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The meeting was supposed to end 20 minutes ago.
Supposed to.
Apparently, nobody could agree on anything since every proposed change sparked up another argument between the stubborn Countryhumans.
Currently, two people were arguing.
“The proposed sanctions are absolutely necessary!” Germany insisted.
“Says who, exactly?” The UK shot back.
“According to basic security concerns!”
“Yeah! Security concerns you've been repeating for the last hour dimwit!”
North Korea had presumably stopped listening 10 minutes ago, maybe fifteen? It was hard to tell, not because the subject was uninteresting to begin with, but because the same points have been repeated over and over again to the point it just lost meaning.
Sanctions.
Trades.
Another sanction.
Security.
More sanctions.
It was all starting to become pure nonsense.
North Korea drummed his fingers against his table while he resisted the compulsion to just rest his head on the table and sleep it out,
“ Jeez.. ”
The communist muttered under his own breath to make sure nobody heard him, or they'd just brush it off as wind; unfortunately, out of his everlasting nosiness, the country glanced around the room, just wanting some entertainment other than the ongoing dispute.
Russia was currently asleep on the table, a bit of drool pooling beneath him.
China was reading documents as always.
North began to wonder whether China had any hobbies at all.
France looked half asleep, and Japan looked like she was seconds away from initiating another debate.
Then his eyes snagged on someone.
Big screw-up.
North Korea suddenly froze, his drumming against the wooden table coming to a halt. He knew better than to look up, he knew better than to let curiosity take over him. But it was too late to look away.
Across the rows of tables—cutting straight through the loud, chaotic crossfire of the argument, a heavy weight pinned him to his seat, his eyes unable to look away. A bead of sweat rolled down his neck.
Somebody was staring at him.
North Korea immediately looked away, a horrible idea.
The feeling didn't disappear at all.
He could still feel the sensation piercing through him like a needle digging through his body. But he thought: Maybe they weren't actually looking at him, maybe he was just imagining things.
People looked at him all the time; it wouldn't be unusual if someone did stare at him. He was North Korea, most Countryhumans in the room had strong opinions towards him, most of them disliked him, and being stared at came with the job of being himself.
So why did this one feel off?
He told himself: don't look, looking would just make things worse. It would mean dealing with whatever came next.
In the background, the fight was still ongoing, Germany and the United Kingdom were still at each other's throats, someone attempted to restore peace, someone else raised their voice, and another Countryhuman interrupted. North Korea didn't pay attention to any of it.
...
North Korea finally glanced up.
USA.
Out of all people, it just had to be the USA.
The blonde wasn't even attempting to hide the fact he wasn't paying attention to the argument anymore.
The argument had long since lost his attention.
Even behind his sunglasses, it wouldn't hide that his gaze was completely fixated on the communist.
His gaze remained fixed on North Korea.
The American wasn't smiling, he wasn't frowning either. The capitalist's expression was completely unreadable, it gave North Korea a sense of unease and irritation.
The latter immediately looked away, hoping it just seemed like he was glancing around the room.
Germany was still arguing, while UK was still replying too fast like he didn't want to understand the other side at all and just try to justify his point of view.
Some other Countryhuman in the room sighed like they were responsible to deal with all of this.
Russia was still asleep.
People looked at each other all the time by accident, some wouldn't even notice they were staring. It didn't mean anything; therefore, North Korea had nothing to worry about.
That's what he wanted to believe.
The communist stared at the untouched documents in front of him. He didn't really read it, he just stared blankly at the paper, hoping it would just make him forget what happened. But yet, his attention kept drifting back to a specific point in the room.
He kept convincing himself not to look back, that the other might notice he's staring back. Eye contact was awkward, North Korea didn't like that.
North Korea was eventually stuck in his thoughts, overthinking almost every single possibility, even the ridiculous ones. Before a thunderous noise suddenly got the communist's head out of the clouds.
“Enough!” The UN roared, clearly exhausted.. Everyone already knows why. “We will continue this discussion another day.” The winged-man spoke, pinching the bridge of his nose as the room let out a collective sigh.
Eventually, chairs started scraping against the floor, documents were gathered by the countries, Russia woke up with a startled snort, and conversations immediately filled the room instead of ridiculous bickering.
North Korea should've felt relieved that the squabbles and yelling came to an end, he should've been glad, or felt at peace at least. Instead, his stomach sank.
The meeting was over, obviously.
And that meant the hermit kingdom had run out of excuses or ways to avoid the loud, filthy American.
North Korea risked a glance; unfortunately, America was still there. Great, just great.
North attempted to gather all his documents a little faster than usual, hoping it wouldn't catch anyone's attention. He just wanted to pack up and immediately leave, there's no way he's risking a chance to get involved in a conversation. He shoved all the papers into his folder, he didn't care about being organized right now, he just wanted to leave, was that really too much to ask for? Finally, he stood up.
The latter's eyes flickered around the room, finding out the Capitalist still hasn't moved from his spot. North Korea attempted to convince himself: maybe he was just overthinking this, maybe America was just waiting for someone else, right? That was a stupid thing to assume, both of them were the only ones left there.
USA started walking over.
North Korea tried to escape anyway, he turned, took two steps, maybe the universe had decided to give him a chance after all! And then he can just run away and act like nothing ever happened in this room!
“North Korea.”
A familiar voice cut through the fog of North Korea's mind, causing the communist to stop in his tracks. He immediately regretted it. Slowly and definitely not surely, he turned around, only to discover the USA had already closed half the distance between the two. Great, there goes his escape plan. Just great! Definitely what North Korea needed right now.
“.. What could you possibly want.” North Korea spat back, clearly disinterested in any conversation at this moment. He could've just left right now and- oh wait that's a good idea actually. Before waiting for an answer, North Korea took a few steps to the door before fingers suddenly curled around his wrist.
America stared at North Korea for a few seconds before he finally decided to start talking and not just stare all day like he did the last few hours. “Well that's one way to greet somebody.” He replied before sighing and continuing “You seemed distracted.”
Well that was quite obvious wasn't it, America? North Korea groaned in irritation, attempting to pull his arm out of the USA's grasp, but to no avail. “I wasn't, you were just imagining stuff.”
“Is something wrong?” The sentence came out faster than both of them expected, USA wasn't really fond of asking about his enemy's well-being, it just suddenly slipped out.
The atmosphere was awkward, silence filling the air. “Can you ask better questions.” The communist demanded, not wanting to deal with any genuine nonsense. He just wanted to go home god dammit.
The Capitalist's gaze remained fixed on the isolated country, expression irritatingly unreadable unless you knew where to look. “You looked like you were about to walk out of that room any second now earlier.”
“You were staring.” North Korea admitted.
Silence, again.
...
“So you noticed?” It wasn't really a question “That's why you've been trying to avoid me.” USA stated, leaving no room for argument, even if NK did manage to try and banter with America, he'd just cut the communist off mid-sentence.
North Korea was getting frustrated, he yanked his wrist back, dusting it like America was some kind of dusty inconvenience. “Just go away.”
“No.” The answer was immediate from the capitalist, which shocked both of them.
“I'm not giving you a choice, I'm telling you to go away.”North Korea retorted, irritation visible on his face, he didn't want to talk anymore, all of this was just ridiculous.
“And I said no!” The blonde immediately tried to grab North Korea's wrist again to prevent him from leaving. But since frustration eventually became physical, a shove suddenly came to America's way as he fell on the floor.
North Korea himself didn't plan to be that rough, but all he could focus on right now was just retreating, so he did.
Eventually, the USA was the only country left in the room. He remained on the floor for a few seconds before getting up and dusting himself. Most people that shoved him were either angry or just pissed off, North Korea was neither. North Korea looked scared.
That worried USA more than it should've.