A Boy: Part V

The very first game Keum played was a spectacular one, you might say.
There was no Posuk (Fuseki) stage. The fight started from one corner then spreaded like a disease much similar to the great epidemic of syphilis swept Europe during Henry the 8th in England. When the large dragon of the thin, long haired man died, the other three corners were still empty. The thin man offered Keum his hand then said it was a hardest game he had ever played.

A week later, the pro took Keum to the same place in Insadong for another match. This time it was a short middle-aged man with red plump face and he smelled alchohol. The man who introuced himself to Keum as Mr. Chang was very talktive. He kept talking, joking, laughing and humming songs during the whole game. Until 202nd move, which Keum placed his white stone ever-so-gently. Mr. Chang, the jolly fat man froze all his actions. His singing, talking and laughing halted at once. He, then, stared at the badukpan for good 20 minutes. His group, he thought lived at upper left corner, found dead with Keum's 1.2 point play. The fat man's jaw dropped. The redness from his plump face was gone. The fat man stood up and walked away without saying anything.

The third game Keum played was an easy one. He heard his opponent's nickname was Little Uncle. His sponsor was a famous mob boss in Kwang Joo. With a pair of small mouse-like eyes, Little Uncle looked friendly at first. But if the playing style of baduk tells the personality of the player, he wasn't friendly at all. His play was unorthodox and filled with tricks. Maybe he never studied baduk in proper way. Maybe he learned his baduk only by playing 'Bangnaegi-baduk'. Thanks to the years of study of the book Keum was given by Mrs. Paik, the old book from Yi Dynasty, Keum could read deep and far enough of those trick moves. Trick moves are like an arrow with heads on both ends with poison. One false move, one false reading can lead you to your own grave. Little Uncle resigned at move 125. Keum's Sae-ryuk (Moyo) was too large and solid to invade.
Keum later heard from the pro that after the loss, Little Uncle disappeared with no trace. People only could speculate that the angry mob boss ordered his army to get rid of Little Uncle.

For next six months, Keum played a total of two dosen games and delivered himself twenty four wins. Each time he was congratulated by Mr. Yi, and was given a large sum of cash.
Keum never counted the money.

It was in the middle of rain season when the pro came to Keum's room and asked him to get ready for a short trip. The pro said they will be leaving for Jejudo, an Island located in South part of Korea and it would be a three-day trip. They drove to Kimpo airport through pouring rain and got on DC-10. After little more than an hour of flying, they arrived at Jeju Airport and greeted by two men who both wore identical formal black suites, and drove them in a black limousine to Jeju Casino Hotel.

The next day, after breakfast, the pro took Keum to the main floor of Casino. There, they met the same two men. The two led Keum and the pro to the small room at the back of casino.
It was an odd sight to Keum at first; There was a large oak table in the middle of the room, and on far side of the table, a man was sitting. The man was huge. And blonde. And skin was white as snow. The two men introduced him to Keum as 'Nalle'. Keum later learned that he was brought in from Finland to fight Keum by the same mob boss in Kwang Joo. Also he learned that 'Nalle' means 'big and friendly' in Finnish and the word was short for 'Metsän Kuningas Ja Nalle', brown bear. Keum was told that they will play three games for next two days and whoever wins two games will be the winner. Nalle said 'Annyunghasyo. Bangapsumnida' (Hello, nice to meet you) in heavy accented Korean and smiled a broad smile. For some odd reasons, Keum liked him at the first sight. Before the game started, the two men said there will be a time limit; thirty minutes for each each player plus five times of thirty seconds cho-il-gi (byo-yomi).
Since Keum had never played with time limit, and with the fear of losing, the pro angrily protested saying that he never heard of such rules when the match was scheduled. After much arguing, and phone calls to Mr Yi and the mob boss, they decided that the decision must be up to Keum.

Without much thoughts, Keum accepted the condition.

Nalle played black on the first game. He, unlike his body size, played lightly.
He must be good at Sok-ki (blitz). Keum thought of a documentary he saw once about the bears catching salmons on the stream. The bears never hesitated in the picture. Nalle played like those bears. His moves were slick and fluent and fast. His opening seemed at first leaving too many spots opened to attacks, but he was well prepared. Keum's effort to capture a group failed. Keum's Sae-ryuck got invaded by Nalle's small but fast army, then disappeared. It was a close game at the end, but Keum's sense of timing failed at the end. He ran out of time, then he ran out of cho-il-ki five times. The win by time was declared at the end. It was the first loss by Keum.
Nalle stood up and tapped Keum's shoulder lightly with his fist. 'Jalduotsumnida' (It was a great game) and smiled. Keum didn't feel sad. Somehow, Keum liked this huge blonde Finn with a broad smile. The pro said 'At eight tonight for the second match, then.' in a low voice.