A Son's Voice Out of Nowhere
A son's voice, heard out of nowhere.
Life flooded into Veterinarian Go Panseok's eyes, which until that moment had held not a spark of vitality. And before he even knew it, his gaze had locked with his son's.
But only for a moment. Go Panseok quickly slid his eyes away and blurted out:
"Y-you little— what're you doin' here?!"
Surprise, embarrassment, and relief all tangled together in his voice.
"Aigoo, is this someplace I ain't supposed to come? Well, I s'pose it is, at that. Anyway, Dad! If you were gonna drink, you should've just gone home and slept it off—why'd you go and beat somebody up? You know how worried Mom is?"
At Go Gi-jin's words, Go Panseok's face crumpled all at once, three deep vertical furrows carving themselves between his brows.
The forehead of Go Gi-jin, watching him through the bars, furrowed just as deeply. It was like looking at a mirror image of the same scowl.
Wearing that identical expression, Go Gi-jin stared at his father and opened his mouth.
"Tell me the name of that fella's hospital."
"The hospital? What for?"
"We gotta go settle this, don't we? Or what—he won't settle? That why you're sittin' in here?"
"Ain't nothin'!"
Go Panseok spat out those two words and jerked his head away.
Go Gi-jin startled at the gesture and all but shouted his next question.
"Ain't nothin'?! Don't tell me you beat him so bad he can't even stand up?"
Had the assault crossed over into actual bodily harm? An answer drifted out from somewhere behind them.
"It ain't that bad. I stopped your dad before he could beat him any worse."
The voice did not belong to Go Panseok. It came from the rear of the cell.
Go Gi-jin twisted around toward the sound, and found its owner looking back at him with a bitter expression. It was Section Chief Baek Gyeongsin, a man who had known him since the day he was born.
"Uncle Gyeongsin stopped Dad?"
"That's right. If I hadn't slapped the cuffs on him then, that fella'd be fightin' for his life right about now."
Go Gi-jin's eyes went round.
"S-so... he's alright, then?"
"Yeah. Just one arm broken, that's all. He's fine."
A broken arm, and they were calling it fine. Anyone else overhearing that would have goggled—but both Go Gi-jin and Section Chief Baek let out a breath of relief.
"Whew. That's a real mercy."
"It is, at that much. Anyway, I'm sorry. If I'd gotten there just a little earlier, this wouldn't've happened."
"What's there for you to be sorry about, Uncle? Dad's the one who did wrong."
That was when it came.
"I didn't do nothin' wrong. That bastard did."
Go Panseok said it, then pressed on, still burning with indignation.
"I should've snapped that bastard's legs clean off. Then he couldn't go wanderin' around."
"Aigoo, Dad, you're sittin' in a cell and you still ain't come to your senses? You still drunk?"
"You little— what drinkin'? I barely had a drop!"
"That so? Then what's this smell?"
Go Gi-jin stepped up close to the bars and sniffed.
"Tch. I had one drink with Rancher So and you're makin' a whole fuss?"
At the mention of drinking with the owner of Sodeuljib Ranch—home to their friend, the Border Collie Taesan—Go Gi-jin's mouth twisted.
"One drink becomes two, two drinks become a pair of bottles. That's how it goes."
Having said so, Go Gi-jin turned to Section Chief Baek.
"Uncle, is that fella pressin' charges against Dad?"
"A settlement oughta take care of it."
The word settlement eased something in Go Gi-jin's chest. A clean agreement would mean no punishment. The problem, of course, was that Go Panseok had no intention of settling whatsoever.
"Anyway, it's a relief the victim ain't hurt too bad. So where's the victim..."
Go Gi-jin had been about to ask which hospital the man had been admitted to. He never finished the sentence. His father's roar crashed over him like thunder.
The voice was a thunderclap, rolling and raw. Go Panseok had bellowed so hard the veins stood out on his neck, his face flushed a furious red for good measure.
It was the dead of night, but this was a police station. Officers on the night shift, citizens in custody—every head in the building jerked up in alarm.
Go Gi-jin and Section Chief Baek Gyeongsin, however, did not so much as flinch. Their faces said they had heard this song a hundred times before.
Go Gi-jin did, though, screw his features into a scowl.
"Dad, you could actually go to prison like this. Who's gonna want to settle with somebody as mule-headed as you?"
"That's my line! I ain't settlin' with that bastard! No way—I'm throwin' HIM in jail!"
Go Gi-jin blinked. He stared at Veterinarian Go Panseok for a beat, utterly lost, then turned to Section Chief Baek.
"Uncle, what did I just hear? These days the one who threw the punches is the one offerin' to settle? Or is the fella who went at it with Dad some kinda strongman?"
In other words: had his father, Veterinarian Go Panseok, been hit as well? Was this a mutual assault?
He looked his father up and down.
"Don't look like he's hurt anywhere."
"Well, Gi-jin... your dad, see, he caught the victim tryin' to get into Sodeuljib."
"Huh? A cattle thief? Then that fella's a thief!"
If that was the case, what was there to settle at all?
"Worse than a thief! A rotten bastard! A no-good son of a—!"
Veterinarian Go Panseok was still seething, or perhaps working himself into a fresh rage; his breath came in angry huffs.
Go Gi-jin's head tipped to one side, then righted itself. He reached out and took Section Chief Baek Gyeongsin's hand.
"Uncle. Talk with me a minute."
"Yeah. Let's do that."
Nothing useful was going to get said in front of Veterinarian Go Panseok.
The two of them went to the break room and sat down.
"Uncle, why's Dad actin' like that? It ain't dementia, is it?"
"Hush, you. Don't you go sayin' nonsense like that!"
"Then why's he like this? He beat a man and still says that man's the bad one. That ain't right, is it?"
"Hoo... well. This is what I heard from Rancher So. You know how it is—that ranch is somethin' else to look at."
Sodeuljib Ranch was a place Lee Jun, Hoesaegi, Gkamnyangi, and Sapsaree had all taken one look at and marveled over, calling it magnificent.
"Well, that's true."
"Anyway, folks love takin' pictures out front of it."
Sodeuljib Ranch was beautiful country. People out for a drive would pull over and snap photos in front of it all the time. There was no shortage of visitors hoping for a tour of the place, either.
But because of the foot-and-mouth disease, they turned visitors away whenever they could. And when anyone with business did come through, they had to pass through a disinfection booth first—no exceptions.
Hoesaegi, Gkamnyangi, and Sapsaree had all gone through that process before they set foot on the ranch.
And then someone had broken in. Without going through the disinfection booth. Without permission.
Rancher So and Veterinarian Go Panseok had been drinking at the Sodeuljib Ranch office at the time, and they had seen it happen—on the security cameras.
"Rancher So said he tried talkin' to the man at first. Told him to get out. But the fella kept sayin' he'd just take one picture and go, and he kept comin' in."
The rest was easy enough to picture. Rancher So and the uninvited guest had gotten into a shouting match, and Veterinarian Go Panseok had stepped in.
A man who carried a deep trauma over foot-and-mouth disease had finally let the anger out.
There was no telling where that trespasser had been walking, what ground he had stepped on, whom he had come into contact with. And that man had refused disinfection and come in anyway.
Foot-and-mouth disease was raging. Sodeuljib Ranch was still untouched—for now—but nobody knew what tomorrow would bring, and every nerve on the place was stretched tight.
"That's how it happened."
"What? That fella's a lunatic, ain't he? I'll show him—just you wait!"
Go Gi-jin loosed a roar that belonged on a lion, then strode off so hard the building seemed to shake under his feet.
He stopped right in front of his father, Veterinarian Go Panseok.
"Dad. Which hospital's that bastard in?"
The shout. The ugly look on his face. Go Panseok faltered.
"W-why, what's the matter?"
"I'm gonna snap both his legs clean off."
"N-no you ain't. You'll go to jail!"
"Then I'll beat him first and go."
"You crazy fool!"
Veterinarian Go Panseok had been fuming that he had not hit the victim hard enough. But the moment his son stood there with his eyes rolling wild, something in him snapped back into place.
A parent might think it fine to go to jail—or somewhere worse than jail—himself. What he cannot bear is the thought of his child going instead.
Go Panseok was no different.
"Just settle it."
"I ain't settlin' with a fella like that!"
His son came back hard. And Veterinarian Go Panseok already knew the answer. He knew exactly how to break that stubborn streak.
"Then you won't be able to practice medicine. Who's gonna let a fella fresh out of prison treat their animals? You won't see those little cuties neither. That place you love so much—Mongmong Animal Hospital—you won't be able to go. And you won't see the cattle neither. That what you want?"
As Go Panseok laid out the facts, Go Gi-jin's expression eased, just a little. The picture his father had painted was one he found horribly, viscerally unbearable.
"I'm just so damn mad, that's all."
"Me too! But talkin' to you, I realized somethin' important."
The important thing was the work. Veterinarian Go Panseok could not stand the thought of that shameless bastard in the world being the reason he could no longer treat animals—could no longer treat cattle. If it came to that, he could not imagine anything more bitterly unfair.
That's right. A fella who'd pull a stunt like that over one lousy photo—what's the point of fightin' him?
Something in Go Panseok shifted. Go Gi-jin, who had spent a lifetime at his father's side, felt it. So did Section Chief Baek Gyeongsin.
But you never knew with people. Until the matter was closed, they would have to be careful. Careful, and then careful again.
Hyungnim's been havin' such a hard time lately.
Section Chief Baek turned to Go Gi-jin.
"Gi-jin. Think you can stay a few more days?"
Go Gi-jin thought of Lee Jun's words, and nodded.
"I'll stay till the settlement's done."
"That so? That's a relief. Then take your dad on home."
Go Gi-jin had the strength to hold back his father's brute force, after all. The meaning was plain: don't leave the old man in this cold, take him home, and stay close enough to keep him from going after that bastard.
That was when Veterinarian Go Panseok cut into their conversation.
"Baek, that ain't it! What're you sayin' to a man who needs to get back to his patients right now?"
"Ain't this so you don't end up doin' time, hyungnim?"
"Why would I be doin' time?"
"If Gi-jin ain't around and you go after that fella again, then what?"
"I ain't gonna beat him! If anybody does time, it'll be me. I ain't tellin' you to do it!"
"That stubborn streak of his, I swear!"
Section Chief Baek let out a long sigh and shook his head. Then he added:
"Aigoo, you still think you're a young man, hyungnim? Your sixtieth birthday was three years ago. Three years!"
"You think you ain't agin' neither? Why you always goin' on about age?"
"It's 'cause it breaks my heart. 'Cause I'm worried! On a cold day like this, even sittin' on a warm floor at home toastin' your backside, your bones'd be achin'—and look at you, in this state!"
He all but shouted it, his voice thick with worry. The head that had been watching the two of them turned aside again.
And then, under his breath:
"...Cold? What's cold about this? Frozen ground, packed hard underground, that's a whole lot..."
Veterinarian Go Panseok's mutter trailed off. It was quiet—but Go Gi-jin heard it, and so did Section Chief Baek Gyeongsin.
Go Gi-jin's face darkened all at once. He understood, with a sudden and terrible clarity, why his father had thrown a punch he almost never threw.
Dad...
The aftereffects of going out to the foot-and-mouth sites. The trauma.
That's why I said I'd go. You wouldn't listen, and you went anyway.
Go Gi-jin's chest went tight. Deeply, uncomfortably tight.
The moment he had heard that foot-and-mouth disease had broken out, Go Gi-jin had called his father. He had asked whether he was being mobilized again. And if he was, Go Gi-jin had said, he would go in his place.
Veterinarian Go Panseok had cut him off with a single stroke: Ain't nothin'.
Remembering that phone call, Go Gi-jin grumbled, his voice thick with hurt.
"That's why I said I'd go instead!"
"Ain't nothin'. You..."
Go Panseok got that far, then drew in a great breath. And then he finished it.
"You can't do it!"
Was that the sound of vocal cords being wrung dry? Or scraped against the floor? Veterinarian Go Panseok shut the matter down in a voice so raw it defied description.
Go Panseok was not a public quarantine veterinarian, so he might not have been mobilized at all. But even when he was not called up, he always volunteered.
When he was mobilized to a culling site, he went. When he was not mobilized, he went anyway.
The reason was simple.
It was work someone had to do. He went so that the veterinarians who were called up would not finish that work and then give up the profession altogether.
Large-animal veterinarians were scarce enough as it was. He did not want to lose even one of the younger ones.
Go Gi-jin understood. In Hongseong, the large-animal veterinarians all tended to be men of a certain age. "A certain age" was the polite way of putting it. Aside from a handful of juniors, you could wash your eyes and look and still not find a young veterinarian among them.
Young people shunned the work, and the profession was growing old.
And so Veterinarian Go Panseok had gone out to those sites again and again, even as the guilt piled up inside him—hoping that there would be even one more veterinarian left in the world to treat the cattle he loved.
"Well then, we'll be goin'."
"Alright. Call me when you go over there tomorrow. I'll come along too."
"Got it. Thanks, Uncle."
"Nothin' to thank. Get on home."
Go Gi-jin bowed his head and climbed into the car with Veterinarian Go Panseok.
The door shut. The moment he was in his seat, Go Panseok ground his molars together.
"Just you wait! I ain't lettin' this go!"
"Aigoo, Dad, didn't Uncle Gyeongsin say you can't do that? Didn't he? And besides—you ain't the one settlin'. HE's the one who has to settle with you."
"Hmph!"
Go Panseok snorted and thrust out his hand. In the brief flash of it, the scrapes across his skin were plain to see.
"How'd you get that?"
"That bastard hit me with his camera!"
"What?!"
Go Gi-jin's voice jumped. Go Panseok snorted again, sharp as a cork popping, and said:
"Tomorrow, I'm goin' to the hospital too!"