A Boy: Part VIII

By the time Keum had finished his story up to the fourth day of the tournament, I was almost done with congee and the shrimp dish, so I waved at one of the waiters at the corner table and ordered a plate of fried turnip cake with minced pork meat and scallions and I added two bottles of Tsing Tao. Yes, I knew it was early in the morning and I wasn't much of a drinker, but it was Saturday, which meant I didn't have to go to work, also too much of snow to do anything at all anyways. And, most of all, the story Keum had been telling me to have a drink or two.

Whenever he told me the story, Keum always did it in steady low voice, and in spite of the story's exciting contents, he did it almost as if there were no emotions attached. But it was different on that morning.
He was in full emotion, his voice quivered and cracked often and even raised his voice often when he told me the followings.

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Keum went up to his room immediately after the game and stayed there. He didn't eat his dinner. He called for a room service only once during the night for bottles of water. He sat at the small desk by his bed and stared at the white wall above the bed for a long time. He opened his suitcase and took out a small book.

It was the very book that Mrs. Baik gave him when he was little, a copy of ancient Sa-hwal-jib (Life and Death collections) written by master Lee from Yi Dynasty. He opened the page he marked and looked at the diagram. It was the only problem he couldn't solve from the book. Hundreds times he tried, but each time when he thought he finally solved it, right next day, he found out that the answer was not correct. It was like a curse. It was a rather large one for Sa-Hwal problem, need to answer it with 58 moves and each move had to be precise and in right order, the book said.

Whenever Keum had to think about things he couldn't help, he always opened the book to the page and tried to solve the problem. Tonight, Keum's thoughts were focused on his father. The man who abandoned his family. The man who hurt his mother so much. The man appeared and then disappeared in front of him like a ghost. The man Keum had missed so much for all his life. And hated for all his life.
He once more placed the stones one by one carefully in his mind. Over the years of practicing the same problem without succeed had created another problem; he always thought that the moves up to 39 were correct, he placed the first moves automatically without thinking.

Keum didn't know how long he dozed off when he woke up by a loud siren from outside. The clock on the wall said three fifteen and he saw that he dropped the book. On the floor, the book was opened at the page Keum was studying in such way the diagram was seen upside down. That was when Keum saw the mistake he had made for hundreds of times. The key was the second move of black. Not at the 39th. Keum left the book on the floor, stood up slowly, and placed the stones in his mind again, and clearly he could see the entire 58 moves with no mistakes.

There was a commotion in hallway, people running, shouting and more running, but Keum paid no attention to it. He was happy that he finally could solve all the problems in the book. He went to sleep and he dreamt of the sea, his mother and his hometown.

The following morning, when Keum stepped into the tournament room, the pro greeted him then said that there was a small accident last night. A man who had been working for the mob boss, Mr. Ku for many years, tried to rob the hotel's bank then escaped without taking any money. Keum also learned that at the beginning of the tournament, all guests were asked and told not to leave the hotel until the end of tournament in fear of someone might report the biggest illegal gambling event in Korea's history to the authority.

The room now had only one table in the center.
The fat man with a pink tie made the announcement to over 200 spectators that the final game was about to begin and asked all gamblers to place their final bets. Keum saw Nalle among the gamblers. He had two large bags with him, and saw him placing them on the table. Keum couldn't find his father.

Keum sat and faced his opponent. From what he saw, his opponent was a slender, but little shorter than himself. His opponent grabbed a handful of stones and Keum placed a single black stone on the Baduk-pan. When the counting was done, the fat man announced that Keum would play with black. Keum took a deep breath before he placed his first stone at Hwa-jum (4.4). The opponent answered with Oe-mok (5.3), followed by Keum's another Hwa-jum. The opponent placed his second move at Sam-sam (3.3). The room was in total silence. No one dared to talk. The game was played slowly with finesse of ballet dancers'. Then became a fight between a bear and a tiger. Then became two master swordmen's fight. The two were dancing, fighting, pushing and pulling for more than 6 hours.

At move 215, Keum suddenly saw that there was something strange about the top left corner's shape. He looked at the shape for a long time, then realized that it had the striking resemblance to that very last Sa-hwal problem he solved the previous night. He read and played over fifty moves in his mind before placing his move. Keum's opponent froze.
He took more than 40 minutes for his next move then the rest moves followed rather quickly. At 273rd move, it became clear that Keum's opponent's corner was dead. After every dame was filled and counted, Keum had 32 points more. The room became an instant Hell and Heaven. The winners were laughing (Nalle was one of them), losers were sad and angry.

Keum's opponent stood up and took off his mask. When he did that, he became she. She was about Keum's age, and stunningly beautiful. Keum stayed in his seat, took off his own mask, looked at her like she was some kind of alien from another planet.

She extended her arm and said that it was the greatest game she had ever played and thanked him. Keum took her hand and said nothing: he couldn't say anything. Then she whispered so only Keum could hear. "Do you remember me?"