The Hunter
1917
The sky was white and the earth was black, like at the beginning of time before the first sunrise. Clouds left their realm and descended so low that they seemed to touch the ground. Giant pines loomed in and out of the ether. Nothing stirred or made a sound.
Hardly distinguishable in this obscure world, a speck of a man was walking alone. A hunter. Crouching over a raw paw print, still soft and almost warm, he sniffed in the direction of his prey. The sharp smell of snow filled his lungs, and he smiled. Soon, a light dusting would make it easier for him to track the animal—a large leopard, he guessed, from the size of the print.
He rose quietly like a shade among the trees. The animals moved without a sound here in their own domain, but the mountains belonged to him also—or rather, he, like the animals, belonged to the mountains. Not because they were generous or comforting, for nowhere in these woods was safe for man or beast. But he knew how to be when he was on a hill, to breathe, walk, think, and kill, just as a leopard knows how to be a leopard.
The ground was mostly covered with red-brown pine needles, and the footprints came few and far between. Instead, he looked for scratchings on tree trunks or places where the thickets were left almost imperceptibly disturbed, perhaps just a few wispy hairs caught at the ends of a broken branch. He was closing the gap between them, but he still hadn’t caught sight of his prey in the past two days. He had long ago run out of his provision, coarse barley balls flavored only with salt. He’d spent the previous night in the split-open trunk of a red pine, looking up at the white sickle moon to keep himself from falling asleep. But his hunger and fatigue made his feet lighter and head clearer, and he decided he would stop moving when he fell dead, but not before then.
There were no killings left behind thus far. Rabbits, deer, and other small beasts were dried up in winter, and it was just as hard for a leopard as it was for people. At some point it would have to stop, and that was how he was going to kill it. They both needed food and rest, but he was determined to go on longer than his prey, as long as necessary.
He came upon a glade, a circle of young pines huddling away from a rocky ridge. He walked up to the overhang and looked around the surrounding mountains in their wintry down of charcoal and ash green. The sheets of clouds, blown by the wind, were caught at the throats of hills and billowed like torn silk. Beneath his feet, there was a fall into the wild white abyss. He was glad to have been led to this place. Leopards loved rocky cliffs, and it was more than likely there was a den here.
Something soft and cold gently touched his face. He looked up at the sky and saw the first sprinkling of snow. Now he’d have more footprints to track, but he would also have to find the animal quickly and descend the mountain before the snow thickened. He tightened the grip on his bow.
If his instincts were true and the leopard was just below him in its den on the side of the cliff, he wouldn’t have to struggle to find it any longer. But he would have to wait at that spot until it came wandering out again, which might be in another hour or three days hence. By then, the snow would go over the top of his head while standing. He would become snow and rock and wind; his insides would feed the leopard and his blood would nourish the young pines, so that he may as well have never had a life down below as a human among other humans.
In that life, he’d been a soldier in the Imperial Army, handpicked from the best archers in the country. No one could surpass him with a rifle or a bow. They called him PyongAhn Tiger, after an old saying about the personalities of each province. Of course, there were ferocious beasts in every mountain and forest in the little land that even the ancient Chinese had called the Country of Tigers, but the name suited him more than the farmers from the South. His people were born hunters, who survived where the land was too steep and unforgiving for tilling.
His father had also been a soldier under the PyongYang magistrate. Whenever they skipped paying the army, his father had gone into the mountains. Most often he’d brought back small game—deer, hares, foxes, and pheasants—though, sometimes boars, black bears, leopards, and wolves.
When he was a child, his father had killed a tiger by himself, and six of the village’s strongest men had to come help him carry the beast down the mountain. The rest of the villagers surrounded them in solidarity while the children ran ahead of the crowd, cheering. A tiger skin was worth more than a soldier’s yearly wage. Its massive body was laid to rest in the village square under the ginkgo tree, and somehow the women prepared a feast out of nothing—that was their talent—and everyone drank their fill of the milky rice wine. But later that night, sitting cross-legged on their hot-stone floor, his father turned grave.
Never kill a tiger unless you have to, his father said sternly.
But, Father, we are rich now. We’ll be able to buy all the rice we need, he said.
The stub candle was flickering modestly, without defying the darkness that protected them all like a thick winter quilt. His mother and younger sisters were either sewing or asleep in the other room, and there was only the murmurous sound of owls on their hunt.
His father just looked at him and said, You’ve been shooting hares and pheasants since you were a child.
Yes, Father.
You can take down a pheasant flying a hundred yards away.
Yes, Father, he said proudly. Already there was no better archer than him in the entire village, except for his father.
You can shoot an arrow into a tree from a hundred and twenty yards away, and shoot another one right on top of it.
Yes, Father.
So, do you think you can kill a tiger? his father asked. He wanted to say yes, and he did think he could. But his father’s voice as he asked the question already foretold him that the only right answer was silence.
Show me your bow, his father said. He got up and brought his bow and laid it on the floor between them.
You can’t kill a tiger with this bow no matter how good of a marksman you are, his father said. It’s not powerful enough at a long distance, and a tiger is no pheasant. This bow can only carry enough force to wound a tiger if you shoot from twenty yards or under. To fatally wound, fifteen yards or less. Do you know how quickly a tiger can cross fifteen yards?
He admitted his ignorance with silence.
A tiger is three yards from nose to the tip of its tail and can jump over the village tree if it wants to. To a tiger, leaping over this cottage is like skipping over a puddle to you and me. If you take a shot at the tiger too soon, you’ll only injure it lightly and make it more ferocious. Take a shot too late or miss, the tiger will be upon you before you finish blinking your eyes. A tiger can cross fifteen yards in a second.
But, Father, he said. You killed a tiger today.
I told you, kill a tiger if you have no other choice. And that’s only when the tiger tries to kill you first. Never go after a tiger otherwise, do you understand?
▴ ▴ ▴
The hunter’s memories gathered softly like the snow falling around him. He hid himself behind a rock, facing out toward the ledge. His senses were dulled by the snow, which was swirling into his eyes and nose and crusting over his bare hands. It was coming down heavier than he’d thought—and from this height, with the clear view of the clouds blowing in from the east, he could see it wouldn’t stop. He realized he should have gone down the mountain the moment he first smelled the snow coming, when he stopped over that wet paw print.
He hated seeing his children staying so still and quiet inside the cottage, drained of the strength to even chatter. He had promised them he would come back with something to eat. If only he’d caught a deer or a rabbit, he would have gone home to them and seen their small, happy faces lit brightly like lanterns. Instead, he found only the leopard’s footprint and was tempted by the possibility of its hide, worth more than half a year’s harvest.
Is this the day I die? he wondered. Suddenly he became very tired, losing all tension that had held him upright. Then he imagined that the snow looked like a steaming bowl of white rice, which he’d eaten less than five times in his entire life. He didn’t become angry—he laughed, as if the laughter were just a wind passing through his thin body. He wanted to think a bit more about foods he would’ve liked to eat before dying, like braised ribs with soy sauce and scallions, and oxtail broth so rich with melted marrow it sticks to the inside of your mouth. He’d had those things once at a holiday feast. But these fantasies were not as strong or seductive as other memories that now overwhelmed him.
When he first saw Sooni, walking arm in arm with her sisters on her way to collect wormwood and fiddleheads in the valley. She was thirteen, and he was fifteen.
Sooni wearing a green silk jacket and a red silk skirt, all embroidered with flowers, and a jeweled headdress—the court dress for royal princesses, which the common folk were allowed to wear only once in their lives for their wedding. A marriage was so sacred in the eyes of gods and men that a lowly tenant farmer’s daughter, born and raised in undyed white hemp every day of her entire life, was permitted to play the part of the most noble of women just for a day. He himself was dressed in the official court uniform of a minister: a blue robe with a belt and a hat made of black horsehair. The villagers loudly teased him—How he stares at the bride! He doesn’t look like he’ll get any sleep tonight. Sooni kept her pretty eyes downcast even while she was walking. Two matrons attended her on either side so she could shuffle slowly under her heavy robes. They faced each other at the altar, took turns offering each other a cup of clear wine, drank from it, and were bound to each other forever.
When night fell and they were left alone in their marital chamber, he carefully removed the many silk layers of her princess outfit, which had been worn by every bride in their village for generations. Sooni was shy, unlike her usual cheerful self, and he himself was very nervous. But after he blew the candle out and caressed her smooth shoulders and kissed her moonlight skin, she wrapped her legs around his waist and raised her hips. He was shocked and grateful that she desired him too. The joy in being one with her was unimaginable. It was the opposite of standing high in the mountains, which had been the most intense happiness he’d known until then. Whereas that was an ecstasy of height, coolness, and solitude, this was an ecstasy of depth, warmth, and union. He wrapped an arm around her, and she nestled her head on the nook between his shoulder and chest.
Are you happy? he’d asked.
I wish we could be like this forever, she’d whispered. But I’m also so happy that I wouldn’t have any regrets if I died right now. Like I wouldn’t even be mad.
Me too, he’d said. That’s exactly how I feel too.
The hunter felt himself fall into a soft, cloudy mound of memories. It was so sweet to let go of his grip on the present and dwell among the shadows of the past. Slipping into death really wasn’t so bad—it was rather like passing through a door to a world of dreams. He closed his eyes. He could almost see Sooni gently calling out to him, My husband, my darling, I’ve been waiting for you. Come home.
Why did you leave me, he said. Do you know how hard it’s been for me?
I was always next to you, Sooni said. You and the kids.
I want to go with you, he said, and waited for her to take him away.
Not yet, but soon, she said.
His eyes snapped open as he realized he really was hearing a sound. A soft breathing sound that came from the edge of the cliff whence an icy fog was emanating like incense. Instinctively, he readied his bow, knowing that even if he got his prey, he likely wouldn’t make it down the mountain. He just didn’t want to end up as a leopard’s meal.
He felt, rather than saw, the leopard climb up onto the ledge, its silhouette weaving through the brume. He gasped and lowered his bow when it finally revealed itself, just yards away from him.
It wasn’t a leopard at all, but a tigerling.
From nose to the tip of the tail, it was as long as his arms stretched wide apart, just the size of a full-grown leopard. It was too big to be called a cub, though still too young to hunt on its own. The tigerling looked at the hunter with curious eyes, twitching its circles of ears padded with white fur. Its calm yellow irises were neither threatened nor threatening. It had almost certainly never seen a human being before, and looked mildly puzzled by the strange apparition. The hunter gripped his bow tighter. It was, he realized, the first time he’d spotted a tiger within range.
Hunted by the Japanese in every hill and valley, tigers had been driven deep into the wildest mountains. The prices had gone up accordingly for their skin, bone, and even meat, which had never before been the reason they were hunted but had become a fashionable delicacy on the tables of wealthy Japanese. They believed that eating tiger flesh gave you its valor, and held banquets where officers decked with epaulettes and medals and upper-class ladies in European dresses sat down to taste courses made entirely of tiger parts.
With this kill, he would be able to buy enough food to last three years. Perhaps even a plot of land. His children would be safe.
But the wind howled in his ear, and he lowered his bow and arrow. Never kill a tiger unless it decides to kill you first.
He got up to standing, which sent the tigerling scampering backward like a village pup. Before it even disappeared back into the fog, the hunter turned around and started his descent through the thickening snow. Within a span of a few hours, the snow had already gathered halfway up his calf. The hollowness that had made his feet lighter was now dragging him closer to the earth with every step. A gray, colorless dusk was draped over the shivering trees. He started praying to the god of the mountain: I’ve let go of your attendant creature, please let me make it down.
The blizzard stopped at nightfall. He came halfway down the mountain before his legs buckled and he fell knee-first into snow. He was on fours like an animal; when even his elbows gave out he curled into the powder, sparkling white in the moonlight. Then he thought, I should be facing the sky, so he heaved himself over onto his back. The moon was gently smiling down on him: it was the closest thing in nature to mercy.
▴ ▴ ▴
“We’ve been going in circles,” Captain Yamada said. The others around him looked frightened, not just because what he was saying was true, but also because he dared to voice this calamity in the presence of his superior.
“These trees are all growing thicker on this side, so that way must be south. But you see how we have been heading the opposite way for the past hour!” Captain Yamada exclaimed, barely concealing his contempt. At twenty-one, he already had the manner of someone used to giving orders and opinions without once being challenged, which was a habit born out of his highly influential family. The Yamadas were a cadet branch of an ancient samurai clan, and his father, Baron Yamada, was a close friend of Governor-General Hasegawa himself. The Hasegawas and the Yamadas both hired Englishmen to educate their sons, and Genzo had toured Europe and America with a Hasegawa cousin before returning to take the commission. That was how he’d been made a captain at such a young age and why even his superior, Major Hayashi, was careful not to offend him.
“We can’t keep going around like this, sir,” Captain Yamada finally directed his comment at Major Hayashi, and the whole group came to a halt. These were four sergeants, Police Chief Fukuda and two of his men, and a Korean guide.
“So, what do you think we should do then, Captain?” Major Hayashi said, slowly and deliberately, as though they were back in the barracks and not in the snowy mountains, the night fast closing down on them.
“It’s getting darker by the minute, and we won’t find the right way at night if we lost it by day. We should make camp for tonight. As long as we can avoid freezing to death, we’ll be able to make our way down tomorrow at first light.”
The group fell even quieter, anxiously anticipating Major Hayashi’s reaction. He had never before become impatient with Captain Yamada’s impertinence, but this time, in such a dire state, the conflict had an air of mutiny. Major Hayashi regarded his subordinate’s face with cool indifference, wearing the kind of expression he had when considering a new pair of boots or the best way to skin a rabbit. In spite of his pure and profound brutality, Hayashi was not a man given to uncalculated outbursts. At last, he turned to a sergeant and started giving orders for making camp. The group, visibly relieved, dispersed to collect firewood, or such as could be had when it was snowy and wet.
“Not you—you stay here with me,” Major Hayashi said when the Korean guide, a timid creature named Baek, tried to scurry away. “Do you think I’d let you out of my sight?” Baek wrung his hands and whimpered, staring down at his feet bound in rags and shod in wet leather shoes.
Shortly after being assigned to the prefecture, Major Hayashi had asked Police Chief Fukuda where he could find game in these parts. Fukuda, who had made a detailed report and census of every Korean within fifty miles, had recommended three locals for the task of guiding their hunting party. The other two were potato farmers whom even other Koreans deemed quite savage, cloistered in the deep mountains, mating among themselves, and living off the land, only coming out to join the rest of the world a handful of times a year on market days. They both knew every stick and stone in the mountains, but Baek, a traveling silk merchant, was the only one who could speak Japanese. Major Hayashi had considered that to be a more important qualification, much to the regret of all, not least Baek himself.
▴ ▴ ▴
It would become one of the images that would flash in front of Captain Yamada’s eyes, just before the end of his life. The bearded man lying under the moonlight. When he’d gone about twenty feet into the woods to collect firewood, he nearly stumbled over the body sprawled out on the snow. After the initial shock, what struck Captain Yamada was how the man was spread calmly on his back, both hands over his heart—as if he hadn’t frozen to death, but had fallen asleep in a moment of rapture. The second thing that struck him was how poorly clad this small man was. The quilted jacket he wore was so thin that the sharp angles of his shoulder blades showed clearly through. Captain Yamada circled around the body. Then, for reasons he himself couldn’t understand in retrospect, he lowered his ear to the bluish face.
“Hey, hey! Wake up!” he shouted, realizing that there was a trace of breath still flowing from the man’s nostrils. When there was no response, Captain Yamada took the man’s face in his hands and slapped it lightly. The man began to moan almost inaudibly.
Captain Yamada placed the man’s head back on the snow. There was no reason he needed to help this nearly dead Josenjing, more vermin than man. Captain Yamada started heading back toward the camp, but after a few steps he turned around without understanding why. Sometimes the human heart was like a dark forest, and even a man as rational as Yamada had mysteries within. He picked up the man in his arms, almost as easily as if he were a child.
“What the hell is this?” barked Major Hayashi when he returned.
“I found him in the woods,” Captain Yamada said as he laid the man down on the ground.
“What do you want to do with a dead Josenjing? Unless you mean to burn him for fuel—and he’d make an awful fire—you should’ve left him where you found him.”
“The man’s still alive. He was hunting alone in these parts, which means he knows the mountains well. He might be able to find the way down,” Captain Yamada explained coolly, unfazed by the veiled accusation of softheartedness; after all, that compassion had never been in the library of Yamada’s motives and emotions was something both men knew well.
The rest of the group came back, and Captain Yamada ordered Baek to move the unconscious man next to the fire and shout to him in Korean. When the man started coming to, Baek called out, smiling like a lunatic, “Sir! Sir! He’s waking up!” Captain Yamada had Baek feed the man some crackers and dried persimmon from his own provisions.
“Make sure you stick the cracker in the snow to wet it a bit. He might choke otherwise,” Captain Yamada said, and Baek promptly obeyed, holding the man’s head on his lap and cooing something softly in Korean.
“Do they know each other?” Major Hayashi asked. He was eating his own supper of stiffly frozen onigiri and some pickled plum. There was even a bottle of sake that the men were now passing around, suddenly merry and heartened.
“I don’t think so. Baek didn’t seem to recognize him,” Captain Yamada said. Police Chief Fukuda also didn’t know the man. But one of his officers thought he might be a certain tenant farmer, Nam, whose only distinction from all the other miserable peasants of the area was having once been in the Korean Imperial Army and thus came to the police’s attention.
“A dangerous man then. A viper,” Major Hayashi said.
“He might prove himself useful. I would think it well worth keeping him alive for one night if he can get us down this accursed mountain at dawn,” Captain Yamada replied as calmly as ever. He himself ate just a few crackers and a dried persimmon, and prepared to take the first watch.
▴ ▴ ▴
The dawn came without a sunrise, and illumined by the cinereal light, the woods materialized around them once more. The absence of sun and shadows made everything seem weightless, as if the trees, rocks, and snow were all made of soft, silver air. It seemed a halfway world, a world between other worlds.
Upon waking to such a morning, Captain Yamada wondered if he were still dreaming and hoped he would open his eyes to find himself in the warmth of his own bed. Then he realized the next moment where he truly was and felt almost sick to his stomach with disappointment. But by both nature and education, he’d been led to prize rationality and distrust emotions. He held love and even friendship in contempt as delusions of the lower classes, women, and unfit men. The biggest problem with emotions was that they were reactions to externalities rather than one’s innate will and deliberate consciousness. Accordingly, he chastised himself for indulging in self-pity and shrugged his blanket off without delay.
Yamada got up and walked away to relieve himself, and there, just yards from where he was sleeping, he discovered huge footprints circling around the camp many times. He woke up Baek and the hunter, who had fallen asleep embracing each other for warmth. Baek jumped up instantly when he mentioned the tracks and started explaining feverishly to the hunter in Korean. The latter man looked ill and weak, though his eyes were astonishingly sharp for someone who had nearly died just the previous night. He whispered something, then Baek helped pull him upright.
“What’s he saying?” Captain Yamada asked as the hunter looked down at the tracks and mumbled in Korean.
“He’s saying it must be a tiger. There’s no other animal that has a footprint as big as a pot lid. Everyone knows that,” Baek said. “He’s saying we need to go down now. The tiger was here all night watching us, and it’s not happy.”
“Why didn’t anyone on watch see this tiger?” Captain Yamada asked, feeling irritated at the ones who had taken over after him. Baek relayed this to the hunter and then translated his answer.
“He says the tiger didn’t want to be seen. You see tigers when they want to be seen, not a moment before. We’re in their home, their land, so it’s best we leave it alone and go quietly.”
“Nonsense. If I see that beast before we make it down, I will kill it—and present the skin and the meat to the Governor-General,” Captain Yamada said. “You cowardly Josenjing slaves know nothing of bravery.”
Baek hung his head low in acceptance. Nonetheless it was clear to all, especially Captain Yamada, that the sooner they could find their way out of the mountain the better. The hunter led the way with surprising agility, given that he’d only broken his fast with a bit of rice crackers, seaweed, and pickles: it seemed that he was used to surviving on very little food. Captain Yamada had confiscated his bow and arrows, but the hunter appeared to take it as a matter of course and briskly slipped through the trees, neither resentful nor pleading.
“Be sure to shoot him if he tries to run,” Major Hayashi said, and the captain replied, “Yes, sir.”
The sun stayed hidden on this gray day, and the world became gradually brighter without any visible light. The wind pricked their skin like a thousand points of ice, colder and less forgiving than on the previous day. Every step they made turned into deep, clear impressions in the snow, and the hunter turned around from time to time as if worried. He whispered to Baek, who delivered the message to Captain Yamada.
“Please, we must move more quickly, he says,” Baek pleaded. “He’s certain the tiger is tracking us, and quite likely right at our heels.”
“You Josenjing are truly pathetic, cowardly worms,” Captain Yamada said scornfully. “Tell him we have guns, not bows and arrows. The officers in the Japanese Imperial Army do not flee from animals—we hunt them.”
Baek fell silent and shuffled back into his place in the group, behind the hunter. The others smiled and nodded assent to the Captain’s speech, and boasted about this or that hunting party they had been on, and animals they’d killed since coming to Joseon: white leopard cubs with ice-blue eyes, black bears with a pale crescent moon on their chest, stags, and wolves. But none claimed to have hunted a tiger which, though supposedly omnipresent, was the most clever creature of them all.
Even their boasts died down as time passed. With the sun moving across the sky unseen, they couldn’t guess what time it was except through hunger and creeping frustration. They hadn’t planned on being lost for almost an entire day, and after a scanty-enough dinner, most of them had finished off their last provisions at breakfast. They marched in silence, until the hunter stopped in his tracks and held out his hand to the rest of the group. He pointed at a tree that was still swinging slightly, shedding snow as fine and white as sea spray.
“What is it?” Captain Yamada asked Baek. But before he could answer, they heard a deep, haunting sound, like thunder during the Long Rain season. They all felt an indescribable gaze of an unknown power coming from the flash of orange and black among the trees just ahead—less than twenty yards away. It was watching them boldly, unmoving save for the twitching of its shaggy, frosted mane. Its bright yellow eyes dotted with jet-black pupils were the only things so vivid and alive in this world of only white.
Within a second, the soldiers all drew their rifles and aimed at the tiger, which remained as still as a statue. Captain Yamada gave a nod to his officers, then fired the first shot of many bullets that flew almost simultaneously from the squad. Triggered by the attack, the tiger took to its feet and started bounding toward them as if flying. It covered the yards between them in the blink of an eye as the soldiers froze in their places. Captain Yamada felt his heart turn to ice just as someone started moving across his field of vision. The hunter was rushing forward, holding both his hands in the air.
“Don’t!” His shout rang out in the glade and the trees trembled. “No!”
Without slowing down, the tiger spun and turned toward him.
“No! No!” the hunter repeated, until just a yard away from him, the tiger stopped in its tracks. It locked its yellow eyes with his for a moment, then circled and ran away just as quickly as it had come. When the soldiers started shooting again, it had already disappeared into the thicket—leaving a trail of bright red blood that dotted every third footprint, on its left hind leg.
“What are you all standing like that for?” Major Hayashi shouted. “We’re going to follow it—it can’t go very quickly. We’ll kill it before nightfall.”
The hunter said something rapidly to Baek, and the old merchant pleaded, “This man thinks we have to let this tiger go. An injured tiger is far more dangerous than a healthy one, he says. Tigers are vengeful creatures. They remember wrongs and rights, and if it’s injured, it will attack to kill.
“Even if we kill the tiger, that will be the end of us if we get stuck in the mountain for another night, and it being already colder than the night before . . . so says this man, sir.”
Major Hayashi looked around at his men, who looked defeated and unwilling to go deeper into the mountain after the enormous beast. It had shown no sign of slowing down even with the wound.
Hayashi had led not only hunting parties such as this one but also combat on the field, most recently in Manchuria against the Russians and then, of course, the control of unrest and rebellions in Korea. He had never turned back from a fight but not out of bravery, which he equated to foolishness. He only believed in success, and even his bloodthirst was only secondarily for his own pleasure—primarily it was to assert his superiority over his peers and to intimidate his subordinates. Since success to Hayashi was of practical rather than virtuous nature, he again decided on the course that would serve him best. He ordered the Josenjing hunter to lead the descent.
Even as they made their way down and away from the beast, they felt as though a pair of yellow eyes were fixed on their necks the entire time. But at last, they found themselves on a trail, recognizable even under a foot of snow. A few hours later, they came out of the deep woods and onto the overlook where they could see the village below. The straw-thatched roofs were glowing amber with an unexpected flash of the sun finally breaking through the clouds just above the horizon.
If they hadn’t been officers, they would have run down the slippery, snowy slope like children, overjoyed as they were by that sight. But tempered by the presence of their leader, they marched only a little faster. It took another half an hour before the men finally reached the foot of the hill where the village farms met the border of wilderness. The fallow fields under a blanket of snow were stamped with the footprints of birds and children.
Major Hayashi ordered a halt and discussed something with the Police Chief, an oily and gluttonous man to whom a few days of hardship had given a temporarily gaunt appearance. The other officers lay down their packs and began smoking, chatting lightheartedly. They had already forgotten the terror, and were exhilarated by the prospect of warming themselves with food and fire, laughing over it all.
“You,” Captain Yamada called out to the hunter, who cautiously stepped closer to Baek. “Your name.”
“My name is Nam KyungSoo,” the hunter said in halting Japanese.
“You were in the Korean Imperial Army?”
Baek translated for Nam, who nodded.
“You know it’s illegal for Josenjings to possess weapons of any kind? I could have you arrested right now.”
Baek looked mortified as he whispered in Korean to Nam, who merely glared back at Captain Yamada. The officer frowned back at the hunter. The two men couldn’t have been more different: one dressed in a warm officer’s outfit and a fur-trimmed hat, handsome and lithe and bursting with energy even after three hard days in the forest; and the other, shorter man, sharp cheekbones casting dark shadows on his face, hair with more gray than black, looking as ancient, weathered, and bony as a rock.
But even so, Yamada momentarily saw something in the other man’s eyes. Soldiers on opposing sides are much more alike than different, often resembling one another more closely than they do their respective civilians. Despite his mangy appearance, Nam looked like he would kill his enemies and protect his allies; Yamada respected that.
“I’m confiscating your weapons. If I ever hear you’ve been hunting again, I will arrest you personally. Consider that your reward for leading us back down.”
Baek relayed the message while bowing deeply at the young officer. Yamada gave a curt nod of acknowledgment, but Nam only glared back for a moment before turning away.
“Hey, Baek!” Major Hayashi called out, and the old merchant shuffled forward.
“Yes, sir.”
“You led us astray, you stupid worm,” Major Hayashi said, almost lazily. Baek cowered and kept his head bowed low.
“I’m sorry, sir—the snow covered the trails and made it impossible to find them. I’ve gone up and down these mountains hundreds of times, but . . .”
“You ruined our hunt and almost got us killed,” Major Hayashi said. “Go. I’d run fast if I were you.”
Baek trembled, dipped his head multiple times, and turned on his heels to run as quickly as his old body would allow. When he had nearly crossed the length of the rice field, Major Hayashi slung his rifle over his shoulder—and fired.
Baek fell forward as if he’d tripped on a rock, his arms splayed wide. He didn’t make any noise—or perhaps it was too far for the sound to carry, muffled by the icy ether. The blood spread slowly from the center of his back and soaked through his pack filled with silk.
“That made up for the lack of real sport; what do you think, Chief Fukuda?” Major Hayashi asked, and Fukuda agreed obsequiously.
“And as for that man Nam, I’ll turn him over to you since this is your jurisdiction.”
“Ah, yes, of course. We will make a very good example out of him,” Fukuda said. “After we are done with him, no one will dare pick up a weapon again in these parts.”
“That doesn’t seem called for, Chief.” Captain Yamada stepped forward. “This Josenjing led us down from the mountain. We wouldn’t have made it otherwise.”
“You also saved his life, so I’d consider that even. But add to that his poaching—seems the scale is tilted against him,” Fukuda said, smiling as if satisfied by his own cleverness.
“But he also saved us from that tiger,” Yamada replied coolly. “It appears to me that squares the score back to even.” He looked from Fukuda to Major Hayashi, then back to Fukuda. “I have no love of filthy Josenjings, and have no doubt that I have killed enough of them on the field. But if you harm this man, you would be owing him a debt of life, and nothing is more dishonorable than owing something to an inferior. As he also saved my life, I can’t allow that to happen and be shamed. Let him go free.”
“You really speak out of turn, Captain,” Fukuda said, turning red in the face. He looked at Major Hayashi to back him up.
Hayashi looked almost expressionless, which was when he was at his most dangerous. He licked his lips, a serpentine habit.
“It doesn’t seem necessary, after all, to kill every Josenjing who knows these parts. He was indeed useful, unlike that worthless old man, Baek,” Hayashi said.
At that, Fukuda quickly gave up and they decided to head to the police station.
When he was sure of not being noticed, Yamada breathed out with a sense of genuine relief. He had never wished anything for or from others, which gave him a secret satisfaction all his life. He felt complete in his independence and never longed for warmth, even from his mother—a quiet, elegant lady with cold, white hands—or for the love of a woman. But the possibility of losing face because of Fukuda’s brutishness had roused Yamada more than he’d expected. He was irritated by this sense of attachment to another’s fate. The less he could be certain of Nam’s safety, the longer this attachment would last. So, he pulled Nam aside, who had been frozen silent, staring at Baek’s body ahead. Crows were already gathered on it, cawing excitedly.
“If you get into trouble, come find me,” Yamada said quietly, out of hearing of the others. “My name is Yamada Genzo.”
Nam stared back. Yamada didn’t know whether he’d understood, so he pulled out a silver cigarette case from the inside pocket of his coat and pressed it onto Nam’s hand. Yamada ran his finger along its side, where his name was engraved. Then he pulled away with the rest of the officers; and now that Nam’s fate was decided, at least temporarily, no one paid him any mind as he limped away on his own.
▴ ▴ ▴