Monday, 06 August 2007

• *Chapter Nineteen* That Day

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  < Part 1 >

  
  

  
  

  
  

  That day, having heard that he was a third-generation plutocrat, En Chan had cried until her eyes were swollen stiff. In that moment, she had realized that she had really liked him. She'd gradually come to know him while working in the coffee house with him. She'd come to know how he spoke, how he laughed, how he walked, and also how open he was, how fun he was, what an amazing man he was. She'd found out his past and his family and his thoughts, and she'd come to understand him and follow him. She'd unconsciously begun to resemble him and help him, and lean on him. As the sunset dyes the evening sky, her love for him had diffused and spread itself into her heart.

  
  

  That day, she'd discovered that the dyeing of the heavens by the rays of the sunset were irrevocable. She couldn't know if it was love or co-worker camaraderie or friendship or just plain affection, or all of the above, but all she knew was that she liked him. When she found out that he was a tree she couldn't even dream of climbing, the loss she felt made her heart hurt badly. And so she learned that liking someone didn't necessarily constitute happiness, but that it included also pain and sorrow and suffering.

  
  

  That day, after he had left, Nak Kyun and Mr. Hong had finished eating lunch, and it was Sun Ki and Ha Rim's lunch shift. En Chan was in the hall alone, greeting the customers as they came. Right then, the punk from the land of crows came in.

  
  

  “Ya! Let's go at it. I definitely won't just leave today. Let's fight it out for real this time, you asshole!”

  
  

  “Ya! You punk, where do you think you are....”

  
  

  The punk from the land of crows stumbled in drunk, spewing ridiculous nonsense and making a scene.

  
  

  “I went easy on you, and you little mouse of an asshole, are you looking down on me? You think being a Tae Kwon Do master makes you the shit, huh? Let's go at it for real today! If you beat me, I'll call you hyung!”

  
  

  His incredibly stupid words added flame to En Chan's anger. That's when the dark men had suddenly rushed in. They blocked the entrance, squeezing in by the dozen, and cast a shadow over En Chan and asked in a snake-like voice,

  
  

  “Hey, squirt. Where's Marine Boy?”

  
  

  What was WITH all of these useless schmucks today? She was thinking to herself that her luck for the day was as rotten as hell when the crow punk squeezed himself into the fray.

  
  

  “What the hell are these jackasses? If you've got business around here, wait outside. I was here first, asshole.”

  
  

  And that was when things began to get out of hand. At the time, she didn't even know that No Sun Ki was Marine Boy or why they would be looking for him. The situation began with the customers fleeing in fear and the crow punk and one of the flunkies grabbing each other's collars. At first, she denied knowing any such person, but she figured they'd come here already knowing what they needed to know, so she began to ask what the reason was. Then they told her that No Sun Ki had run off with their sajang's money. Only later did she find out that he had done so to pay for his mother's hospital bills. Well, whatever the situation, it didn't look like the situation would come to an end without her giving Sun Ki over to them, so En Chan tried to appeal to them to talk calmly when the punk from the land of crows went and ruined everything.

  
  

  “You fuckers! Do you know whose turf this is? You assholes are all dead!!”

  
  

  He'd gotten carried away. Nothing could be done to prevent the resulting chaos.

  
  

  “Ya! No Sun Ki! Come out! You better come out quick, you fucker! Do you want to die?!”

  
  

  That was when En Chan finally lost her cool. Who the hell were these assholes to come and tear apart their store and ruin their business? No matter what No Sun Ki had done wrong, she couldn't put up with anymore. She could no longer suppress her fury and had flown into a double sidekick. She couldn't put the blame completely on Sun Ki or the crow punk. If she had only acted more rationally then, she wouldn't have gotten so seriously injured. And misfortune wouldn't have come so abruptly to her. He wouldn't even let her explain.

  
  

  En Chan underwent surgery, and fortunately, the surgery as successful. About the time when her body began to recover, her mind grew tired of waiting for the person who never came to visit. Unable to wait any longer, she called him.

  
  

  [Who is this?]

  
  

  “I-It's me. The Tae Kwon V that had brain surgery.”

  
  

  How could you not come to visit even once? These aching thoughts rose up to her throat, but, having committed a crime herself, she approached him meekly.

  
  

  “H-have you been well? I heard you went into the company. You must be pretty busy, huh?”

  
  

  [What do you want?]

  
  

  His icy voice froze En Chan all over. Gripping the receiver tightly, En Chan didn't know what to do. She'd expected him to be angry, but she hadn't expected to be treated with this degree of coldness. If he was this angry, no wonder he hadn't come to visit, she thought.

  
  

  “Y-you're pretty angry, huh? Aw man, I really was planning to tell you....”

  
  

  [Tell me what?]

  
  

  “Hey, don't be cranky. You see, um, last time, when we drank at the hotel, I tried to tell you, but you stopped me from asking....”

  
  

  [If you're talking about you lying to me about being a boy, forget it. I'm not the owner of that coffee house anymore anyway. That's between you and Mr. Hong, who'll decide to use you or not, so it has nothing to do with me. If you're going to beg for your job, call him. Take care.]

  
  

  With that, he hung up. No matter how many times she called back, he didn't answer. What else could that mean? He didn't even want to speak to her. He had said in such a business-like, stiff and dry manner that it had nothing to do with him. To En Chan, it had been the same as a death sentence. A death sentence that stated, 'This is the end of you!'

  
  

  En Chan's predictions were validated by Han Sung, who'd come to visit her that evening.

  
  

  “I had a drink with him yesterday, and he got absolutely trashed. He said while he was drunk that he'd been played. That for the first time since he'd been born, he'd been honest with a woman, and that that woman had played with him.”

  
  

  “That I played with him? Man, this is driving me crazy. When?”

  
  

  “He said he'd been betrayed. That since it was the first time he'd ever trusted anybody, it was the first time he'd ever been betrayed, too.”

  
  

  Tears immediately sprung up in En Chan's eyes. She herself didn't know they were there, but they streamed down her cheek nonetheless.

  
  

  “Damn it... I... I really didn't... b-betray him..... damn it.... this is unfair....”

  
  

  En Chan wiped her tears away with her fist and plead her case to Han Sung.

  
  

  “I-I really was going to tell him. I was going to wait for the right moment... It's my fault that I didn't tell him, but I was afraid he was going to kick me out of the store. I knew he was going to be this angry. That's why I couldn't tell him..... because I was afraid I'd n-never be able to see him again.......”

  
  

  “That's just how he is. He's a contradiction. He's got a side of him that's as aloof as a Taoist monk, and another side of him that's full of vulgarity, and another side of him that's like a child. Right now, he's a child. He's angry, so he won't listen to anything anyone says to him.

  
  

  “I knew it would be like that, but still.....”

  
  

  When she'd found out that he was a plutocrat, she'd cried because of the feelings that had been gathering inside of her. It had been a shock that he was someone that was so far away. The fear that he was someday going to leave her, that the day would come when she'd never see him again, that anxiety had made her cry. But now, those fears had become reality. So this is what it feels like when the sky crumbles down...

  
  
  
  

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