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.
Friday, February 22, 2008
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'.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
