“Who was the fourth person?”
“Pak Un-sil. Hei-sok’s friend. He is a very good student and wants to start a Department of Confucian Studies here at the university.”
“Confucian studies?”
“Yes. He is very upset that the old proprieties are not being observed.”
Ernie lifted his eyebrows. I changed the subject before he became too fidgety.
“Wasn’t Myong-hui concerned that her parents would become upset when she received a phone call from an American?”
“Ralph called Myong-hui at the dormitory.”
“I thought she lived in Hyonjo-dong with her parents.”
“No. She doesn’t like it there. She forced them to pay for a room in the dormitory here. She didn’t go home very often. Only when she was in trouble.”
“What kinds of trouble did she get into?”
“Well, her grades aren’t very good. And she’s had a lot of boyfriends.” Her voice trailed off. “But today is the biggest trouble yet.”
I asked it softly. “Why?”
She looked up and her eyes widened. “Because now everyone will know she had a date with an American.”
I nodded. Made sense to me. Ernie opened a new package of gum but didn’t offer her any.
“When did Ralph call her?”
“Two days ago. He said he was off today, Friday, and he wanted to meet us and go to one of the teahouses near here. Our teahouses at Chungang University are very famous. Many young people come here for the music and the artwork.”
“If there was going to be a demonstration, why did you meet him here?’
“We didn’t know there was going to be a demonstration. We found out about that later, but we didn’t think it would be so big. And we didn’t think that the army would come.”
“Why did Hei-sok and his friend come along?”
“I think he wanted to keep an eye on his rival.”
“How did Myong-hui feel about that?”
“She didn’t mind. I think she liked the idea of men competing for her.”
I pulled the photograph out of my pocket. “Is this Hei-sok?”
“Yes.”
“And this is his friend, Pak Un-sil?”
“Yes. They go everywhere together.”
“Is Pak Un-sil your boyfriend?”
“Oh, no.” She dropped her handkerchief and turned a bright red. I waited for her to bend over and pick up the handkerchief.
“It must have been awkward,” I said. “Ralph here to see Myong-hui and yet all five of you together?”
“Yes. It was awkward.” She sat up a little straighter, her normal color gradually returning. “The only reason I stayed was to support Myong-hui against Hei-sok. But it turned out that Hei-sok’s friend was the one who kept making mean remarks. About Americans. Ralph couldn’t understand, of course.”
“What sort of remarks?”
“About your impoliteness.” She looked at me and almost smiled. “Things like that. Myong-hui didn’t like it at all.”
“What happened after you met Ralph?”
“First we went to a teahouse. We all had coffee, except for Myong-hui. She had cola. Hei-sok tried to act as if he were very rich and insisted on paying for everything. After about an hour the demonstration was starting and some students were making speeches over loudspeakers, so we went outside to see what was happening. Everything was fine until the army moved in. It was funny at first, their taking it so seriously. It was only a few speeches, about politics. I really didn’t pay much attention. That’s when Ralph stopped in the shop and bought the flower for Myong-hui.”
“What did Hei-sok think?”
“He was angry, but he didn’t say anything. Myong-hui loved the flower. Instead of spending so much money in the teahouse, Hei-sok should have done something like that. Since his money was all gone, all he did was pluck a withered old blossom for her hair. I think that’s what gave Ralph the idea, but she threw the blossom away when Ralph gave her the more beautiful flower he bought in the shop.”
“Was the blossom a mukung-hua?”
“Yes. You know about our national flower?”
She seemed impressed, which is why I said it. I had paid close attention during my Korean language classes. Might as well get some credit.
“What about Hei-sok’s friend?” I said. “How did he react?”
“I didn’t see because that’s when everyone started yelling when they noticed the riot police moving in behind us. We couldn’t get out. It was strange, really. They kept telling us to leave the area, but there was no way out. I wasn’t too worried then, there were so many of us, and everyone had been peaceful. But of course the speakers had said so many impolite things about our president. I think that must have made the soldiers angry.”
“What did you do when the armored vehicles moved forward?”
“We tried to move out of the way. Students climbed over fences and ran down alleys. The vehicle moved very slowly. I’m sure the driver didn’t intend to run over anyone.”
“Did you see Ralph go down?”
“No. There was too much confusion.”
“Where was Hei-sok?”
“I don’t know. Myong-hui and I were holding on to one another, trying to get out of the way. We didn’t see what happened to Ralph. It was only later that we heard about it.”
“Does Hei-sok live on campus?”
“Yes. In the first men’s dormitory.”
I put my hand in the right pocket of my coat, Ernie’s cue to take over the interrogation.
“Young lady,” he said, “do you love Myong-hui?”
She seemed to be surprised that Ernie could speak. “She is my best friend.”
“And you’d want to protect her, wouldn’t you, from ruining her life by becoming involved with a foreigner?”
“I think it would be best to marry a Korean,” she said, and then her mouth fell open. “You think that I …”
“Where were you when Whitcomb went down?”
“I told you. We were trying to get away. It was an accident. He must have fallen.”
“This Hei-sok, does he study tae kwon do?”
“No. He is very frail. He could not have done anything like that.”
And then she dropped her head into her lap and she was crying.
My face felt feverish by now, the flu shot was getting to me, but I took a breath of the garden-scented air and the dizziness subsided.
We had to ask directions a couple of times, but gradually we made our way to the boy’s dormitory on the other side of campus. The boys in the waiting room looked at us suspiciously, but soon shouts were ringing up the big cement hallways for Li Hei-sok. He looked thin and frightened, and there were still scratches on his neck from where a policeman must have collared him. We walked with him into the game room, getting as far away as possible from a pair of students slamming a small white globe at one another in a vicious round of Ping-Pong.
Ernie backed him into a corner.
“You pushed him,” he said. “You pushed Whitcomb, he fell, and then the armored vehicle ran over him. And we’re here to take you in.”
He looked at me, confused. I translated what Ernie had said into Korean.
“No,” he said. “It didn’t happen that way. I didn’t do it. You don’t understand.”
He fell back against the wall, clutched his stomach, and looked about him for support. The Ping-Pong ball careened back and forth.
Some of the other young men noticed Hei-sok’s frantic face and wandered over. Just curiosity so far, but I wondered if the hot emotions of the morning would carry over into the dismal afternoon. My fever was coming back.
When I heard the slam, I almost jumped out of my suit.
The word propriety flashed through my mind, and I remembered my Korean language teacher slamming his pointer down on the desk, explaining the cardinal rules of Confucian propriety. I cursed myself for not seeing it earlier.
It was a baseball bat, coming down flush on the Ping-Pong table. The little guy with glasses in the photograph, the one Myong-hui’s friend had said was named Pak Un-sil, stood before us. His breath came hard, and he wore a white bandana tied around his forehead. Indecipherable Chinese characters were slashed in red ink across the bandana. He spit as he screamed, but I could pick up most of what he was saying.