Empire of the Ring

Youngho blamed drinking for his mess,

Yunsuh used to give him an earful about his drinking habits because he drank to the point where he passed out. She never understood his behaviors. He also kept coming home spending a large amount of money while he was drunk. Yunsuh blamed his Navy unit for his habits and she was correct in a sense.

While training to the extent of exhaustion and hardship near death in Navy Special Forces, the UDT unit, Youngho and his comrades used to drink all night long to compensate themselves for the harsh training whenever they were allowed a day off. It was a tradition in the unit.

Even to Youngho, what he did this time was a big mess to clean up because he made two people move to another country without any measures. Katya's place was too small for three people to live in since it was a small one-bedroom residential house, he made them come without any preparations.

Most of single houses in this mountainous area were very small as they were built according to the distinctive structural patterns of a building in the mountains. Also, having a big house in this impoverished town was a special case. Youngho inquired housing through the mafias who came to deliver daily necessities to CIA's retailer store and managed to find a decent, three-room house. Housing was cheap in here but as he offered to pay twice more the standard housing cost in Tskhinvali, the old couple living in the house cleared the house immediately for them, saying that they have another house in the outskirt of town. So, he could finally find a place for Katya and her family to stay.

Because Katya's mother and Rena moved here in a rush, Rena did not even go through a transfer process from her school in Volgograd. However, because she was a government official in town, Rena was able to enroll in the local school right away.

People here did not recognize 'Volgograd' because they called it with the city's old name, 'Stalingrad.' This is how much they were isolated to the outside world. Rena became famous in school, known as the kid from a big city. Also, Youngho was known as her 'papa' without his awareness. If he knew, he would have advertised on the local newspaper with the phrase, 'I'm single.'

There were about four towns where Georgian communities resided in South Ossetia. Due to the serious conflicts with Ossetians, they had to have a group of neighborhood watch and protect their towns, and they inspected suspicious strangers coming in their towns. Under this kind of regional condition, the CIA had opened a retailer shop through Katya in Tskhinvali to provide daily necessities to Georgians around different towns. Now South Russian mafias from Yaniv's organization were delivering the items to different locations of Georgian towns and they were well received by Georgians because the items were distributed at cheap prices as low as local prices by the CIA.

There was an incident in which a mafia on a delivery was shot by a neighborhood watch in the village of Kurta where approximately 1,000 Georgians resided. The neighborhood watch was not an overwhelming force since they only had a few rifles as their defense. The village of Kurt had been doing business exchanges with Gori, a Georgia's border city, and it looked like the neighborhood watch did not like the recent growth of Russians delivering items around their town.

***

Youngho put on a white flag on his car and went inside the village of Kurta. He had brought a Georgian with him from Tskhinvali as his interpreter.

It was a day ago that the neighborhood watch of Kurta shot the delivery truck driven by a Russian mafia. As if they had thought somebody would come for an explanation, a few neighborhood watchmen stopped Youngho's car. Looking at their antique rifles only likely to be seen in historical museum, he let a short smirk.

"I'd like to meet someone in charge." He spoke in English and again in Russian. They did not seem to understand English but Russian.

"What brings you to our town?"

They looked relieved because of Youngho' Asian appearance.

"The guy who came to deliver daily necessaries was my employee. I'm the retailer shop owner. I want an explanation about why you injured my man."

The Georgian interpreter quickly interpreted what Youngho just said. They were startled to learn that an Asian person was the owner of the retailer business. They had no reason to hate Asians even though they hated Russians and Ossetians. Also, they liked the cheap prices of the provided items, they had just shot the mafia because they spotted a Russian snooping around their town.

They escorted Youngho to the village chief's house. An old man looking in his sixties introduced himself as Roshini. He explained to Youngho that they accidentally shot the delivery man while trying to scare him so they could chase away Russians from their town.

"Chief Roshini, I have never seen a town this closed like here. Other Georgian towns of South Ossetia never threatened us. I'm a business man after money but I sent my men to deliver necessary items to the isolated Georgian towns by driving on tough mountainous roads to help Georgian people. I would've never sent my men in here if I tried to make a lot of money."

"…"

"I have nothing to say since you said it was accidental but I'm telling you, the person you shot yesterday has a wife and children. Now that he can't work because of the injury, how are you going to compensate that for him?"

Although Youngho did not need money from him, he acted strong. The village chief swept his face with his hand in stress.

"Look, our village is poor. We can't pay you for our fault with money but we can give you a sheep or a goat if you need, or I can give you our village's local products, leather and cheese, if you please."

"…"

Youngho felt satisfied by his attitude. He had to make strong impression if he wanted to continue doing business in the town.

Roshini added,

"Also, if the business is not owned by Russians, it'd be great if you keep delivering your products to our town. I apologize for our misunderstanding, we went too far even though you come from afar to deliver items to our town. It's just our town had enough of conflicts with outsiders, so we overreacted."

Listening to what the interpreter said, Youngho felt sorry for the town people.

"Alright. I don't wish to make poor people pay. Let's make a deal instead. From now on, please don't shoot our delivery trucks or men. My men might react violently too since they are young."

"Thank you. We won't make that a problem from this moment. Why don't you eat before you leave, since you came a long way?"

Looking around the town after eating at the chief's house, Youngho could see how far the town was lagged behind. All of the houses looked old and had undergone many hardships. Inside of the houses were even worse-looking, the desks and chairs were worn out and the writings on a school black board in a classroom was not even recognizable due to many cracks.

People on the outside say that civilians go into space, but the town seemed to stay in 1950s. Since there were only Georgians in town and they insisted their isolation, Ossetian government did not provide them electricity. So, watching TV relying on a small generator and a satellite dish was their only pathway to the outside world. Having telephones were a luxury to these people and some of them who luckily attained cellphones did not even get signals in town, so they had to go to different regions if they wanted to use cell phones. The only transportation to other regions were some old pickup trucks and compact cars.

Because a foreigner was walking around the town, kids followed him in curiosity, Youngho could see their snot dangling on their nose. Since there was an enormous shortage of medicine, having cold was nothing special to them.

Some kids who did not have enough strength to follow Youngho around stared at Youngho like a sunflower leaning on old walls. A kid was wearing wooden slipper. Youngho could see his flesh through ripped leather pants and wool sweater.

In chilly days, people here don't even have a layer underneath their clothes. Although they had their houses, they were no better than refugees. Till now, Youngho had not realized how devastated their environment was because they came to buy daily necessities with their own cattle products. Without the government's providence, they lived as the people in the middle ages. South Ossetians and Georgians both lived with the deep pain of wars.

Youngho provided daily necessities, school supplies, and even blackboards for school to the town people. If converted in dollars, they cost about 5,000 dollars but all he received was some sheepskins, fox furs, and martens. He was thinking that he could donate the money to the poor people but Michael, the mafia who came along with Youngho, excitedly said that the animal skins would be much valuable if tanned well. Since Russians loved animal furs due to their harsh winter, he knew their values well. It was a great exchange that satisfied both sides. Although the towns people did not have money, they had plenty of animal skins because they lived off taking care of their cattle. Youngho also told the village chief Roshini that he would order his employees to deliver medicine too as soon as he returns to Tskhinvali, this would help many people who suffered pneumonia in town.

After taking care of all businesses in South Ossetia, Younhgo hurriedly left Tskhinvali. With Michael, he crossed the tough mountain range and flew to Volgograd. It was a horrible trip. However, what was even horrible to him was what happened in Tskhinvali.

When Katya's family moved to the new house, he helped them in moving until late. Because Katya's family insisted that Youngho stayed with them for a night, he agreed. When he was about to fall asleep in a room, Rena came to say goodnight with a pillow in her hands. Later, Katya came in her nightdress, Youngho was stunned to see her gaudy sleepwear.

'Do all Russians say goodnight in this way?' he thought.

Not able to handle Katya's enticement, Youngho rushed and left Tskhinvali. He thought he would bring Fatima's picture next time he visits the town.

'Wait, why am I thinking Fatima? She has nothing to do with this!' All of his thoughts always ended with Fatima as the destination. Youngho wondered why. He had not realized how big Fatima had become in his heart but he did not pay too much attention thinking that it was a temporary thought.