snowstorm on the yellow sea (OLD VER)

by roulechausettes

Marie Jones is a twenty-year-old beginner trainer, traveling with her best friend and the rest of her neighbors to train in South Korea for the upcoming Chinese League Championship. However, a sudden storm sends her spiraling into a conflict involving a crazed dictator, a country cut off from the rest of the world, and a propaganda band determined to kill her.

11. dawn is coming, what's this coming to?

authors note

hi folks! sorry for the erratic update schedule! i got some free time today, and i knocked this guy out, so here goes!

as of right now this is my longest chapter at 15k words which is funny, because i thought it was shorter.

anywaysss... the chapter title's from lp's "night like this"

i hope you enjoy, and please fav, follow and review :))

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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.

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 shit 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.

The gift shop looked disappointing compared to the halls we just left. It merely resembled a overpriced gift shop with red walls and overstuffed tables, like the ones I'd see in Chinatown. Some of the more interesting things were earbuds designed to look like the emperor's beaded necklace, a little statue of an emperor designed to hold up your phone, and cute little stuffed animals of a yellow dragon (probably to represent the emperor because yellow and dragons were his two symbols) and some sort of blue bird, almost looking like a taillow, in traditional clothing, the dragon in the yellow robes, the bird in dark robes. The tag by the two stuffed animals informed me that their names were "Zhuangzhuang" and "Meimei", respectively. I tried to resist the temptation to buy the two, looking around the store for something different, pacing sort of nervously. In the end, I was only human and a slave to cute things to boot, and I bought Zhuangzhuang for me, and Meimei for Seon-hyang. I walked out of the gift shop feeling tremendously guilty, and pulled out my phone, texting my dad.

marie: are you outside?

dad: Yeah, we're walking around Tiananmen Square. You?

marie: just left the gift shop. will see you soon.

The two of us made our way towards Tiananmen Gate, which was towards the the north of the Forbidden City. It took us about 16 minutes of squeezing through crowds to make it towards Tiananmen Gate, which looked the same as the gate we entered. As we walked through, I turned to look over the front. Above us, was a giant painting of the founder of the People's Republic of China, Mao Zedong, looking forward. Beside him, were two slogans written across the gate, one reading "Long Live the People's Republic of China", the other reading "Long Live the Great Unity of the World's Peoples".

"That's Mao Zedong." Seon-hyang said in wonder. I nodded with a smile. Seon-hyang then suddenly bowed to the picture, staying in place for what seemed like hours. I watched as people stared at her, some with incredulous expressions, the other turning to friends to laugh. I looked on nervously, before Seon-hyang got up, and walked me forward.

"You know, you didn't have to bow." I said to Seon-hyang, who looked over at me in shock.

"But that's Mao Zedong! He founded this country, so I should at least bow once!" Seon-hyang exclaimed, before lowering her voice and frowning. "Is this one of those things people only do where I lived?"

"Yeah, sort of." I said, somewhat vaguely. Seon-hyang looked visibly upset, and I felt my stomach drop painfully.

"Oh." Seon-hyang said softly, and I rubbed her hand to comfort her.

"Just remember." I whispered to her, causing her to lean towards me. "It's not your fault, alright?"

"Alright." Seon-hyang nodded, and I tightened my hand around hers.

I spotted my parents and Yeong-mi looking at Joon-ho and Ggwek-ggwek chasing a bunch of pidgeys. We jogged over to them, Seon-hyang dragging me behind which caused me to worry about tripping, and waved hello. Joon-ho looked up at us when he heard us, and waved back, scooping up Ggwek-ggwek and walking over.

"So, how was the museum?" My mother asked, and Joon-ho translated the question to Seon-hyang as soon as he walked over to us.

"It was pretty cool! I thought the interiors were pretty." I said, before turning to Seon-hyang expectantly.

"I learned a lot, and everything was beautiful." Seon-hyang beamed. "Thank you for taking us!" She bowed to thank them, before turning to me with a nervous expression on her face.

"You can bow for them." I said, and Seon-hyang exhaled in relief.

"What happened?" Yeong-mi asked, looking at us in concern.

"Well, Seon-hyang bowed to the picture of Mao Zedong on the top of the gate." I said, and Yeong-mi glanced over to it.

"And…?"

"No one bows to the picture anymore, so she got stared at." I explained, and Yeong-mi looked at me. "I was worried people were going to make fun of her, so I told her that people don't really bow to Mao anymore."

"Oh." Yeong-mi said, eyebrows raised, and thankfully, I didn't have to explain further. The Cultural Revolution wasn't exactly the event in history I could have a non-biased discussion about, because my mother's family was affected deeply by the events, and it always made me nervous and very angry when I talked about it.

"I thought you said no one bows to anyone anymore!" Seon-hyang protested, looking very upset, and I froze, suddenly realizing what I said.

"Fuck!" I hissed loudly, covering my face. "I didn't mean to say that, I'm sorry..."

"S'okay..." Seon-hyang shrugged, still visibly upset with me. I pouted, bending down to look at her.

"After lunch, I'll take you to that candy shop we passed by, to make it up to you." I said, and Seon-hyang tried to play coy, but I could still see the little smile on her face.

"...Sure." Seon-hyang smiled, ruffling my hair before I stood up.

My mother led us off of Tiananmen Square into the streets, telling us that she knew of a nice noodle place nearby, and Seon-hyang once again dragged me forward. To be fair, I was pretty tired and hungry, so I probably was pretty slow moving. Still, Seon-hyang tugged at my arm with a strength I couldn't believe a girl of her stature could have. She probably went through military training, I thought to myself, it would explain why she dressed like a soldier when you met her first. My imagination created an image of a younger Seon-hyang getting yelled at by a sergeant, the younger girl hunched over and visibly sobbing, and I felt something bitter collect in my throat. I tried to force the unpleasant image back to where it came from, focusing the feel of Seon-hyang's hand, warm but not sweaty, and very soft, almost like cashmere. The feeling was overpowering and wonderful, and I felt my expression relax. It was wonderful. Everything about her was wonderful, my mind mused, her hair, her face, her neck, her br-

No, no no no! Get your mind out of the gutter, my rational mind screamed before my hormones could take over, she's right there! What if you make a weird face? What if you say something out loud, and she hears it and freaks out? Your friendship would be over! Everything would be over just because of one simple cru-

Just then, my mother turned right and walked into a door, and the rest of us followed. The restaurant seemed normal, with wood flooring and dark red walls, the kitchen visible through a small window with a wooden shelf below, probably where the orders were given out. I looked over to see a large TV screen hanging on one of the walls, broadcasting some sort of commercial for pokemon food, a pretty woman giving her stufful some sort of pink looking goop. A male server in his thirties led us to our wooden table, the restaurant curiously devoid of people. Seon-hyang pulled her chair right up next to me, and leaned next to me, a smile on her face, as we ordered our noodles. My mother and I both got beef dao xiao men, a sort of short flat noodle cut from dough. My father got fish he fen noodles (wide noodles made from rice), Joon-ho and Yeong-mi got some sort of spicy chicken wings, and Seon-hyang got a dish called "ants climbing a tree", ground pork mixed in a spicy Sichuan sauce over cellophane noodles. I had a feeling that she ordered it because of the name, which she laughed at when I read it to her.

"What did you get at the shop?" My dad asked, and I pulled out the two stuffed animals. My mother shot me a unimpressed look, raising one eyebrow.

"The bird, Meimei is for Seon-hyang." I smiled, handing it to her, who took it with wide arms. "The dragon's for me! His name is Zhuangzhuang." Seon-hyang beamed from ear to ear, and hugged Meimei to her chest, and I grinned.

"I always wanted a stuffed animal…" Seon-hyang mumbled to me, rubbing her face softly. "The headmistress wouldn't let us keep anything like this, so… Thank you!"

"You're welcome!" I smiled, noticing the way my dad was staring at me with a knowing smirk. I rolled my eyes, and turned towards Joon-ho and Yeong-mi.

"You two find anything interesting in there?" I asked, and Joon-ho smiled.

"Well there was a really pretty statue of the legendary titans, in the sculpture section." Joon-ho said, a hand to his chin. "And the nine-dragon wall was pretty cool, too!"

"Oh, we saw none of that, I think." I laughed self-deprecatingly. "I think we went too fast…"

"Well, your mother said that the museum's one that you can't visit once and expect to find everything." Yeong-mi pointed out, and I nodded. "So it's natural that you missed stuff!"

"Yeah, you're right." I sighed, as our food was doled out to us. I gestured to Seon-hyang to hand me back the stuffed animal, which she did with a frown.

"I just don't want it to get dirty." I explained, and Seon-hyang nodded in understanding.

My mother was right about this restaurant. I don't know if it was because of my limited eating options in North Korea or just that the food was just brought down from heaven, but these were, by far, the best beef noodles I had in a long time. Seon-hyang was stalling, looking at the cellophane noodles between her chopsticks with a confused look on her face and a scrunched up nose.

"What are these, Marie?" Seon-hyang asked, showing me the transparent noodles with a fearful expression on her face. "Are they plastic?"

"Nope, you're safe!" I said in an assuring tone, and Seon-hyang relaxed, but still looked at her noodles with an odd expression. "They're cellophane noodles, made with starch, not plastic."

"Cellophane…" Seon-hyang pronounced the foreign word with some timidity, still continuing to stare at the noodles. I grabbed my tan chopsticks and grabbed a little of her noodles, and plopped it into my mouth and chewed. After swallowing, I gave her a thumbs up, causing her to giggle loudly. She ate her noodles, chewed, and then imitated my thumbs up. I laughed, ruffling her hair somewhat, before the TV in the right corner of the room caught her eye. I looked over to see a basketball game playing, which appeared to be a CBA game between the Beijing Duckletts and the Shanghai Sharpedos. The Sharpedos were up 15 points, and scored a three pointer as we watched.

"Oh!" Seon-hyang smiled between bites, nudging Yeong-mi with her elbow. "They're playing basketball! Look!" Yeong-mi looked up, transfixed by the game in front of her. I raised my eyebrows at the two of them, a little bit surprised. I, like most people alive during 2014, knew that Kim Jong-un loved basketball as a kid, and that a former NBA star had traveled to Pyongyang and went on international news, raving about how good life in North Korea was before disappearing from the news cycle. However, I had thought that basketball wasn't very popular in North Korea, because of it's country of origin.

"You like basketball?" I asked, and Seon-hyang nodded vigorously.

"I saw a game in Pyongyang 3 years ago." Seon-hyang smiled, rubbing her hands softly. "There was an American team there, the Har… Harlee…"

"Harlem Globetrotters." I said, and Seon-hyang nodded and repeated what I said. "Why were they there?"

"Kim Jong-un wanted better relations with the United States." Yeong-mi stated, finishing her 10th chicken wing. "It was fun, and we performed afterwards."

"Yeah, yeah!" Seon-hyang said, clapping her hands. "The instrumental section played this American song for them, it went something like this…" Seon-hyang began humming the Rocky theme song, causing both my parents to turn towards her with bewildered expressions.

"Did you show her Rocky?" My mother asked, eyebrows straining upwards.

"No, her band performed it." I said, also very amazed myself. "For the Harlem Globetrotters."

My parents remained silent as they looked from Seon-hyang, Yeong-mi, and back to me with shocked expressions.

"Are you serious?" My dad asked, his eyes wide. I grabbed my phone, and after a little bit of searching, I found a picture proving the truth of this story. Seon-hyang was dancing on a tan stage, both hands being held by different members of the Globetrotters, with a smile on all of their faces. Seon-hyang was dressed in her Moranbong uniform, a white, military style shirt and a white, knee-high skirt, feed clad in white heels. I showed the picture to my parents, who gawked at it. Seon-hyang looked over and broke into a smile, pointing to younger version of herself.

"Thats me!" Seon-hyang trumpeted, pointing at herself, very proud of her past achievements.

"Did you defect with the North Korean version of the Spice Girls?" My dad asked, still pretty shocked, but smiling now.

"I guess!" I shrugged, and Seon-hyang lovingly imitated me. "I kinda only knew 'em as 'the band that woke me up at 5 am', though."

"How'd they wake you up?" My mother asked, and I saw interest flash across her face.

I imitated the guitar solo, gesturing with both my hands and my mouth. Seon-hyang thought it was hilarious and burst out into hysterical laughter, head thrown back and arms braced across her chest. I looked over at her as she struggled to stop laughing, smiling and holding up my head with my right hand.

"Eat your food." My mother said to me suddenly, pointing her fork at me, and I pouted. "You probably lost some weight while you were making your way across the border, and you're already pretty skinny, young lady."

I returned to my noodles, which thankfully, weren't cold. I finished them about 15 minutes later, and laid back in my seat, feeling pretty stuffed. Seon-hyang petted my hair, having finished her food as well. I put my head on her shoulder, closing my eyes softly as she continued to rub her hand through my hair.

"Sleepy…" Seon-hyang laughed to herself, poking my nose softly. I opened my eyes and smiled at her, before my father interrupted us.

"Now that all of us are done…" My dad said, smiling at the two of us. "How about we head off, and get some shopping done?" I nodded, and after my mother paid, we headed back out into the streets.

After about 20 minutes of walking, we found ourselves in front of the candy place again, the store's name reading "SLURPUFF SWEETS" in English. Through the massive windows of the shop, I could see clear containers overstuffed with colorful candies, covering the dark tables and orange walls. Seon-hyang's eyes lit up at the sight of all this bright stuff, and she practically picked me up and took me in. The store clerk, a older woman with a short stature and greying hair, greeted us, and Seon-hyang waved back, jittery with excitement.

She zoomed across the store, looking at everything around her with a childlike wonder. It was pretty cute, but the revelation slowly came to me that she likely never had an experience like this over the course of her life, that most of her childhood was probably miserable, now with the knowledge of the fact that the woman who took care of her never let her have a toy of her own. I leaned against one of the few uncovered walls, and watched her with a sad expression. Eventually, Seon-hyang noticed, and walked over to me, a concerned expression on her face.

"What's wrong?" Seon-hyang asked me, putting a hand to my face, and I sighed softly, causing her to look downtrodden. "Am I being too childish?"

"No, no, no!" I exclaimed, waving my hands quickly, and Seon-hyang's face relaxed somewhat. "You're fine! I... I just felt really bad, because you've never had the chance to experience something like going into a candy shop, that I had experienced a lot growing up..."

"I wish we had the same childhood." I mumbled. "Happy, loving parents. Lot's of food to go around. A education that prepared you for the world ahead of you…"

"But now I can experience them!" Seon-hyang smiled, holding my hands. "Didn't you say I can start anew here?"

"I did, I did…" I said, tightening my hands around hers. "But… it just seems that when you were a kid, you weren't happy. And I wish you were happy. Like I was."

"Well, I'm happy now!" Seon-hyang hummed. "'Cause I'm traveling with you."

Those words made me feel like my heart was about to explode with euphoria and love, and I let a smile grace across my face. I really wanted to kiss her right now, show to her how much I cared for her, how I wanted to crawl into her arms and live there forever. However, I decided right then, that having a first kiss in a candy shop would be pretty lame, when I could offer her so much more, like a first kiss on the beach or at sunrise. So I just decided to let her lead me to the candies she liked, and let her buy a bag of miscellaneous candies, which she snacked on as we headed out of the store, arm locked around mine.

Unable to find my parents, I swallowed my anxiety and pulled out my phone.

marie: hey where are you?

mom: Your father took us to a store called "Beijing Pokemon Emporium". It should be a ways up from the candy place.

marie: k

I led Seon-hyang (which seemed like a first today), up the street, until I spotted the neon sign, with big bubble characters. I could spot my father through the window, having a lengthy chat with whoever was cashiering that day. My mother was next to him, smiling softly at my father. Well, I sighed to myself, this better not be one of those awful stores that abuses its pokemon. We stepped into the store, and were met with a loud sensor that screamed "NI HAO!" at us and caused Seon-hyang to leap out of her skin, and it took her 5 minutes for her to regulate her breathing to a normal level.

"Is that Marie?" The store clerk, a teenage boy of about 17, with a blonde haircut with choppy bangs asked, and I waved in the most professional way I knew how, smiling brightly. Seon-hyang hid behind me, a little shy, and I giggled.

"So the rumors are true! You really are challenging the Chinese league!" The boy exclaimed, practically shaking. "Oh this is wonderful! I can't wait for you to show off your battling skills, man!" I laughed.

"I can't wait either!" I smiled, before the cashier returned to my dad. I looked around the emporium, which seemed to be full of incubators for pokemon eggs, stuffing the walls and the shelf in the middle. Other than a few shelves towards the front full of antidotes and other kinds of medicines for pokemon, the whole place seemed to be dedicated to eggs. Seon-hyang and I walked through it, memories of throwing a fit in one of these stores because my dad wouldn't let me get any pokemon eggs before I got Jessica. None of the eggs seemed to click with me, and I was about to head back to my parents, before I noticed that Seon-hyang wasn't following me. I turned around and walked until I found her looking at an incubator towards the back of the room.

"Seon-hyang…?" I asked, and she turned to me with a surprised expression on her face. "What's up?"

"Marie…" Seon-hyang mumbled, pointing to a incubator on the top shelf, containing a bright blue egg with sky blue, almost white spots. "Could… I… Y'know?"

"Buy it?" I said, and Seon-hyang nodded. I looked at the price, which was only about 50 bucks. It didn't list the pokemon in the egg, and I glanced up to see a white sign, with "MYSTERY EGGS" scribbled in black on it.

"Yeah, I'll go get the cashier." I said, and Seon-hyang smiled at me, squeezing my hand. I walked over to my parents, who were checking out a tan egg with little flecks of a light orange, placed in a travel incubator, which was colored blue and red.

"Who's that one for?" I asked, blinking in surprise.

"Oh, Joon-ho saw this egg, and was interested in it… It was only about 20 bucks." My dad laughed, and I looked to Joon-ho, who shrugged in response. "So why not?"

"Well, Seon-hyang's having similar feelings about an egg back there." I said, and the cashier swung his head around, looking at me. "So…"

"Do you need help, Ms. Jones?" He asked, and I nodded. The cashier smiled, and walked back with me, to where Seon-hyang was still standing, transfixed by the egg. Seon-hyang jumped and skittered towards me as the man walked towards the clunky incubator, unlocking it and placing the egg into a green and grey portable incubator, which he handed to Seon-hyang. Seon-hyang's arms shook a little, and she smiled softly. I walked over the cashier, and paid for the egg and the incubator, and a burn heal that I grabbed on a whim, which ended up being 92 bucks in total.

If I had bought the egg for myself, I'd probably would regretted the buy because of it's price. I could have bought a similar egg for about 20 dollars back home and just buy an incubator second hand for about 10 , when I saw how happy Seon-hyang was, looking down at her egg with a sweet smile and warm, brown eyes, I knew everything I did was right.

I'd pay any amount of money to see her that happy.

---

historical notes

meyli - means beautiful in chinese

the song marie was singing to herself- "i love beijing tianamen", a popular song in the 1960s. also known for being the soundtrack of the game 'hong kong 97'

seon-hyangs beijing concert actually happened on december 11th 2015, and was an attempt at a "friendship concert" between china and north korea's governments, the former of which is keeping the latter alive. unfortunately KJU said he had produced a hydrogen bomb and chinese downgraded its delegations to lower officals and north korea cancelled and moranbong went home.

nezha- nezha is a real diety in chinese folk religions. most of what i described of him is true (subsituting 'lugia' with 'ao gong'), however i didn't mention that nezha was born in a ball of flesh and he became immortal by slicing his body apart. i also took some liberties with his description to point to his pokemon counterpart in this universe.

seon-hyang's story about the harlem globetrotters was real as well, and there's a vice video on it! just look up "vice north korea basketball" and you'll find it.

and if you're curious and a big kpop nerd... junghwa - uhm junghwa, popular south korean singer and soon-kyu - lee sunny, a singer in the girl group 'girl's generation"

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anyway sorry for the wait, this chapter became ridiculously long lol :) i wanted to write some character stuff and i thought it would be like 6-7k words... i guess i had a lot to write about marie and seon-hyang heheehehe

this might be filler, but i can promise you that the next chapter will set some stuff up, and will be pretty interesting, i promise.

i think im going to start trying for a monthly update schedule, i really wish i could do like.. weekly but i cant :( sorry

please fav, follow, and review :)

marie's pokemon:

varaha - m - pignite, nina - f - nidorina, jessica - f - clefairy, yifei - f - pangoro

joon-ho's pokemon:

ggwek-ggwek - m - magby, egg - unknown - unknown

yeong-mi's pokemon:

n/a

seon-hyang's pokemon:

egg -unknown - unknown