The Path Back to My Husband
Even after sending the short reply to her husband, Eunju’s fingers didn’t immediately leave the screen. The heat and laughter that had filled the workshop only moments ago seemed to change shape the instant Minjun’s name appeared. Doyun set his paper cup down. Hyeonwu aimlessly prodded the cold black bean noodles with his chopsticks. The soju was nearly gone. Only a few soggy pieces of sweet-and-sour pork remained in the takeout box, and the fried dumplings had cooled, releasing a faint oily scent.
Eunju carefully lifted the jacket Hyeonwu had draped over her lap. Beneath it, the white skirt reappeared. The short hem still lay modestly across her thighs; she smoothed it once with her palm. Even that small motion made Hyeonwu’s gaze pause for a second. Doyun saw it but didn’t tease him. This time, he wasn’t so different himself.
Sensing their silence, Eunju gave a small laugh. “Why did you both get so quiet?”
Doyun answered first. “Because you’re leaving, Nuna.” His tone was light, but the regret woven through it couldn’t be hidden. Hyeonwu nodded a beat later. “You could stay just a little longer.”
Eunju fiddled with her bag strap for no reason. “My husband called for me.”
At those words, both men fell silent at the same time. Husband. Until just now, Eunju had been the woman sitting between them, eating black bean noodles, drinking soju, and talking about the main shoot. She had felt a little special, a little close—close enough that if they reached out, they might actually touch her. But that single word drew the line again. Eunju was on her way back to her husband. A married woman, returning to the place where her husband waited.
Hyeonwu found the fact quietly upsetting. Yet strangely, even that disappointment made Eunju stand out more sharply in his eyes. Doyun felt the same. More than the desire to hold her, the realization that he couldn’t came first. And because of that, he wanted to look at her longer.
Eunju rose slowly from her seat. Because of the short skirt, every movement was cautious. As she stood up from the floor, she pressed the front of her skirt down lightly with one hand and picked up her bag with the other. Hyeonwu reflexively turned his head away. Doyun didn’t. Instead, he deliberately lowered his gaze toward her legs in a playful way, then looked back at her face as if nothing had happened. Eunju saw it and smiled.
“You two are complete opposites.”
Hyeonwu and Doyun looked at her at the same time. Eunju turned to Hyeonwu first. “Hyeonwu, if you keep avoiding eye contact like that, some women won’t get the chance to show themselves to you even if they want to. Try meeting their eyes at least a little.”
Hyeonwu’s face flushed instantly. “Me?”
“Yes.” Eunju nodded with a smile. “It’s not always polite to look away. Sometimes a woman wants to be seen.”
Hyeonwu could only press his lips together, speechless. Eunju turned to Doyun next.
“And you, Doyun.”
Doyun straightened his posture for no reason. “Yes?”
“If you stare that openly, every woman will run away.” Eunju narrowed her eyes slightly. “I only let you do it because I’m your Nuna.”
Doyun paused, then laughed. “Then is it okay to look at you, Nuna?”
Eunju didn’t answer right away. She held the doorknob and looked at him. “Like today. Look at me beautifully.”
Both men fell quiet at once. Eunju pretended not to notice their reaction. She started toward the door, then turned back before grabbing the handle.
“I’ll set the next appointment after talking with my husband.”
Hyeonwu and Doyun couldn’t reply. In a slightly lower voice, Eunju added, “Especially you, Hyeonwu. If I’m in an embarrassing situation and you get embarrassed too, it’ll be too hard on me.”
Hyeonwu lifted his head. Eunju tried to smile, but the expression came out a little awkward. “Look at me calmly. Not like you’re seeing something strange, but like you’re seeing something beautiful.”
Hyeonwu couldn’t answer immediately. Eunju touched the strap of her bag with her fingertips and added softly, “Promise me. Right now… I’m actually really nervous.”
The playful look vanished from Hyeonwu’s face. “Yes. I promise.”
Only then did Eunju nod, seeming a little relieved. She looked at Doyun. “And Doyun, don’t stare too openly.”
Doyun started to laugh but stopped. Leaving only those words, Eunju opened the door.
The air outside the workshop was colder than she expected. Her body, warmed by the soju, the lights, and the warmth of other people, cooled slightly the moment it met the hallway air. While waiting for the elevator, Eunju texted Minjun. Leaving now. The reply didn’t come right away. Instead, her phone rang. Seeing Minjun’s name on the screen, Eunju smiled faintly. Maybe it was the alcohol, but just seeing his name eased her heart a little.
“Hey, Minjun.”
Minjun’s voice came through the receiver—low and a little loose. He sounded tipsy too. “Did you leave?”
“Yeah. I’m about to catch a taxi.”
Minjun laughed. “You’re coming in that refreshing outfit, right?”
Eunju glanced at her reflection in the bus stop glass. White skirt, pale sky-blue camisole, cheeks slightly flushed from the soju. Minjun’s words were meant for her, yet they somehow felt like they were also meant for Gyujin to hear. Eunju realized it and gave a small laugh.
“Why? Trying to show off to Gyujin?”
Minjun chuckled lowly on the other end. “Yeah. I want to tell him our Eunju got photographed beautifully today. And that Gyujin got a little excited seeing you.”
Eunju looked at a bus passing in the distance. “Did you drink a lot?”
“A little.”
“Your voice says it’s more than a little.”
“You drank too.”
Eunju laughed instead of answering. Minjun was quiet for a moment, then said, “Come carefully. Text me when you get in the taxi.”
“I will.”
Even after hanging up, Eunju held her phone for a while. When she stepped out of the building, the night air touched her skin. The warmth from the alcohol lingered inside her, while the outside air was cold. The contrast felt strangely vivid.
The taxi didn’t take long to arrive. Eunju climbed into the back seat. Only after closing the door did she become fully aware that she was still wearing the short skirt. Though she was drunk, her posture became even more careful. She sat with her knees neatly together, pressed the hem of her skirt down once with her palm, and placed her bag on her lap. The inside of the taxi was quiet. The driver glanced at the rearview mirror once but quickly returned his eyes to the road. He didn’t speak. The radio was turned very low.
Eunju looked out the window. The lights of the night streets flowed across the glass. The photos of herself that she had seen in the workshop came to mind. The scene of Doyun’s mouse carefully adjusting the light on her thigh. Hyeonwu’s face as he held his breath and stared at the screen. Her own voice saying, “Look at me like that during the main shoot too.” And now, she was on her way to her husband. Strangely, that fact settled her heart. At the same time, it made her burn even hotter.
Eunju hugged the bag on her lap a little tighter. Between her modestly gathered legs, the lingering heat from the workshop still seemed to remain.
The pub was tucked down an alley just off the main road. When Eunju opened the door and stepped inside, Minjun looked up first from the inner table. A smile immediately spread across his face.
“There’s our Eunju.”
Minjun stood and pulled her into his arms. Thanks to the alcohol, Eunju slipped into his embrace more easily than usual. When his hand touched her back, her body melted. Something that had been tense in the workshop seemed to find its place again, if only for a moment, inside her husband’s arms.
Gyujin watched the scene with a blank expression. Eunju pulled back slightly from Minjun’s embrace and looked at Gyujin. Seeing his awkward face, a playful urge rose in her.
“Won’t you hug me too, Gyujin?”
Gyujin waved his hands in surprise. “Ah, no, it’s fine.”
Minjun laughed. “Don’t be scared. We’re not going to eat you.” Then, as if something occurred to him, he laughed a little lower. “Actually… never mind. Eunju did say once that she might eat you someday.”
Eunju shot Minjun a look. “Oppa. Why would you say something like that?” But her glare didn’t stay sharp for long. Whether because of the alcohol or because she didn’t really mind his joke, the corners of her mouth soon softened. Gyujin looked even more awkward. Strangely, though, he didn’t feel like running away.
Eunju sat down beside Minjun. She carefully arranged her white skirt and drew her legs modestly to one side. Gyujin’s gaze followed the movement before dropping hastily to his drink. Minjun didn’t miss it. He paused with his glass halfway to his lips, gave a small snort of laughter, and looked at Gyujin.
“Last time, when Eunju told you to look, you pretty bravely scanned every inch. Looks like you’ve lost a lot of courage since then.”
Gyujin cleared his throat with a flustered expression. Minjun finally picked up the soju bottle. “Want a drink?”
“Just a little.”
Eunju accepted the glass. Soju filled it. She had already drunk at the workshop, but the alcohol here felt different. In the workshop, her body had been warmed by the gazes of two young men. Here, beside her husband, she would listen to another man’s troubles. It was the same drink, yet the meaning of her body changed with the setting.
At first, light conversation flowed. Minjun deliberately brought up Eunju’s outfit.
“Hey, Gyujin. Now that you’re seeing Eunju up close today, what do you think? It’s a little different from when you saw her from far away, right?”
Gyujin couldn’t answer and simply lifted his glass. Eunju laughed and said, “Oppa, stop making things awkward for people.”
“Why? You dressed up nicely today.”
“That’s true, but…” Eunju looked down at the hem of her skirt. “I’d like it if you looked at me.” She glanced toward Gyujin and smiled. “Though Gyujin still seems completely uninterested in that sort of thing.”
Gyujin truly looked like he didn’t know where to put his eyes. Minjun watched him and smiled, but soon softened his expression. He knew tonight wasn’t just a casual drinking session—Gyujin had asked them to meet for a reason.
Only after the alcohol had circulated a little more did Gyujin speak. “Actually… my ex-wife is back at the house.”
Eunju set her glass down. Minjun had already heard the story, but he grew quiet again. Gyujin continued slowly. “She asked me to forgive her. She wants us to get back together. She says she wants to live with the kids like before. That she won’t cheat again, that she’ll only look at me…” He spun his glass with his fingers. “She was crying. Her expression was so desperate.”
Eunju said nothing. Gyujin kept talking without looking at her. “I’m refusing for now. But she’s the mother of my children. I can’t completely push her away. Right now we’re sleeping in separate rooms… just living in the same house.”
Eunju listened quietly. If this had been her old self, she might have thought differently. She wouldn’t have understood a woman who had cheated. Betrayal was betrayal, and a mistake was a mistake. And if the person truly repented, she would have believed people could change. But lately, Eunju had been thinking a little differently. While watching Minjun’s inclinations. And while watching the desires opening up inside herself.
The desire to receive other men’s gazes in front of her husband. The desire to feel embarrassed in front of those gazes, yet still want to look even more beautiful. The desire to someday cross even deeper lines with Minjun’s permission. Had those feelings appeared simply because she decided to have them? No. They weren’t sudden thoughts she had fabricated one day, nor desires someone had forced into her. It was more like something long hidden had finally lifted its head now that the conditions were right.
If that was the case, could she stop it with willpower alone? Eunju couldn’t easily nod at that question. If one day Minjun tried to stop her—if he told her not to go out, not to stand in front of other men’s gazes, to give up all the temptations of her body she had only just discovered—she would try to accommodate him because she loved him. She would try hard. But she wasn’t sure she could follow through to the end. It would be the same for Minjun. Even if Eunju said she didn’t want it, the neto tendencies inside him wouldn’t disappear. He simply wouldn’t force her. He could suppress it, wait, and hide it, but he couldn’t become someone who never had those feelings.
Only after thinking that far did Eunju slowly open her mouth. “Gyujin.”
Gyujin lifted his head. Eunju held her glass with both hands and said, “It’s possible that she truly feels sorry. That might not be a lie. But the feeling of being sorry and the feeling of never wavering again seem like two different things.”
The pub grew quiet for a moment. Eunju didn’t choose her words carefully; she brought out the most honest part of herself. “Once a body has embraced another man… I don’t think that memory just disappears.”
Gyujin’s hand stopped above his glass. Minjun looked at Eunju too. She didn’t avoid their eyes. “You can delay it with willpower. You can reduce the number of times, endure it, even try hard to protect your family. But if you’re ever faced with a fatal temptation again… I think there’s a possibility you’ll waver.”
Gyujin let out a low breath. Eunju spoke even more quietly. “I think I would be the same.”
Gyujin looked at her. Seeing his heavy expression, Eunju didn’t back down. This confession might have been more embarrassing than what she had told the two men in the workshop earlier. “I’ve come this far because my heart matches my husband’s. Because Oppa looks at me that way, and because I want it too. That’s why we don’t fall apart. If I had done it secretly by myself, that would have been a different problem.”
Minjun silently lifted his glass. Eunju continued, looking at Gyujin. “So what you need to check first, Gyujin, isn’t whether you can believe her words. It’s not about holding on to her promise that she’ll never do it again. You need to look at how far you yourself can accept. That’s what you should see first.”
Those words lingered with Gyujin for a long time. He couldn’t answer right away. Eunju didn’t rush his silence. She knew she couldn’t easily give answers about someone else’s marriage. Minjun simply poured more drinks without saying anything.
A little later, Gyujin laughed weakly. “It’s difficult.”
Eunju nodded. “It is. If I forgive her, I feel like a fool. If I push her away…” Gyujin couldn’t finish. “The fact that she’s the kids’ mother keeps bothering me.”
Eunju looked at him quietly. “That’s why you need to be more honest. Instead of trying to make the ‘good’ choice, you need to make the choice you can actually handle.”
Gyujin stared down at his glass for a long time, as if chewing on her words. It was Eunju who felt the mood had grown too heavy. She set her glass down and deliberately smiled more loosely. Then she lightly pressed the hem of her skirt with her fingertips.
“But we’ve only been talking about such heavy things.”
Minjun looked at her. He seemed to have noticed she was trying to change the atmosphere. Eunju tilted her head slightly toward Gyujin. “I came dressed like this today. You saw me from far away earlier. Now that I’m close, what do you think?”
Gyujin was flustered. “Pardon?”
Eunju’s face looked a little more honest than usual, perhaps because of the alcohol. But it wasn’t just playfulness. “Tell me what you think of me as a woman today. How do I look in your eyes, Gyujin?”
Gyujin couldn’t answer. Minjun didn’t laugh beside her. He simply watched Gyujin quietly. The man who had just been talking about his ex-wife now had to evaluate his friend’s wife as a woman. The situation was incredibly awkward, yet strangely, he didn’t want to avoid it.
Eunju lifted her glass and took a sip. She drew her knees, which were gathered beneath the white skirt, a little more neatly together. “You can be honest.”
Gyujin opened his mouth very late. “You’re beautiful.”
Eunju looked at him without speaking. Gyujin swallowed once and spoke more honestly. “More than earlier… you look more dangerous now.”
A very faint smile brushed across Minjun’s lips. Eunju blinked slowly. “Dangerous?”
Gyujin couldn’t look away. “Yes. Earlier you were far away, so I was just surprised. But now that you’re close… it feels like I’m looking at something I shouldn’t. Enough that I want to have you.”
Gyujin’s hand stopped. Minjun also looked at Eunju silently. A brief silence passed. Gyujin pressed his lips together as if he didn’t want to answer, but eventually spoke very quietly. “Yes.”
Eunju’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Then… how about forgetting about being the kids’ mother for a moment and trying to take me once?”
At that moment, the sound of Minjun swallowing was faintly audible. The place was so quiet that the small sound stood out clearly. Gyujin’s face hardened.
“Honestly…” He spoke with difficulty. “Instinctively, I want to.”
Eunju looked at him without avoiding his gaze. Gyujin tightened his grip on the glass. “But still… I’m not the kind of person who can do that to my friend’s woman.”
Eunju gave a very small smile at his words.