Stepmother's Friend 1: Lee Sua
"Did you just wake up? Come on, breakfast is ready."
"Good morning, Mom. Did you sleep well?"
"Mm-hmm. I slept like a rock. Must be because my son's home—I feel so much safer."
Despite her words, faint dark circles lingered beneath her eyes. I pretended not to notice. Mom's secret—the one she'd burned through all alone until the small hours of the night—was mine to protect. And the fact that I'd stood frozen outside her door, listening to those piteous moans for a long while... that was a secret of my own.
Lost in those thoughts, I finished breakfast.
"I'll take care of the dishes. You sit down and rest, Mom."
"No, it's fine. I'll be done in a second."
"That's exactly why I'm doing it."
I wrapped an arm around her shoulders, steered her firmly into a chair at the table, then pulled on rubber gloves and started washing up.
"I said I'd do it. Honestly."
"Then brew us some coffee. We'll drink it together when I'm finished."
She'd been sitting there looking needlessly guilty, so I tossed her something to do. She stood right up, a smile blooming at the corners of her mouth.
"Okay. Iced for you, right?"
"Yeah. You remembered."
"Of course I did. How could I forget? Even in the dead of winter you'd sit there shivering, insisting a real man was an eol-juk-ah—iced Americano or freeze to death trying."
The years we'd spent together hadn't been all that short. I found myself realizing, all over again, just how many layers of memory we'd stacked up about each other. And that fact made me happy, even as it settled over me with a weight that felt more precious than ever.
"Heh. Still, I think I'll go for something warm in the winter from now on."
"Why? Did something happen?"
"I froze my ass off so many winters in the military that even I started craving something hot."
"Ah... my poor boy. You went through so much."
"Nah. Everyone does it."
Mom's face went soft with sympathy, aching for the son who'd suffered through his service. After Dad passed, I'd volunteered for the Marine Corps just to drown out the emptiness—and I'd regretted it more than I could say. The blizzards on Baengnyeongdo had converted even a tough guy's eol-juk-ah devotion in a single season.
I tore through the dishes with Marine Corps efficiency and settled in for a leisurely coffee with Mom.
Her phone buzzed from the other end of the sofa, vibrating hard against the cushion.
"Huh? Who's calling this early?"
"Go ahead and pick up."
She lifted the phone, checked the screen, and tapped accept.
"Oh, Sua. What's going on this early? ...Huh? You're coming over today? Ah..."
A friend wanting to drop by. She glanced at me, hesitating over her answer.
"Tell her to come."
I nodded right away and said it quietly.
"Yeah, okay. Come on over. ...Yeah, let's have lunch together. ...Alright, see you later."
Mom hung up and looked at me apologetically.
"Son, what do I do? A friend's coming over."
"What do you mean, what do you do? Friends coming over is a good thing."
"But you just got discharged. You probably want to rest at home in peace. I'm sorry."
"I told you yesterday it was fine. I mean it. Don't worry about me—just relax and enjoy yourself, okay?"
Just yesterday I'd told her to invite her friends over whenever she wanted. I just hadn't expected "whenever" to mean today. But I'd meant every word. I could always just hole up in my room. It didn't really matter who came over.
"Thank you, son."
"Come on, it's nothing."
I soothed Mom's mix of guilt and gratitude, then sprawled out to rest. I'd been lying there for a while when the doorbell rang.
A woman stepped through the front door wearing a pale beige dress with a light mint cardigan draped over it—understated and neat, the picture of composure. Of course, that was only her face and her clothes. Her body was another matter entirely: the kind of figure that filled out every curve with generous, unmistakable volume. My eyes started sliding down those lush contours of their own accord. I wrenched them back up and parked them on the slightly oversized shoulder bag hanging from one of her shoulders.
"You made it, Sua?"
"Yeah, Hayeon. Everything okay?"
"Same as always, you know me. Oh—this is my son. Minjun, this is Mom's friend Sua. Lee Sua."
After a light greeting between friends, Mom introduced me.
"Hello. I'm Jeong Minjun, Mom's son."
"Ah... nice to meet you. I've heard so much about Hayeon's pride and joy—I finally get to see you. But wow, you're... huge."
It was a warm spring day, so I'd been lounging around in a t-shirt and shorts. My built, muscular frame had apparently made more of an impression than I'd intended.
"I worked out a bit in the military. Wait—Mom's been bragging about me?"
"Oh, absolutely. I've heard so much I feel like I've already met you ten times."
I shrugged it off and tossed the question her way. Mom's friend answered with the easy familiarity of someone who'd already built up an inner closeness I knew nothing about.
"Oh, come on. When did I ever brag that much..."
"You gush about him every time I see you, and now you're pretending you don't? Anyway, in the photos he looked kind of slim, but now he's a total man's man."
"I do have a bit of that beastly musk going on, yeah."
"Haha, you really do. It's pretty strong."
The way she calmly volleyed my shameless joke with that refined face—she had a charm that put people at ease. Looking closer, the single tear mole under her left eye seemed to add a strangely sensual quality. She was talking brightly enough, but something about her felt forced, like she was cranking her energy up by hand. Whether that was just how she was, or whether today was especially like that, I had no way of knowing on a first meeting.
"Lunch is ready, so just wash your hands and come sit."
"Okay."
Mom had prepped lunch while I was resting, so we sat down at the table right away. After some back-and-forth, once things had loosened up a bit, Lee Sua decided to drop the formal speech with me.
"Minjun, I'm going to talk casually with you from now on."
"Of course. Formal speech is more awkward anyway. But what should I call you? Nuna? Or imo?"
"Nuna works for me."
The moment titles came up, Lee Sua jumped at nuna. Mom, who'd been listening, immediately jumped in to protest.
"Hold on. I'm Mom, and if Mom's friend is nuna, doesn't that feel a little weird?"
"What's weird about it? I like it just fine. Call me nuna. Got it, Minjun?"
"The family tree's getting a little tangled, but if that's what you want, I'll call you that. Sua nu-na."
"Oh my. I think I just got a little flutter. What am I going to do, Hayeon?"
I looked her straight in the eye and put extra weight on nuna. The way she covered her mouth, clearly pleased—was I imagining that it was at least half genuine?
"Oh, you two are having a great time. Fine. Do whatever you want. Ugh."
"Is Mom sulking?"
"I am not."
"It's not like I can call you nuna, Mom."
"Why does calling Sua imo not even occur to you as an option?"
Mom looked between Sua and me, utterly incredulous. The gap between the words mom and nuna was apparently wide enough that her expression sat somewhere between bewildered and a little hurt.
"Are you jealous of your own son?"
"I am not. Jealous, please..."
"Pretty sure that's jealousy."
"It is nooot."
Sua teased Mom over her adorable jealousy. Maybe it was because a friend was here, but I was seeing a side of Mom I rarely got—easy, light, almost carefree. It was really nice to watch. It hit me that friends like this were how she'd gotten through the hard times while I was gone. I felt a swell of gratitude toward Sua nuna and the other friends whose names I didn't even know.
We bantered about titles for a good while before the conversation moved on. Then Sua paused to catch her breath, her expression shifting as she spoke. Her face looked faintly gloomy, shadowed with worry.
"Hayeon... can I stay over tonight?"
"Huh? What about your husband? Is he away on a business trip?"
"No... we had a fight."
"Whyy?"
"Well..."
She flicked a glance at me. Whatever came next wasn't for my ears, so I stood up on my own.
"You two talk. I'll head upstairs and rest."
"Okay. Sure, Minjun. I'll call you when dinner's ready."
"Sorry, Minjun."
"Don't be. Talk as long as you need."
Leaving the two of them looking apologetic, I climbed the stairs to the second floor.
"What am I going to do, Hayeon..."
"Why? What's going on?"
Sua nuna's voice, thick as if she were about to cry, and Mom's worried reply faded behind me as I went. Something must have happened at Sua nuna's house. Seeing the woman who'd been laughing and chatting with us just moments ago like this made me worried—and curious, too. I stopped somewhere I couldn't be seen and eavesdropped for a moment.
"The business my husband was running..."
"Oh no..."
They were too far away to hear clearly, but I could piece together the gist. In short: Sua nuna's husband's business had gone under. So they'd fallen on hard times financially, which meant they were fighting a lot—which led to what I'd just heard, her asking to stay the night.
Sua nuna had been a source of strength for Mom. Hearing she'd hit a rough patch, I wanted to help. But this isn't a place for me to just barge in... Money wasn't the issue—Mom or I could help with that no problem. But even between friends, there was Sua nuna's pride to consider. Either way, it wasn't my place to step in, so I quietly went into my room.
And how much time passed after that? The sun was sinking westward, the sky staining with sunset, when Mom came to my room.
"Minjun. Sua's staying over tonight—that's okay, right?"
"Of course. We've got plenty of empty rooms. Why wouldn't it be? But she looked pretty shaken earlier..."
"Well... it seems like there's some trouble with her husband's business."
Mom answered my carefully casual question in vague, roundabout terms. She probably didn't want to give her son the full details of a friend's misfortune. Of course, I'd already overheard the gist—but I didn't let on.
"Is that so? Well, tell her to make herself at home. One night or a few days—I'm fine with it either way."
"Thank you. Son."
And that was how my brief cohabitation with Sua nuna began.
I had no idea then that that brief cohabitation would be the starting point of everything that would change my life.