Mercenary Black Mamba

Kim Gitaek's eyes darted frantically between the house and Mu Ssang. The annexes lined up on the left-wing were nothing in comparison. Perhaps it was due to the sunset over the ridge of the tiled roof of Ungshimjae(main house). The otherwise ordinary-looking young man with jeans and a navy blue suit was glowing in his eyes as if he had a halo around him.

In the past, the same young man he remembered had been just released from jail with a shaved head, an old camouflage military uniform, and a dried out ghastly white face. It was such a violent sea change. He couldn't believe that the young man in front of him was the same beat-down person he had met at his friend's house eight years ago.

"Well, it's just as amazing that I'm in such a state also. Fufufu!"

Kim Gitaek snickered to himself. He was doing pretty well for himself as the CEO of a small company before becoming a day laborer. To consider practical reality. Letting go of all self-restraint, Kim Gitaek followed Mu Ssang.

"Huh, what is this? Is this a table or a playground?"

Kim Gitaek's jaw dropped open. Ungshimjae's menu was abundant. Jinsoon created all kinds of meat dishes for Mu Ssang, who needed to consume massive amounts of protein. And to balance the meals, she also had to increase the number of words that signified fish and vegetables. Kim Gitaek was first surprised by the size of the table, then the dishes that filled it.

"Mister, school playgrounds are much bigger than our table."

Mina corrected him.

"R, right. Playgrounds are bigger than tables."

Kim Gitaek gave Mina with her chubby cheeks a weak smile. It was a peculiar, bizarre family. The five girls that he could tell immediately were sisters called Mu Ssang' oppa' but didn't look like the young man at all. The bright little girl who called him her daddy also seemed a bit too old to be his daughter.

"Young man, are you married?"

Said Kim Gitaek, looking at Mina and Mu Ssang.

"Haha, I'm not married, but Mina is my daughter."

"Th, that so?"

Kim Gitaek had a hard time understanding him. Finally, he decided she was probably an orphan that he adopted.

"Here, let's all thank Jinsoon unni for preparing supper and tuck in for dining."

"Big unni, thank you for the mean~."

The meal began after the young man lifted his spoon. Kim Gitaek sat there astonished. The family was expressing themselves without reservation while firmly following invisible principles. The women chirped away like birds, and the young man answered each of them with a proud smile. The family was unbalanced yet was more affectionate than others.

"It's not much, but help yourself."

"Th, thank you. Is it okay for an uninvited guest like myself to intrude on your family meal?"

Kim Gitaek stuttered after grasping the implications of Jinsoon's claims.

"They say humans are humans because we like to bond over dining and meals."

Mina babbled.

"Huh!"

Kim Gitaek exclaimed in awe. It wasn't something he expected to hear of a little girl. But, he could tell the character of the man of the house in those words.

"Hehe, it's something daddy says."

Mina stuck her tongue out and faintly smiled. Kim Gitaek, without thinking, tried to stroke Mina's cheek before restraining himself. His hand, missing two of its fingers, was too hideous to touch the cheeks of an angel. Mina grasped Kim Gitaek's hand.

"Mister, you are heavily wounded, aren't you?"

Tears filled her big eyes full to the brim.

"Ah!"

Kim Gitaek shuddered as if he had just been electrocuted. The warmth from the tiny hands filled his heart. His walls of rage, hatred, self-loathing, and regret all dissolved in an instant/

The five girls were all looking over at the same small precious white hands holding his. Then, finally, once as loud as a street market, the table fell silent.

"Mina, mister got hurt while working hard for his family. Because a father is a provider that looks after his family. A father is a protective shield that doesn't cry even when it's damaged and hurt."

Jinsoon's voice dropped. Her father, who had been killed in a car accident while delivering drinks, Mr. Jinbo, who was poisoned by the pesticide he used, the mister that had his fingers cut off by machinery- they were angels called fathers.

"Heukheuk!"

The fourth, Malsoon, and the youngest, Woosoon, held back their cries. Kim Gitaek's face struggled to appear both to cry and smile. It was such a bizarre, peculiar family, no, a family that brimmed over with love and affection.

"Hey, God has a child as well. He better not ignore me. Cheers to the mister and our Mina!"

Mu Ssang cleared the air out of nowhere.

"Cheers!"

Women are quicker to sympathize than men are. What appeared to be an unrecoverable mood was instantly lifted as they began eating and drinking. Famished, Kim Gitaek began mindlessly filling his stomach.

"Mister, drink some water. You have to chew your food very patiently to get all the nutrients."

Mina handed him a glass of water.

"Okay. You're so smart, angel."

"Hehe, it's also something daddy says."

Mina smiled timidly. Kim Gitaek's face fell with sadness. He thought of his wife and two daughters that were probably barely eating ramen for dinner.

"Owner Kim, pick up your spoon and let your mind be at ease. Oppa doesn't bring just anyone to the table. When you put your spoon down, there'll come a chance to lift your spirits."

Jinsoon helped Kim Gitaek, who was lost in his thoughts, clear his mind.

"O, okay."

Kim Gitaek felt the weight lift off his shoulders. The young lady called big unni had an odd air that calmed people down. She was different from his oldest daughter, who didn't know how the world worked and just spent her days whining with fussy entitlement.

After the meal, Kim Gitaek came down to the main room and lost words at the magnificent study. The study was at least 30 pyung(1 pyung:3.3m2), filled with scents of pine and ink lingering everywhere. Every nook and cranny was sublime. Even the room used for the reception was over 20 pyung.

"Is this your house? What happened exactly?"

Kim Gitaek asked again, knowing it wouldn't make any difference. Sure, the world had become so crazy that some president was dissolving giant companies with a military background, but this was just beyond belief. How could circumstances change so drastically in just seven, eight years! He couldn't even begin to imagine what had happened.

"There's no such thing as 'mine' in this world. We're here for a moment and gone in the next."

"Huh, you sound like someone that's beyond it all. It makes me doubt myself, knowing what I did when I was your age."

"Not to sound condescending or patronizing, but it all depends on your heart. Those who complain that their fifty pyung house is too small won't be satisfied even with a hundred playing house."

"That's true. Is that clock also a heart?"

Kim Gitaek referred to a cheap cuckoo clock in the middle of the wall. It was the only item that was out of place in the study. It didn't belong here, no matter how you looked at it.

"It's a gift from Sanghan. The most important item in this room."

Mu Ssang smiled.

"Ah!"

Kim Gitaek exclaimed. He remembered what Monk Myoyungeo, the head monk at Grace Temple, had said once. [Does the Buddha eat food? Eat cake? Shop at malls? Don't bring money or supplies. Just bring along your heart-felt empathy. Don't put an ounce of compassion in your thousand-dollar checks and instead put a thousand dollars worth of kindness in a single pair of shoes. Bring along your heavy hearts, wounded hearts, and broken hearts. And toss them aside right here. This monk will spend his days ironing, sewing, and connecting those hearts, you tossed aside. Then maybe Buddha might glance at us. Hahaha!]

The young man sitting directly across from him resembled Monk Myoyungeo for a moment. After that, Kim Gitaek felt at peace. He let go of his troubles for a bit of while and basked in the night breeze coming from the forest and the sweet scent of coffee.

'He looks like he's knee-deep in trouble.'

Mu Ssang waited until owner Kim opened his mouth. There wasn't a lot left to the imagination. His once large frame had shrunk down to show his cheekbones protruding from his face, and his eyes trembled with angst.

It wouldn't be any common issue if a company CEO with more than a hundred employees turned into a construction day laborer. His thumb appeared to have been cut off by machinery a long time ago, but the wound on his forefinger remained fresh and painful.

"Seems you had your fair share of troubles, young man."

"More for you, it seems, owner Kim."

"Ha, lost everything, as you could tell. Owner? What owner! Just call me, mister."

Kim Gitaek smirked.

"Long story, sir?"

"Don't get me started. There's no end to the stories. Damn. I ran a tight ship with my company, you know.... If only Hyangshim Fabric hadn't come in like that...."

Kim Gitaek cut the sentence short and sipped his tea. There was an internal war waging in his mind with the memories of his past rushing back in. Mu Ssang flinched.

"Hyangshim Fabric? The one with their headquarters in Donsungro?"

"I see you know them as well. Well, I guessed you would. It is the biggest company in Daegu. I had to expand my factory and hire more workers when I was backed up with exports five years ago. Those new workers I hired were the problem. Those twenty new hires formed a union and started fueling the other workers. Give us a raise. We can't do the three rotation shifts. We need a new climate control moderation system. Make us playrooms for our kids. They eventually started asking for steak lunches saying they were tired of eating rice."

"That sounds rather fishy."

"Right. No one would say no to higher wages. The former employees joined in, and it became a disaster. But we had backed up orders, so what can I do? I gave them their 20% increase, the climate control, and the playroom. But it's impossible to work in fabrics with two rotation shifts. Tired workers often result in faulty products and workplace accidents. The union didn't like that and started a strike. They blocked the entrance with barrels and beat up my other employees with pipes and lumber. I had to pay the buyer eight thousand dollars in penalty fees for being late. It was driving me insane."

"Tut-tut. You should've reported them for an illegal strike."

Mu Ssang made clicking sounds with his tongue.

"Of course I did. But those police scoundrels were all in on it too. They just kept saying that the company and the union should work it out. The company became a mess in just six months. I was out of options when the Managing director Jang from Hyangshim Fabric offered to buy the factory. But how could I? I built that company myself and raised it like a child. I told him no. And the very next day, the union head threatened me that they'd sell my equipment if I didn't pay their wages. The bank stopped giving me loans, so what can I do? I got the money from sharks to compensate them."

Kim Gitaek let out a long sigh. What came after was history. The textile·fabric industry exploded in the mid-'70s with a wave of fashion.

Fabric and dye companies were on every block in Daegu Nowondong, Bisandong, and Sungseo. There was a surplus of needs, and the industry was on a bull run. And in between those cracks, the loan sharks were rampant. Stories of entrepreneurs who borrowed from the sharks and lost their factories and homes didn't even make it into Sunday Seoul's Gossip page. (Sunday Seoul: one of the major magazines in the '70s~'80s)

"You fell directly into their trap."

"I never even thought that they would intentionally sabotage my company like that. How naive I was! I thought everything would return to normal if they stopped their strike. I had all those orders, after all. But, of course, it wouldn't have been like this If I had just sold the company back then...."

Kim Gitaek's face was filled with remorse.

"How much did you borrow to be completely ruined in this manner?"

"Hahaha, just three thousand dollars. It was just three thousand dollars, but the interest was one hundred and fifty, then three hundred, and it jumped to four hundred on the fourth month."

Kim Gitaek's face burned bright red. Shadows loomed over them from the front gates.

"Oppa, big unni says you'll require drinks, not just tea."

Gyesoon placed drinks and food on the coffee table.

"Aight, tell unni that I said thank you."

Jinsoon rushed over to the rescue. That clever girl noticed the gloomy atmosphere and prepared drinks for them.

"Mister, I'll get your room ready. It's the first room to your left when you want to turn in for the night."

"Miss, I need to get going."

Kim Gitaek looked up at Gyesoon uncomfortably.

"Sleep here. Unni says you should."

Gyesoon smiled at him and left. Kim Gitaek scoffed in snide mockery. She sounded like she said that the big unni was always right and needed to follow her orders. What a peculiar, bizarre family this was.

"The girls are beautiful, intelligent, and compassionate."

"It's a blessing."

Mu Ssang smiled. His master was onto something when he had instructed him to live with the five sisters. Jinsoon and her younger sisters and Mina brought him vitality and were the reason he woke up every morning. If it weren't for them, his soul would still be somewhere in the vast deserts all alone.

"This is a bizarre bottle. So is the food."

Kim Gitaek downed the Sciaccarello and gave a probing, curious stare.

"Not something you're used to, right? The drink is a wine from the Mediterranean, and the food is a fruit from Africa. I work in other countries, you see."

"That so. Thanks to you, I get to have a fancy dinner and an expensive alcoholic beverage imported from overseas."

"Enjoy it. What's the name of the union head that gave you trouble?"

"His name was Lee Soobok. I've never seen anyone nastier than him. He riled up my other employees, saying I was embezzling the company's cash reserves, threatening my family, reporting every little thing to the government, it's tough even thinking about it."

Owner Kim clenched his teeth.

Mu Ssang picked up his phone. Of course, no typical employee would instigate something like that and go on a strike with those ridiculous requests. However, something had just clicked in his mind.

"Is this Bulrodong."

-Ugh! Hyungnim! What can I help you with at this hour?

The surprised voice of Samshik boomed out loudly over the line.

"Do you know someone called Lee Soobok?"

-He's a swindler that works for Chamchi in Nowondong.

"Bring him here!"

-Yes, sir.

The call was brief. Owner Kim's eyes grew wide with wonder.