4. The Last of Seoryeong

“Mujin? They say Mujin is leaving here soon?” “…What?” Manager Park, who had gotten Yiseo her job at the pass issuance counter at Tae Mujin’s request, retorted, asking if she didn’t know that.

The day she cried herself to sleep at Tae Mujin’s house, she woke up to find herself alone. Yiseo waited for Tae Mujin, but the landlord didn’t come home even after day turned to night and back again. After a few more days with no lights on in Tae Mujin’s house, Yiseo had finally asked Manager Park.

“It’s a shame for me, really. He doesn’t look it, but he’s quite diligent. I asked him several times if he’d consider taking a permanent job at the ski resort, but each time he said he had no intention of staying here.”

“Where… is he going?”

“I don’t know that either. If Ms. Yiseo doesn’t know, how would I? I thought you two might have been involved. Mujin was so insistent on finding Ms. Yiseo a job. It was the first time Mujin ever stepped up and asked for something like this.”

“…”

This was completely new to her. Tae Mujin was preparing to leave Seoryeong.

No… he had mentioned it before. On Yiseo’s birthday, he had asked her to leave with him, anywhere. She was the one who hadn’t paid attention.

The news of Tae Mujin leaving Seoryeong made her unable to focus on work. Perplexity, disappointment, betrayal. None of these feelings felt justifiable for her to experience. She had rejected the hand Tae Mujin extended. Yet, to leave her like this, alone… a whirlwind of emotions filled Yiseo’s chest. After repeated mistakes, Manager Park warned her to be careful for the second time today and handed her the phone.

“Yoon Yiseo, answer the phone.”

“Tae Mujin,” Yiseo quickly said into the receiver, urgently calling his name. A flustered voice came from the other end.

[Yiseo. It’s me, Jong-hoon.]

“Ah…”

Only then did she remember telling Jong-hoon the office phone number.

[I’m thinking of coming to the ski resort where you work right now… should I just go to the office? No, if you give me the address, I’ll go to your house.]

She had asked him to call her immediately if he heard any news about her father. Jong-hoon’s words that he would come right away might have sounded insignificant at first, but not to Yiseo. Her nerves, sharp as needle points, sensitively picked up on the cautious undertone in Jong-hoon’s voice.

“Why suddenly? About Dad… did you find out something?”

[Ah… I want to tell you in person. If you’re okay with it, I’ll leave right away. The roads might be blocked due to the heavy snow warning, so it might take a while.]

“It’s okay, just tell me now!!”

She had raised her voice without realizing it. Noticing the attention of the office staff, she bowed her head. Anxiously rubbing her forehead, she asked again.

“I’m sorry for raising my voice. But it’s about my dad. I need to know everything.”

[Yiseo… well, it’s like this…]

________________________________________

Her memory of boarding the bus was hazy.

Only Jong-hoon’s words intermittently drifted through her consciousness. He said her father had collaborated with unsavory stock manipulators. These manipulators were known for inflating stock prices by injecting massive capital into companies on the verge of bankruptcy, then dumping shares once small investors followed suit.

To Yiseo’s desperate cries that her father couldn’t possibly do such a thing, Jong-hoon continued, awkwardly. He said his cousin brother thought Yiseo’s father hadn’t completely abandoned his conscience, which had actually worsened the situation. At the last minute, her father had sold all his shares, causing huge losses for the syndicate that had invested capital. And then, a month of his disappearance. Her father’s last known whereabouts were a small hospital in Gyeonggi Province.

“The hospital said he was unconscious... but he was discharged last week. It doesn’t seem like his family took him, Yiseo, I’ll come pick you up! Is there any other contact number besides the office...?”

Yiseo abruptly hung up on Jong-hoon, who said he would come right away, and headed to the hospital where her father had been admitted. The news she heard upon arriving at the hospital was devastating. There had been a fall accident of unknown cause, and due to the impact, he had become unconscious. Frankly... the doctor said there was no hope of him waking up. Yiseo sat on the hospital bench for several hours.

On the way back home, heavy snow fell as Jong-hoon had said. Most of the brothels were closed, and with no customers, the accumulating snow made everything white and silent. With each step, Yiseo’s white breath fogged her vision. Her calves, soaked by the snow piled up to her ankles, had long lost all sensation. She felt as if she was losing her sense of direction, circling in one spot.

As she entered the alley in front of her aunt’s house, she saw a faint, flickering light, like a firefly. It was in the spot where he habitually stood, a cigarette in his mouth, always waiting for her.

“Tae… Mujin…”

Hmph, tears streamed down like groans.

Tramping heavily through the cumbersome snow, she ran towards the small light. But her steps stopped midway. Around the light Yiseo was chasing, other lights gathered like a flock. One, two, three… four lights. And as her pupils adjusted to the dim alley, she saw unfamiliar faces reflected behind the lights.

“Student, you are Yoon Yiseo, the eldest daughter of Yoon Jae-ho, correct?”

Pish, the stern-faced man flicked his cigarette onto the snow as if spitting, and grinned, his lips curving upward.

________________________________________

Yiseo, grabbed by the scruff of her neck, was dragged into her aunt’s house. Soaked rice and food scraps were scattered everywhere, and their shabby belongings were strewn about in disarray. Her aunt, who had been trembling, face down in a corner of the room, flinched and lifted her head at the sound of the door opening. And when her eyes met Yiseo’s, she screamed,

“Get it from that bitch! Can’t you tell by looking that there’s nothing here even if you flip it over? I shouldn’t have taken in those unlucky ones—! …Argh!!”

A burly man kicked her aunt in the solar plexus. Her aunt gasped and collapsed. There was no sign of her getting up. The man who had dragged Yiseo in released his hand from her neck.

“Ah, you’re the one who discharged my dad from the hospital, right? Dad, wh-where is he?”

The man chuckled derisively, looking at Yiseo, who was trembling but wide-eyed. Then he handed her a piece of paper.

“You said you went to the hospital today. Then you must have heard roughly, right? You’re a surviving family member, so confirm it.”

The word “surviving family” hit Yiseo like a blow to the back of the head. For a moment, her vision went completely black as if the lights had gone out, but then the man grabbed her hair and thrust her face towards the document, forcing her vision back.

The white paper read “Death Confirmation Report.” And in the name field, her father’s name, her father’s birthday, and the address of the house he had lived in his entire life...

Reading down to that point, Yiseo crumpled the paper. This couldn’t be. How could this, this piece of paper, be her dad? She screamed in rage.

“This... what is this one piece of paper?! Where’s Dad?! Where is he?!!”

Slap!!! At that moment, her cheek burned. The man’s rough hand struck her cheek, and Yiseo stumbled backward.

“I don’t want to lay a hand on the merchandise, student, no, Ms. Yoon Yiseo. Get a grip, alright? This isn’t the time for crying and throwing a fit.”

“Haah… ha…”

The man nudged Yiseo’s fallen face with his shoe and said,

“Even if you’re going to throw a tantrum, you should at least know what your dad did before he kicked the bucket. Your shitty father, Yoon Yiseo, must have lost his mind at the last minute and dumped his shares. The stocks melted away, and our money melted away too. Yoon Yiseo, even if you take customers until your cunt bursts for your whole life, you won’t be able to pay back that money.”

The man grabbed Yiseo’s hair, forcing her head up, as she panicked.

“Luckily, you’re pretty, so you’ll probably be able to pay off the interest. Your dad might have left you debt, but he also left you a pretty face, so you should be grateful.”

The men standing behind him burst into laughter, as if they had heard a funny joke. Her ear felt muffled, perhaps from being hit on the ear when she was slapped, and the laughter kept cutting out.

The man said he would check below her face too and proceeded to undress Yiseo right there. He forced the struggling Yiseo face down on the floor and pinned her back with his foot. Her knit shirt was pulled over her head, and her skirt was dragged down between her legs. At that moment, Yiseo felt like an animal.

“F***! What is this bastard!!!”

Then, at the entrance, there was a crashing sound of something breaking. And then the rough shouts of men and the sound of bodies colliding. The man who was undressing Yiseo quickly headed for the entrance.

Yiseo lay face down on the floor, breathing in short gasps. Soon after, two pairs of legs ran past the door, accompanied by a scream-like cry. Then, the sound of glass shattering loudly.

Haah… ha… What entered Yiseo’s eyes, as she only gasped for breath, was a large hand. The familiar, bloodied touch of a hand grabbed Yiseo’s shoulder and lifted her up.

“Yoon Yiseo, get up. Now.”

“Tae, Tae Mujin… what… what do I do…”

“Pack your bags right now. Quickly!!”

Tae Mujin, instead of Yiseo who could barely stand, began sweeping things into her suitcase. He lifted Yiseo’s arm and put something in her hand.

“Go to the ski resort right now. The terminal is dangerous. Buy a bus ticket from the ski resort to Seoul. I’ll have Kwon Giseon find Yihwan. Quickly!”

“I… I don’t know what to do… I don’t… know anything…”

Tae Mujin’s hand lightly slapped Yiseo’s cheek. He grabbed her shoulders and shook her, telling her to snap out of it, and her blurry vision sharpened slightly. Only then did Tae Mujin’s face come into view. His usually impassive black eyes, now severely distorted, were filled with confusion, swirling.

________________________________________

Tae Mujin immediately called Kwon Giseon. After asking him to find Yihwan and go to the ski resort with Yiseo, he returned home. He frantically swept all the cash he had saved to leave Seoryeong, along with the jewelry and watches Mr. Choi had entrusted to him before he died, into a travel bag—everything of value.

He quickly scanned the house, roughly raking a hand through his hair, to see if there was anything else to pack. He saw the incongruously placed piano by the window. Yoon Yiseo had told him to refund the piano, saying her study abroad plans were over, but Tae Mujin had left it there. I should have sold it quickly and converted it to cash, as Yoon Yiseo said, he thought, a self-deprecating laugh escaping him. There was no time for sentimentality. Yet, the image of the girl sitting at the piano lingered in his mind.

Perhaps it was because her first impression had been so powerful.

The way the girl’s world, which had felt as cozy as the inside of a gondola even with heavy snow falling outside, gradually crumbled had consistently bothered him.

That day, Tae Mujin got off the gondola and joined the ski resort employee who was waiting for him in the upper area. The employee was a university student on leave, who had squandered his tuition fees playing at the casino during vacation and ended up working at the ski resort. The employee casually poked Tae Mujin’s shoulder and spoke.

“Damn it, the snow’s coming down like crazy, I can’t even walk.”

“I received a radio call that there’s ice on the B course lift. Let’s go now.”

“Hey, take it easy. The lift won’t freeze to death just because it stops for a few minutes.”

The employee seemed to have a lot of complaints about the customers who came to enjoy skiing in the heavy snow.

“Some of us are suffering, working like dogs in this freezing weather, and those bastards are happily crawling out at this hour. Damn it, why is it so unfair? Want a cigarette?”

Despite it being a non-smoking area, he pulled out a cigarette and asked, probably planning to sneak a puff. Tae Mujin shook his head and instead took out a chocolate bar from his pocket and bit into it. The employee took a drag, exhaled a long stream of smoke, and said,

“What I’ve realized since I came here, is that there seems to be a law of total mass in life. It feels like all my bad luck has gone to those bastards. Aren’t you resentful, Mujin? Doesn’t it feel like those bastards took everything from you?”

The employee grumbled and drew on his cigarette, while Tae Mujin chuckled faintly, scanning the sharply carved mountain ridge. Just then, the girl who had shared the gondola with him was now gliding down. Her white helmet, which resembled her, began to elegantly slide across the snowfield.

For a moment, that thought occurred to him.

Usually, the employee’s words would have been dismissed, but strangely, they subtly touched a deep part of Tae Mujin. It was the lowest point in his life, and perhaps it was because of the fleeting moment of self-pity he had felt for the first time inside the gondola just before.

If the employee’s words were true, if someone had taken all the good things in his life, and if that someone was that girl, he felt it wouldn’t be so bad. That’s how pleasing the innocent look of the girl in the gondola was, and the chocolate bar he ate for his first meal that day tasted sweet.

He must have taken a wrong step then.

By the time he came to his senses, he was completely immersed. He was sick of people floundering in the mire and had tried to leave Seoryeong. But he was no different from them. The thought of Yoon Yiseo trembling, naked, felt like a knife twisting in his gut. Tae Mujin slung his travel bag over his shoulder and hurriedly left the house.

________________________________________

“You’re in urgent need of money, how much do you need right now?”

The executive of the Seowon faction, who had repeatedly invited Tae Mujin to join the organization and offered him a position, appeared indifferent when Tae Mujin actually came to him voluntarily.

“How much is available?”

“Well… up to ten thousand is possible. But you’re going around doing odd jobs, aren’t you? Can you even pay the interest?”

Tae Mujin, instead of answering, took out the wallets he had put in his pocket and threw them in front of the executive. The executive narrowed his eyes and scanned the IDs inside the wallets. They were the wallets of the men who had come looking for Yiseo.

“If you look at the wallets, you’ll probably have a rough idea of which faction they belong to.”

At Tae Mujin’s words, the executive’s eyes narrowed sharply. Tae Mujin, who had remained unmoved by all sorts of threats and persuasion, had suddenly come seeking urgent cash. The executive thought it was his chance to exploit him cheaply. But combining the IDs in the wallets with the tattoos of the men Tae Mujin had identified, he could roughly guess the organization. It was a small-time outfit that lent money and primarily dealt in financial fraud, and it was connected to the Seowon faction. The executive couldn’t suppress a laugh, twisting his lips upwards.

“We can handle it for you… but you know what that means, right?”

Tae Mujin lowered his head. “Kneel.” At the executive’s command, Tae Mujin immediately knelt.

“Lick it. Thoroughly, until it shines.”

At those words, Tae Mujin approached the executive’s extended shoe with a kneeling walk, without a moment’s hesitation. And just before his tongue touched it, the executive laughed, grinding his shoe against Tae Mujin’s forehead.

“Tae Mujin, if I tell you to lick, you lick. If I tell you to bark, you bark. If I tell you to die, you die. From now on, you are Seowon’s dog.”

“Yes.” Tae Mujin answered immediately, as the executive demanded.

________________________________________

While sitting in the ski resort lounge with Yihwan, time felt as if it had stopped. As if they were trapped in a world covered in white snow.

“Yoon Yiseo, here, take it.”

Kwon Giseon handed Yiseo a ticket to Seoul. He also gave her a note with an address to go to immediately upon arrival and added that it would be best to lay low for a while, as they would make her a fake ID there.

“Tae… Mujin?”

“You’re only asking about him now.”

Kwon Giseon’s lips twisted upwards.

“Because of you, huff… Damn it, he turned four gang members into half-corpses, so what do you think happened to him, huh?”

“I, I didn’t know… Tae Mujin suddenly appeared… I heard fighting, but…”

“You just didn’t want to know. You walked around acting all noble, completely ignoring those kids, but in my opinion, you’re the worst of them all. You make such a mess and then just scheme to run away alone.”

Yiseo fell silent. Kwon Giseon’s words pierced her heart like a dagger. Just a moment ago, all she had thought about was fleeing in fear. Kwon Giseon spat through clenched teeth,

“Tae Mujin, damn it, he’s going to get screwed because of you, Yoon Yiseo!”

“Kwon Giseon.”

Her head snapped around at the low voice echoing through the empty lounge. Tears welled up as Tae Mujin strode towards them. Tae Mujin, looking a little tired, turned his face towards the bus stop.

There were two minutes left until departure time. Tae Mujin handed the travel bag in his hand to Yiseo. The heavy weight in her hands constricted her throat.

“Go straight to Seoul from here, to the address Kwon Giseon told you. Change your name, age, everything related to you. So no one can find you.”

“You… you, you…”

Kwon Giseon was right. The question of what would happen to him just swirled in her mouth. What would become of Tae Mujin, who had taken everything upon himself and remained? Yet, she absolutely couldn’t ask. Cowardly, she replaced the question with tears. Tae Mujin looked down at Yiseo and smiled.

“Forget everything when you get off the bus. Think of it as a dream.”

A nightmare, even. Tae Mujin mumbled, pressing his lips against hers. The last kiss with Tae Mujin tasted of blood.

As the bus driver signaled for departure, Tae Mujin finally released his arms from around Yiseo. Yiseo, still holding the travel bag he had given her, boarded the bus. She sat next to Yihwan, who was already sitting in the back seat. As the bus started, she steadfastly looked forward, not glancing out the window. The tall silhouette, faintly visible, quickly faded into the distance.

Yiseo bit her lips until they hurt, trying to hold back her tears. She didn’t even deserve to cry. She shouldn’t cry when she was pushing someone else into hell and running away. She buried her forehead in the backrest of the seat in front of her, swallowing the surging tears again and again.

“…Nuna! Look at this!!”

Yihwan cried out softly. The zipper of the travel bag Tae Mujin had given them was open. She didn’t know when he had opened it. She snatched it from him, telling him not to touch it carelessly, and hugged it to her chest. She couldn’t bring herself to look inside, but her eyes were drawn to the already open zipper. Bundles of 50,000-won banknotes, watches, and jewelry, clearly a considerable amount, were haphazardly thrown in, all mixed up.

And… things rattling at the bottom of the bag. The coins he had collected in a corner of his room, between his bookshelves, were scattered haphazardly.

“Ugh…”

A cry, like vomiting, burst out.

She remembered his smiling face when he looked at the coin she had given him under the streetlight. And the weight that had rested on her shoulder, telling her to keep playing the same song. The low voice whispering in her ear, asking her to leave with him, anywhere. And lastly, had the lips that touched hers in their final kiss silently said, I love you?

Yiseo clung to the window, looking back at Seoryeong as it receded. The falling snow covered everything outside the window.