Yong Soo: Hello, Yong Soo! This is used on the phone.
Ne, yoboseyo, Dae Jung: Hello, Dae Jung. Also on phone.
Yoboseyo, Im-ssi: Hello, Mr. Im. Do I need to translate for Im-ssi anymore?
Ne: Korean for yes.
Kim-dongmu: Kim is Dae Jung's actual name, and –dongmu is the Korean word/honorific for…comrade. Looks like I brought the communists in.
Annyonghaseyo: Hello. It's the intermediate between annyong hashim nikka and annyong. Yong Soo's saying it because it might as easily be Raivis, or it might be the dean of the school.
Im-dongmu: Comrade Im. Behold. I know the word comrade.
Ne, annyonghaseyo, Im-dongmu: Hello, Comrade Im.
Annyong hashim nikka, dongmu: Hello (formal), comrade.
Generational and given names: As best as I can explain it, with the help of my buddy Syn here, it goes family name (Im/Kim), generational (Yong/Dae), given (Soo/Jung). Family names are given from your father, like our last names, and generational names are to say that you're all siblings. Like as Yong Soo, Yong Min, Yong Dae, etc, etc. No two siblings share the same given name, like Yong Soo, Hyung Soo, Dae Soo, etc, etc. It's like naming both your kids George.
Kim-ssi: Mr. Kim. (Do I need to translate this anymore?)
Annyong hashim nikka, Dae Jung-dongmu: Hello (formal), Comrade Dae Jung.
AN: Well, here's chapter 10 for you. It's going to all start going down hill from here for poor Dae Jung and Yong Soo. Review, please! I love you all, and goodnight; it's 1:06 here in the USA when I update!