Sunrye's July
Saturday morning, July 9, in the full blaze of the summer heat.
Once she had seen her husband off to work, Sunrye gave herself over to packing side dishes into cold tins and bundling them up in wrapping cloths. She was going to Noryangjin to see her "older sister," Park Young-ok.
Yeongja's mother, the housemaid, watched her with a worried eye.
"Ma'am, can you really carry all of that? There's so much..."
"I'll be fine. If I catch a bus on the main road, I won't have far to walk."
"Even so, with Yeongjun on your back as well, it'll be hard on you."
"Just look after Yeongeun for me. Both hands will be full, so I don't think I can take her along."
"Yes, ma'am. I will."
Looking at Sunrye's smiling face, Yeongja's mother found herself wondering how anyone could be so much like an angel. Sunrye was not like the other ladies who kept maids. Not once had she dropped her speech or treated her with contempt.
"Have a safe trip, ma'am."
"Yes. I'll be back."
Yeongja's mother saw her to the gate, a bundle in each hand, then returned to the wooden veranda and started a game of gonggi with Yeongeun, tossing and catching the little pebbles. The child took after Sunrye: quick to laugh, and well-mannered.
"Yeongeun, shall Auntie show you a fancy trick?"
She sent the pebbles up with a flip and caught them cleanly on the way down. Yeongeun burst into a bright peal of laughter and clapped her hands. Looking at that pure little face, so like her mother's, Yeongja's mother felt her own heart grow clear.
Out of the house, Sunrye made her way to the main street in Jongno to catch a bus. She stood there with a child on her back and two large bundles in her arms, and a man waiting in the boarding line spoke up.
"Ma'am, shall I take one of those for you?"
"I'm all right. Thank you. I can set them down while I wait."
"Hot day for it. You've got your hands full, baby and all."
"It isn't far. I'll manage."
Sunrye smiled and bowed her head to the man who had meant to be kind. He was the owner of a subcontracting firm that did business with Cheongsan, and it never crossed his mind, even in a dream, that she was the wife of the chairman of the great Cheongsan Group.
When the bus came, the conductress stepped down, saw Sunrye, and hurried over in surprise.
"Ma'am, where are you going? Give me those. I'll carry them up for you."
The conductresses knew Sunrye by sight; she rode their buses often. As the girl reached for the bundles, Sunrye said, "I'll take them up myself."
"No, ma'am. Give me at least one."
The conductress all but snatched a bundle from her and climbed aboard. Sunrye followed, let out a long breath, and was about to pay her fare when the girl said, "Ma'am, settle up the next time you ride. Someone who could travel free, and you insist on paying every single time."
"That's right, ma'am. Just ride."
The driver said it too. A man who had boarded behind them, watching an ordinary young mother receive such special treatment, asked the conductress, "Who is she, to be looked after like that?"
"She's the lady of Cheongsan Transport."
"Cheongsan Transport? Hold on... is that one of the companies under that Cheongsan—the one with the building on Sejong-ro?"
"You didn't know? Cheongsan Transport belongs to Cheongsan Group too."
The moment she finished answering, the conductress called Orai! to the driver, and the bus pulled away. The man stole a glance back at Sunrye.
That woman is Chairman Lee's wife...?
He kept wanting to turn around. Gentle, and pretty too. Her way of speaking was lovely just now. Just what you'd expect of Chairman Lee Ki-jo's wife. She seems like a good person... Then he wondered whether he might have said something rude to her, and ran back over the conversation in his mind. Afraid of giving offense, he stopped looking at her and kept his eyes to the front.
When the bus stopped in Noryangjin, Sunrye gathered her bundles and stepped down. It was still a long walk to Park Young-ok's house, but she set her strength to the rutted dirt road. Hard as it was, she wanted to comfort Young-ok, whose husband had lost his post and sunk into discouragement, and to put the side dishes and provisions she had packed into her hands.
At last she reached the house and called out.
"Sister, I'm here. It's Sunrye."
Her voice was not loud, but the gate opened at once.
"You're here? What did you bring all that for?"
"I just brought a little from home."
"Come in, come in. You must be worn out, with the baby on your back."
Young-ok fanned Sunrye and little Yeongjun once the bundles were up on the veranda.
"Hot, isn't it?"
"I'm all right, Sister."
"Wait just a moment. I'll mix you some misutgaru."
She pressed the fan into Sunrye's hand and went into the kitchen. When she came back with a bowl of the cool roasted-grain drink, she looked through the side dishes and provisions while Sunrye drank, and her eyes went wide.
"You carried all of this? You even brought rice."
"We have plenty at home. I wanted to share it with you, Sister."
"Honestly. Anyone who saw this would think you were family from my own parents' house."
Young-ok's eyes stung with gratitude for the care in it. Her husband, turned out of the army and out of work, had gone around looking for a job here and there; lately he had given up the search altogether and spent his days meeting only the friends still left in the service. At night he came home drunk, or brought those friends with him and talked until dawn about the country and the state of the times. She knew he had been driven unfairly from the military. Even so, someone had to think about how they were going to eat from now on, and he had no interest in any of that. The sighs only piled up.
Sunrye, sipping the misutgaru, glanced at a magazine on the bookshelf along the veranda.
"Sister, what's that book?"
"Which one?"
"The one with white letters on a red background. There's a picture of a woman, too."
Young-ok knew Sunrye could not read Chinese characters.
"Oh, that? It's Yeowon. A women's magazine."
"Yeowon?"
"It means a women's realm. A garden of women. Something like that."
"I see..."
Young-ok fetched the magazine and handed it to her.
"Take it home and read it. It's fun. How to be loved by your husband. How to become a refined woman. Pieces like that."
"All right..."
Sunrye leafed through it, picking out the Korean here and there, and Young-ok smiled. She had never been to school, but she had learned her letters after all, and that was a relief.
"If Yeowon is a bit difficult, shall I lend you Arirang? The writing's easier. They run pieces like 'A Sweet Honeymoon.'"
"Honeymoon...?"
"It's English. It means the wedding night."
"Oh my..."
Young-ok laughed to see Sunrye's face go red at the words. To Young-ok—an educated woman who had finished college and even taught at an elementary school—Sunrye looked as innocent as a schoolgirl. She said to her, "Little sister, you know bachelor radish, don't you?"
"Yes, of course."
"Do you know why it's called that?"
"I was taught the greens look like the ribboned braids of young men who haven't married yet. My aunt told me..."
"Oh, no. It's the shape of the thing. A man's... you know. They called it bachelor radish because it looks like what a bachelor's got down there."
"What?"
Sunrye was flustered, and Young-ok laughed out loud.
"Funny, isn't it? Women's magazines are full of pieces like that. Read it when you get home."
"All right..."
Sunrye set the magazine down, her face burning. Young-ok thought the unworldly girl was lovely. Old enough to know what there was to know, and still blushing scarlet at a bawdy joke—she was simply adorable. Young-ok, pleased that Sunrye had struggled all the way to her door with her arms full of food, told her one amusing thing after another. The talk drifted and drifted until it reached her own life back in Gumi.
"My father was like that, and my youngest uncle too. They both had a taste for New Women."
"Was your mother a New Woman as well?"
"Of course. Madam Jo Gwi-bun was one of the best-known New Women in Gimcheon. And do you know something? Our youngest uncle, the one in Seoul..."
Young-ok let a secret about Park Chung-hee slip.
"He married three times."
"Three times?"
Sunrye had never even laid eyes on Young-ok's youngest uncle, but the thought of three marriages startled her.
"Yes. He was already married, already had a child, and then—was it '49?—he turned up saying he was going to marry some New Woman he'd brought from Seoul."
Having said it, Young-ok seemed to feel a prick of unease, and she went on.
"I'm not telling you this to speak ill of my uncle. But can you imagine how absurd it was? He had a child, he had a perfectly good wife who'd shared his hard years, and still he brought a woman down from Seoul."
"Yes..."
"There is a story behind it. He hadn't wanted that marriage in the first place. Grandfather forced it on him, so the two of them never got along."
Sunrye nodded.
"The woman he brought from Seoul really was beautiful, though. She'd even graduated from Ewha Womans University. And after a single night she ran straight back to Seoul."
Young-ok said it with a sly little smile.
"Why?"
Sunrye's eyes went round.
"Why do you think? Our family home was a beggar's hovel. The kitchen had no door—just a straw mat hung in the doorway—and the house was falling down, the ceiling so low you practically had to crawl inside. She was horrified. The outhouse door was nothing but a straw mat, too."
Sunrye nodded.
"Maybe my youngest uncle got burned, living with a New Woman. Later he married someone who was neither quite a New Woman nor an old-fashioned one. Somewhere in between."
"I see..."
"I mean my aunt now."
Just then a voice came from the gate.
"Yeong-ok. I'm here."
"Oh, heavens."
Young-ok started at the sound. She put a finger to her lips for Sunrye to be quiet, then whispered, "Aunt is here."
"Your aunt...?"
Young-ok nodded and hurried to the gate.
"Oh my, Aunt, you've come!"
"Yes. Have you been well?"
Yuk Young-soo stepped inside and glanced at the woman standing before the veranda. A friend of Yeong-ok's. She took Sunrye for a neighborhood companion.
"Hello."
Sunrye bowed her head.
"Hello. I'm Yeong-ok's aunt. I hope I haven't interrupted."
"Not at all. We were just talking, and I was about to head home."
Sunrye shifted Yeongjun on her back and made to leave, but Young-ok stopped her.
"Already? Don't go, little sister."
She held Sunrye back and introduced her to Yuk Young-soo.
"Aunt, this is the wife of Chairman Lee of Cheongsan Group."
"Cheongsan Group...?"
Yuk Young-soo looked at Sunrye again. Her hands were rough, the hands of a woman who kept her own house, and her face was bare of powder. The clothes were plain, nothing like what one expected of the wife of a man whose company was doing well. With a baby bound to her back in a quilted wrapper, she looked every bit an ordinary married woman. Yuk caught the hand of Sunrye, who was still set on leaving.
"So this is where we meet. I'm glad. I had the chance to meet your husband first. He came by the house once."
"He came to your house too, Aunt?"
Young-ok was astonished.
"Yes. He stayed for dinner and then went home."
Listening to the two of them, Sunrye decided she ought not to leave just yet. If her husband had visited the house and eaten dinner there, this was someone who mattered.
"I wonder if the amaranth namul suited his taste."
At Yuk Young-soo's words, the memory came back. In June her husband had brought seasoned amaranth greens home. He had eaten dinner at an acquaintance's house, he said, and they had packed some for him.
"Yes, we enjoyed it very much. Thank you, ma'am."
Sunrye offered her thanks.
"My husband is fond of amaranth, so we eat it often. Other people don't care for it much, but he says it takes him back to childhood and asks me to make it all the time. I'm glad you enjoyed it."
"Ah, I know what Uncle means. Grandmother used to season amaranth with soybean paste and mix it into barley rice. That must be it."
"Yes. That's the one."
Aunt and niece, only four years apart, fell to talking about the amaranth bibimbap Park Chung-hee loved.
"Aunt, bring me some too. I like amaranth namul as well."
"All right. I'll bring you some."
Thinking how good the greens were when mixed with sesame oil, Sunrye said to Young-ok, "Sister, would it be all right if I gave the sesame oil I brought to Aunt? I'll bring you another bottle later."
Young-ok looked at the oil for a moment as if it were a shame to part with it, then said, "Oh, fine. Aunt's family is well-off, but if you want to give it to her, just give it."
"Listen to this child. Since when are we rich?"
Yuk Young-soo turned to Sunrye as well.
"It's quite all right. We can buy sesame oil."
"It comes up from the countryside often. I hope it tastes good when you have the amaranth."
When Sunrye pressed her, Young-ok joined in.
"Aunt, please take it. My little sister's family has a large piece of land in Yeoncheon. They grow the sesame there and press it fresh to bring up. You wouldn't believe how strong the fragrance is. Uncle will like it too, when he mixes the amaranth."
"Well... that is true. I'll accept it with thanks."
Yuk Young-soo sat down on the veranda and talked with the two women. The longer they spoke, the more she felt that Sunrye was gentle and composed. Unlike Young-ok, who knew a great deal and talked even more, she said little, but she listened well and never lost her courtesy, and Yuk liked that. She thought of Sunrye's husband, who had come to the house not long ago, drunk little, and spent the time decently before he left.
Truly good people...
She felt a liking for Sunrye as well. Artless and humble—the impression she left was of someone it would be easy to draw near.