“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.
Parents
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.
Looking right through Pil-sun, Gyeong-ae’s mother greeted Deok-gi warmly. “Why are you still out on a cold day like this?” Her eyes fell on the empty beef-soup bowl. “Is that soup all you’ve eaten?”
Deok-gi smiled.
Gyeong-ae’s mother bustled from one corner of the room to another, even swinging open the door to the toilet. “I could possibly live here in the summer, but never in the winter!”
Who asked her to come and live here? Gyeong-ae thought. Conscious of Pil-sun’s presence, she was mortified by her mother’s presumptuousness.
“Mother, please go home.”
“Aren’t you coming, too? Let’s go together.”
“I’ll come later. Don’t worry about me. Go home and get a good night’s sleep. What if the baby wakes up?”
“You should come home now, eat something hot, and get some rest yourself.”
While the mother and daughter were arguing, Byeong-hwa appeared, trailed by Won-sam’s wife. They all stood up to welcome the newcomers.
“I’m sorry that all of you had to go through such trouble, especially Deok-gi.” Byeong-hwa didn’t show a trace of fatigue.
“Lie down on the ondol floor. You need to thaw yourself,” Gyeong-ae urged.
Gyeong-ae’s mother averted her eyes.
“Yes, she’s right. Come on, let’s go to the other room,” Deok-gi suggested.
“No, I’m not cold or hungry because I ate what you sent me. But leave the talk for some other time. Let’s drink tonight to celebrate the opening of the store. It’s too bad that Pil-sun’s father is not with us, but since the rest of us are here. ” Byeong-hwa seemed to be in high spirits, having forgotten the pain in his hand.
Won-sam’s wife, standing in the corner next to Won-sam, urged her husband to go now. “The master is angry. He asks where my husband has been all day.”
By the way in which Won-sam was being summoned, Sang-hun’s discontent was palpable. Gyeong-ae’s mother found Byeong-hwa all the more detestable and scowled at her daughter, who was hovering over him. Gyeong-ae brushed off Sang-hun’s irritation.
Let him be angry if he wants to! Let him do as he pleases — buy this house or hold his money tight in his fist. Bastard! If he wants to wreak havoc, let him take my baby! There’s no guarantee that my mother will do a good job raising her. And what business does she have trying to supervise my affairs all of a sudden? She may be my mother, but what right does she have to oppose Byeong-hwa just because he has no money?
Gyeong-ae believed that her relationship with Sang-hun had started because her mother had whispered encouragement, tempted by Sang-hun’s wealth. If her mother had instead scolded her and married her off to someone else, Gyeong-ae would have never ended up where she was. She particularly resented her mother’s distaste for Byeong-hwa while she was growing increasingly attached to him, a rare sensation for her. After Won-sam and his wife left, Gyeong-ae nagged her mother to go home. Gyeong-ae felt she had to remain for Byeong-hwa’s sake. He was not in good shape, and someone needed to tend the store. Though her mother insisted on taking the bundle of clothes and the quilt she had brought to the police station, Gyeong-ae wrangled them away from her. Her mother felt like storming out but somehow couldn’t bring herself to leave. She pulled her daughter over to the doorstep.
“What are you thinking?” she scolded her, standing in the dark.
“What?” Gyeong-ae wore a pout.
“What do you mean, ‘what’? He’s finally changed his mind and opened a store for you. If you don’t acknowledge that and act accordingly, he’ll get angry. Anybody in his situation would lose their temper.”
“What did I do wrong?”
“Isn’t it obvious? Why else would he lose his temper over Won-sam working here, when the store is practically his? It’s because of Byeong-hwa, isn’t it? You should kick him out. What good will it do if you keep him and feed him? You will only be taken to the police station or get beaten.”
“Will you mind your own business and go home?” Gyeong-ae tried to suppress her rising anger, hoping to avoid a scene.
“How can I mind my own business? If you hang around with Byeong-hwa, you’ll lose the store and starve. Come to your senses! It would be better to mind your manners and talk Sang-hun into paying for this house, even if you end up parting. After that, you can do whatever you want.”