Scene 1. Surrender
Cold sweat ran from the doctor's nape.
A single thread. Beginning at the temple, following the jawline. Down to the nape. Lee Kang's fingers hovered above that nape. Without touching. Fingers wearing dried blood and flesh beneath their nails. At a finger's distance above the doctor's skin. The cold sweat passed beneath it and seeped into his shirt collar.
The doctor's pulse was beating.
It seemed Lee Kang's fingertips could feel that throb. It was felt even without touching. In the doctor's throat, a vessel was leaping. Fast. With fear. The thing beating beneath a single thin layer of skin. The same thing Lee Kang had seen moments ago in the official's throat. Living blood.
Lee Kang was watching that throb.
The doctor knew it too. That this monster's eyes were watching the vessel in his throat. With bloodstains hanging at the corners of its mouth. With someone's flesh caught between its teeth. That this monster had just come from tearing a man apart and eating him. And that he might be next.
The doctor's eyes turned toward the leader.
With eyes asking for help. With eyes begging to be spared. The leader received those eyes. The leader's mouth moved once. He started to say something. But the leader looked away. To the earthen floor. Because he could not help the doctor. Because he could not stop this monster. Because the leader, too, had to live.
The doctor's last thread snapped.
The doctor's shoulders shook once. Long. It was the shudder of resignation. The doctor's eyes turned toward Lee Kang. Toward the amber eyes. He read that there was no room for negotiation in those eyes. That persuasion would not get through. That the truth would not reach them.
The doctor nodded.
Faintly. Beneath Lee Kang's fingers. A sign of understanding. A sign of I'll do it.
Lee Kang's fingers left the doctor's nape.
Slowly. The doctor drew a breath. Long. A trembling breath. The doctor's hand went to his bag. The trembling hand. He opened the bag. From inside he drew a glass rod. A small beaker. Medical instruments. He laid them out on the cloth spread over the earthen floor.
Lee Kang stepped back.
He stepped back and watched. The doctor making the medicine. Lee Kang's amber eyes followed the doctor's hands. The doctor took the ether bottle. Lee Kang's eyes watched that bottle.
"Ether first."
Lee Kang said.
In Korean. The doctor did not understand. But he saw the bottle Lee Kang pointed to. Lee Kang's finger was pointing at the ether bottle. Then the opium tincture. Then the white bottle. Last, the packet.
"In that order. The way Doctor Jang did it."
The doctor followed that order. Because he had no choice but to follow. Because Lee Kang was watching. The doctor knew what the order Lee Kang dictated meant medically. That it was an order that would kill a person. But the doctor followed.
The doctor opened the cap of the ether bottle.
Scene 2. The Color Yellow
A smell rose.
The sweetness of ether. A chemical thing. Stinging the nose. It cut the air inside the bunker. A wounded man nearby turned his head. Covered his nose. The doctor poured ether into the beaker. A small amount. His hands shook, so the amount was uneven. The doctor's eyes flicked at Lee Kang. Lee Kang was watching. The doctor tried to avoid a lethal dose. He poured only very little. The way the partisan physician had.
Lee Kang did not catch it.
Because Lee Kang's eyes were on the liquid in the beaker alone. The liquid pooling at the beaker's bottom. A clear thing. With eyes waiting for it to turn yellow.
The doctor opened the opium tincture.
Brown liquid. A dense smell. Over the sweetness of the ether, something heavy settled. The smell of opium. The doctor dropped it into the beaker. He stirred with the glass rod. The rod scraped the beaker's wall. Clink. Clink. That sound rang clearly inside the quiet bunker.
Lee Kang heard that sound.
The sound that came when Doctor Jang made the medicine. The sound of glass scraping glass. The sound of medicine being made. Something inside Lee Kang's chest grew warm. Because it was a familiar sound. Because it was the sound of salvation.
The doctor opened the white bottle.
The catalyst. His hands shook the worst here. The doctor knew what it was. The thing that burns the nerves. The thing a single drop was enough of. The doctor tilted the bottle. But poured almost nothing. Blocking the bottle's mouth with his finger. Only the pretense of tilting. So that not a single drop fell.
Lee Kang's eyes were watching it.
Watching, but he did not catch it. Because he saw only the motion of the doctor's hand tilting the bottle. If there was a motion, it had been poured. Lee Kang's brain processed it that way.
Last, the doctor put the packet into the beaker.
Softened licorice and peony. Herbs steeped in muddy water. The doctor dissolved them in the beaker's water. A yellow color leached out. The liquid in the beaker became a cloudy yellow.
It was yellow.
Lee Kang's eyes watched that yellow.
The corner of Lee Kang's mouth lifted, slowly. The yellow liquid in the beaker. The same color as Doctor Jang's medicine. The amber. The yellow medicine. It was there. Made by a Western doctor. Made by a real doctor. This time it was real.
A smell came to Lee Kang's nose.
The bunker's air was filled with the vicious chemical smell of ether and opium. The wounded were covering their noses. The partisans were grimacing. Even the doctor himself blinked, his eyes seeming to sting from the smell.
Lee Kang alone smelled a different smell.
It was lilac.
Rising from the beaker. Beneath the chemical smell. No—piercing through the chemical smell. The scent of lilac filled Lee Kang's nose. All the way into his head. The scent of salvation. Yeonhwa's scent. Proof that the medicine was real. Lee Kang's eyes half-closed.
The doctor held the beaker out to Lee Kang.
With a trembling hand. A sign that it was made. Lee Kang took the beaker.
With both hands. As if receiving a holy chalice.
Scene 3. The Spoon
Lee Kang returned to Yeonhwa.
The beaker in one hand. He knelt beside the cot. He laid Yeonhwa straight on the cot again. Cupped her head and lifted it slightly. So that swallowing would be easier. So that the throat would open. Lee Kang braced his own arm beneath Yeonhwa's head. Yeonhwa's face tilted slightly toward Lee Kang.
Yeonhwa's face was close.
A bloodless face. Closed eyes. Blue lips. Yeonhwa's face filled Lee Kang's field of vision. Lee Kang's eyes looked at Yeonhwa's lips. The lips the medicine would soon enter. The medicine that would soon save Yeonhwa.
Lee Kang dipped the spoon into the beaker.
A wooden spoon. The one the partisans had handed him. The yellow liquid settled into the spoon. Lee Kang lifted it. Slowly. The liquid swayed. A yellow drop gathered at the spoon's tip. So that it would not fall. Lee Kang's hand trembled faintly. He caught the tremor. The spoon steadied.
Lee Kang brought the spoon to Yeonhwa's lips.
Slowly. Very slowly. The spoon's tip met Yeonhwa's lips.
They were closed.
Yeonhwa's lips were closed. As last time. As with the partisan physician's medicine. That time the medicine had run down. Not going into the mouth. Down the jaw. To the neck.
That memory tried to rise inside Lee Kang's head.
Lee Kang erased that memory.
This time was different. Because this time it was medicine made by a real doctor. The real medicine would be swallowed. Yeonhwa would swallow it. Lee Kang's brain believed so. Chose to believe so.
"A real doctor made this."
Lee Kang whispered.
Into Yeonhwa's ear. With the spoon held to her lips. With a mouth wearing dried blood at its corners. With a mouth with flesh caught between its teeth. From that mouth came the tenderest sound in the world.
"Swallow."
The bunker was quiet.
Every eye was watching the scene. A blood-soaked monster spoon-feeding poison to an unconscious girl. Calling poison medicine. With the tenderest touch. With the most reverent expression.
The doctor stood rigid. The rigidity of one who knew what he had made. The rigidity of one watching that poison try to enter the girl's mouth. The doctor's mouth opened once. To stop it. But it closed. Because Lee Kang's amber eyes turned toward the doctor once. The doctor's mouth closed.
Lee Kang's spoon pressed Yeonhwa's lips.
The yellow liquid spilled from the spoon. Over Yeonhwa's closed lips. Through the gap of the lips. A little. Most of it pooled outside the lips.
Lee Kang's other hand went to Yeonhwa's jaw.
Scene 4. Swallowing
Lee Kang parted Yeonhwa's jaw.
With thumb and forefinger. Pulling the lower jaw down slightly. The mouth opened. The teeth came apart. Lee Kang pushed the spoon between them. The yellow liquid into the mouth. Onto the tongue. He let it pour in.
Yeonhwa did not swallow.
The medicine pooled on her tongue. It tried to run out the corner of her mouth. As last time. But this time Lee Kang did it differently. Lee Kang's hand closed Yeonhwa's mouth. Pushing the lower jaw up. Closing the lips. So the medicine could not get out. And then Lee Kang's hand went to Yeonhwa's throat.
Over the swallowing-knot of her throat.
Lee Kang's palm stroked Yeonhwa's throat. From top to bottom. Slowly. The way one strokes down an animal's throat to feed it medicine. To make her swallow. To make the medicine go down the esophagus.
Beneath Lee Kang's palm.
Yeonhwa's throat moved.
Once. Up and down. By force. It was a movement Lee Kang's hand had made. Yeonhwa herself had not swallowed. Lee Kang had made her swallow. But the medicine went down. The yellow liquid went down Yeonhwa's throat. Down the esophagus. Inward.
Lee Kang's palm felt that movement.
The medicine going down. The throat rising and falling once. Something burst inside Lee Kang's chest.
It was joy.
A thing that could not be named. A hot thing welling up in the center of his chest. The days of hunting. The slaughter. The cannibalism. The flight. All of it had been for this one moment. The medicine went down. Yeonhwa had swallowed the medicine. Now she would get better.
Lee Kang's hand wiped the corner of Yeonhwa's mouth.
The yellow medicine smeared outside her lips. With his fingers. Carefully. He wiped the single thread that had run down Yeonhwa's cheek. Clean. Yeonhwa's face became clean. The yellow stain vanished. Only the bloodless face remained.
Lee Kang lifted Yeonhwa.
From the cot. With both arms. He held her to his chest. Deeply. He let Yeonhwa's head rest on his shoulder. He pressed Yeonhwa's body to his chest. Wrapped her in both arms. So that there was no gap between Yeonhwa's cold body and Lee Kang's blood-soaked chest.
Lee Kang's chin met the crown of Yeonhwa's head.
Cold. Yeonhwa's head. Her hair smelled of the sewer. But to Lee Kang's nose there was lilac. Stronger since the medicine went down. The scent of lilac filled Lee Kang's nose and filled the inside of his head.
A silver bell rang.
From far away. Beyond the bunker's dark. Beyond the earthen walls. A clear sound. Once. Twice. It seeped into Lee Kang's ears.
Lee Kang's eyes closed.
"You're saved now."
Lee Kang whispered.
To the crown of Yeonhwa's head. With his lips against her hair. His voice trembled. With joy. With relief. For the first time in days, the strength left his shoulders. The strength left his back. Every tension came undone.
"It's all over. You'll get better now."
A smile took its place at the corner of Lee Kang's mouth.
It was the happiest face in the world. The most peaceful face. The face of one whose every misfortune had ended. Over a blood-soaked face. Over the dried blood at the mouth. Over the flesh between the teeth. Over all of it, that smile settled.
Lee Kang leaned his back against the wall, holding Yeonhwa.
With his eyes closed. In the scent of lilac. In the sound of the silver bell. Believing that the medicine would be circling inside Yeonhwa's body. Believing that it would be saving Yeonhwa.
The people of the bunker were watching the scene.
The doctor was covering his mouth with his hand. The hand of one who knew something had gone terribly wrong. The leader leaned against the wall with his eyes closed. The wounded held their breath.
No one could open their mouth.
A blood-soaked monster cradling a dying girl and smiling most happily. Believing poison to be medicine. Believing an ending to be a beginning.
The kerosene lamp swayed.
In Lee Kang's arms, Yeonhwa's body trembled very faintly.
Lee Kang believed it was the medicine circling.
Lee Kang's smile deepened.