The Orphan Master's Son

Sun Moon wants to take her chang-gi board to America, as it is all she has left of her father. Ga tells her it is impossible. He knows that “you had to keep the people you loved safer than that. They had to become as fixed to you as a tattoo, which no one could take away” (365). Sun Moon contemplates what she should wear, and Ga suggests an opera dress. Sun Moon says the Dear Leader once got her an opera singer to help her prepare for a role, but she was “impossible” (366) and later “vanished” (366).

They harvest the garden and tell stories together over dinner. Commander Ga begins to tell them a story about a little dog that went to space and allows the children to continue the story, adding the details themselves. Then Sun Moon plays the gagageum and Commander Ga realizes that he is already seeing her as someone long gone.

After the children have gone to bed, a black Mercedes arrives to take Sun Moon to the Dear Leader. She tells Ga that “only one person knows who I really am” (372) and leaves. Ga is frantic to figure out what is happening to her.