“Comrade Chairman, I don’t know what kind of relationship you have with Chae Sun Hee, but it sounds like you are showing too much interest in legal matters. My advice to you is not to interfere in another family’s case and certainly not in the judicial system.”
There was no response from the other end of the line.
Jeong Jin Wu continued, “I cannot make a decision based on listening only to Chae Sun Hee’s story. I need to hear Lee Seok Chun’s story as well and provide an impartial solution. This will, of course, take some time.”
“I see. Comrade Judge, would it be all right to stop by your office sometime tomorrow or the next day?” Chae Rim requested.
“Come by anytime.” And with that, Jeong Jin Wu hung up the phone.
An unsettling anxiety came over him, provoked by the intrusive attitude of the chairman on the other end of the receiver. Jeong Jin Wu’s first impression of Chae Rim was certainly not positive. He was much too concerned with the divorce case procedure, and it also sounded as if he was accustomed to using his official position to get things done his way. In this case, Chae Rim seemed to have some personal interest in Sun Hee’s divorce litigation, demonstrated particularly when he demanded that the senior judge expedite it. Jeong Jin Wu had experienced many foolish people thinking they could use their political power or personal networks to manipulate legal proceedings to their advantage. He only hoped that the person who had just called was not that kind of a person, though he had his doubts. Jeong Jin Wu considered those types of people who took principles lightly to be far more troublesome and exhausting than those undergoing a divorce.
Jeong Jin Wu dragged his feet toward the sofa and fell onto it. He closed his eyes and tried to rest, but that familiar name flashed in his mind again.
Chae Rim. That disquieting name reminded him of a horrible experience.
When and where have I heard that name before? It’s such an unusual name … Oh, that’s right!
Jeong Jin Wu remembered. Chae Rim! He had been a tall, handsome manager of sales at the Electrical Hardware Factory. He filed for a fault divorce on the grounds of his wife’s adulterous affair, but when that charge was proved to be false, he changed his grounds to irreconcilable differences. Jeong Jin Wu was the one who divorced them. That was six years ago …
There were only a few people inside the courtroom that day. The seats for the audience were nearly empty, with the exception of those occupied by family members. There were not many people interested in another couple’s divorce hearing. On the bench, Jeong Jin Wu was seated between two other judges. There was also a prosecutor, sitting next to a clerk. In the very front row sat Chae Rim with his head held high, looking confidently at the magistrates and the nation’s flag that hung right above them. A look of imperiousness beamed from his eyes. There was not a trace of despair or agony on his face. Next to him sat his wife with her head lowered, waiting nervously for the judgment. This day was going to be the last time that they would sit next to each other.
Chae Rim had filed for a fault divorce on the grounds of his wife’s alleged affair with her manager.
Glancing at the couple, Jeong Jin Wu thought to himself, What’s the crime in walking home from work with her production manager a couple of times? It’s on the way, and as comrades, can’t they share problems or talk about factory matters?
Jeong Jin Wu saw through people like Chae Rim. He figured that Chae Rim was filing for a fault divorce not because she had walked home with her manager but for some other reason. The truth was that Chae Rim, a promising technician, dared not be seen in public with a country bumpkin like his wife.
Chae Rim had despised her for it. He had criticized every aspect of her character and amplified every one of her flaws. He had hurled insults such as “You’re an idiot for heating up the beer for guests,” “You’re short and ugly,” “You have no social skills,” “You’re stupid.” He had even physically abused her, leaving imprints of his rage on her body.
Jeong Jin Wu had issued an order for an investigation of Chae Rim for domestic violence, but Chae Rim’s factory officials intervened and forced Jeong Jin Wu to drop the case.
Jeong Jin Wu was still bitter about that incident and felt that the divorce litigation should be dismissed. He wanted to punish Chae Rim for his violent and insolent personality, but he knew that the court would not approve of sentencing someone based on personality. He glared at Chae Rim and then looked at Chae Rim’s wife.
Chae Rim’s wife did not even have the courage to look up at the family members on the bench. While her husband attended the university in the city, she planted young trees in the mountains for a reforestation company. In the summer, her skin would get sunburned from the scorching heat. In the winter, her skin would crack from the cold and merciless wind. Her body would become soaked by the rain, and she would shiver all over in the snow, but this had become routine for her. She lived a lamentable life. When she received her meager wages, she would set aside a small portion for herself and her children and mail the rest to her husband in the city. Unlike the other working women, she did not purchase cosmetics or clothes suitable for the different seasons and varying weather conditions. She convinced herself that, aside from one formal outfit, she did not need more clothes, especially with the kind of work she did. Her only motivation was for her husband to graduate from the university and become an outstanding technician. She lulled herself to sleep with hopes of finding a home around his workplace and living a comfortable family life in the city. With those dreams, she continued planting trees and raising her daughter and son on her own.
However, her naive dreams were shattered when she encountered the abysmal reality of her husband’s indifference toward her. Chae Rim was not the person whom she had loved and cherished. She never heard anything remotely romantic or affectionate from him. When she would come up to the city from her village, he would not buy her a single article of clothing that would make her fashionable like the city dwellers. He never expressed affection to her; he never opened the door to his heart. When it seemed as if he opened his heart, it was like an empty storage room with a cold breeze passing through. She felt that her husband did not consider her his wife but rather a housekeeper and a nanny for the children. Yet she reassured herself by thinking that his was a dignified occupation and that it required him to always be busy. She had accepted this fact and continued living her life for her husband. But this came to an end when she received the divorce papers from Chae Rim. He accused her of committing adultery and expected her to comply with these grounds for divorce. When she denied the allegation, Chae Rim altered the grounds to irreconcilable differences in order to facilitate the divorce litigation.
During the hearing, she made her demands clear. She stated quietly that she could no longer live with her husband, and with that, she began to cry. She did not expect love from her husband—she had given up on that long ago. She simply wanted him to respect her as a human being, but even that seemed futile. It was only abuse and degradation, an onslaught she could no longer endure.
Judge Jeong Jin Wu took pity on the wife after realizing what she had done for Chae Rim and their children. For the sake of her inalienable rights as a human being, he divorced the couple. It was clear to him that she was the victim of this marriage.
Her eyes in their shadowed sockets seemed nearly hollow from the countless times she had cried. She had wept burning tears of regret for having lived a life of misery, tears of misfortune. However, today was different. These were not tears of frailty or defeat; these were tears of firm determination for a new day ahead of her. She was the kind of person who stood resolute in the face of adversity, and like a wild chrysanthemum, she would emerge from the shrubbery of the dead forest.
Jeong Jin Wu decided to respect and support her civil rights with all his legal might. He felt it the duty of the law to protect the woman’s rights from her husband’s contemptible behavior, which had disrespected her dignity.
Jeong Jin Wu divorced t
he couple. Yet it pained his heart, knowing that he was destroying a family, a unit of society. And the couple’s children? Indeed, Jeong Jin Wu was not able to free himself of the heavy guilt of breaking the terrible news to the children.
A couple of days before the trial, their children had been called into his office. Jeong Jin Wu offered them two chairs, but the children were so inseparable that they both sat in one. The daughter was ten years old, and the son was seven. They both attended the same elementary school. Jeong Jin Wu did not want to waste too much of their time, so he did his best to keep the conversation brief.
“Your mother and father,” Jeong Jin Wu began, “will no longer live in the same house, so with whom would you prefer to live?”
For the sake of nurturing the children and looking out for their interests, Jeong Jin Wu knew it was always best to have them be with their mother. But he gave them the opportunity to decide for themselves.
The children could not respond to the judge’s shocking question, which would decide, once and for all, their fate. These children had never imagined that their parents’ relationship was in such a dire condition.
After a while, the daughter spoke up, her tears falling like raindrops. “I … I will live with my mother.”
“Me, too! With my mom. I don’t want to be separated from my sister,” replied the brother in utter fear.
It had already been six years since that incident. Judge Jeong Jin Wu got up from the sofa. He tried not to recall that heart-wrenching moment, but the image of the frightened children had not diminished in his memory. The decision that had been made in the court was for the daughter to live with her mother and for the son to live with his father. It would have been better for both of them to be with their mother, but Jeong Jin Wu did not want to overburden her, now that she was a single parent. Jeong Jin Wu had to consider the son’s future and thought that a boy would need a male role model. For that reason, the siblings were separated.
Jeong Jin Wu did not know what had happened to that family since the court hearing. He knew only that Chae Rim found a younger wife, and that his ex-wife had continued living with her daughter without remarrying.
The daughter must be sixteen years old already and the son thirteen, Jeong Jin Wu thought.
Jeong Jin Wu hardly ever ran into that family even though they all lived in the same city. Not too long ago, he had inadvertently run into the ex-wife, but she had avoided him. There was no opportunity for him to talk to her. He thought that unless the couple filed for an appeal to revise the custody arrangement, there was no reason for either a judge or the law to interfere in their personal lives. Even if they were to appeal, he would not be able to handle the case because of all the accumulated work he had to do.
Judge Jeong Jin Wu never forgot all the individual divorce cases he had presided over in the past. They left painful impressions on him because he was not dealing just with legal cases but with people’s lives. Each case required the judge’s discernment and power of reason to administer sentences, but the human heart, so frail and delicate after a divorce hearing, also required compassion and encouragement from the justice system.
Jeong Jin Wu thought, Chae Rim, the chairman of the Provincial Industrial Technology Commission Board. Could it really be him? Would he come see me after the unpleasant memories of the place from six years ago? Is it the same Chae Rim whom I divorced that day? No, the Chae Rim I divorced six years ago was a manager at the Electrical Hardware Factory.
Jeong Jin Wu shook his head in disbelief.
It must be someone else. Who could go through that kind of divorce and then return to the court as if nothing had happened? But knowing him, I wouldn’t be surprised. Then, is he related to Chae Sun Hee? They do have the same family name. No, it must be another man.
Jeong Jin Wu attempted to banish unpleasant thoughts about Chae Rim from his mind as he paced back and forth. The hardwood floor creaked louder than it ever had before.
2
It began to rain in the evening. It was unusual weather even for this region.
Judge Jeong Jin Wu wanted to wait for the rain to pass because he did not have an umbrella in his office, but he grew impatient. Although Gang An District, house number 19, was a bit out of the way, he decided to stop by on his way home from work.
He ran to find refuge under the newly budding trees, but he could not escape the rain. Cold drops rolled down his face and onto his shoulders. It was not long before his clothes were drenched.
He crossed a narrow bridge over a small creek and saw many single-story residential houses.
There was a young woman in a raincoat and rain boots coming toward him. She held an umbrella over his head and kindly helped Jeong Jin Wu find Lee Seok Chun and Chae Sun Hee’s house. It was a quaint, two-bedroom house with a traditional Korean roof.
A young boy stood outside, shivering and staring vacantly at the way the rain fell from the eaves. Next to him was a shaggy dog, lying on the ground, also soaked by the rain. The lethargic guardian of the house did not bark as Jeong Jin Wu entered the front yard.
Judge Jeong Jin Wu asked, “Young man, where are your parents?”
“They’re not here yet,” the boy replied. He coughed. “Who are you, mister?”
The boy’s hair was wet from the rain, and his arms were covered with goose bumps from being cold. He had dimples in his plump cheeks, and his large lustrous eyes resembled Sun Hee’s. His eyes sparkled with innocence and curiosity, but, unlike other children his age, he also showed signs of anxiety and melancholy. He was the epitome of a child raised in a dysfunctional family.
“Well, you see. I am …” Jeong Jin Wu was about to introduce himself as the legal administrator presiding over the divorce case of claimant Chae Sun Hee and Lee Seok Chun, as he was accustomed to do in most introductory situations. But he thought it would be ridiculous to say such a thing to a child, so he did not complete his sentence. Instead, he said he was from Seok Chun’s factory.
The boy squinted at Jeong Jin Wu with suspicion, and after coughing a couple of times, he said, “I’ve never seen you before. Besides, my father’s shift isn’t over yet.”
“Well, you see. Uh, I arrived first. And, uh, your father, he will be home … uh, as soon as he … uh, as soon as he finishes cleaning the lathe machines.”
Jeong Jin Wu had just remembered that Seok Chun was a lathe operator from his meeting with Sun Hee. The boy now looked at Jeong Jin Wu with trusting eyes.
“Then do you also work the lathe?”
“Uh, something like that. Aren’t you going to finish kindergarten and go up to elementary school this fall?”
“Yes, it’s because I have an early birthday.” Then the boy let out a deep sigh, like an adult. Perhaps he felt he was old enough to be with the bigger kids.
“Remind me of your name, young man.”
“It’s Lee Ho Nam.”
“That’s right! Ho Nam. Is anybody home, Ho Nam?”
The boy shook his head and stepped to the side to show Jeong Jin Wu a padlock on the front door. Ho Nam sneezed and coughed more frequently. His cheeks were red, glowing like embers. Worried about the child’s health, Jeong Jin Wu placed his hand on Ho Nam’s forehead. It was as hot as a heated floor.
“You seem to have caught a cold, young man. Your clothes are all wet. Do you feel achy?”
Ho Nam insisted that he was not sick.
Jeong Jin Wu looked around at the neighboring houses, but it appeared that the neighbors had not yet returned from work. As Jeong Jin Wu was contemplating what to do, the young woman who had directed him to Ho Nam’s house earlier approached.
Jeong Jin Wu called out to her, “Comrade, thank goodness you’re here. Where do you live?”
“It’s a bit of a walk from here. It’s the collective unit next to the river.”
“Is the neighborhood community center far from here as well?”
“Yes, it is.”
“Comrade, do me a favor. When the boy’s parents come home,
tell them that I have taken him to my apartment.”
Without letting Ho Nam hear him, Jeong Jin Wu quietly told the young woman that he was a judge from the Superior Court and gave her his address. He had originally planned to have a talk with Lee Seok Chun and the neighborhood leader, but he had to postpone that for the sake of making sure Ho Nam was looked after.
Ho Nam coughed continuously. Jeong Jin Wu took out his handkerchief and wiped the boy’s wet face and hair.
“Hey, Ho Nam. Would you like to go to my house and wait for your parents there? It’s not too far from here.”
Ho Nam considered Jeong Jin Wu a trustworthy man, so he accepted Jeong Jin Wu’s hand and left with him. Each time Ho Nam took a step, water in his boots made a squishy sound. Jeong Jin Wu removed the boy’s boots and poured the water out. Ho Nam coughed again.
“Do you want to get on my back?” asked Jeong Jin Wu.
“Sure!” Ho Nam exclaimed.
Ho Nam was fatigued from standing and waiting in the cold rain. He jumped onto Jeong Jin Wu’s back without hesitation. The dog started wagging its tail and followed them outside.
“Bear, you stay,” ordered Ho Nam. “Hey, mister, would it be all right to take Bear with us?”
“I’m sorry, but it’s not a good idea. I live on the third floor of an apartment building.”
“Bear, you stay. I’ll be back soon.”
The dog whimpered as it retired to a spot next to the door.
The journey to Jeong Jin Wu’s apartment became tolerable when the rain momentarily stopped. For a seven-year-old boy, Ho Nam was quite heavy. Jeong Jin Wu’s back was cold and wet, but it warmed up with Ho Nam on it, particularly with his high fever. At times Ho Nam slipped down Jeong Jin Wu’s back, but then Jeong Jin Wu would lift him back up. Jeong Jin Wu saw dark clouds rolling toward them. He picked up his pace to avoid the second wave of the downpour. Drops of water fell from the leaves and tree branches. Ho Nam pressed his face against Jeong Jin Wu’s back each time drops of water fell onto his neck.
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