Yom Sang-seop - Three Generations

“It sounds like your father is straddling the fence. So whose side are you on?”

“I’m also on the fence,” she said with a grin.

“A moderate? You’re an opportunist,” Deok-gi laughed.

“There can be a meeting point,” Pil-sun said. “We pity each other because we’re poor. We have no energy to argue about why the other side is wrong when all of us, in both camps, have had to tighten our belts. That’s how we can understand each other. That would be the picture of our families and society in broad strokes.”

Deok-gi thought Pil-sun’s words, though casually phrased, made sense. “That’s true. There’s definitely a meeting point, whether it’s a social movement or a national movement.”

“That’s why my mother — who doesn’t share Byeong-hwa’s convictions, and says cynical things behind his back — is the first to come to the rescue when there’s an emergency,” Pil-sun said, remembering how her mother had helped Byeong-hwa with Pi-hyeok’s escape.

Deok-gi nodded. “I’m sure she does.”

“From what you are doing for Byeong-hwa, I’d say there is some similarity between you and my mother.”

“You hit the nail right on the head!” Deok-gi laughed, impressed with her insight.

A low table was brought in. Pil-sun was astonished at the array of dishes — sliced boiled beef, pan-fried skewered strips of beef and colorful vegetables, and dried fruit that she had eaten only at weddings and sixtieth-birthday parties she had attended as a child. She was equally surprised that it was Won-sam’s wife who brought in the table, whom she saw every day at the store.

“When I heard you were here, I hurried over. Take your time and enjoy the food,” the woman told her, as if Pil-sun were a member of her own family, and left the room without another word.

Won-sam’s wife came to the house during the daytime to help out, hoping to move in when the current servants quit and the servants’ quarters in the Suwon woman’s new house became vacant. Her life was much less arduous since she had been living in a rented room, and it did her good to receive better treatment from other people, but she couldn’t support herself with the paltry sum her husband made at Sanhaejin. She also didn’t feel like breaking away from such a grand household. She had grown attached to her mistress and was nervous about making ends meet on her own. Also, she wouldn’t be able to eat as well as she was accustomed to. Hearing about Won-sam and his wife, Deok-gi thought they were no different from some liberated black slaves in America.

“Why aren’t you eating?” Pil-sun asked him.

“I have no appetite. I’ll just have some tangerines. But you should eat before the food gets cold.”

Watching Deok-gi peel a tangerine, she lifted the lid off a bowl and discovered rice-cake soup inside.

Well, when I first met him, I slurped noodles he had bought me with my lunch box on my lap! Encouraged by this thought, she picked up the chopsticks. Her throat tightened, though, at the thought of her parents at the hospital. If she could have, she would have wrapped up everything on the table and taken it to them.

She managed to eat a few morsels when Deok-gi’s wife joined them with her baby. Pil-sun felt blood rush to her face again.

“I’m not sure if our food is to your liking, but please enjoy it,” urged Deok-gi’s wife, seeing that Pil-sun hadn’t touched anything but the noodles. She put down the child, went out, and returned with a bowl of rice-cake soup. “Let’s eat together,” she said, sitting across from Pil-sun.

Deok-gi smiled with gratitude at his wife’s kindness.

“It’s been a while since we made the rice cake, so it’s grown rather dry,” she muttered, picking up some beef slices and placing them in Pil-sun’s soup. She had more favorable feelings toward their guest now, having heard Won-sam’s wife praise her in the kitchen.

Now feeling more comfortable, Pil-sun tried various dishes. The sliced beef was tasty; it brought memories of better days when she had been able to sneak slices off the chopping board as her mother prepared her father’s drinking snack, which she would do a few times a year at most. And the egg-coated fried fish delighted her, for her family hadn’t been able to afford it for such a long time, even on New Year’s. She could polish off an entire bowl of rice with just the kimchi, made with seasoned whole cabbage. Something she hadn’t eaten all winter long. How fresh it tasted!

After the meal, Deok-gi’s wife removed the table. After encouraging her to have some fruit, Deok-gi opened the loft door and fumbled inside, his back to her. She wondered whether he was going to give her some food for her father. It would embarrass her to be carrying anything in full view of others when she walked out of the house. Worried, she sat with her head bowed. When Deok-gi was seated in front of her again, she said, “I should take my leave. I’m sorry for making a nuisance of myself.” She bowed.

“Hurry on to the hospital, then. And please give this to your father.” He pulled out an envelope from under the bedding.

“What is it?” Realizing what it was, Pil-sun’s face burned.

“I had meant to visit him before my departure, but I got so sick that I haven’t been able to see him, and since you’re here. ”

“Please don’t — ”

“We know each other’s situation well. It won’t even cover his daily expenses.”

Pil-sun stood up, but Deok-gi seemed reluctant to let her go. “When will you come again? Come if you’re free tomorrow or the day after. Actually, I didn’t get to talk to you about what I intended to, and I feel so trapped here, having to stay in bed like this.”

Hearing the man’s tender, pleading tone, Pil-sun blushed and felt as frightened as if he were holding her tightly from behind. She worried that someone might have overheard his words.

“I will, if I can,” she told him, wishing she could come every day. But she thought, I’d be crazy if I came again! She couldn’t understand why he was so kind to her.

Why should he feel trapped when he has such a good wife and child?

She made fun of herself for having been so easily excited by his words. She had never pictured Deok-gi as a bachelor or imagined that he lived by himself, but her heart had taken a sharp turn upon seeing for herself his comfortable family life. She had almost been swept away by his tender words and generous attitude, but she believed she would be better off not seeing him. Was Deok-gi’s kindness merely a trait of the cultivated class or was it how he seduced women? What if she ended up like Gyeong-ae? Though still quite innocent, she was bright and had heard and seen her share during her years working at the factory.

Arriving at the hospital, Pil-sun said, “Mother, I’ve just come from Mr. Jo’s house.” Smiling as if she had done something forbidden, she tried to read her mother’s reaction.

“Oh? It was the right thing to do, but. ” Her emotions played tug-of-war on her face.

“Byeong-hwa asked me to take some fruit to his house. He insisted that I come in.”

“You did the right thing to go in and see him.”

“And he gave me this.”

“He shouldn’t have.” She opened it.

A hundred won! Her mother’s face was strained. When Pil-sun worked at the factory, it would take her three months to earn a hundred won. Deok-gi might be kind and gentle to everyone and might even pity them, but she didn’t want to owe him too much.

The father, who had been looking on, heaved a sigh, his face devoid of expression.

Seeing that her parents were troubled, Pil-sun couldn’t bring herself to tell them about the lavish lunch she had been served. She had never hidden anything, however trivial, from her parents, and there had never before been anything she couldn’t discuss with them. It felt odd not to tell them that she had been treated to rice-cake soup and that Deok-gi had asked her to come again.