As he talked, Isak observed her. Sunja was a private person. Even at the house, she did not talk much to the girls who worked there or even to her mother. Was she always this way? he wondered. It was hard to imagine that she’d had a lover.
Isak spoke to her quietly, not wishing to be heard by the others.
“Sunja, do you think you could care for me? As your husband?” Isak clasped his hands as if in prayer.
“Yes.” The answer came quickly because this felt true to her. She cared for him now, and she didn’t want him to think otherwise.
Isak felt light and clean inside, as if his diseased lungs had been scoured back to health. He took a breath.
“I expect it will be difficult, but would you try to forget him?” There, he said it. They would not have secret thoughts.
Sunja winced, not having expected him to speak of this.
“I’m not different from other men. I have my pride, which I know is probably wrong.” He frowned. “But I’ll love this child, and I will love you and honor you.”
“I’ll do my best to be a good wife.”
“Thank you,” he said. He hoped he and Sunja would be close, the way his parents were.
When the noodles arrived, he bowed to say grace, and Sunja laced her fingers together, copying his movements.
10
A week later, Yangjin, Sunja, and Isak took the morning ferry to Busan. The women wore freshly laundered hanbok made of white hemp beneath padded winter jackets; Isak’s suit and coat had been brushed clean and his shoes polished bright. Pastor Shin was expecting them after breakfast.
Upon their arrival, the church servant recognized Isak and led them to Pastor Shin’s office.
“You’re here,” the elder pastor said, rising from his seat on the floor. He spoke with a northern accent. “Come in, come in.” Yangjin and Sunja bowed deeply. They’d never been inside a church before. Pastor Shin was a thin man whose clothes were too big for him. The sleeve hems on his aging black suit were frayed, but the white collar at his throat was clean and well starched. His unwrinkled dark clothes appeared to flatten the bent C-curve of his shoulders.
The servant girl brought three floor cushions for the guests and laid them near the brazier in the center of the poorly heated room.
The three guests stood awkwardly until Pastor Shin took his seat. Isak was seated beside Pastor Shin, and Yangjin and Sunja opposite the elder minister.
Once they were seated, no one spoke, waiting for Pastor Shin to lead the meeting with a prayer. After he finished, the elder pastor took his time to assess the young woman whom Isak planned to marry. He’d been thinking a great deal about her since the young pastor’s last visit. In preparation for the interview, Shin had even reread the Book of Hosea. The elegant young man in his charcoal woolen suit contrasted dramatically with the stocky girl—Sunja’s face was round and plain, and her eyes were lowered either in modesty or shame. Nothing in her prosaic appearance conjured up the harlot the prophet Hosea had been forced to marry. She was, in fact, unremarkable in her manner. Pastor Shin didn’t believe in reading faces to determine a person’s fate as his own father had, but if he were to filter her destiny through his father’s eyes, it didn’t look as if her life would be easy, but neither was it cursed. He glanced at her stomach, but he couldn’t tell her condition under the full chima and her coat.
“How do you feel about going to Japan with Isak?” the elder pastor asked Sunja.
Sunja looked up, then looked down. She wasn’t sure what it was that ministers did exactly or how they exercised their powers. Pastor Shin and Pastor Isak weren’t likely to fall into spells like male shamans or chant like monks.
“I’d like to hear what you think,” Shin said, his body leaning in toward her. “Please say something. I wouldn’t want you to leave my office without my having heard your voice.”
Isak smiled at the women, not knowing what to make of the elder pastor’s stern tone of voice. He wanted to assure them that the pastor was well-meaning.
Yangjin placed her hand gently on her daughter’s knee. She’d expected some sort of questioning but she hadn’t realized until now that Pastor Shin thought badly of them.
“Sunja-ya, tell Pastor Shin what you think about marrying Baek Isak,” Yangjin said.
Sunja opened her mouth, then closed it. She opened it again, her voice tremulous.
“I’m very grateful. To Pastor Baek for his painful sacrifice. I will work very hard to serve him. I will do whatever I can to make his life in Japan better.”
Isak frowned; he could see why she’d say this, but all the same, Sunja’s sentiment saddened him.
“Yes.” The elder pastor clasped his hands together. “This is indeed a painful sacrifice. Isak is a fine young man from a good family, and it cannot be easy for him to undertake this marriage, given your situation.”
Isak lifted his right hand slightly in a weak protest, but he kept quiet in deference to his elder. If Pastor Shin refused to marry them, his parents and teachers would be troubled.