Side Story 8
Side Story 8
“This isn’t a line… I’m serious. It’s just been so long, I can’t breathe…!”
“That’s not what I meant. I meant maybe we should stop the act here and quit while we’re ahead.”
“Huh?”
Kwon Chae-woo looked away slightly, then lowered his face to her collarbone and moved down, slow. He barely did more than breathe her in, like he was tasting the moment with the edge of his mouth.
“I actually got an overseas business trip,” he said. “That call earlier was about that.”
Lee-yeon went still.
A trip? Overseas?
He lifted his head and stared up at her like he was testing her.
“You decide,” he said. “Do I go?”
Lee-yeon stroked the crown of his head, fingers sliding into his hair, and swallowed. Her heart hammered for reasons she could not sort out.
Kwon Chae-woo looked calm on the surface, but something in his eyes gleamed with expectation. He kept watching her, head tilted, like he planned to catch every flicker of her expression.
“What is this,” Lee-yeon murmured, lips parting. “Do you want to go?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “That’s why I’m asking. If you tell me to go, I go.”
“…”
“If you tell me not to go, and to stay here and plant myself, then I do that.”
“…!”
“I never had a choice to begin with.”
Lee-yeon did not understand why he would say something like that. Why would Kwon Chae-woo not have a choice. Why would he say things that made her chest ache like this.
She already felt guilty for being sick, for making him live around the baby, for letting him carry everything. Her throat tightened, and she forced the words out anyway.
“Ah… You probably do need a change of air. I felt bad leaving overnight, too, and you’ve been stuck at home. It got suffocating, didn’t it?”
Her voice sounded small, but she straightened quickly. If he wanted to go that badly, how could she be the one to stop him. How could she.
Lee-yeon cupped his cheek.
“Go,” she said. “Don’t watch my face and hold yourself back. Do what you want, Chae-woo. I’ll take care of So Nam-woo while you’re gone. That’s what spouses do. We cover each other’s schedules…”
“…”
His eyebrow twitched. He stayed silent for a beat, then said quietly, “What about your chest.”
For a second, Lee-yeon’s spine went rigid.
Was that… ominous?
Kwon Chae-woo’s mouth curved, smooth and unreadable, like he had been waiting for this exact moment.
“You said it hurt. You asked me to massage it, right? So you don’t need me to do that?”
“Ah… the massage doesn’t have to be today.”
That was when it happened.
“Fuck off.”
“What?”
His hand clamped down on her chest. The grip was nothing like before. It squeezed hard enough to bring tears to her eyes, rough and merciless, like he meant to crush it.
“Ah. Lee Yeon-ah. Lee Yeon-ah.”
She thought she had been close to the right answer, but Kwon Chae-woo’s face twisted as he forced something down. His smooth brow creased, and he bit down on his lower lip, then let go. He breathed in broken, clipped pulls. Everything felt like it was slipping out of alignment.
“You really don’t know shit.”
“What do you mean I don’t? I worry about you too, Kwon Chae-woo!”
“So you want me to go overseas?”
“Because you keep sacrificing for our family…!”
“No.”
He cut her off.
“The sacrifice wasn’t me. It was the stake I’ve been forcing down.”
He bent over her in one sharp motion. A dark shadow covered Lee Yeon’s forehead.
“I hated you. You were so small, so sick, so slow, so oblivious. I love you, and that’s why I hate it even more. I want all of you, but you never want me, Lee-yeon.”
“…!”
“Because I spend my days covered in spit up and changing dirty diapers. Did you go cold on me?”
Lee Yeon sucked in a breath. What the hell. What are you even saying?
“What you’re doing right now isn’t consideration. It’s torture.”
His gaze sharpened and sank, cold and steady.
“I pulled that act because there’s something I wanted to hear from you, Lee Yeon. And you were going to send me overseas? Like you were waiting for it, that fast? Fuck. You look just like Nam-woo, so why are you smiling like that? You’re going to let me go with your chest exposed?”
“…”
Ah. So that’s what this was.
‘You didn’t like my answer.’
“If I go now, who’s going to touch and suck your breasts, Lee Yeon?”
“No, not even asking me to suck them…”
Even if she took rehab slowly, step by step, he scolded her with a chill in his voice, like he could see straight through her.
“I could’ve stopped it completely. But once I start, I can’t just end it halfway. Lee Yeon, I told you, back when you were full term.”
“…”
She remembered. She only rubbed at her reddened earlobe, because it all felt like her fault.
“I wanted you to keep wanting me, Lee Yeon. But you seduce me like you’re doing a halfhearted rehearsal, and you’re a genius at slipping away.”
“Damn it, stop lecturing me…! I want it too. I want you. You’re my husband, so why are you picking me apart like this?”
“It’s too late,” he said. “Our family is perfect now, and that’s what makes it so hard.”
“What is that supposed to mean…”
He stroked her cheek carefully, brushing the soft baby hairs his fingers found there. But his touch and his eyes carried completely different temperatures.
“I’m saying I’m going to quit.” He exhaled, low and rough. “Yeah. I should stop. I’m basically a mutt living on kibble. For no reason, I…”
Something collapsed inside her with a dull thud, like a sandcastle caving in.
After he wiped her face once, Kwon Chae-woo pulled the blanket up and wrapped it around her shoulders. He pressed a quick kiss to her cheek, then stood.
Right then, the baby started crying from down the hall. Kwon Chae-woo passed Lee Yeon, who had gone pale, and stepped out into the hallway.
A moment later, she heard his low voice, hushing and soothing Nam-woo. At least it did not sound like he was quitting the Nam-woo part of his life.
And then…
Lee Yeon curled in on herself in the room he left behind. He did not come back into the bedroom until dawn.
***
The next day, and the day after that, Kwon Chae-woo stayed the same. He kept taking care of So Nam-woo like a devoted father. Even in the middle of a hectic morning, he still made Lee-yeon breakfast, and before he left for work, he even fastened the buttons on her coat with his own hands.
And yet, distance hung between them.
Their skin never met. His smiles felt fake. Each day stretched on like walking across thin ice.
Lee-yeon did not know what to do. She let herself get pushed out of the house like driftwood. She rode the bus to the site in a daze, and by pure bad luck, the YouTube video playing from the seat beside her stabbed straight into her ears.
“I can’t take it anymore, so fine, let’s divorce! Do you have any idea how many years I swallowed everything because of you? I cook for you every day, I raise the kids, I live like I’m not allowed to raise my voice once, and it feels like hell!”
Lee-yeon went rigid.
“Did you ever try to understand me even once? Don’t make me laugh. All you ever gave me was pain. I just wanted to be loved! But what did you do? I can’t do this anymore. Let’s end it. Us.”
“No…”
Divorce is not an option.
“Don’t grab me. I’ve endured enough! You never read my heart, not even once!”
“I, I’m sorry…”
When Lee-yeon murmured that, the woman glanced over at her, then got up and moved seats. Lee-yeon’s heart pounded so hard it felt ominous, and cold sweat broke out along her back.
Isn’t marriage supposed to be like that? Death, you can’t help. But divorce, you can’t do. Was that why you begged for us to register our marriage like it was nothing? After we had a baby, you can’t just step back now!
At least be cruel like before. At least spit something nasty at me. Hurt me if you have to, you bastard.
My resolve was not as light as yours. I built your grave, and then I dug it back up with my own hands.
Her resentment rose like waves, swelling and swelling until it finally swallowed her whole. Lee-yeon slammed her fist into the stop button, then got off the bus.
Then she started running home without stopping.
Kwon Chae-woo, if what you want is for me to beg you not to go, if what you want is for me to throw myself at you, then fine. I’ll do it. I’ll do it right.
It’s because you only treat me like a patient that I started shrinking back…
She turned into the alley and rounded the corner.
And then.
“!”
A large hand shot out of nowhere. Before she could even fight back, her strength drained out of her.
A black glove clamped around the back of her neck, and the fingers pressed down at a precise spot. Her vision swayed. It felt like sleep surged up and swallowed her.
I’m falling. I’m going to hit the ground.
She flailed weakly, and an all too familiar set of arms caught her and lifted her up. She tried to thrash harder, but the moment a hand stroked her face with gentle calm, her body froze.
This scent. This broad chest.
Through her heavy, drooping eyelids, she caught a glimpse of a handsome face.
So the person kidnapping me right now is…
“Shh. Got you.”
A soft laugh landed against her forehead.
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