Min Lee - Pachinko

Sunja took a deep breath. Kyunghee was wringing her hands.

“We understand if you don’t wish to buy this,” Sunja said quietly, and turned to leave.

The pawnbroker held up his hand, signaling her to wait, and went to the back room, where he kept his cashbox.

When the two men returned to the house for the payments, the women stood by the door and didn’t invite them inside.

“If I pay you the money, how do I know that the debt is totally gone?” Sunja asked the taller one.

“We’ll get the boss to sign the promissory note to say it’s canceled,” he said. “How do I know that you have the money?”

“Can your boss come here?” Sunja asked.

“You must be crazy,” the taller one said, in shock at her request.

Sunja sensed that she shouldn’t give these men the money. She tried to close the door a little so she could speak with Kyunghee, but the man pushed it back with his foot.

“Listen, if you really have the money, you can come with us. We’ll take you right now.”

“Where?” Kyunghee spoke up, her voice tremulous.

“By the sake shop. It’s not far.”

The boss was an earnest-looking young Korean, not much older than Kyunghee. He looked like a doctor or a teacher — well-worn suit, gold-wire spectacles, combed-back black hair, and a thoughtful expression. No one would have thought he was a moneylender. His office was about the size of the pawnbroker’s, and on the wall opposite the front door, a shelf was lined with books in Japanese and Korean. Electric lamps were lit next to comfortable-looking chairs. A boy brought the women hot genmaicha in pottery cups. Kyunghee understood why her husband would borrow money from a man like this.

When Kyunghee handed him all the money, the moneylender said thank you and canceled the note, placing his red seal on the paper.

“If there’s anything else I can ever do for you, please let me be of service,” he said, looking at Kyunghee. “We must support each other while we’re far from home. I am your servant.”

“When, when did my husband borrow this money?” Kyunghee asked the moneylender.

“He asked me in February. We’re friends, so of course, I obliged.”

The women nodded, understanding. Yoseb had borrowed the money for Isak and Sunja’s passage.

“Thank you, sir. We shall not bother you again,” Kyunghee said.

“Your husband will be very pleased to have the matter settled,” he said, wondering how the women had raised the money so quickly.

The women said nothing and returned home to make dinner.

Where did you get the money?” Yoseb shouted, clutching the canceled promissory note.

“Sunja sold the watch her mother gave her,” Kyunghee replied.

Invariably, each night on their street, someone was yelling or a child was crying, but loud noises had never come from their house. Yoseb, who didn’t anger easily, was enraged. Sunja stood wedged in the back corner of the front room, her head lowered — mute as a rock. Tears streamed down her reddened cheeks. Isak wasn’t home yet from church.

“You had a pocket watch worth over two hundred yen? Does Isak know about this?” he shouted at Sunja.

Kyunghee raised her hands and put herself between him and Sunja.

“Her mother gave her the watch. To sell for the baby.”

Sunja slid down the wall, no longer able to stand. Sharp pains pierced her pelvis and back. She shut her eyes and covered her head with her forearms.

“Where did you sell this watch?”

“At the pawnbroker by the vegetable stand,” Kyunghee said.

“Are you out of your mind? What kind of women go to pawnbrokers?” Yoseb stared hard at Sunja. “How can a woman do such a thing?”

From the floor, Sunja looked up at him and pleaded, “It’s not Sister’s fault—”

“And did you ask your husband if you could go to a pawnbroker?”

“Why are you getting so upset? She was just trying to help us. She’s pregnant. Leave her alone.” Kyunghee averted her eyes, trying to keep from talking back to him. He knew full well that Sunja hadn’t spoken to Isak. Why did Yoseb have to pay for everything? Why did he control all the money? The last time they’d argued was when she’d wanted to get a factory job.

“Sunja was worried about us. I’m sorry that she had to sell that beautiful watch. Try to understand, yobo .” Kyunghee laid her hand gently on his forearm.

“Stupid women! Every time I walk down the street, how am I supposed to face these men again, knowing that some foolish women paid my debts? My nuts are shriveling.”

Yoseb had never spoken in such a vulgar way before, and Kyunghee understood that he was insulting Sunja. He was calling Sunja stupid, Sunja foolish; Kyunghee was also being blamed because she’d allowed it to happen. But it was smarter for them to pay off this debt; if she’d been allowed to get a job before, they would’ve had savings.

Sunja couldn’t stop crying. The agonizing pains around her lower abdomen had returned with greater force, and she didn’t know what to say. It wasn’t clear what was happening to her body.

“ Yobo , please, please understand,” Kyunghee said.

Yoseb said nothing. Sunja’s legs were splayed out like a drunk on the street with her swollen hands holding up her enormous belly. He wondered if he should’ve let her into his house. How could a gold pocket watch have come from her mother? It had been years, but he’d met both her mother and her father. Hoonie Kim was the crippled son of two peasants who’d operated a boardinghouse on a minuscule rented plot. Where would his wife have gotten such a valuable thing? Their lodgers were mainly fishermen or men who worked at the fish market. He could’ve accepted that the girl had been given a few gold rings worth thirty or forty yen by her mother. Perhaps a jade ring worth ten. Had she stolen the watch? he wondered. Could Isak have married a thief or a whore? He couldn’t bring himself to say these things, so Yoseb opened the corrugated metal door and left.

When he came home, Isak was alarmed at the sight of the sobbing women. He tried to calm them so they could speak more coherently. He listened to their broken explanations.

“So where did he go?” Isak asked.

“I don’t know. He doesn’t go out normally. I didn’t realize he’d be this—” Kyunghee stopped, not wanting to upset Sunja any further.

“He’ll be all right,” Isak said, and turned to Sunja.

“I didn’t know you had such a valuable thing from home. It’s from your mother?” Isak asked tentatively.

Sunja was still crying, and Kyunghee nodded in her place.

“Oh?” Isak looked again at Sunja.

“Where did your mother get this, Sunja?” Isak asked.

“I didn’t ask. Perhaps someone owed her money.”

“I see.” Isak nodded, not sure what to make of this.

Kyunghee stroked Sunja’s feverish head. “Will you explain this to Yoseb?” she asked her brother-in-law. “You understand why we did this, right?”

“Yes, of course. Brother borrowed the money to help me. Sunja sold the watch to pay that debt, so in fact she sold it to help us get here. The passage here was expensive, and how was he to raise all that money so quickly? I should’ve thought it through. I was naïve and childish, as usual, and Brother was just taking care of me. It’s unfortunate that Sunja had to sell the watch, but it’s right for us to pay our debts. I’ll say all this to him, Sister. Please don’t worry,” he said to the women.

Kyunghee nodded, feeling a little better finally.

A spasm flared through Sunja’s side, knocking her back almost. “ Uh-muh. Uh-muh !”

“Is it? Is it—?”

Warm water rushed down Sunja’s leg.