#171

Kim Young-ja’s Golden Age!

The 80s were Kim Young-ja’s golden age, just like a movie title. Just thinking about that time always made her heart swell and her chest fill with pride.

If she could go back to that time, she wanted to make up for the one mistake she had made. If it weren’t for that mistake, she could have continued her golden age until now. She wouldn’t have had to live in this shabby house, trembling with anxiety, building her own kingdom while hiding from the eyes of others.

Ah. How did the great Kim Young-ja become like this?

No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn’t explain it any other way than being possessed by a ghost.

1985 was a year when a particularly large number of the child died. In December, at the end of the year when everyone should have been happy, two the child were stillborn. Because of that, her bonus went down the drain, and the mink coat she had been planning to buy since last month was also gone. She felt like she was going to die of regret.

Kim Young-ja said, “Tch, unlucky,” and burned the fetuses. It was fortunate that she had built a crematorium inside the orphanage, otherwise she would have had to dig the ground herself in this freezing winter. She couldn’t be more grateful to Mr. Han for building the crematorium, even though it was crude.

Now there were only a few pregnant girls left. Two or three, maybe. Shit. She felt impatient when she thought that was all there were.

Last year, fifteen were pregnant and ten of them gave birth, but this year only nine were pregnant and only two have given birth so far. And only one of them was normal. The rest, whom she had been eagerly waiting for, were dying in their bellies one by one.

Money, money, money.

Kim Young-ja saw those little lumps of flesh as money. Precious money was burning.

She fed them so well, dressed them so well, and took care of them with such devotion, but miscarriages happened so easily.

It wasn’t like the girls were that young. Kim Young-ja’s mother had given birth to Hyung at fifteen, and then gave birth to six more, including Kim Young-ja. Compared to her mother, the orphanage girls were on the older side. Seventeen on average. The best age. They were blessed in many ways. And they were so pretty.

On the other hand, the boys were all no different from beasts. The little bastards whose heads hadn’t even dried yet just ate, jerked off, and raped. She didn’t want to go near them.

Kim Young-ja’s taste was for mature men, like Choi In-ho, Dr. Choi. Dr. Choi was an obstetrician and gynecologist and an indispensable figure in the orphanage.

Except for the fact that he limped because he had polio as a the child, he was handsome, had a good sense of humor, and was rich. Of course, he was also smart, and his nighttime skills were outstanding. Above all, he really knew a woman’s body well. After sleeping with him once, she couldn’t even think of other men. Dr. Choi was a true adult who knew how to handle women properly.

Kim Young-ja, who liked Dr. Choi, was burning inside. She felt like she was almost there, but that little bit was so difficult. Of course, Dr. Choi had a wife. But she was as good as nonexistent. She was just a pretty-faced pervert who did nothing but lie down all day. But Dr. Choi cherished his wife like a treasure.

It wasn’t just because of Dr. Choi that Kim Young-ja was feeling down lately. She was definitely doing well before, and there were more than a few bastards who were eager to jump on her, but these days she wasn’t popular at all.

Was it because she had lost weight? Kim Young-ja looked down at her body. The dress that used to cling to her body was loose. Her breasts also seemed to have gotten smaller. Then she met the eyes of Mr. Han, who was secretly watching her with a gloomy look.

Mr. Han was an insignificant man who did odd jobs at the orphanage, but he was a man who would die for Kim Young-ja’s words. Honestly, he wasn’t a bad person. He did manual labor, so he had some muscles.

Kim Young-ja, sizing up Mr. Han, smiled brightly at him. Then Mr. Han was startled and looked away.

Pretending to be innocent. She cursed inwardly and threw the last lump of flesh into the flames. Because she hadn’t tied the umbilical cord properly, blood splattered all over her body.

‘Shit. Unlucky.’

She spat out and wiped her hands on a rag.

Burning those lumps of flesh, Kim Young-ja greeted 1986.

Galilla Orphanage, which had been operating illegally since 1979, was thriving after being officially licensed as a childcare facility in 1983. As an official facility, it received state subsidies, which were so large that it made her jaw drop, and the number of donors increased, so the vault never had a chance to be empty.

Above all, thanks to the advertisements, the number of people in the orphanage increased exponentially. Relatives and surrounding adults who had been taking care of teenage orphans without parents eagerly brought the the child to her. The director graded the the child from 30,000 won to 100,000 won depending on their condition and paid them accordingly.

The director’s face never lost its smile. Just think how much money those the child earned in a year. They were even the child who made money even after they died. Not knowing that, the poor only valued their own children and abandoned other people’s children for a pittance.

In fact, it was no exaggeration to say that the orphanage’s success was all thanks to Dr. Choi. It was Dr. Choi who came up with the plausible advertising slogan that the orphanage was officially licensed and provided vocational training. Dr. Choi’s connections and wealth were the foundation for Galilla’s rapid growth. The director had no idea where she had gotten such a precious person from.

Kim Young-ja first met the noblewoman Kim Young-ja, who had the same name as her, in 1979, after her second marriage failed.

After her first marriage ended in three months, Kim Young-ja ran away to Miryang and tried to make a living by seducing an old hospital director, but then she met her second Husband. That bastard, who looked like the movie star Shin Seong-il, was just a smooth-talking son of a bitch.

They both dreamed of becoming movie stars, so at first they mistook each other for lifelong partners. So for three years, they didn’t register their marriage and wholeheartedly supported her Husband’s dreams. But that bastard not only gave all of Kim Young-ja’s meager salary to another woman, but even tried to secretly sell Kim Young-ja to another old man.

In the end, Kim Young-ja’s second marriage also failed, and she was fed up with Gyeongsang Province, so she went up to the northern region. She vowed to become a successful movie star, just to show her second Husband.

But Kim Young-ja, who had been robbed of everything by her Husband and had no money, had to get a job first. She said that stealing was what she had learned, so she got a job at a hospital again, but somehow she couldn’t last more than three months. It was because the wives made a fuss when she seduced a mediocre doctor.

Then she got a job as a nurse’s assistant at an internal medicine clinic in Ansan again. That was in 1979.

Since Kim Young-ja had never registered either of her two marriages, everyone thought of her as a clean slate and a twenty-nine-year-old spinster. Of course, they only treated her like a spinster in front of her, but behind her back, they whispered among themselves that she must have been a hostess.

Kim Young-ja pretended to be okay on the outside, but she was anxious on the inside. She was old enough, she had no money saved, and her debts were constantly increasing. Her dream of becoming a movie star was fading, and marriage was not easy. There were more than a few men who followed her around saying they liked her, but somehow none of them asked her to marry them. She had no choice but to cling to the hospital director, with whom she was having an affair.

The hospital director made good money and was separated from his wife. And they didn’t have any the child between them. Kim Young-ja knew how much the hospital director wanted a the child, so she worked hard to get pregnant in order to become the hospital director’s official wife. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t get pregnant.

In the end, at the obstetrics and gynecology clinic she finally managed to visit, Kim Young-ja heard the shocking news that it would be difficult for her to have the child. It felt like the sky was falling. She had only thought that she hadn’t had the child on purpose for her dream of becoming an actress, but she had never dreamed that she wouldn’t be able to have the child.

She was devastated. Was a woman who couldn’t have the child even a woman?

At that time, when she was in despair, Kim Young-ja, the director of Galilla Orphanage, approached her kindly, saying that she had the same name as her.

She, who had just founded the orphanage, did not show a humble attitude even while asking the hospital director for a donation. Moreover, perhaps because she had graduated from a famous women’s university in Seoul, her speech was eloquent, and she had a strikingly glamorous appearance even though she was not adorned with expensive clothes and jewelry. Even her movements were graceful. Soon she became the object of Kim Young-ja’s admiration.

Noblewoman, that’s what everyone called her. That noblewoman addressed Kim Young-ja, who was only an assistant, as “Nurse” and acknowledged her every time she visited the hospital, bringing her snacks and gifts, which changed the way people in the hospital looked at Kim Young-ja.

Kim Young-ja, who was already anxious every day, was completely taken in by the noblewoman, and she reached a point where she felt like she could do anything she was told to do. And she did. At the noblewoman’s request, she quit her job at the hospital and went to a mountain in Ansan where Galilla Orphanage was located.

Of course, later she found out that the director was just an ignorant person who had barely graduated from Elementary school like her, and yet she confidently said that she had graduated from university, and even pretended that Kim Young-ja, who was in the French language and literature department in the graduation album, was her. Even though their faces were completely different, she nonchalantly lied that she had had some plastic surgery.

The director had everything fake, including fake university diplomas and fake permits. She was close friends with a guy who specialized in making them. At first, she felt betrayed by her, but thanks to the director, Kim Young-ja herself was able to have a nursing school diploma and license even though she had only graduated from Elementary school.

She had been working as a nurse’s assistant in hospitals since she was around sixteen, and she had learned almost all the skills, so honestly, Kim Young-ja thought that she was no different from a nurse.

Kim Young-ja was in charge of vaccinating the the child at the orphanage, as well as giving the director nutritional supplements and injecting the deputy director with hormones. The director trusted Kim Young-ja’s skills that much. Even Dr. Choi, who was a real doctor, said that she was skilled, so that said it all.

Kim Young-ja, who had been promoted to head nurse in less than two years since she had been admitted to the orphanage, was already acting as if she had really graduated from nursing school. Like the director, or even more shamelessly than the director, she forged her career.

On the day someone called her Nightingale, she felt like she wanted to run to the director who had brought her here and kneel down.

Nightingale Kim Young-ja. Angel in white Kim Young-ja.

She had dreamed of becoming a movie star, but Nightingale wasn’t bad either. She enjoyed the gazes that saw her as an angel in white. Including the men’s lecherous eyes.

Occasionally, the orphanage the child, not knowing their place, would flirt with her, but it wasn’t that unpleasant. Most of the boys who flirted with her were the so-called qualified the child who went out for Special Activities.

Speaking of qualifications, the orphanage the child each had a rank. All the qualifications given to the the child were strictly managed by Dr. Choi.

The first hurdle that the child who entered the orphanage had to go through was a physical examination. Regardless of gender, they had to reveal their naked bodies to Dr. Choi and be thoroughly examined. Another role of nurse Kim Young-ja was to help with that examination, which was supervised by Dr. Choi. Kim Young-ja enjoyed examining and classifying the the child with Dr. Choi.

The the child were divided into a total of six ranks, from Rank 1 to unranked. Even beef wasn’t divided that meticulously, but Dr. Choi was meticulous, as expected of a talented person who had studied abroad in Japan.

Of the the child classified in that way, only Rank 1 and Rank 2 could go to high school, and at the same time, they were given the qualification to participate in Special Activities. In particular, some of the Rank 1 girls were given the special right to spend a special night with Dr. Choi.

Here, Special Activities meant that seven wealthy people and selected the child spent their own secret day together every week.

The director would call the the child who were participating in the activities for the first time and give them a heads-up in advance, but even so, the the child would be surprised and cry, make a fuss, or get angry. But after that, they would be completely immersed in the special treatment and bonuses they received, and then they would secretly ask the director when they would be going out again, or urge her to let them go out quickly. Anyway, they were precocious the child.

In truth, Kim Young-ja didn’t really know what happened during Special Activities. She had never been invited. She only vaguely guessed that orgies took place, based on the whispers of the children and the instructions of Dr. Choi.

Kim Young-ja couldn’t understand it at all. The director, the assistant director, Dr. Choi, and herself—the four of them were accomplices. They were in the same boat, a community of fate. They knew about all the crimes and illegal activities taking place in the orphanage and even helped in every way, materially and mentally. Yet, for some reason, neither the director, the assistant director, nor Dr. Choi would ever share what happened inside with Kim Young-ja.

She felt ostracized, but she couldn’t complain. It was because of the assistant director, Kim Sung-hwan. He always implied that he could replace Kim Young-ja with someone else at any time. Kim Young-ja had no intention of leaving her position. So, she had no choice but to keep her mouth shut.

Anyway, most of the girls got pregnant, regardless of their rank. The director and assistant director encouraged it and urged them on.

The fathers of the newborns were mostly Rank 1 and Rank 2 boys. They monopolized the girls in the orphanage. This was also strongly encouraged by the director and assistant director. They believed that this would ensure the birth of healthy children with good genes.

Dr. Choi also worked hard to spread his own seed in his own way. The Rank 1 girls chosen by Dr. Choi were sent to Dr. Choi’s villa as soon as they became pregnant. There, the girls ate good food, slept in good beds, and wore good clothes.

Kim Young-ja had only visited Dr. Choi’s palatial house once, on an errand for the director. It was so big and enormous that her eyes widened in amazement. But it was nothing compared to the villa where the girls carrying Dr. Choi’s children stayed.

The villa was as beautiful and luxurious as a castle where princesses might live. In that villa, the orphaned girls were truly treated like princesses. Kim Young-ja, who had previously felt sorry for the girls who were pregnant at a young age, realized that she was the one to be pitied.

She felt pathetic for dreaming of a romance with Dr. Choi. Kim Young-ja burned with jealousy towards the girls.

After that, she began to vent her anger on the other girls in the orphanage. She couldn’t lay a hand on the children who went to Special Activities, and she didn’t know when a Rank 3 might become a Rank 2, so she grabbed any of the girls from Rank 4 to the lowest rank and tormented them like rats. She wanted to hit the boys, but they were stronger than her, so she couldn’t.

Violence begets violence, they say. Kim Young-ja became violent to an extent that even she was surprised. Swearing was basic, and she relieved all her stress by hitting. It wasn’t just once or twice that she started with her hands and feet and then used tools like rulers and sticks to beat them until pieces of flesh fell off.

She was caught by the director and assistant director and received a serious warning, but she couldn’t stop. Eventually, something went wrong. One of the girls she was beating suddenly died.

And Yoon Ki-beom happened to find out about it.

That fucking Yoon Ki-beom.

Unluckily.