Why Is My Ex-Wife Here?
"Hey, if it were me, I'd reach out to Eunbyul."
"Why would a divorcee reach out to anyone for their own benefit?"
"You're reaching out for your benefit, you idiot!"
He sighs, scratching his head, wondering how he’s even supposed to make contact, but Jeongwon bristles, emphasizing his point. "Seriously, are you a divorcee with kids, or are you some kind of sociopath? You’re not the one at fault, so why are you acting so passive like you’re the one who committed a crime? If it were me, I’d go full-throttle. Seriously."
"..."
Well, Eunbyul wasn't exactly a bad person. Uniquely, she was the kind of person who only left behind good memories when you looked back. If it had been a relationship that ended on bad terms, you’d naturally have mixed feelings—good and bad—just like when you thought of Seo Jia.
"Why do you keep pushing away a girl who liked you enough to chase after you?" Hoyeon chimes in.
"Hey, stop saying she 'chased after me' from the start. She’d hate hearing that."
"Man, Eunbyul is crazy... She confessed to you, didn't she? What was it she said again?"
"She said even if I had a girlfriend, if I ever broke up with her, I should come to her."
Hoyeon blurts it out casually. He still remembers it. It was around winter break after his junior year, back when she was preparing for grad school interviews and was hard to reach. It was right before Christmas, and she’d messaged him from the morning:
He was playing the StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void campaign with his phone sitting to the side. While he glanced at the notifications occasionally, he thought to himself, Why is she telling me that?
When he didn't reply, she must have felt embarrassed, sending several messages. After suggesting they watch it together, she waited a moment before sending two more messages at once. They went to the theater, watched the movie, and afterward:
"They say there's a steakhouse three floors down that people line up for."
"...I don't want to wait in line. I have to go home and study..."
"Senior! It's winter break! Ah!"
That was a lie; he just had to go home and beat the Rak'shir mission... "I'll pay. I will."
"It's not that I don't have the money, it's—"
"Ah, I get it, so let's go quickly. You talk too much for a guy!"
After the meal, they stepped outside, and it was snowing heavily. She looked cold, shoving her hands deep into her pockets, and he, feeling bad for her, handed over the coat he was wearing. "Put this on, you're going to turn into a snowman."
"You’ve seen that somewhere before, haven't you, Senior?"
"Ugh..."
If he put it on her himself, it would look like they were a couple. He hated that. They were strictly a senior-junior relationship. He walked her to the subway station, but as he was about to leave, he saw her walking straight ahead instead of heading into the exit. Was she spacing out? He hurried to catch up, but as she walked alone, she suddenly turned her body slightly and said, "Want to walk a little more?"
"I like the snow."
"...And it'll help digest the food."
They walked slowly. At some point, their strides matched, and they started stepping with the same foot first. They turned left across from the building with the Starbucks logo, and though Exit 12 was in sight, they kept walking. It looked like office workers were getting off work. There were more and more people. They passed the tax office building and saw Yeoksam Station. As if they had an agreement, they both stopped at that subway station.
"..."
"..."
Walking like that, they saw the Centerfield building. Across from it, he saw the Art Nouveau Hotel. She stopped abruptly at the traffic light. Thinking she was finally going to head back, he said, "It's freezing. Forget digestion, you're going to get indigestion when you get home and—"
"Senior, no... Oppa."
"...?"
He looked at her, still oblivious, with a look that asked what she was trying to say. "If... Oppa's girlfriend..."
"...?"
Was she drunk from the champagne they had earlier? Suddenly calling him "Oppa." And why bring up Seo Jia...
"I like you even now... but if you ever break up with that person,"
"...? Eunbyul, you're a bit..."
She lifted her head slightly. "Then there’s no one to take you in, right? Come to me then."
"If you ever break up, then I... I'll keep waiting, keep waiting... until that time comes."
For a moment, he felt dizzy. It wasn't out of annoyance, but a sense of cognitive dissonance, wondering what kind of situation this was. It felt like the snowflakes falling from the sky had frozen in mid-air, and the office workers walking on the street had stopped moving—like time itself had come to a halt.
"Then... I'll specially agree to date you, Senior!"
"I'm really good at waiting, you know."
Then the traffic light turned from red to green, and the snowflakes fell to the ground. As people began to cross the street, she waved at him with flushed cheeks—whether from embarrassment or the cold—and disappeared into the crowd. Until the green light turned red again, he had no choice but to stand there, staring at the path she had taken.
Back to the present.
"Man, I'm telling you, it's definitely possible."
"Shut up, you 'possibility-obsessed' idiot."
"No, you still don't know?"
Lost in old thoughts, Jeongwon looked at him. "Eunbyul is still waiting for you. I was curious because she never mentioned seeing anyone, so I asked... and she said she’s still waiting for someone."
It was as if those words had the power to paralyze him; after hearing them, he couldn't say a word.
"Anyway, you did well to divorce her. Honestly, I only held back because she was Han Suhyun's wife, but after hearing everything, I wondered how the hell this bastard was still alive."
"Honestly, shouldn't you be nodding along even if I call your ex-wife a bitch?"
Jeongwon says it, and Hoyeon chimes in.
"She is a bitch, right? Honestly, with that salary and that personality, I’d undergo gender reassignment and become Suhyun’s wife right away."
"Real lol. Even if it were me, it’d be an immediate TS female-corruption scenario~"
"Honestly, if it were you, I’d even accept it if you cheated. You could stay out all night for three days in a row and she wouldn't be able to say a word. No, why don't you use the fact that you're a silver spoon?"
"Stay out all night? If I were the main wife, I’d understand even if you brought in three thousand concubines! Seriously!"
Even while they were saying that, he stared at the floor with unfocused eyes. To be honest, back then, he just thought a young junior was teasing him with a strange hobby. Even to an oblivious guy like him, it was enough to realize, This is a confession. Honestly, he didn't even think of it as a confession. He just thought she was joking. He felt like it would hurt someone's feelings to say it, but Eunbyul—she had the kind of looks where she could get away with saying things like that. He, too, objectively thought she was pretty.
Thinking about it now, at a point where he had experienced everything, he pondered what a woman named 'Eunbyul' would have been like. It wasn't that they hadn't faced crises where they might have broken up, but he had overcome them with the power of love, which felt great at the time. If, at any of those points, he had abandoned Seo Jia and chosen Eunbyul, would his married life have been happier?
If he met a woman who waited for him that much, could he live happily without divorcing?
"Seriously, fuck, how big of a merit is it that the husband is younger? What did Suhyun do wrong?"
"When you said you got divorced, I thought Suhyun had slapped your ex-wife or something."
"But I don't think I'd divorce just because I got slapped. If I assume that for every slap, I get ten luxury bags, I could accept getting slapped once every three days."
"Ooh... I could totally handle getting slapped once every three seconds. Forget ten bags. I could do it for just two."
"No, I could get beaten two hundred times a day and take two bags. Come to think of it, that's too expensive."
"Hey, I could get beaten for a whole month if the condition for maintaining the marriage was one bag."
Whatever the two were saying, he was lost in old thoughts, drawing up an 'IF' historical drama in his head. Eunbyul’s figure wasn't lacking anywhere, either. Her abilities were good, too. If you considered her major and such, Eunbyul’s future value was actually higher. Unlike a stable life that would end up as a diplomat at best or an interpreter at worst, Eunbyul could achieve so much more. ...He also thought her breasts were large. And yet, she looked incredibly young.
In his head, he placed Eunbyul and Seo Jia side by side. One year younger, one year older. Who should he choose? Comparing their families felt a bit snobbish, so he skipped that. While he was thinking that,
"Wow, I could even be hung in the air and beaten and it’d be possible."
"Hey, I could live getting whipped all day and it’d be possible!"
"No, then I could live getting beaten to a pulp with a club. But not the chest, neck, or head. Can you handle that?"
"Then I... I, I..."
The crazy bastards were eating kimchi soup by the drum when there wasn't even a thought of beating anyone... "Anyway, still, that woman Seo Jia is a real bitch. Seriously. A gi-gantic bitch."
"But is it possible to ask for a divorce just because you don't want to have sex?"
"It'd work, right? But if a woman says something like that, the man should be the one asking for the divorce. You should be getting alimony from the woman, too."
"Wow... but is it just a divorce by mutual agreement? Suhyun, are you an idiot?"
Just as the two were excitedly trashing her, he slowly returned to reality. Did he return to reality because he realized there was a villain in the master bedroom? *Creeeeeak—*
"Oh..."
"Oh.........."
I wish that were the case. Because that would be better. "Oh my, are these your husband's friends? When did you arrive? Hello! Haha."
Worrying about a villain is better than dying...