This was originally written (about three years ago) as a separate companion piece to the first chapter, rather than as a second chapter. Just saying it here.

OoOoOo

He took the razor with trembling hands. He removed the blade, ignoring the cuts on his fingers. His heart pounded, his blood rushed through his body … and yet his head was the clearest it had ever been. He wasn't North. He wasn't South. He was just Korea. Yes … He pressed the blade to his wrist … Just Korea.

Blood poured from his wrist, staining the floor and his clothes. He didn't care. For the first time in a long time, he could think without arguing with himself. It felt as if he was whole again. As if there was only one of him. Tears fell from his cheeks, his lips spread into a wide smile. He felt like laughing. So he did. He laughed and laughed. He didn't even know why he was laughing.

He sniffed, pressed the blade into his wrist again. The laughing died down to quiet chuckles. He fell onto his back, stared up at the ceiling. The blade fell from his fingers. Everything was getting dizzy and hazy and he couldn't even think too well anymore, and still his mind was clearer than before. The pain that usually tore him apart was now a dull throb, a mere annoyance. He felt complete.

And then China showed up.

He continued to smile and giggle a bit. China looked so funny, eyes wide and body frozen. And then suddenly, China was kneeling on the ground beside him, pressing a towel from the cabinet onto his wrist. He didn't move, didn't react, not even when China started crying and speaking gibberish in Chinese. He just kept smiling and giggling.

"Stop it!" China snapped, this time in their shared tongue. Korea blinked wearily, feeling tired and overwhelmingly calm. When had he last been this calm, this at peace with himself? It had been too long.

"I feel whole again, hyung!" Korea said, smiling. China froze. Korea kept looking up at the ceiling, as if it might tell him the secrets of the world. "I feel complete." He was tired. So tired. He closed his eyes.

China shook his shoulder with one hand, the other still pressing the towel – now bright blood red – to his wrist. "Don't fall asleep, aru!" Korea wondered why China sounded so scared. He was just Korea. Just a … a nation torn in two. A broken nation.

"I'm tired, hyung," Korea murmured, head lolling off to the side.

"I don't care! You stay awake, Im Yong Soo, or I swear I'll …"

Korea opened his eyes. Even though he couldn't focus on anything, he could still make out China's face, which was now as tearstained as his. "I'm tired, hyung. Of fighting myself. Of pretending. Of being torn into pieces. I'm just … tired." He wasn't even aware of anything he was saying, just the fact that he was speaking.

"Yong Soo … I didn't know …"

He grinned wryly. "Didn't know you cared … I'm tired …"

China choked back a sob and threw his arms around Korea. After a moment, he pulled back and stared into Korea's eyes. "I'm sorry I never told you how precious you are. I'm sorry, Yong Soo."

Korea closed his eyes. "I'm not anything special …"

China resumed pressing on Korea's wrist. Thankfully, the blood was starting to slow. "Yes, you are, Yong Soo. You are so very precious to me. That's why you can't give up."

The pain was returning. The pain from the fighting and arguing and just plain differences between the two parts of him … It was coming back. He started crying again. "It hurts," he whined pitifully, looking up at China.

The cut finally, finally stopped bleeding – a lot faster than if Korea had been human, but still so agonizingly slow. China brushed away some hair from Korea's face. "I'm here, Yong Soo. I'll help you."

Korea leaned into the hand. "You promise?"

China pressed a kiss to Korea's forehead, slightly hoping that Korea was too out of it to remember it later. "I promise."