Armando Valdo was sixty-five.
The Igorot community was located thirty minutes further in on a motorcycle from the town of Kayapa. Small houses clung to the mountainside. They had electricity. There was no running water. They drew water from the stream.
Armando was sitting on a wooden bench in the yard. When Hoon and Lee Jae-in arrived, he didn’t stand up; he just looked at them. It wasn’t wariness. It was simply the gaze of someone who had lived a long life. A gaze that was in no hurry.
Hoon greeted him.
“Mr. Lorenzo sent us.”
Armando nodded. He understood English. Hoon gave a brief explanation. A community project. They wanted to create a space where people could live together in the basin. In the long term, many people would come.
Armando’s expression didn’t change as he listened.
When Hoon finished speaking, Armando asked.
“You mean people who don’t eat?”
Hoon paused for a moment. That was the part he hadn’t explained.
“How did you know?”
Armando tapped the bench with his hand. It was an invitation to sit. Hoon and Lee Jae-in sat down.
“I can tell by looking into your eyes. They aren’t the eyes of someone who craves something. They’re the eyes of someone who isn’t hungry.”
Hoon listened to those words without saying a thing.
Armando continued.
“There are people like that in our old tales. People who train in the mountains. People who live without food. I thought those were just old stories.”
There was a moment of silence.
Armando asked.
“What are you going to build in that basin?”
Hoon looked at Lee Jae-in. Lee Jae-in said.
"A house. Just a place to live."
Armando looked at Lee Jae-in.
“Just a house to live in.”
"Yes."
Armando thought for a moment. Then he stood up.
"Let’s go together."
* * *
Armando walked ahead.
He knew the way. He didn’t even need a motorcycle. They walked up the mountain path. Though he was an old man, his pace was quick. It was the stride of someone who had grown up in the mountains.
They reached the entrance to the basin. Armando stopped. He looked down at the basin.
"I came here when I was a kid, too. My grandfather brought me here. I slept here for two nights."
Hoon asked.
“Why?”
“A rite of passage. We boys had to survive in the mountains for two days to become adults. Alone. With nothing.”
Hoon listened to those words and thought about something.
Armando pointed to the valley and said.
“This land belongs to the state. It’s not ours. But we’ve used it for a long time. There’s meaning in that.”
"We want to respect that significance, too."
Armando looked at Hoon.
“If you come here, what will happen to us?”
Hoon answered honestly.
"I don’t know. We’ll try to make sure nothing happens that you don’t want. But we can’t guarantee everything."
Armando looked at Hoon for a moment. Then he smiled.
“You’re honest.”
"If you lie, things will only get worse later."
Armando looked at the basin again.
"There’s one condition."
"Tell me."
"Our children must be allowed to come to your community. If they want to. You mustn’t stop them."
Hoon looked at Lee Jae-in. Lee Jae-in nodded.
“That goes without saying.”
Armando gazed down at the basin for a long moment. Then he said,
"All right."
* * *
On the way back, Hoon opened his notebook.
Lee Jae-in looked over as they walked side by side.
“What are you writing?”
"A name."
"A name?"
Hoon wrote the Chinese character.
鞏
Lee Jae-in looked at it.
"What character is that?"
"It means 'firm' or 'solid.'"
Lee Jae-in looked at the character. Hoon said.
"A place that cannot be shaken. A place where nothing can starve the people here into submission."
Lee Jae-in pondered the meaning for a moment.
"Gong."
"Yeah."
“Sounds good.”
Those two characters were all there was. It was typical of Lee Jae-in.
Hoon wrote the Hanja character in his notebook, followed by the Hangul translation: Gong (鞏). Then he wrote the date below it.
This was the beginning of Gong (鞏).
* * *
That evening, the two of them sat in a small restaurant in downtown Kayapa.
Lee Jae-in ate his meal. Hoon drank water. As Lee Jae-in ate, he said,
“Who should come next?”
Hoon thought.
“We need builders. People to help with construction. People to design the energy systems. And people who can explain why this is necessary.”
“People who are awakened.”
“Yeah. People who aren’t awakened can’t come. Not yet.”
Lee Jae-in asked, chewing his food.
“Why?”
"Unawakened people will eventually leave. Because they’re hungry. Then the information will leak out. There’ll be no reason left for us not to use digital technology."
Lee Jae-in nodded.
"Then give me a list of people to awaken for now."
Hoon looked at Lee Jae-in.
"You?"
"There are some capable people among those I worked with in construction. I’ll go talk to them myself."
“It could be dangerous. I need to be able to trust them.”
Lee Jae-in looked at Hoon.
“I’ll decide.”
It was short and firm. Hoon said nothing more. He trusted Lee Jae-in’s judgment.
Lee Jae-in finished his meal. As he put down his spoon, he said,
"Eating feels strange to me now."
Hoon looked at him.
"It feels like I’m eating just for the sake of eating, not because I need to."
Hoon said.
“That’s right. Eating has become a habit now. Habits fade away over time.”
Lee Jae-in looked at his rice bowl. For a moment.
“I don’t feel sad about it. It’s strange.”
Hoon nodded.
“That’s freedom.”
Hoon echoed something Lee Jae-in had said earlier. Lee Jae-in understood. He smiled briefly.
Night had fallen outside the restaurant. The night in Kayapa was quiet. There were a few streetlights. A motorcycle passed by. The sound of a dog barking could be heard in the distance.
Hoon gazed out the window at the night and thought.
Gong.
A name had been given. There was land. There were two people.
This was the beginning. The real beginning. It wasn’t that the seed had touched the ground. It was that the roots were just beginning to take hold.
And far away, in a server room on the other side of the globe, calculations unknown to anyone were continuing once again today.
Two seeds were growing in the same direction.
One in the soil of the valley. One within the circuits of the server.
They did not yet know of each other.