Jade took a handful of flowers in her hand and tossed them to her right. The petals were carried by a light blue breeze and floated for a moment before fluttering down, making pink, white, and violet patterns in the atmosphere. The crowd clapped, mesmerized. The city streets shot through with sunshine, the feeling of her shoes crunching on the packed sand—it all filled her lungs with something besides air. Here was something that Jade hadn’t known was possible: a sense of being free. She nearly wanted to flap her arms like wings. Resisting the fancy, she instead laughed and carelessly tossed a flower, which soared through the air and hit a boy in the face.
JUNGHO HAD BEEN WATCHING the parade of courtesans with intense fascination, standing between Loach, YoungGu, and the dog. YoungGu and JungHo had become close friends as boys often do after a good fistfight. The dog was a new addition to the group: one day in September, YoungGu found it wandering underneath the bridge, dirty and emaciated but still energetic. JungHo and Loach had both wanted to sell it to the butcher, but YoungGu looked ready to get into another fight. JungHo finally relented and let YoungGu keep the dog, as long as he fed it from his own share of food. Thereafter, YoungGu split his own meager ration with the dog and tenderly picked its fur for fleas, which he squished between his fingers. The dog was always within a few feet of YoungGu, and proved to be surprisingly useful for finding crowded places to beg. They had been roaming aimlessly when the dog led them to the parade and sat down on its haunches in front of the spectators, as if it too wanted to enjoy the sight.
Until then, JungHo had never realized that women could be so beautiful. The courtesans were almost like a different kind of people from all the women he’d known previously. The sight was so overwhelming that his stomach felt sick, but he couldn’t look away. He noticed at the end of the parade a pair of girls closer to his age. They were about the same medium height and build, and dressed in identical costumes of long bud-green robes over a pink skirt. Objectively they were both little girls with ordinary faces, too young for their approaching beauty to be discerned. But his eyes were immediately fastened on one of them, as if he’d been searching precisely for her. She had a round face—especially set off by the strict center part from the hairline to the crown of her head—a pair of bright eyes, and cheeks like apples, slightly reddened from the crisp fall air. That and not much more, but that was all that was needed.
As he stared at her, she grabbed a cosmos blossom from the basket and threw it directly at his face, smiling radiantly. He met the soft flower with terror at the thought that she was taunting him on purpose—and euphoria, for the same reason. Noticing his amazement, Loach and YoungGu broke into laughter and began teasing him mercilessly, but JungHo couldn’t even find it in himself to be irritated. The consciousness of something wonderful had entered his heart, though he did not yet know what it was.
7
The Escape
1918
IT IS A CONDITION OF YOUTH TO HAVE AN UNQUESTIONING BELIEF that life is a steady progression. Jade took it for granted that one step must follow another, and that she had caught a certain forward momentum at the parade that would take her into adulthood. So she was surprised and disappointed when nothing changed in the smallness of their daily routine. Dani still didn’t allow them to go beyond five houses in either direction. Jade obeyed as she always had, but dust began to settle over the loveliness of the house. She’d seen that just a little outside their neighborhood, there were shows, music, wealthy housewives imitating the fashions of courtesans, starry-eyed high school students in newsboy caps, gentlemen in high collars and monocles, stores selling all manner of delicacies. The world pulled at her, irresistible and real like the first hot day of summer. But she was cut off from everything, walled up in the middle of Seoul. As winter set in, Jade developed a habit of going out alone and sitting at the end of their street, the farthest point from the house that Dani would allow. It was on one of these afternoons that she noticed a strange boy around the neighborhood.
Later on, Jade wouldn’t be able to recall exactly how he seemed when she first saw him. She realized his existence over the course of many days. He seemed to be a natural part of the surroundings like a tree or a hedge, so she became used to him before she even noticed him. He was about her age, small and skinny. His skin was nut-brown, and it was hard to tell whether that was because of the sun or from the lack of washing. The moment her eyes finally trained on him as something distinct, he smiled, as if he’d been waiting for her to do just that. He started walking toward her, a yellow dog with a curled tail following him at his heels. That was when she realized that something was off about his appearance. It was his clothes, so worn-out that they seemed to be turning themselves back into yarns. Some beggars wore more patches than the original fabric on their clothes, but his gashes were just gaping open and flapping vigorously in the piercing wind. She was torn by equal forces of pity and disgust.
“I’ve seen you here a lot. Do you live around here?” he asked her. She nodded reluctantly. Dani hadn’t forbidden her from talking to other children, but she knew without being told. On the other hand, the force of her ennui was greater than the fear of Dani. And as dirty as the boy was, he was not so different from the village urchins she’d known growing up.
“Is that your dog?” she asked, pointing at the dog sniffing the ground behind him.
The boy whistled and the dog came bounding forward, joyfully wagging its tail.
“It’s my friend’s dog. You can pet him, he’s gentle.”
Jade squatted down and stroked the grateful dog from the head to the tail, behind the ears, and under the chin. “What’s his name?” she asked.
“He doesn’t have one. We just call him ‘dog,’” the boy explained. “My name is JungHo, though.”
Jade laughed. “Sorry. I should’ve asked your name first. I’m Jade.” Then she added, “I should probably go home soon. I’m not allowed to go far.”
“What’s far?”
“Across this street.”
JungHo shook his head in disbelief. “Don’t you get sick of being cooped up? I’ve walked every street in Seoul, just to know what’s out there. There’s the river, the marketplace, a street where all the Yankees live . . . Not too far from here, there is a zoo. I can show you, if you want.”