"A few minutes from here-it's where my mother used to pick them after a heavy rain when she was a girl. She's from this side of the island."
"Your basket is not large enough. You could have brought two and had plenty to dry for the winter! You might have to return tomorrow."
Sunja smile at him. "But, Oppa, you haven't even seen the spot."
When they reached her mother's mushroom spot, it was carpeted with the brown mushrooms that her father had adored.
He laughed, as pleased as he could be. "Didn't I tell you?" We should have brought somethng to make supper with. Next, let's plan to have lunch her. This is too easy!" Immediately, he began to gather mushrooms by the handful and threw them into the basket on the groouond between them. When it grew full, he put more into his handkerchif, and when that was heaping, she untied the apron around her waist and gathered more.
"I don't know how I will carry them all, she said. "I'm being greedy."
"You are not greedy enough."
Hansu moved toward her. She could smell his soap and the wintergreen of his hair wax. He was cleanly shaven and handsome. She loved how white his clothes were. Whyh did such a thing matter? The men at the boradinghouse could not help being filthy. The work dirtied all their things, and no amout of scrubbing would get the fish smell off their shirts and pants. Her father had taught her not to judge people on such shallow points: What a man wore or owned had nothng to do with his heart and charater. She inhaled deeplyh, his scent mingled with cleansing air of the forest.
Hansu slid his hands beneath her short traditional blouse, and she did not stop him. He untied the long sash that held her blouse together and opened it. Sunja started to cry quietly to cry quietly, ans he pulled her toward him and held her, making low, soothing sounds, and she allowed him to comfort her as he did what he wanted. He lowered her on the ground tenderly.
"Oppa is here. it's all right. It's all right."
He had his hands firmly under her buttocks the entire time, and though he had tried to shiedl eher from the twigs and leaves, bits of the forest had made red welts on the backs of her legs. When they separated, he used his handkerchief to clean the blood.
"Your body is pretty. Full of juice like a ripened fruit."
Sunja couldn't say anything. she had suckled him like an infant. While he was moving inside her, doing this thing that she had witnessed pigs and horses doing, she was stunned by how sharp and bright the bright the pain was and was grateful that the ache subsided.
When they rose from the carpet of yellow and red leaves, he helped to straigthenher undergarments, and he dressed her.
"You are my dear girl."
This was what he told her when they did this again.