The Interview
The interview with Tongryeong, which had been as prickly as a bed of thorns, had just ended. Lee Wan-yong was immediately assigned a small room prepared for him.
“Uhm.”
Originally from the Documents Division of the Ministry of the Interior, he had been reassigned to the Presidential Secretariat after the interview.
There was no reason given, and no explanation either.
He was simply told to go.
So he came.
“...”
Could he really refuse here?
After passing the interrogation of the Public Security Committee and the scrutiny by Tongryeong himself, refusing would make him a madman.
Staring at the nameplate on the door for a long time with a colorless, odorless, and expressionless face, Lee Wan-yong finally sighed and turned the knob.
“Creak.”
Upon entering the room, he saw a few familiar pieces of furniture.
The room was very small.
It was less than half the size of his previous office in the Documents Division of the Ministry of the Interior.
In it were an old desk and chair, a reception sofa, and a bookshelf filled with foreign books.
The only saving grace was that the electric light brought from America would also be installed in this room?
Lee Wan-yong fiddled with the light switch next to the door a few times, then stepped into the room.
Because of the war, there were no proper administrative buildings yet, and the Secretariat was housed in the annexes of the former Hojo and Ijo offices, so it was no small inconvenience.
Even in the annex, except for the office where Tongryeong lived, this room was one of the most out-of-the-way places, not well known even to the annex management staff.
It took some time to find this place.
“...”
Though he was a lonely person who didn't talk much with colleagues from the same department, being left alone in an empty office made Lee Wan-yong feel like this was a new kind of demotion, and his face flushed.
“... No, pull yourself together.”
But soon, with his characteristic awkward speech and spirit, he slapped his own cheek with a “smack!” and quickly found his seat.
Also, the best seat in the room.
“This should be good.”
In the empty office, since he had to use the best seat, he pulled over a small cabinet from the adjacent desk to create a new nest with a somewhat grand atmosphere, then plopped down on the seat.
Because it was the relatively widest seat in the office, sitting there and looking around, Lee Wan-yong felt as if he had become the chief of the Secretariat.
“Hah.”
Time passed, and the gloomy memories of demotion from just a moment ago vanished.
Thinking about it, he had never been demoted.
Among those appointed directly by Tongryeong after passing the interview, had there ever been anyone in the Republic government doing only minor tasks?
“No, none at all.”
Surprisingly, not a single person complained about their post or asked for a lower position.
Why?
Because everyone was so busy with important missions or good positions that they were indispensable to the country.
Within Lee Wan-yong's knowledge, among those who passed the interview with Tongryeong, there was no one who was abandoned.
First, realizing that he had grabbed the golden thread, Lee Wan-yong silently clenched and unclenched his fists.
Then, for a long time, he stared blankly at the ceiling, recalling the interview with Tongryeong.
At that time, he had been too nervous to answer quickly, and his words had stumbled, but in reality, the last question in the interview seemed the most important.
Tongryeong, who was only 11 years old this year but looked much larger than anyone Lee Wan-yong had seen, opened his mouth with a firm expression that could show the most seriousness at his age.
“Wan-yong, what is revolution to you?”
It might have seemed like a clichéd and predictable test, but it was a question from the father of the revolution who had overturned the destiny of the Joseon people who were going mad towards collapse.
“... You asked me what revolution is to me.”
But he couldn't immediately answer.
Because in his usual life, he only remembered high positions, decent houses, and current marriage prospects, and just killed time day by day, so it wasn't a topic that interested him much.
However, although Lee Wan-yong himself didn't know it well, he had excellent improvisational skills to cope with situations, and he was a person who had mastered the art of saving face.
Seeing that Tongryeong wanted his 'sincerity' from the question and expression, he unconsciously answered his own feelings about the revolution honestly.
“I wanted change, but there wasn't much that changed.”
“Hmm?”
Tongryeong's eyebrows rose slightly, but Lee Wan-yong answered honestly.
However, his expression and the tone of his voice showed that lying would be immediately detected, and if he made a shameless statement, he would never get a post, so he lowered his eyes.
“... Of course, it was a hundred times, a thousand times better than the time when a tyrant ruled. The efforts of Your Highness and the revolutionary government, and the realization of politics for the people, are approaching the common people. But that's it.”
Then, glancing again, Tongryeong frowned and growled.
“Explain a bit more.”
“Ah, the foolish masses don't even understand half of the fact that Your Highness and the ministers are working hard. Why new laws are needed, why foreign allies are necessary, and why the Republic has to go to war.”
After saying this much, Lee Wan-yong checked Tongryeong's mood for a moment.
The eyebrows that had gone up earlier hadn't come down, but the atmosphere from Tongryeong felt much more relaxed than before.
Having gained confidence, Lee Wan-yong moistened his dry lips with his tongue and opened his mouth.
It was a gamble, but his animal instinct told him he had to say it, so it rang in his head.
“I think humans are very foolish but have greed, so they work properly.”
“Hm.”
“And seeing Your Highness distribute the royal confiscated assets and the seized properties from the reactionaries and corrupt officials to the people at low prices, I gained confidence. The masses don't understand Your Highness's leadership and the spirit of the Three Principles of the People, but they believe in, no, they worship the prosperity that will bring Your Highness.”
After saying this much, Lee Wan-yong buried his head tightly between his legs and waited quietly for the decision.
And outwardly, his expression didn't change, but he thought he had truly gone mad.
“My intuition is frozen and stupid like a fool!”
He spread his two fists and slapped them on his thighs, trembling his lower body.
Even then, Tongryeong showed no reaction.
“I ended up causing an accident...”
At first glance, he had boldly committed an act that greatly insulted the pure and ideal nature of the father of the revolution right in front of him.
The common people don't understand Your Highness's noble spirit regarding the revolution and the Three Principles of the People?
They are more interested in ashes than the revolution?
Should I have just said the revolution is garbage?
I was showing off but ended up hitting my own neck.
“Uwaak!”
In his mind, he screamed while tearing out his hair, trembling like a poplar tree, and silently waited for Tongryeong's decision.
“Thin and long, and if possible, rich.” was Lee Wan-yong's motto.
He had said too much talk that he wouldn't normally say.
Like a person drunk without drinking alcohol, or a patient under hypnosis, Lee Wan-yong unknowingly spilled all his inner thoughts.
But he hadn't lied.
Lee Wan-yong, who thought he was a prodigy but not a genius, was exasperated at the farmers who, when they saw white rice, couldn't think straight.
He had learned English from an American businessman who docked in Jemulpo unusually in this era, and was deeply impressed by the Americans' excellent inventions and spirit of exploration, thinking that their wealth came from not being tied to the land.
“But I shouldn't get too excited and talk.”
Lee Wan-yong sincerely wanted to believe that Tongryeong's mysterious gaze and the atmosphere in the office had made him act strangely.
After such a long time of silence, Tongryeong's slightly hoarse voice rang in Lee Wan-yong's ear.
“You didn't say no.”
“???”
“Passed.”
Tongryeong, with a stiff expression, waved his palm once in the air, then took out three envelopes from his drawer, looked through them one by one, and muttered incomprehensible words to himself.
“Is the salary mine to decide?”
“Yes?”
“You don't want to work now? From today, report here.”
“Eee?”
“Interview over. Get out.”
“Eeeee...?!”
That was the end of the interview with Tongryeong.
He had come to the Secretariat like that.
“Ha...”
If he recalled the uncomfortable seat that had been as prickly as a bed of thorns again, sweat would trickle down his back, and his mind would go blank, and Lee Wan-yong was someone who never wanted to experience it again.
At that moment, the sound of footsteps came from in front of the corridor, and then the sound of knocking on the door.
“Knock knock!”
“Come in!”
“...”
“Come in!”
Then, there was no answer, and something whiteish oozed under the door.
Then, the person who had been walking down the corridor left their footsteps on the other side and covered their tracks.
“?”
Too absurd a situation, Lee Wan-yong didn't know what had happened at first, so with a hesitant expression, he got up from his seat and walked to the door.
Then, what entered his eyes was the identity of the white thing.
“An envelope?”
It was an envelope.
It was very thick, and the content clearly conveyed that it was not ordinary through his whole body.
Staring for a moment, he looked up at the room, realized that he was the only one in this office, and slapped his forehead before picking up the envelope.
The document envelope, which didn't look ordinary from the outside, when he held it in his hand, gave off a more terrifying atmosphere.
“Um.”
He swallowed hard and immediately returned to his seat and carefully opened the envelope.
Then, the three characters stamped with a red seal.
“Top Secret.”
“Oh.”
Next, Lee Wan-yong flipped the back of the document, read the content, and first felt relieved.
First, Lee Wan-yong had been promoted.
The interview he had thought was a blunder had clearly passed, and the evidence was this hideous and sinister plan document that he had in his heart.
And Tongryeong was not a pure person.
Lee Wan-yong was convinced of that.
*****
The phrase “banality of evil” exists.
It was said by a female philosopher from the German Empire, Hannah Arendt, who fled to America to escape the Jewish persecution in Nazi Germany, and followed the denazification of Germany and the war crimes trials, pondering how the Nazis could systematically massacre so many Jews and civilians and commit war crimes.
Among the famous people she interviewed, it was Adolf Eichmann, the infamous killing machine of the Fourth Reich.
So why was I suddenly talking about the banality of evil?
“Because Wan-yong is such a human.”
It looked that way to me.
That person named Lee Wan-yong.
“Going to work normally, getting married, having some self-esteem-.”
According to the Public Security Committee investigation report, his house was neither poor nor rich.
His father and brothers, who had enough property to maintain the family status, were not exceptionally talented people who studied but were not appointed to official positions.
They just managed the land handed down from ancestors without farming it?
With such a family atmosphere, Lee Wan-yong had just entered the officialdom, so his expression was one of wishing to hear the title of daegam once before dying without raising the family much, rather than ambition to make the family rise by entering the government.
But what I actually grasped about his problem was in the last question that was routinely asked to everyone.
“Contempt, dissatisfaction, anxiety, anger, acceptance.”
He didn't know what it was directed at.
But from Lee Wan-yong's expression and gaze, I read that the anger and contempt were towards the majority of ignorant farmers, acceptance and dissatisfaction towards the literati class of the four classes, and anxiety was clearly towards me.
No one had spoken about the revolution in such a colorful way in front of me.
Park Yung-hyo, appointed as Minister of the Interior, was proud of being from the Enlightenment Party and having fought the tyrant in Hanseong himself, and had no shame in changing the memory of that day into a great victory memory.
Similarly, Yun Chi-ho, the deputy head of the Public Security Committee, was an ardent revolutionary.
He had internalized the spirit of the Three Principles of the People, which he had patched together from rags, as the true national character of the Korean people, without hesitation in discarding the Sinicized thought that had taken root in Joseon society, including the Manchus.
Instead, his father Yun Ung-ryeol complained to me about trying to stop his radical son's actions.
Actually, Yun Chi-ho, who acted radically and fanatically, had many rivals.
Similarly, most of the junior officials from the Enlightenment Party and the military academy, who supported the revolution and the Republic in a fanatical atmosphere, had never once harbored doubts about the flaws of the Three Principles of the People and the political system of the provisional government close to dictatorship.
Ah, the four major factions led by Choe Ik-hyeon and Yu In-seok, the Confucian scholars, and Kim Hong-jip and Min Yeong-hwan?
They also had not expressed the revolution negatively in front of me even once.
The four major factions would not think of filling the seat next to the tyrant who was barely surviving the Public Security Committee investigation and being marked as a reactionary again, and the Confucian scholars who cooperated with the Alliance Association and the revolution in Hanseong saw it as their own initiative succeeding, and praised it as the realization of the kingly way politics.
The happy point was that the Confucian scholars and the four major factions agreed that reform was necessary in this country.
Although their thoughts on the speed differed, but anyway.
Although the talk had been circling around, let's get back to the main point: Lee Wan-yong is a human like Adolf Eichmann.
There were many similarities.
He did what he was told and didn't do what he wasn't told.
Extremely, one-dimensional thinking.
He had no emotions.
It was superficial, and there was no basis for his claims.
So, it was hard for him to empathize with others' emotions, and there were no people around him.
He thought he was smart and had made himself lonely, but it was because there was no one to share emotions.
He just evaluated humans in the worldview he imagined and arbitrarily judged without basis.
This seemed similar to Yun Chi-ho in some way, as he also liked to evaluate and rank others.
However, the difference from Lee Wan-yong was that Yun Chi-ho, who hadn't experienced the failure of the revolution, was somewhat passionate and aggressive.
So, there were still some Enlightenment Party friends by his side.
It meant maintaining humanity.
On the other hand, Lee Wan-yong was different.
He saw the world as fools and thought of himself as an easy-to-deceive playground.
“But humans are animals that can't be understood until the end of their lives.”
He was truly arrogant.
“A face like a mask.”
Externally, it was a plain impression.
But the anger and anxiety that accumulated in Lee Wan-yong's interior were great. In our conversation, I had seen that.
Outwardly, he talked about wanting to be thin and long, but inside, it was full of ambition towards the top, and he was a plain human who leaned towards people who praised him highly.
It was the same with the English he boasted about in front of me.
Lee Wan-yong used the fact that America would be the mainstream to confidently say that English would become an international language.
In other words, he relied heavily on his own insight and intuition, and at the same time, the excuse he gave me that he had learned French was also like a declaration of thorough obedience to absolute superiors.
Therefore, while pretending to belittle the revolution in front of me, in the end, he also belittled the people and raised me, which was the same.
If this is a kind of dealing strategy, then what.
“If you're stupid, you can be deceived. Like Gojong.”
Unfortunately, I am not Gojong.
This gloomy human thought he had deceived me, but it was not the case at all.
So, Lee Wan-yong's decision was simple.
He was a tool. Just a tool.
“Whether it's a knife for catching cows or chickens doesn't matter.”
The problem was that it was used as a knife.
What do you mean?
When the leader is raising the successor of the organization, he doesn't want to get blood on his hands.
The blood that gets on him will eventually catch his ankle.
That was his fate.
“Then it's decided now.”
I quietly looked down at the two documents placed in front of me.
“Good Cop, Bad Cop”
Hong Beom-do and Lee Wan-yong would surely handle the two roles splendidly.