Chapter 3
I would have been less shocked if a goblin had stumbled off the bus. I got straight up and strode toward the bus stop, squelching rotten fish underfoot.
When I got close, I could see the man peeking into a hole-in-the-wall store.
The roof of the store had buckled to half its original height under the tidal wave, shorter than a person, and the buildings on either side had collapsed and just been left that way.
Tapping his finger on the window reinforced with a tangle of tape, the man was shading his eyes to peer into the dark.
There were five other villagers close by, and all of us were watching him intently. The infected, with their hands gloved and cloth wound over their faces, must have been thinking the same as me. This man’s sudden appearance was the biggest happening in the village for months.
The man brought his mouth to a hole in the window and raised his voice. “Hello! Anyone here? Is this place not open?”
It was a voice full of vitality, the likes of which you didn’t hear in Haewon Village, even from children.
“The shopkeeper only comes out every other day,” I said.
The man turned. Up close he looked about my age …
somewhere in his late thirties. He gave off a soft, limp impression, like an office worker at a big corporation.
His body was slender, and he wore a slick gray suit and towed a brand-new suitcase that didn’t have a single scratch on it.
His face was uncommonly good-looking, and his hair was neatly coiffed as though he had just visited a salon.
His presence had no place in this village.
“Even when they’re open, it’s only after one in the afternoon,” I continued, investigating the man from head to toe.
He looked pleased to see me. If nothing else, I don’t show noticeable symptoms of East Sea Disease, aside from some blotches on my skin. To this man’s eyes, I looked “human.”
“Ah! Then might there be a supermarket around here? I forgot to pick up any cigarettes before I left. I’m so low on nicotine now I can hardly breathe.”
“If you mean something like a local Hanaro co-op, it’s been a long time since they closed down. There is another store if you go a few more stops on the bus, but…”
I was about to explain, but it was too much trouble.
I stuck my leather-gloved hand into the flowerpot beside the door and dug the key out from the dirt.
After opening the padlock that held the door closed, I tugged open a small flap that was just big enough to get an arm through.
I retrieved a pack of cigarettes with a picture of a cancer-ridden larynx on the box and gave it to the man.
“Give me the money. I’ll put it inside and close up again. Anyone and everyone puts their hands in there, so you’d better not.”
Seeing the man’s pale hand without a single patch of rough skin, again I felt the intense sense of something out of place. He was from the world the state protects, embraced and cushioned by the peace and simplicity of everyday life. I felt such envy it could make me tremble.
Having received his cigarettes, the man began chattering away.
“Is this—how do I put it—the rural way of doing things? I’ve only ever lived in Seoul, so, you know, it’s my first time in such a rustic setting. Does everyone around here, ah, act like this?”
I looked around feeling uncomfortable. Our audience was now watching with great excitement, eyes fixed, as though they were seeing the latest film. My name would be on everyone’s lips at the community center for days to come. It’s not like I started talking to him out of my own curiosity.
“Why would someone from Seoul come to a place like this? Even setting foot in this village means you’ll have to go through multiple tests and self-isolate for two weeks.”
“Ah, well. I unexpectedly needed to get from Gangneung to Mokpo. But this week there’s an extra-long weekend, with public holidays on Friday and Monday, so all the intercity buses were booked up.
But while I was trying to figure out a route, I found that coming through this village made the timetables match up perfectly.
Everything just clicked, clicked right into place, and there were seats available, too.
Anyway, I’m the type who hardly leaves the house, so self-isolation is no big deal to me… ”
As he talked about things clicking into place the man tapped his palm like a jumping grasshopper, but when he saw my expression, his face changed.
“Ah.” He raised a finger. “This story isn’t going to work, is it? I’ll have to come up with something else.”
He took an expensive-looking leather wallet out of his trousers pocket and handed me his business card. The wallet radiated the secure scent of a comfortable home.
“I work for an infectious diseases research institute. I’m on sabbatical this year, so I’ve embarked on some research for a paper.
Did you know that there are mountains of papers written about Haewon Village, but only a tiny number of researchers have done on-site surveys?
This year, it’s zero. After submitting all the forms for getting permission to enter the village, I can see why!
If I wasn’t careful, I might have started filling out the visit application paperwork this year and not been able to come until next.
But, anyway, I made it, as you can see.”
I examined the man’s business card front and back. The name “Ha Woojin” was followed by five official titles: employee of this company, member of that association, and the like.
“Your accent tells me you didn’t grow up here,” he continued. “Are you from elsewhere? The local accent might not be as extreme as Jeolla or Gyeongsang dialects, but they have a funny intonation, don’t they? That … dda ra lara?… raeyo? And the way they go up at the end of a sentence.”
“There’s a bus out this evening. You should leave right away.”
He waved me off. “Is there anywhere to stay the night? Will I have to find the key in a flowerpot at the local accommodations too?”
I looked at Woojin, precious son of the Ha family line, and stayed silent for a moment, then tore out a piece of receipt paper from inside the store and scribbled a phone number.
“Go take a look at Sunup Guesthouse, on the coast road you see over there. The owner isn’t always around, but they’ll open it up for you if you call ahead.”
“Is it clean? I’m not really the fussy type, but I’m a bit sensitive when it comes to bathrooms.”
Again, I was silent for a moment. “They’re operational. Listen, you need to go home as fast as you can. You want to become a super-spreader?”
Ha Woojin shook his head.
“Oh no, I’ve read all the research on East Sea Disease.
This isn’t a virus, it’s a bacterial skin disease, and it’s only mildly contagious, so a little short-term exposure is fine.
People make such a fuss because of fears about deformity, not unlike with leprosy.
Someone I know has volunteered for decades at the Sorok Island leper colony, and they’re totally normal.
No one’s died from East Sea Disease outside of this village, and even inside the village, the data is contaminated by the environmental pollution brought by the tidal wave and the poverty that followed.
These days, people are trying to trace the cause of death to water pollution or inadequate medical facilities, certainly not… ”
Stopping midsentence, Woojin looked toward the beach, hand shading his eyes from the golden sunlight floating on the sea.
“What are those kids doing down there?”
I followed Woojin’s gaze. In the distance, on the beach blackened with dead fish and plastic waste, a group of young people with their bodies coated in mud were dancing around a bonfire.
It was early spring and our recent cold snap was still not over, but as if they weren’t cold at all, they were half-naked, male and female alike.
“Is it some kind of local festival?” Woojin took out his phone, zoomed in, and began snapping photos.
The youth of Haewon spread mud on their bodies, to conceal the symptoms of their disease.
They hide in the semidark of dawn and dusk, and sing songs and dance, reminiscing about a time when they were all just kids, all the same as each other.
Mourning a peaceful life that has disappeared into the past forever.
“They’re just the village kids. At some point that’s what they started to do for fun.
It’s a long time since the school closed, and there’s no indication that they’ll be able to graduate.
The stigma of being from Haewon Village will follow them for life, so they’ve no hope of finding work.
Kids get bored with nothing to do, so they’ve gone crazy getting out all that youthful energy. ”
Snap, snap.
“And staying sane in a place like this is no better.”
Woojin thrust a hand toward me.
“I think this must be a fateful connection. Would I be able to get an interview? Could I have your phone number?”
I stared down at Woojin’s bare hand. It was only when he noticed mine, in black leather gloves, that he took some white cotton gloves out of his pocket. He pulled them on as if to say, “Here you go, I’m putting them on,” and he put on a mask too.
I said, “The means of transmission of East Sea Disease are still unclear. You have to take precautions.”
“I’m in the camp of people who believe there is no airborne transmission.
And our side will win. I even put a bet on it.
I’m what you might call a scout. Pang! Pa-bang!
” Woojin said, pretending to fire shots all around.
“I’ve come to carry out a preliminary investigation, so I’ll only be here for a day or two.
If you want to talk within that time, please contact me, you have my card. ”
Giving a nod to each and every one of the villagers who had been watching us, Woojin set off along the road, full of energy.
I looked at the beach. The slanted sunlight flowed down the undressed bodies of the dancing youths.
Those kids sometimes sing in a language I can’t understand.
It was a while before I learned that they’re imitating the way East Sea Disease sufferers speak through their deformed oral cavities.
The daughter of a shamanic family had taught her friends a ritual she learned over her parents’ shoulders.
She said the ceremony would console the dead people, the dead fish, and pacify the angered king of the sea.
And comfort the tribe that emerged from the sea that day.
When I asked the kids what they meant by the tribe that came up from the sea, they told me that there were strange living things with human teeth and limbs sprawled on the ground in parts of the village devastated by the tidal wave.
They said that the grown-ups had hurried to hide them away before outsiders discovered them, since things were chaotic enough without more bad rumors spreading.
There are, in fact, fish in the sea that have developed limbs like arms or legs to crawl along the seabed.
With the volcanic eruption, rarely seen sea creatures from the deep ocean were swept onto the shore.
People could imagine all kinds of things when they saw them, once the disaster had loosened their grip on reality.