As True as a Dream Chapter 91

“But… I…”

 

Eun-sil’s face suddenly stiffened and her lips pursed as if she was holding back anger.

 

Hae-Joo followed her gaze and saw Japanese soldiers threatening with bayonets to disperse the people gathered in front of the soup kitchen.

 

She deliberately blocked Eun-sil’s view so she couldn’t see them.

 

Eun-sil flinched, then laughed hollowly at her.

 

“…I know. It’s like you said, how will my mom and the kids live without me. Don’t worry. I don’t think about it. I’m not thinking of anything… that should be the topic.”

 

She sighed softly inwardly at Eun-sil’s somewhat astringent words.

 

No one is nothing in this world, and no one lives the way they want to live.

 

“Besides that, it’s your birthday. Is there anything you want?”

 

“Eh? You talk like it’s not your birthday. Your birthday is earlier than mine. Wait a minute… It’s the day after tomorrow! You brought it up on purpose to remind me, didn’t you?”

 

“Did you notice?”

 

“So what do you want….”

 

Hae-Joo tried to distract Eun-Sil, and it worked.

 

Eun-sil’s face brightened at the mention of her birthday, but then she raised an eyebrow.

 

“Huh? That kid…?”

 

“Kid? What kid?”

 

Hae-joo’s sudden reference to a child prompted Eun-sil to point to a large street behind Hae-joo.

 

When she turned around, there was a cute little boy in a suit holding the hand of a young girl, giggling and talking.

 

“Do you know her?”

 

“No, not really… Remember when we were running around looking for Eun-ho in the Shantytown village?”

 

Hae-Joo’s mind flashed back to the not-so-pleasant memory of finding a dead body.

 

“I ran into him on the way home with Eun-ho that day, and he told me that he asked Eun-ho to play in the chop shop.”

 

“Huh? That’s the kid he was playing with at the chop shop that day?”

 

Hae-Joo raised her eyebrows and glanced back at Eun-sil, who squinted and looked at her observantly.

 

“I’d remember that kid’s face if I’d only seen him once, and he had an eye patch over one eye, so I’d remember him. But why does he look so tall all of a sudden? I don’t think he was ever that tall.”

 

“Kids, they grow like sprouts.”

 

“Isn’t that right?”

 

Hae-Joo nodded, glanced at the child again, looked away, and then scratched her head.

 

Then she looked back at the child.

 

No, not the child, but the woman standing next to him.

 

Her face was familiar, as if she recognized her from somewhere.

 

‘Was she someone I’d had as a passenger in her cab?’

 

Hae-Joo can’t remember every customer who’s ever taken a ride in her cab, but there are some that leave a lasting impression.

 

Like Governor Saito, who made a strong impression.

 

‘Where did I see her?’

 

As she watched, trying to think of something, the woman felt her gaze on her and suddenly turned toward her.

 

The woman’s face was gray and dreary, as if she had never experienced anything joyful, and her eyes seemed to be vacant.

 

For a moment, she flinched unnecessarily at the dark gaze.

 

Her eyes widened, as if the woman recognized her, and then she quickly looked away.

 

She remembered where she’d seen this woman before, the one who should have seen her.

 

“The train…?”

 

“Huh? What?”

 

Eun-sil echoed her muttered question, but instead of answering, she stared at the woman standing beside the kid in disbelief.

 

The woman’s face was yellow and haggard, but she seemed to be right.

 

She was the woman who had thrown the child into her arms on the train on her way to Gongju to retrieve the precious Guishan Dao left by her father for a reward!

 

On that day, at the abandoned well in Sindang Jeong Tomok, she had handed the child to that woman, and when she had turned around, she had given her an uncharacteristically ungrateful look.

 

As she averted her eyes from her own criticism, the image of the woman from earlier overlapped with her own.

 

Hae-Joo looked at the child again.

 

The brightly smiling, waist-high child with an eye patch over his right eye was not the same three- or four-year-old she had seen earlier.

 

‘Was that boy her brother?’

 

He looked a lot like him.

 

She wondered if he would look just like that when he grew up.

 

Hae-Joo’s vague thoughts soon turned into doubts.

 

There was a car beside the child and the woman, and a man in a Japanese army uniform followed with a solemn face, carrying a large suitcase as if they were going on a long journey.

 

Judging from the situation on the train, she thought they were involved with the independence movement, but Japanese soldiers…?

 

“Sister, what’s wrong?”

 

“Huh?”

 

“Do you know him?”

 

Eun-sil asked as she knitted her eyebrows and stared at the boy for a long time.

 

“No, I don’t. The girl next to him looks a little familiar.”

 

Hae-Joo hurriedly looked away.

 

It’s none of her business if she’s fighting for independence or tangling with the Japanese.

 

“Eun-ho and Eun-dong said you wanted to buy rubber shoes. Did you buy them?”

 

“No, they’re more expensive than I thought, so I’ll go back to the market tomorrow.”

 

Hae-Joo changed the subject, and Eun-sil followed easily.

 

“Then you’re going to work right away? Let’s go, I’ll give you a ride.”

 

Hae-Joo walked toward where she had parked her car.

 

Eun-sil blinked in surprise and quickly followed, throwing her arm around Hae-Joo’s shoulders.

 

“You quit from Iori Automobile Merchants. Where’s your car? Are you working again?”

 

“No. The boss lent it to me so I can get back and forth easily.”

 

“Really?”

 

Hae-Joo frowned.

 

Eun-sil squealed in his ear.

 

“You’re so cool. When are you going to show me? When are you going to get married? How was your trip? Are you spending your birthday with him? Did you tell mom she doesn’t have to make seaweed soup?”

 

Eun-sil rambled on and on.

 

Hae-Joo laughed out loud at Eun-sil’s excited face as she kept asking questions.

 

There was no space between her words, as if she didn’t want to hear the answers.

 

“Tell me one by one. Get in.”

 

Hae-Joo opened the car’s passenger door, let Eun-sil in, and went around the body to the driver’s seat.

 

But just before she got in, she felt someone’s eyes on her, so she spun around to see the polite “woman” staring at her.

 

She made eye contact again, but this time the woman didn’t look away.

 

Hae-Joo wondered why she was looking, but she quickly looked away and climbed into the driver’s seat.

 

She already had a lot of work to do.

 

She didn’t have time to care and think about someone she barely knew.

 

After dropping Eun-sil off at the mill, Hae-Joo returned to Song Yue Pavilion as she had promised Yi Ho.

 

Instead of going inside the house, she sat under the tree in the lawn where Yi Ho often sat.

 

There was no other reason.

 

She just remembered that she didn’t have a key to the house.

 

“Miss Hae-Joo, what are you doing out here?”

 

The sudden voice made her turn around, and Hongo was already approaching.

 

Hae-Joo quickly stood up.

 

Hongo was just an older man to her, with whom she had no connection, even though he was calling her master.

 

“The boss said he had some business to attend to, so he left.”

 

“Business to attend to?”

 

Hongo nodded, as if he were cutting her off at the knees.

 

Hongo’s eyes narrowed in a strange way as if he was thinking about something, but then he smiled kindly.

 

“Ah, I just remembered which dealer you stopped by, is that why you came back alone?”

 

“Yes. I decided to stay at home, but I forgot the key to…”

 

Smiling sheepishly, Hongo dug into the pocket of the suit top he was wearing and pulled out a key.

 

“You’re… just giving it to me?”

 

“You’re my master’s fiancée, aren’t you?”

 

Hongo smiled as she took the key, then took a step back, adding.

 

“I’ll bring you a meal in time, please make yourself at home.”

 

With those polite words, Hongo turned and strode away.

 

Holding the key in his hand, he wondered when Yi Ho would return.

 

The sky was already getting a little darker.

 

If he was late, would she have to sleep here again tonight?

 

Even though she had become Yi Ho’s lover, she had no intention of shamelessly pressing on.

 

She had a home to return to, albeit one that was a bit shaky from the aftermath of the kidnapping and the box of dead mountain birds.

 

Hae-Joo looked up at the red brick building that stood majestically behind her.

 

***

 

In the darkness of the night, a black shadow fell like a wisp from within the high walls of the governor’s residence.

 

Hiding in the shade of a large tree, Yi Ho stared at the silent building.

 

There was not a single light or sound in the two Japanese-style two-story wooden houses that formed an “A” shape around the courtyard.

 

They had already left for their tour of the province starting tomorrow.

 

After a moment’s wary glance around the house, Yi Ho twitched his eyebrows in wonder at the lack of human presence.

 

It was almost as if no one lived there.