Secrets in the Registry
Note: The novel's setting is a parallel-dimension Earth.
Jo Eun-hui's Point of View
Wednesday, February 12, 2003 — 9:50 a.m.
"What? Really? Thank you so much, Counselor."
From the passenger seat, Hyeon-ju's voice rang out bright with joy. Behind the wheel, Eun-hui smiled along with her; she understood that elation perfectly. Five minutes earlier she had received the exact same call from her own lawyer. The divorce judgment had come down, and every electronic record would be finalized starting at ten o'clock.
One look at Hyeon-ju's face told her the news was identical.
"Eun-hui… the divorce is final. From ten we can file the marriage registration… hhk…"
"Unnie…"
Only five minutes ago Eun-hui herself had pulled onto the shoulder and broken down once; she understood completely. She steered onto the shoulder again and gathered the sobbing Hyeon-ju into her arms. Hyeon-ju buried her face against Eun-hui's chest while Eun-hui stroked her hair and soothed her.
"Hhk…"
"Unnie, did the custody ruling come through cleanly too?"
Eun-hui already held full parental rights and custody of both her daughters, Lee A-reum and Lee A-hui. Hyeon-ju's lawyer had said her case would be simpler—she would leave Jeong-cheol with the husband and bring only Na-hui—but nothing was certain until the ink was dry.
"Yes… I keep parental rights and custody of Na-hui. I gave up Jeong-cheol. No child-support either way. Clean judgment."
"Good. Unnie… Master will be pleased."
Eun-hui felt the last knot of tension loosen. It was truly over. Hyeon-ju could file the marriage registration straightaway; Eun-hui, being an aunt, would need one extra document and might lag a day, but every obstacle had vanished.
"Master doesn't care much for Na-hui… that still worries me."
"Come on… after the way you disciplined her last night, just keep that up and Master will like her fine."
Because of the divorce and the coming registration, Hyeon-ju had returned to Goesan the previous evening. After hearing her mother Sun-jeong's declaration of submission, she had taken her son Jeong-cheol to the front gate of his uncle Jo Myeong-hyeok's house in Chungju, waited until the door opened, and left him there. Jeong-cheol had been thrilled simply to visit his uncle. The moment Hyeon-ju got home she dragged Na-hui into a room; from that point the child's wails filled Sun-jeong's house.
"I hate him!!! I hate Ian!!!"
"You!!! What kind of mouth is that? Ian is your older brother now, and he's an adult. Show respect!"
"Waaah!! Daddy said I don't have to!"
When words failed, Hyeon-ju finally took up the switch. The sharp crack of the cane carried past the door and made Eun-hui and Sun-jeong in the living room uneasy.
"Ah!!! Mommy!!! It hurts!!! Waaah, okay, I'll speak politely to Ian!"
"You!!! Speak politely to your older brother. We're not finished. Roll those calves up again."
"Huu… how long until we can train her properly so Master will favor her…"
"Hohoho. We both know, unnie."
Eun-hui gave Hyeon-ju a sly smile; Hyeon-ju grinned back and nodded. Both women understood that even a spoiled little girl would one day beg for their Master's love. No woman could refuse him forever.
Kim Ian had shown no interest in A-reum, A-hui, or Na-hui, yet the growing number of mother-daughter pairs inside the harem had left the two aunts uneasy. Hyeon-ju at least now had Sun-jeong as a card to play, though the older woman was advanced in years; other pairs—Hye-yun and her mother, for example—were far more formidable. Eun-hui, who had no mother of her own in the harem, felt a twinge of envy, yet her own daughters were still young and adorable, so she simply waited for the future.
Before long the car rolled into the parking lot of the Seocho District Office. They had not needed to come this far, but they had waited in a nearby café in case the divorce ruling went wrong and cleanup became necessary.
"ID, registration form, proof of residence… everything ready?"
Marriage registration had been simplified almost as much as divorce. Only an ID and the form were required; one of the two parties could even be absent, and a single witness sufficed. A family-relation certificate was mandatory only for marriages within the fourth degree of kinship.
"Yes. You file first, unnie, then pull Master's detailed family-relation certificate and hand it to me. I already have mine. Because it's a fourth-degree marriage there will be a short interview, but people say it finishes in under thirty minutes."
Even the women—and Ian himself—had overlooked the need for the family-relation certificate. Eun-hui would be the first wife within the fourth degree; under current Korean law the certificate was not routinely demanded, so everyone had simply forgotten.
They went to Civil Affairs. Hyeon-ju's registration was accepted without trouble, and with Ian's ID they obtained the family-relation certificate. Hyeon-ju took the paper, began reading, then tilted her head and stared for a long time.
Eun-hui, impatient to file her own papers, walked over and tapped Hyeon-ju's shoulder, a touch of irritation in the gesture.
"Unnie? What is it?"
"Th-this… you check it…"
Hyeon-ju's hands trembled as she passed the document. Something had clearly shaken her. Eun-hui snatched it and read.
"Registered domicile Gimpo… Kimhae Kim clan… correct… Father Kim Ji-suk, Mother Park Yu-mi?"
Eun-hui's body locked. Her hands began to shake. How, in nineteen years of living side by side, had her own mother, her brother Myeong-hak, even Hyeon-ju herself, never noticed?
"Unnie… when you took Master into the household register, you never checked?"
"No. Myeong-hak said listing him as a cohabitant was more convenient…"
Cohabitant…
So her brother Myeong-hak had known something all along. Looking back, their mother's behavior had always been strange in places too.
"Park Yu-mi… that's Master's father's legal wife, right?"
"Yes. When you gave birth to Master you left the birth registration to Ji-suk oppa. Ah!!! They weren't even married then!"
Ji-suk already had a wife in Los Angeles when he met Eun-kyung in Korea; only after she became pregnant did he propose bigamy. The family had exploded. Eun-kyung refused and wept for days. Eun-hui still remembered how, just before the birth, Eun-kyung had summoned Ji-suk again over the household-register problem, and how he had come down and knelt before their parents, begging.
"So everyone except us knew… we were just kids then."
"Looks that way…"
Hyeon-ju yanked out her phone and stabbed at the buttons. A long conversation followed. At last she hung up, head bowed, and slipped the phone into her pocket.
"What did he say?"
"No reaction at all. Just 'What's the big deal?' Whether his mother is Jo Eun-kyung or Park Yu-mi, he never saw either face… He said it's lucky your registration process got simplified. Sadly."
How could Hyeon-ju, who had lived with him for eight years, and Eun-hui herself, the aunt who had watched him for nineteen, have known nothing? The thought ached. His flat indifference only made it worse.
What should have been a joyful marriage registration left both women with dark faces. Each held a marriage-relation certificate, yet they drove back toward Goesan in near silence, expressions heavy.
"Hyungbu… I mean Ji-suk oppa—can you reach him?"
"No. Same as you, unnie. Myeong-hak and the others hounded him so much that contact only comes from their side now and then…"
Near Goesan, Hyeon-ju asked; Eun-hui could only shake her head. The more she learned about both families, the more self-loathing rose inside her. And she still had not told Hyeon-ju the secret of her own birth—the truth she had planned to reveal today.
Haa… if she finds out we're half-sisters… Hyeon-ju unnie's mind will snap. Sun-jeong will be in danger too.
Hyeon-ju's temper was legendary; once enraged, there was no predicting what she might do. Already drowning in guilt, if she heard the full mess of this twisted family tree, her fury could fly in any direction.
Eun-hui texted Sun-jeong: keep your mouth shut for now. After watching Hyeon-ju enter the house, she drove a short distance to the empty lot near the village hall and called the one person she trusted most—Jeong-mi, currently her younger sister in the harem.
"Yes, unnie."
"Jeong-mi, did you hear the news?"
"What news? Something about the marriage registration?"
Master clearly had no intention of broadcasting it around the neighborhood. Still, Eun-hui needed to pour out the weight in her chest. She told Jeong-mi everything—from the half-sister revelation with Hyeon-ju to the fact that Master was listed on the register as another woman's son.
"…Unnie, none of this is your fault. Haa… so Master still doesn't know you're half-sisters?"
"Right. I was going to tell him later… casually invite him to enjoy a sister sandwich…"
"Pfft… that's so you, unnie. Master won't care much. He'll think it's nothing, just like he said. The real problem is Hyeon-ju unnie. She's already drowning in guilt; if she hears the birth secret on top of that…"
"I know… I have to tell her, right?"
"Yes. The longer you wait, the worse the backlash. Tell her right away. And steer her anger toward the bitches who still need work."
"Yeah… haa. Thanks for listening."
"Of course. We're family. And Sun-jeong has original sin of her own—lock her in a room with Hyeon-ju unnie and let her work off the rage with bitch training."
"Yeah… she's her mother, so she won't kill her, right? Okay."
Park Hyeon-ju's Point of View
Eun-hui stayed behind in the car for a call; Hyeon-ju trudged into Sun-jeong's house with her shoulders slumped.
The interior was silent. Jeong-a, once her sister-in-law, came out of the kitchen still wearing an apron and offered a greeting.
"Unnie, all finished? But your face…"
"Yeah. Marriage registration is done. Where are the kids and Sun-jeong?"
She berated herself for failing to control her expression and worrying her junior. Then she changed the subject, asking after Hana, Sun-jeong, and the children who were nowhere in sight.
"Ah, Hana unnie took the kids into town for groceries."
"Ah… okay. Go back to what you were doing."
"Yes, unnie."
Jeong-a returned to the kitchen. Hyeon-ju sank onto the living-room sofa, shrugged off her coat, and closed her eyes, trying to push away the rising guilt and gloom by thinking of the registration and of Master.
Then a phone buzzed.
On the table, Sun-jeong's phone lit once. The external display showed Eun-hui's name. Without thinking, Hyeon-ju picked it up and read the message.
…These bitches…
At first the words made no sense. The more she turned them over, the clearer it became that Eun-hui and the others were hiding something she was supposed to know. Suspicion hardened into rage; the arm holding the phone began to tremble.
"Kim Jeong-a!!!!! Get out here!!!"
Her voice cracked into a hysterical shriek. Jeong-a hurried out, saw Hyeon-ju's face, and froze.
"…"
Hyeon-ju wordlessly thrust the phone at her. Jeong-a's face drained of color. Betrayal flooded Hyeon-ju; she rose from the sofa, closed the distance, and locked eyes with the younger woman.
"Talk. What are you hiding?"
"Th-unnie… I can't tell you. This is…"
"I outrank Eun-hui. Still won't speak?"
"Th-at's… hhk…"
Jeong-a backed away, sobbing and shaking her head. Hyeon-ju advanced, certain this was no small matter. Just then the front door opened. Jeong-a, tears streaming, spotted Sun-jeong and the others entering and bolted toward them.
"Hana unnie, we have to take the kids and leave. Now."
"Huh?"
Jeong-a shoved the phone into Sun-jeong's hand and fled with Hana. Sun-jeong checked the screen, her face turning ashen, body shaking.
"Go Sun-jeong, get over here and kneel!!!"
"Th-yes."
She scrambled forward, phone still in hand, and dropped to her knees in front of Hyeon-ju, head bowed, unable to look up.
"Explain. What does this mean?"
"Th-that… when Eun-hui unnie gets here…"
"Who do you think you are? I outrank Eun-hui. Whose orders do you follow?"
Foreboding, betrayal, guilt, and gloom detonated at once.
Slap!
Hyeon-ju's arm swung full force across her mother's cheek.
"Ack!!!"
"Back in position."
Clutching her face, Sun-jeong stared in shock, then forced herself back onto her knees and straightened.
"Talk."
"Th-that…"
Slap!
"Ack!!! Hhk…"
The other cheek swelled. Once more she returned to position; Hyeon-ju seized her hair and yanked her head back. She leaned in until their eyes met. Sun-jeong trembled, tears pouring.
"Speak!!!"
"Th-hhk…"
Slap-slap!
"Speak!!!"
"Hhk…"
Hyeon-ju raised her hand again—then the door sounded. Eun-hui stood frozen in the entryway, eyes wide.
"Eun-hui, get over here and kneel, you bitch! Now!!!"
"…Yes, unnie."
As if she had already steeled herself, Eun-hui strode forward and dropped to her knees beside Sun-jeong. She glanced at the older woman's cheeks—already swollen from two full-force blows—with pity, then met Hyeon-ju's gaze.
"You tell me. What are you hiding…"
"Sun-jeong, go ice those cheeks. Leave this to me."
"Hhk… yes, unnie."
Sensing Eun-hui was ready to talk, Hyeon-ju sat on the sofa opposite her kneeling form and stared into her eyes, trying to swallow the betrayal.
"Unnie… I was going to tell you today. If not for Master's matter. Please understand this was for your sake. The truth is…"
Her whole body began to shake. Everything she had ever lived felt denied; her head spun. After hearing every word, Hyeon-ju closed her eyes, fists clenched, and trembled from head to toe.
"Unnie, try to see the bright side. Now you're Master's aunt just like me. Incest is on the table, and a sister sandwich is possible too."
"Shut up!!!"
Hyeon-ju glared toward the inner room where Sun-jeong had gone and shot to her feet. Eun-hui rose and wrapped her arms around her.
"Unnie!! You can't."
"Let go!!!"
"Unnie. Just a few hours. Wait a little before you go in."
Breathing hard, Hyeon-ju finally let Eun-hui pull her back onto the sofa and tried to sort her thoughts.
At last everything made sense. The wealthy family that could have sent her to university a dozen times over yet forbade it; the inheritance from which she had been excluded… She had told herself it was because she was a daughter. No. She had been another man's seed. Her entire life felt negated at the root.
"Unnie, it's better that you're our father's daughter. It actually worked out well. And pour this rage onto the real culprits—Park Jin-cheol's descendants. Whatever you do in Cheongju, Jeong-mi and I will beg Master for you."
"…Haa. Strip. Completely. You and Sun-jeong are spending the entire day as my bitches until this anger burns out. Tell Hana to take the kids to the amusement park and stay out all day."
"Yes… unnie."