Scene 1. Wrongness
In Lee Kang's arms, Yeonhwa was trembling.
Lee Kang took it for a good thing. The medicine circling. The medicine's effect spreading through her body. Yeonhwa's body accepting the medicine. Lee Kang's arms held Yeonhwa deeper. Feeling the tremor. Rejoicing in the tremor.
Lee Kang's eyes were closed.
In the scent of lilac. In the sound of the silver bell. Leaning his back against the wall. For the first time in days, the strength gone from his shoulders. Every tension undone. In the belief that Yeonhwa would get better.
The trembling began to change.
At first it was faint. Yeonhwa's body trembling thinly in Lee Kang's arms. Then it grew, little by little. The amplitude of the trembling widened. The rhythm turned irregular. What had trembled thinly jolted hard, once at a time. Close to a convulsion.
Lee Kang's eyes opened a little.
"...It's all right."
Lee Kang whispered.
To the crown of Yeonhwa's head. With his lips against her hair. It was also a thing he said to himself.
"It's the medicine circling. That's why."
Yeonhwa's body convulsed once, hard.
Inside Lee Kang's arms. Her back arched like a bow. Briefly. And released. Yeonhwa's heartbeat was touching Lee Kang's chest. That beat was irregular. Quickening. Then slowing. Skipping, once at a time. Lee Kang's chest felt it.
A crack began to run through Lee Kang's calm.
A thin crack. At first. Lee Kang tried to fill that crack. It's the medicine circling. Because the medicine is strong. At first it always hurts like this. Doctor Jang's medicine was hot at first too. When I drank the medicine from the canteen, a fire started inside my body. Yeonhwa is the same now. The medicine is circling strong.
Lee Kang's hand swept Yeonhwa's back.
From top to bottom. Soothingly. The way one soothes a beast. The way one soothes a child. Yeonhwa's back was trembling beneath Lee Kang's palm. The vertebrae could be felt. Those bones shook in time with the trembling.
A sound came from Yeonhwa's throat.
Hk.
A small sound. The sound of liquid boiling. The sound of something rising inside her throat. Lee Kang's ear caught that sound. Caught it, and could not process it. What sound it was, Lee Kang's brain refused to translate.
Hk.
Once more. Louder.
Lee Kang loosened the arm holding Yeonhwa. To see Yeonhwa's face. Yeonhwa's face left Lee Kang's shoulder. Lee Kang's hand supported Yeonhwa's head. Turned her face toward him.
Something was leaking from between Yeonhwa's lips.
Cloudy yellow liquid. The medicine. The medicine he had just fed her. It was coming back out of her mouth. But it was not yellow alone. Among the yellow, something else was mixed.
A black thing.
A dark red thing.
Scene 2. Shattering
Yeonhwa's body jerked up.
Inside Lee Kang's arms. Hard. Her back arched like a bow. This time it did not release. Held arched. Yeonhwa's mouth fell open. From the open mouth, the dark red thing poured.
Blood.
Dark red blood. Blood mixed with the yellow medicine. It surged from Yeonhwa's mouth. Onto Lee Kang's chest. Onto Lee Kang's face.
A hot thing splashed Lee Kang's cheek.
Yeonhwa's blood. One drop. Two. On Lee Kang's cheek. At the corner of his mouth. Over Lee Kang's dried blood, Yeonhwa's hot blood layered.
In that instant the lilac tore.
All at once. The lilac scent that had filled his nose and the inside of his head. The sound of the silver bell. All of it tore away at once. As if cut with scissors. As if sliced with a knife.
In its place, something else rushed in.
A smell. A vicious smell. The chemical sweetness of ether. The heavy thing of opium. The iron-rankness of blood. The smell of what had come from Yeonhwa's mouth. It stabbed Lee Kang's nose all at once. The true smell the lilac had covered for days. All at once. Violently.
Tinnitus drove into Lee Kang's ear.
A high sound. A sound scraping the inside of his skull. In the place the lilac scent had vanished from. In the place the silver bell had vanished from. The tinnitus filled in.
Lee Kang froze.
Completely. With Yeonhwa in his arms. Yeonhwa's body was convulsing in Lee Kang's arms. Blood and medicine ran mixed from her mouth. It was soaking Lee Kang's chest. The dark red thing was adding itself over Lee Kang's blood-soaked chest.
Lee Kang's eyes saw it.
Yeonhwa's face. The bloodless face gone whiter still. The face with blood running from the mouth. Eyes closed. The convulsing body. The boiling throat.
A smile remained at the corner of Lee Kang's mouth.
The smile from moments ago. The happiest smile. It was lodged on his face exactly as it had been. Not yet wiped away. Over the face watching the most horrific sight, the happiest smile remained.
That smile broke slowly.
From the corner. The corner of his mouth that had been lifted came down. Slowly. One side first. Then the other. In the place the smile vanished from, nothing filled in. An empty face. A face the expression had drained out of.
Lee Kang's breath stopped.
He could neither inhale nor exhale. His lungs stopped. His chest did not move. Only Yeonhwa's convulsion shook Lee Kang's chest.
Beneath his sternum, a hot thing pushed up.
It was nausea. But there was nothing to bring up. Because his stomach was empty. Because for days he had drunk only blood. A dry heave rose. Lee Kang's body flinched once. He swallowed. Swallowed what had risen.
Lee Kang's hands began to shake.
The hands holding Yeonhwa. The hand supporting Yeonhwa's head.
Scene 3. What Did You Do
Lee Kang laid Yeonhwa on the cot.
Fast. Urgent. He braced Yeonhwa with both hands and set her down on the cot. Yeonhwa's body convulsed on the cot. Her back arched and released. Blood kept running from her mouth. Lee Kang turned Yeonhwa's face to the side. So the blood would not choke her throat. Instinctively. No one had taught him.
Lee Kang stood.
Turned. Toward the Western doctor.
The doctor was backing away. Toward the bunker's earthen wall. From the moment he saw Lee Kang lay Yeonhwa on the cot. The backing-away of one who knew what the thing he had made would do. The doctor's feet dragged the earthen floor. The sound of shoe soles scraping earth.
Lee Kang's ear caught that sound.
Lee Kang's body jerked up.
He was a beast. In a single step he closed the distance to the doctor. Lee Kang's hand caught the doctor's throat. With one hand. Lifted him. The doctor's feet left the earthen floor. Lee Kang drove the doctor into the earthen wall. The doctor's back struck the wall. Earth crumbled. A beam shook. Earth fell from the ceiling.
"What did you do."
Lee Kang howled.
The voice was a beast's. Between a growl and a scream. A sound that broke through the tinnitus ringing inside his skull.
"What did you do to the medicine!"
The doctor grabbed Lee Kang's wrist. With both hands. He hung from it. Throat strangled. The doctor's face reddened. English leaked from the doctor's mouth. In a cracked sound. "I—didn't—"
Lee Kang did not understand. Did not try to.
One thing alone was turning in Lee Kang's head. The doctor did something to the medicine. He made the medicine wrong. On purpose. That's why Yeonhwa is like this. My medicine wasn't wrong. Doctor Jang's medicine was right. The ingredients I gathered were right. The one who did wrong was the doctor.
Lee Kang had to believe that.
Because if he did not believe that—if he did not believe that, a different conclusion came. The conclusion that Lee Kang himself had fed Yeonhwa poison. The conclusion that with his own hand he had stroked Yeonhwa's throat and sent the poison down. That conclusion could not enter Lee Kang's head. The moment it tried to enter, the circuit snapped. In the snapped place, rage filled in.
"You killed her!"
Lee Kang howled.
"You—Yeonhwa—"
"You fed it to her!"
It was the leader's voice. From the side. Behind Lee Kang's back. The leader was shouting. Urgently. Stricken with terror.
"That doctor said no! You forced—"
Lee Kang's hand tightened on the doctor's throat.
The leader's words reached Lee Kang's ear. Reached it, and bounced off. You fed it to her. Those words. Tried to enter Lee Kang's head. The moment they tried, the tinnitus grew louder. His skull felt as if it would split. Beneath his sternum, the nausea rose again.
Lee Kang covered it with rage.
Strength went into the hand gripping the doctor's throat. The doctor's face went purple. The doctor's feet kicked the air. The doctor's hands clawed Lee Kang's wrist. Nails split skin. Lee Kang did not feel it.
A boiling sound came from Yeonhwa's throat.
From the cot. Hk. Hk. A sound growing steadily weaker.
For an instant, Lee Kang's hand wavered on the doctor's throat.
Scene 4. The Muzzle
The sound of bolts drawing back.
Many. All at once. Click. Click. The partisans in the bunker had raised their rifles. Toward Lee Kang. Toward Lee Kang's back as he pinned the doctor to the earthen wall. Even the wounded drew their pistols. With shaking hands.
Dozens of muzzles aimed at Lee Kang.
At Lee Kang's back. At his head. At his neck. Beneath the kerosene lamp's light, the muzzles glinted black.
"Let go!"
The leader shouted. His pistol leveled at Lee Kang. His hand was shaking.
"Let the doctor go! Or we shoot!"
Lee Kang turned his head.
With the doctor's throat in his grip. Slowly. He looked at the muzzles behind him. The amber eyes swept those muzzles. One by one. Dozens of black holes. And the ones holding the guns. The partisans. The ones who, until days ago, had called him a weapon for saving the nation.
In Lee Kang's head, they were bound into one thing.
Enemies. Those who shielded the doctor. In league with the doctor. The ones who killed Yeonhwa. The ones who ruined Lee Kang's medicine. All of them enemies. The muzzles turned on Lee Kang proved it.
A sound rose from Lee Kang's mouth.
Grrr.
Low. A beast's sound. Lee Kang did not pull the doctor from the earthen wall. Did not loosen his hand. If anything, he pressed the doctor one step harder into the wall. A choked sound came from the doctor's throat.
"Go ahead and shoot."
Lee Kang said.
In Korean. The leader understood. Understood, and froze.
"Go ahead. Then this one dies too. And so do you."
Lee Kang's amber eyes turned toward the leader. There was no fear in those eyes. Rage was laid over them too, but what lay at the bottom was something else. The eyes of one with nothing left to lose. The eyes of one already losing the most important thing.
From the cot, Yeonhwa's boiling sound was weakening.
Hk. Hk. The interval between them was lengthening. The sound was growing smaller.
Lee Kang's ear heard that sound.
Heard it, and still could not release the doctor's throat. He had to let the doctor go and get to Yeonhwa. But if he let the doctor go, the doctor would flee. The doctor who had ruined the medicine. The doctor who would make the medicine again. Lee Kang's head tore in two directions. Getting to Yeonhwa, and killing the doctor. The two impulses collided.
The leader's finger caught on the trigger.
The partisans' fingers caught on their triggers. Dozens of them. Taut. A tension where if one pulled, all would pull. The whole bunker drew tight to a single point.
Lee Kang's hand still gripping the doctor's throat.
Yeonhwa's boiling sound came once more.
Hk.
And then—.
The interval grew too long.
The next sound did not come.
Lee Kang's head whipped toward the cot.
Yeonhwa's chest was visible. The thing that had risen and fallen. Was not moving.
The bunker froze.
The muzzles. Lee Kang. The hand gripping the doctor's throat. All of it stopped at that one point.
Yeonhwa's chest.
Was not moving.