All In 걸어

“Shownu!”
“Yes, appa?”
“Come here a second, boy!”
I walk into my father’s bedroom with a glass of water. He is lying down on his bed, his hair almost fully grey and his covers drawn up up to his neck. I know exactly what he needs. I take the bottle of his medicine from the cupboard, and unscrew the cap. There are only ten or so pills left at the very bottom.
“Thank you, son,” he smiles at me weakly and tries to lift his head up as far as he can. “We’ll have to take down the dosage, or the pills won’t last.”
The truth is, the dosage has already gone down. Appa needs to take at least three pills a day, now it’s gone down to two, and it’s been that way for almost a month now. We don’t quite know what his illness is, but we were told that these are antibiotics. If they helped, I’m not sure, but they’re not making him any worse.
“How much money have we got left? I could always go to the apothecary to get more.”
“There’s none left,” he sighs and takes the pill from my fingers and a sip of water when I press the glass to his lips. “There’s not much that we can sell either.”
We sold almost all of our furniture and belongings by now. When eomma was alive we could still make some money from her making clothes and mending them. But now, with appa bedridden and sick, our income was almost non-existent. I stand up and leave the glass on the bedside table, the only piece of furniture in the room, aside from the bed.
“I’ll go work, appa,” I bow. “The crops will be ready for the harvest soon. We might have some more luck on the market this year.”
The guys turn up to the field in about half an hour. Jooheon and Minhyuk are nowhere to be seen though. Did something happen?
“Shownu Hyung!” Kihyun runs towards me, smiling and carrying a bag on his back. “Appa let me use his shears today. The work will go twice as fast as last time.”
“We could try to save up for a mule maybe?” Wonho suggested and propped himself up on the scythe’s handle. “Then it would be much easier than just using ourselves.”
“Do you see any mules around, Hyung?” Kihyun laughed and dropped the bag on the ground and started rummaging in it. “We have more luck finding a needle in a haystack than a mule here.”
We all got to working within a couple of minutes. Wonho and I dragged the plough on the soil, while Kihyun got rid of the rocks in front of us. Hyungwon and Kookang dropped the pieces of potatoes into the ground, and covered them with their feet. The sun was scorching hot and our backs soon became burned almost to the point of pain. We worked tirelessly for hours, until Hyungwon calls for a break.
“Shownu Hyung,” Wonho lies down on the grass in front of my home, folds his legs and stretches out his tired back. “Have you seen Jooheon and Minhyuk?”
“I haven’t seen them since yesterday before I left Jooheon’s house,” I grab a large jug of water standing on the window sill and pass it to Hyungwon to drink from. I sit next to Wonho and look up at the tree above us, which seems to be growing apples already. “Maybe they got caught up somewhere?”
“Do you think we should check up on them, Shownu Hyung?” Kookang looks at me before he takes a massive gulp of the water.
“I think so, Kookang,” I nod and wait for Kihyung to drink his share. “It would be much better to look at Jooheon’s home rather than Minhyuk’s. If they are hiding, they are hiding there.”
Everyone nods in agreement, and we decide on visiting Jooheon’s home after we have finished working. Hyungwon seemed docile throughout the entire day. He would not push the plough properly, or trip over his own feet. He seems lost in thought… More than usual to be fair. It slows the entire process down, and we could have been finished hours ago.
“Hyung! Knock it off, we have lots of work before we can piss about!” Kookang throws a potato on the ground in frustration.
“There we go again,” Wonho rolls his eyes and pushes Hyungwon out of the way to get hold of the plough. “Hyung, let me do it.”
“No,” Kookang groans and glares at the pair. “He should be doing his work and you should be doing yours. It’s his turn, and it’s not our fault that he cannot concentrate!”
“Enough, Kookang,” I sigh and rest my arms on the plough. He’s right, we could have been finished hours ago. I could have chosen Wonho do pull it instead, since it’s a much harder job than pushing it. “Wonho, push it. I’ll pull and Hyungwon will do the rocks.”
We all swap and return to working hard. Kookang is moody for the rest of the day, unfortunately, but Kihyun manages to raise the spirits with singing folk songs. His speciality is Arirang.
“Look on me, look on me,” we all join in, including Kookang whose mood was sort of lifted. “Look on me, when you see a flower in midwinter, think of me.”
At this moment, we hear footsteps. It must be the soldiers. Arirang is a forbidden song to sing, especially for young men. It’s one of those songs that instigated rebellious feelings. I immediately close my mouth and the others do the same. Just don’t look at them. Don’t look at them and they’ll go away…
I can’t resist. I turn my head and see Jooheon and Minhyuk walking towards us, looking particularly rough and in pain. Minhyuk clings to Jooheon’s shoulder as he props him up to help him walk, and the two sit down heavily on the grass where we sat before. As expected, Hyungwon runs to Minhyuk as quickly as he can, tripping over ploughed ground, and his long limbs flailing like a newborn calf.
“Minhyuk!” He drops to his knees before Minhyuk and we follow slowly behind him, trying to assess the situation. “What happened? What’s going on?”
“The soldiers got us,” Jooheon grabs the nearly empty jug and passes it to Minhyuk to drink. He looks to be in pretty bad shape, but not as bad as Minhyuk, who can barely keep a straight back. “They lashed us when all of you were gone. Eomma took care of us, so I doubt that an infection will spread. But I don’t think that any of you would have heard, I’m sure High Officer did it on purpose.”
“Or we could have just been busy,” Kookang sits in front of Jooheon. “You don’t know what High Officer wanted. I’m pretty sure that he didn’t spread the word so that it wouldn’t be public.”
“Oh trust me, Kookang,” Jooheon snaps back at him, unable to hide his anger. “He did this on purpose! He did this so that the two of us were an example to all of you. If he wanted to punish the person who stole that bread, it would be you! But he chose us instead because he wanted to scare the group. Are you starting to sympathise with them now?”
“You don’t know that, Hyung! He knows just how much you two mean to us, that’s true, but I doubt that he could have orchestrated such an elaborate lashing. You know that they’re brutal, full of angry fire. They’re not cunning, calculating. They can’t think of something like this!”
“You are so fucking naive, Kookang! Do you have any ide-”
“Enough…” Minhyuk whispers and gives the jug to Jooheon. Everyone falls silent. “There’s no point in fighting. We’re all in this, remember? Brothers. Kookang, Jooheon, I know you have your differences but you need to stop for now. I’m too tired to be listening to you two bicker like children.”
“You’re right,” Wonho nods. “We haven’t finished working the fields yet, and I’m sure Shownu Hyung would like some more help.”
“Yes, boys, that would be helpful,” I sigh and scratch my head. I hate making them work like this, I hate asking for help.I can’t not though. I need them. “Minhyuk, Jooheon, rest for now. You look like you could use it for now.”
Minhyuk stays on the grass, while Jooheon decides to keep on working. He’s always had a fighter’s spirit, that one. Let us hope that he doesn’t end up lashed for it again anytime soon. Hyungwon stays with Minhyuk, bringing him some more water from time to time. These two have been inseparable for almost two years now, always on top of one another, always touching. Truth be told, as such close friends, we always do things like that. But this was something very different...
We finished by sundown, and the baskets are quite full of cabbages, onions and grapes. We sit down in the light of the setting sun, sipping on water and having bites of the smaller tomatoes that would not quite make the cut for the market. They all seem tired, but content. By the end of the evening they disperse into their own homes, Minhyuk leaving with Hyungwon, draped over his broad shoulders.
“Are you two going to be okay?” I ask, handing them small wraps of home-made bread and slices of ham as thanks. “Will your appa be okay with Minhyuk staying?”
“Eomma won’t mind,” Minhyuk beams and ruffles Hyungwon’s hair. “We’ll go to mine. We’ll see you later Shownu Hyung.”
“Alright boys, see you later.”
“See ya, Hyung!”

Notes