I Went to See My Father by Kyung-Sook Shin

Author:Kyung-Sook Shin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Astra Publishing House

The eatery owner became so distraught over this note that he closed up shop and grabbed Father’s hand, begging him to come downtown with him. That he was old and his eyesight might fail him in identifying his daughter. As he followed the eatery owner, Father was swept into the protest crowd on Sejongno. It wasn’t just students there. Father stood with the eatery owner and listened to the university students read aloud their proclamations. The students shouted their slogans and began to march forth. Redo the vote—Father didn’t understand the slogans. Never having seen so many young people in one place, he felt like he had stepped into another world. Somewhere on this street he had never heard of before, protestors and police clashed. Tear gas exploded. Father grabbed the trunk of one of the gingko trees lining the street and fell below it. The loud bangs muffled his hearing. People kept scattering and gathering; he had no idea where the eatery owner had gone. They separated when the bullets began to fire, trying to take cover and losing each other in the melee. This is the presidential residence I’d only heard about, thought Father when he passed it. Otherwise, why would they have shot into a crowd of their own citizens? It had begun as a student protest but soon, people everywhere were joining in. People who had previously stood on the sidewalks, cheering on the protestors but not participating themselves. Under the gingko tree, Father watched as the sound of the bullets actually made more people gather, not fewer. He thought he needed to save himself and retreat. That he needed to return home. The thought of his third child, a newborn no doubt wrapped in a blanket, crossed his mind. Not to mention the worried face of his eldest child who had begged him not to go anywhere. The second child, who was good at doing what he was told, was probably feeding the dog. Father listened to the sound of guns firing and ran in the opposite direction. Thinking he hadn’t survived a war in order to die here. He had to get out of there and go back home safely.

He had to go back home.

That was his slogan in that moment. Even when he could barely keep his eyes open from the tear gas, he ran away from the protest. And he witnessed the guns shooting at the scattering people, frightened out of their minds. Thugs wielding chains and pieces of lumber striking the heads of students. As he ran in the other direction and into an alley, he stopped. Because the woman surrounded by the lumber-wielding thugs looked like the eatery owner’s daughter. She had said she’d join the struggle with her friends, so why was she alone and surrounded by those evil-looking men? The daughter was so frightened she was backing away and stumbled to the ground. Father shouted at the passing crowd, Look over there! But no one heard him. Whether the young woman was being ganged upon or not, the crowd only moved forward.

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