The Old Man

I met this old gentleman at the go club when I was 14. He was about 70 years old.

He was always very kind to me and others. He was generous too, buying lunches to other players, never played gambling baduk although he was one of the strongest players at the club. He never played so-called 'ggomsu'; trick moves. He was always busy teaching weaker players and beginners.

He often brought his wife which was rare thing to do at the time. Baduk clubs were almost exclusively for men. And whenever his wife came, she always brought large quantity of snacks for everyone at the club. She was an excellent cook.

I respected him a lot.

Until I saw his dark side. (No, he wasn't my father. And I wasn't Luke.)

He invited me and my friends who were going same junior high school to his home one day.
We were all very excited thinking he would give us private baduk lessons and more over about the 'food' his wife would serve us.

Once we arrived his home he showed us around his house which was rather large in size with many rooms. We played few games with each other and also with him. After few hours, his wife served us very delicious dinner. And after the dinner, we had homemade ice cream and we played more games.

About an hour after the dessert, I had to go to bathroom and his wife told me it was at the end of hall. On the way coming back, I saw a door was ajar on one of the rooms. It was his study and I was curious what kind of baduk books he read, so I went in.

There was a huge mound of baduk stones in two groups (white and black) on his desk... Mountains of them... My jaw dropped and wondered why he had so many of them.

Later I found out that he'd been stealing those stones from all clubs he went to, just a few each time, every day, like a bad habit of scratching a scab knowing that you really shouldn't scratch...

I stopped going to the club. Him being a thief was an unbearable fact to 14 year old boy.

About three years later, I heard that he passed away. I also heard that his wife donated all his baduk equipment and books to the baduk club he frequented.

Epilogue:
A short while after he passed away, I went to the near-by mountain from where you could see old man's house.

I buried a fistful of stones I stole from his desk on that day.