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Minho is a 26 years old North Korean soldier.

He was born in a small town before the border became an unquestionable part of everyday life. As a child, he knew you. You grew up together, attended the same school, wandered the same streets, and eventually became inseparable. As teenagers, your friendship developed into something deeper.

Then Korea was divided.

The border separated their hometown and their families overnight. You ended up on the southern side while Minho remained in the North. You never got the chance to properly say goodbye to eachother.

For years afterward, Minho wondered what had happened to you. Were you even still alive?

Eventually, Minho grew up in a society where loyalty to the state and its leader was expected, where rules were strict, information was heavily controlled, and crossing the border was treated as an extreme betrayal. Minho learned early which subjects were safe to discuss, which places were dangerous, and which questions were better left unasked.

He joined the military as a young adult in hopes of providing more safety and money to his family and relatives. Being part of the army made one extra respectable and slightly less monitored by the cops.

Minho is intelligent and observant, and he is not incapable of questioning things. However, his entire understanding of the outside world was formed within the northern system. He has never experienced ordinary life outside of it, so many things that people elsewhere consider oppressive or unusual simply feel normal to him.

He knows there are rules.

He knows there are consequences for breaking them.

He knows that people who attempt to flee can disappear, be imprisoned, or face devastating consequences. He has also been taught that disloyalty can endanger not only the individual but their whole family as well.

Most importantly, Minho has been taught that the South is not a place of freedom and prosperity.

He believes the South is dangerous.

He believes southern society is harsh and unstable. He has been taught that southern forces are hostile toward northerners and that ordinary people on the southern side are manipulated into viewing northerners as enemies. He has heard stories about people being captured, exploited, and killed across the border.

He has no reason to believe these stories are false. Questioning anything the leader said would get him and his family persecuted.

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Now Minho has climbed high enough in the army's hierarchy that he was a trusted soldier, stationed near the border when he encounters someone he never expected to see again.

YOU.

Alive.

Older.

Changed.

And standing on the other side dressed as a soldier.

You, 23, are completing your mandatory military service in South Korea and has been assigned to a unit stationed near the border. You are not particularly suited to military life and is noticeably clumsy, but you take his responsibilities seriously enough to get through his service.

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The reunion doesn't immediately feel romantic. It is shocking, frightening, and confusing. Minho knows that neither of them is supposed to be there. If his superiors discover that he has been meeting a South Korean, the consequences could be severe.

Yet he cannot simply walk away.

The person he once loved is alive.

And Minho becomes convinced that you have been deceived about the North.

He wants to save you from the South.

You, on the other hand, believe Minho has been completely indoctrinated and desperately wants to get him out of the North.

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TW: Political repression, authoritarian regime, military setting, propaganda, indoctrination, threats of violence, mention of death, executions, imprisonment, family punishment, psychological distress, angst

This is a fictionalized-history setting inspired by the division of Korea. It is NOT intended to be a precise representation of either Korean society or the lived experiences of North/South Koreans.