One Last Photograph
The next day I went to school, and the moment classes ended I made straight for the hospital. I wanted a fuller account from Dr. Kang.
It always struck me how little I actually knew about the man. A doctorate at his age, a practicing physician, and somehow his fingers seemed to brush every shady corner of the city as well.
Take my father’s departure preparations. Dad had a record; he was not the sort of person who could simply walk onto an international flight. When I went to ask about the precise schedule and method, Dr. Kang answered as if it were nothing.
“We’re already running a pipeline that smuggles firearms. What’s one extra body? Oh—does your father speak any English?”
He drew hot water from the dispenser and steeped green tea while he asked. My father might be nothing more than a street-stall cook these days, but he had once been a businessman. English would not be a problem.
“No issue there.”
I sat and glanced around. The room doubled as Dr. Kang’s consulting office; mahogany shelves held thick medical tomes and stacks of press clippings.
“He’s done his military service?”
He handed me a cup, sipped his own, and waited.
“Of course.”
I looked at him, wondering why he was asking such odd things. Dr. Kang gave a short, dry laugh.
“Curious, are you?”
“Well… yes. How do you even know routes for smuggling people out of the country?”
“Money. Plenty of it. The kinds of people who do dirty work always need to expand their markets. Eventually the ones with deep pockets get approached—‘Maybe you’ll be our next client?’”
On paper he was merely an attending physician, yet the real power of the entire hospital sat in his hands. Whether that came from long experience or simply from the way he carried himself, I couldn’t say. From where I stood he looked like a man who would use any means necessary to reach his ends.
Dr. Kang… he might be even more frightening than that Han Se-gun character.
“Then we’ll have him ready to leave as early as tomorrow. Nothing special to pack—tell your father that. Essentials will all be provided on the other side; he just needs to show up. Ah, and… if he still has a military uniform lying around, bring that. A Korean one.”
“Sorry—what?”
I doubted my ears. It sounded like he was being shipped off to a war zone. Dr. Kang waved the question away.
“Just do it.”
Hold on. Going abroad to earn money, and he needs a uniform? Was he being sold as a mercenary? Even without an overactive imagination the conclusion arrived on its own.
“You’re not selling him as a merc, are you?”
Dr. Kang’s eyes went wide; then he burst into full-throated laughter. Damn it. Of course I looked like an idiot.
“Hahahaha! Ahahaha! What exactly do you take me for?”
“…Not an ordinary doctor, that’s for sure.”
I muttered the words and stood. Debt collectors had already cost me most of my jobs, so free time was plentiful, yet this hospital still felt like a place that charged rent just for breathing its air.
And Dr. Kang himself… for all the favors he had done me, he remained an uncomfortable presence. We had known each other more than a year or two, yet he was still a doctor without a clear identity. That bothered me.
Besides, there was one more place I needed to go.
“I’ll be off, then.”
“Still busy, I see.”
“If he leaves tomorrow, even I have a few things to arrange.”
I left the hospital and headed for the subway.
Young-eun needed to hear this. She might not care much for our father, but we were still family. The word had lost a lot of weight in the modern world, yet I could not bring myself to abandon the bond. I, who had nothing and had even been cast off by my own mother, had finally found a place to return to and people who valued me. Why would I throw that away? Being able to care for someone without conditions or reasons is, without question, a fine thing.
Romance between lovers, noble sacrifice—at bottom they still begin with surface beauty. Pretty people fall for each other’s looks and then perform their grand gestures. What meaning is left in that?
So I wanted, as far as possible, to keep this family intact. Of course Father’s business had collapsed because of me, and my younger sister Young-eun had been adopted into another household, but still…
I got off the subway and checked the wall clock. Vocational school let out early; Young-eun’s academic high school would only just be finishing.
“If I run hard enough I might catch her at the gate.”
A guy loitering outside a girls’ school never makes a good impression, but I had no choice. Her maternal grandparents’ house (though we shared no blood at all, so the term was inaccurate) might look wild given the son’s debauchery, yet where women were concerned the family was hopelessly old-fashioned.
They would buy her a violin worth hundreds of thousands or even millions of won, but a cell phone—gateway to all corruption, in their dusty eyes—was out of the question.
“…Shit.”
By the time I reached the school, Young-eun was already gone. Night self-study, that peculiar form of evening forced labor common in academic schools, still kept plenty of students around, but Young-eun took private lessons of the antique variety; she had permission to skip the school’s night sessions. She would head home after tutoring.
“Nothing for it, then.”
The household treated me like something scraped off a shoe, yet I would have to go there myself. I swallowed hard and steeled myself. Damn… somehow this felt more terrifying than standing in front of a gun muzzle. What a miserable situation.
I set off toward Young-eun’s house.
Young-eun’s place—what I called, for convenience, her maternal grandparents’ house—sat inside L Apartment. People might scoff that anyone living in an apartment complex could be truly rich, but this complex had been built as premium residential space: units of a full three hundred pyeong, layered with every security system imaginable.
In short, an apartment designed to keep wealthy people safe. Far better for security than a freestanding house. Because the whole concept revolved around protection, young, sharp-eyed guards watched the entrance, and CCTV cameras covered every angle.
Ordinary visitors never even reached the front doors; the gatehouse stopped me cold.
“State your purpose, please.”
The guard’s tone was polite enough, but his eyes were not. One of mine stayed permanently shut and my sneakers were falling apart; I wouldn’t have looked welcoming either if I were him. I scratched my head awkwardly.
“I’m here to see someone in Building 102, Unit 301. Young-eun—Yoon Young-eun.”
“Is that so? One moment…”
He punched a number into the keyphone. An LCD monitor mounted on the gatehouse window lit up with the interior of the unit.
“Yes, a visitor has arrived. Excuse me—your name?”
“Seo Rin.”
“A Mr. Seo Rin? Yes, a gentleman named Seo Rin is here… Pardon?”
“…Hmm.”
The housekeeper on the screen stared hard at the camera. I looked up; a lens under the gatehouse eaves was pointed straight at me.
“One moment. I’ll ask the master of the house.”
The woman vanished. Seriously… in this day and age, even a housekeeper calling her employer “master”? I stared at the blank screen, half-stunned.
This was bad. They would turn me away for sure—I wouldn’t even get past the gatehouse. And sure enough, the housekeeper reappeared.
“The young lady is not home, and even if she were, we cannot admit you.”
“W-wait! I have something I must tell Young-eun. Father’s leaving tomorrow—”
I started in panic, but the screen went black without mercy. Goddamn it!
“Just a second! I only need to pass a message. Connect me one more time!”
The guard shook his head.
“You have already been refused. Kindly step aside.”
He dismissed me with the words. Shit! Young-eun and Father were still father and daughter! He was about to leave on a journey of unknown length, and I couldn’t even tell her? Absurd! At the very least she should give him a photograph!
“Please—just once. I’ll say what I need to say and leave!”
I knew I was being unreasonable. There was no guarantee the housekeeper would even relay the message. But I had to try. The guard, however, stuck to his duty.
“Hey, kid. I’m being nice and you want to make a scene? Get lost!”
He shoved me. Damn it—he wasn’t even worth one good punch. For a second fury surged and I considered knocking every guard down and forcing my way in, but I reined it in. Unauthorized entry plus assault would land me in handcuffs for sure.
So I moved a short distance from the gatehouse and waited on the roadside. Young-eun hadn’t come home yet. If I stayed here I would meet her.
No matter how much the guards complained, they couldn’t do anything about me standing here. I told myself that and looked around. Yesterday’s rain had left today’s sky clear and bright; even the usual dull smog had vanished, and Seoul almost looked decent.
“Haah. What kind of sorry sight is this for a werewolf?”
I possessed supernatural power. Just as I was not a pure Korean, I was not a pure human either. I existed on the boundary between the real and the unreal. And yet here I stood on the sidewalk, intimidated by a couple of apartment guards. Damn it. But what choice did I have? Even a werewolf is still a powerless citizen who fears money and the law.
“Hey! You gonna clear off or what?”
The guards were growing irritated enough to start hurling abuse. Unbelievable. Being a rich man’s doorman didn’t give them rights over a public road.
“This isn’t the apartment grounds—it’s a public street. Whether I stand here waiting for Young-eun is none of your business.”
“Looks like you don’t know the rules.”
He pointed at a sign. I turned and read: This road is private property.
“….”
Of all the ridiculous… To make security airtight they had bought up even the outer roads of the complex. Something no poor man could ever dream of doing.
I had nothing left to say. I gave the guard a sheepish grin.
“Heh-heh… cut me some slack just this once?”
Moments earlier I had been so bitter I was ready to throw fists; now I was smiling as sweetly as possible, hoping for mercy. Turning a person into trash takes no effort at all.
The guard, however, was not charmed.
“I’ll say it one more time. Get lost. Keep mouthing off and you’ll wear handcuffs.”
“….”
As much as it burned, I was afraid of those handcuffs. Suddenly everything felt unbearably unfair. Why was the world built this way?
Just as the thoughts threatened to swallow me, an engine sounded behind me.
“Ah!”
I spun around. A familiar Mercedes was rolling in.
“Wait!”
The car stopped and Young-eun stepped out of the back seat. I turned my back on the guards and ran to her.
“Young-eun!”
“Oppa? What on earth is going on?”
She stared at me with wide eyes. Ugh—the look my little sister gave me was pure pity, the same expression people wear when they see photos of famine victims in Somalia. Damn it.
Well, after watching me argue with the guards I probably did look pitiful…
“I’ll cut to the chase. Father’s going abroad to earn money. He has to leave around tomorrow evening. Debt collectors are all over him.”
“….”
“So even if seeing him off is impossible… maybe you could at least take a photo for him?”
Young-eun let out a long, heavy sigh and looked up at me.
“Is that all you came to say? I’m going inside.”
“Y-Young-eun?”
I stared at her in pure shock. She turned back.
“Oppa, from now on just worry about yourself, okay?”
“Young-eun…”
Words stuck in my throat. Was this really the sister I knew? My head felt numb; I pressed a hand to it. Young-eun drew a deep breath, as if something long buried had finally broken free. I could tell she had decided to say something cruel, and I braced myself. Sure enough, the words came sharp and merciless.
“To be honest… our family is finished. Because of Dad, our—no, my mother died. Oppa, you didn’t do anything wrong… but Dad definitely did. You’ll take his side, of course… but who takes Mom’s side then? Only me.”
“….”
God, what a fool I had been. I had never realized she felt this way. Or maybe I simply hadn’t wanted to imagine it.
To me, Father was the most admirable person in the world, the family member I loved without limit. But from Young-eun’s viewpoint he was only the weak, indecisive man who had let their mother die.
“Even so… he’s still Father.”
“I know that much.”
She sighed again.
“Then let’s do this.”
“Huh?”
Suddenly she grabbed my hand and pulled me along. The driver scrambled out of the car in alarm, but Young-eun waved him off.
“It’s fine. This will only take a minute.”
“But still—”
“Just a minute.”
With that she headed for a nearby commercial building. I let her lead me, mind swirling with a hundred confused thoughts.
“Here. This is it.”