Underground

by Soyeon Park

small place. She was calm. She was tapping the floor with her foot, looking at her father leaving. Just like saying goodbye to dad.

  She must be Min’s sister. She looked younger, and cute. She was humming. Jun found something strange about her. Her eyes were wandering and they settled on the cookies. It looked like she was analyzing what they were. She dashed to the floor and shoveled cookies into her mouth. It was rather animalistic, if you can say that about a human being. Jun was scared to death and started screaming.

  “I’ve had enough of it! I can’t handle anymore!”

  Jun’s scream intrigued her. She started screaming too. Her voice was like crying and singing at the same time, but it wasn’t a word. It was more like noise from someone who never learned how to speak.

  Her noise made Jun scream even louder. She started to hit her head. It got faster and faster and her noise got louder and louder. Min covered Jun’s mouth and forced him to stop screaming. Strangely, through Min’s arms, Jun felt comfort. He could read Min’s intention. It was a force of protection.

  “She reacts to loud sound,” Min whispered.

  When they were both quiet, she slowly calmed down and her noise turned into humming again. She went out to the garden and hopped between the roots. She looked happy.

  “It’s Suzi, my sister.”

  Jun needed more explanation.

  “She is autistic,” Min added. Min could tell Jun didn’t know what it meant. “She sees differently, hears differently, and thinks differently. She lives in another world. Well, that’s what mom said.”

  “Okay, I am leaving. Goodbye.”

  Jun walked out towards the gate. Suzi caught his eye. She was digging in the ground. She was covered in soil and eating it. Jun couldn’t believe his eyes. When he blinked, she disappeared. Suzi wasn’t there anymore.

  “Where is she?”

  “That is exactly what I was wondering.”

  Both boys looked at the bottom of the tree. There was a big hole where Suzi was digging. It was as dark as hell down there. Min listened for any sound from his sister. Jun held his breath. Min’s ear found only silence.

  “This is all your fault! If you hadn’t come around, nothing would have happened.”

  Jun didn’t know what he did wrong. As far as he remembered, Min didn’t thank him for taking him to Mr. Choi’s place. Jun was the one who should be angry. Jun didn’t even want to be involved in any of this. It was Min who interrupted Jun’s day.

  “Well, if that’s the case, you should be grateful to me for getting rid of your sister!”

  Min pushed Jun. Min didn’t look like the same kid who was crying at Mr. Choi’s place. Min was strong but Jun wasn’t going to step back this time. The two boys rolled on the ground and fell into the hole.

  They both landed on their backs and couldn’t move because of the shock they got when they landed. There was a sound of metal objects scraping against each other. It was a small trolley on a rail. Min saw Suzi’s feet sticking out on top. The only thing Min could do was to call his sister’s name loudly, knowing she wouldn’t answer. He struggled and got up to catch his sister, but Suzi disappeared into the dark again.

  “Wait here and get help. I will look for Suzi.”

  Jun was left alone. He never felt so alone before. Jun stood under the light. Jun screamed, shouted, and called out. He could hear only his own voice. There was no way people outside were going to find him. Jun did not know how long he had to wait. The feeling of being alone was growing. It started to possess him.

  Jun looked at the dark area where Suzi and Min disappeared. The darkness was scary. The fear of being alone was growing. It got bigger and bigger. Eventually it got bigger than the darkness. Jun ran straight into the dark to escape from the fear.

  He couldn’t see a thing. He didn’t know how far he had run. All of sudden, there was a light. There must have been a lake above them. It looked like a massive fish tank. The sun was so strong. It shone underground through the water.

  Whenever fish swam by, it made a ripple of shadow. Trees were growing. Flowers bloomed. They smelled good. It was wild but it was certainly a man-made garden. A small stream ran through it.

  Min followed the stream. He stepped in with his bare feet. Water ran, tickling, between Min’s toes. Min wiggled his toes. It felt good. Min thought it might be good to come down here to escape from what was going on up there. He finally noticed Jun was there.

  “Did you talk to anyone?”

  “Yes, he is coming.”

  “Who?”

  “Um...Your dad.”

  Min seemed to believe it. Jun couldn’t tell how scary it was to be alone. Min looked opened and relaxed. Talking to Jun reminded Min of what he was supposed to do. Min carried on, following the rail. Jun held Min’s sleeve so tightly Min had to take his arm away from Jun.

  Once they passed the garden, it got dark again. It was going to take a few minutes to get use to it, but it could have been better if they couldn’t see a thing. When Jun tripped and fell, he faced a huge skeleton of an animal. With his imagination, Jun added flesh and muscle to the bones. A cow materialized. Jun couldn’t even scream. They were bones of animals. Some were big. Some were small. Min and Jun were surrounded by dead animals.

  “They are all farm animals. That one looks like a cow. Look, this is a chicken.” Min didn’t look scared. Yet.

  “Ok, I am leaving. I will wait back there. Bye.”

  Min grabbed Jun.

  “Oh, come on, stop being a chicken,” Min said without thinking. His own words reminded him of the chicken bones he saw earlier. In fact, Min was scared too. Well, a little bit. Jun read his fear from his hands. From there, Min held Jun’s sleeve as if he was afraid of being alone. They walked in the dark. They were better off together.

  They did not know how long they had walked when they stood in front of an old traditional house. The huge gate showed that it belonged to a manor from before 1944.

  After Japan murdered the Queen of the Chosun Dynasty in 1895, things only got worse for Chosun and finally it became part of Japan in 1910. There was not much left in the country. People had to carry on living with humiliation. They hoped to give their children a different future. They set up a school.

  A boy without a name turned up one day. Nobody knew where he was from and what happened to his parents. It wasn’t a surprise to see a boy like that. The only thing they knew about him was that he was very smart.

  He helped out with everything at school. He soon built a reputation. His reputation brought jealousy from other students. He saved other students from trouble. He got beaten up as a reward. The boy was very lonely.

  Jealousy wasn’t the only thing his reputation brought. He caught the interest of the master of the manor, Mr. Choi. Mr. Choi showed up at school one day to take the boy. His eye weren’t like those of the other children. Mr. Choi saw anger in them.

  “You are going to be nothing more than my servant.”

  The boy didn’t wait a second when Mr. Choi offered to take him away. From that day, the boy had a name.

  People called the boy Little Choi. Mr. Choi took Little Choi wherever he went. Mr. Choi taught foreign languages and manners. Little Choi was a fast learner. It didn’t take long for Little Choi to take responsibilities in Mr. Choi’s business. His business did well because he kept the Japanese happy. Little Choi kept all the records of Mr. Choi’s accounts.

  Mr. Choi expanded his business as well as his house. He recruited large numbers of workers. Once the workers came to work on his house, they couldn’t leave or go outside. The construction took nearly 10 years. Mr. Choi sent his workers to the Japanese army. He wouldn’t allow anyone to talk about what they had done. It was a massive project, but had to be kept secret.

  When it finally finished, Little Choi had grown into a decent young man. Secretly he admired Mr. Choi’s daughter, Heeyeon, but he never spoke or showed his feelings. He escorted her to social clubs and
dance parties. When she entered a room, the room was brighter and people couldn’t help looking at her. Then, there were competitions between Japanese generals about who would be the lucky one to dance with her.

  While she was enjoying being a queen at the party, grown up Little Choi waited outside, listening to the music, knowing exactly what was going on. It wasn’t a difficult guess that all the guys would be fighting for her.

  “Hey, did you hear? There will be a war.”

  “A war?”

  It was a boy who drove a rickshaw for the Japanese. He was little but tough. He looked excited.

  “Man, you haven’t heard? Those Japanese bastards are finished. We will get our country back.”

  It was surprising. Little Choi didn’t know how he was supposed to feel. He was excited to know there wouldn’t be any more Japanese in this land. He wanted to be a part of the big movement. He wanted to fight back against the Japanese. He would do anything to get his country back and have a free life.

  In the next few minutes, he wondered what would happen to someone who survived by sucking up to the Japanese, like Mr. Choi?

  “You don’t look so excited.”

  “Of course, I am! So, when will we get rid of those pigs on this land?” Little Choi copied the rickshaw man’s excitement in his face and voice.

  “Next year, boom! Oh, you won’t believe what I’ve done. Do you see the general, there? He will be the first one I’ll kill. I literally wipe his ass every morning. He promised not to