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HITS SINCE 1999/8(3000 Hits since 1997/7) -- KOREAN SHORT STORY-- By YeungKwan, Kim-- Hunchback--published with CD in Slovakia 1999!! 2000/5 , NEW!!---- ||In Italian !!|| 

I did not think that there would be such a place in seoul. It was not human
zone. The houses were too small, too poor to live in. The hunchback, one-handed
man, beggars, poor people... they were living there. They earned for a
day, they lived for a day. I was just a working man, and came here a few
days ago, to search for a room to live. I am over 30 years old, but could
not marry. I drank and gambled with construction crew everyday and had
no money. And there was not construction working place during rainy season,
July. This town was so dirty, and smelly. So, all I had to do was just
to go out, for finding working, and come back, drunkenly. That was better
than, just staying at that town. Last spring was good for working men.
At that time, I could borrow one good room, and bathe my body in hot water.
But here, I cannot help imagining that good time. I never knew that there
would be such a town in seoul. The hunchback, one-handed man, beggars,
such poor people were there, behind the lighting brilliant departments
and shopping center, apartments. Why did they live, at such a poor town,
in poorness? Even though the rich people boast themselves, the world shouts
out battle-cry, their spirits are rotten, worse than the poor people. When
I went to work, for the rich people, I thought their bodies and spirits
were deformed. The rich men could not step lightly, healthily. they did
not think wisely, and young rich boys & girls were unsound, talked
garrulously. When I worked at their house. carrying blocks, repairing the
roof, painting the wall, I watched the rich people, enough, they dare not
told me, anything. They drank foreign water, beers, but they did not give
me a glass of water. Sometimes the house keeper gave me a cup of coffee,
It smelt fur-scorching smell, thirstier, so, I drank a glass of cold water.
But it was strange to me that this poor town was more peaceful on mind,
better than the rich, except noise, dirt. Uneasiness and unrest was less,
at this poor town than the rich town. Is it my superiority feeling, better
than the hunchback, one-handed man, beggars? I was not healthy, out-look
was so, so, but inside was bad. My face was changed white by a cup of alcohol.
Nothing to do, no work no pay, I drank and smoked everytime, so became
thin. I lost the taste of meal. During rainy season, this poor town was
a hell to me. Not paved lane was full of the mud and dirt. But the children
of this town were playing in the muddy place, and the hunchback and one-handed
man were laughing and chatting each other below the eaves. Yes, there is
happiness, I thought so more and more. Than the harden, not telling faces
of the rich people, here the poor people's faces were the faces of the
children. One day, The hunchback and the one-handed man were playing korean
chess on the outside korean flat wooden bed below the eaves. The rainy
season gone, and hot summer has come. I watched them playing the chess
each other. And the poor houses stuck to each other too, so I thought that
those were the same with the rich apartments, villas in complex seoul.
In korean chess-board, the hunchback was putting the one-handed man's all
chessmen to one side. The one-handed man without right hand was playing
with his left hand, just handling the hunchback's dead chessmen upside
down. The hunchback was smoking a cheap cigarette, 25cent Sol, and smiling,
just like winner, and said, "Hey, you have to buy macgully(Korean wine)!,
ha- ha- ha-." The one-handed man, looked like over 40, drew one cigarette
from the hunchback's Sol, instead of chessman, and said, "Don't chat, just
give me your lighter!" I thought that It was better to redraw this place,
than to help the one-handed man, because he was angry at the chess, a little.
It seemed that the hunchback would win the one-handed man. Son of beach!
It was very hot. And there was no work. And, in seoul, there were so many
cars around this poor town. The evening sky looked yellow with dust and
smog. It was not such sky that I had seen in child time. I could not find
the sun because of the buildings, and no clouds, just the yellow and red
smog and dust was covering the city. I coughed, and when I smoked, I coughed
out black phlegm, felt nausea much. In the hot summer city with dust and
smog, nobody could breathe well, and I thought that somewhere, somebody
was going to be dead in this city. Because the small electric fan like
hand was blowing the hot wind in my small room, I could not sleep, lf there
were not the outside korean flat, wooden bed, at the lane, in front of
one-handed man's house. I could not meet the hunchback and one-handed man
well at night, around the outside korean flat, wooden bed, because they
slept at their house with their families. While I was sleeping on that
outside bed, I just saw the small dirty grey sky, which I did not want
to. Across the narrow lane, there was a very small out-door and outside
toilet, just to fit the hunchback, going into and coming out. But a man
people who had his outside toilet belonged to the rich, because all the
people should go to the common toilet. I never went to that common toilet,
It was dungy toilet with a mountain of dung. So I had to walk 10 minutes,
to go to a modern wash-room of large building. 'I have to leave this town'
I thought that. But there was no place where I could go, and could not
find the cheap room, because I had no money, except paying 100$ monthly,
to this rent room. But even though I should sleep in the subway or the
street, I wanted to leave. The hunchback and one-handed man earned their
living, receiving 100$ a month from the government, their wives were pedlars,
doing chores, odd jobs. Their children were dirty, but always bright and
healthy. But I knew that these children would be changed, at the age of
puberty, so they would be treasonous, because of the poverty, contempt
from society, and their parents's invalid. The most dangerous time was
the age of puberty, to these healthy children. They easily become vagrants,
criminals, because of the hypocrisy and dirty money of the rich and authority.
Money, money, money... It was said that the people to have money became
not guilty, the people to have no money became guilty. It got cool everyday,
cold in the morning and at night. So I've not frequently seen the hunchback
and one-handed man. But the day, when I was drunken much, I walked along
the lane, and slept on the outside flat, wooden bed. While sleeping, I
heard the sound of autumn rain and raindrop, from the eaves, thought 'I
have to leave this town quickly'. ...... 'How many times run?'........
.......I heard something. "Oh, why this man is sleeping here? It's raining!"
It was like the voice of the hunchback..... "Yes, we have to move him,
to his room."..... It seemed like, the one-handed man...... "No, No,.."
I was grumbling, drunken. At the time, somebody carried me on his back.
Even though I was drunken, I knew that he was the hunchback, because my
cheek was pushed by the peak, like camelback. And then, somebody was supporting
me, with one hand, not two hands, I thought he was the one-handed man.
It seemed that my room was lit up, the hunchback laid me on the ground
of room. I grumbled, drunken, "No.. no, get away, go away!" "Yes, young
man, be careful, yourself...... Let's go." "Ok. This man will be all right
tomorrow morning, let's go....." They were the hunchback and the one-handed
man. I shouted, again, "Go away! Get away! This, ...sick... invalid....,
son of beach!" "........Hey....we... let's go out......." They said quietly,
went out, but I was drunken so much, so slept again, until next morning.
In the next morning, I just remembered their last saying.... '.......Hey.....we....let's
go out....'  -The end- 1997/2