Interlude: An Unbuckled Belt

When Ryung was six, his mother first took him into his father's belt closet. Ryung eventually learned the dimensions of the closet intimately. The length was 3.2 meters. The width was 1.6 meters. And the height was exactly 3 meters.

His father prided himself on his belts. Some belts were arranged vertically, and they tended to be clumped together. Other belts were arranged horizontally. And some even had glass cases with labels. But none of them were name brands. However, all of them were made from the materials of endangered animals. The higher on the endangered animal list the material was, the greater his father prized it.

His father's most prized belt was made from snow leopard fur. Ryung later learned, after snooping on his father's laptop, that the man hired a trapping firm to mount an expedition to the Himalayas, just to capture that snow leopard, and acquire his belt. His father was very particular about what part of the animal the belt was produced from. And he wanted his belts to be 'wild', so zoo animals were absolutely out of the question. He paid this trapping firm ten million won to carry out the task. Apparently, they had glowing reviews on the internet. It would seem a surgeon's salary was quite useful.

He knew that snow leopard belt well. It was both his first and last belt. When he didn't do well in math, his mother showed him his father's belt closet. And then she walked to the far end, with the glass case housing the snow leopard belt, she pulled it off the shelf, and he remembered very clearly, she stroked it. Back then, he didn't understand. But he learned. His mother was never satisfied unless the lacerations bled freely.

He dedicated himself to doing better in school. He really tried, but math was always like a foreign beast. His mother hired numerous tutors, but when he was staring at that page of arcane symbols, his mind felt blank. She made him take off his pants, when she used the belt. She wanted to make sure both pain and humiliation were felt in equal measure.

His mother was a small woman, but she felt large when she used the belt. And that same belt, his father's favorite, was worn often by his father. He began to hate that belt. He would come home, and his father would be wearing that hateful belt, asking him how his day was.

He was sixteen when he hit his mother for the first and last time. She had beaten him with his father's favorite belt for years. So, he really hated snow leopards. The rage bubbled up, and he swung out. He felt a deep satisfaction, seeing his mother stagger back. Seeing the purple-black coloring on her cheek was delightful.

But then his mother, the bitch she was, uttered these words, "What do you think your sister would say, if I told her you hit me?"

Ryung almost hit her again. But he didn't. He wasn't a mindless beast. His sister could never know about this.