A Lucky Day by Hyon Chin-Gun

A near-perfect short story set in Seoul in the 1920s.

The protagonist is a poor rickshaw driver who has not had a customer in 8 days. Today is his lucky day he thinks, as he gets two big customers, one after the other, followed by two more. He is happy that he can finally feed his wife and baby, and perhaps quench his thirst with some wine.

While he takes on customers it rains, a freezing rain in winter.

He is suspicious of his luck, and the thought of his sick, bedridden wife nags at him. 

Don't go out today, she had begged him, clinging to his arm. If you must go, at least come back early for me.

However, the prospects of money keep him on his feet, and it is dark when he heads home. His reluctant feet move forward, and he feels saved when he meets his friend on a street corner, near the neighbourhood bar.

In the bar he eats and drinks lavishly. He laughs buoyantly one moment, and cries like a baby the next.

He returns home and it is dark. The baby is sucking on the barren teat of a loglike corpse.

The commentary was excellent as well, I like how Kevin O'Rourke (the translator) distinguished naturalism in the West from naturalism in Korean literature. Naturalism in the West was driven by scientific methodology, while naturalism in Korean literature was based on a sense of determinism and fate (운명/命运).
​

---