Fate Chapter 3

TW: Includes mentions of War in Ukraine/old conflict in Georgia and the middle east

~~ We continue ~~

“Oh Grow up!” Nirupama yelled at Myeong, “There’s no way they’ll find you here! So don’t worry, okay?” 

“But what about my family? They’re not going to make it out, they’re not with me, what if something happens to them?” Myeong started rambling, “In North Korea, there is no leaving, not without consequences, they’ll kill my mom!” 

“Myeong, calm down, I’m sure they’ll be just fine.” Nirupama reassured Myeong, giving her a hug, “we'll find them one day, together.” 

“Thanks Niru,” Myeong sighed. 

“Of course, now tell me, I haven’t really heard that much before, what is it like there? I know you grew up there., but you never told anyone about it..”

Myeong sat in silence, looking at Nirupama, weighing her options of what she should tell him, before solemnly deciding to just tell the whole truth. 

“My parents, they were nice people, but they didn’t love each other, my father was in the armed forces, and my mother stayed at home to raise me, they both tried their best to give me a good life, but ultimately, we were struggling. My father would come home everyday and be destroyed from what they had him do for service, my mother would try to cheer him up, take care of him, but there was always tension because of my father. He couldn’t stand my mom, and soon they grew apart, my mom coming to stay in my room after so long. But, my dad became worse and worse, until one day, we had decided we needed to leave, it was long past time to leave, so we did- or, we tried to. Getting out of North Korea is hard, dangerous, and not many have ever been able to do it. One option was to sail to Japan, but it is rough and almost nobody has enough money to buy a boat, even if we did, they wouldn’t let you, but then you could also run across the border to south Korea, but it’s heavily guarded with a wall, land mines which border the area, and military told to shoot to kill. You could go into China, or Russia, but if caught they deport you straight back to North Korea, and..” Her voice cut out, pain filling her eyes as she looked at Nirupama, still engaged in what she was saying, he responded softly, “And.?” 

Myeong breathed a long breath before continuing, “They send you to a concentration camp, for being disloyal, many things happen, all leading to some type of gruesome death.” 

Nirupama looked at Myeong, eyes with guilt about asking, making her remember the past she never wanted to, he knew that feeling all too well. “I’m sorry I yelled at you to grow up, but I have one more question.,” His voice faded as he looked into her eyes. 

She looked down, fiddling with her thumbs, “Yes?” 

“Do., do you know, what happened to your mom.?” Nirupama asked. 

“She was captured. During the escape we chose to go through China, we were trying to get to Mongolia, but while exiting at the borders, she was grabbed, I made the journey through the Gobi desert by myself, it’s a wonder I survived. My mom., is probably in a camp right now, as well as the rest of my family, my grandparents, aunts, uncles, everyone, I betrayed them..”

“Betrayed them.?” Nirupama asked softly. 

“When one person of a family leaves, the rest of the family takes the fall, it’s taken as a sign of disloyalty on the whole family, even if they didn’t know anything about it. I caused it., I betrayed them, I should be the one who dies, not them, me, and just me!” 

“No! Don’t you dare say that!” Nirupama yelled at Myeong. “You are alive, you’re staying alive as long as I’m alive, and you are never going back there!” 

Myeong was silent, she was biting her lip, holding back any form of words or communication. 

Nirupama reflected on what he just said, and apologized, “I’m sorry if I scared you, but you need to stay alive, for me, for the group, for everyone who cares, your mother would be happy knowing you’re okay.” 

“Yea, I guess so.” Myeong replied, “You’re okay, I understand now.” 

“Good.” Nirupama replied. 

Tumura cut in, “Now, let’s go, the meeting is going to start soon,”

Myeong’s face turned fearful as she looked at Tumura, her voice squeaking “I didn’t realize you were here.. I, never would’ve…if I knew-”

“You’re alright, I wasn’t listening anyway, now come on.” Tumura responded, lying to the two, but only Nirupama could tell, Myeong breathed a sigh of relief and they were on their way. 

…

“That’s all I remember from it, I’m sorry, but, it did look like Niru really wanted to tell Myeong something, but probably stopped himself because I was there.” Tumura told the group, trying to take attention away from the imminent landing of their plane. 

Sana was practically laying on top of Toinette, Massimo was watching over Tocito carefully, and Lupe, Tumura and Kinoshita were talking together. 

“I never did actually forgive him for what he said about me.” Lupe said, looking at the two, “It’s not even the first time it’s happened, I hate him, but god, I miss him, and his witty remarks for everything.”

“I don’t think witty is the right word for it, I’d say more., stupid remarks.” Tumura responded.

“That’s true.” Responded Lupe, met with an immediate look from Kinoshita, “You two be nice.” Slightly brightening up, they continued, “You know he’ll haunt you if you keep saying stuff like that!” The three giggled, but the moment was short lasted when the loud speaker came back on. 

“Hello, your pilot speaking again, we are set to land in the next 5 minutes, please excuse the interruption, we will be back in the air soon. After the landing in Azerbaijan, the weather should clear up. Any further details on delays and other aircraft we’ll keep posted” 

“We only made it just barely across the black sea?” Lupe asked frustratedly, “I swear we should be further along by now!” 

Sana glanced worriedly at Lupe, “I don’t want to stay this far in the middle east for too long, Russia’s moving everywhere, and we’re right beside Georgia, there’s conflict there too.”

“Yea, I agree with Sana, the sooner we’re in Japan, the better.” Toinette added. 

“I have a question.” Massimo translated from Tocito’s sign language. 

“Oh sorry Tocito, what is it?” Kinoshita replied. 

“Ha, I forgot he was here.” Lupe remarked. 

“What is our plan when we get into Japan? I was never fully made aware.” Tocito signed for the group to see. 

Sana looked curiously at Kinoshita and Tumura, “Yea, what is the plan?” 

Kinoshita and Tumura exchanged a glance, before Kinoshita spoke, “Truthfully, we don’t really know, it cost a lot of money to be able to buy the plane tickets for the seven-” “five” Lupe remarked again. “-sorry, the five of us, to be going on a trip like this, we may have to stay in Japan for a little while, make money, support ourselves before getting on another plane… Our mother isn’t going to do it for us, she simply provides a place to fall back to, otherwise, we’re on our own.” The plane turned abnormally silent, even the conversations of other passengers seemed distant in Sana’s ears, “What if.., What if we get stuck in Japan?” 

The group's silence only grew larger, the plane had shut down, parked where it was, other passengers sitting silently, or even asleep, it was very late at night, and nobody knew what to do. Their silence seemed to last enos to Sana, as she looked at each member of the group, everyone equally hopeless that they might make it there ever in their lives. Myeong and Nirupama always brought joy to them, the simple ‘let’s just move on’ or ‘continue going’ and without them, everybody had no clue what to do. 

“Hello everybody, this is your pilot speaking yet again, the flight has been completely grounded, weather moving in has delayed the plane to at least Sunday morning, Apologies for the inconvenience.” 

The plane collectively groaned as flight attendants helped people get things from the overhead compartments. 

“Isn’t today, Friday?” Massimo asked no one in particular. 

“What do we do now? We have nowhere to stay. What if we get lost in the airport and can’t find our plane? What if we lose each other-” 

“Sana, stop.” Toinette replied sharply. “Stop saying things like that.”

“Sorry. I’m so sorry.” Sana said looking down, not wanting to ruin anyone else’s mood. 

Kinoshita took charge again, “We’ll stay the few nights in the airport, then get on the plane when possible, we have to lay low though, ration any food we have, when we get to the terminal we’ll pool our money and see if we can buy some better food to hold us off until then, alright?” 

Everyone nodded their heads, finally standing because it was their turn, and went to grab their carry-ons from the overhead bins. Once almost everyone had grabbed theirs they looked around. Ready to leave, they heard Lupe yell, “Ugh! Mine’s missing, where could it have gone?! I swear I just had it!”

Sana and Tocito both flinched at the yell, which was quickly drawing attention from other passengers, Lupe was roughly moving the stuff in the top compartment, “WHERE IS IT?!”

“Lupe, calm down please., you're drawing unnecessary attention..” Kinoshita said carefully. 

They didn’t seem to hear her, or didn’t care because they continued to look in the bins.

“LUPE!” 

.

.

.

Lupe sighed slumping down, eyes turning red “I lost it. I can’t believe I lost it.” 

Massimo placed a hand gently on their shoulder, “We can help you look for it, and it’s just a bag anyway-”

“That’s just it! It’s NOT “JUST A BAG!” Lupe yelled at Massimo through tears flooding their eyes, “It had something important in it.. Something., very, very…” They choked, voice turning to a whisper, “...Important…”

Everything was silent, looking at the ground of the plane, Sana heard, from the heartbroken Lupe, “I lost it.”