“It could be big money,” she answered.
“See? I told you. It was worth the trip, right?”
He laughed, satisfied. She gazed into my face and then eyed me from top to bottom as she walked around me.
“You guys did a good job this time.”
My head was reeling. I turned to Kangmin, who was standing apart from us. His eyes were evasive. He murmured, “It won’t be so bad for you—it will be better than this place. I’m doing this for you… and for my brothers and sisters. Please remember that you are saving several lives. I promise I’ll take care of Sangwon.” His voice wobbled.
Sometimes, in life, people cross unexpectedly into a different world. For me, such a crossing happened in that moment. I had often imagined how I would react to difficult situations, how I would handle myself, whether I would be brave or meek. But a scenario such as this had not figured into my wildest speculations.
I was frozen, and there was no sound in my throat. I tried to reach for something familiar; I turned to Kangmin’s face one more time, but he would not meet my eyes.
Someone tossed a lump wrapped in newspaper to him. “That’s for you and Bangmu.”
Kangmin didn’t pick it up right away. Like me, he was frozen. I wanted to ask him what was going on—perhaps he could explain it all and everything would be resolved. Surely there had been a mistake. I took a step toward him, but one of the men grabbed my arm and the strange woman covered my mouth and nose with a white cloth. I saw Kangmin’s face lose focus, and again I tried to reach out my hand. The last thing I saw was his cold, hollow eyes. I struggled to keep them in sight, fighting to keep my eyelids open, but his eyes swirled and grew bigger until they were consuming my whole body. I passed out.
PART 4
That Woman
More than 20 women lived in the large room where I was dumped. Huge men patrolled the halls to keep us inside. Occasionally, one of the women looked pitifully at me and said, “Time will solve everything.” There were no bruises on my skin, but my muscles and bones ached. One of the thugs brought me food twice a day.
I lay facedown in a corner of the room that first night, wishing I could close my eyes forever, wishing myself back to the cave.
When I woke up, I was inside a large car, my body crumpled into the back seat, my hands and legs tied together with rope. Looking behind me, I found the face of the woman whose baby had drowned in the river. She smiled awkwardly at me; the dimples on both sides of her chin carved themselves into deep, bashful crescents.
One of the men noticed that I was awake and patted my shoulder. “If you’d been more like her, we wouldn’t have had to treat you so harshly,” he said. “It’s okay now. Take it easy—it’s a long trip. If you’re not comfortable, let me know, and I can loosen the rope. Or I can tie your hands and legs separately.”
I tried to remember what had happened. I recalled Kangmin taking me to a hill to find clover branches; he was unusually talkative that day. We were supposed to have a party in the cave. And then we ran into those people, and here I was stuck in a strange car. I thought about Sangwon. He must be back from town by now—he must be looking for me.
“How long did I sleep?” I asked the deep-dimpled woman. She answered cautiously, “A long time… We thought you might be dead.” The man chimed in, “You slept for more than ten hours. I didn’t know that medicine was so powerful.” He snickered.
“Where am I going? What did you do to me?” My anger and the cigarette smoke inside the car drew dry coughs from my throat.
“We already told you several times we want to introduce you to a better world,” the man said. “We felt sorry for you. You’ll see how exciting our place is, how much better life is, and if you don’t like it, you can leave. Look at her—” He smoothed the deep-dimpled woman’s hair, and she lowered her head. “See how smart she is! You two should look to each other. From now on, we’re a family. Welcome to our family.” He looked much younger than Kangmin; the pimples on his neck turned dark pink with excitement. One of the other men began snickering. They all had the same army hairstyle, shiny black leather jacket, and loose thin gray pants.
A woman sitting next to the driver in the front seat turned back and warned him, “Save your breath, you talk too much. I have a headache now. Why do you chatter on like a housewife? Act like a man!” It was the woman who had accosted me on the hill when I was with Kangmin. She was wearing sunglasses even inside the car, but I recognized her.
I thought it must be past midnight, but when someone lowered the window to throw out a cigarette butt, night became day. Fields, mountains, houses, and trees appeared and disappeared quickly.
Kangmin’s words echoed in my brain; it had all been set up. Could he really believe this was best for me? Would he really take care of Sangwon? Sangwon always said he wanted to grow up to be like Kangmin. He joked that he’d be much cooler than Kangmin, but never as hairy.
I wondered how Kangmin would explain my sudden disappearance to him.
“We have new sisters here! ”
After several hours of driving, we were let out of the car into a narrow alley stinking of trash and food. The area was dense with buildings, and we were apparently behind one of them. Taking a bunch of keys from her handbag, the woman I saw on the hill opened a small door, and two men dragged us into a five-story brown building. Inside, it was dark and quiet; our footsteps reverberated through the hallway.
As soon as we were let in, without a single word the woman left. The men pushed us into the elevator and took us to a room on the top floor, announcing our arrival to its occupants.
Most of the other women were sleeping, and those who weren’t didn’t even look up. One of the men behind us said, “Get some rest. We’ll call you later.” He looked around the room and spoke loudly, “Hey, take care of these twothey don’t know anything about this place. Treat them like younger sisters.”
No one answered, but then he didn’t wait for a reply. The door closed and I heard his footsteps tapping down the hall.
A woman with a husky voice pointed her chin in our direction and muttered, “Don’t forget to take your shoes off” There was not enough space to lie down, so we sat right next to the door. The woman with the husky voice advised, “Rest now, while you can. You’ll be busy soon enough.”
She had big, flat, flesh-colored bandages on both eyebrows. I shot a sidelong glance at them, and she turned toward me, thrusting her face close to mine.
“I can take these off today,” she said. She pointed to her right eyebrow with her index finger.
“What happened to your eyebrows? Were you hurt?” I asked, leaning away from her face, which had come too near to mine.
She sat up and opened her small black bag. “No. I had plastic surgery. Actually, I got my eyebrows tattooed once several years ago, because drawing eyebrows on every day was too much of a hassle. They looked good at first, but then they began to spread out, like hairy bugs. So gross! I couldn’t stand them anymore. So, a week ago, a plastic surgeon cut the fleshiness under my eyebrows a little bit. Today I can take these bandages off. Isn’t that fast? The technology for cosmetic surgery is getting better. If you want to use the hospital, let me know. It’s so cheap and so professional. But there is a long wait, even for my simple surgery; I waited for two months.”
I listened to her blankly. She looked a little bit older than the other women there, owing mainly to her high, protruding cheekbones. She smiled and unpeeled part of the bandage on the right eyebrow to show me. “See! It looks fine. Even the wrinkles above my eyes are gone after cutting out that useless flesh. I couldn’t wait a week, I was always checking. It looks even better than yesterday.”