1.

I woke up. I am not sure how many days I was asleep but it was for a long time. However, I was clearly awake but I could not crack open my eyes. I tried moving my arms and legs but to no avail. I could not hear anything. I was not hurt anywhere. Although I thought I was having a nightmare, I felt peaceful and comfortable. I repeated gradually falling asleep, dreaming, and waking up but this condition did not change. Gathering suspicion regarding the state of my own body, I focused everything into my optical senses but I could not feel anything. My eyes, which I tried to open, were an illusion of the senses that arose from the unquestionable belief that (my eyes) would still be there. I could not open my eyes because my eyes were not there; I could not hear because I did not have ears; and I could not move because I had no arms and legs. My body had vanished. I was dead.

I was extremely wearisome and bored because there was nothing to do except to think. When I did think, my stream of consciousness would become jumbled. Some thoughts briefly repeated themselves like a squirrel running in a treadmill. I would fall asleep while doing this and dream. I could see, hear, and speak in my dreams. I usually had dreams of eating and a few moments ago, I was devouring a full course of seafood prepared on a table. A person dreams more when he or she is dead than when alive. But I forgot most of the dreams when I momentarily thought about something else. Death truly lackedany amusement if this was death. When my conscious was clear, memories came to mind because unlike dreams, I did not forget my memories.

My memories begin with a dreadful accident. The smell of blood… The revolting odor of burning flesh… From memories of lying on a stretcher surrounded by firemen in orange uniforms I moved to memories of childhood- I remembered my monotonous life in the army and tried to remember all the women I had dated and parted with. How was Yeonhie who I dated most recently doing? Although it was a relationship based on mutual physical lust- both of us lacking any sincerity- it bothered me that I did not say goodbye. Furthermore, I remembered all the sins I had forgotten about. There was a time when I called out my friend and hurt his feelings because I was feeling a little down. When thinking about it, I lived my life saying many things that hurt other people. There were women I met to satisfy my sexual appetite. Although I felt the compassion for those pan handling on the streets, I had never helped them. I was a person loaded with sins, as I told so many lies while living. Death seemed to be the process remembering your own sins and reflecting before standing judgment for your life. And I found myself drowning in the memories of food. Death and appetite for food clashed.

In the beginning, I felt so cheated that I had died at the young age of thirty-two. But there was nothing about which to lament when I ruminated upon the matter with more profoundness. I thought about my future had I not died. Within three years, I probably would have taken out a loan and bought an apartment. When I got tired of being alone, I would have married a "safe" woman. Twenty years would have passed in the blink of an eye as I raised my child and during that time I would have moved several times and traveled to places I wanted to go. If things had gone well until I got old, I would have raised dogs in the front yard of a placid country house, tending to a vegetable garden or going fishing. In this manner, I died and observed how my life would unfold. I no longer felt crestfallen about my death. Someone else would accomplish the things I did not accomplish. Instead of a lingering attachment regarding life, I felt troubled about several things I did not resolve. The secret things hidden in my desk drawers and closets; promises I had made with people; and borrowed money I did not pay back although it was only a small amount- I realized that it was more important to neatly put in order your surroundings instead of anarchically living for the future.

Having grown accustomed to nothingness, I developed the trick of adjusting the time I was asleep and awake and mastered a way to remember dreams. However, occasionally, I would fall into a murky daze before falling asleep, indifferent to my own volition. I intermittently experienced the three stages of being awake, clouded consciousness, and dreaming. The time I spent thinking about the dreams I had while sleeping surpassed my memories of the past. I had a truly refreshing dream that felt as if I was flying. The train that departed from a decrepit, shabby train station platform traveled on a rail over a sky-blue ocean, which was covered with many islands like archipelagos, while forming a gentle curve. My heart raced as I looked out the window and witnessed the mystical islands and steep cliffs, beaches filled with sand that radiated white light as if plastic. When I woke from the dream, I tried remembering if I had vacationed to some place similar while I was alive but I could not remember such a beautiful ocean. I think some dreams are manufactured purely through imagination. I would be happy if I could live in my dreams.

The reason I was shocked when I woke from my dreams was that I could feel my body, which had all but disappeared. I could feel the warm air and a sense of existence due to weight. I surmised that it was my soul, which had been bored for a long time, creating imaginary sensations to appease the tediousness. However, every time I woke from a dream, my senses would become more vivid and my doubt transformed to assurance. My sense of existence obstructed my freedom of thoughts by intruding into my space and time that had no sense of existence. I decided to examine this indisposition that had intruded into my comfort and peace. I was lying down. It was very awkward to lay aslant on my side. I continued my examination, and every time I woke from a dream, a new sensation grew. I felt a faint heartbeat and my breathing grew to have a regular rhythm pattern. After careful examination, I reached the conclusion: "rebirth." I was in the process of growing as a complete life in my mother's womb. What was I growing as? Would I be born as a human being again? Or was I growing as an animal? I prayed I was not a domestic animal living inside a pigsty. Furthermore, I earnestly worried about my consciousness. As no one could remember his or her former life, I would forget my memories in the future.

2.

All my guesses about the afterlife and rebirth were wrong. Although it may be hard to believe, I was lying aslant on a hospital bed, not inside a womb. Of course, although I did not wake from this "unknown" state to confirm how I looked, I could begin to "feel" myself with more concreteness as my extinct senses slowly returned to life. I had fallen asleep, dreamt, and woke up repeatedly without being able to move or feel my body. I was biting a tube in my mouth. The tube was helping me to breath and was pushing gruel down my stomach so I would not starve.

Although I could not open my eyes, I could distinguish between day and night. When half the day had passed, people would lay me in the opposite direction. Although all my other senses were hazy, my sense of smell had returned completely. If I focused, the aroma, which mixed in the air that I breathed, pierced through the nostrils to somewhere deep and I could feel it penetrating the cerebrum. In the room I was bedridden, about fifteen people come and go, but I could tell through my sense of smell that I was the only patient in the room. Furthermore, I could smell the pungent odor of medication before slipping into my state of clouded consciousness.

I woke from a sweet dream. I tried moving my head and then my arms and legs. I could not budge, as if my entire body had been tied down. During the day time people visited meon several occasions, touching me here and there or poking me with needles. I tried focusing my entire bodily senses. As I felt the sphere of senses expanding, I could feel the numerous needles piercing into my skin. The needles sent prickly electric signals on several second intervals. Subsequent to my sense of smell, my sense of hearing returned and I could understand about half of what the people around me were saying. That day I felt alert and I inclined my ears to a conversation a man and woman were having. They were talking about some kind of animal experiment, and I flinched as I overheard their conversation. A rumbling groan exploded from between my lips, which somebody had gagged. Shocked, the man started checking me in various places and clipped his stethoscope to his ear. Although I lay perfectly still, they sensed I had overheard their conversation. After that, nobody had conversations in my room. I thought about the plot that was underway in this hospital. A few days later, one of them finally talked to me.

"Mr. Ilsu Gang, do you hear me? If you can hear, will you nod your head for me?"

A familiar voice with an early fifties benevolence called my name. I knew that this voice belonged to the highest-ranking official in this hospital. Overcome with fear I did everything in my power and slightly moved my head.

"Can you move your head again if you can clearly understand what I'm saying?"

I nodded my head again and after a pungent odor I was back in a state of clouded consciousness.

"You feel a bit dizzy, right? That's because you've been given a dosage of sedatives. Don't worry because we're giving you a safe dosage. Finding stability is the most important thing now. Mr. Ilsu Gang, do you remember the car accident?"

Of course, I remembered. All my memories started with the accident. I was absorbed in fear and expectation regarding learning the state of my body after the gruesome accident. Although it seemed as if my arms and legs were properly attached, I was horribly disfigured because of the burns. The benevolent voice introduced himself as Dr. Hong. Although I felt dazed, I thought I had heard the name before, but I could not be sure.

"Mr. Ilsu Gang, listen carefully to what I'm about to tell you. You sustained internal injuries that were beyond surgical help. You suffered burns so severe nothing on your face remained attached. Having said that, you've been a survivor."

I lost consciousness when the fire moved to the driver's side. I briefly regained consciousness when the fire fighters carried me on the stretcher. I do not remember anything after that and woke to a void blackness.

"You're at Hanguk University's Institute of Biotechnology. Have you heard of it? We brought you to our institute because the hospital said there was no hope for you, Ilsu. Your mother agreed to the surgery and the surgery was successful. But, that is to say…"

Dr. Hong paused as if what he had to say was difficult. Inebriated with medication, I waited for Dr. Hong to finish speaking.

"In order to save your life, Ilsu, we transplanted your brain into a sterile pig used for organ transplants. There was no other way."

Aha! That is why I did not die and remained alive. I have become a pig. That is why I cannot lay down straight. That is why I have been having many dreams about food. My curiosities regarding my feelings of physical alienation I had felt thus far were cleanly resolved.

"Mr. Ilsu Gang, although you may be greatly disappointed, it is better to be alive than dead. Later, if we find a brain-dead body, you can become human again. Try to stay relaxed. Don't harm yourself with useless worries."

It was certain that Dr. Hong's prescribed sedative had ahypnotic effect. I was being persuaded amiably while in a clouded state of consciousness. I would have believed it if he had told me he had transplanted my dwindling soul into a machine and not a pig. After that day, I had many conversations with Dr. Hong. I was bedridden for the sixth month in the institute ward.

"Mr. Ilsu Gang. We'll untie the strapping holding down your body after taking off the bandages from your face. More than anything, stability is important until you accept your situation and have without question the urge to live. I told your motherwho is in Tokyo to come fifteen days later on the day your facial bandages are removed."

After the effect of the medication wore off, I fell into a deep depression. However, I was immediately given a sedative the instant I felt depressed, and I fell into a clouded state of consciousness. For Dr. Hong the scariest thing in the world would be my suicide. If we continued in this manner, would I end up a drug addict?





It was the day they took off my facial bandages. Fearing self-injury Dr. Hong was considerate enough to put a bit into my mouth to bite on and more than other times, I was in a clouded state of consciousness. To repeat myself, it was a good feeling to be drugged upon medication. In the room, there were twenty-three different kinds of cosmetic products and perfume scents, as well as the odors of eight kinds of medications. In the room there were nine people each emitting their own distinct odors, Dr. Hong and the doctors helping him, assistants working the equipment and the camcorder to record the historic event, and my mother who had momentarily closed her shop in Tokyo and traveled a long way to see her son face the world again. As the bed rattled, they raised my body which lay aslant and they sliced away at my facial bandages with a cold scissor; as my moustache tickled, my ears pricked up. As soon as I opened my eyes, I saw a bright light and could vaguely see my surroundings. I blinked my eyes several times. The first thing to enter my eyesight was a pink nose sparsely covered with white hair. My neck muscles still tense and stiff, I looked around moving my eyeballs. I looked at people filled with joy. Wearing a white dress shirt with a yellow striped tie, Dr. Hong with half his hair white had a warm expression on his face. In the back, mother looked at her son who had become a pig with a pitiful look on her face. And I looked down at my body which had been raised crossways. A pink pig was lying on the bed. High on medication, I could not hold back my laughter.

"Oink oink oink."

The doctor holding the needle placed a tranquilizer shot into the pig's heavy thigh. The people gathered here were worried most that I would succumb to the psychological shock, bite my tongue off and die. Waking up after being drowsy for some time due to the medication, I ate the food my mother was feeding me, and when somebody wiped me while changing my diapers, I pretended to be asleep because of the embarrassment. A few days later mother left as she was worried about leaving her shop in Tokyo vacant. Dr. Hong held up a mirror. Inside the mirror, an emaciated pig was inclining its neck. Dr. Hong spoke in a gentle voice.

"Do you see the surgical marks in a cross formation? We can get rid of that scar without a trace through plastic surgery and implanting hair."

When mentioning plastic surgery on a pig's face, I could not help but to burst out laughing once again. However, I soon fell into a serious depression, and I thought the occasions I slipped into darkness and become engrossed in various thoughts was better. I needed a psychotherapist more than I needed Dr. Hong.

I really had cosmetic surgery about three weeks after the bandages were removed. After the surgery the assistants washed my untidy self, trimmed my short fuzz, and dressed me. Furthermore, Dr. Hong showed me something that looked like a dog tag and a vest.

"Son, you can't speak because of the structure of your mouth. If you move your mouth the way you did before when you talked, the necklace will interpret your vocal chords and the movement of your jaw muscles, and the speakers attached to the vest will broadcast your voice. It'll be hard at first but you'll get the hang of it if you keep practicing, so try hard. And I have a favor to ask- reporters are going to show up in a short while. They're going to ask you various questions- try giving good answers."

The reporters arrived just as I was barely able to speak through the necklace. After Dr. Hong's interview was over, they came to witness personally the research results. I learned something new through the reporters. After my brain was transplanted into a pig, Dr. Hong held over ten presentations in foreign academic circles, and Dr. Hong and I had become world famous celebrities. A short while ago a government agency sent bodyguards to protect us.

After the wave of commotion and things settled down, I dragged my pig body, rose from my bed, and was to the point I was able to walk around with my own four feet; although I was confined to the institute's park, I was able to take walks. However, as I became very sensitive to the heat, I avoided the August sun and walked briefly only during the mornings and nights, but I spent most of my time inside the buildings of the institute. Although the people working at the institute attempted to be nonchalant about the way I looked walking down the halls, they radiated with excitement and interest. In my thirty-two years of life, had I ever attracted this much attention? Becoming more optimistic, I did not think it was that bad to live inside the body of a pig.

3.

Autumn which seemed so distant arrived. The fragrant aroma of grapes disseminated into the halls of the research institute. Looking out the window while relishing the cool wind flowing in from the slightly opened window, I decided to venture outside the research institute. I walked with Dr. Hong with his gentle expression and two bodyguards who could not hide their rigidness. Near the research institute there were neatly ordered homes and a four-story commercial building containing a clothes shop, a bar, and a karaoke among others was the highest building. Nearly half of the people living in the neighborhood were scientists and students from the bio research facilities and their families, and those that recognized me had excited expressions on their faces, taking out their digital cameras as they witnessed the pig-man they had only heard of but had never seen in person. And those who did not know glanced at Dr. Hong who was walking with a pig wearing clothes that had a strange electron device attached. My walks had become a daily routine I could not compromise, and on those days when Dr. Hong was not available, I would step outside the doors of the institute even if it meant going with other doctors or assistants. At about the time I was meeting unfamiliar people in new side streets and had become used to buying things in small shops, I told Dr. Hong that I wanted to leave the institute and start my own life. Although I was indebted to Dr. Hong and the institute, I was not an experimental lab pig and I thought I had the freedomto go. Unable to conceal his bewilderment, Dr. Hong urged me to return to the institute.

He could not thwart my stubbornness that insisted independence from the research institute, and they could not hold me- someone who had become a celebrity- by force. I was given freedom on the conditions I would wear an apparatus twenty-four hours a day that would check the status of my health and visit the research institute once a week. Using my safety as an excuse, the government agency sent a bodyguard and I calmly accepted because I needed a driver. Dr. Hong prepared the things I needed to live in the world. A necklace that aided me in talking and a vest holding a computer, a contact device in case of an emergency, and a GPS system among others were the basics, and in my small apartment they specially built home appliances and furniture suitable for a pig. In the mornings, a housekeeper hired by the institute would come and help with the household chores.

The news I had left the institute and returned home had become a hot topic again. I had become used to seeing a pig in the newspapers and on the television, and I cheerfully welcomed people from the television stations and agreed to interviews. Although a part of this could be attributed to my transformation to an optimistic personality, it was more because I felt I needed to make the world aware in order to receive protection from the world. If they knew I was a human being, thoughtless people creating a hubbub for fear of me biting their legs or people placing their children on my back to take pictures would diminish. When everybody on the streets knew me, I would be safe from them and I could be held in high esteem.

Because I frequently appeared on television, I naturally branched out into broadcasting. The first show I did actually visiting the television station was a talk show hosted by a series talk show host. I tried my best to appear happy and cheerful and soon after I received an offer from a comedy program to appear as a pig-man. I gladly accepted. Although the institute provided everything I needed for my livelihood, there was no guarantee that they would continue doing so and I decided that I needed to earn a living on my own. As the pig-man corner in which I appeared became successful, I was called to all kinds of variety programs. However, soon after, I began to feel offended and slipped into a depression. That was because the networks (treatment of me), which began very carefully, progressively became sensational and lewd with the passing of time. In a live variety program where entertainers would appear and make coarse jokes for an hour, a doll-like female singer whose face was half the size of regular people asked me questions.

"Excuse me. Mr. Pig, do you eat pork? It's possible for some pork to be in Kimchi stew."

Although I had no aversion for pork, I consciously try to avoid it. I answered that since I was somebody who was temporarily borrowing a pig's body and would become human again once an appropriate body was found, there was no reason for me to avoid eating pork purposely. The female singer with the pea-sized head reacted with an expression of disgust and asked me another question in her idiotic style of speaking.

"Then, Mr. Pig, are you attracted to female pigs?"

I definitely answered that I was not. How was it possible to feel sexually attracted to a pig? I was not at the point of becoming a pervert attracted to animals.

"But you can't fall in love with a person. That would be disgusting…"

I am not sure what the female singer with the miniature head was imagining, but she covered her face with her two hands and giggled. I got angry and this kind of low-grade talk show had a responsibility to entertain its audience by exposing the wounds and weak points of those that appeared on the program.

"If you're that curious, try becoming a pig like me. You reek of the two men you rolled around in bed with last night!"

That day I was banned from appearing on television. The networks did not want me- they wanted a talking pig. On my part, the only thing I could do was to stimulate the most peripheral senses of the viewers through vulgar jokes while imitating humans. I was fooling myself. Considering I was neither an actor nora singer nor was I a part of the intelligentsia, I planned to get my share by preying on the characteristics of television and my pig body to earn money by appearing in television. I needed to find work that would not scar me- work that recognize me as a human being not a pig. However, what could I possibly do?

Jihye Han who was three years younger than me was an outgoing woman who worked as a field reporter for a cable television network that specialized in documentaries. Although I made up my mind not to appear on television or be interviewed, I did not turn down a visit by Jihye Han. Well aware of the insult I had suffered on the variety programs, Jihye Han did not demand any unreasonable taping or interviews. I appeared several times in a documentary featuring Dr. Hong; as a program that depicted Dr. Hong's challenge and success it was a program that objectively showed who I was. However, that is not to say I was not hurt. Through the entire time I watched the documentary, I was immersed in embarrassment as if looking at my naked self.

I felt better as I felt a gush of wind blow in. I was not expecting her- what was going on? Soon after the housekeeper who came in the mornings to help left, reporter Jihye Han was approaching my apartment carrying my favorite foods. After breakfast my bodyguard went into his own room and was absorbed in a computer game. I opened the locked door and met Jihye Han in the corridor.

"Did you know I was coming?"

"I knew it was you as you crossed the crosswalk. I could smell your scent in the cool wind that flowed in between the curtains."

"The makeup and perfume I use are very common and used by other people……"

"It's a different combination. And each person gives off his or her own distinct scent."

"……!"

4.

I followed the reporter, Jihye Han, to a small aromatic company on the outskirts of Seoul. Whether aromas used by plugging into a electric outlets or spray perfumes or odor eliminators, this was a company that put out products I was familiar with, and the president of the company who was in his mid thirties- younger than I thought-and the director who was similar in age were looking over my resume.

"I see you worked for an IT business. You have no experience or knowledge regarding fragrances. You have not studied chemistry, and being a perfumer is a hard job. A fragrance company deals with over 2,000 kinds of raw ingredients and the job of a perfumer is to create new fragrances by mixing or discovering new raw ingredients. Of course, he must be able to distinguish between the raw ingredients, as well as understand their chemical characteristics. We were somewhat taken aback when the reporter, Jihye Han, came to us. Although a perfumer needs to possess a superior sense of smell, that does not automatically qualify him or her to become a perfumer. I am guessing you were turned down at many places. In any regard, we have decided to hire you, Mr. Ilsu Gang. Although we're a company that makes aromatic compounds, we have been preparing a long time to enter the luxury fragrance market with our new line called 'Scentluv'. You will start as an assistant to a perfumer at the Scentluv research lab. When will it be possible for you to start?"

Although my first meeting with President Bak and Director Han ended as a one sided interview, it was for the better as I would have had difficulty answering their questions. More than twenty researchers worked in the research labDirector Han was in charge of, and there were two professional perfumers. The other researchers handled complex machines that had something to do with chemistry or analyzed data in front of the computer all day.

My daily work consisted merely of reading data regarding fragrances while observing people work. Pierre was an emaciated sixty-seven year old man with white hair and a receding hairline. He worked for a famous fragrance company in Paris and retired when his olfactory senses dulled; he met President Bak and joined the Scentluv business team. He advocated a traditional aromatic formula based on experience, and he possessed a principle-based faith that aromatic technology depended solely on personal ability and discipline. On the other hand, Donghun Choe who was about the same age as me was a chemist who had fallen in love with the aromatic world. He had a tendency to be fixated on analyzing the chemical components of the (aromatic) raw ingredients. Furthermore, to make Scentluv a global brand name, I an assistant fragrance maker- held my post as the buffoon of the lab. My most important duty was posing for the networks, newspapers, and magazines that would occasionally visit. But I liked my job. I was engraving into my memory each of the aromas emitted by the more than 2,000 kinds of raw ingredients. Outside of the aromas in the lab there were very many intricate types of equipment. Although there was an ingredient analyzer, a gas chromatography, and a microbe analyzer, it would have been unreasonable to try learning to use that equipment with my pig paws, which made it hard to hold onto anything, and I was not interested in them as I focused on the scents which captivated me every time somebody opened a bottle containing the raw ingredients for fragrances. Did somebody once say that pigs were dirty animals that rolled in their own excrements? A pig was an animal that lived buried in aromas. Although I was lost inside various scents to the point it was almost unbearable in the beginning, as time passed, I was able to distinguish the makeup of the many scents, and three months later I was able to remember all the scents of the research lab.

When I asked to add a lime scent, Pierre who was shaking a test tube composed of at least twenty raw ingredients was looking at me with tenacious yet gentle eyes. Pierre added a drop of the lime scent into the test tube, as I who had not caused trouble or thrown a fit once up to that point pounded my front two paws and coiled my tail. After briefly savoring the fragrance, Pierre asked me about the raw materials inside the test tube and I correctly answered about the raw materials used. Pierre looked at me incredulously for a moment and asked me in his short Korean:

"We did not teach you that. How did you know?"

"You opened the glass bottle for me. Every time you did that I became engrossed in the scent."

The fragrance lab, which had lacked any concrete progress, rediscovered their zest. Betting games began as well. Pierre and Donghun Choe would extend a tube mixed with dozens of raw materials and I would identify the materials included inside the solution. Those who betted on me would always win, and President Bak and Director Han learned of this. They promoted me from assistant perfumer to perfumer within three months.

Pierre, Donghun Choe, and I actively pursued the creation of a new fragrance. Through his vast experience, Pierre decided the theme of the fragrance. There were many: a scent fit for parties, a scent that would capture love, a scent befitting mornings, and a scent that would go along with red clothes among others. I completed the fragrance by adding some supplemental ingredients to the main ingredients selected by Pierre. After examining the fragrance, Donghun Choe worked to have it chemically safe. Much to my regret, we had no choice but to give up on certain fragrances as they changed over time.

Our work picked up pace and I would become mesmerized by the fragrances inmy sleep. I felt all kinds of fragrances trying to wake my sleeping brain. I could sense scents no other fragrance designer could feel, and more than any other pig in the world, I could freely express fragrances. I would concentrate on thoughts, not my nose, to uncover the origin of the scents and then refine them; I would mix them to create a new scent. In the process of making a new scent, it was like cooking a food dish- many ingredients would be either fried or boiled; we would add seasonings like garlic, ginger, and green onions; seasoning would be adjusted by adding salt and soy sauce and we would conclude by using sesame oil or black pepper. The moment I became lost in the scent, I was free from the reality of being trapped inside a pig's body.

An excellent businessman, President Bak decided to open an exhibition in London with the dozens of fragrances Pierre, Donghun Choe, and I had made. I was to be the main attraction of the exhibition. This exhibition could have been a laughing stock, and like an exhibit of an elephant's abstract artworks, this exhibit could have been belittled to be nothing more than a unique fragrance created by a pig. However, President Park armed with an intense grittiness plowed forward like a locomotive. Pierre and Donghun Choe supported President Bak's idea.

"In the beginning, a pig-man's fragrance exhibition will be covered by the mass media. And those people who visit the exhibition through pure curiosity will leave spellbound by the scent."

In order to develop the fragrance that would be revealed at the exhibition President Park bought many ingredients from abroad. The number of raw ingredients preserved at the lab increased to over 8,000, and the money used to purchase the ingredients and to prepare for the exhibition was enough to put the company finances on shaky ground.

5.

The only fragrance of its kind in the world...... The Scentluv fragrance exhibition ended in great success, and I had become a celebrity without showing myself for the most part. As the front-page headlines of the newspaper carried a picture of pig wearing a t-shirt and pants, through the consideration of the airlines, I was given a first class seat, not the luggage space for animals, on my return flight to Seoul.

Although interview requests flooded in for reasons different than in the past, I turned them all down and devoted my attention to the furnishing of the expanded research facilities to be built in a new location. Many things in my surroundings changed matching the aromatic research lab that had the latest, cutting edge equipment coming in day and night. Scentluv, which had made cheap perfumes, had become a luxurious brand name fragrance at the center of global attention, and I suddenly became the technical director in addition to becoming the director of the institute. My uneasiness regarding the future and the scoffing looks of people disappeared.

I received the extraordinary call from Dr. Hong of the Institute of Biotechnology the following autumn after surviving through another hot summer. I severed contact with the outside world and I was absorbed in the work of classifying the herbs we had ordered to create a new fragrance. After getting off the phone with him, I felt numb and after wavering for some time, I decided to invite the reporter, Jihye Han, for dinner. She was the first person with whom I wanted share the good news. I was also filled with vague expectations that the nature of our relationship could change.

"The research institute tells me they have found a compatible brain-dead body. Dr. Hong called me to schedule a date for the operation. He wouldn't tell me to the end who the brain-dead person was although I pressed him about it. "

I brought up the topic even before the antipasto dish was served. The reporter, Jihye Han, could not conceal her surprise and congratulated me.

"Can my network produce a documentary of the process of becoming human again?"

Of course, I accepted Jihye Han's request. I had received a lot of help from her and the program produced by the network she was affiliated with was not sleazy like the other variety programs on the other networks. Jihye Han wanted the exclusive rights in producing the documentary about me and I accepted that request. Although Jihye Han was ecstatic, I felt the distance between us and I wanted the food to be served quickly.

Thanks to Dr. Hong's carefully thought-out preparations, the operation schedule proceeded quickly, and like a crazy pig I was busy concocting a new fragrance. I reduced my sleeping hours and drank the food prepared by the researchers by mixing it with water. Although reporter Jihye Han and the documentary filming team would occasionally ask me questions and interrupt my work, I could regain my concentration within seconds.





The day the winter rain that melted the frozen hard ground woke the aromas of Mother Nature sleeping inside the earth, I visited the Institute of Biotechnology for my final examination. That was the first time I saw the dead body to which my brain would be transplanted. He was a healthy good-looking man, muscular with short hair. I learned that he had suffered a concussion during a boxing match and never woke up again.

"Mr. Ilsu Gang, how does it feel to become a person again? When you become a man again, you'll be able to travel at will and you'll be able to date again."

The film director and reporter Jihye Han who had been following me around twenty-four hours a day were present when Dr. Hong asked me this. Because my heart was racing so fast, I thought I needed one of those sedatives Dr. Hong used to prescribe for me.

"Mr. Ilsu Gang, your physical condition is great and I do not foresee any chance of failure regarding the operation. But it's not going to be easy. You probably know this as you've been through it before but you will not be able to feel anything for several months. That's why we prepared something."

He showed me an electronic component the size of a dress shirt button.

"We're going to transplant this chip to your brain. We'll be able to send messages to you through this and get an idea of your state of mind. We're a lot more prepared than we were last time. We won't leave you, Ilsu, alone in the darkness as we did the last time."

I sensed a flood of fragrances coming from Dr. Hong. After returning from the London fragrance exhibition I gave him as a present- the only fragrance of its kind in the world-as a token of my gratitude and our friendship. I breathed in slowly not to lose the scent. My chaotic mind settled down.

"Dr. Hong, I'm sorry but I want to continue living as a pig for a while. There are still many scents I want to discover. I want to travel the world and go to places all over the world and discover scents."

When the car that had left the Institute of Biotechnology entered downtown Seoul, I wanted to walk through the bustling city as I savored the cold air flowing in from the black tainted windows which were slightly open. My driver slash bodyguard who had discouraged me from doing such things felt safe after talking to the film director and reporter Jihye Han who had just gotten out of the network vehicle. I took several steps. All kind of sooty smells; the revolting, offensive odor left by a drunkard with indigestion; and a variety of garbage odors pierced my nose which made my way to the pavement. I closed my eyes, lifted my heavy and stiff neck, and sniffed with my nose. I felt my concocted fragrance in several places along the street and between buildings and I screamed at the top of my lungs in sheer joy.

"Oink oink oink."

Note: The author wrote this short story based on a conte published sometime during 2000 in the weekly magazine, . It was always a subject matter the author wanted to write as a good short story.