A woman who came from Itaewon

"Yes, I am a woman from Itaewon. So what?" The sound came up to my throat and swallow what's about to fall from the tip of the tongue and I popped out like a shot

A long time ago, it happened at a grocery store in Brooklyn. The owner of the grocery asked, "Are you Korean? Do you live in this town? When did you come to the United States?" I hate to answer, but since I'm Korean, I answered purely. "Where have you lived in Korea?" "Itaewon..."

Even before my answer was finished, he looked up and down me with eagle's sharp eyes, and the investigation of his, who kept asking, suddenly stopped. He was a look 'If I came from Itaewon, it was obvious.' 

A woman in the neighborhood who knows the grocery owner came to my home, which she hadn't even invited. She looked around my home with keen eyes to catch the evidence. “There are no wedding photos. Did you have a wedding? ” Like someone who came out  to prove what the grocery owner did.

I was born in Namsan Dong and moved to Itaewon after graduating from Namsan Elementary School. Before coming to America, I often saw foreigners living in Itaewon and walking on the street. Naturally, there was little visual resistance to foreigners, unlike other Korean immigrants, even when they came to the U.S.

From when I was young, I used to visit a western restaurant called Western House in downtown Itaewon, where I could naturally contact Western food and culture.

The name Itaewon came from the reason that there were many pear tree fields in this area during the Joseon Dynasty. It was also called Itaewon, because where women who were raped during the Japanese Invasion of Korea and mixed-race people born to them lived. During the Imo Incident period, it was a camp of the Qing Dynasty and a residence and when exclusively for Japanese during the Japanese colonial era. After the Korean War, the U.S. military base came in and became a base village.

At the foot of the mountain in Itaewon was a gloomy shrine surrounded by dense trees. As if to carry many women's resentment humiliated by foreign soldiers in several wars, the stalk of the backs became cool in the middle of summer even if it was nearby the shrine.

When asked where had been to, Itaewon is a foreign country in Korea, as there are jokes that "I have never been to Itaewon, let alone abroad."

I who came from Itaewon, where had such a difficult story, I avoided a store run by a Korean who seems to be doing an identity check. Or there was an uncomfortable time when I had to look inside to find out whether there was a Korean owner or a cashier. 

These days, however, as the Korean-American life has been built up, foreign clerk has run many shops. I've been going in and out of the store, but nobody cares about me and not asks me.

The woman from Itaewon was much more free. But why is it so empty?