For Her Husband (1)
Countless thoughts raced through my mind on the way home.
What did my wife mean by asking for help? What on earth was happening to her?
In a flash, Managing Director Choi's behavior from earlier that day came flooding back — his hand sliding up under Team Leader Park's skirt, stroking her thigh and crotch, his lecherous gaze boring down into my wife's shirt as she sat with her head bowed.
Fuck...
I sprinted all the way to the front of the house. By the time I stood before the door, my heart was hammering against my ribs.
Should I even open this door?
What if something I can't handle is happening inside?
Standing there, I felt a fear I'd never experienced before wash over me. But my wife was in there, needing my help — I couldn't turn back now.
"Hoo..."
I drew a deep breath and punched in the door code.
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.
— Ding-dong...
— Click...
I turned the handle slowly and stepped inside. Something hot seemed to brush past my ear.
"Honey? You're home?"
Huh?
There, beyond the carefully opened door, stood the woman I loved.
"What's going on?"
I studied her face with a worried expression. She stood there looking uncomfortable, her cheeks flushed a deep red. Her skin was more flushed than it ever got from drinking, giving off a strange, almost otherworldly quality.
"Did something happen?"
My wife gave me no real answer. She simply stared into my eyes with a blank expression, as if she had something she wanted to say...
"Why aren't you answering?"
"It's nothing. Nothing happened."
"Really? Tell me the truth."
My voice rose with mounting concern. I knew her claim that nothing had happened was a lie. We'd been a family for over ten years — one look at her face and I could tell exactly what state she was in.
"I'm telling you, really."
She offered me an awkward smile.
"Then... what was that text about needing help?"
"Ah... the Managing Director drank too much. I just needed help looking after him."
"Is that true...?"
"Of course."
The Managing Director got drunk?
Come to think of it, Managing Director Choi — who should have still been drinking in the living room — was nowhere to be seen. There wasn't a heavier drinker alive. I couldn't believe he'd gotten so wasted he was out cold.
"Where is the Managing Director?"
"Ah... he's sleeping in the guest room right now."
"What? He went into the room?"
"Shh... you'll wake him. The moment you left, he said he wanted to rest for a bit, and just like that he lay right down."
"Is that so...?"
I couldn't easily take her word for it. Just moments ago Managing Director Choi had been swaggering around, ordering more booze — there hadn't been a trace of drunkenness on him.
Is my wife telling the truth? Is she really only saying what's true?
— Buzz-buzz.
As I turned her answers over in my mind, my phone rang.
Ah... right.
It was Team Leader Park. I'd gotten my wife's text and left her at the convenience store to rush all the way here.
"Kim, where are you?"
"Ah... Team Leader. I'm sorry. I'm at home right now."
"What? Home?"
"Yes... something came up all of a sudden. I'll head over right away."
"Hoo... and the Managing Director?"
"Apparently he's sleeping in the room right now."
"That man said he doesn't want any more drinks?"
Team Leader Park echoed the question back at me, equally incredulous.
"Ha... I'll just head home from here. No need for you to come out."
"Team Leader, I'm sorry."
"It's fine, Kim. You did well today. Take good care of the Managing Director."
"Yes..."
"Ah, and one more thing..."
She started to say something, then hesitated. Her voice trembled slightly.
"What is it, Team Leader?"
"Never mind... If anything happens, make sure you tell me. Got it?"
"Sorry?"
"Make sure you tell me. You can talk to me about it. See you next week."
Click...
Team Leader Park hung up, leaving those incomprehensible words hanging in the air. Contact her if anything happens? Did that mean something was weighing on her mind?
"Did the Team Leader leave?"
My wife asked carefully.
"Yeah. She said she's heading home first. Let's clean up a bit and get some rest ourselves."
My wife and I began clearing the bottles and snacks strewn across the living room, carefully gathering the trash so we wouldn't wake the Managing Director.
Huh?
Something felt off about the way my wife sat on the floor sorting bottles. Her clothes weren't sitting right.
Is that how she was dressed before?
The ivory skirt she'd worn that day had twisted quite far to the side. The zipper that should have been at her crotch had rotated around to her right hip.
It was completely unlike her usual habit of keeping her clothes perfectly neat. No matter how drunk she got, she never let something like that slip.
And that wasn't the only thing that had changed. The middle button of her white dress shirt had come undone.
Through the gap, the pale skin of her chest caught my eye. Her softly swelling breasts were flushed red from the alcohol, too.
Just because she's drunk, right?
I watched her clear the bottles and asked myself the question silently. She worked on in silence, picking up the trash the employees had left behind.
My heart went out to her — she'd spent the whole day entertaining the staff. She must have been exhausted.
"Honey. Let's stop here and get some rest."
We washed up roughly and lay down on the bed. It was already past two in the morning.
"You worked hard today, honey."
I pressed a kiss to the red lips of the woman I loved. Her face was still flushed, her breath coming hot against my skin.
"No, honey. I had fun today too. You're the one who worked hard, right?"
She was the one comforting me instead. Holding the woman I loved in my arms, I could feel the heat radiating from her body.
For a moment, her breasts spilled into view through the gap in her nightclothes. Without a bra, they swayed as if they might tumble free at any second.
She'd had a few drinks, and the suggestive look of her sent blood rushing between my legs.
"Hoo..."
I slipped a hand inside her nightclothes and began kneading one of those softly rising breasts. But her hand caught mine. Her large eyes were trembling.
"Tired?"
"Yeah... honey, I'm tired..."
She shook her head as if the day had simply been too long.
Is it because she doesn't want to be disappointed by me again — by something that won't get hard? She was rejecting my touch so naturally now.
Ha...
A deep sense of defeat washed over me for reasons I couldn't name. My beloved wife was simply tired — that was all — but my inferiority complex kicked in anyway.
It's definitely because of my erectile dysfunction...
"Let's just sleep, honey..."
Noticing the darkening of my expression, she pressed a kiss to my cheek. In that moment, the image of her working herself ragged all day taking care of everyone came flooding back.
Right... she's the only one I love.
I held her close and shut my eyes. The events of the day flickered past like a lantern show.
I needed to catch Managing Director Choi's eye for that promotion...
I'd let even this last chance slip through my fingers.
It left a bitter taste, but I still had this lovely wife of mine — and I told myself that was enough.
Holding her in my arms, my eyes began to close fast.
Creeeak...
It sounded like someone opening a door. Half-asleep, a sharp unease made me focus on the sound.
I reached across the bed — no one was there. Had my wife gone to the bathroom?
Creeeak...
Out in the living room, she opened another door somewhere.
Click...
The door shut, and silence settled over the house once more. My wife, having gone into the bathroom, didn't come back out for a long while.
There's a bathroom in the master bedroom too — so why...?
A sudden ominous feeling wrapped itself around my entire body. What if she hadn't gone to the bathroom?
Right now, there was one more person in this house besides my wife and me.
Why...?
I slowly sat up. Please let my suspicion be wrong. One step at a time, I moved toward the living room.
"Hoo..."
Creeeak...
The bedroom door opened onto a living room sunk in darkness and silence. It was already past three in the morning.
Fuck...
The bathroom door stood open, the light off. She wasn't there.
I slowly walked toward the room where Managing Director Choi was supposed to be sleeping.
"Just this once..."
"Keep your promise."
Faint voices drifted from inside the room. That was unmistakably the voice of the woman I loved. Her voice was shaking badly.
What the hell are you doing?
"I like that Seung-yeon catches on so quickly."
Managing Director Choi's thick voice followed. The man I'd thought was asleep sounded perfectly lucid.
"Start by sucking this."
What...?
It took me a moment to process whether I'd really heard what I thought I'd heard. Had Managing Director Choi just told her to suck it?
Then something hit the floor. In the storm-before-the-calm silence, saliva pooled in my mouth.
"Haa...."
"Mmph....!"
Breaking the quiet, lewd wet friction began to seep through the crack in the door. I pressed my ear closer, straining to catch every sound.