The Kite Fighters by Linda Sue Park Read Free Book Online Page B

next see the King, ask him if he would be so good as to grant my wish for Kee-sup to fly the kite at the festival." And he nodded toward the door to dismiss them.
    ***
    The brothers did not look at each other as they walked toward their room. Kee-sup slid open the paper door and stepped inside. Young-sup closed the door behind them.
    His face felt like a stone. Bitterness rose through
him until he could taste it in his mouth. He could not rage as he wished, for the paper walls were thin, but he spoke in a low voice forced out between his set jaws.

    "Always you."
    Kee-sup took a deep breath, but Young-sup was still speaking. "
You
get to go to the mountains.
You
get a kite for New Year.
You
fly the kite at the festival. You—you—you!"
    "Brother, I—"
    "Nothing else matters! Second son—what's that? I might as well be a dog! I don't matter to him—he doesn't care anything about me." Young-sup took care not to raise his voice, but his rage was bubbling over now.
    "That's not true! He bought the seventh kite for you—" Too late Kee-sup cut off his words.
    Young-sup's fury was interrupted in mid-flow. "The seventh kite? You mean, that day at the market? The day I won the reel?" He could hear his own voice, pitched high in shock and confusion. "No, he couldn't have. I remember—it was a little boy who bought the last kite. I saw him myself"
    "The money," Kee-sup explained, misery in his face. "It was our father who gave the boy the money for the kite."
    Young-sup blinked and shook his head quickly, as if waking. Then he looked squarely at his brother. "Because
you
asked him to." There was no answer. "I'm right, aren't I? He didn't do it for me—he did it because it was what
you
wanted."

    Young-sup clenched his fists and stiffened his body, as if the anger in him were a pain he could no longer bear. Then he swung around and seized the first thing that caught his eye—the ceramic jar that had once held the gold leaf. He hurled it to the floor with all his strength and fled from the room.
    ***
    The next morning the boys did not speak to each other. They studied their lessons side by side, as they always did, but even their tutor noticed the tension between them. Young-sup's responses were dull and mechanical, and Kee-sup's so absent-minded that the tutor scolded them both.
    For Young-sup, learning the teachings of Confucius and the events of Korean history was not as important as it was for his brother. Young-sup knew he was expected to take over his father's business as a rice merchant. Merchants did not have as much need of education as courtiers. Still, Young-sup studied at his
fathers insistence, to keep Kee-sup company and help him whenever possible.

    Young-sup usually enjoyed the challenge of learning by heart the words on the scrolls. Today, though, he felt drained of all interest, and it seemed that Kee-sup felt the same way. Finally the tutor spoke sternly. "There is no desire for learning in either of you," he announced. "You are both to study this lesson again and be ready to recite it to me tomorrow."
    The tutor left the room, and the boys sat for a few moments in an uncomfortable silence. Then Young-sup spoke. His jaw felt sore, as if his teeth had been clenched from the moment he had learned that he would not fly for the King "You go first," he said woodenly. He picked up the scroll from its place on the table between them and held it so that Kee-sup could not see the words.
    The lesson, the Five Virtues of Confucius, was familiar to both boys, but the examinations required perfect memorization of every word. Kee-sup began to recite:

    "Between father and son: love from the father, duty from the son.
    "Between king and subjects: fairness from the king, loyalty from his subjects.
    "Between husband and wife: kindness from the husband, obedience from the wife.

    "Between older and younger: consideration from the older, respect from the younger.
    "Between friend and friend: faith from