Chapter 469 (2/2)

Daemyung replied that he did really well, not just okay. Maru didn’t know whether to rejoice or cry. He looked at the screen with complex emotions.

He wondered if he could focus on the movie with his current feelings, but that thought only lasted a moment. When the old man returned home and took out a hammer, Maru put aside all the disappointments he had about his acting, as well as his apologetic feelings to everyone else involved in the movie.

The old man’s expression hadn’t changed. He neither became agitated nor enraged at the fact that he was abandoned. After eating some rice and cold water, the old man just continued with his everyday life. He picked up waste cardboard and brought them to the junkyard. After finishing his work, the old man left his bicycle at home before taking a bus.

His eyes as he looked outside the shaky bus didn’t look chaotic at all. In fact, they were very clear.

-It is not wrong of me to discipline the dogs that grew up with my life as their food.

-Father, so you thought about changing the registrant for the insurance?

As soon as Geunsoo’s first words ended, the old man swung the hammer he was hiding behind his back. Along with a loud smack, Geunsoo flinched back. He was hit by the hammer, but it wasn’t a fatal wound.

The old man rushed up to him while shouting with a cracked voice, and the third son, who fell on the floor, screamed at his father who assaulted him and kicked him back. The fight between the two wasn’t the dynamic kind found in action movies. The camera angle did not change either. It was a fixed point of view, and a long take at that. The fight between the healthy son and the aging father was rather funny yet gruesome. Falling down, swinging awkwardly, rolling on the floor, etc. There was no ‘clean murder’. The only thing shown on the screen was the struggle for life between two desperate humans.

The hammer that the old man swung hit the son on the top of the foot. Looking down at the back of his son’s head as he curled up, the old man swung his hammer once again. Blood scattered. However, there wasn’t a lot. The old man panted heavily while looking at his collapsed son before running towards the bathroom. The only thing that could be heard after that was the sound of vomiting which sounded as though the old man was vomiting his entire soul.

Maru frowned subconsciously at that scene. There was no corpse, nor a lot of blood, but precisely because there were only a few visual cues, it felt crueler.

The old man brought a sack. The sack which was supposed to house plastic now housed a corpse. The old man struggled as he dragged the corpse outside. People walked past him, but everyone looked disinterested. The old man and the corpse moved across the busy streets.

* * *

When the movie ended and the ending credits started rolling up, Maru tapped on Daemyung’s shoulders. It was 2:20 a.m. The employee that opened the exit yawned as he came in. The customers then started standing up from their seats. They mixed in with the ten or so people and left the theater.

A chill air brushed past his body.

Maru nodded his head. The core content of the novel he read through from start to finish several times was all in there. Some of the scenes had changed, but the important flow stayed the same. Such editing was only possible thanks to the fact that the original author participated in creating the script.

“But, I don’t want to watch it a second time.”

Daemyung shook his head. Maru also didn’t want to watch it again. Watching once was enough. That was probably one of the disadvantages that movies with bitter endings had.

“It’s late. Let’s go down for now.”

“Alright.”

The footsteps of the two reverberated across the quiet hall.

[1] Spicy radish salad (It’s not really salad, but there’s no better word for it). Wikipedia for more info.

[2] Dried radish leaves and stem. Wikipedia for more info.