#152

Tae-heun, feigning surprise, quickly scooped up water from the sink and handed it to Park Mal-ja. She gulped down the cold water and wiped away her tears. Even after that, Park Mal-ja continued to cry for a while before stopping only when she looked at the clock.

“So, he was injured at the orphanage, is that right?”

Tae-heun confirmed again.

“I think so. But Teacher, I have to go to work.”

Park Mal-ja trailed off, her face etched with heartbreaking sorrow. She had no choice but to work for a living.

“I’m sorry. I kept you for too long, didn’t I? I’ll give you a ride to work, so let’s talk on the way.”

“Oh, thank you.”

Tae-heun supported the listless Park Mal-ja and led her outside.

She looked so frail, as if she might collapse at any moment. Tae-heun personally helped her into the passenger seat and fastened her seatbelt, but even sitting seemed difficult for her. He worried about how she could handle the demanding work at the restaurant in that condition.

Park Mal-ja was grateful for Tae-heun’s kindness but also felt very sorry. She kept saying, “I’m so sorry,” all the way to the restaurant where she worked. But that wasn’t what Tae-heun wanted to hear.

“Do you know exactly when he was injured?”

“I don’t know for sure either.”

Park Mal-ja was ashamed that she didn’t know much about the serious accident that had happened to her nephew.

“I was worried about him even after sending him to the orphanage. Then, after about a year, I brought my own children back home, but I couldn’t just leave Ki-beom there. My Husband told me never to contact him, but how could I do that? I called the orphanage without my Husband’s knowledge. When I said I wanted to take Ki-beom out, they readily agreed. But the next day, the the child called home directly and abruptly said he didn’t want to come back. He said he would go straight to Seoul if he was discharged.”

Of course, Park Mal-ja strongly opposed it. But Yoon Ki-beom was incredibly stubborn. He didn’t seem like he could be persuaded, so she begged him to come home first and then go to Seoul. Yoon Ki-beom, who was close to his aunt, promised he would.

But a month passed, and her nephew didn’t return. Park Mal-ja, finding it strange, called the orphanage, but they said he had already been discharged and they didn’t know anything. So, Park Mal-ja went to the police station and filed a missing person report as instructed by the police officer in charge at the time.

It was two or three years later that she saw Yoon Ki-beom again. Her tall, handsome nephew, who was so good-looking it was a waste, appeared as a cripple. Park Mal-ja held onto Yoon Ki-beom and wept.

“No matter how much I asked, he would never tell me the reason. He said he had an accident, but it wasn’t a traffic accident. I was so frustrated, you know? Then, out of nowhere, he started talking big about making me live in luxury. He was unstable.”

“What did he say he would do to make you live in luxury?”

“Well, he kept changing his story, so I barely listened. It was a time when the police were contacting me often about Ki-beom’s issues, so I thought he was just getting carried away after hanging out with bad people again.”

Yoon Ki-beom at that time was practically living at the police station for theft and assault, so it was understandable that Park Mal-ja thought that way.

“Is there any reason why you’re sure he was injured at the orphanage?”

At Tae-heun’s question, Park Mal-ja sighed.

“He was obsessed with the orphanage.”

“Obsessed?”

Park Mal-ja hesitated before opening her mouth.

“I accidentally overheard him on the phone.”

After returning to his aunt’s house, Yoon Ki-beom spent all day locked in his room, talking on the phone with someone. Occasionally, a girl from the same orphanage would call, but he mainly talked to a young man of his age. That day, he was on the phone with that friend.

“Ki-beom called him Rocky. He was obsessed with the movie ‘Rambo’ at the time. He was saying he wanted to be an action star like that, so I thought that was why. Anyway, he was talking to that young man, and he kept saying ‘Galilla, Galilla’ and cursing like you wouldn’t believe. He said things like, ‘Who do you think made me like this?’ and talked about weaknesses and evidence. He kept saying nonsensical things like, ‘With you and my fists, we could take them down in one shot.'”

Park Mal-ja, having said this, started crying again.

“I shouldn’t have sent him to the orphanage, no matter how hard it was. He begged me not to send him, saying he would earn money outside like his older siblings, but I just put him in the car. Actually, I received money from there.”

Tae-heun raised his eyebrows. This was new information that wasn’t in the orphanage records at all.

“How much?”

“100,000 won. It was too much money to refuse…”

Park Mal-ja trailed off.

In the winter of 1982, she received a whopping 100,000 won from the orphanage. It was a time when every penny counted, so Park Mal-ja ignored her pleading nephew.

“What did the orphanage say when they gave you the money?”

“I think they said it was for labor costs.”

“Labor costs?”

“Yes. They said the orphanage was connected to some factory and provided vocational training. They said the children would receive a salary when they started working, but they always wasted it, so they were giving the parents the salary in advance and told me to keep it safe.”

According to her Husband, Yoon Kyung-seok, it was more like a vocational school than an orphanage.

Park Mal-ja, blinded by money, believed the kind-looking director who came to pick up Yoon Ki-beom. No, she tried to believe him.

“I know you were living in Daejeon at the time, but how did you find out about Galilla Orphanage in Ansan?”

Park Mal-ja pondered for a while before slowly opening her mouth.

“My Husband said he saw an advertisement somewhere, or someone saw an advertisement and told him, I think. He was talking to his drinking buddies about sending our children to the orphanage and mentioned Ki-beom. Then someone told him about that place. Ki-beom was in the second year of middle school at the time, and the orphanage was recruiting children exactly from the second year of middle school to the second year of high school.”

Park Mal-ja answered to the best of her knowledge.

“Did you receive any more money from the orphanage after that?”

“No. Not at all. I remember my Husband cursing them, saying they were swindlers and were supposed to send us 50,000 won more but didn’t. I think he called them a few times too.”

“So, you’re saying that Galilla Orphanage gave you a large sum of 100,000 won at the time of admission under the guise of vocational training, and they promised to give you additional money later?”

“Yes. That’s right, although I didn’t talk to them directly.”

Park Mal-ja then beat her chest, saying, “Oh, I was crazy. I sold my the child for 100,000 won.”

Then she said, “I had an interview,” and her eyes sparkled as she looked at Tae-heun.

“An interview?”

“Yes. I had an interview.”

Park Mal-ja wiped away her tears with her palm and continued.

“My Husband suddenly said he had to go to Ansan and asked for travel expenses. He said he was going with Ki-beom. Ki-beom and my Husband were on such bad terms at the time that I was worried my Husband was finally going to abandon him. But strangely, that night, my Husband came home and praised Ki-beom. Then, a week later, he was admitted there.”

“That’s right. That’s right.”

Park Mal-ja said again with a confident voice.

The more Tae-heun listened, the more confused he became. During the trial, the director and vice-director’s abuse was revealed, but there was no mention of advance payments or interviews.

It was true that they sent the children to the factory and beat them. It wasn’t some grand vocational training, but almost like slave labor. They also exploited the children’s wages. But those people interviewed the children before selecting them? And gave an advance payment, a whopping 100,000 won?

It didn’t make any sense.

“You don’t know what they asked in the interview, do you?”

“I don’t know that far, but my Husband was grinning from ear to ear. He said, ‘You can’t fool blood,’ and when he took off his pants, the interviewers’ eyes widened. He said he was tall like his Father and handsome like his Mother, so the interviewers gave him a perfect score. He said such ridiculous things. What reason would there be to take off his pants in an interview? So, I thought he was just drunk and talking nonsense again.”

Tae-heun didn’t really believe what Yoon Kyung-seok, who was already an alcoholic at the time, was saying.

“Was Yoon Ki-beom very tall at the time?”

“Yes. He suddenly grew. He was really tiny before.”

Yoon Ki-beom, who was small and mischievous, suddenly grew taller during the summer vacation of his second year of middle school. Park Mal-ja said with a laugh that before that, he was so small that many people thought he was younger than her third the child, who was a year younger.

She said she was so proud that he grew so much even though they couldn’t feed him well because they were so poor. He grew 20cm in a month and cried every night because he was in pain. So, even though she was tired after work, she secretly massaged her nephew’s arms and legs. Park Mal-ja continued to talk about her nephew, laughing and crying.

‘Aunt, I’ll make you live in luxury.’

Those were Yoon Ki-beom’s last words.

He wondered how such a loving relationship had grown so distant.

“I think it was three years after Ki-beom left the house in Daejeon that I saw him again.”

Yoon Ki-beom, whom she met again after three years, appeared holding a two-year-old the child.

“It’s all my fault. If I had kept him with me, he wouldn’t have become a cripple, and his personality wouldn’t have changed so much.”

The joy was fleeting, and Park Mal-ja was completely frozen by her nephew, who had changed 180 degrees.

It was definitely her nephew. The way he limped, his speech, his habits, it was definitely Yoon Ki-beom. His taste in food was also the same. But she had a strong feeling that he was someone else. It felt like someone borrowing Yoon Ki-beom’s shell was imitating her nephew.

Coincidentally, Park Mal-ja’s Husband was afraid of Yoon Ki-beom, calling him a ghost or a Grim Reaper, so she became afraid of him too. He was too unfamiliar.

Even though he had become such a diligent person, she couldn’t bring herself to like him. So, she was even indifferent to her granddaughter, whom she met for the first time.

Of course, Park Mal-ja knew who the the child’s Mother was at once. That girl who was from the same orphanage as Yoon Ki-beom. She had sometimes talked to Yoon Ki-beom on the phone, and she had come to the house in Daejeon four months after Yoon Ki-beom left Daejeon.

“I found Ki-beom, but how would I know? I wanted to ask where my nephew had gone. The the child looked so tired that I let her sleep for one night. She must have been pregnant at the time. She ate so deliciously even though there were no side dishes.”

Tae-heun was awkward about the story of Yoon Ki-beom’s lover and the the child’s Mother that suddenly came out of Park Mal-ja’s mouth. Honestly, he didn’t want to hear it. But he had to endure it to find the real Man.

“Do you happen to know the girlfriend’s name?”

“Well…”

Park Mal-ja shook her head, trying to remember.

“I’m sorry. It was a common name, but I can’t remember it.”

The car had already entered a busy street. Park Mal-ja seemed to have told all the stories she knew and advised him to look for the young man named ‘Rocky’.

“My children were also obsessed with that movie like Ki-beom, so I can’t forget that nickname. Anyway, you should meet him. He will know more about the the child’s Mother and what happened to Ki-beom than I do.”

Finding a person with just a nickname was impossible at the moment. He didn’t even know if the children on the list were alive or dead, and their residences were all unknown. Besides, he was a fugitive. If he wasn’t, he would have mobilized all the private investigators he could, but the situation wasn’t favorable.

The only hope was to meet the employee who had worked at that orphanage the longest.

“I understand. Thank you so much for your cooperation.”

Tae-heun was sincerely grateful to Park Mal-ja. Although she had sold her nephew for 100,000 won, he was able to obtain valuable information that he could never have found in the documents, thanks to her filing a missing person report. And he also got a clue about the boy who might be the Man.

“By the way, is Ki-beom doing well?”

Park Mal-ja hesitated before asking.

“Yes. He’s doing well.”

“If you happen to meet Ki-beom, could you ask him to contact me?”

Saying this, he looked for a memo pad.

Tae-heun opened the glove compartment, found a pen and memo pad, and handed them over. Then, Park Mal-ja wrote down his current home address and phone number.

“I don’t know why I acted so heartlessly. It’s only natural that a person’s personality changes after going through several major events, but I was scared of what. Ugh. But even so, the the child didn’t say a word about being upset. I didn’t even treat him well, but he still went to the nursing home to visit me, his uncle, every month. He’s too kind.”

Park Mal-ja handed over the memo pad with a tearful face.

“I’m asking you a favor.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll definitely pass it on.”

“Thank you, Teacher. Um, you can drop me off just in front of here.”

Tae-heun stopped the car in front of the restaurant Park Mal-ja mentioned. As Tae-heun tried to get out with him, Park Mal-ja stopped him and carefully brought up the subject.

“If Ki-beom turned out that way because of that 100,000 won we received.”

What kind of answer did he want to hear to say something like that?

Tae-heun didn’t want to offer false comfort. It was true that Yoon Ki-beom became disabled because of the money they received, so he thought they should at least live with that much guilt.

As Tae-heun kept his mouth shut, Park Mal-ja quickly bowed his head. “I’m sorry,” he apologized. He was still a better human being than Yoon Kyung-seok.

“Mother, if you happen to remember anything else, please contact me anytime, regardless of the time. Even the smallest thing could be a big help.”

As Tae-heun earnestly asked, he nodded his head vigorously.

“I’ll ask my children too. Since they were the same age, they might know more than I do.”

“I would be very grateful if you would.”

Tae-heun added that the story he had heard from him was helpful enough. Only then did Park Mal-ja turn around with a relieved face. Then he bowed his head again towards the car Tae-heun was in.

It was bitter. He felt sorry for that woman’s life, who unexpectedly had to take responsibility for her young nephew, and for Yoon Ki-beom, who was sold and ended up in the problematic orphanage.

As soon as Park Mal-ja disappeared into the store, Tae-heun pulled out a document envelope from under the seat.

He looked for a boy who could be called by the nickname ‘Rocky’ on the list with missing information. He reviewed the height, weight, blood type, and special skills sections again. Just in case there was a boy whose special skill was boxing. Or if he dreamed of being a movie actor.

However, instead of the children’s special skills, their physical characteristics were written in the special skills section. Not only disabilities they had from birth, such as polydactyly or cleft lip, but also things like mismatched eyes or skin diseases were written down. There was even a boy who was said to have a particularly large Mongolian spot. They were mostly things that could be seen as disadvantages rather than characteristics.

Unusually, it was marked with O or X whether or not they had pubic hair, that is, hair around their genitals. In the case of girls, the presence or absence of menstruation was also added. Tae-heun overlooked it because it was written in English as ‘mens’. In the case of pubic hair, it was scribbled in Chinese characters.

Why on earth was that kind of information needed?

Tae-heun scratched his eyebrows and read through the documents about the orphanage and the court records again. He carefully checked to see if there was anything he had missed or overlooked, but he couldn’t find any additional information.

In the trial process, there were no matters related to sexual exploitation other than labor exploitation. The closest thing he could find was the fact that the residents fell in love with each other and had children, and that they illegally adopted out the children who were born.

So, in the documents, there was no other reason why it would have been important whether or not they had pubic hair or whether or not they menstruated.

Tae-heun shoved the useless documents back under the seat for now.

Almost two hours had already passed. He had to go pick up the man who was sitting alone in the cafe. Whether or not ‘Rocky’ that Park Mal-ja was talking about was really a the man was actually more curious than pubic hair or menstruation.

Rocky and Rambo.

He smiled at the nicknames that boys of that age would have given each other.

Different roles played by the same actor. It was a dead end, but somehow he saw hope.