East Korean

Chapter 12 ~ Poison

I could physically feel the poison in my body spread after eating the soup. I had severe stomach cramps and my body was so unnaturally still. I couldn’t even move my mouth any more, and my eyes were forced shut.

“Cha Sal-shi?” Yae Jun called to me when he realized I couldn’t open my mouth to eat anymore. I could feel him shivering as he placed the bowl of soup on the table beside him. “I’m sorry, Cha Sal-shi. I hope that you will be happier in your next life.”

I felt his hand on my chest, looking for my heartbeat, I guessed. I was still alive then, but I knew I didn’t have much time at all.

Then something beeped. It was that high-tech South Korean hospital equipment telling everyone I was close to dying. I heard the door open and a bunch of nurses rush inside to help me. Yae Jun laid me down on the bed and left my bedside. I felt other people’s hands and voices surround me and I felt death upon me. When unconsciousness gradually swelled every part of my body, I was certain that I would die. But unconsciousness is not death.

The next time I opened my eyes, I was alive. What had just happened? Yae Jun wanted me to die. The thought panged me. After saving my life so many times before, why would he make the effort to end it? Why was I still alive?

Not only was I conscious, but I was unparalyzed. I could move the whole of my body. It felt relieving. Just then, a nurse came in with a clipboard.

“You were very lucky,” the nurse stated to me. “We managed to operate on you so that the drug was extracted out of your bloodstream and so now you’re clean. But you had to go undergo a dangerous surgery involving the laceration of your belly. We’ve sewn it together. The man you were with, Yae Jun-shi, paid for the operation and was discharged a few hours ago and asked to send you this message.” She handed me a piece of paper. “Until your skin readjusts, you cannot be discharged from here.” She bowed and left.

I looked around. I was in the same room with two beds, but the second bed was empty.

I felt my stomach. It had obviously been cut open and stitched back together. It didn’t hurt though. Was I drugged? I then opened the letter that Yae Jun sent me.

Cha Sal-shi. Aish, I still don’t know your real name. Anyways, I’m sorry, I’m truly sorry. If you are reading this right now, it means you’re alive and my attempt at ending the misery that is your life has failed. Please note that I wasn’t trying to kill you out of exasperation but out of the will to help you. You want to die, right? So don’t hate me. But, let me say one thing to you: please don’t give up so easily on life. Whatever the reason is that you’re so timid or whatever the reason is that you’re so suicidal, that is no reason to kill yourself. There is a psychotic ward in this hospital, please do go there if you feel the need. And as for me, my mom and Ya Ri are making me abandon you without a word. It’s goodbye from now on.

Yae Jun

I sighed. The letter invoked no emotion from me whatsoever when I read it the first time (besides my usual, ‘stupid South Korean’). When I read it the second time, I laughed.

‘Whatever the reason is that you’re so timid or whatever the reason is that you’re so suicidal, that is no reason to kill yourself.’ Is he aware of the existence of the possibility that a North Korean would land in an island on the East coast of South Korea? Probably not, which is what prompted him to write such a childishly lurid statement. I need to die.

Stupid hospital. Stupid physical incapability to do anything right now. I can’t kill myself now. When will I get discharged from this stupid hospital?!

A few hours passed in utter monotonousness. Something more interesting happened when Yae Jun’s dad walked through the door with the big camera slung across his back.

“Ya Ri-shi!” he said politely bowing to me. It took me a moment to recall why he still thinks I’m Ya Ri. “You must be so exhausted staying in the hospital all alone. Where’s Yae Jun?”

I raised my shoulders.

“Aishh, chincha, that boy. Leaving his precious girlfriend in the hospital all alone. I will scold him and make him come here as soon as possible, don’t you worry about that!”

He took out the little handphone in his pocket, dialed a number, and began with his raging voice, “YAE JUN! You disgrace to all of humanity!” and other insults of that sort. “Come to the hospital right away.” He closed the phone then.

He looked back at me and smiled sympathetically. What a protean, funny man. I liked him.

“Ya Ri-shi, would you be so gracious as to let me take photos of you?” he asked me, bowing.

I nodded indifferently as he began clicking the camera, asking me to hold certain poses. A few minutes later, Yae Jun appeared at the door, and exasperated expression painted across his face. His head was still bandaged.

“WHAT?!” he yelled to his father rudely, obviously avoiding eye contact with me. I couldn’t help but feel disgust at this father-son relationship. No respect from Yae Jun, and no sympathy from the dad. South Koreans are really despicable.

His father hit him across the head as Yae Jun cussed. Despicable South Korean language…

“This is not the way you treat your woman!” his father yelled. “She is your girlfriend, she is hospitalized. She is tired and bored and she needs someone to comfort her. The least you could have done is bring her flowers! Aishh, this guy, where have I gone wrong in raising him!”

“Dad, what do you really want from me?” Yae Jun asked.

His dad gave him a face, and then said, “I need pretty faces.”

“What?”

“I showcased my photography to a magazine, and so I was accepted to compete for a page in which my photography will be viewed. I win, I get money. The theme for the page is romance, and so I need a couple, with pretty faces.”

Yae Jun laughed. “Dad. No. You will never make it as a photographer. Give it up now! I’m leaving now, mom is waiting for me.”

“Shut up, Yae Jun. And no! Am I less important than your mom? And is your mom more important than your beautiful sick girlfriend who is the only reason you’re alive and standing!”

“Aishhh, aboji! She said herself she doesn’t need me! Ask her.”

“I don’t care what she says!”

And so they fought like this, yelling at one another trying to intimidate the other.

In the end, after Yae Jun was smacked in the head and yelled at and scolded, Yae Jun gave in, and yelled, “what do you want me to pose as?!”

“Finally! The theme is romance and…”

“Romance? You want her in the picture as well?” Yae Jun asked pointing at me heartlessly.

“Yes. I’ve already asked her if she’d like to be photographed. She gave me no problem unlike some stubborn child I own.”

“Aishhh,” Yae Jun said annoyed. “No.” he stated.

“Would you stop spoiling yourself? You think you’re too cool to be in love, think you’re too cool to show it publicly. Shut the fuck up and show your girlfriend affection.”

“Dad!” Yae Jun complained.

“’Dad,’” his dad mocked. He held the camera to his eyes and made space for Yae Jun, as if he was expecting him to go and ‘give me affection’.

I looked at him, quite amused at how utterly ambivalent Yae Jun looked, but not expecting him to anything of that sort.

For the first time since the encounter, he made eye contact with me as well. He gave me a bemused, regretful sort of face. He then walked towards me, sat at my bedside, held my chin in his hands, and kissed my lips as his father photographed away.