I LIVE!

Sorry this took so freaking long. I'm an easily distracted individual.

Enjoy!

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Korea sat under a tree, thinking about nothing in particular. He let his mind wander, idly making a chain of flowers.

He wasn't quite sure how long he'd been in the mountains, more than a few days, that was for sure. He wondered if anyone missed him. It was unlikely, most of them probably didn't even notice his absence. Sons of bitches.

The quiet solitude was nice, though. He remembered stories about his long gone family members. The Three Kingdoms. Too bad they were always locked in a power struggle which resulted in Silla convincing China to help her kill Baekje and Goguryeo. Silla herself died some time after that. He wished he'd gotten to know them, though he heard Baekje was kind of weird.

Come to think of it, all of them were kind of weird. If he remembered correctly, they all had this weird obsession. That and they wanted to kill each other, despite being siblings. Okay, maybe he would've wanted to know them if they weren't at each other's throats.

Aaaand he was out of flowers.

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Days earlier, with the other nations-

"I CAN'T FIND HIM, ARU!"

"Woah, dude, calm down! What're you talkin' 'bout?"

"KOREA! I'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR HIM FOR TWO DAYS, ARU!"

The screaming was enough in and of itself to make the other nations pay attention. The news seemed pretty bad, especially with the 'Korea is a really angry person but is really good at hiding it' revelation.

"Alright, alright. Calm down. We'll find him, how hard can it be, right?" England said, putting a hand on China's shoulder in an attempt to get him to stop screaming.

"It can be very difficult, Asa," Japan replied. A number of nations, mostly the European ones, looked at him in confusion.

"How many of you have actually gone to Korea?" Japan asked, sounding slightly irritated.

There was a general quiet muttering from the nations. Most of them didn't see Korea very often at all, even fewer actually went to see him.

"The Korean Peninsula is very mountainous and those mountains are often covered in large amounts of vegetation and many have very sudden drops. It can be very, very difficult to get through those mountains."

Japan paused and looked at all of them. It was kind of impressive how few of them knew this, it wasn't hard to find out. A decent hike in those mountains could prove it.

"There are villages in those mountains where no one knew the Korean War even happened until just recently. For one person, staying out of sight isn't difficult at all."

Well, of course Japan knew that. China probably knew it too. After all, they both controlled that area at one point. That was probably why Korea was so pissed. He had no real reason to like them, really.

They really ought to have considered this before he finally snapped at them. Maybe they shouldn't have been so harsh, after all, he was being pretty nice to people he had every reason to hate with every fiber of his being.

Some of his people still did.

China broke the silence, "I searched his house for some hint as to where he went."

"Did you find anything?" England asked, he was pretty grateful for the lapse in uncomfortable silence. The screaming was better.

"I didn't find a sword, aru."

There was more silence. Wherever he went, he took the sword with him. Which didn't foretell anything good.

"I also found a bunch of those lucky cats, aru."

"Why would he have those?" France asked. Lucky cats were a Japanese thing, and it appeared Korea really disliked Japan, despite everything.

"Well, they were really cute, aru. Most of them were black, though there were a few white ones."

Japan looked confused now, "No yellow or tri-colored ones?"

"No, just black and white. The colors are significant, right?"

"Yes. Black is to ward off evil and white is purity or happiness."

"Why do I feel like all that black was something passive aggressive, aru?"

It very well may have been, seeing as Korea was very rarely openly aggressive to them.

Or maybe he just liked black lucky cats. Could've gone either way, no one needed an excuse for liking something. Besides, Korea had a thing for cats. He had so many shirts with them on them it wasn't even funny. That went for every animal he considered cute, but mostly cats.

It seemed to be a pretty common trait among nations to adore cute things. It just usually didn't go that far.

"Hey, dude, how many of those cat things were there?"

"No one should have that many cat ANYTHINGS on a single shelf, aru."

So. They were going hiking.

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A few days later.

Korea had one of the black lucky cats with him.

Goddamnit he was allowed to be a little superstitious and he felt like he could use the thing. He did not want to get mauled by a boar or something. And if mythical creatures were real, like England said, he wanted to have at least a bit of luck. After all, not many creatures from his myths were friendly, to say the least.

He might hate Japan, but he wasn't going to deny that his people made some pretty neat stuff. After all, his hate for Japan was personal. People who didn't do those terrible things didn't deserve to be blamed for it.

Besides, what were the chances that anyone would find out about all that? There was no harm in it, anyway. He could like whatever the hell he wanted.

He was eating boar. He avoided being mauled by holding his sword out in front of him while it ran towards him so it impaled itself.

It was at these moments momentum was his friend.

It was bland, which was to be expected as it was just meat he stuck in a fire. Even so, after so long eating things like that, whatever edible plants he could find, he was considering going back. His rage had mostly died down.

Nah, he'd wait more. He didn't want to see anyone's face just yet. Though he probably should've gotten more than just his sword. Like maybe something to cook with so he wouldn't be using his sword to pull the meat out of the fire.

He'd deal with it, for now. Though a six foot long sword was a really awkward knife when not using it to kill things.

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That's it. Sorry.

I tried.

Thank you, to those of you who stuck around and those of you who decided you like it.

I'm trying to keep them in character, albeit with more depth on Korea's part.

Review! Or don't, your choice. I ain't gonna tell you what to do.