Courtship
The prison door opened before long. I stretched my aching, stiff body with a series of cracks and let my complaints be known.
"Free at last!"
"You talk like someone who's been locked up for a whole week. Sooner or later, I'll send a nicely pressed uniform and your appointment as detective squad chief to your home. For the name on the appointment—shall I use your real name, Ajisai Mizuko?"
"Of course. Are you telling me to use a pseudonym?"
"I was actually thinking of sending it in hanja. Just the surname, to start with. That wouldn't violate any laws, you see. Same thing if the name tag on your uniform only carries your family name."
"Then my name would be Jayanghwa."
Ajisai. A name written with the character for violet, the character for sunlight, and the character for flower. It was certainly a strange name for a Korean, but as luck would have it, it was three syllables long, so it didn't feel entirely implausible as one. Mizuko would be discarded, but still...
I could read Hui-yeong's intentions. Once the uniform was made, it would come with a name tag, and she was suggesting that a name tag which looked even slightly Korean was better than one that would instantly mark its wearer as Japanese at a glance.
"Is your ultimate goal to have me naturalize as a Korean citizen altogether?"
"If you wish it, I can arrange the paperwork. The government, surprisingly, wouldn't refuse. A Japanese person becoming a naturalized Korean means, from Korea's perspective, gaining the momentum to lead a new nation. Our government treasures every single person like that more than you'd think."
"No. Let me think on that a little longer. Frankly, I'm still not certain what your actual goal is. And manpower issues aren't at the stage where we should be discussing naturalizing Japanese people."
At my words, Hui-yeong let out a long sigh. The two of us continued our conversation as we climbed the stairs side by side.
"That's true, unnie. Japan is currently holding two hundred thousand healthy Korean men at the very least—and that only counts those forcibly conscripted. Naturally, the Chairman wants them back. But... you can guess it won't be resolved that easily, can't you?"
"What are Yamamoto's demands?"
"The conscripted Koreans already belong to the Japanese military and cannot be discharged at will. However, should Korea enter a war against Britain and America, Japan would view favorably the reorganization of two hundred thousand able-bodied Korean men into a Korean army, with command over them transferred to Korean commanders of Korean nationality. That's what I heard he said. There would of course be more detailed demands, but that much is all that's reached me."
"So the plan is to use the conscripted men and the abducted women as hostages to drag this country into the war no matter what. I can understand why Kim Gu won't return home, then. He'd hardly want to join a cabinet that might find itself at war with America at any moment."
"Though I don't think lingering in Shanghai is wise either. He'd be better off following Dr. Lee all the way to America."
"The New York Provisional Government? I don't think much of that idea."
"There's no point in you and me debating it. And it goes without saying—if you look at who's sitting in the Security Minister's chair, even the Chairman is doing everything in his considerable power to keep Korea out of a war with America. It would have been better if Kim Kyu-sik or Cho So-ang had accepted the Foreign Minister's seat, but it seems both ultimately decided to join hands with Kim Gu."
The two of us stepped out of the Government-General building together. Even though they wouldn't recognize me, the Korean police officers certainly recognized Hui-yeong's face, and they stepped aside to either side, clearing a path for her to pass.
"So with Kim Kyu-sik, Syngman Rhee, and Cho So-ang all absent, who's serving as the Republic's Foreign Minister these days?"
"Mr. Choi Neung-u holds the post. Well, the Foreign Ministry isn't much cause for worry. It's whoever took the Ministry of Labor that's the problem."
"Who would that be?"
"Park Heon-yeong. Does the name ring a bell?"
The moment I heard the name, I frowned. It was not a name I was particularly fond of.
"Better to eliminate him. Especially if Kim Il-sung and Kim Won-bong are hostile to the current government, I doubt keeping Park Heon-yeong inside the cabinet is a good choice."
"Hmm. That's why some argue there's no choice but Park Heon-yeong... I can see the logic. I don't like keeping company with the Communist Party. But rumors are rife that the Soviet Union has begun pushing Germany back. Stalinists run rampant, and they're hard to rein in. Let's just assume everyone has their own circumstances."
Well, fair enough—they were all such capable gentlemen, every last one of them. Compared to me, whose only real talent was brawling, they'd surely manage all the appropriate political judgments on their own. Hui-yeong came to a stop on the street in the Gyeongseong city district, in front of the Government-General.
"I won't walk you any farther than this. Then, go home and rest."
"Yes. See you next time."
"Ah, and—one more thing, unnie."
I hadn't noticed for a while, but the moment she said 'unnie' again, her black eyes seemed to drown once more in some vast darkness.
"Don't think about going far away. I know where your house is, so if you get any clever ideas, I can find you. I am a government official, for all that I look like this."
A chill ran through me, but I did my best not to show it. I forced the corners of my mouth upward and nodded.
"I'm not about to try running from someone who knows my body measurements. Ah, but there is one thing I'm curious about."
"Yes, ask away."
"Deputy Director—you do like me, don't you?"
Her eyes narrowed at my words. Under normal circumstances that would have been a rather menacing expression, but because it obscured the most frightening part of her—those pupils—it was, if anything, a reassuring one.
"Of course. Did you think I was hitting you because I disliked you?"
"I'm glad to be liked, then. Well then, I'll be off..."
I bowed my head to Hui-yeong in a crisp, formal posture. She bowed in return, accepting the greeting. Unfortunately, my appearance was not so respectable as to strut proudly through the streets. I could have walked home, but the stains on my knees made me reluctant to be seen on the road.
I hailed a rickshaw and rode it home. After paying the puller and stepping down, I spotted a Japanese patrolman waiting in front of my house. I knew the face. Honda, a patrolman who had worked alongside me at Jongno Police Station.
"Patrolman Honda. What brings you here?"
"Officer Ajisai, ma'am."
I asked him without even putting my key in the door. He was a young patrolman, but not exactly a paragon of character. It couldn't be helped, really. It was an era when decent young men were barely enough to fill the army, let alone serve as police to govern the home islands. Japan's population wasn't plentiful enough to send men of both letters and arms to its colonial police forces across the sea.
"I—I'm returning to Japan the day after tomorrow."
"And?"
"I've adored you all this time!"
Suddenly he bent stiffly at the waist and shouted at the top of his lungs. For a moment I frowned, unable to process what he'd said, then I ignored him completely and pushed my key into the keyhole.
"What on earth is this about, all of a sudden?"
"When I heard you'd decided to stay in Korea, I thought about it. I understand you decided to stay because you're so attached to the Korean people, but please, couldn't you reconsider? Let's return to the home islands together. Even though I look like this, I have no wife and children waiting for me back home. And in Korea, I've only been to places like geisha houses a few... barely at all,"
Should I give him credit for the conscience that kept him from saying never? For now, I looked around to check whether anyone was listening or watching. It wasn't a well-trafficked road, but ears could be anywhere.
...More than that, though, a bad feeling was creeping over me.
"So if you would just come back to Japan with me... since I've, well, adored you for so long, I would..."
"You're mistaken. It's not that I don't want to return to Japan—that's not why I'm staying."
"But—"
"And if you want to make it home with all four limbs intact, you'd better not spread that story around. Go home."
"Even if it means taking a beating from you, ma'am, I—!"
"It'd be nice if it ended with just a beating from me."
"What?"
"You wouldn't understand even if I explained. Take my advice seriously. And with that, goodbye."
I swiftly opened the door, slipped inside, and locked it behind me. When I saw Honda heading toward the window, I drew the curtains as well. The idiot patrolman kept bellowing like a beached whale in front of my window.
The moment I let out a deep sigh and turned my back on the window—
At the sight of the person standing before me, I nearly fainted on the spot, my breath caught in my throat.
Because the Deputy Director of Korea's Military Bureau was standing right in front of me, waving her hand with a faint smile. As I started stumbling backward, probably white as a sheet, Hui-yeong appeared behind me, gazing out through the curtains, and asked:
"What a charming young man. Who is he?"