EXT. HILL – DAY
HR and MS climb a small hill that overlooks a part of the city to find her mother's grave. MS locates the spot.
KIM MI-SOOK
Here it is, miss. Just as Lee Seong indicated.
HYE-RYUNG
This is a lovely spot. Thank you for coming with me. I wouldn't even know what to do without you.
KIM MI-SOOK
I'm very happy to be here with you. Let's bow first.
They both bow 2 ½ times, HR watching MS to know what to do. MS begins to put out food and drink while HR waits quietly.
HYE-RYUNG
I'm ashamed to say this Kim Mi-sook but I haven't cried at all since my mother's death. It's been months and I don't seem to feel very much at all.
KIM MI-SOOK
Well, my lady, you've lived more of your life without her than with her. Maybe it has something to do with that. Do you want to tell me about her?
HYE-RYUNG
Honestly, I don't know very much. She liked peaches and the summer rain. She liked to braid my hair, or maybe it was just me liking her braiding my hair. I think we were happy then.
She was younger than I am now when she had me. She was probably scared when she married, though I doubt she imagined then how bad it was going to be. I don't know why she never had any other children. I wonder if father actually hurt her in some way that prevented further pregnancies. When I asked her if I would have a brother or sister, she seemed genuinely happy to tell me no. Something obviously happened, but I can only guess at the specifics.
She was so afraid of my father. I think the thing she said to me most was 'Keep your head down. Be still. And be quiet.' She did her best to protect me from him. A few times she tried to hide me away but that made both of our beatings even worse. When we were alone, she would smile, but only if it were the two of us. Father didn't like us smiling. He said we looked stupid.
I can't even imagine what her real personality was like, what sort of person she would have been apart from him. I only ever saw her trembling in his shadow, having given up on whoever she really was. When she looked at him and spoke to him, her eyes were completely empty, as though she were dead already. I found that so terrifying, even more than my father's anger.
I cried so much when I was sent here. I didn't want to be separated from her. And I didn't want her to be alone with him. But I knew if I defied him in any way, he might kill one or both of us. She might have been thinking the same thing. So I suppose we both survived in our own way. But it's hard to be sad when I think she might be happier now than I ever knew her to be, or even just at rest. Maybe she is finally herself.
(silence for a moment)
KIM MI-SOOK
I can't speak for all mothers, of course, and I never knew your mother, but I think most mothers want their children first to be healthy and happy. Good mothers usually worry less about what their child is or is not doing for them and more about the child's wellbeing. But on that front, it sounds like you grieved for her when you first came here, so maybe you've simply already paid her those respects. Perhaps you don't need to double them up now that what happened for you practically, emotionally, and even spiritually more than 10 years ago has now come to completion.
If she knew everything that your life has been here, and where you are now, the difference you're making for everyone here, I think she'd not only be happy for you but proud of you. After all, you managed something she didn't. Right in the heart of all this chaos and wickedness, where most people are too afraid to even set foot, and certainly in the midst of all the pain you must have felt, you never once lost yourself. You never gave up on who you are. And that despite your youth and complete lack of care and guidance. I think she might even admire you for that.
HR reaches over to hold MS's hand.
HYE-RYUNG
Thank you, Kim Mi-sook.
KIM MI-SOOK
Don't be ashamed or think that you're lacking as a daughter. You are here, fulfilling your duties. And His Majesty took personal care of her body on the night of her death. I think she'd be relieved to know that she came to you and that your father will never even know where her ashes were placed.
HYE-RYUNG
(smiles, begins to tear up for the first time)
Yes, she would like that very much. In the end, it's just me and her once again.
