A World of Vertical Bars
Haennim-i's world is drawn in vertical lines.
A sky scored through with long vertical bars. A stretch of earth etched with long, pitch-black ones. Friends, too, all of them rendered in long vertical strokes...
Haennim-i looks out at the world through the long iron bars of her cage.
For a bear whose entire universe has been nothing but those vertical lines, there is a chance she may never leave that pen — that narrow iron cage — for as long as she lives.
Lee Jun was on the phone with Gong So-yeon, his gaze fixed on a large photograph hanging on the office wall.
It was a picture of the Tam Dao Bear Sanctuary in Vietnam: a wide sweep of green grass, and bears resting there in perfect peace. One sprawled in a hammock. One lying on a wooden platform with its eyes closed. Others sitting together in twos and threes across the meadow.
Every last one of them was an Asiatic black bear, identical to the Somang-is.
This was the place they hoped the Somang-is might one day live — a photograph steeped in the activists' dearest wish. Lee Jun stared at it, sharing that wish as his own, and put real weight into his voice.
"Among the bears scheduled to go to Colorado this time, there's one whose condition isn't very good."
He laid out Haennim-i's condition without softening a single detail.
"That's so heartbreaking... what do we do..."
Gong So-yeon sighed and murmured through the entire account. To that voice, Lee Jun spoke the hope he was carrying.
"I just want Haennim-i to spend even a few days somewhere wide open."
"...I want that too."
Her voice caught as she agreed with him. Lee Jun told her what he needed.
"Which is why I wanted to ask — I'd like to take Haennim-i a little earlier. Would that be possible?"
"We'll have to try. I'll try. I already feel terrible we couldn't rescue her sooner — that we couldn't look after her better. I'll make sure Haennim-i gets to go. And the next one after her, too."
There was steel in the voice that answered him.
"Thank you, Director Gong."
"Not at all. I'm more grateful to you for even thinking of this, Director. Is there anything else you need?"
"I'll be traveling with Haennim-i. I intend to care for her the whole way there, so I'd be grateful if you could make that possible."
"You're going with her, Director? Then perhaps in the animal hold..."
"Yes. And tomorrow would be fine, if it came to that — the sooner we can leave, even by a single day, the better. Ah — and if the cost is a problem, I'll cover it myself."
"Please don't worry about that. Leave it with me. I'll look into it right away and call you back."
Gong So-yeon handled the work as quickly as the force in her voice had promised.
The very next evening after Lee Jun came back up to Seoul, her call came through.
"Director — Sharon burst into tears and swore she'd get Haennim-i to America right away."
"Sharon?"
Lee Jun's face registered genuine surprise. The Sharon he knew was a razor-sharp businesswoman. She had, of course, completely dropped her armor in front of Hoesaegi and Gkamnyangi — but still.
"Yes. Apparently it's a huge story over there as well — our children going to them, I mean."
"I can imagine. It's probably the first time that many bears have been relocated at once. And these are children living in conditions those people couldn't even picture."
"Exactly. The animal organizations there and ordinary citizens are showing enormous interest, apparently. There's already a whole atmosphere of people hoping they arrive safely."
"I'm grateful. They're providing a place for the children to go, and they're paying attention on top of that."
"Yes. So Sharon was confident she could bring Haennim-i over, of course. She said she'd get back to us quickly. Oh — and they hoped the attending veterinarian would come along as well. You'd already told me you were going, Director, but I called to confirm."
"Of course I'm going."
He added one more thing.
"I'll go whenever the date is. So the sooner this comes together, even by a single day, the better."
"Understood. I'll pass that along."
"And if it doesn't work out, I'd appreciate hearing that quickly too. Then I'll need to look for another way."
"I will make this happen."
A fierce will ran through Gong So-yeon's voice as it came through the receiver.
While he waited for the result, Lee Jun threw himself into clinic work with everything he had. Surgeries, consultations — he gave every patient the fullest measure of his care.
Catching it early is everything.
Whatever the illness, the odds of a cure rose sharply if it could only be found in time. It was an obvious truth, but watching Haennim-i had driven the importance of early detection and early treatment into him more deeply than ever.
One day passed, then two, and Lee Jun grew restless. On the third day, barely an hour after he arrived at work, Gong So-yeon's call came in.
She didn't bother with a greeting. She simply shouted.
"I — is that true?"
"Yes!"
Haennim-i's departure was arranged in a heartbeat.
"Hah. So things like this really do happen in the world. Jun-ah, you are something else."
Kang Han-ul's eyes shone as he looked at Lee Jun, who had come down to Donghae. His face, though, was anything but well. And it wasn't only Kang Han-ul who looked worn down. Every volunteer in the office wore the same exhausted cast.
They had almost certainly been so consumed with caring for Haennim-i and the rest of the Somang-is that they had stopped looking after themselves.
Something surged up from deep in Lee Jun's chest as he looked at them. The words Why do your faces look like that? What are you going to do if you wreck your health? Take care of yourselves a little while you work rose all the way to his throat, and he swallowed them back down, hard.
"Thank you, sunbae. And thank you, everyone."
There was nothing else he could say. He put his whole heart into those words.
Kang Han-ul shook his head.
"What are you talking about. You're the one who's incredible. How did you even think of this? No — thinking it is one thing. Actually making it happen is what's amazing. Anyway. You're really something."
"He's right, Doc. Thank you so much. You have no idea how happy we were when we heard Haennim-i could go to a real home."
"And five more get to go on top of that. We're just so, so glad."
"I know. We honestly never expected it would go that far... Doc, thank you. Truly."
"Thank you so much, Doc. You give us strength. Real strength."
The volunteers came up one after another to thank him — because of Lee Jun, they could now send five more bears, including a candidate to take Haennim-i's place.
"Not at all. I didn't do anything worth all this. It's thanks to all of you here."
Everyone — thank you. Truly. We only made it this far because of everything you've done.
He offered that gratitude inwardly to the volunteers, then went on.
"I'll go see Haennim-i, then."
"I'll come with you."
Kang Han-ul followed him out of the office and asked, "So you're staying here for a while?"
"Yes. Departure is less than a week away, so I want to get Haennim-i's condition up as high as it can go. You and everyone here already have more than enough to do — you can't just look after Haennim-i alone."
"That's true, but are you okay? I mean, is Mongmong going to be okay?"
"Of course. Our staff are all wonderful. And Kim Jaeyeon is there now, too."
Kim Jaeyeon — the surgeon who had interviewed alongside Yeo Un-hyeok — had joined the hospital.
"Kim Jaeyeon? That guy's at your place?"
"Yes. He's been with us a little over a month."
"That's good news. If he's there, I can worry a little less... still, though. Anyway. Thank you."
Lee Jun took Kang Han-ul's thanks and walked on toward Haennim-i.
His steps toward her cage were quick. His heart, unlike his feet, was heavy.
Haennim-i's cage, visible in the distance. A faint sound was drifting from it.
"......Oppa...... Banana...... Oppa......! Hehehe."
It had only been a week. And yet she sounded like she had less than half the strength she'd had then.
Last time I couldn't even politely pretend her condition was good...
Lee Jun's jaw clenched tight at that frail little voice. He ground his molars together and made a vow.
I will get you under a blue sky. I swear it.
The resolve in his chest was iron. The voice that left his mouth was the softest thing in the world — a voice with cream melted into it.
"Haennim-ah. Have you been well?"
"Hehe, yeah! Oppa said you'd come after I slept tight-tight, so I slept tight-tight. But the food is tasty... it's not tasty."
A faint shadow crossed the face of the bear who was smiling so weakly, so sweetly.
"......So I didn't eat it...... Oppa......"
Guilt, because she hadn't done what Lee Jun had asked — eat well. That was why her face had darkened.
Lee Jun's eyes grew wet looking at her. His throat stung a little, too. But he smiled brightly as he spoke to her, and his voice came out even softer, even kinder than a moment before.
"This oppa was missed, wasn't he? That's why our Haennim-i threw a little food tantrum."
"Hehehe......"
Haennim-i, lying on her straw mat, looked up at him and grinned. She was simply, enormously happy that he had come.
Lee Jun opened the cage and stepped inside. The bear who had been lying down wriggled, trying to get up.
"Haennim-ah, just stay lying down."
"Hehe, I... I'm gonna go... next to Oppa..."
"Are you? Then I'll just come over like this."
He hurried to sit down beside her.
Soft.
The floor gave gently under him. Looking down, he saw two extra blankets layered over the straw mat. Kang Han-ul must have put them there so Haennim-i could lie on something even a little plusher.
In the moment Lee Jun was looking at the blankets, a warm heat pressed against his hip. Haennim-i had scooched her body right up against him.
"Hehe. Oppa's warm."
A cool wind still slipped through at dawn and at night, but the midday sun remained fiercely hot. And yet she said she was warm. She must have meant that the warmth itself felt good.
Lee Jun stroked the brightly smiling bear as he answered.
"I'm warm too."
When he stroked her round head, Haennim-i's eyes curved into little crescent moons. She made a happy little humming sound and spoke.
"Hehe, Oppa, King Teacher... heehee... gave it to me. Oppa, you lie down too... It's so, so nice... heehee."
Even talking left her short of breath. Lee Jun wanted to tell her not to speak, to just rest — but he only kept stroking her. It had not been long at all since Haennim-i had been able to talk with a face this happy.
And... there would not be many days left in which she could say the things she wanted to say.
That's right, Haennim-ah. Do everything you want. Say everything you want.
He smiled and carved every word of her joyful little self into his heart.
"King Teacher gave it to you? King Teacher has been taking such good care of our Haennim-i."
King Teacher was Kang Han-ul. When Lee Jun had left for Mongmong Animal Hospital, he had told Haennim-i that Kang Han-ul would be doing her dressings — and that Kang Han-ul was a much greater, much stronger King Teacher than he was, so she should listen to him well. From that day on, Kang Han-ul had been King Teacher to Haennim-i and all the Somang-is.
Haennim-i watched Lee Jun pat the floor and decided he must like the soft bedding just as much as she did.
"Banana Oppa, it's really nice, right? Haennim-i loves getting to sleep in a place like this."
"Yeah. That sounds wonderful."
"Yeah. Banana Oppa should sleep here too. It's so, so nice the sleepy-sleep comes right away. My friends say they sleepy-sleep real good here too!"
She got the words out with difficulty, then turned her eyes toward Kang Han-ul standing outside the cage. She lifted her head, just a little.
"King Teacher! Thank you."
GROOAR! GROOAR!
Led by Haennim-i, the Somang-is inside the cages bellowed with joy.
"Heh. Have I got heatstroke? It sounds like these kids are thanking me."
"They really are. They say thank you, sunbae. They're grateful you put the blankets down."
"Yah! When you say it like that it actually sounds true."
"It is true."
"Ahem. Well, they don't even get the mats dirty, so..."
Kang Han-ul went on as if complaining, his voice a little quieter.
"I don't understand how kids this clean ever lived in a place like that. They really do their business in that far corner, you know."
"I told you. They're smart."
Lee Jun said it, then turned back to Haennim-i.
"Haennim-ah. After just a few more sleepy-sleeps, you're going somewhere really wonderful."
"Gooo?"
Haennim-i blinked at his words. She had lived her entire life in a single spot. She had heard this once before, and she still did not seem to understand what going meant.
"Hmm. Haennim-ah, do you see those kids over there?"
He pointed to the birds in a tree, visible even from where she lay.
"Yeah. Those are the kids who keep on walking."
Unlike Haennim-i, for whom walking inside the narrow cage meant three steps — four, at most — the birds kept walking, kept flying, and she watched them with something like envy.
The wish to roam freely is instinct. A lifetime of confinement does not erase that.
Haennim-i looked at the birds, whose lives were so unlike hers, and she wanted what they had.
"Haennim-i is going somewhere she can walk like they do. When you get there, you'll be able to walk and walk and walk, just like them."
Blink. Blink.
Haennim-i gave no other response. She only blinked her round eyes. She did not understand.
A moment later, she asked him,
"Oppa, do I walk like that kid who keeps walking?"
She pointed with one round front paw at a spot in the tree. A little songbird was waddling along a branch.
"Do I keep walking and walking like that kid?"
"Yes! Our Haennim-i is going to keep walking and walking, just like that."
She surged up.
Strength from somewhere unknown, and Haennim-i was on her feet. She strode to the bars and seized them. It happened before Lee Jun could stop her.
Staring at the little songbird in the distance, she stammered.
"I-I-I get to ke...ep walking and walking? Like that kid, keeeep... hah, hah... walking?"
She twisted back to look at Lee Jun, her face still alight with excitement, and asked,
"Banana Oppa, do I really get to walk and walk and walk? Even if my friends are over there, I still get to keep walking and walking?"
She thrust one front paw straight out between the bars and looked back and forth between Lee Jun and the songbird as she asked. The paw was pointing, of course, at the little bird.
It was the first time Haennim-i had ever asked him if he really meant it.
The body leaning against the bars trembled. It was costing her. Lee Jun caught and steadied her as he answered.
"Yes. Of course. Who do you think I am?"
"Banana Oppa!"
"That's right. Oppa gave you the soft bedding, didn't he? So he'll make it so you can walk and walk and walk, too."
Laying down a straw mat had nothing whatsoever to do with being able to walk forever. But Lee Jun would have said anything to give her hope — the hope of walking, just once, in a wide-open place.
"So for now, let's lie down. Hm? We have to get strong fast so we can walk and walk and walk."
"Yeah! Okay, Oppa!"
Even as she let him guide her back down, her eyes sparkled.
"Hehe. I get to walk and walk and walk. Oppa. I'm gonna walk that far! And then I'm gonna give timid Cheondungi a big hug."
"Yes. You do that."
"And when the sky goes flash-flash, I'll sleep with Cheondungi. Sleeping with Cheondungi will be all soft and squishy. Hehehe. I hope I can sleep with Taebaeki and Teongteongi too. And Oppa too..."
Hope had given Haennim-i more words. She had more things she wanted to do.
And that afternoon, for the first time in days, Haennim-i finally swallowed food — a soft, richly nourishing porridge. Lee Jun praised her.
"That's it, Haennim-ah. Eat lots, get strong, and we'll walk and walk and walk."
"Yeah!"
In high spirits, Haennim-i happily wagged her hindquarters and walked to the corner of the cage.
Then — shhhhhh.
A sound, and a look of deep satisfaction on her face.
In Haennim-i's case, the color of her urine was critically important. A large puppy pad had been laid down in the spot she used as a bathroom, and the pad, which had been white, was soaked a deep, dense orange.
Lee Jun's face darkened in an instant.
That's vermilion...
He didn't need a lab result. It was painfully clear that Haennim-i's liver had gotten worse.