Introduction
i am dying.
THE PROLOGUE OF A MAN:
my name is 고미루 (Go Mi-ru), born in the year of the dragon, 1976. i came out with a whopping weight of 4 kilograms. my mother delivered me on her own, as the daughter of the village doctor, with a reputation as the village midwife on her own. we reside on a little island quite far from the bustling cities of the developing South Korea and stay in a humble wooden stilt house near the coastal waters of our region.
since my whole family had a background in medicine, i’d go around the village as each of my relatives’ assistant, helping them carry tools or pen down consultation notes for their patients as they tirelessly work, treating people islandwide.
the people of our island believed in arranged fates and would marry their children off through contracts or overlapping goals, like having grandchildren. i was 21 when my dad’d set me up on a date with my then wife-to-be, 정경희 (Jeong Gyeong Hui). we’d never met each other prior to our forced engagement, thus were awkward at every meeting of the eyes.
in contrast with everyone i know, i personally preferred found love to arranged ones. i felt it was the most natural way to come to love someone and does not rush you into things. however, i never dared to speak about the truth i held on to, and always agreed with my family’s plans they’d decided for my future.
Mr. Go (father): “you know we are doing this for your own good, right?”
Mi-ru: “of course, i understand everything you plan for me. this is all to uphold our family name so our reputation never drops.”
Mr. Go: “yes, you are such a good son. smart and obedient. you will grow up to become a respectable person, and by marrying my friend’s child, you shall do me and the ancestors proud, son.”
Mi-ru: “yes, Father.”
Mr. Go: “treat her well but make sure she does the same for you too. you’ll learn to grow on each other.”
“...grow on each other.”
i never really liked that saying. it takes too much time and space for strangers, who don’t know whether they even share any similar interests or anything about each other beforehand, to finally warm up to each other. i’m not so close-minded as to hate the idea but i find it too old-fashioned after an uncountable number of years of evolution.
i’d escaped from the medicine scene and devoted my life to an office job my whole life. i tried hard to decline my family’s proposal of dragging our whole lineage into village healthcare for years and years to come. i had had enough with tradition. i had had enough with arrangements. i was done.
