The Mother-in-Law’s Farewell and the Mark of Doom
“Yes. My mother-in-law.”
Lee Bok-soon gave him the answer.
“Your mother-in-law was a shaman?” Kang-to asked in return.
“Not exactly, but she said she had shaman blood. A long time ago, her grandmother had been a shaman, and she picked up a few things from listening in back then...”
“Ah...”
“Actually, my eldest uncle was once a Nat Kadaw, too. My father even showed me an old photograph once.”
“A Nat Kadaw?”
“A Myanmar shaman. It’s similar to the gut rituals that Madam Gyeongsin performs with U Min Kyaw, but a Myanmar Nat Kadaw is also a dancer who learns the dances of all thirty-seven guardian spirits.”
“......”
“Later, my mother-in-law told me something else. She said she hadn’t mentioned it until then, but that I carried the Yin-Yang Fatal-Lunge Curse and the Needle-Point Curse. Those are terrible marks to have, she said—curses that make it hard to stay with your husband, or even remain on good terms with your mother-in-law...”
“That’s right.”
“And another one was a nasty curse too, one that made it difficult to get along with other people. When I heard that, I got a shock. I don’t know if it was because of the Yin-Yang curse, but I was always afraid my husband would leave me. In Southeast Asia, it’s common for women to marry older Korean men, but that wasn’t my case, was it? On top of that, my husband even learned Burmese to be considerate of me. I’d grown up with misery under my skin, so deep down I felt uneasy about all that happiness. What if something happened to my husband...”
“......”
“The Needle-Point Curse was the same. I’d lived with a sick father, so I’d always been used to being ignored, scolded, and looked down on. So I became sensitive, and negative about the world.”
“......”
“But my mother-in-law knew all that. She knew it from those two curses...”
“......”
“My husband was gone, and I had not one but two bad omens hanging over me... A poor Myanmar girl named Nue Nue Twe—this was as far as happiness beyond my station went. Soon enough I’d be cast out for sure. That’s what I thought. And then my mother-in-law took my hand.”
“In any case, you are the woman my son chose, and you are my daughter-in-law. Since we’ve been bound by fate already, trust me and follow my lead.”
Her mother-in-law’s eyes had shone bright and clear.
Until then, Bok-soon had only ever seemed formidable. But she took those words to heart. The apartment they were living in at the time was under her mother-in-law’s name. Her husband had died in an illegal motorcycle accident, so there had been no compensation money. That meant she couldn’t strike out on her own even if she wanted to.
From that day on, brutal training began.
Kitchen Knives
Her mother-in-law handed over the three knives she herself used.
“From today on, the meat is your responsibility.”
It was a fairly successful butcher shop, and the key to the storehouse had been given to the daughter-in-law. But if you looked at it another way, it was labor exploitation. Handling meat was no easy matter. After work, she had to bring in a veteran butcher and other long-time hands for extra lessons, too. Still, Bok-soon had been through hardship since childhood in Myanmar, so she endured it.
But this was Korean soil.
Their relationship drifted further and further apart with each passing day, and irritation and resentment kept boiling up in her. That anger ended up being taken out on the employees. She had begun to feel victimized too, as if they were looking down on her because she was Southeast Asian and refusing to listen to her.
Her mother-in-law’s diagnosis came down at once.
“You’ve got to remember what it was like when you were a tadpole frog.”
Understanding and Tolerance
That, in other words, was what she meant. The meat business lived and died on honesty. If you lowered the quality or cheated people on quantity, you were finished.
She told her to serve customers with the heart of someone offering only the finest meat, and to treat her employees with that same feeling. Meat was the same way, she said. If you didn’t slice it with a cheerful heart, the flavor would fall flat.
Bok-soon was angry, but she followed along. That was because her mother-in-law was only speaking the truth. She hadn’t properly won over the employees’ hearts, so of course the odds of them quitting were high.
Inside, she sharpened her own knife. She planned to get established as quickly as possible and live independently. Until then, she was prepared to swallow her mother-in-law’s nagging and lectures.
Knife
Tolerance
Oh-ho.
The two words brought a smile to Kang-to’s lips. Her mother-in-law’s story was unfolding in a way that was nothing short of astonishing.
And so ten years passed.
By now, Lee Bok-soon was on the verge of middle age. From meat-sourcing and inventory to fire control and manpower management, she had mastered every part of running a raw meat restaurant. Her delicate, prickly temperament—and her determination to prove herself—had seen to that. It helped too that there was nowhere left to retreat on this foreign shore. That resolve became her foundation.
Once everything was ready, she went to confront her mother-in-law about it.
Independence.
That was Lee Bok-soon’s winning move.
That day, the shop was closed for its once-a-month day off. Her mother-in-law had gone to look into a new butcher supplier. She was that kind of person: when a new butcher shop opened, she would rush over, taste the meat, and strike up a business relationship. It was her way of securing even better-quality meat.
Lee Bok-soon was at the noodle place her mother-in-law liked best. Spicy jang noodles boiled with sour kimchi—that was her favorite dish. Bok-soon meant to buy her that and settle the matter once and for all.
Thirty minutes passed.
Maybe traffic’s bad?
An hour passed.
Huh?
She called her phone. No answer. Her mother-in-law wasn’t good about keeping track of her phone. Sometimes she would toss it into her bag and not look at it all day. Maybe that was the case today too. Thinking that, Bok-soon waited a little longer.
Two hours passed.
This wasn’t right.
A bad feeling started to creep in. That unease tangled itself with the memory of her husband’s accident. It had been like this then, too. She’d been waiting for him back then as well.
And then...
Her ominous premonition came true exactly. Just like that day, the call came from the police.
“Is this the Myanmar angel?”
“......?”
“This is the police. Do you happen to know a woman named An Mi-ae? Her phone has been saved under the number one contact...”
Only then did she realize that this was how her mother-in-law had saved her in her phone.
Myanmar angel.
She ran to the hospital, but she was too late.
“It looks like she overworked herself and was brought in with cardiac arrest. We did everything we could, but...”
Those were the words she heard in the emergency room at the nearby general hospital.
Her mother-in-law was gone like that. Just like her husband, and not even a single word of goodbye had been exchanged.
“It was the day after the funeral. A real estate broker from nearby came to see me. He handed me a contract.”
A contract.
It was the lease for the shop, in Lee Bok-soon’s name.
“My mother-in-law had asked him to arrange it so she could hand the place over to me. She told him to keep it secret until the lease was ready, but who could’ve guessed she’d pass away like that all of a sudden...”
“......?”
When Bok-soon heard the broker’s story, her mind went completely white. Looking back, her mother-in-law had indeed been stern. And yet she had been carrying such deep consideration all along.
Only then did old memories come back to her. The scribbles she’d once made in her notebook. Her burning desire to leave and be independent. It seemed her mother-in-law had seen it.
“What should I do? The owner here says he knows the owner of the shop, and since the tenant has died, he’ll return the deposit if you want it back.”
“Then...”
After thinking for a moment, Bok-soon made a decision that reversed everything.
“Cancel that shop and look into the place next door instead.”
She changed direction.
Her mother-in-law, who had died so suddenly, had originally wanted to buy the shop next door and expand the business. But because her daughter-in-law wanted independence, she gave up that dream and arranged a new lease instead.
“While I was sorting through her belongings, I learned other things too. While I was busy, she’d go to the community sports center to swim and dance. I used to think she was leaving me to suffer while she went off to heal herself, but it turned out she was going because of arthritis in her knees and shoulders. It was the same with managing the employees. She told me not to be like her. I’d actually seen her take medicine several times, but she said it was just vitamins, so I only resented her for keeping the good stuff for herself...”
Lee Bok-soon’s tears grew larger and heavier. Kang-to nudged over a box of tissues.
Only then did Bok-soon understand. Her mother-in-law had been putting her through hard training. A daughter-in-law from another country. And tragically, even her son had died. So she had trained her harshly, so she wouldn’t follow the same road—to make sure she could survive alone in this land.
“......”
Kang-to’s nose burned. He thought of his own mother. She, too, had prepared everything for Kang-to and left. This mother-in-law was no less remarkable.
People born under the Needle-Point Curse don’t have an easy fate. But that didn’t mean everyone was doomed. Even a bad curse could become a blessing if it was handled well. No curse was one hundred percent absolute on its own.
Such a fate needed two remedies. One was understanding and tolerance toward the people around you; the other was a profession. At their worst, these people were said to be fated to die by blade or bullet—but if they themselves took up the knife or the gun and devoted themselves fully, it could become a shortcut to success. That was why people with the Needle-Point Curse were often guided toward careers like doctor, hairstylist, or cook.
One of the people who rose magnificently by that path was the famous fashion designer Giorgio Armani. He was said to have carried two Needle-Point Curses.
Her mother-in-law’s prescription had been exactly that. She taught her employees tolerance, then put a knife in her hand and made her use it to bring happiness to people’s appetites. It was a remedy the average restaurant auntie would never have dared offer—much less make real. It was a choice that went beyond what a high-ranking shaman would do.
“I misunderstood a woman like that... and never even got to say goodbye properly. After that, I expanded into the shop next door and kept the raw meat restaurant going, and business has been doing better and better. Still, I’m the one who handles the meat myself.”
Kang-to laughed softly.
A good teacher, a good student. No matter how lofty the mother-in-law’s intentions, if the daughter-in-law’s heart had been different, none of it would have mattered.
“Then, through a regular customer’s recommendation, I came to know Madam Gyeongsin and met her a few times. I saw her perform a ritual once, and it felt a lot like watching the Nat Kadaw my uncle used to lead in Myanmar when I was young, which put my heart at ease.”
“......”
“Watching that brought Myanmar rituals back to mind. In Myanmar, while a Nat Kadaw performs, people in the neighborhood sometimes dance with the spirits too. ‘Nat’ means spirit, you see. So I asked her—since Madam Gyeongsin is so gifted, could she perhaps let me meet my late mother-in-law once?”
That was why Lee Bok-soon had come to Kang-to.
Madam Gyeongsin could enter trance as well. She could deliver divine messages, too. But naturally, she still could not compare to Kang-to. After hearing Bok-soon’s story, he could feel how heartfelt it was. That was why, unlike the frauds who would seize on any excuse to milk people for money, she had recommended Kang-to without hesitation.
“Do you miss your mother-in-law?” Kang-to asked.
“When she was scolding me, I resented her... but I was such an idiot... I only understood after she died. That she’d been trying to peel away my bad fate.”
Her eyes filled again. Lee Bok-soon had been born into an even poorer family in an already poor country. She had never really known a parent’s love. Perhaps that was why her mother-in-law’s love felt so precious to her.
“I need a photo or some keepsake of her.”
“I brought one. Madam Gyeongsin told me to bring it with me...”
Bok-soon opened her bag. From inside, she took out a palm-sized frame.
“You carry it with you all the time?”
“I once asked Madam Gyeongsin to write me a talisman. She said if I carried a good talisman, I’d be able to feel good energy. But then she told me... just carry my mother-in-law’s photo instead. She said that would be the best talisman of all for me.”
Nice.
As expected of Madam Gyeongsin. A true shamanic practitioner never cheated people out of money with flimsy pretexts. That was why she remained so respected even among shamans.
“Here it is.”
Bok-soon was unfailingly respectful. Only after carefully wiping the frame of her mother-in-law’s photo with a handkerchief did she hand it over.
Her mother-in-law, descended from a shamanic line.
A woman who had shown special care to a foreign daughter-in-law in an unfamiliar country.
Kang-to accepted the frame with a solemn heart.
But the moment he saw the face of the dead woman,
This...?
Ripples of a storm surged through Kang-to’s eyes. The bad fate clinging to her mother-in-law was astonishingly identical to the one haunting the foreign daughter-in-law.
My God.