Rooftop Sword Master

Episode 1

“Your father thought you’d never wake up. My sister told me to never give up hope though…”

“…”

Se-young’s eyes gazed up at the white ceiling with the empty look of someone who had lost their soul.

“They both said that they could never forgive those bastards. They swore to get a just punishment, no matter what…”

Although they promised vengeance for their son, the word “justice” slowly became meaningless. Tears leaked out of Seyoung’s dry eyes, silently escaping down the side of his face.

“They put all their effort into filing a lawsuit. When the detective and prosecutor asked them to settle, your father refused vehemently. He didn’t want the money, but the punishment.”

The aunt’s voice began to tremble as if it were drowning in emotions. She was the aunt who got married when Se-young was in second or third grade and went to study in the United States. There were no clear memories of her from his childhood, and later on, they only briefly communicated through the phone.

“They couldn’t accept the result. I would have been angry too. Eight people attacked and hospitalized you, but all they offered was ten thousand in compensation money. To add insult to injury, the school refused to act beyond suspensions. The students, your homeroom teacher, and the school principal were only suspended. The superintendent got off with a cautionary warning.”

“…”

“It was completely unfair. My brother-in-law and sister are usually quiet people, but they started to change after the incident. They printed fliers, made online ads, wrote articles, and attempted to rally a group of your acquaintances.”

Seyoung knew better than anyone else how difficult it would have been for his father and mother.

          Those kids. I know what their parents are like.

“Your father ignored his company work entirely. My sister came to see you whenever she had time, and she didn’t even think about going home. All I could do was stay by your side when I was in the country.”

“…”

“Despite their efforts. People didn’t notice. Even if they posted on the web, it would get taken down in the blink of an eye. All the requests for investigation made by acquaintances were useless. Two reporters who reported on your attack said they were fired or transferred to the provinces. Your father discovered how unbelievably powerful their parents were. The police, prosecutors, and  reporters were all dancing in the palm of their hands.”

Se-young’s aunt retold the past with as much detail as possible, saying that it was his duty to know the truth of what happened.

“You were still stuck in a coma, and those bastards went back to school after their suspension as if nothing had happened. How did you think your parents felt?”

The aunt’s thin, trembling voice intensified.

“That’s why… I think… your father… in front of the Gwanhwamun gate… poured gasoline over his body… and”

It’s like a dream.

          It must be a dream. 

                    It has to be a dream.

“…My sister… your mom… hung a sign around her neck… while pointing at your father who was burning…”

A scream to the world.

When people came, filming with cell phones, and reporters gathered, it is said that the mother ran into the fire to embrace her burning husband. The police were dispatched, the father died at the scene, and the mother went to the emergency room but died within a day.

All I did was sleep.

          And…

                    When I woke up, my mom and dad were dead.

“All of them have been punished! Not a single one escaped.”

The emotion in the aunt’s voice took on a harsher tone.

“All eight of them went to juvenile detention. The police, prosecutors, and the media were all tripping over themselves to punish each other. Special investigation team, joint investigation team, they couldn’t get enough of it. The public outrage was terrifying. At first, they tried for six months, but the press got wind of it and lost their minds. They pushed it from six months to ten months to a year, until finally, they settled on two years in juvenile detention. Your homeroom teacher, the school principal, and the superintendent were all fired.”

“…”

Eventually, the parents of all the perpetrators held a joint press conference to apologize to the public. Still, the mob was not yet appeased. The horrifying scene of Seyoung’s parents self-immolating had been captured from countless angles and circulated like wildfire on the internet.

The world couldn’t look away.

Seyoung had even been visited by the president while he was still in is coma. The members of both the ruling and opposition parties were reportedly busy that day. The whole country was in an uproar.

They were ordinary and average,

Because they had nothing, they couldn’t do anything.

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In order to light the flame of revenge.

They used their own bodies as kindling.

*****

TL/ED Note: Many criminal cases in Korea can be settled via mediation, and for settlement fee called we’jah’ryou (위자료/solatium), the criminal complaint can be dismissed with the victim’s consent. While it can give the victim the satisfaction and compensation in many minor cases without a lengthy wait, it is a system that can be exploited by the wealthy as well as avaricious victims demanding more than what would be fair.

Many Asian cultures have a macabre tradition of protest suicide. Self-immolation is an especially notorious one such method, the iconic images usually being the Buddhist monks who self-immolate as an extreme form of protest. Korea is no exception, and the method isn’t limited to self-immolation. Most recently, a triathlete in Korea threw herself from a building to protest the abuse she had suffered from her trainers, coaches, and even teammates. It immediately received national attention and brought consequences to those accused, although in life, those complaints were ignored. In other countries, the Arab Spring saw many self-immolation protests that galvanized the protest movement.