Prologue 3
Taeh's spirit plummeted as soon as he opened the back door of the house and stepped into the cozy room that served the dual purpose of kitchen and family gathering place.
His mother was bending over the oven, busy with the waffle iron, her hair pulled back in a tidy chignon, her plain dress clean and pressed. Everything was neat and pleasant, just like his mother. His father is already seated at the table, drinking a cup of coffee.
Looking at them, Tae felt self-conscious, sick at heart and thoroughly angry with his mother for denying his wonderful father the love he wanted and needed.
Since Tae's sunrise walks were fairly common, neither of his parents showed any surprise at his entrance. They both looked up at him, smiled, and said good morning. Tae returned the greetings and smiled at his younger brother, Sunoo, but he could scarcely look at his mother. Instead, he went to the shelves and began to set the table for breakfast.
Tae moved back and forth between the shelves and the table, feeling ill at ease and sick to his stomach, but when he took his place at the table, the hostility he felt for his mother slowly began to give way to pity. He watched as his mother tried in a half dozen ways to make amends to her husband, chatting cheerfully with him as she hovered solicitously at his elbow, filling his cup with steaming coffee, handing him the cream, offering him more freshly baked rolls in between trips to the oven, where she was also preparing his favorite waffles.
Tae ate his breakfast in bewildered, helpless silence, his thoughts twisting and turning as he thought of some way to console his father for his loveless marriage.
The solution came to him the instant his father stood up and announced his intention of going to their neighbor to check a little girl's mending arm.
Taehyung
I'll go with you father. I've been meaning to ask you if you could teach me how to help you in your work, I mean.
Both his parents looked at him in surprise, for Tae had never before shown any interest in the healing arts. In fact, until then, he had been a carefree child whose chief interests were in amusements and mischievous pranks. Despite their surprise, neither parent voiced an objection.
Tae and his father had always been closed. From that day forward, they become inseparable.
Neither of them ever mentioned the sad things they had discussed on that fateful Christmas night. Instead, they filled their time together with cozy conversations and lighthearted banter, for despite the sorrow in his heart Mr.Kim was a man who appreciated the value of laughter.
Tae already inherited his mother's startling beauty and his father's humor and courage. Now he learned compassion and idealism from him as well. As a little boy he had easily won over the villagers with his bright and irresistible smile. They had liked him as a charming, carefree, innocent man; they adored him as he matured into a spirited young man who worried about their ailments and teased away their sullenness.
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