Yom Sang-seop - Three Generations

“She can’t. I’ll wait here.” Resigned, Pil-sun watched him disappear, wondering whether or not she’d see him again.

If Pi-hyeok’s plot were exposed, she’d be taken away, too. But perhaps things hadn’t gotten that bad yet. Pil-sun thought she wouldn’t mind being taken to the police, along with everyone else. Nothing frightened her except her mother being left all alone. She knew that Deok-gi was innocent, and even if he weren’t allowed home this evening, he’d be released soon enough, perhaps with Byeong-hwa.

Once she had regained her calm, Pil-sun sat down in the hospital room, which was dark enough to make her feel drowsy, when her mother rushed in.

“Mother! They let you leave?” Pil-sun ran to her.

“Go quickly. I asked Won-sam to keep an eye on the store. Neither of us knows how to make a phone call — ”

“Has the detective left?”

“Yes, just now. Where’s Mr. Jo?”

“They took him from here.”

“That’s terrible. He will have another sleepless night.” She spoke of Deok-gi as if he were her own son. Stroking the blanket now draped over her husband, she asked quietly, “And how can we repay him?”

Pil-sun went back to the store. People were constantly coming and going. Their prices were lower than most of other stores and they were generous with their portions, even if it amounted to only a few extra stalks of green onions. Their circle of customers was growing.

Whenever there was a lull, Pil-sun leaned against the doorframe and gazed listlessly at the mountains in the distance.

When she spotted Deok-gi arriving in a rickshaw, her heart leapt. If she didn’t have to worry about what he might think of her, she would have run out and grasped his hand.

“They asked me to give them proof that I had given Byeong-hwa a thousand won. I had to take a detective home and then go back to the police station.”

“What did you show them?”

“I happened to have a check drawn in the amount of a thousand won dated two days before my grandfather’s death, so I gave them that.” Pil-sun was relieved.

“Even so, they refused to release Byeong-hwa and Gyeong-ae, so I stopped by Gyeong-ae’s house to fetch a quilt and warm clothes, but the police wouldn’t allow them in. Gyeong-ae’s mother is still waiting there. Maybe they’ll be released soon.”

Deok-gi called out to Won-sam, “Is there a beef-soup restaurant around here? I haven’t eaten yet.”

“You haven’t eaten! We have some rice but nothing to go with it.” Pil-sun was at a loss. “I can’t believe they dragged you all over town and didn’t even give you a moment to sit down for dinner.”

As Won-sam was stepping out, he remembered Pil-sun. “You haven’t eaten yet, either. Should I order for two?”

“I don’t want anything. I don’t feel like eating.”

“Then order for three people, Won-sam. You should eat, too.”

“No, thank you, sir. I already ate.”

After Won-sam left, Pil-sun went to the kitchen and set a tray. She brought it out and put it aside in a corner, to await the soup.

“I don’t know what to say,” Pil-sun said, as she stood by the stove with her head bowed.

“Why?”

“I had no idea that you went to such trouble, going from one place to another without pausing to have dinner. I was actually upset that you didn’t phone me. It was wrong of me to be angry with you.”

“Not at all! It wasn’t wrong of you. I knew that you’d be anxious waiting all by yourself, but I thought I could come sooner. I’m sorry.”

“Your apologizing makes me feel even worse. You’ve had such bad luck since yesterday, all because of us.”

“Please don’t mention it.” Deok-gi was touched by this young woman’s unadorned, frank words. No one would ever guess that she had worked at a rubber factory until recently. He wished she could always retain her natural innocence.

Deok-gi hesitated a moment before asking, “Do you have any idea how Byeong-hwa was able to buy the store?” He feared his question might have come too abruptly, but it was what he most wanted to know.

“I don’t know. Did someone say something?” The look on her face told him that it was a difficult subject for her.

“No. I haven’t heard anything except that that man Jang Hun made a terrible scene. Byeong-hwa asked me to pretend I supplied a thousand won in seed money. The whole thing is suspicious any way you look at it.”

Deok-gi waited for Pil-sun’s reply, but she hesitated, wondering whether she should reveal everything she knew. Won-sam’s arrival with the beef soup put their conversation on hold.

Pil-sun asked Deok-gi to go sit in the back room and took the tray to him. Her cheeks burned at the thought that Gyeong-ae must have served Byeong-hwa in this manner the night before.

“Bring your soup, too, so that we can eat together.”

“No, thank you. I’ll eat later.”

“The soup is getting cold. Come on, eat here at the stove.” Won-sam put a bowl of soup on the stove.

“Here, Won-sam, take the change and get some rice wine for yourself. It’s so cold today.”

Won-sam dashed out to get some.

“That fellow, Jang Hun, why hasn’t he been arrested?” Pil-sun felt bad deceiving Deok-gi, pretending she knew nothing when actually she knew quite a lot.

“Well, his name wasn’t mentioned at the police station. perhaps they haven’t gotten around to him yet. The focus of their questions was the thousand won, but Jang Hun couldn’t have given it to Byeong-hwa, could he?”

Seeing that Deok-gi was slurping his soup with gusto, Pil-sun brought the earthenware pot from the stove and refilled his bowl.

“Someone. was here. From abroad,” Pil-sun volunteered. She couldn’t deceive him any longer.

“From abroad?”

“He gave money to Mr. Kim to do something, and that guy Jang Hun didn’t like it, saying that Mr. Kim opened the store with the money he was given.” Pil-sun was reluctant to say anything more.

“But what difference does it make to Jang what Kim does with the money?” Deok-gi asked.

“Because if he were arrested, the incident might escalate further. They might even take me in, too,” Pil-sun explained as she took away the tray.

At that point, muffled voices were heard from outside. Gyeong-ae and her mother entered the store behind a rickshaw driver, who was carrying a bundle of quilts.

Gyeong-ae’s mother had waited at the police station. When Gyeong-ae was finally released, she insisted on stopping by the store. Her mother came along, thinking she might as well have a look at the place.

Her mother had frowned on the idea of Gyeong-ae opening a store with Byeong-hwa, worrying that they might grow intimate. She was not at all pleased to learn that Gyeong-ae had slept at the store the night before to take care of Byeong-hwa. Earlier that day, Deok-gi had mentioned that Pil-sun’s entire family had been out and that Byeong-hwa and Gyeong-ae had stood vigil at the store alone; Gyeong-ae’s mother could no longer ignore the situation.

Without any knowledge of Pi-hyeok’s bundle, she took it for granted that the money for the grocery had come from Sang-hun. She was familiar with their former benefactor’s ways. She suspected that the two would reunite someday, even though they had been estranged for a few years. So when her daughter opened the store as soon as Sang-hun’s father died, it pleased her to imagine that they were getting back together, which was the right course for them.

If Sang-hun and Gyeong-ae could just get along without too much trouble, she believed that she could spend her remaining days in comfort. What did it matter whether Deok-gi or Sang-hun was the heir? Weren’t their pockets interchangeable? Gyeong-ae’s association with Byeong-hwa at such a crucial time — that was reckless of her. Though Gyeong-ae had become friendly with Byeong-hwa through Pi-hyeok, her mother nevertheless remained uneasy. Sang-hun must have approved of Byeong-hwa’s involvement in the store, and Byeong-hwa seemed to have a woman of his own, yet if something went wrong and aroused Sang-hun’s suspicions, things might get ugly. Now that Gyeong-ae had been dragged into trouble because of Byeong-hwa, and with Sang-hun nowhere to be seen, the mother couldn’t make heads or tails of the affair.