He remembered the tenant farmers groveling on the frozen hard ground during the winter solstice. The ones whose lands were taken away when quotas weren't met. Those desperate faces begging for another chance... It was the fear he felt that day that drove him to be so money hungry.
He worked to expand his business day and night and somewhere along the way had become just like his father-in-law. He realized that there were things more valuable than your possessions only after being faced with certain death.
Hyangshim Transportation needed minimal supervision so it didn't matter as much. But Hyangshim Fiber was a company that earned them foreign currency with exports. He couldn't rest until it went to the right person.
"Haa... wonder if he'll accept."
Bak In Bo climbed into the car with a heavy heart.
"Auntie!"
A piercing high pitched voice shook the living room. There was no answer. Chanmo and Chimmo had already escaped when Jang Pil Nyuh destroyed the kitchen utensils. Jang Pil Nyuh was having a hard time holding back her rage and migraines.
Sure he was acting out of line as of late, but she did not expect her submissive husband to dismiss her like this. No, he already turned his back against them and there was almost no chance he was going to help. She was just too uneasy to face the truth.
A restless father, a disappointing mess of children, a husband out of her control, a successful Mu Ssang, the Ha Dong Daek with a mocking smile, Samshik Capital who just wrapped a noose around her neck and was just waiting to kick the chair from under her feet... All these thoughts were flooding her mind.
"Argh, that damned Kim Mal Soon!"
"Argh, Ha Dong Daek! You bitch!"
"Aaargh! You dare mock me you dirt-covered filth!"
"That woman's daughters are all going to college? Aaargh!"
Something was destroyed after each and every scream. Human uneasiness comes from not knowing one's place. There would be no reason to feel uneasy if you had already come to terms with your abilities, status, and consciousness. Uneasiness comes from ignorance.
There is a saying called 'Jogogakha (look under your feet)'. This was used as a response to the question 'What is the reason that Bodhidharma came from the west?'. It was a zen Buddhist riddle meaning, 'how could you ask for the reason why Bodhidharma came from the west when you don't even know what's happening right next to you?'.
Jang Pil Nyuh's misfortune came from the fact that she did not know her place. She wasn't the eldest lady of the Jang family but the wife of Bak In Bo. Not Jang Kyung Ju's daughter but the mother of three children. If she knew to look under her feet she would not have made everyone miserable along with herself.
"Uff, ugh!"
Jang Pil Nyuh fell onto the sofa. She didn't have the stamina to keep up with her temper. She could feel her head spinning along with the images of her father and her brother in Samshik Capital's clutches.
The angel-like Samshik Capital turned out to be the devil. Their overdue interest rate was increasing every month by 1% and after 2 years was at 24% a month. With the initial rate of 1.5% this month's interest was 25.5%. if they couldn't pay the interest by the day after tomorrow they would lose the ancestral mountain and the main family house.
Her father borrowed $500,000, her uncle $200,000, her father's older cousin $100,000, and her father's younger cousin $80,000. They sold the family land and used every connection to pay the interest until this point. They already paid $2.5 million, about three times more than the original loan amount.
That was the limit. We couldn't repay a single cent of the original loan. This pitfall called increasing interest rates was as deep as it was wide. This month's interest was $200,000. There was nowhere to turn to. Despite organizing all of the family's resources, Samshik Capital secured all of the evidence and avoided every single dispute.
Two raids they mobilized with members from an organization also failed. For the Jang family, they were lucky from just the fact that Samshik Capital didn't exercise their CB security right.
Her father and the elders of her family came to see her almost every day. Words of resentment and accusations followed one after another. Her ego and self-esteem were wounded beyond healing.
Bak In Bo's words just added salt to her wounds. Salt isn't a big deal on a healthy body. But when salt comes in contact with a wound it causes excruciating pain. You forget about the one who wounded you, and your hatred becomes concentrated on the one who added the salt.
The one who added that salt was some dirtbag dwarf that kept his head down for decades. This brainless human being who paid top dollar for some pottery like a b*tch dared to sprinkle salt on the Jang family.
"Why did I do that?"
Jang Pil Nyuh stared blankly up at the crystal chandelier. She must have been possessed by a Dokkaebi to have taken over those convertible bonds. She wouldn't have swallowed that poison had she carefully reviewed the terms.
The common denominator of those who fall for these scams is greed. You wouldn't be tricked if you weren't greedy, and when you are blinded by greed, advice falls on deaf ears. Jang Pil Nyuh didn't understand that her family's greed came back to bite them.
Jang Pil Nyuh slumped onto the sofa to lay down. If she had known that her family's land had gone straight into her husband's grasp, she would not have been able to sleep no matter how exhausted she was. Perhaps it would've driven her insane...
Wu Tak leaned against the stairs on the second floor and looked down at the destroyed living room. His expressionless face turned to Jang Pil Nyuh, but his gaze peered outside the window.
The state of the living room didn't surprise him as this happened fairly often. What was surprising was his father. On the brink of becoming evil, he almost doubted that it was actually his father.
'Where did it go wrong?'
The house was a luxurious mansion, but you wouldn't call it home. He may have gone to a bad school, but he could still tell the difference between the two. His father sold his heart and soul to that company. He would work until your bones turned to dust and paid no mind to your family.
And his mother was always up to something. Late-night calls with his uncles became frequent, and constant visits from people he didn't recognize. The topics of those conversations were never pretty. Most of them were about who should be appointed as executives, who should be cut, who they needed to meet, how much money they needed for bribery, etc. Things even he could tell wouldn't be of any help to the company.
His eldest sister Hui Ja couldn't break free of her shopping addiction even after getting married. She couldn't break free from it even after being divorced for that very reason.
His second older sister Hwa Ja drowned herself in alcohol and drugs. She was beaten like a dog a few years back and was hospitalized for six months. They say old habits die hard. She relapsed and started doing drugs again after being released. Shopping, sleep, alcohol, and marijuana were her life. She was currently missing.
What about Wu Tak himself? He didn't even touch a textbook and his three years of high school. He wasted his time joyriding with some sleazy biker gang called 'The speeding Dalgubeol'.
'When was the last time we ate together as a family?'
Wu Tak's face darkened. It's been 5 years since his family sat together at the same table. It's been even longer since they had a real conversation. There was nothing to talk about. They didn't care for each other and didn't have a reason.
There is no family. There is a mother who is trying to steal a father's company, a father who neglects his family, a daughter whose only concern was shopping, a daughter who went missing after being severely addicted to drugs, and a halfwit son who wastes his time with thugs. These were the true faces of people who lived in this house.
He was taken aback when Mu Ssang was expelled and arrested. There is no way in hell that Mu Ssang did something like that. So it was no surprise to him when he found out that his mother and Hwa Ja planned the whole thing. It did make him a little happy when he heard that Mu Ssang was working as a waiter.
'Was that something to be happy about?'
Wu Tak shook his head. No one in their right minds would say that being a waiter was worse than being in a biker gang.
He looked down at his mother who fell asleep on the sofa. It gave him a heavy heart to see her like this even after her hysteric episodes. He could barely remember the last time they talked together.
His mother's life wasn't that of Bak In Bo's wife or Bak Wu Tak's mother. His mother was still the eldest daughter of the Jang family. There was no denying the power and authority of Indong's Jang family.
Most of the land in Indong is the Jang family's property. His grandfather from the main family owned 2,700 fields in farmlands alone. They say that a single field yields around 240kg of rice. His grandfather was a farmland owner then yielded him 648,000kg of rice yearly.
His grandfather's power was second to none. He had over a hundred families working for him as tenant farmers. The chief of police and local governors would visit him after being elected. His mother had nothing to fear with her family's support, and his father spent his days repressed.
His father was at his worst after visiting his mother's family during the holidays. He would curse and hit the walls in a fit of rage. Wu Tak only realized later that his father was being treated like a dog at the hands of the Jang family.
The dynamic of his parents' relationship changed after Hyangshim Fabric was established. Hyangshim Fabric sold more than $20 million in profits. His mother's family, with all their power, couldn't make more than a million with their farmlands.
Those overconfident uncles' backs hunched over and his father stood tall. In the end, all the power went to the one with more money. Wu Tak also stood a little taller. He wasn't a Jang, he was a Park. Even he caught on to the shift in the dynamic.
His mother and her family met together frequently after this. They plotted to take control over the company and destroyed themselves in the process. This was a broken home. And Jang Pil Nyuh was the one who started it all.
Refusing to admit when she is wrong, bipolar, violent to the point of throwing kitchen knives at her husband, spoiling your children unconditionally... It was a miracle that his father lasted so long.
His mother always had an entitlement problem. Her children were never in the wrong because she was their mother and she was never in the wrong. She spoiled her children but there was no love or warmth. He once told her that he wished his aunt was his mother when he was seven and was slapped across the face. He was given nothing to eat for an entire day.
His aunt was kind and loving, unlike his mother. Were something to happen, his mother would punish him. But his aunt would first ask him if he was okay. He was deathly jealous of Mu Ssang who was raised by his aunt. He wished his mother was more like his aunt. He wished for it more than nice clothes or snacks.
"I kind of want to see that f*cker's face again."
Wu Tak's words startled himself. Did he really want to see Mu Ssang? His parents didn't know what kind of a monster Mu Ssang was. He remembered being beaten unconscious, getting waterboarded then getting beaten some more. And yet he still wanted to see him.
Thunder roared and rain started to pour. The raindrops hit the patches of grass.
"Ah, whatever! Running through the rain woo woo~"
Wu Tak opened the front door. Riding his new Japanese bike was bound to take his mind off of things.
"Where are you going!"
A voice pierced his eardrums like nails against a chalkboard. Wu Tak ignored it and went into the garage.
'I'm gonna have nothing to say to Mu Ssang at this rate. And I'm supposed to be the older one.'
With a roar, the motorcycle drove through the rain.
Wu Tak spent the first 2 of 5 years with Mu Ssang harassing him, and the latter 3 in utter defeat. His hole of inferiority was too deep to climb out of. Wu Tak was also a member of Les Misérables.
"Bro, hey bro!"
Mu Ssang lifted his head from Jin Soon's 7 story lunch box. It was Sungshik, the department's student representative.
"Wha?"
Mu Ssang said with a mouth full of tuna over rice. People stopped skipping lunch thanks to the Good Person Project. Even the hyenas didn't come for his lunch box this time. It was as if he spent $1.7 million just to enjoy Jin Soon's lunchbox.
"I was thinking we could go to Gasansanseong Fortress for the welcome trip. What do you think?"
"Fu- Gasansanseong Fortress!"
Mu Ssang facepalmed himself. He destroyed that driver Lee and told him to write uncle's whereabouts and put it inside that cave at the Gasansanseong Fortress. That was 7 years ago. He didn't mean anything by it. He just wanted driver Lee to be even more miserable. He forgot all about it amid the craziness.
"Bro, Mu Ssang bro."
Sungshik's voice interrupted his thoughts.
"What! Man, stop calling my name as if I'm drowning. What did you say?"
"The welcome party. I asked for your opinion?"
"Aak!"
Sungshik screamed. Mu Ssang flicked his finger at his forehead.
"Man, that's something the student representative should figure out on his own. You want me to tell you what to do at this age?"
Sungshik was in no state to answer. It felt like he was hit by a hammer and not a finger. His head was ringing. Sungshik barely recovered before retorting,
"That was too much. I told you your hands are like a weapon. Ah, my skull feels like it's broken."
"Man up. When are we going?"
"We decided on this Saturday."
"See, look at this. You've already decided among yourselves and you're just giving me the news. Do you guys think I'm a joke?"
Mu Ssang glared at him.
"Woah, bro. It's not like that. You're just not interested in that kind of stuff you know?"
Sungshik cowered. He was 4 years older than him. This was no laughing matter.
"Hahaha! I'm kiddin' around."
"Kid around one more time and I'm gonna have a heart attack. Just make some time and make sure to come empty-handed. You're always getting ripped off anyway. Hehehe!"
Sungshik let out a sigh of relief.
"This son of a gun is giving me the finger. You're here to collect money aren't you?"
"Hehehe, we could pitch in but we don't have nothin' you know?"
Sungshik started to rub his hands together like a fly.
"You sly son of a... Your tuition was taken care of thanks to the Good Person Project."
"Hehehe, which is good news for my dad but it doesn't help me much. I did write him a thank you letter though."
"Man, you think a busy person like that has the time to read your letters?"
Mu Ssang's lips curved upwards.
He remembered the tenant farmers groveling on the frozen hard ground during the winter solstice. The ones whose lands were taken away when quotas weren't met. Those desperate faces begging for another chance... It was the fear he felt that day that drove him to be so money hungry.
He worked to expand his business day and night and somewhere along the way had become just like his father-in-law. He realized that there were things more valuable than your possessions only after being faced with certain death.
Hyangshim Transportation needed minimal supervision so it didn't matter as much. But Hyangshim Fiber was a company that earned them foreign currency with exports. He couldn't rest until it went to the right person.
"Haa... wonder if he'll accept."
Bak In Bo climbed into the car with a heavy heart.
"Auntie!"
A piercing high pitched voice shook the living room. There was no answer. Chanmo and Chimmo had already escaped when Jang Pil Nyuh destroyed the kitchen utensils. Jang Pil Nyuh was having a hard time holding back her rage and migraines.
Sure he was acting out of line as of late, but she did not expect her submissive husband to dismiss her like this. No, he already turned his back against them and there was almost no chance he was going to help. She was just too uneasy to face the truth.
A restless father, a disappointing mess of children, a husband out of her control, a successful Mu Ssang, the Ha Dong Daek with a mocking smile, Samshik Capital who just wrapped a noose around her neck and was just waiting to kick the chair from under her feet... All these thoughts were flooding her mind.
"Argh, that damned Kim Mal Soon!"
"Argh, Ha Dong Daek! You bitch!"
"Aaargh! You dare mock me you dirt-covered filth!"
"That woman's daughters are all going to college? Aaargh!"
Something was destroyed after each and every scream. Human uneasiness comes from not knowing one's place. There would be no reason to feel uneasy if you had already come to terms with your abilities, status, and consciousness. Uneasiness comes from ignorance.
There is a saying called 'Jogogakha (look under your feet)'. This was used as a response to the question 'What is the reason that Bodhidharma came from the west?'. It was a zen Buddhist riddle meaning, 'how could you ask for the reason why Bodhidharma came from the west when you don't even know what's happening right next to you?'.
Jang Pil Nyuh's misfortune came from the fact that she did not know her place. She wasn't the eldest lady of the Jang family but the wife of Bak In Bo. Not Jang Kyung Ju's daughter but the mother of three children. If she knew to look under her feet she would not have made everyone miserable along with herself.
"Uff, ugh!"
Jang Pil Nyuh fell onto the sofa. She didn't have the stamina to keep up with her temper. She could feel her head spinning along with the images of her father and her brother in Samshik Capital's clutches.
The angel-like Samshik Capital turned out to be the devil. Their overdue interest rate was increasing every month by 1% and after 2 years was at 24% a month. With the initial rate of 1.5% this month's interest was 25.5%. if they couldn't pay the interest by the day after tomorrow they would lose the ancestral mountain and the main family house.
Her father borrowed $500,000, her uncle $200,000, her father's older cousin $100,000, and her father's younger cousin $80,000. They sold the family land and used every connection to pay the interest until this point. They already paid $2.5 million, about three times more than the original loan amount.
That was the limit. We couldn't repay a single cent of the original loan. This pitfall called increasing interest rates was as deep as it was wide. This month's interest was $200,000. There was nowhere to turn to. Despite organizing all of the family's resources, Samshik Capital secured all of the evidence and avoided every single dispute.
Two raids they mobilized with members from an organization also failed. For the Jang family, they were lucky from just the fact that Samshik Capital didn't exercise their CB security right.
Her father and the elders of her family came to see her almost every day. Words of resentment and accusations followed one after another. Her ego and self-esteem were wounded beyond healing.
Bak In Bo's words just added salt to her wounds. Salt isn't a big deal on a healthy body. But when salt comes in contact with a wound it causes excruciating pain. You forget about the one who wounded you, and your hatred becomes concentrated on the one who added the salt.
The one who added that salt was some dirtbag dwarf that kept his head down for decades. This brainless human being who paid top dollar for some pottery like a b*tch dared to sprinkle salt on the Jang family.
"Why did I do that?"
Jang Pil Nyuh stared blankly up at the crystal chandelier. She must have been possessed by a Dokkaebi to have taken over those convertible bonds. She wouldn't have swallowed that poison had she carefully reviewed the terms.
The common denominator of those who fall for these scams is greed. You wouldn't be tricked if you weren't greedy, and when you are blinded by greed, advice falls on deaf ears. Jang Pil Nyuh didn't understand that her family's greed came back to bite them.
Jang Pil Nyuh slumped onto the sofa to lay down. If she had known that her family's land had gone straight into her husband's grasp, she would not have been able to sleep no matter how exhausted she was. Perhaps it would've driven her insane...
Wu Tak leaned against the stairs on the second floor and looked down at the destroyed living room. His expressionless face turned to Jang Pil Nyuh, but his gaze peered outside the window.
The state of the living room didn't surprise him as this happened fairly often. What was surprising was his father. On the brink of becoming evil, he almost doubted that it was actually his father.
'Where did it go wrong?'
The house was a luxurious mansion, but you wouldn't call it home. He may have gone to a bad school, but he could still tell the difference between the two. His father sold his heart and soul to that company. He would work until your bones turned to dust and paid no mind to your family.
And his mother was always up to something. Late-night calls with his uncles became frequent, and constant visits from people he didn't recognize. The topics of those conversations were never pretty. Most of them were about who should be appointed as executives, who should be cut, who they needed to meet, how much money they needed for bribery, etc. Things even he could tell wouldn't be of any help to the company.
His eldest sister Hui Ja couldn't break free of her shopping addiction even after getting married. She couldn't break free from it even after being divorced for that very reason.
His second older sister Hwa Ja drowned herself in alcohol and drugs. She was beaten like a dog a few years back and was hospitalized for six months. They say old habits die hard. She relapsed and started doing drugs again after being released. Shopping, sleep, alcohol, and marijuana were her life. She was currently missing.
What about Wu Tak himself? He didn't even touch a textbook and his three years of high school. He wasted his time joyriding with some sleazy biker gang called 'The speeding Dalgubeol'.
'When was the last time we ate together as a family?'
Wu Tak's face darkened. It's been 5 years since his family sat together at the same table. It's been even longer since they had a real conversation. There was nothing to talk about. They didn't care for each other and didn't have a reason.
There is no family. There is a mother who is trying to steal a father's company, a father who neglects his family, a daughter whose only concern was shopping, a daughter who went missing after being severely addicted to drugs, and a halfwit son who wastes his time with thugs. These were the true faces of people who lived in this house.
He was taken aback when Mu Ssang was expelled and arrested. There is no way in hell that Mu Ssang did something like that. So it was no surprise to him when he found out that his mother and Hwa Ja planned the whole thing. It did make him a little happy when he heard that Mu Ssang was working as a waiter.
'Was that something to be happy about?'
Wu Tak shook his head. No one in their right minds would say that being a waiter was worse than being in a biker gang.
He looked down at his mother who fell asleep on the sofa. It gave him a heavy heart to see her like this even after her hysteric episodes. He could barely remember the last time they talked together.
His mother's life wasn't that of Bak In Bo's wife or Bak Wu Tak's mother. His mother was still the eldest daughter of the Jang family. There was no denying the power and authority of Indong's Jang family.
Most of the land in Indong is the Jang family's property. His grandfather from the main family owned 2,700 fields in farmlands alone. They say that a single field yields around 240kg of rice. His grandfather was a farmland owner then yielded him 648,000kg of rice yearly.
His grandfather's power was second to none. He had over a hundred families working for him as tenant farmers. The chief of police and local governors would visit him after being elected. His mother had nothing to fear with her family's support, and his father spent his days repressed.
His father was at his worst after visiting his mother's family during the holidays. He would curse and hit the walls in a fit of rage. Wu Tak only realized later that his father was being treated like a dog at the hands of the Jang family.
The dynamic of his parents' relationship changed after Hyangshim Fabric was established. Hyangshim Fabric sold more than $20 million in profits. His mother's family, with all their power, couldn't make more than a million with their farmlands.
Those overconfident uncles' backs hunched over and his father stood tall. In the end, all the power went to the one with more money. Wu Tak also stood a little taller. He wasn't a Jang, he was a Park. Even he caught on to the shift in the dynamic.
His mother and her family met together frequently after this. They plotted to take control over the company and destroyed themselves in the process. This was a broken home. And Jang Pil Nyuh was the one who started it all.
Refusing to admit when she is wrong, bipolar, violent to the point of throwing kitchen knives at her husband, spoiling your children unconditionally... It was a miracle that his father lasted so long.
His mother always had an entitlement problem. Her children were never in the wrong because she was their mother and she was never in the wrong. She spoiled her children but there was no love or warmth. He once told her that he wished his aunt was his mother when he was seven and was slapped across the face. He was given nothing to eat for an entire day.
His aunt was kind and loving, unlike his mother. Were something to happen, his mother would punish him. But his aunt would first ask him if he was okay. He was deathly jealous of Mu Ssang who was raised by his aunt. He wished his mother was more like his aunt. He wished for it more than nice clothes or snacks.
"I kind of want to see that f*cker's face again."
Wu Tak's words startled himself. Did he really want to see Mu Ssang? His parents didn't know what kind of a monster Mu Ssang was. He remembered being beaten unconscious, getting waterboarded then getting beaten some more. And yet he still wanted to see him.
Thunder roared and rain started to pour. The raindrops hit the patches of grass.
"Ah, whatever! Running through the rain woo woo~"
Wu Tak opened the front door. Riding his new Japanese bike was bound to take his mind off of things.
"Where are you going!"
A voice pierced his eardrums like nails against a chalkboard. Wu Tak ignored it and went into the garage.
'I'm gonna have nothing to say to Mu Ssang at this rate. And I'm supposed to be the older one.'
With a roar, the motorcycle drove through the rain.
Wu Tak spent the first 2 of 5 years with Mu Ssang harassing him, and the latter 3 in utter defeat. His hole of inferiority was too deep to climb out of. Wu Tak was also a member of Les Misérables.
"Bro, hey bro!"
Mu Ssang lifted his head from Jin Soon's 7 story lunch box. It was Sungshik, the department's student representative.
"Wha?"
Mu Ssang said with a mouth full of tuna over rice. People stopped skipping lunch thanks to the Good Person Project. Even the hyenas didn't come for his lunch box this time. It was as if he spent $1.7 million just to enjoy Jin Soon's lunchbox.
"I was thinking we could go to Gasansanseong Fortress for the welcome trip. What do you think?"
"Fu- Gasansanseong Fortress!"
Mu Ssang facepalmed himself. He destroyed that driver Lee and told him to write uncle's whereabouts and put it inside that cave at the Gasansanseong Fortress. That was 7 years ago. He didn't mean anything by it. He just wanted driver Lee to be even more miserable. He forgot all about it amid the craziness.
"Bro, Mu Ssang bro."
Sungshik's voice interrupted his thoughts.
"What! Man, stop calling my name as if I'm drowning. What did you say?"
"The welcome party. I asked for your opinion?"
"Aak!"
Sungshik screamed. Mu Ssang flicked his finger at his forehead.
"Man, that's something the student representative should figure out on his own. You want me to tell you what to do at this age?"
Sungshik was in no state to answer. It felt like he was hit by a hammer and not a finger. His head was ringing. Sungshik barely recovered before retorting,
"That was too much. I told you your hands are like a weapon. Ah, my skull feels like it's broken."
"Man up. When are we going?"
"We decided on this Saturday."
"See, look at this. You've already decided among yourselves and you're just giving me the news. Do you guys think I'm a joke?"
Mu Ssang glared at him.
"Woah, bro. It's not like that. You're just not interested in that kind of stuff you know?"
Sungshik cowered. He was 4 years older than him. This was no laughing matter.
"Hahaha! I'm kiddin' around."
"Kid around one more time and I'm gonna have a heart attack. Just make some time and make sure to come empty-handed. You're always getting ripped off anyway. Hehehe!"
Sungshik let out a sigh of relief.
"This son of a gun is giving me the finger. You're here to collect money aren't you?"
"Hehehe, we could pitch in but we don't have nothin' you know?"
Sungshik started to rub his hands together like a fly.
"You sly son of a... Your tuition was taken care of thanks to the Good Person Project."
"Hehehe, which is good news for my dad but it doesn't help me much. I did write him a thank you letter though."
"Man, you think a busy person like that has the time to read your letters?"
Mu Ssang's lips curved upwards.
