Sweet Potato: Collected Short Stories by Kim Tongin by Tongin Kim

Author:Tongin, Kim [Tongin, Kim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Honford Star
Published: 2017-09-19T00:00:00+00:00

1 Ho-mo ( 胡某 )

LIKE FATHER LIKE SON

That old bachelor M finally got engaged. When we heard the news, we looked at one another blankly. M was thirty-two years old. As social conditions changed – or perhaps due to economic reasons or defiance against traditional early marriage – there was an increase in bachelors waiting it out, but a bachelor at thirty-two? No matter which way one looks at it, that’s a bit extreme. Whenever his friends had the chance, they’d press him to settle down. But when he heard this advice (we know that deep inside he was quite interested in the prospect) he’d turn them down with a wry smile. This was M who’d gotten engaged on the sly.

M was poor. He was a salaryman at a highly unstable company. It’s possible that his precarious fiscal state kept him a bachelor till his old age. This is why M’s friends regarded his bachelorhood with pity and wished for him to tie the knot already. But only I have a different interpretation as to why he refused marriage. As a doctor, I am aware of M’s physical defects. This is why M postponed his marriage till he reached his thirties. This is my belief. Ever since M was a student, he led a life of debauchery. He, who lacked the means to lead such a wild life, often debauched in the lowest form possible. When fifty chŏn , or even a single chŏn , turned up, he would go straight to a udon house or the red light district. He had a high libido. In order to satisfy his lust, he never let an opportunity pass. Even when he met his friends, he wasn’t interested in treating himself to a meal. He was interested in treating himself with a visit to the brothel.

‘I don’t know about quality, but I can beat anyone in terms of quantity.’ He never failed to speak of his female encounters in such a way. Furthermore, he wasn’t interested in a select choice . He was more about checking off boxes. By the time he reached twenty-three or twenty-four years old, he announced that he’d been with over two hundred women. By the time he reached thirty, he was probably already looking down at the Buddhist monk Sin Don. This is probably why he contracted nearly every venereal disease there is. Not only that, but he was a supreme drunk. Because of his high libido, he did not abstain from sex even while he was infected. Out of the three hundred and sixty-five days in a year, there was not a single day when he was in good clean health. He was always dripping pus. He’d visit me to get a shot every other month or so, barely able to walk due to orchitis. Even so, whenever fifty chŏn or even a single chŏn turned up, he’d use it to find another partner.

Of course, this lifestyle did not support his ability to reproduce. I, who was fully aware of this, connected his long postponement of marriage to this reason.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.