Paek Nam-nyong - Friend - A Novel from North Korea

Judge Jeong Jin Wu took pity on the wife after realizing what she had done for Chae Rim and their children. For the sake of her inalienable rights as a human being, he divorced the couple. It was clear to him that she was the victim of this marriage.

Her eyes in their shadowed sockets seemed nearly hollow from the countless times she had cried. She had wept burning tears of regret for having lived a life of misery, tears of misfortune. However, today was different. These were not tears of frailty or defeat; these were tears of firm determination for a new day ahead of her. She was the kind of person who stood resolute in the face of adversity, and like a wild chrysanthemum, she would emerge from the shrubbery of the dead forest.

Jeong Jin Wu decided to respect and support her civil rights with all his legal might. He felt it the duty of the law to protect the woman’s rights from her husband’s contemptible behavior, which had disrespected her dignity.

Jeong Jin Wu divorced the couple. Yet it pained his heart, knowing that he was destroying a family, a unit of society. And the couple’s children? Indeed, Jeong Jin Wu was not able to free himself of the heavy guilt of breaking the terrible news to the children.

A couple of days before the trial, their children had been called into his office. Jeong Jin Wu offered them two chairs, but the children were so inseparable that they both sat in one. The daughter was ten years old, and the son was seven. They both attended the same elementary school. Jeong Jin Wu did not want to waste too much of their time, so he did his best to keep the conversation brief.

“Your mother and father,” Jeong Jin Wu began, “will no longer live in the same house, so with whom would you prefer to live?”

For the sake of nurturing the children and looking out for their interests, Jeong Jin Wu knew it was always best to have them be with their mother. But he gave them the opportunity to decide for themselves.

The children could not respond to the judge’s shocking question, which would decide, once and for all, their fate. These children had never imagined that their parents’ relationship was in such a dire condition.

After a while, the daughter spoke up, her tears falling like raindrops. “I… I will live with my mother.”

“Me, too! With my mom. I don’t want to be separated from my sister,” replied the brother in utter fear.

It had already been six years since that incident. Judge Jeong Jin Wu got up from the sofa. He tried not to recall that heart-wrenching moment, but the image of the frightened children had not diminished in his memory. The decision that had been made in the court was for the daughter to live with her mother and for the son to live with his father. It would have been better for both of them to be with their mother, but Jeong Jin Wu did not want to overburden her, now that she was a single parent. Jeong Jin Wu had to consider the son’s future and thought that a boy would need a male role model. For that reason, the siblings were separated.

Jeong Jin Wu did not know what had happened to that family since the court hearing. He knew only that Chae Rim found a younger wife, and that his ex-wife had continued living with her daughter without remarrying.

The daughter must be sixteen years old already and the son thirteen, Jeong Jin Wu thought.

Jeong Jin Wu hardly ever ran into that family even though they all lived in the same city. Not too long ago, he had inadvertently run into the ex-wife, but she had avoided him. There was no opportunity for him to talk to her. He thought that unless the couple filed for an appeal to revise the custody arrangement, there was no reason for either a judge or the law to interfere in their personal lives. Even if they were to appeal, he would not be able to handle the case because of all the accumulated work he had to do.

Judge Jeong Jin Wu never forgot all the individual divorce cases he had presided over in the past. They left painful impressions on him because he was not dealing just with legal cases but with people’s lives. Each case required the judge’s discernment and power of reason to administer sentences, but the human heart, so frail and delicate after a divorce hearing, also required compassion and encouragement from the justice system.

Jeong Jin Wu thought, Chae Rim, the chairman of the Provincial Industrial Technology Commission Board. Could it really be him? Would he come see me after the unpleasant memories of the place from six years ago? Is it the same Chae Rim whom I divorced that day? No, the Chae Rim I divorced six years ago was a manager at the Electrical Hardware Factory.

Jeong Jin Wu shook his head in disbelief.

It must be someone else. Who could go through that kind of divorce and then return to the court as if nothing had happened? But knowing him, I wouldn’t be surprised. Then, is he related to Chae Sun Hee? They do have the same family name. No, it must be another man.

Jeong Jin Wu attempted to banish unpleasant thoughts about Chae Rim from his mind as he paced back and forth. The hardwood floor creaked louder than it ever had before.

It began to rain in the evening. It was unusual weather even for this region.

Judge Jeong Jin Wu wanted to wait for the rain to pass because he did not have an umbrella in his office, but he grew impatient. Although Gang An District, house number 19, was a bit out of the way, he decided to stop by on his way home from work.

He ran to find refuge under the newly budding trees, but he could not escape the rain. Cold drops rolled down his face and onto his shoulders. It was not long before his clothes were drenched.

He crossed a narrow bridge over a small creek and saw many single-story residential houses.

There was a young woman in a raincoat and rain boots coming toward him. She held an umbrella over his head and kindly helped Jeong Jin Wu find Lee Seok Chun and Chae Sun Hee’s house. It was a quaint, two-bedroom house with a traditional Korean roof.

A young boy stood outside, shivering and staring vacantly at the way the rain fell from the eaves. Next to him was a shaggy dog, lying on the ground, also soaked by the rain. The lethargic guardian of the house did not bark as Jeong Jin Wu entered the front yard.

Judge Jeong Jin Wu asked, “Young man, where are your parents?”

“They’re not here yet,” the boy replied. He coughed. “Who are you, mister?”

The boy’s hair was wet from the rain, and his arms were covered with goose bumps from being cold. He had dimples in his plump cheeks, and his large lustrous eyes resembled Sun Hee’s. His eyes sparkled with innocence and curiosity, but, unlike other children his age, he also showed signs of anxiety and melancholy. He was the epitome of a child raised in a dysfunctional family.

“Well, you see. I am…” Jeong Jin Wu was about to introduce himself as the legal administrator presiding over the divorce case of claimant Chae Sun Hee and Lee Seok Chun, as he was accustomed to do in most introductory situations. But he thought it would be ridiculous to say such a thing to a child, so he did not complete his sentence. Instead, he said he was from Seok Chun’s factory.

The boy squinted at Jeong Jin Wu with suspicion, and after coughing a couple of times, he said, “I’ve never seen you before. Besides, my father’s shift isn’t over yet.”

“Well, you see. Uh, I arrived first. And, uh, your father, he will be home… uh, as soon as he… uh, as soon as he finishes cleaning the lathe machines.”

Jeong Jin Wu had just remembered that Seok Chun was a lathe operator from his meeting with Sun Hee. The boy now looked at Jeong Jin Wu with trusting eyes.

“Then do you also work the lathe?”