granny

25// in the clear

jungwoo accompanied the two to the big grey house next to the now burned down kang house. he apologised to them if his grandma had said anything offensive since he couldn't have said it in the house but jisung and minho agreed that she was very nice and respectful.

"she's amazing, really. nothing like our grandma at all," jisung replied with a laugh.

"haha, she can be a bit harsh at times, especially to my mum," jungwoo admitted, "she's traditional, a little, but she means well," he concluded with a wide smile.

"yes. it's so nice of her to tell us the stories that she knows. thanks for inviting us to stay here," minho joined in.

"it's alright, of course. we understand that there isn't much that you've been told about your family and it's unfair so i want to help you," the boy smiled sweetly and watched the two, who were holding hands, glance to him gratefully.

then the door of the house opened and an old crippled woman's body filled the doorframe. she was small and dressed in a hideous brown skirt with a baggy blueish blouse. her hair was short and black-grey, but her face was wrinkled and she squinted when she saw a three-man group standing at her doorstep.

jungwoo introduced himself and for a moment she seemed to remember who he was, and then he introduced the other two. she nodded meaningfully and ended up greeting them warmly before letting them in. technically, she was aware that jisung and minho were her neighbours' kids but there was nothing in her act that showed that.

"i'm sorry, i can only give you some biscuits, i've run out of tea," she apologised as she offered them a tray, from which each boy politely took one biscuit, "my son will come bring me some tomorrow.. if you want you can come back then..," she slowly started, leaving the tray on the table and sitting down.

"it's alright, mrs kwon. we just wanted to ask you about your neighbours, mrs and mr kang, if you don't mind," jungwoo loudly but gently spoke to her.

"the neighbours! oh, those horrible people," the woman cried out suddenly, "i was afraid of them for years after my husband died," she explained and tilted her body over a cushion on the divan. the three were told that her husband had passed many years ago, only a couple of years after they married, leaving her alone with their only child.

"yes, mrs kwon," jungwoo intervened when she looked like she wasn't going to continue, "me and my friends would like to know more about them, if you don't mind."

"oh, i usually don't speak bad of the dead, but there is simply nothing good that i can remember about them, i'm afraid," mrs kwon slowly began again. just when the boys were getting ready to ask a follow up question, she continued, "the only good thing was the girl that they took. but i heard she didn't live long after.."

"nobody knows for sure what happened, but we all know certainly that the kang parents used some foul play to make the girl come to their house," she declared after a pause, "otherwise she would've never decided to go to that boy of all people.

but he was detached from reality, mystified by her entire persona, act and physicality, and she possessed his heart from the day he laid eyes on her, i believe. and he was so focused on her that he would often argue with the old injeong about it, and he would get beaten brutally..

but no matter how much injeong would beat him, he would always come up with more praises about the girl, yubin, or something like that, and he would never let go of the idea of her becoming his. no other woman did he want, he said, and injeong would beat poor yonghoon again.

one day, everybody found out that yubin was engaged. oh, yujin, excuse my memory for being weak," mrs kwon cleared her throat into what sounded like a laugh and the three boys smiled since there was nothing else they could do.

"that was the day when yonghoon knew that the girl was never to be his, and he told his parents in the garden, that very night, and everyone could hear, that he would kill himself on the day of yujin's wedding, since there was no way he could live knowing that somebody else would have her.

and we all knew he meant it. he couldn't have possibly been joking with that, there was only one thing on his mind day and night, night and day.

so injeong set her father on fire, and her mother also, and her sisters too. one was preparing for her marriage, sewing her dress, taking her clothes to bring to her new home. and she burned, just like everybody else.

of course, nobody knows it was him, we all just think so but since he knew they had died, the very same day, he arranged the marriage of his son to yujin by a letter to her only relatives in busan, i think. faster than the girl could even ask her beloved to send his parents a letter to take her home.

she would've waited for her lover, even if the parents wouldn't have her in their house, but that man, kang injeong, persuaded that uncle by whatever means to let the two marry.

and that was how delicate yujin stepped into the kang house, into her father's murderer's house," mrs kwon took a sharp breath in and then exhaled. there was evidently zero suspicion from the villagers here of the fact that mr kang senior was behind the seo family's death.

"yujin liked to talk to me. she was the nice neighbour from that house that i never had. when juhyun was talking to me it was only to make small talk between gritted teeth, or to tell me that my dog or my kid's noises are disturbing her..

and so, yujin lived on, reading books from the library and trying her best to please at least her husband's mother, but there was nothing she could do. whenever the two would be in the garden, making jam, canned peas or anything, nothing she did was ever good enough for juhyun who always reviled her for anything.

but one thing she never did to yujin was hit her. she didn't dare do that because her son would never allow it. despite his beyond odd behaviour, he never once desired to harm yujin and loved her more than his own parents and himself even. so, knowing that, the old couple never laid a finger on her or even looked at her the wrong way in his presence.

however, nobody knew why that had to be, but years went by and it became clear that no force in the world could make the two young people have a child. and though everyone was complaining about that, yujin was the only one who wanted to have children.

i heard her multiple times as i was in the garden or the toilet (because back then this house didn't have neither a sink nor a washroom inside it) rush to meet him at the door as he was coming back from work and tell him 'oh, i'd really like to have a child, any child'.

that was all she would say at first and for weeks on end he was tense and preoccupied, probably thinking about what to do to make her wish happen. he never spoke about it, or about scarcely anything at all, but he was clearly upset whenever she was so.

and she tried her best not to blame him or to require something from him urgently. it was rather a proposal, or a wish that she would state, and he would grant it without having been given an ultimatum or even the slightest push.

in her lonely years, when she was still young and childless she would always go out on the lawn in the evening, to look up at the sky, and one night while i was washing my son's clothes i asked her, 'girl, are you wishing on a lucky star?' and she said, 'i wish to have some happiness, mrs kwon' but that was all she ever said to me about her life.

and after that, she thought of having a child. she wanted to be a mother, maybe so that she could care for someone and save them, since she herself couldn't be saved. and her husband didn't seem to value that idea any more than any other, but he agreed for the sake of making her happy and they ended up taking not one but two orphan babies, two years apart.

what were their names again..? i can't remember..," mrs kwon thought and cleared her throat. her voice was hoarse and dry, probably because she hadn't spoken to someone out loud for a long time. she stood to go to the kitchen and take herself a glass of water.