We walked toward the crosswalk and looked into the shop windows while waiting for the green light. We saw the changing light reflected in the window and crossed the street with a crowd. As soon as we reached the other side we turned into a little alleyway a few steps from the crossing. As though it was choreographed, as soon as we jumped into the alleyway we began running. As expected, we heard the tapping noise of other shoes running behind us. It was too dark to see clearly, but I figured there were at least a couple of them. The alleyway split into two, and we took the closest way, where we could see another major street at the end.
“That way!”
Dong Woo squeaked under his breath as he ran. “Let’s cross the street as soon as we get there!”
I ran right behind him. We headed toward a well-lit, busy intersection. Dong Woo and I ran into a busy traffic lane where cars were speeding past. They honked and screeched and spun, but we managed to cross the street and find another side street to run through. Looking around, I spotted a little café at the corner of the street. It was an old two-story Japanese-style building. I climbed the stairs and Dong Woo followed without hesitation. The café was quite large but only two tables were occupied. First we walked over to the back window draped with curtains, to study the layout of the neighboring side streets, then we took a table next to a window overlooking the street. It was the middle of November and the weather was quite cool, but sweat streamed down my neck and chest. Puffing and gasping for breath, we were still unable to relax, and we stared at the street down below. The waitress approached us, yawning.
“Would you like to order?”
“Two coffees, please.”
Dong Woo showed her two fingers and turned his back to the window.
“We were being followed, no doubt.”
“Yeah, they followed us at least up to the alleyway over there.”
But then I thought of how they had urgently pursued us through the side streets after we crossed the street, and I realized something.
“No, they weren’t just following us, they were ready to pounce.”
“I think you’re right. One came into the church to confirm our location. We happened to see him first.”
“And the other one was waiting outside. How many do you think there were?”
Dong Woo was nodding his head, as he was in the habit of doing when trying to figure something out.
“Two or three? I don’t think they’re from here. If the national security people were following us, there would have been layers and layers of nets. Where do you think we got the tail?”
“Either you or me.”
“Yeah, someone near us must have reported us to the police. There’s someone suspicious, maybe a spy, so why not find out for sure? So they follow him, and he walks into a darkened church garden. And meets someone. Even provincial police would quickly realize something dubious was taking place.”
Dong Woo’s deduction was logical, and I reached a conclusion.
“The solution is simple. We need to move from our hideouts.”
“I guess that’s the only thing we can do. Ugh, here we go again.”
“I don’t have much, all I have are underwear and toiletries. I don’t even have to go back there.”
“I’ll send someone to stay in my room for a few days, and if nothing happens I’ll go back there. I’m sure they’ll come tonight if they are coming at all. If you were in their shoes, would you be able to wait one more day? Their hearts must be racing now.”
Dong Woo sounded like he had calmed down, and I reconsidered the situation.
“I guess that would be a natural way to survey your surroundings. The more I think about it, the more I think it was on my side. I have a hunch.”
We swallowed the too-sweet coffee in one gulp. Before he got up, Dong Woo took the package of books back from me.
“I think it’ll be safer for me to take that.”
“What’s in it, anyway?”
Dong Woo wavered a little and answered with a faint smile on his face.
“The fastest shortcut is to break the forbidden law. It’s from over there.”
“What, Capital? I read that a long time ago.”
“Not from the West, from over there.”
Dong Woo pointed upward. He got up with the envelope tucked under his arm.
“Okay, I’ll go first. Call Kun tomorrow morning. I’ll call him, too.”
Dumbfounded, I sat and thought about the meaning of over there. That was the last boundary, and the thought made my mouth dry and my whole body tingle with anxiety. And I was so curious. One half of our people lived in their own way in a completely different world. What did they talk about? What did they think about? Where were they headed? About twenty minutes after Dong Woo left, I descended the stairs of the Japanese-style building. I walked as far as I could and caught a bus far from where we had been.
Back in Anyang, I got off the bus two stops before the one nearest to the honeycomb house village, at a busy commercial district full of shops. It was late at night. I walked toward the neighborhood up on the hill, taking the path on the other side of the mountain. I had come back there to confirm something. It was something that needed to be done, the one thing I had to do before I went underground again. I had thought about it during the bus ride and decided to see Soon Ok. Instead of taking the main road, I climbed the far side of the mountain and dipped down near the cement walls and cement blocks. Along a narrow passage, tiny houses that looked like little boxes stood right next to each other. When I reached the house of Myung Soon and Soon Ok, I stood as close to the wall as possible and looked inside. There was a barely audible sound from a transistor radio but no voices, so I figured someone was listening to the radio alone. I walked into the house and gently pushed the kitchen door. It was locked from inside. I waited for a minute, than knocked on the door lightly. There was no answer, so I knocked again, a little louder.
“Who is it?”
It was Soon Ok’s voice. Thank God.
“This is Oh.”
“Goodness,” she exclaimed softly and said, “wait just one minute.” She bustled around for a while, then finally turned on the light in the kitchen. The door opened a bit, and I pushed it and jumped in. Soon Ok was wearing a sweatshirt and a pair of sweatpants, and a red cardigan on top, unbuttoned. It looked like she had just changed. I brazenly crossed the threshold from the kitchen into the bedroom. I turned to Soon Ok, who was still standing in the kitchen, nervous and confused.
“Turn off the kitchen light and come in, please,” I said. “We need to talk.”
I took a seat by the door, and Soon Ok came in and sat upright by her bedding in the corner of the room. Like all men would do in such a situation, I sucked on a cigarette and blew smoke toward the ceiling, taking my time.
“The truth is, I’m in hiding right now because I am wanted by the government. But it’s not because I did something criminal. I went to university, and since then I’ve been . . . involved in the student movement.”
“What kind of a movement?”
“I protested against the government.”
“Ah, the protesters.”
Soon Ok’s face changed, as if she understood what I was talking about.
“There are many people who are like me, and if one gets caught everyone else will get caught, too. I won’t be the only one in trouble. So, have you heard Mr. Park say anything? Where’s Myung Soon? And Kyung Ja?”
“Kyung Ja is on night shift these days. Myung Soon left a while ago to have dinner with Mr. Park. I think they’re in that little pub down there.”
“Some people followed me all the way to Seoul. I think they were detectives. Are you sure Mr. Park didn’t say anything?”
Soon Ok thought about it for a while before speaking.
“I haven’t heard much from Mr. Park. But yesterday, Myung Soon said something. She said you didn’t look like someone who would do hard labor. The way you talk, the way you look, she didn’t think you looked
like someone who belongs here. I thought so, too. There was a similar incident in our factory. A female college student got a job under false pretenses and was later arrested.”
Something heavy was welling up inside me. Ah, I was still so far behind. I still hadn’t gotten rid of the air of an intellectual. I looked down and my eyes were filled with hot tears. I did not want her to see it, so I kept my head down and stopped talking.
“Why do you do such things?” she asked. “There are people who want to go to universities but they can’t because they have no money, so they go to Seoul to make some.”
“Your parents, you, Soon Ok, and your friends, you all work so hard, yet you barely make a living, right?”
“That’s because . . . we’re poor.”
“Why are you so poor?”
“We had nothing from the beginning.”
“If you work so hard, you should be able to save and have some money, no?”
“Well, we had no education and we can’t find a good job.”
“Wouldn’t it be great if we lived in a world where, even if you had no education and no money, everyone could live well if they worked hard?”
Soon Ok remained silent, unable to find words.
“My friends and I, we hope for our world to be like that.”
Soon Ok shook her head meekly.
“I don’t know, that is . . . that will be too difficult.”
I did not want to torment her anymore, so I changed the subject.
“Can I stay here tonight until the curfew is over?”
Soon Ok nodded her head.
“Kyung Ja will be back tomorrow morning and I think Myung Soon will stay with Mr. Park.”
“Thank you. But I have one more favor to ask you. Can you go down there and get Mr. Park for me around midnight?”
“Bring him here?”
“No, to the empty lot up there with the horizontal bar.”
“Okay. But do you think that’s a good idea?”
She was sincerely worried, and it was something I had been wondering about since the dangerous incident near the church and throughout the bus ride coming here. They would choose me. If I trusted them, they would not desert me. In a way, I had come back to validate that belief. Soon Ok rose from her seat.
“You haven’t eaten dinner yet, have you?”
“I’m fine.”
“I bought lots of ramen noodles for night snacks. It won’t take long.”
The room was soon filled with fumes as Soon Ok lighted the portable gas burner. I opened the window. As I looked out through the open window, I saw a pale half moon.
Around midnight, at the beginning of curfew, I sent Soon Ok down to fetch Park, and I went to the empty lot by the rock at the top of the hill. It was an open-air gym for people in the neighborhood to use, a place they went to in the midst of their busy daily life to stretch and relieve stress. The main flaw was that it was a desolate place where no trees grew; it had only weeds and piles of used briquettes. Instead of going to the middle of the lot, I chose a spot by the wall opposite from where Park would probably climb up.
A dark outline of a person appeared from the alleyway. He was staggering, a little drunk. He looked around the empty lot then walked toward the rock and collapsed on it. Wearing a pair of sweatpants and a military parka that I had seen him wear at the factory, I was sure it was Park. I could even hear his voice muttering that he was freezing and grumbling. To make sure that he was not being followed, I waited for about five more minutes until I was certain he was by himself. I left the corner and walked toward the center of the empty lot.
“Oh?”
“Yeah, it’s me.”
I did not give him a chance to talk back, I got right to the point.
“Why did you do it? How can you stab your own roommate in the back?”
Instead of answering back, Park dropped his head and sighed.
“I know, I am sorry I deceived you.”
“I don’t know if you’ll understand, but I was involved in the democratization movement, and now I am underground. Yes, I am wanted. Did you report me because you thought I was a spy?”
Park raised his head.
“That’s not what I thought. I never thought you were a spy.” Then he continued in a weaker voice. “I just happened to be drinking with some people from the neighborhood at the pub down there, and you were mentioned. I can’t remember very well what I said, I was a little drunk.”
“When was this?”
“The day before yesterday, after work.”
“Try to remember what you told them.”
“Well . . . just that it’s a nasty world. If you say righteous things, they come and get you, something like that. That my friend is now working as a lowly assistant to a woodworker, but it’s certain that he’s highly educated.”
I put my hand on his shoulder.
“That’s enough, Mr. Park. It’s all my fault.”
“After you left, four detectives came, around nine. They went through everything in the room and took all your stuff. I had to go to the police station to be questioned.”
“Did you say anything about Manager Yim?”
“No, I’m not that dumb, and I won’t jeopardize someone unnecessarily. I told them I met you by chance at a pub, that you said you were working at the industrial complex and looking for a room, so I told you to pay me 30,000 won a month so I could save some money. I said I didn’t know you very well.”
“And they let you go?”
“There are a lot of factory workers at the honeycomb house who become roommates that way. They told me to cooperate. They told me to let them know when you come back home, tonight or tomorrow.”
Suddenly, my eyes welled up with tears. I lifted my head toward the empty sky, but the liquid rolled down anyway and reached all the way to my chin. I wiped my face and under my chin with my jacket sleeve.
“Mr. Park, I need to ask you a favor. I’ll never come back here again, so please, make sure that no harm is done to Manager Yim. Just stick to the story that you told them. I told Soon Ok to be careful, and you should tell Myung Soon, too.”
“I promise. I am so sorry. I had too much to drink and I made a big mistake. Every wall listens and reports back, especially when you’re so poor.”
“Now, let’s go. I’m going to wait for the curfew to be over in Soon Ok’s room. I think I’ll feel better if you stay with me.”
“Let’s go. We should drink our last glass.”
“No . . . no more liquor.”
We stood up together. Park took a long sigh again and murmured, “I hope you’ll understand, Mr. Oh. If you report someone suspicious, they give you rice as a reward.”
“How much?”
“At least three quarts.”
My eyes welled up again.
“Yeah, that’s okay. Three quarts of rice is worth something for a family.”
I said that, but I could not get rid of my sense of helplessness. Park and I walked back to Soon Ok’s room, where she had turned off all the lights though her bedding was neatly folded away. She was waiting for us. Park followed me into the room, but I stopped him at the threshold.
“Let’s say goodbye here. I’ll leave when the curfew is over.”
“No, I want to stay.”
I extended my hand toward him.
“Go back. Someone at the honeycomb house may be watching.”
Unable to disagree, he took my hand.
“Goodbye. I’m really sorry about everything.”
We shook hands. Park disappeared beyond the kitchen door, and I collapsed to the floor in front of the door, away from Soon Ok. She remained silent for a while, then handed me a pillow.
“You have a few hours until 4:00 a.m. Why don’t you lie down and sleep a little?”
“I won’t be able to get up if I lie down. It’ll be better if I stay up all night.”
Soon Ok put the pillow on top of the rest of the bedding, folded and stacked.
“Like M
r. Park said, please try to understand. Everyone here barely makes enough to survive.”
I nodded, but did not say anything. I wanted to leave holding onto the belief that my neighbors had not turned on me, those who slept next to me snoring loudly, those who were grateful for the most humble food, those who got drunk with me and laughed and joked with me.
Soon Ok and I did not talk much. I think we talked about her hometown. About the fifty acres or so of rice fields that her family labored on, about the death of the family bull whose belly was stretched like a drum with gas, about the failed attempt to grow strawberries in greenhouses and the mounting debts, and about the few months she worked as a beautician’s assistant. And she talked about her little dream, that with a little money saved and her sewing skills she would be able to open a dressmaker’s shop outside of Daejun, something with a really pretty sign. Because of her many younger siblings that she needed to support, she thought she would not be able to afford getting married until later.
We heard the siren indicating the end of the curfew. Aiming to get the first bus, I waited another half hour or so.
“I think I should go now.”
When I got up, Soon Ok followed me, putting her shoes on.
“I actually want to go by myself.”
“I need to make sure that you leave safely. Only then can I tell Mr. Park and Myung Soon that you did.”
I thought she had a reason. It was early winter, the frosty morning air blew down my neck. We walked up the hill and down the other side. Once in a while, a garbage cart passed us. One of them was pulled by a man with his body bent down almost ninety degrees, while a woman in baggy pants pushed from behind, her head shoved to the ground. Soon Ok and I reached a busy street. Far away, buses parked at the end of the line were starting their engines. I stopped in front of a signal light in order to cross the street and turned toward Soon Ok.
The Old Garden Page 18