TITANIC ~ A Yoonmin Story

It's Been 84 Years...

゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。

"It was the ship of dreams... to everyone else. To me it was a slave ship, taking me back to America in chains.

"Outwardly I was everything a well brought up boy should be. Inside, I was screaming."

゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。☆。・゛★゛・。

The steamer's whistle echoes across Busan. The noise echoing through a small local pub, crowded with dockworkers and ship's crew.

Just inside a poker game is in progress. Four men, in working class clothes, play a very serious hand.

Min Yoongi and Jung Hoseok, both about twenty-three, exchange a glance as the other two players argue in English. Yoongi is Korean, a lanky drifter with his hair a little too long for the standards of the times.  He is also unshaven, and his clothes are rumpled from sleeping in them. He is an artist, and has adopted the bohemian style of art scene in Paris. He is also very self-possessed and sure-footed for twenty-three, having lived on his own since fifteen.

The two Englishmen continue their sullen argument, in English. 

"You stupid fish-head. I can't believe you bet our tickets."

"You lost our money. I'm just trying to get it back. Now shut up and take a card." The other fired back.

Yoongi jaunts them. "Hit me again, Oscar." 

Yoongi takes the card and slips it into his hand. His eyes betray nothing.

Hoseok licks his lips nervously as he refuses a card.

In the middle of the table, lies a giant stack of bills and coins from the two countries. This has been going on for a while. Sitting on top of the money are two third class tickets for Hanjin's Titanic.

The Titanic whistle blows again. Final warning.

"The moment of truth boys. Somebody's life's about to change." 

Hoseok puts his cards down. So do the Englishmen. Yoongi holds his close.

"Let's see." Yoongi drones in broken English. "Hoseok's got nothing. Chris, you've got squat. Oscar, uh oh... two pair... mmm" Yoongi turns to his friend. "Sorry Hobi."

"What sorry? What you got? You lose my money??" Hoseok shouts in terrible english too. Reverting back to his native language to mutter under his breath.

"Sorry, you're not gonna see your mama again for a long time..." Yoongi replies and slaps a full house down on the table.

Grinning wide he says "Cause, you're going to America!! Full house boys!"

"Holy shit!! YEAHHHH!" Hoseok cries.

The table explodes into shouting in several languages. Yoongi rakes in the money and the tickets.

Turning to the angry Englishmen, he says, "Sorry boys. Three of a kind and a pair. I'm high and you're dry and..." He turns to Hoseok. "... we're going to-"

"AMERICA!!!" They both shout.

Oscar balls up one huge farmer's fist. Thinking he's going to clobber Yoongi, he ducks, but instead he swings around and punches Chris, who flops backward onto the floor and sits there, looking depressed. Oscar forgets about Yoongi and Hoseok, who are dancing around, and goes into rapid harangue of his stupid cousin. 

Yoongi kisses the tickets, then jumps on Hoseok's back and rides him around the pub. It's like they won the lottery."

"Goin' to America... to the land o' the free and the home of the real hot-dogs! On the TITANIC!! We're ridin' in high style now! We're practically goddamned royalty, hell yeah!!"

"You see?" Hoseok exclaims. "It's my destiny! Like I told you. I go to America to be a millionaire!!" He then turns to the bar tender. "I'm going to America!!"

The pub keeper stars at them un-amused. "No, mate. Titanic goes to America. In five minutes."

"Shit!! Come on, Hobi!" Yoongi shouts, hurriedly grabbing their stuff. "Come on!" He then turns to everyone situated inside the pub, beaming with happiness.  "It's been grand." Then both him and Hoseok turn to run out the door.

"Course I'm sure if they knew it was you lot coming, they'd be pleased to wait!" The barkeep shouts after them.

Yoongi and Hoseok carrying everything they own in the world in the kit bags on their shoulders, sprint toward the pier. They tear through milling crowds next to the terminal. Shouts go up behind them as they jostle slow-moving gentlemen. They dodge piles of luggage, and weave through groups of people. They burst out onto the pier and Yoongi comes to a dead stop, staring at the cast wall of the ship's hull, towering seven stories above the wharf and over an eighth of a mile long. The Titanic is monstrous. 

Hoseok runs back and grabs Yoongi, and they sprint toward the third class gangway at E deck. They reach the bottom of the ramp just as a worker detaches it at the top. It starts to swing down from the gangway doors. 

"Wait!! We're passengers!" Yoongi shouts, flushed and panting, he waves the tickets.

"Have you been through the inspection queue?" The moody worker asks.

Lying cheerfully Yoongi states "Of course! Anyway, we don't have lice, we're Koreans." He glances at Hoseok. "Both of us."

"Right, come aboard."

The worker had Quartermaster Won reattach the gangway. Yoongi and Hoseok come aboard. The worker glances at the tickets, then passes Yoongi and Hoseok through to Won. Won looks at the names on the tickets to enter them in the passenger list. 

"Smith. And..." Reading Hoseok's "Smith." He hands the tickets back, eyeing the boys Korean looks suspiciously. 

Yoongi grabs Hoseok's arm. "Come on, Chris." Yoongi and Hoseok whoop with victory as they run down the white-painted corridor, grinning from ear to ear. 

"We are the luckiest sons of bitches in the world!"

The mooring lines, as big around as a man's arm, are dropped into the water. A cheer goes up on the pier as seven tugs pull the Titanic away from the quay.