Chapter 64:

“Do you know your face changes the moment you look at a tree?” Kwon Chae-woo had been watching Lee-yeon working from the edge of the grove. He took her bag from her to lighten her load.

“I just feel comfortable around trees.” Lee-yeon smiled.

As the sun started to set in a glow of red, Kwon Chae-woo couldn’t take his eyes off of his wife’s smile.

“Comfortable?” he asked,

“Yes. The poet Rilke wrote poems underneath a tree beside his lane and Schubert relaxed underneath a lime tree. Even Gautama Buddha was born underneath the tree of souci and gained wisdom underneath a linden tree.” She turned around to face Kwon Chae-woo. “People have no issue living without love, but everything in the world will be contaminated if there are no trees.”

“So, what did you do that was underneath a tree?”

“Well…” A memory entered Lee-yeon’s mind, but she stopped herself from saying it.

“What? Was it your first kiss?”

“No!”

“Then, what was it?”

“I often took refuge under a tree,” Lee-yeon answered, looking away. “And listened to music there.”

Kwon Chae-woo realized that he wasn’t part of the memory she was thinking about. It made him sad. “What kind of music?” he asked.

“String music.”

Kwon Chae-woo frowned. A memory rushed into his head of the melody he heard at the party. The sharp sound of a stringed instrument cut right through his nerves, causing nausea and a headache. It had been an unusual reaction.

“The German spruce is used to make stringed instruments.” Kwon-Chae-woo tried to clear his head as she continued on. “I find it astonishing that I treat hurt trees, yet someone else will cut it to create an instrument. Is the death of a tree worth the sound of music?”

As she was contemplated these philosophies, Kwon Chae-woo tripped over a broken branch. Lee-yeon stopped, looking around. The surrounding trees were all marred with gashes about fifty centimetres long that seemed to be made by a sharp knife. Her face became concerned.

If not treated, the phloem would become damaged and nutrients would no longer be transferred to the roots. If the bark peeled off anymore, the trees would eventually starve to death.

Who in the world would do this? Lee-yeon thought. She went to the trees to take a closer look. At least seven or eight trees had the same wounds that appeared to have been made by a human. They almost appeared to be directional symbols that had been carved into the trunks.

Lee-yeon followed the wounds of the trees, half-believing they would lead her to the culprit. The directions changed quickly, like the paths of a maze, and she became dizzy as she walked around in circles. Finally, her random steps ended at a banner half-falling of a post. The corners of the faded warning statement were turning black, having been exposed to the elements for a number of years.

It was a ‘No Trespassing’ sign. The forested area beyond it was thick with growth and she couldn’t see too far in. Usually, these warnings meant there was a cliff or steep drop-off just beyond.

Lee-yeon felt weak. She turned to Kwon Chae-woo, only to find that he was not with her. The forest behind her was empty. She must have left him behind as she ran off following the injured trees. She began to feel a sense of panic.

This was both their first time in the forests of this mountain. The sun was getting lower and if it got dark, neither of them would be able to find their way out. Lee-yeon trembled. She needed to retrace her footsteps quickly and find him.

As she began heading back the way she had come, six people carrying garbage bags appeared from amongst the trees. They appeared to be gathering items from the forest floor. Lee-yeon assumed it was garbage that had been left by uncaring hikers, and that filled her with joy.

The people nodded as they passed by her, heading towards the off-limits area. “You shouldn’t go in there,” she told them.

The people stopped, looking back at her, confused. “It’s a dead end in there. It could be dangerous,” she explained.

One of the men spoke up and asked, “Are you a city employee?” He looked around the area. “Are you alone?” He spoke with the regional dialect, so he must have been from the area.

“No. My husband is following me…”

The man rushed over, getting right into her face. “I thought we had a deal, but you want something more?” he snarled.

“What are you talking about?” She suddenly felt as if she were in danger. She turned to leave, but the men circled her, closing her in.

“Which are you? Are you from the city or police?”

Lee-yeon waved her hands in denial “I’m a tree doctor!”

The men erupted with sinister laughter. They certainly didn’t believe her. Then it occurred to her. This mountain was known for the placement of tombs, not for hiking. So, what were they doing here? A news bulletin came back to her. People had been illegally harvesting trumpet mushroom, pine nuts, herbs, and ginseng from the wildlands. These were protected areas.

Lee-yeon tried to appear calm, as she surreptitiously put her hand into her pocket to find the familiar rectangle of her phone.

“I meet lots of annoying people like you. They always lie to me.” The man’s expression was becoming more frightening. “But do you know what happened after?” he asked.

***

“Kwon Chae-woo!” Kwon Chae-woo’s head turned towards the voice in the air. It was faint, almost as if it was a trick of the wind. He frowned, trying to figure out the direction it was coming from. He started running, unsure if he was going the right way. He cursed the fact that there weren’t any proper trails on this mountain.

The ground was getting hard to see, as the dusk closed in. A huge boulder covered in moss suddenly appeared from the shadows. Kwon Chae-woo jumped over it, at the last minute, and continued running through the bush.

“Lee-yeon!” he called back to the forest. He was cursing himself for getting distracted. He had been focusing on the broken branch he had found, envisioning how he would carve it and make it a gift for Lee-yeon. When he finally looked up, he realized that he was alone in the middle of the forest. After running through the brush for some time, he heard the movements of a group of people ahead of him.

Through the branches of the trees, he could see a group of men carrying the limp body of a woman. “You f*cking bastards,” he swore to himself. It was clear the woman was Lee-yeon. She appeared to be unconscious, as if she had been hit by a blunt object. He hoped it was nothing worse.

He followed them as they carried her past a ‘No Trespassing’ sign and disappeared into some thick brush. Lying, discarded on the ground in front of where the group disappeared, was Lee-yeon’s medical bag. He opened it and shoved anything that looked like it could be used as a weapon into his pockets.

He decided that he was going to take his time eliminating these men. He was going to cut off all their fingers for touching Lee-yeon. Then he had the intention of shoving those fingers down their throats as well. He started imagining all of the merciless and brutal things he would do to these men, when Lee-yeon’s voice echoed though his head. ‘Be calm,’ it said. ‘Don’t get angry and things won’t get hard. I just wish your syndrome would get better.’

Surprising, the rage within him began to slowly quell. He laughed. It was a twisted sound.!