Mercenary Black Mamba

"Oh, that lady will need to rub on some ointment for that. Hehehe!"

Although worried, Jin Soon was laughing hysterically. The soldier, who was in the passenger's seat, grabbed an ax from the back of the Jeep.

Jin Soon's eyes grew in size. The two men had argued fiercely before one of them grabbed an ax. The American soldiers that Jin Soon had seen were all ignorant and crass. She was afraid that something gruesome was about to happen.

Fortunately, the ax did not crash down on anyone's head, but instead, it swung through a window. The American army Jeeps had bulletproof windshields. A bullet could not penetrate through it. The brunt force of the thrown rock had left web-like cracks across the windshield. To see through the Jeep, they had no choice but to take it out completely.

"God damn, God damn!"

They stood witnessing the comical situation where the soldier was relentlessly hacking away at his windshield. From afar, it looked like he was destroying the Jeep with the ax.

"Oppa, what are those Yankees doing? Why are they breaking apart their Jeep?"

"They must have gone crazy. They should have been more careful while driving," he replied with little emotion.

"Oh, both their front windows are shattered."

"They were driving quite recklessly," Mu Ssang said, pretending to not know what happened.

"You did it, didn't you?"

Jin Soon looked at him suspiciously. There was no way that a normal driving vehicle would swerve and run into a streetlight.

"You tend to enact revenge on those who have caused someone grief without good reason. There's no way you would have left those soldiers who mocked you in that dirty manner alone."

"Well. It is written in Buddhist scripture that you should not forgive those who act like dogs to pretty women. Soon-e is no simple beauty."

"Oh, hohoho, that's true. You should have given them a lump on the back of their heads."

Jin Soon laughed at his playful words.

Ha, if I hit the back of their heads, their skulls would have cracked open into two.

Mu Ssang broke out in cold sweats. He could not hurt a person over something so trivial in the middle of the day. Jin Soon had become rougher since the last time he had seen her.

They had removed the raggedy windshield, but they couldn't get the engine to start. Only the sound of a dying motor could be heard. They said that American-made cars were good, but it must have excluded its function. The driver opened the hood and looked at it for a while before slamming it back shut.

Immensely annoyed, the American soldiers started hitting and kicking the Jeep. Jin Soon couldn't stop laughing.

"Miserable fools!"

Mu Ssang's face reflected contempt. That was the first time he had made an enemy out of the American army.

Jonggok village was about four to 500 meters away from the straw bridge. As he walked on the path, Mu Ssang was reminded of the time that he had been dragged to Shinjak street by Baek Bu.

Cuckoo—

Cuckoo—

One lone cuckoo bird sang in the distance.

Would the cuckoo bird born among the long-tailed bushtit be happy? At least the long-tailed bushtit would raise it with care, so the cuckoo bird would have been in a better situation. He was like an abandoned cuckoo bird egg that had been thrown into the nest of an attacking long-tailed bushtit.

Jum Soon was also like a cuckoo bird egg. Hyang Shim Travel was famous for mistreating their women conductors. Jang Sang Su, who was the director of the company, was Jang's second younger brother.

The women's conductor dormitory was a 10 pyung slab room. 20 women lived in the room together. They worked for two days and rested for a day. They were paid 3,200 won per day as compensation. In a month, they would make 64,000 won.

For those who had worked for a long time, they were given 25,000 won for housing and food expenses. The salary they were paid for hanging onto the end of a bus door all day while being cursed at was a measly 39,000 won. At an immensely hungry age, there was not much money left after buying some snacks and makeup.

Even the working schedule was murderous. Usually, they would wake up at five in the morning and work until 11 at night. They were at an age where they loved to sleep. Any chance they got, they would hold onto the entrance door handle and catch some sleep.

The women conductors had their bodies checked each time they went to work. The inspectors would use the opportunity to touch their breasts and butt with any chance that they had. They would say that they felt something was off and send them into the inspection room.

When the women stepped into the inspection room, they would be stripped naked completely. All the unsavory things that happened to those women were left to the imagination.

Baek Bu and Jang must have made money that way and started up an oil and pharmaceutical company. Jum Soon might have been a long-tailed bushtit thrown into a cuckoo bird's nest.

"Oppa, what are you thinking so hard about?"

"Hm? Oh, Jum Soon."

"Oh, you care too much. Well, that uncle couldn't do much for you, but at least he gave you a lot of attention. He's very sick. I heard he got run over by a bull and hurt his back badly. He was the head of the household, so it has been rough for his family. Jum Soon had enrolled in school but decided on becoming a conductor instead."

"Must be troublesome for someone so young."

"I heard she's having a very hard time. I met her last time, and she said she wanted to die. It isn't really the work that's hard, but the fact that they strip her down often to steal from her. I want to help her, but I'm not in a good state myself. When I graduate, I'll make sure to help her."

"Jin Soon, are you going to be a nurse after you graduate?"

"Yes, my dream is to help and care for those who are sick and in trouble. Oppa is a patient too. Your heart is in pain, so you definitely need me. Hehehe!"

He stared at Jin Soon's side profile. Her refreshing profile, passionate stance, fearless actions, and the way she could understand others' feelings reminded him of Rudrey Edel.

"There are a lot of animals, but there are also a lot of humans. Shall I go collect the long-tailed bushtit eggs that were thrown into the cuckoo's nest."

"There you go again with your incantations."

Jin Soon glared at him, unable to understand what he was talking about.

They finally arrived at the old house after talking about random things. Standing in front of the front door, Mu Ssang was hit by conflicting emotions. Up until he was eight years old, he had lived there with his parents with nothing more that he could want. Time had passed, and the setting had changed along with it.

The Nakdong River and the green fields that he used to be able to see clearly from outside his front door could no longer be seen. They had cut down the field in half and raised a seven meters high four-way freeway, which blocked the view.

The sound of the cool lake breeze and water rippling had disappeared. In its place were the sounds of tires riding over asphalt. Memories of his father, mother, Lee Kang Chul, and all his childhood friends that he had played with flashed before him.

The weak wooden door was now replaced with a metal door. The blue metal door was rusty in certain areas. It was the only place in his childhood where he had been happy. His heart felt heavy.

Father, Ssang has returned. After 15 years, your son has returned. It was a little difficult, but because you looked over me, I was able to make it back home.

Mu Ssang's eyes filled with tears as he stroked the stone wall. His father had stacked up the wall himself when he was seven years old. Mu Ssang could still remember lugging the heavy rocks in an effort to help his father.

"Oppa, what should we do? The house is the same as before," Jin Soon asked cautiously, seeing Mu Ssang's glum expression.

"I'll have to buy it again."

"You're going to buy it?"

Jin Soon's eyes opened wide.

"Baek Bu sold it without permission. This is the house where my mother will go back to. Of course, I have to buy it."

It was the house that he was born into as a result of his father and mother's love. It was a happy home for the three-member family. Today's motive was to retrieve back the house.

He scanned the house from over the wall.

The house looked no different from how it did before. The children's clothes and work uniforms hanging on the clothesline in the front lawn flapped in the wind. Mu Ssang's hand froze mid-knock.

Was he going to tell the resident that he had lived there 15 years ago or tell him that the house was forcefully stolen from him and he wanted it back? Should he tell the resident to sell the house to him now?

The real reason was that he didn't want to meet anybody. After his father had died, his relatives had gossiped about his mother instead of helping them. Even though he despised them, he would greet a related elder if they passed by. Even if they were to break his spine, he had no desire to bow down to any of them.

Mu Ssang gave up on the front gate and instead went to the crumbled wall that had broken during a storm long ago. If he wanted to jump over the crumbling wall, he had to pass the peach tree fields. The Poncirus trifoliata trees, which were like a fence to the peach tree fields, had grown well throughout the years. At the height of three meters, it was tangled tightly together that even sparrows could not sit inside of it.

He remembered that he had made an arrow from the Poncirus trifoliata tree the year that his father had passed away. His father had laughed at the poorly constructed arrow.

Son, what is this? The sparrow will catch you instead. You can't make it like this. I'll recreate it for you using this pine tree root. Make sure not to shoot anyone.

Of course, if you catch a rabbit, I will cook it for you.

Is that so? Can we not tell mother and just eat it ourselves?

No. Your mother, whose body is very weak, should eat a lot of it.

His eyes suddenly grew hot. He jumped over the tree trunk. The peach tree fields were completely uncared for. It was tangled with many weeds and vines that it made it difficult to walk through. It had been a long time since humans had tended to it. The branches of the peach trees, which had not been trimmed, grew in every direction.

The crumbling wall looked the same as it had always been for the last 10 years. Past the wall was the peach tree fields. There was no reason to put in any effort to fix it. Sensing a human presence in the house, Mu Ssang quickly jumped over the wall. That place had been his home in the past, but not now. He could not trespass into a house that someone else lived in without even notifying them.

"They said that someone is living in the house."

"When I lived here, it had been empty..."

Jin Soon knocked on the front door.

Only after knocking several times did he hear someone sliding over to the door in slippers. The door opened, and a balding forehead popped out. It was a man who looked to be in his late 30s.

"Who is it?"

"Uh, are you not Sang Chul?"

Mu Ssang looked ecstatic.

"Who?"

The man looked at Mu Ssang with suspicion.

"Brother, it's me, Mu Ssang."

"What? Are you Mu Ssang? The studious and good fighter? The son of Jin Bo Park, Mu Ssang?"

The young man opened the door and examined Mu Ssang's face carefully, then jumped in surprise.

"Jotto, it's real. How long has it been? It's been 15 years. You've both changed so much that I didn't recognize you. Are you the daughter of Mrs. Ha Dong? You look just like your mother."

"This is Jin Soon. You've changed a lot too, brother. Soon-ah, this is Sang Chul from Jonggok village. The kid that burned his book bag in the fire pit because he didn't want to study has turned 30."

"Hey, you were the kid who drooled because he wanted to taste the Suk Bingo ice cream."

"Ha, do you remember when we went on a field trip, and you only drank half that bottle of cider? Sang Jin and you were fighting over who would drink the remaining flat cider, and you ended up crying over it. What is so great about flat cider that you wouldn't even give your younger brother a sip of it? Tsk tsk!"

Sang Chul, who couldn't gain anything from this battle, quickly grabbed Mu Ssang's hand.

"Hey, why are you reminding me of those embarrassing moments. Let's hurry up and go inside. Soon-e, you sure got awfully pretty."

"I was always pretty. However, it looks like you got married."

"Yes, I seduced an assembly worker from the industrial center and quickly got married last year. My wife has gone to the Public Health Center with the kids."

Mu Ssang's lips quivered upwards. Unexpectedly, he had met his old-time neighborhood friend. The two of them had played together when they were young. It was indeed home. In the countryside, even if there was a five-year difference in age, you still considered them a friend.

Thanks to him, he could comfortably look around the interior of the house. The interior of the house was just the same as it had been 15 years ago, and the room that Lee Kang Chul had rented out was no different either. Even the kitchen door that his father and Mr. No had built remained the same. Mu Ssang's heart was filled with more sorrow.

When he opened the backdoor to the porch stoop, a refreshing breeze flowed inside. It would have been great to just lie there in the summer with his shirt hiked up. It was the place where he had earned marbles and pogs from the neighborhood kids. It was the place where his mother had given him frozen rice drinks and snacks.

Their porch stoop was the same, but neither his father nor his mother was there. Only their young son, who was now an adult, had returned from a long trip to sit at their porch stoop now. The flow of memories brought tears to his eyes. Jin Soon, who was quick to notice, had squeezed Mu Ssang's hand tightly.

Sang Chul had a different surname from Mu Ssang. He wasn't family, so there was no pressure. Because they had a significant age difference, there hadn't been much interaction. Naturally, when Mu Ssang left, they had thought that it had to do with something personal.

"How many kids do you have?"

"I have one daughter. Where have you been that you don't even contact me once?"

"I live in France now. I came to visit."

"Wow! France, you mean France in Europe?"

"Yes!"

"A country boy like you ended up all the way there. What do you do there?"

"I'm a soldier."

"Wow, you're a French soldier. How strange. You were a strange one since you were young. By the way, now that you are here, I need to pay you rent."

"Rent? What are you talking about?" Mu Ssang asked in surprise.

"What do you mean? You're the owner of this house. Baek Bu wrote out the rental contract five years ago. He told me to pay you the rent in full when you came back."

Sang Chul was even more surprised as he answered him.

What nonsense is he talking about?

Mu Ssang's face looked like that of a mad bull. When he was 10, Baek Bu had sold the house to the Do family. When the Do family had left, they left the house empty.

"I have been out of the country, so I don't know about it. If you have the contract, bring it here."

"F***, what are you talking about? Baek Bu probably scammed you. Wait here a moment."

Sang Chul brought over the rental agreement. The contents were simple. It said that there would be no deposit, the monthly rent was 30,000 won, the rent would be paid to Mu Ssang, and that it was a renewal of the rental agreement.

On the contract, the name Park In Bo was clearly written under Park Mu Ssang. Five years ago would have been the time when he was in prison. Did Baek Bu give back the house during the time that Jang had framed his nephew?

He racked his brain, trying to figure out what Baek Bu was up to.

"Whew, if he was a stranger, I would beat the shit out of him."