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Christmas Carol

by Kim Young Ha, translated by C. La Shure

While she was thinking these things, her husband was getting ready to go out.

“Where are you going?” she asked.

“I won’t be long.”

“I asked where you were going.”

“Don’t you remember the phone call I got from Jeong-sik a little while ago? I’m going to meet him for dinner.”

“Didn’t you see me preparing dinner all this time? Why do you have to see Jeong-sik? Ah, since Jin-suk died you figured you’d go pay your respects? Is her old screwing club getting together to give her a funeral oration?”

Yeong-su put on his coat and scarf without a word. As he slid his heel into his shoe with the help of a shoe horn, he muttered his protest.

“It’s so easy to say those things, isn’t it?”

Suk-gyeong was about to reply when the door slammed shut. Suk-gyeong threw the ladle into the sink. “Bastard.”

Yeong-su left the house with the word “bastard” at his heels and pushed his heavy body into the car parked in front of their apartment. His belly bulged out and hung over the seat belt. ‘I am so out of shape,’ he thought. The car struggled out of the apartment complex and crawled into the street. At every traffic light he tried calling Jung-gweon, but he still couldn’t get through.

When he arrived at the appointed place he found Jeong-sik already there. His face looked as dark as the sky just before a storm.

“Say, are you sure we should be meeting like this?” he queried, looking sidelong at Yeong-su.

“Ah, coffee,” Yeong-su said when the waiter arrived. “Ah, whatever... OK, the house blend will do.”

He turned back to Jeong-sik. “What are you talking about? What have we done wrong? Is there any reason we shouldn't we be meeting?”

Jeong-sik unwrapped a piece of candy and popped it into his mouth. “It’s not that, damn it. It could look suspicious. Strictly speaking, there isn't any reason we should be meeting either, is there? Hey, you don’t think those guys are undercover cops, do you?” He pointed to a group of men sitting at a corner table.

“I don’t think so. Undercover cops don’t wear suits.”

“Some of them do.”

Yeong-su’s coffee arrived, and he took a sip of the lukewarm drink. “It wasn’t... you, was it?” Yeong-su asked without taking his eyes from the coffee cup.

“There’s one thing that I know for sure,” Jeong-sik said, noisily rolling the candy around in his mouth. “And that is that I didn’t kill Jin-suk.”

“Then who did?”

For the first time their gazes met.

“It could have been that bastard Jung-gweon. He’s separated now, isn’t he?” Yeong-su asked. “Ugh, this is bitter!” It was only then that he realized he hadn’t added sugar to his coffee. He hastily dumped in two spoonfuls.

“What does being separated have to do with committing murder?” Jeong-sik retorted guardedly, but without conviction.

“I heard his business went under last year. What business was that?”

“It was a fried chicken franchise. He did that and sold coffee and kebabs during the day, or something like that. I’m not really sure. When that went under he and his wife separated.”

“Didn’t he live with Jin-suk for a little while way back when?” Yeong-su asked.

“Live with her? He probably just slept with her a few times. Jin-suk used to visit his place from time to time, remember? Say, didn’t you and Jung-gweon share a place?”

“Did we? Ah, for a little while, maybe a few months, yeah.”

“Jin-suk was pretty loose. More thickheaded than loose, actually. Ah, but they said she was stuck with a knife. I wonder who did it. And did he really have to do it that way? I mean, he could have just strangled her and that would have been the end of it.”

“Yeah, tell me about it. Say, did you quit smoking?”

“Yeah, not too long ago.”

“You're one willful bastard. They say you should never mess with a guy who quits smoking or a guy with a perfect poker face.”

“You should quit too, man,” Jeong-sik shot back. “I’m glad I quit.”

“You really think I’d be able to quit in a situation like this?”

“Situation? What situation? By the way, you haven’t heard anything from the police, have you?”

“Not yet. You?”

“No. You don’t think the police will know that we met like this, do you?”

“Of course not. How would they know?”

“Ah, I never should have gone out that night. I just figured I’d go out to meet you and Jung-gweon, and look at me now.”

The two men looked regretful and were silent for a while.

“It was that night, wasn’t it?” Jeong-sik asked.

“Apparently so.”

“So, Jin-suk met us for a drink and then went back to her room at the inn, right? She met somebody there. It could have been someone who went to see her, or she might have called someone. Who could it have been?”

“I don’t know. She knew plenty of guys.”

Jeong-sik narrowed his eyes. “You went straight home that night, right?”

Yeong-su threw his cigarette into the ash tray. “Are you doubting me?”

“No, I just wanted to make sure you got home alright that night. But anyway, I’ve got a problem on my hands now.”

“What’s that?”

“Well, the police are probably going to check out her wallet, right? Then they’ll find her schedule, and even phone numbers.”

Yeong-su retrieved his cigarette from the ash tray and put it back in his mouth. “What’s to worry about? If we haven’t done anything wrong we’ll be fine.”

“It’s not that, it’s that I have to leave the country on a business trip the day after tomorrow. Let’s say that the police find my name and come to investigate, but I’m on a business trip overseas. I’ll become the prime suspect, won’t I? I will, won’t I?”

“Well, they might have already issued an order preventing you from leaving the country. That’s the first thing they do these days when someone falls under suspicion.”

“Ah, then I’m finished. Nobody knows how to handle this furniture exhibition but me. If I don’t go we don’t get the contract. Do you know how big a deal this is? What am I supposed to tell the company? That I can’t leave the country because I’ve been implicated in a murder, and we should forget the exhibition? That I can’t leave the country because I had a drink with a girl I knew some ten years ago who had just returned home, and that girl just happened to get whacked that very night?”

Yeong-su held up his hand. “Why are you getting angry at me? I’m not the one preventing you from leaving the country. For all we know they might not have given the order yet. So relax,” he said. “But your wife doesn’t know yet, right? All because of that stupid Christmas card....”

“Wait. Card? What card?”

“Jin-suk sent a card to my house. My wife saw it and flew into a rage. I just can’t understand why she’s making such a fuss. It’s not like I slept with her.”

“You did sleep with her.”

“Me? When?”

“Back then.”

“That was back then.”

“True. But tell me more about this card. It wasn’t in a red envelope, was it?”

“Yeah, it was. A red envelope. What is she, a teenager? Sending a Christmas card like that....”

Jeong-sik jumped up from his seat. “It’s just one thing after another, isn’t it.”

“What are you talking about?”

“On my way out I saw a red envelope sitting all by itself in the mailbox. I thought it was just some advertisement, and I left it there. Damn it! That must’ve been the card Jin-suk sent! That bitch, she’s hounding me even in death. I’d better go.”

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