The Camellia (1936)

Author: Kim You-jeong

Today, once again, our rooster was chased. It was when I came out after lunch, intending to go gather firewood. As I was about to head up the mountain, there was a loud flapping noise and the sound of chickens fighting behind me. Startled, I turned my head, and sure enough, the two of them were tangled up again.

Jeom-sun's rooster (a brute with a big head and a sturdy build like a badger) was mercilessly attacking our small-framed rooster. It wasn't just a simple attack; it would flutter up and peck our rooster's comb, step back, pause for a moment, and then flutter up again to peck its neck. It polished him off without mercy, showing off its technique like this. Then, whenever our ugly creature was pecked, its beak would hit the ground, and it could only let out a pitiful "kik, kik" sound. Naturally, its unhealed comb was pecked again, dripping bright red blood.

Looking down at this, sparks flew from my eyes as if my own head had burst open and blood was flowing out. I thought about instantly charging in with my A-frame carrier stick and striking Jeom-sun's chicken, but I changed my mind and only separated them by swinging the stick in the air.

Jeom-sun must have instigated the fight again this time. She definitely did it just to rile me up. I don't know why that little wench has been growling at me lately, acting as if she can't stand the sight of me.

Even regarding the potato incident four days ago, I did absolutely nothing wrong to her. If a girl goes out to dig up wild greens, she should just do that. Why come and bother someone who is weaving a fence? And she even sneaked up behind me with muffled footsteps to say,

"Hey! Are you working all by yourself?"

just making useless small talk.

Up until yesterday, she and I rarely spoke and pretended not to see each other even when we met, keeping a polite distance. So why the sudden interest today? Moreover, a girl as big as a foal, looking at a guy working...

"Should I do it in a group then, instead of alone?"

When I spat out these words,

"Do you like working?"

or,

"Why are you building a fence already when it's not even midsummer?"

She rambled on and on, then covered her mouth with her hand and giggled, afraid someone might hear. There was nothing particularly funny, so I suspected the girl had gone crazy because the weather was warming up. Then, after a while, she cast furtive glances toward her house, pulled her right hand out from under her apron, and thrust it right under my chin. In her hand were three large, steaming hot baked potatoes.

"You don't have this at your house, do you?"

She said this in a condescending, loud voice, telling me to eat them quickly right there and warning me there would be big trouble if anyone found out she gave them to me. And then she added,

"Spring potatoes are delicious, you know."

"I don't eat potatoes. You eat them."

I didn't even turn my head and just pushed the potatoes back over my shoulder with the hand I was using to work. But even then, she showed no sign of leaving. Not only that, her breathing grew heavy and erratic. Wondering what was going on, I finally turned around and was truly shocked. We had been living in this village for almost three years, but I had never seen Jeom-sun's normally darkish face turn as red as a carrot like this. On top of that, she glared at me fiercely with venom in her eyes for a long time, and eventually, tears even welled up in them. Then, grabbing her basket again, she gritted her teeth and ran off frantically toward the rice paddy, stumbling as if she might fall.

Sometimes, when a village elder teased,

"You should get married soon, shouldn't you?"

she would shamelessly reply,

"Don't worry about it. I'll go when the time comes!"

That was Jeom-sun. She wasn't naturally a shy girl, nor was she the type of idiot to show tears just because she was angry. If she were angry, she'd rather just viciously smack me on the back with her basket once and run away.

But after leaving in such a foul state, she had been doing everything in her power to torment me whenever she saw me.

Even if it was rude not to accept the potatoes she offered, if she wanted to give them, she should have just given them. What was all that "You don't have this at your house, do you?" about? As it is, her family is the farm steward, and we are tenant farmers living off the land they let us farm, so we always have to bow our heads to them. When we first moved into this village and had nowhere to live, it was Jeom-sun's family's kindness that let us borrow a plot of land and build a house on it. And when my parents ran short of food during the farming season, they would diligently borrow from Jeom-sun's family, constantly praising them, saying there is no other family with such good character. Yet, it was also my mother who warned me that if two seventeen-year-olds were seen whispering and hanging around together, the village rumors would be nasty. Because if I got into trouble with Jeom-sun, her family would be furious, and then we would inevitably lose our land and get kicked out of our house.

But this little wench was using all her energy to torment me for no reason.

It was the evening of the day after she left crying. I was coming down the mountain carrying a full load of firewood when I heard the sound of a chicken dying from somewhere. Wondering whose house was slaughtering a chicken, I came around the back of Jeom-sun's fence and my eyes went wide. Jeom-sun was sitting alone on the dirt floor of her house, and she had our breeding hen pinned firmly in front of her skirt.

"Die, you breeding hen! Die, die!"

she said, viciously beating it. If she had only hit its head, I might understand, but she was deliberately jabbing its backside with her fist so it couldn't lay any eggs.

My eyes blazed with anger and my limbs trembled, but I looked around first and only then realized no one else was at Jeom-sun's house. Picking up the carrier stick I was holding, I struck the middle of the fence and yelled,

"You little wench! Are you trying to stop someone else's chicken from laying eggs?"

But Jeom-sun showed no signs of surprise. She sat there calmly and continued to beat it, saying, "Die, die," as if it were her own chicken. Seeing this, it was clear she had waited for the time I would come down from the mountain, caught the chicken in advance, and was torturing it right in front of me just to show me.

However, I couldn't just jump into someone else's house and fight a girl; I knew the situation was completely against me. So, every time the chicken was hit, the only thing I could do was strike the fence with my stick. Because the more I struck the fence, the more the twigs fell away, leaving only the frame. But no matter how much I thought about it, I was the only one losing out.

"Ah, you bitch! Are you trying to completely kill someone else's chicken?"

When I glared at her fiercely and shouted again, she finally scurried over to the fence and threw the chicken right at my head, standing outside the fence.

"Ew, dirty! Dirty!"

"Did I tell you to hold onto something dirty until now? You damn wench,"

I said, hastily turning away from the fence as if I too found it dirty, fully enraged. This was because the hen, startled, had shot wet droppings right onto my forehead, and seeing that, it seemed not only had its egg sac burst, but it must have been severely bruised inside. And toward my back, in a voice barely audible to me, she said,

"You idiot!"

"Hey! You're a congenital idiot, aren't you?"

That would have been enough, but,

"Hey! I heard your father is a eunuch?"

"What? My father is a eunuch?"

Overcome with rage, I snapped my head around, but Jeom-sun's head, which should have been visible over the fence, was nowhere to be seen. As I turned back to walk away, she hurled the same insult over the fence again. Thinking about being insulted like this without being able to say a word in return made me so angry that I didn't even notice tripping over a rock and tearing the skin under my toenail, and eventually, tears even burst from my eyes.

But Jeom-sun's harassment didn't end there.

Even though she claimed to like chicken combs, whenever people weren't around, she would sneak her rooster over to make it fight with ours. Her rooster looked incredibly mean, and when it came to fighting, it was fierce, so she knew it would naturally win. Because of this, she would constantly leave our rooster with its comb and eyes bloodied. Sometimes, if our rooster didn't come out, that little wench would bring feed to lure it out and force a fight.

When it came to this, I had to come up with another plan. One day, I caught our rooster and stealthily went to the platform for the sauce jars. They say if you feed red pepper paste to a fighting cock, it gains as much strength as a sick ox that has eaten a viper. I scooped a dish of red pepper paste from the jar, pushed it toward the chicken's beak, and tried feeding it. Maybe the chicken acquired a taste for the paste, because it didn't resist and ate nearly half a dish quite well. Knowing it wouldn't be able to use the strength immediately, I locked it in the coop so it could build up some energy.

After carrying out a couple of loads of manure to the field, I took the chicken outside during my break. Fortunately, no one was outside, and only Jeom-sun was crouching in her yard, either ripping up old clothes or fluffing cotton.

I went to the field where Jeom-sun's rooster was playing, set my chicken down, and quietly observed. The two chickens tangled and fought as usual, but at first, there was no effect. Our chicken was pecked cleanly, bled again, and just flapped its wings, jumping up and down without managing a single proper peck.

But suddenly, for some reason, it exerted its strength, leaped up, clawed at the other rooster's eyes, and pecked its comb on the way down. The big rooster, startled by this, flinched and backed away. Taking advantage of this opportunity, our small rooster attacked swiftly and pecked its comb again, and only then did blood flow from that ferocious-looking head.

"Right, I see, feeding it red pepper paste does the trick!" I thought, absolutely thrilled inside. At that moment, even Jeom-sun, who had been standing outside the fence surprised that I had initiated a cockfight, frowned bitterly.

I slapped my thighs with both hands and repeatedly shouted,

"Good job! Good job!" feeling elated to the top of my head.

But it wasn't long before my spirit was crushed, and I stood silently like a pillar. Because the big rooster, in retaliation for being pecked once, furiously and continuously pecked back, leaving our rooster helpless and thoroughly beaten. Seeing this, Jeom-sun started giggling this time, laughing loud enough for me to hear it clearly.

Unable to watch anymore, I rushed in, grabbed our rooster, and brought it back home. I severely regretted rushing the fight, thinking I should have fed it more red pepper paste. I went back to the sauce jars and shoved red pepper paste under its chin again. Perhaps due to the excitement, it wouldn't eat at all.

Left with no choice, I laid the chicken on its back and put a cigarette holder in its mouth. Then I mixed the red pepper paste with water and poured it down the hole little by little. The chicken seemed to be in pain, coughing and sneezing "kik, kik," but I figured the immediate suffering was nothing compared to bleeding every day.

However, after feeding it about two small bowls of red pepper paste water, I completely lost heart. Why did the once-lively chicken suddenly twist its head back and go stiff in my hands? Afraid my father might see, I quickly hid it in the coop, and it seems to have barely regained consciousness only this morning.

Seeing them fighting again as I came by like this, it was clear that this damn wench had taken advantage of the fact that no one was home, came in, took it out of the coop, and brought it out.

I caught the chicken and locked it up again, and though I was worried, I couldn't just not go to the mountain to gather firewood.

While picking dead pine branches, I thought quietly to myself and decided that I had to wring that girl's neck no matter what. "When I go down this time, I'll give that damn bitch a severe beating on her back," I thought, hastily throwing together a load of wood and hurrying down.

I was almost home when I heard the sound of a willow pipe and stopped dead in my tracks. Among the large rocks scattered at the foot of the mountain, yellow camellia flowers were spread out lushly. Sitting wedged in that gap, Jeom-sun was playing her willow pipe in a melancholic way. But what surprised me even more was the loud flapping sound of a chicken right in front of her. Without a doubt, the bitch had taken the chicken out again to provoke me, made them fight on the path I'd be coming down, and was sitting there innocently playing her willow pipe.

Enraged to the absolute limit, tears burst from my eyes along with fire. Without even taking the time to take off my A-frame carrier, I threw it down, grabbed my stick, and rushed in blindly.

Coming closer, exactly as I had guessed, our rooster was bleeding and almost at the point of death. The chicken was one thing, but seeing her sitting there without blinking an eye, just blowing her willow pipe, made me tremble with anger even more. The village had rumors, and I too once thought she was an outgoing, hardworking, and pretty girl, but looking at her now, her eyes were exactly like a little fox's.

I immediately rushed in and, before I knew what I was doing, struck the big rooster down with a single blow. The chicken collapsed face forward and died instantly without moving a leg. And as I stood there in a daze, Jeom-sun glared at me fiercely and lunged at me, causing me to fall flat on my back.

"You bastard! Why did you beat someone else's chicken to death?"

"So what?"

As I was getting up,

"What, you jerk! Whose chicken do you think it is?"

she yelled, pushing my chest, and I fell flat on my back again. Then, thinking quietly about it, I felt angry, ashamed, and realized I had committed a grave error; now we might lose our land and be kicked out of our house.

Staggering to my feet, I covered my eyes with my sleeve and, in my confusion, let out a loud sob. However, Jeom-sun came forward and asked,

"Then you won't do it again from now on?"

Only then did I feel like I had found a way to survive. I quickly wiped my tears away, and without even knowing what I wouldn't do again,

"Yeah!"

I answered blindly.

"Just try doing that again next time, I'll keep making your life miserable."

"Yeah, yeah, I won't do it again!"

"Don't worry about the dead chicken, I won't tell on you."

And then, as if shoved by something, she collapsed heavily while still holding onto my shoulder. As a result, my body fell over hers, and we were buried deep inside the yellow camellia flowers that were in full bloom.

At that pungent and fragrant scent, my mind spun dizzily, as if the ground were caving in.

"Don't say a word!"

"Yeah!"

A little later, from down below,

"Jeom-sun! Jeom-sun! Where did this girl go when she was in the middle of sewing?"

someone called out; it seemed her mother had just returned from somewhere and was extremely furious.

Terrified, Jeom-sun crawled stealthily under the flowers and went down the mountain, and I had no choice but to crawl on all fours around the rock and flee up the mountain.