Instead of dividing the amount in half, he told his wife to take all the money. Of course, excluding the loan they’d taken out exclusively for newlyweds, it wasn’t even that large an amount.
He hoped his wife wouldn’t be outmatched by the young and rich guy. Even as Go Seok-jun swallowed his tears, he praised himself for being very manly. Even though you clearly have fault in the breakdown of the marriage, I’m manly enough to wish for your happiness and send you off. That kind of virtue?
‘Oppa, this violates the Kim Young-ran Act.’
Futilely, his wife deposited exactly half into Go Seok-jun’s account. Without a moment’s hesitation, “thank you” popped out of Go Seok-jun’s mouth, even though just ten minutes ago he had prided himself on being manly.
Go Seok-jun commuted to and from work like a half-corpse. The dark shadow cast under his eyes showed no sign of fading. More than his tired condition, people’s stares strangled Go Seok-jun’s neck. One day, as time passed mercilessly while life didn’t feel like living, a senior quietly called Go Seok-jun.
‘Seok-jun, your hometown was, what was it. Yongju County? Think of it as recuperating for about a year and go.’
He had done everything the seniors told him to do for promotion. Born as the youngest of three siblings, he never objected when his superiors told him to do this or that. To Go Seok-jun, who was disobeying orders for the first time, the senior pushed his back, telling him to submit a resignation letter then.
‘No, Senior! How is it that only I get screwed over?’
‘When I tell you to go, you go, you bastard. From above… they say so.’
He only found out after being notified of his demotion that the man his wife chose, Attorney-nim, was the son of some great person.
Well, he admits he wasn’t a completely clean police officer. When going around inspecting establishments, he was taught that it was customary to receive little gifts. And he learned that from the very senior who was now telling him to stay in his hometown.
To be precise, the person who received envelopes from establishments was the senior. As a junior, Go Seok-jun received spending money that the senior gave him. Either way, since he had received it, he couldn’t protest that it was unjust treatment, nor could he claim innocence.
Even the second separation was accomplished with lightning speed. Now he was even getting curious about what the last separation would be. Fuck, separation from the world? That’s why they’re deliberately sending someone who’s in danger near water to the waterside. Before this world’s grand conspiracy, Go Seok-jun fell to his knees.
He had more than enough reasons to die. He divorced his wife, was shamefully demoted to his hometown for receiving back money. When a man has lost his wife and lost his job, how can he endure without dying? Even without being biologically declared dead, he was already no different from being socially dead.
Damn accurate. Should’ve gotten a business card at least.
The face reflected in the mirror was shabby, but his appearance was neat. Go Seok-jun, a man who had to dress up even if he was literally about to die soon, was excessively tidy for someone who had come to die. He didn’t want to end his life looking dreary.
After reading the phrase on the sticker attached to the mirror once more, he spat out a small curse. When he returned to his seat, the officers whose faces were already flushed and the perfectly fine chief waved their hands toward Go Seok-jun. It’s not like he’d gone on a long journey, just to the bathroom.
“Let’s see, Seok-jun, are you going into Misong Port?”
“Yes.”
“Right. As for the schedule, rest and prepare tomorrow as we shared earlier, and let’s start work the day after tomorrow. Alright, we’re dismissed here!”
“Yes. Loyalty.”
The two officers also saluted following Go Seok-jun, then dispersed. The three people excluding Go Seok-jun lived in the town and moved on foot, while Go Seok-jun paid extra and barely caught a taxi. The reason was that they wouldn’t go all the way to Misong Port at this late hour.
He kept his mouth, reeking of alcohol, tightly shut and only looked outside. It was a road so dark that you could barely follow the lanes even with high beams on. Even though it was on a flat road and not on a wave-tossed sea, his stomach churned. Eventually, he even closed his eyes.
“You don’t seem to be from around here. What business brings you all the way into Misong Port at this hour?”
The taxi driver glanced at Go Seok-jun through the rearview mirror and spoke to him. Go Seok-jun answered in a dry voice that he came for work. Geez, so nosy.
“What business is there at the port? Did you come for some filming? It’s been a while since I’ve seen such a handsome bachelor.”
He wasn’t a bachelor and he hadn’t come for filming or whatever, so he didn’t answer. Besides, there existed people who were uncomfortable with the occupation of ‘police’ itself anywhere, so Go Seok-jun was used to hiding his identity. Looking at that, the saying that there’s only a paper-thin difference between thugs and police isn’t wrong either.
“No, I’m not just saying this, but Misong Port was on TV not long ago. So maybe that’s why, these days there are quite a few customers who want to go to Misong Port.”
Go Seok-jun just looked at the distant sea where lights were blinking. Even though the passenger didn’t respond at all, the driver rambled on.
“Well, all kinds of things are said—that they rip you off, that gangsters have it tightly gripped, that the people are rough—but that neighborhood has always been kind of like that. That village on the Misong Port side is called Saetgol, and since old times, people have lived there like in net pen fish farms. So nobody knows what happens inside there. Even the police probably just turn a blind eye to that neighborhood, right? A few years ago, I heard rumors that an outsider completely cleaned them out.”
Not knowing that the passenger was a police officer born and raised in that village, the taxi driver seemed ready to spill all the information he knew about Saetgol. Around the time the story came out about getting beaten up by a hyung from Saetgol when he was in high school, familiar terrain came into view.
Saetgol is a village where houses are densely built on the hilly terrain that embraces the village. To the front, a flat sea like linoleum spreads out, and to the back, a dense pine forest follows the feng shui principle of having mountains behind and water in front. The blue sea that shimmered faintly behind the pine forest was more beautiful when the sun set than when it rose.
The pine forest was said to have been created hundreds of years ago to block the sea breeze, but that was only effective for people beyond the village. The place name ‘Misong’ also originated from the pine tree colony that looked beautiful only to the eyes of people on the far side, not the Saetgol side.
“We’re almost there. Customer, over there is Misong Port.”
After going quite a ways through the narrow alley between the hills, the port began to come into view. They’d been wrangling for years about whether or not to do road expansion construction, and it was still the same. Now that it’s been on TV, it might change soon.
On top of a sculpture at the village entrance with the words “Misong Port with Beautiful Pine Trees” engraved, an ugly and creepy squid character held up its long legs as if waving. It’s not even pretty, yet the lights are damn bright.
As is well known, the longest leg of a squid functions as genitalia. He deliberately looked away from the squid, trying to avoid the dirty delusions rising in all sorts of ways.
When he got off at the port, one boat was moving away. Since tonight is a full moon, may you have a full catch. Without realizing it, Go Seok-jun wished for the good fortune of an unknown fisherman.
***
As soon as he returned home, he fell asleep as if fainting. The four-hour drive was tiring, he had to go to Yongju Police Station to report his assignment, and even though he knew people in his hometown, the tension of working in an unfamiliar place weighed down on his body. On top of that, he’d knocked back bomb shots, so he couldn’t help but pass out.
The taxi driver recommended a pension on the beach side where the ocean is pretty and there are many delicious restaurants, saying that if you sleep in a place like this, you’ll get ripped off. It’s a bit embarrassing to refute “what rip-off,” but Go Seok-jun’s grandmother was indeed on the side of ripping people off.
The old house where his grandmother had run a guesthouse her whole life was Go Seok-jun’s family home. An old hanok, it was the house where his father’s father, and that father’s father had lived. By the nature of hanoks, if not maintained, they tend to collapse quickly, yet it was well-maintained as if someone definitely lived there.
Since she made money with the house, it’s embarrassing to grandly call it an old family estate. Still, it had its own tranquil atmosphere, so there were quite a few customers who sought out only this guesthouse specifically. Knowing that, grandmother ripped them off freely.
Go Seok-jun, who got up late, naturally washed up and drank a glass of water as it was his own house. His stomach hurt from the hangover, but he didn’t feel like eating anything. He just desperately wanted a cigarette.
However, if he smoked a cigarette in the yard, he felt like he might burn down the entire old wooden building, so he went outside looking for a space where he could smoke. Even though it was the house where he was born and raised, he felt strangely like he was alone in someone else’s house. As he was rolling the flint of his lighter, a call came from hyung, ghost-like timing.
—Youngest, I was busy yesterday so I couldn’t contact you. Did you arrive safely?
“Yeah. Since Uncle Soon-gyu is the chief, it’ll probably be comfortable? The world is damn small.”
—Right. Well, hyung will stop by briefly in the evening. Since you’re here after a long time, look at the sea and soothe your heart.
What, talking like to a tourist. He half-listened to hyung’s words while sucking on the cigarette filter hard enough to make his cheeks cave in.
Hyung acted like he knew everything. He couldn’t properly tell even hyung, who was ten years older, how he ended up coming down here. If he were younger, he would have whined that it was hard, but he wasn’t that age anymore.
As hyung said, he’d come to the sea after a long time. The sound of crashing waves—swooosh—came from afar as the wind blew strongly once. White cigarette smoke billowed and scattered from Go Seok-jun’s fingertips. The acrid wind mixed with the smell of salt, and boats that hadn’t gone out fishing were moored in a line at the pier. Go Seok-jun quietly gazed at the typical fishing village scenery with dried fish hanging here and there.
Rather than following trends, clothes and shoes from one brand, a cup of coffee in the morning, a phone of the latest model even if not an early adopter. Go Seok-jun was an urban person. This rural valley was literally ‘the child who went to Seoul,’ only stopping by with his own car during holidays.
Every time he stopped by his hometown two or three times a year, he liked the feeling of being welcomed. Not a young child who lost both parents early, but a grandson who studied well and went to university in Seoul, a public servant that rural people consider the best profession, a newlywed who formed a family with a woman anyone would envy. Every time he returned, he felt like he was returning home in glory.
The more shitty current life is, the more one gropes through the past. The things Go Seok-jun had briefly held in his hands disappeared like a mirage, and what remained was only the unchanging past. Things like the hometown house where he was born and raised.
Even though it had been long since he left, the streets of this small port, the fishing specialty shop and old houses, the food stalls set up on the breakwater, even the terrain where pitch-black rocks were positioned ruggedly were clear to his eyes. Walking without thinking, he found himself before the flat rock where he used to play every day as a child.
Three young men, whether fishermen or sailors he couldn’t tell, had already set up camp at that place called Siru Rock because it was as flat as siru-tteok. Even though the neighborhood wasn’t his, he felt a bit deflated, as if his place of memories had been taken away. Go Seok-jun’s gaze passed the men and headed toward the distant sea. The rough waves characteristic of a port splashed and struck the rocks.
If time passed like this, the deep blue seawater would be dyed blood-red. After that, even the boats visible as dots on the horizon and the seagulls would disappear without a trace. Black water that, not satisfied with swallowing everything, even coldly extinguishes the sun that had been burning bright red. Go Seok-jun closed his eyes and took a big breath—inhaling deeply—with the anxiety that he too might be dragged into the sea.
“Huh?”
Suddenly, a savory smell reached the tip of his nose. Instinctively sniffing, he searched for the source of the smell. The voices of the young men that had been buried in the sound of the waves gradually reached his ears.
“…So the dog… No, put the dog in water…”
“Hey, the broth is killer. Eat. This one that Teukgol granny raised and let loose…”
“Before summer comes, stamina food…”
Because of the sound of waves and wind, he couldn’t hear the entire conversation, but nausea rose from his stomach. Those punk-like bastards, he roughly got a sense of what they were eating now. A large pot placed on a burner, putting a dog in water or not, someone raised it. Then isn’t the answer obvious?
