Free Your Republic Is Calling You by Young-Ha Kim, Chi-Young Kim Page A

positions held by the German army. The German army's movements were as clear to him as if he were looking at tropical fish in a tank. Most information is not stored in steel safes deep in cloistered rooms, protected by infrared detectors. All the words coming out of someone's mouth and all the written phrases in public documents—these are the crucial clues.
    Ki-yong goes down the subway stairs. A beggar is prostrated on the steps, his forehead resting on the floor and his hands outstretched. He holds a sign made of a cardboard ramen box, the letters written forcefully in black marker. The pen strokes, strong and desperately drawn, shriek in sorrow: I GOT NO LEGS. Ki-yong passes him by, but then doubles back and drops a 500-won coin in his cup. Unable to lower his head any farther, the beggar bends his back and sticks his rear up in the air in gratitude. It is the first time Ki-yong has ever been charitable. From the entrance above, a strong wind pushes into the subterranean tunnel. A sour smell hits his nose, wafting from the beggar and his dirty cloth backpack. Ki-yong runs down the stairs.

BART SIMPSON AND CHE GUEVARA
11:00 A.M.
    U NDER CHOL-SU'S direction, the Passat gently hops the sidewalk, turns elegantly, and backs into the parking space in front of the showroom. Ma-ri likes guys who can park gracefully. Good drivers tend to show off, but a man who knows how to park has a delicacy about him and an ability to concentrate.
    Chol-su bids Ma-ri goodbye as he gets out of the car. "It's a nice car. I'll give you a call."
    "Please do. Bye."
    He gets into his Grandeur and turns on the engine. Ma-ri enters the office. The manager nods in greeting as Ma-ri says, "I'm back."

    Another dealer, Kim I-yop, who started working there a year after Ma-ri, smiles brightly and greets her. "How'd it go?
    "I didn't see you this morning," Ma-ri comments.
    "Tong-il was sick."
    "Oh ... So how is he?" Ma-ri regrets her question as soon as it escapes her lips. There is a brief silence.
    "Oh, you know. Same as usual." I-yop smiles. His son has malignant lymphoma. Once, I-yop brought him to work, and the kid grinned from ear to ear, so excited to see all the sparkling cars in the showroom. I-yop placed his son in the driver's seat of a car worth more than 100 million won, and the boy happily honked the horn. The year the boy was diagnosed with malignant lymphoma, he was shuttled around to take all sorts of tests. One day, his wife's car barged over the center divider, crashing into a one-ton truck. The airbag didn't deploy and she died instantly. But emergency personnel found the two-year-old fastened in his car seat, smiling, without a single scratch. The insurance company refused to pay out in full because her car had breached the divider, and I-yop sued. The company apparently thought his wife was trying to commit suicide and that she'd purposefully shot over to the other side of the street. It was a plausible theory but nobody knew for sure. When I-yop was at work, his wife's unmarried older sister looked after the boy. Once, he confessed that he would be taken aback at the sight of her when he got home, thinking for a second that his wife was standing there. Well aware of his situation, his colleagues sometimes give him credit for their contracts, which he doesn't refuse. Judging only from his cheery surface, one can't begin to guess at the depths of misfortune that sprang on his family. At times, his cheer feels a little creepy, like the optimistic beginning of a horror movie. If someone came up to her one day and exclaimed, "Kim I-yop hanged himself last night," Ma-ri wouldn't be all that surprised.
    Back at her desk, Ma-ri takes out her cell phone and double-checks the text message she received earlier that morning. Her body starts to burn up, the way it does when she
soaks in the tub. Heat travels up in waves from deep within her. She will see him in one hour. They will eat together and she will stare at his lips moving delicately as