For those two years, Keum read the book so many times, he could remember the whole book page by page, problem by problem and he could solve almost all of them with his eyes closed.
For those two years, he hardly talked to anyone except the occasional yes and no's to his teachers and his mother. In the classes at school, he completely shut down himself, so naturally his classmates treated him like a weirdo; he became a biggest 'wang-dda' in school's history. Wang-dda, in Korean, means a 'lone weirdo'. Once you are labeled as 'wang-dda', you become a target of all kinds of abuse from class bullies. You might know children at that age could be real cruel. But any kind cruel abuses didn't make him to talk. The more abused, the less he responded.
After a while, the bullies gave up on him and moved to find another target, left him alone.
He didn't know that the immense feelings of dislike toward his father caused all that but he was too young to know then.
On a normal day, he would wake up at 6 in the morning. He would find breakfast on the wooden table, left by his mother before she went out to open her restaurant. While eating, he would put the imaginary baduk stones on one corner of the table and play out the problems from the book (there were no baduk stones). If anyone saw what he did, the person surely would think that the boy was crazy.
On the year when he became twelve years old, there was a big change in the city he lived; the government approved the plan of making new international airport in the harbor of Incheon, not just an airport, but the largest one in Asia. Even though the Incheon International Airport(ICN) wasn't completed until fifteen years later, the idea was popular among Incheonians because the new-largest-in-Asia-airport meant more jobs and once in life time opportunity of making big money to many of them. The city's mayor was extremely satisfied. He held series of events to celebrate the approval of the airport. Many soccer, baseball, basketball games were played to celebrate. Ssi-rum competitions (Korean traditional wrestling) were held and champions went home with 3-year-old-prize-bulls. There were karaoke contests. And some people even held private poker games.
Schools held similar events like mathematics and English competition. There were track and field games at every school. There was a Quiz show called 'Incheon Junior High Schools' Who, What, How, Where and Why Quiz Show Celebrating Coming Incheon International Airport.' The manager of the show later was fired because of the too long title of the show, people said.
One of such events was this tiny tournament at each and every libraries at elementary schools on weekends of Summer. It was called Incheon Childrens Guksu-jun; Baduk King Tournament.
Baduk had been the national game since Guksu Cho Nam Chul* (The King of Baduk, master Cho Namchul) distributed and popularized the game.
Keum was visiting Mrs. Paik at the time of the tournament and for the first time he watched the real games played between players. Most games were between low grade players and he found they all looked boring. Except at one table where many people watching. Two players were strongest 12 year olds from his school.
The game was well into mid-game stage and a big fight was going on. It was black's turn to make a move and he hadn't made a move for good twenty minutes. On the far end of the library, tournament officers set up a large magnetic badk-pan and replayed the on-going game. One of the pros who was born in Incheon was showing possible best moves for the situation. Keum looked at the situation on the magnetic board, and right away noticed the sequence which black could kill white dragon. The pro asked the audience if anyone could come up with the correct answer. No one could. The pro repeated the same question few times until, to everyone's surprize, the school's well known'wang-dda raised his hand.
The pro smiled and asked the boy to come up to the board and play the sequence.
Keum walked up and put large magnetic stones on the board. He was shy but not nervous. When he did it, it was so fast and with such force each move made loud clinking noise.
-----------------------------------------------------------
[*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cho_Namchul: Cho was born in a farming village in Buan, North Jeolla Province. In 1934, Japanese professional Kitani Minoru visited Korea and played with ten-year-old Cho, who deeply impressed the great master. He went to Japan in 1937 to study go as Kitani's first insei, or live-in student. In 1943, he returned to South Korea and played a key role in the founding of the Hanguk Kiwon. It wasn't until 1983, that he would be awarded 9 dan, but for most of the 1950's and 1960's, he won the vast majority of national tournaments.
He is known as the founder of Korean modern Go.
After his death, he was honored by the president of Korea with a medal and floral tribute.]
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Friday, March 14, 2008
A Boy: Part I
This is a story about my friend Keum.
When I met him, he lived in one of Chinatown's notorious basement apartments, where he shared a small room with 23 other illegal aliens, mostly from Mainland China. It was one of those time-share-places. There were three shifts; you could be in the room only for 8 hours. There were no beds but eight dirty mattresses. A small bathroom with a shower was shared.
Almost all of them worked in Chinatown's restaurants as waiters and bus boys.
They worked 15 - 16 hours a day, everyday with no weekends, hoping someday they could pay the money they owed to the human-transporters, and get a green card, bring their families, raise their children in America and become rich...
It was Saturday morning 5 o'clock, I was dead tired from working all night at my studio preparing one of my client's presentation. I took a cab to Chinatown's my favorite congee place on Bowery Street. When I got there, the place was empty except number of waiters playing cards on the round table at the corner. One of the waiters came after I sat down at a small table by the window and poured a cup of hot Woolong tea and a menu. Without looking the menu, I ordered two of my favorite dishes of the place; a bowl of congee with thousand-year-egg, and a sizzling plate of fried turnip cake with minced pork.
Maybe I ate too fast, or maybe I was too tired.
I was dreaming some strange dream when someone shook my shoulders.
First I didn't know where I was then I realized that person was the waiter who served me the food.
Out of embarrassment, and out of still-dreaming-state I apologized in Korean, loudly. And the waiter spoke back in Korean!
I was very surprised because in Chinatown, there's no way that you work in Chinese restaurant unless you are Chinese. So I thought he was a Chinese who speaks Korean. But when I asked how he could speak perfect Korean, he whispered that he was Korean. While he was cleaning the table, we talked and I found out he was single, never married, 32 years old, and had worked there for over two years. I felt sorry for him and left a large tip when I paid.
Since then whenever I want to have a bowl congee or authentic dim sum, I went there, sometimes with my wife and friends and talked with that young Korean man.
At least twice a week.
We became friends.
Five years went by. And this is what I could gather from what he had told me during those five years.
(We never had a chance to have 'formal' conversations; I was always a customer, and he was always a waiter and he had other tables to attend as you can imagine.)
He was born in Incheon, Kyung Gi Province, a seaport about 40 miles from Capital of Korea, Seoul.
His father was a fisherman, an alcoholic, a gambler and a womanizer. Keum saw his father only twice.
The first time was when Keum graduated elementary school; A strange man gave him an English dictionary as a gift after the graduation ceremony. He smelled alcohol. Keum's mother didn't say a word, grabbed Keum's hand and walked away. Keum looked back after a few steps, but he was gone already. Later mother told Keum that he was Keum's father.
The second time was when his father was found dead on the boat he had worked. The police asked Keum's mother to identify the body, Keum went with his mother. The man's face looked strangely peaceful and Keum thought he was a handsome man. Keum didn't cry. The police never found out the cause of the death of that unimportant, poor, fisherman.
Keum's mother was a very quiet woman. She never raised her voice or got angry over anything. She ran a small seafood restaurant by the Bay, and the restaurant was busy with local businessmen and tourists. Mother was too busy to attend Keum, her only son, Keum learned to be left alone from very early age. Keum didn't have many friends. After school, he stopped by the school library borrowed a book or two, went home, to his room where his mom left some food for him on a small wooden table, one of only two furniture in the room; the other only furniture was an old wardrobe his mom received as a wedding gift form her parents.
After finished eating, he washed dishes, and read books. He read any books he could get. By the time he was nine, at fourth grade, he had read almost all books in the library. The librarian, Mrs Paik, became very fond of this small book craze child and tried to talk to the boy, but the child never spoke a word to her until one day the library ran out of books.
In a very shy voice, the boy asked her if there were any more books he could borrow, and she answered no. And she said except her private collections but they were not for rent. She showed the boy the books of her own. They were rare old books she had collected since she was in high school, and they were indeed genuine old books from Yi dynasty, many of them were over hundred years old.
Most of them were written in Chinese, only few were in old Korean. She showed one very interesting looking book with lots of diagrams and patterns of round blacks and whites, where he found they looked familiar to him somehow. But he couldn't remember where he saw the shape before until that night at home sat down to eat the food his mother prepared for him. The small wooden table his mom used for dinner table had the exact shape and same lines in those diagrams.
Next day when he went to the library, Mrs Paik, the librarian handed him a handmade book which she copied and bind. That was the very first baduk book he had read. He didn't know it, but the book was actually a life and death problem books written by a baduk master during Yi dynasty. The author known as master Lee was an aide to Yeonsan Kun(1476 - 1506 AD), the most notorious King, and master Lee was sentenced to death by drinking poison when the coup d’état replaced Yeonsan kun with his step brother, and the new King Joong Jong.
The book didn't make no sense to the boy first, unlike other books he had read, it took a long time to understand even the very first few pages. But since he had no other books to borrow or read, he kept reading it. The book had 428 pages in total and had two diagrams of life and death problems on each page.
There was supposed to be a separate book of answers, but never found, Mrs Paik said when the boy asked for it. He kept reading and reading. The book became only friend of his for next two years.
When I met him, he lived in one of Chinatown's notorious basement apartments, where he shared a small room with 23 other illegal aliens, mostly from Mainland China. It was one of those time-share-places. There were three shifts; you could be in the room only for 8 hours. There were no beds but eight dirty mattresses. A small bathroom with a shower was shared.
Almost all of them worked in Chinatown's restaurants as waiters and bus boys.
They worked 15 - 16 hours a day, everyday with no weekends, hoping someday they could pay the money they owed to the human-transporters, and get a green card, bring their families, raise their children in America and become rich...
It was Saturday morning 5 o'clock, I was dead tired from working all night at my studio preparing one of my client's presentation. I took a cab to Chinatown's my favorite congee place on Bowery Street. When I got there, the place was empty except number of waiters playing cards on the round table at the corner. One of the waiters came after I sat down at a small table by the window and poured a cup of hot Woolong tea and a menu. Without looking the menu, I ordered two of my favorite dishes of the place; a bowl of congee with thousand-year-egg, and a sizzling plate of fried turnip cake with minced pork.
Maybe I ate too fast, or maybe I was too tired.
I was dreaming some strange dream when someone shook my shoulders.
First I didn't know where I was then I realized that person was the waiter who served me the food.
Out of embarrassment, and out of still-dreaming-state I apologized in Korean, loudly. And the waiter spoke back in Korean!
I was very surprised because in Chinatown, there's no way that you work in Chinese restaurant unless you are Chinese. So I thought he was a Chinese who speaks Korean. But when I asked how he could speak perfect Korean, he whispered that he was Korean. While he was cleaning the table, we talked and I found out he was single, never married, 32 years old, and had worked there for over two years. I felt sorry for him and left a large tip when I paid.
Since then whenever I want to have a bowl congee or authentic dim sum, I went there, sometimes with my wife and friends and talked with that young Korean man.
At least twice a week.
We became friends.
Five years went by. And this is what I could gather from what he had told me during those five years.
(We never had a chance to have 'formal' conversations; I was always a customer, and he was always a waiter and he had other tables to attend as you can imagine.)
He was born in Incheon, Kyung Gi Province, a seaport about 40 miles from Capital of Korea, Seoul.
His father was a fisherman, an alcoholic, a gambler and a womanizer. Keum saw his father only twice.
The first time was when Keum graduated elementary school; A strange man gave him an English dictionary as a gift after the graduation ceremony. He smelled alcohol. Keum's mother didn't say a word, grabbed Keum's hand and walked away. Keum looked back after a few steps, but he was gone already. Later mother told Keum that he was Keum's father.
The second time was when his father was found dead on the boat he had worked. The police asked Keum's mother to identify the body, Keum went with his mother. The man's face looked strangely peaceful and Keum thought he was a handsome man. Keum didn't cry. The police never found out the cause of the death of that unimportant, poor, fisherman.
Keum's mother was a very quiet woman. She never raised her voice or got angry over anything. She ran a small seafood restaurant by the Bay, and the restaurant was busy with local businessmen and tourists. Mother was too busy to attend Keum, her only son, Keum learned to be left alone from very early age. Keum didn't have many friends. After school, he stopped by the school library borrowed a book or two, went home, to his room where his mom left some food for him on a small wooden table, one of only two furniture in the room; the other only furniture was an old wardrobe his mom received as a wedding gift form her parents.
After finished eating, he washed dishes, and read books. He read any books he could get. By the time he was nine, at fourth grade, he had read almost all books in the library. The librarian, Mrs Paik, became very fond of this small book craze child and tried to talk to the boy, but the child never spoke a word to her until one day the library ran out of books.
In a very shy voice, the boy asked her if there were any more books he could borrow, and she answered no. And she said except her private collections but they were not for rent. She showed the boy the books of her own. They were rare old books she had collected since she was in high school, and they were indeed genuine old books from Yi dynasty, many of them were over hundred years old.
Most of them were written in Chinese, only few were in old Korean. She showed one very interesting looking book with lots of diagrams and patterns of round blacks and whites, where he found they looked familiar to him somehow. But he couldn't remember where he saw the shape before until that night at home sat down to eat the food his mother prepared for him. The small wooden table his mom used for dinner table had the exact shape and same lines in those diagrams.
Next day when he went to the library, Mrs Paik, the librarian handed him a handmade book which she copied and bind. That was the very first baduk book he had read. He didn't know it, but the book was actually a life and death problem books written by a baduk master during Yi dynasty. The author known as master Lee was an aide to Yeonsan Kun(1476 - 1506 AD), the most notorious King, and master Lee was sentenced to death by drinking poison when the coup d’état replaced Yeonsan kun with his step brother, and the new King Joong Jong.
The book didn't make no sense to the boy first, unlike other books he had read, it took a long time to understand even the very first few pages. But since he had no other books to borrow or read, he kept reading it. The book had 428 pages in total and had two diagrams of life and death problems on each page.
There was supposed to be a separate book of answers, but never found, Mrs Paik said when the boy asked for it. He kept reading and reading. The book became only friend of his for next two years.
Friday, February 22, 2008
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.
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.
The Peach Farmer
This is a story about two friends who lived in the city called Sosa in Korea about 40 km from Seoul, the capital city. Sosa was famous for its fine quality peaches and 9/10th of residents were peach farmers.
Their fathers lived right next to each other, owned about same size of peach farms. they were good friends for many years, they got married on the same year, both got one boy a year later. Only boy for each family.
Two boys played together all the time.
Their fathers both believed good friendships require certain amount of competition, and competition would enhance productivity, so each year at the harvest, they had a party, and at the party, they ran monster peach contest; whoever produced the biggest peach would win a calf as a prize.
Everything went alright (or you can say everything was peachy) between the two families until their sons became old enough to go to school.
The competition between two families became competition between their sons.
Any events at school such as sports events, math competitions, once a year speech competition, painting exhibitions and even daily quiz at their classes brought utmost attention to the boys fathers.
By the time the boys reached 6th grade, the relationships between the two families weren't that friendly any more. And the boy from Kim's family was doing far better than the one from Lee's.
Kim was all A+ student, excelled in all sports, and passed the exam for the best high school in Korea. Lee seemed dazed and confused all the time, he was at last 20% of the class most of time, spent many hours reading comic books and spent more time playing baduk at local giwon.
Kim's family sold the peach farm to send the boy to Seoul, first a little, but by the time he graduated the university with doctoral degree, there was no farm left. His father died poor but proud of his son's success.
Lee dropped out of high school, worked at the peach farm, spent his spare time with comic books and baduk, never made his father happy before his father died. He was told thousands times that he was the loser.
Kim, with his doctoral degree, worked for a big company, was successful in many ways, always had many pretty women around him, but never got married. When he was 32, he was made a youngest CEO in the company's history, made millions. At age 45, he was involved in the worst Stock scam in Korea's history, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison. He was penniless when he was released after 8 years.
Lee kept working at the farm for all those years. Got married had three daughters.
Time changed everything in Korea, and there was a big real estate boom and the city Sosa was not an exception. Being so close to Seoul, the price of land in Sosa skyrocketed. An electronic manufacturing company wanted to buy Lee's farm to build their main office buildings. Lee sold the farm, made millions, retired, helped poors and supported local hospitals for elders.
And he plays baduk on every weekend.
Their fathers lived right next to each other, owned about same size of peach farms. they were good friends for many years, they got married on the same year, both got one boy a year later. Only boy for each family.
Two boys played together all the time.
Their fathers both believed good friendships require certain amount of competition, and competition would enhance productivity, so each year at the harvest, they had a party, and at the party, they ran monster peach contest; whoever produced the biggest peach would win a calf as a prize.
Everything went alright (or you can say everything was peachy) between the two families until their sons became old enough to go to school.
The competition between two families became competition between their sons.
Any events at school such as sports events, math competitions, once a year speech competition, painting exhibitions and even daily quiz at their classes brought utmost attention to the boys fathers.
By the time the boys reached 6th grade, the relationships between the two families weren't that friendly any more. And the boy from Kim's family was doing far better than the one from Lee's.
Kim was all A+ student, excelled in all sports, and passed the exam for the best high school in Korea. Lee seemed dazed and confused all the time, he was at last 20% of the class most of time, spent many hours reading comic books and spent more time playing baduk at local giwon.
Kim's family sold the peach farm to send the boy to Seoul, first a little, but by the time he graduated the university with doctoral degree, there was no farm left. His father died poor but proud of his son's success.
Lee dropped out of high school, worked at the peach farm, spent his spare time with comic books and baduk, never made his father happy before his father died. He was told thousands times that he was the loser.
Kim, with his doctoral degree, worked for a big company, was successful in many ways, always had many pretty women around him, but never got married. When he was 32, he was made a youngest CEO in the company's history, made millions. At age 45, he was involved in the worst Stock scam in Korea's history, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison. He was penniless when he was released after 8 years.
Lee kept working at the farm for all those years. Got married had three daughters.
Time changed everything in Korea, and there was a big real estate boom and the city Sosa was not an exception. Being so close to Seoul, the price of land in Sosa skyrocketed. An electronic manufacturing company wanted to buy Lee's farm to build their main office buildings. Lee sold the farm, made millions, retired, helped poors and supported local hospitals for elders.
And he plays baduk on every weekend.
Murder Case One
This is about a murder case which was reported to Seoul's Joong-gu (middle section) police station. It was Monday afternoon around 3 PM, and the caller was a 16 year old Baduk yungusaeng (insei).
When the detective Kwan arrived at the murder scene with his assistant Myung, there were quite few people in the room already.
The building where the murder happened was belonged to Hangook Giwon (Korean National Baduk organization), and had 3 stories with no elevator. And the entire floors of the first and second were used for public and the third floor for administrators' offices with one small room for private guests.
The small room was named 'Flying Dragon' and the room was often used for private teaching lessons given by pro baduk players. The murder happened in that room.
The victim was a famous pro, age 45, who won many titles in his early 20's, and before he was killed, he spent most of his time writing baduk books and teaching high profiled amateurs including company CEO's, politicians and lawyers.
Detective Kwan himself was a baduk player and familiar with the victim's baduk books especially the most famous one titled 'Invade and Kill'.
When he kneeled down to examine the victim's body, Kwan immediately noticed the victim's head was smashed, smashed so hard a portion of brain was spilt out on the floor in a pool of blood.
Kwan looked around and saw a young policeman yelling at the spectators to be quiet. Kwan waved at him and when the young policeman came to him close enough, Kwan asked if he found any murder weapon. And he said 'no' with some degree of apology. But he also said he was just outside of the building at the moment the boy called the police station, he was radioed immediately and within the matter of minutes he could seal the two doors (only doors of the building) and he didn't let anybody leave the building. When he said that his face lit up with a pride.
Kwan asked the policeman to bring the boy to him.
The boy looked a bit older than his age, didn't look like a typical baduk yungusaeng. He was over 180cm, well built. Only his eyes were sparkling like a pair of bright stars like most of those brilliant young baduk players.
The detective waved at his assistant Myung (a young female detective) and asked her to record the conversation between him and the boy. But the questions went on not more than 10 minutes. Becuase Myung suddenly whispered something into Kwan's ear.
Kwan arrested the boy as a murderer.
While the interview went on, Myung noticed the boy is missing a sock.
Blood soaked sock was found in a trash can in the room.
The boy filled his sock with baduk-dols (Go stones) and used it as a weapon.
The motive of the murder?
When Kwan heard it from the boy, he couldn't believe his ears.
The boy was denied an 'undo'.
When the detective Kwan arrived at the murder scene with his assistant Myung, there were quite few people in the room already.
The building where the murder happened was belonged to Hangook Giwon (Korean National Baduk organization), and had 3 stories with no elevator. And the entire floors of the first and second were used for public and the third floor for administrators' offices with one small room for private guests.
The small room was named 'Flying Dragon' and the room was often used for private teaching lessons given by pro baduk players. The murder happened in that room.
The victim was a famous pro, age 45, who won many titles in his early 20's, and before he was killed, he spent most of his time writing baduk books and teaching high profiled amateurs including company CEO's, politicians and lawyers.
Detective Kwan himself was a baduk player and familiar with the victim's baduk books especially the most famous one titled 'Invade and Kill'.
When he kneeled down to examine the victim's body, Kwan immediately noticed the victim's head was smashed, smashed so hard a portion of brain was spilt out on the floor in a pool of blood.
Kwan looked around and saw a young policeman yelling at the spectators to be quiet. Kwan waved at him and when the young policeman came to him close enough, Kwan asked if he found any murder weapon. And he said 'no' with some degree of apology. But he also said he was just outside of the building at the moment the boy called the police station, he was radioed immediately and within the matter of minutes he could seal the two doors (only doors of the building) and he didn't let anybody leave the building. When he said that his face lit up with a pride.
Kwan asked the policeman to bring the boy to him.
The boy looked a bit older than his age, didn't look like a typical baduk yungusaeng. He was over 180cm, well built. Only his eyes were sparkling like a pair of bright stars like most of those brilliant young baduk players.
The detective waved at his assistant Myung (a young female detective) and asked her to record the conversation between him and the boy. But the questions went on not more than 10 minutes. Becuase Myung suddenly whispered something into Kwan's ear.
Kwan arrested the boy as a murderer.
While the interview went on, Myung noticed the boy is missing a sock.
Blood soaked sock was found in a trash can in the room.
The boy filled his sock with baduk-dols (Go stones) and used it as a weapon.
The motive of the murder?
When Kwan heard it from the boy, he couldn't believe his ears.
The boy was denied an 'undo'.
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