Thinking of her love! Deok-gi felt his heart sink again.
“Don’t be silly! I’m in a better mood today than I’ve been in ages.” Gyeong-ae took Deok-gi’s glass and poured out the contents into the ashtray before pushing it toward Byeong-hwa. She asked him to fill it up.
This time Byeong-hwa poured until the glass was only half full.
“What are you doing? Emptying a customer’s glass!” the proprietor scolded Gyeong-ae.
Gyeong-ae didn’t respond but turned to Deok-gi and, every bit as sociable as she might be with any customer, said, “My dear Mr. Scholar! Since you’re not drinking, it’s all right, isn’t it?”
Deok-gi blushed and mumbled something or other, maybe “yeah,” or maybe a more formal “yes.”
“People will say I’m a fallen woman if I keep drinking like this. But does a woman drink because she’s fallen, or is she fallen because she drinks? I say neither! If a woman’s fallen because she drinks, then all drinking men are fallen, too, and all nondrinkers, like ministers, will go to Heaven, right? Kin-san, isn’t that right?” She slapped Byeong-hwa on the thigh.
The more she drank, the more talkative she became, and her coquettish manners grew even more appealing.
At the mention of ministers, however, Byeong-hwa bit back something that was on the tip of his tongue. He just nodded, looking at Deok-gi.
Byeong-hwa’s father was a church elder, and Deok-gi’s father, although he held no official post, was also involved in church work. Her remark didn’t sound like deliberate criticism to Byeong-hwa, who didn’t see how she could possibly know their fathers, but her words stung him because he had severed all ties with his father following an ideological clash. For Deok-gi, Gyeong-ae’s words were far from idle chitchat. He knew they were aimed directly at him, and he began to panic, realizing that he really must leave before she blurted out anything else.
“No, I’m no fallen woman, and even if I were, I wouldn’t blame anyone. And supposing that I was, what about all those bastards and bitches out there? I wouldn’t choose to go to Heaven if you paid me — not even if they had a spot ready and waiting for me. No way!” Gyeong-ae’s speech was beginning to slur.
Byeong-hwa thought she must have gone to a mission school from all her talk of ministers and Heaven. “I agree with you, one hundred percent,” he said. “But you can’t go saying such things out loud. We all do what we have to do. Now promise me you’ll always live courageously and never give up your convictions!” His face flushed redder as he grew more excited.
“And what do you do for a living?” Gyeong-ae abruptly asked him, suddenly eager to change the subject.
“Me? Well, what does it look like I do?” Byeong-hwa was beaming.
The conversation was cut short, however. The door flew open, and a handful of new customers came in.
Next Day
“Wake up! Your mother is here.”
Deok-gi managed to drag himself out of bed only after his wife had run to his window to alert him.
“You must have had a late night. Are you leaving today?” his mother asked as she came in. She wanted to see her son before he left.
“I’ll probably leave tomorrow,” Deok-gi answered, stifling a yawn.
His wife followed his mother inside to fold up his bedding and quickly stow it away.
The occupant of the main room, Deok-gi’s step-grandmother, didn’t bother to look out. Deok-gi’s mother had no intention of paying respects to her new mother-in-law, and the younger mother-in-law, for her part, assumed that her daughter-in-law would come in to greet her.
It had been five years since Deok-gi’s step-grandmother moved into the main room and his parents moved out. Deok-gi’s mother was loath to eat from the same rice pot as her new mother-in-law, who was five years younger than herself. The dislike was mutual.
The same was true for father and son. The old man was partial to his grandson, Deok-gi, but frowned on his own child, whom he drove out of the house in order to set up house with his precious young wife. But even before she had arrived, the two generations had felt uncomfortable living together.
After the old man turned seventy, his wife gave birth to his only daughter, Gwi-sun, who was now four years old.
Deok-gi, a secondary-school student at the time, had left with his parents as a matter of course, but when he himself got married during his fourth year of secondary school, he had moved back in with his grandfather after living only six months with his parents. Deok-gi’s mother had been reluctant to let her son and daughter-in-law leave, and the bride’s family didn’t like the idea of their daughter living under the thumb of a young new grandmother-in-law. Still, they could hardly defy the grandfather’s stern order. It was quite convenient for his new wife to have the young couple there to order around, and as a bonus she could make her daughter-in-law, whom she disliked the most, feel lonely.
As for the old man, it’s possible that he took in his grandson and granddaughter-in-law out of affection. Deok-gi, for his part, liked his grandfather more than he did his own father. He knew, furthermore, that the family assets were still in his grandfather’s hands and that he dispensed all the money, down to the last coin. Deok-gi felt it would be wise to follow his grandfather’s wishes.
A year after the wedding, a baby’s cry was also heard in Deok-gi’s room. It was a son. The whole household was abuzz over such good fortune. But the excitement rested merely on the surface. Deok-gi’s step-grandmother, narrow-minded and lacking a good upbringing, was jealous of the baby in Deok-gi’s room, her great-grandson, for no reason. As her four-year-old daughter and Deok-gi’s three-year-old son grew up, they played and fought with each other, sparking unpleasant exchanges among the adults.
Whenever the old man held his great-grandson, his wife would shoot him a reproachful glance. He did not intend to be unfair, but it was simply too tiresome. When all was said and done, he preferred his own daughter, and his affections tended toward his young wife.
“Is Father home?” Deok-gi asked his mother with another yawn, venturing out to the veranda. He considered visiting his father to pay his respects before his departure.
“I’m not sure. If he’s not in the outer quarters, he may have gone out somewhere.” His mother’s answer was indifferent.
The middle-aged couple were husband and wife in name only. Deok-gi’s father ate, slept, and even washed his face in the outer quarters. Days would pass without his wife catching even a glimpse of him. Yet, to the outside world, they seemed to get along well enough, since they rarely revealed their feelings. Perhaps it was because the husband, who was serving as a son of God, didn’t care about worldly matters. Or perhaps he kept his distance from his wife in order to uphold his sense of morality. His wife, who was just over forty years old, both disliked and resented her husband, whose face she had almost forgotten.
“Where’s the baby?” Deok-gi’s mother asked.
“The maid went out, carrying him on her back. He’s probably playing in the outer quarters.”
Deok-gi’s wife called out to the maid, asking her to find the baby. As the maid left with the little girl strapped to her back, Deok-gi’s wife whispered to her, “When you get to the outer quarters, tell the master of the house that the madam from Hwagae-dong is here.” It was intended as a thoughtful gesture to give her mother-in-law an opportunity to pay her respects to her grandfather-in-law.
No sooner had the maid left than the old man appeared. He was not especially eager to see his daughter-in-law, but he had nothing much to do during the day, so he spent his time wandering between the inner and outer quarters. Impatient by nature, he came over as soon as he heard his daughter-in-law had arrived.