"Do you remember 22 years ago in Gimhae, when I asked you if you knew Mua?"
Seung-hwan didn't say anything and lit a cigarette in his mouth, and I started walking toward where the gunshots had toward where the shots had come from.
"Please, Seung-hwan."
Before he could answer, I moved quickly toward the direction of the gunfire. Despite Seung-hwan's protests, there was no way to explain why I was heading toward the source of the gunfire other than as a disgusting, nauseating joke of fate.
"Ouch!"
As I headed toward the source of the gunfire, an American soldier with a pistol in his hand pistol to the woman's forehead.
She let out an anguished scream but the American soldier didn't hesitate.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
The gunshot rang out, and the woman fell to the ground, but the American soldier who pulled the trigger still not satisfied. He watched the woman bleed to death. For a moment, he watched her bleed to death, and then he brought the muzzle of the pistol he was clutching to the forehead of his new target.
"Bang!"
A single shot rang out over his back, and the American soldier collapsed as the muzzle touched the forehead of a young girl who had watched everything that had happened so far while clutching a teddy bear.
"Bang! Bang!"
At the same moment that the American soldier who had pulled the trigger fell, two shots rang out over his back, and the other American soldiers beside him also fell. I hurried over to the little girl, who remained expressionless as I approached, staring at the bodies lying around her.
"Hi."
I said as I approached the little girl, who was still staring at the dead bodies with an expressionless face, and she shifted her gaze to me without a trace of surprise.
"Are these your parents?"
I asked the little girl, pointing to the middle-aged woman and man who had fallen victim to the hands of the U.S. military just moments earlier, but instead of answering me, the little girl shook her head. I gently picked up the little girl, who would soon understand the line between life and death with ease. As I held her, tears soon began to form in my eyes, and I dropped to my knees, forgetting my shame. I soon buried my face in the tiny child's arms and sobbed as if I were releasing a heavy burden I had been carrying.
The little girl buried her face in her arms and stroked my sobbing head with a hand that wasn't clutching a teddy bear, and I sobbed even harder, imagining the touch of my own mother, whom I could no longer remember.
I cried for a long time in this little girl's arms, and when no more tears fell from my eyes, I wiped the traces of tears from around my eyes and looked into her eyes.
The little girl's eyes were shining, clearer and more beautiful than any expensive jewelry.
"Brother."
Seung-hwan called out to me, and I slowly spoke to him, unable to take my gaze off the little girl's eyes and waiting for my answer.
"This child, my pinch hitter"