Bank on Asia (North Korea & Mongolia)

[VanDerZanden]

Chosŏn was highly doubtful of China's assurance that she would fit in as if she'd been going to the World Academy from the beginning; even many of the Asian countries seemed to dislike her. Being popular was certainly the last thing that she expected to happen as a result of being part of this informal association of nations. At best she reasoned that not being hated would be an acceptably positive result of membership, which was fine by Chosŏn's standarads. Maybe from there she could slowly build a friendship with a few of them, based on shared love of culture or music. Something like that. Just as long as they recognized she was strong and independent. Getting treated like a small child or some powerless undeveloped country who needed help being guided along a path she didn't care for in the first place.

Further conversation would wait for a later time since it seemed like China had answered her queries the best he could, and was overly tired from his exertions of this past day. That concerned Chosŏn just a little bit. It was true that China was one of the stronger nations in the world and that he had survived a lot of troubling times and thrived. Even he had his limits though. She didn't want China overexerting himself to the point where he became weakened again. Through all his experiences there had been enough times where that had happened without a repeat occurance in the modern day. In all honesty Chosŏn wasn't sure what she'd do if China weren't around to help her build things and keep the Westerners off her back. This realization came to her as China sat down with his Hello Kitty and promptly fell asleep. She was about to actually thank him for all his help, but just sat there blushing and looking kind of annoyed that he'd fallen asleep before she could manage to make herself to say something so profound.

The rest of the flight was fairly uneventful for Chosŏn. Taiwan eventually made an appearance, threatening to turn China's face into a canvas for her personal artwork. Chosŏn reacted to this by glaring at Taiwan, clenching her hands into fists and looking adorably threatening in an attempt to scare her off from the nefarious plot. All this seemed to accomplish was amusing Taiwan who soon lost interest in tormenting China that way anyhow. Afterwards Chosŏn did her best to stand guard over her sleeping neighbor, just in case anyone else got some funny ideas about messing with China. In the end her own extended period of being awake, largely without food, took its toll on Chosŏn as she tried to look and act all tough. That Hello Kitty sure did look soft even if it was being used by China at the moment. Surely it wouldn't hurt if she just took a short nap.. no, just rested her eyes. That was all. Just resting her eyes.

She discretely pulled the plush unicorn out of her bag and clutched it close. It looked fairly pedestrian in everything but the expression that had been sewn onto its face by the manufacturer. After all not many unicorns had a grimacing sneer on their face, as it tended to frighten small children. Chosŏn found it strangely adorable and had insisted on purchasing it forthwith once she'd spotted it during a rare visit to China some weeks before. The angry unicorn tucked under her arm, Chosŏn kind of curled up on her side in the airplane seat - possible due to her diminuitive size. Just resting the eyes. Her head ended up resting on China's chest, legs tucked underneath her as her eyelids closed and she drifted off to sleep. Several times she jerked her eyes open, fighting the urge to slumber, but her own exhaustion finally won out.

Only when China had awoken did Chosŏn realize her failure in 'just resting her eyes'. As he made his rounds to check on everyone Chosŏn made quick work of stuffing her unicorn back in the backpack, finding herself especially embarrassed once again. To reiterate the point that she was independent and strong Chosŏn spent the rest of the flight with her arms crossed over her chest and glaring at the rest of the plane cabin in general. Nobody made smart remarks about 'China's little sister' or anything, so she hoped no one had seen her asleep like that. Why she'd done it was a total mystery to her. The sooner they landed the better it would be for Chosŏn, who was anxious to move on before anyone pointed out the silly things she had done aboard the plane.

Thankfully it wasn't long at all before they had deplaned and were preparing to drive to the Academy. As China loaded her luggage and that of others who'd be riding with them, Chosŏn noticed that two boys would be riding with them alongside Taiwan. Stupid Taiwan. Though even Chosŏn had to admit that the 'Republic of China' was in fact kind of cute. That was it. Brunei she had no idea what to think of, though she had a hard time even recognizing him at first. One look at the small nation and she already dreaded the ride to the World Academy. He was going to be one of those countries, wasn't he? Before she could muse further on the impending torture of sharing a care with Brunei, she noticed with great shock that her brother would be riding with them as well. If there was a more awkward person to share a ride with, Chosŏn certainly couldn't think who it would be.

She again almost said something to South Korea, but couldn't get it to come out. With Brunei wedged between the Koreas, it became harder to try and talk to her sibling or even work up the courage. For the first ten minutes or so Chosŏn and her brother just stared at each other and both awkwardly started to say something before hesitating and falling short of conversation. Chosŏn knew that she should probably say something in greeting, even just a simple hello. South Korea for his part was wondering what the hell his sister was even doing there; wasn't she content to hide out in her place and yell every now and then? Certainly she wouldn't have come to the school on her own volition, so someone else had to have convinced her to as evidenced by her actually wearing the World Academy uniform. She looked totally different, less scary and weird when she wore normal clothes instead of that damned army getup her boss loved so much. Chosŏn's though also turned to her brother's uniform, but her thoughts were more along the lines of how readilly he wore such clothes and how foreign they made him look. Both siblings continued to stare and evaluate the other, until suddenly from between them a voice made a proclamation.

"You're both freaking me out!" came Brunei's exclamation, more to break the silence and annoy the Koreans than out of honest sentiment.

This jarred Chosŏn, who stared at the even smaller nation with wide eyes and then shook her head. This was going to be a long ride. Finally Chosŏn looked over to her brother, nodded a little and asked, "S-so... tongsaeng... are you getting enough to eat?".

An incredibly strange question and one that elicited the response of, "What are you suggesting, ane? That I'm poor and can't afford food, like you?"

"Wait just a minute! I'm not poor or weak! And I absolutely do not have problems getting food," Chosŏn responded, her voice raising just a bit, "And if I did, I wouldn't need anyone's help to figure out how to solve that problem!"

"You're not just going to take that, are you?" Brunei interjected, doing his best to instigate a fight between the two. It would make China miserable, after all.

South Korea glared much like his sister and remarked, "Of course not! At least I don't need to have someone do everything for me just so I can pretend like I'm tough!"

"Oh no, because you have Miche for that! Really brilliant, selling out to the same kind of jerk who likes to order us around!" Chosŏn shot back, and so the argument progressed into near shouting; only Brunei's interruptions were louder.

The bickering receded a bit when the siblings realized that the music was in Korean, and was in fact from South Korea. One the one hand the brother found it pleasing and a nice change from his sister criticising everything he did. Chosŏn actually recognized the song as well and secretly really liked it, though she would never admit this to her brother. More awkward glances were exchanged, followed by further bickering over whether the language being sung was Hangukou or Chosŏnou and devolved from there. It was probably best for China that the music and Taiwan were distracting him from what was developing between the two siblings, punctuated by Brunei's goading. At one point Chosŏn started writing things down on a sheet of paper. She then leaned over past Brunei and glared right at her brother, seizing his hand tightly as if to cause him great pain.

"That's it, I've heard enough! You stabbed me in the back, you jerk! How dare you choose Miche over your own sister!" she growled, then went back to her corner of the car.

South Korea was about to respond when he felt something in his hand - it was a note, written in Hangul and addressed to him. When he unfolded it, the note turned out to be a request from his sister for a number of things, all written in very formal language. Among other things she wanted to know if he'd send her some music, including songs by Wonder Girls, Harisu and Seo Yeong Un. Kind of older stuff for some reason. Plus she asked for a few snacks, if he happened to have any for his big sister - code for ChocoPies. At the end the note was actually signed with Chosŏn's full title rather than something more familiar. Upon finishing the note he glanced over to his sister, who appeared to be pouting now and sighed.

"Fine," he responded, and thus ended their first talk in a few weeks.

After arriving at the school South Korea immediately went his own way, leaving Chosŏn to handle her own bags (not that she'd let anyone help her with them). As China tried to shake off Taiwan, Chosŏn saw her opportunity to prove to the world how self-reliant she could be. Despite having never set foot in America before, despite the size of the school and dormitory, despite it all she would find her own way to the Asia dorm! Always fairly gifted in sneaking around she grabbed her bags and slipped off, not realizing her unicorn had fallen out of the bag and was on the floor of China's Geely. She spirited away with full confidence that she could achieve anything on her own, no matter who got in her way. Today she would prove to everyone that she didn't need anyone's help to survive!

It became quickly apparent that she had no idea where she was going though. Everything looked far too similar, and she'd neglected to get a map of the grounds to assist her in navigating the Academy. She began to look around frantically, trying to find landmarks to figure out just where she had ended up in her aimless wandering of the grounds. It was all America's fault! He'd designed the place to be deliberately confusing to someone like Chosŏn, all because he wanted to lord over her how superior his way of doing things was! Chosŏn was getting a bit desperate as she pulled out the Chinese-made cell phone she'd been allowed by her boss to try and call her host for help. No reception. Of course, the phone only worked in her place! Cursing her misfortune and America just for good measure, she looked around for other nations who might provide information on where she should go.

Immediately she spotted one standing out in front of a dorm building whom she recognized. It had been years since the two had seen each other, but that was almost certainly Mongol blocking the entrance to the girls' dormitory! Chosŏn immediately recalled how they'd once been friends, good friends. When Russia had taken her in during the Soviet days, Mongol had been right there to welcome her to the family of nations. Given that she was once again in a completely unfamiliar area, Chosŏn could really use that sort of welcome right about now. But would Mongol even want to see her? Chosŏn had 'cancelled' their friendship when Mongol talked about becoming more Westernized, but now kind of regretted doing something so rash. Before she knew it Chosŏn had walked over to the entryway and was working up the courage to speak to her estranged friend.

Chosŏn bowed, quietly asking, "Mongol? I.. I require your hel... I mean, could you tell me where the.. um.. dorms are for Asian countries? I seem to have been turned around by this crazy Western architecture."