Yom Sang-seop - Three Generations

“It could have been the curse of money, the curse of a hard life, or a curse of anything. ” Deok-gi let the query bounce off him.

Snorting, Won-sam added, “Or the curse of trying to escape our fate as servants.”

After Won-sam and his wife went to the inner quarters, Deok-gi changed his clothes and went out again, this time to Hwagae-dong. His father might have been released as well, and it wouldn’t do to sit back and wait for his call.

With all the doors firmly shut in the outer quarters, he reluctantly entered the yard through the women’s quarters. A gaggle of young and old women bustled about.

The questioning young faces were all unfamiliar. If he hadn’t run into the young woman who babysat the Suwon woman’s child, he might have thought he’d come to the wrong house. After the Suwon woman’s arrest, the child must have been sent here. He couldn’t believe that this was the same house he’d grown up in.

“Hello there! I didn’t recognize you.”

Deok-gi stopped in his tracks. An old gisaeng rushed out of the main room and animatedly greeted him.

He had no idea who she was.

“The girls didn’t recognize the young master. I’m so sorry! Please come in.”

As he looked more closely, he realized that it was the woman he had seen a month earlier in the main room, Maedang.

“You have gone through so much, haven’t you? Such calamity!” A stream of verbiage flowed from the woman.

“I came because I thought my father was released today.”

“Is he coming home? I thought the world was turned upside down, because the old gentleman was taken in, and his son was released instead.” Was she trying to be witty, or was she completely in the dark about what had happened? With a laugh she said, “Then the mistress of this house will be released along with him, right? But will the mistress of Taepyeong-dong get out, too?”

“I think so,” Deok-gi said and left abruptly. Disgusted that the main room once inhabited by his mother had become this woman’s playground, he couldn’t bear another minute of Maedang’s chatter.

It’s been only two months since my grandfather died! Byeong-hwa said that the person who has to die must die soon and that a new era will emerge. Deok-gi knew that his grandfather’s death would usher in a new era, but it hadn’t been defined, and he understood that it wouldn’t materialize overnight.

He took the Sogyeok-dong road to the hospital to see Pil-sun.

My grandfather was more than seventy when he passed away, so his death wasn’t premature. But because we were not prepared, things have degenerated to this level of decadence in just two months!

What would Byeong-hwa have done in my place? There was not much his friend could have done; he might have thrown money here and there, knowing his generous temperament, but most likely a similar sort of confusion would have ensued.

As he approached the hospital entrance, his eyes rose to the second floor. Upstairs, he knocked and pushed the door open. Pil-sun stopped short when she saw him. Her face turned pale, then crimson. Only then did she seem to regain her composure. She bowed her head lightly and looked around for her mother. Her mother’s presence would help contain her emotions.

Her eyes radiated in her wan, gaunt face.

“You’ve had such a hard time.” Deok-gi’s voice caressed her.

Pil-sun’s smile was tinged with sorrow.

Her mother broke the silence. “They hung her upside down, twice, and beat her.”

Not knowing how to comfort her, Deok-gi heaved a sigh.

“They didn’t ask about that Korean overcoat. If they had, it could have been worse. Thank you for putting in a good word for her with the police chief and the section chief so that she could be released sooner.” She turned to her daughter and said, “This gentleman has suffered, too. And he did all that was possible to get you released.”

Pil-sun’s face reddened again as she bowed her head shyly.

“I didn’t do that much. It’s good, though, that they didn’t find out about the Korean coat.”

“Has your father been released, too?”

“I think so. Won-sam and his wife are also back home.”

Both mother and daughter were ebullient.

Won-sam and his wife entered just then, as if they’d been summoned.

After exchanging greetings with Pil-sun and her mother, Won-sam announced that Secretary Ji and Chang-hun had been let go.

“The outer quarters’ man is out?” Deok-gi asked. “How’s his health?”

“Well, he is one strong man. He said there wasn’t much difference between jail and the outer quarters, except it was a little colder in jail,” Won-sam chortled.

“Perhaps he was treated better because of his age,” Pil-sun’s mother said, gazing at her daughter. She herself had been tortured during the March 1, 1919 incident.

“What’s going on with the shop?” Won-sam asked.

“I went there a few times. I brought back some vegetables to eat, but it’s still shut down.”

“Should I open it tomorrow?”

“Well. ” Pil-sun’s mother looked to Deok-gi. She wasn’t sure what to do, with Byeong-hwa not there and her husband seriously ill.

“Can you manage it yourself?” Deok-gi asked Won-sam.

“Anyone can go to the market to pick out items and sell them as long as there’s money. I have enough experience by now.”

“How about letting him open the store tomorrow?” Deok-gi asked Pil-sun’s mother.

“That’d be splendid. My daughter can’t rest well here anyway. ” She seemed pleased and informed Deok-gi that she had been keeping Byeong-hwa’s money.

“Then you and your wife can look after Pil-sun until her father is discharged from the hospital,” Deok-gi said to Won-sam. “In fact, why don’t you move into the back of the store?”

“What do you mean, ‘look after me’?” Pil-sun objected.

Won-sam felt flattered to be entrusted with the responsibility, while his wife’s mind leapt to the possibility that Pil-sun might become Deok-gi’s concubine. She cared for the young lady as if she were her own daughter, so she had no objection to minding her until she recovered from her recent ordeal.

Deok-gi thought he would ask Kimura to arrange a meeting with the Judiciary Police chief. Deok-gi visited the Judiciary Police chief’s house three times over the next few days, but the chief gave no reassurance, saying only, “The problem lies in the seriousness of impersonating police officers. ” And Sang-hun was their mastermind.

Nevertheless, Sang-hun was released several days later.

Sang-hun came alone to receive bows from his children, since he realized it would be awkward for them to visit the Hwagae-dong house.

Deok-gi was in the main room when his father arrived. He rushed down to the yard and prostrated himself in a bow, as Sang-hun’s daughter-in-law, daughter, and others hurried into the yard, too. His wife remained in the main room with her grandson on her lap. She was still furious at her husband’s deception and at herself for having expressed concern for him. She could barely contain her wrath. How can he be so brazen as to come here to see his children? Does he still think he is the family elder?

Sang-hun’s children urged him to enter the main room, but he preferred to sit on the veranda. “I can’t stay long.”

“Your mother says I was wrong, but you realize that you neglected me more than your grandfather did, not letting me spend a penny as I wished. They attacked me for coming over here with phony police officers, but the actual police wouldn’t grant me an interview with you when I needed the key, and it was impossible to know when you’d be released. I was in a bind. Why shouldn’t I use the family money? Everything would’ve been fine if the rice refinery would have paid up, but the bastards made one excuse after another and wouldn’t let me touch even a hundred won. Then, I came here, but your mother wouldn’t let me near the small safe. So I brought someone who could open it. I didn’t invite a thief into the house. The bankbooks were nowhere to be found. But I wasn’t going to spend all the money. I’d honed in on a good business opportunity; the seed money would be recovered in a month or two if I bought into it, and the next day I had to sign a contract, so what else could I do? If your mother had behaved like a decent wife, I wouldn’t have had to go through this humiliation.”