The Strange Daily Lives of Each
She had overslept that morning. Waking to the sound of him showering, she scanned the study where she had spent the night. She inhaled the lingering scent of his body, a blissful smile spreading across her face, until she checked the time. Her eyes widened in horror, and she scrambled to get out of the room.
‘Breakfast. I have to make breakfast. Absolutely.’
‘I must be insane. Why on earth did I...’
In her dream, she had met him as he was about a year ago. They had been deeply in love, his eyes dripping with honey as he looked at her. She had even pinched her own cheek in the dream, wondering if it was real, and felt a faint sting—which only made her happier, confirming it wasn't a dream. Driven by a desire to give him everything she hadn't been able to before, she had moaned in rhythm with his movements, until—
“Inside... just like that...!”
The dream had ended right there. She felt a profound sense of loss.
‘Get a grip on reality. You didn’t come here to play around.’ Her instincts whispered. ‘I should have woken up at 6:00, no matter what...’
She had worked hard to prepare breakfast, but by the time she had finished half of it, she caught herself biting her lower lip, staring at his profile as he drank his coffee. She worried it wouldn't be enough to satisfy him.
‘He eats so well... and I only managed to make this much...’
‘If I serve this, he’s bound to scold me. It won’t even whet his appetite.’
In truth, she had prepared more than enough for two grown American men. But her heart was racing with anxiety, imagining his sincere disappointment and the angry outburst that would surely follow, demanding to know who this was supposed to feed. Then, the real disaster struck.
“Eat it or don’t. I’m leaving...”
He had walked out without even glancing at the breakfast she had painstakingly prepared. ‘This is my failure...’ ‘Because I’m not enough...’ ‘He must be even more disappointed than I imagined...’
Unlike him, who was simply in a rush because he was genuinely short on time, she was spiraling into a thousand delusions, staring coldly at the food cooling on the table.
‘If only I had woken up a little earlier, then Master could have had a comfortable breakfast...’
‘He didn’t even want to taste it because it wasn’t a rich enough meal. He was trying to leave it for me again...’
‘A bitch like me, who can’t even distinguish reality—what right do I have to Master’s child... The reconciliation, I... I really...’
‘Was it because there was no meat dish that he likes?’
‘I didn’t even make a sound while cooking, but maybe I set the bowl down a bit too hard and made him sensitive...’
Having accepted as a matter of course that she should go to bed after her master and wake up before him, she felt she had failed miserably. Her legs gave out, and she collapsed to the floor beneath the table. Fixing her gaze on the legs of the chairs, she bowed her head as tears welled up in her eyes.
‘If Master just discards me like this...’
‘...I already threw away all my sleeping pills at home...’
‘I’m going to run out of money soon, too...’
‘If I get kicked out of this house, where will I go...’
‘Should I just sell that house? Sell it and buy more ingredients and furniture...’
‘Eunbyul...’
Suddenly, her arrows of resentment turned toward Eunbyul.
‘It’s all because of that crazy, deranged bitch.’
‘Master wasn’t focused at all while having sex with me. He must have been thinking that Eunbyul would be tastier.’
‘How well she must have tightened... he went over and ejaculated inside her three times...’
‘I have to find her first. Make it so she can’t even approach Master. She doesn’t know about the divorce, right? I kept the reporters’ mouths shut tight. How dare a bitch like you... approach my Master... You’re a lowly, filthy thing that doesn’t fit him at all. A bitch in heat, using tricks to approach a taken man...?’
Hating this woman she had never even met more than anyone else in the world, she stared at the closed door, her expression turning increasingly vicious.
She went into the bathroom and began to shower. Naturally, she used the bathroom next to the entrance. A bitch only entered the master bedroom when called for copulation or to clean. Seeing her unwashed, disheveled self in the mirror, she thought, ‘Ah... he must have hated that I cooked without washing up.’
She scrubbed her body with unusual meticulousness, as if she were heading to an important event. After drying her hair, using a curling iron, and applying elegant makeup, she dressed in modest, understated clothing and headed out. She had already finished cleaning the master bedroom, and she planned to pack the food he hadn't eaten so she could consume it later. Since her master hated wasting food, she knew instinctively that if she showed such behavior, she would fall into an abyss from which there was no return.
Then, “...It’s fine to take a taxi, right?”
She had no car. She’d left it at home. She couldn't take the subway or a bus; she had never ridden one before. So, she took a taxi and headed quietly toward the OB/GYN clinic. She gave her name, and as requested, she lay on the operating table in the clinic where no other patients were present.
The doctor’s explanation followed.
“It will last for five years.”
“Side effects are usually discovered early on, and if there are no problems after the procedure, you can just live as you normally do.”
“I’m a little worried since you haven’t had any childbirth experience... but there are many successful cases. Our clinic performs this procedure quite often.”
“You might experience some spotting in the beginning. If the volume is heavy, call 119, and be sure to mention that you’ve had a Mirena procedure. And, regarding your chart, patient...”
She nodded, underwent an ultrasound, and the procedure began. It took several dozen minutes, and though she felt a foreign sensation, it was quite bearable. She felt as if she were gradually getting better. After paying the fee, she slowly walked out of the clinic. Now, all she had to do was tell him. He would surely be pleased. He would certainly be relieved.
Returning home, she washed off her makeup, changed back into comfortable clothes, and began to cook. The time she used to spend sitting in front of the veranda with a cup of coffee and a book, reading and lost in thought with the curtains half-drawn, was no longer permitted to her. Believing that every second of her time must be spent for him, she carefully packed the food into a beautiful lunchbox she had bought on the way home, creating a four-layered meal.
“With this, with this, he can recover...”
She packed it with the utmost care. It was a lunchbox so exquisite that if it were ever broadcast on television, it would draw endless envious gazes toward him. Considering his tendency to take photos and keep them as memories, she designed it to be clean, abundant, and visually appealing.
She called a premium taxi again. She carried the warm lunchbox quietly, without a word. It was 11:21 AM; it would take about 30 minutes to get to the company. His lunch hour was usually a little past 12:00. He would be working on his backlog of tasks. As she thought of this, she felt a piercing regret.
‘He was a man who worked through his own lunch hour...’
And yet, she remembered mocking and ridiculing him, sitting in the company, telling him he was just wasting time. As that memory surfaced, she swallowed back tears and let out a deep sigh. The desire to beat her past self to death grew stronger.
‘I was insane. What the hell was I saying...’
Though she had lost her mind, whenever she was away from him or lost in thoughts of the past, her previous memories returned vividly. And then, the regret began. He had treated her with endless warmth, just like in the beginning, but the one who had changed—
‘Only me, only I was changing... even though I told him not to change...’
Security guards were standing at the front entrance on the first floor. It didn't take long for her—wearing sunglasses and wandering around with a lunchbox, wondering where to go—to become the number one object of interest for the guards.
“What brings you...”
“Ah. That...”
She hesitated for a moment, wondering what to say. Come to think of it, she only knew his name; she had no interest in what position he held in the company, what his title was, or what kind of work he did. Tears welled up in her eyes again in front of the guards.
“You met foreign dignitaries today, weren’t you tired?”
“How is your Russian so good? It’s hard enough just to follow the pronunciation.”
“The Japanese Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology came? You seem to be using difficult words... that must have been hard.”
“Are you getting promoted already? Ha... my wife is so cool...”
He was the one who had cared about what she did, watching the news so closely despite all her nagging. That wouldn't happen anymore, though. Regardless, she hesitated, wondering what to say, and then—
“I’m here to see... Suhyun. I’m Han Suhyun’s wife... his spouse.”
The moment she lowered her sunglasses slightly and spoke, the security guards briefly wondered what they had just heard, and then their eyes widened simultaneously in shock. Two of them surrounded her and asked her to wait there for a moment, and then someone who looked like the team leader came running down in a panic.
“Hey, are you guys crazy? Why are you standing here, ah... ah, qu-quickly, come in. No. Slowly... no, it’s hot, so...”
While the manager, bowing at a 90-degree angle, stuttered, unsure whether to tell her to come in quickly or slowly, she bowed her head slightly and walked inside. Meanwhile, the other guards around the three were receiving messages one after another.
“This is the escort team. What’s going on—”
“Han Suhyun’s wife is waiting on the first floor of the company right now!”
The radio cut off abruptly.
“Yes. This is the Situation Room Chief.”
“Chief Park, Han Suhyun’s spouse is currently in the first-floor lobby, she came to beat up the General Manager...”
“...Wh-what?”
“This is the Situation Room Chief. Security Section Chief, it’s an emergency.”
“What’s going on... Document leak? Who removed the security seal? Just look at the photos and documents and attach the phone again, that...”
“Han Suhyun’s spouse has come to the company to beat up the General Manager...”
“...? Wh-what...?”
It wouldn't normally be this much of a problem just because a Managing Director’s wife came to the company. However—
“Are you sure you’re not mistaken!? I mean, in a public place? No matter what!”
“That’s the biggest problem! It looks like she even brought a weapon!”
It was a lunchbox. A warm one...
“Did you report it to the Managing Director!”
“I haven’t been able to yet!”
“What are you doing, you idiot!!!! Do not let the General Manager leave his office under any circumstances! Absolutely!”
This was an emergency for the entire security team, no, the entire organization. She didn't know it, but he was quite famous in the company for a different image—for example, unlike a typical conglomerate heir, he would occasionally go out to smoke with entry-level employees, or he would never fail to bow to the company cleaners and tell them they were working hard, and he wasn't the type to drink anything other than soju or beer at company dinners—so when they referred to the General Manager, they would say things like:
“Is the hothouse flower inside?”
“He went out on a regional business trip earlier.”
“He’s going to die from the heat.”
He held the title of the youngest, loved by all employees as a kind, cute, foolish, and untainted person, perfectly fitting the description of a "hothouse flower." Separate from that, the "General Manager Divorce Rumor" had sent shockwaves through all the employees. A prime example of his image could be seen in the smoking area:
“In my opinion, it’s certain that the General Manager’s wife caused a scene.”
“Right. Would a person who saw pork belly grilling while drunk and said, ‘I’m sorry, pig...’ ever hit his own wife?”
“But he could have cursed at her, right? Everyone is...”
“Have you ever heard the General Manager curse? Even as a rumor?”
“Ah...”
With that being the case, how could they not be shocked? In their eyes, the General Manager’s "ex"-wife, who had assaulted her husband at home and shaken his spirit with all sorts of profanity, had "appeared" directly at the company. The security team staff, trying to act wisely, were determined to protect him at all costs, and they surrounded her, monitoring her to ensure she couldn't take the elevator or the stairs.
Since strange rumors about her were spreading like wildfire, they were all guarding her as if she were a maniacal serial killer who had come to kill him with a murder weapon.
“Excuse me... when will he...”
“Ah, that...”
The team leader only had one thought: to protect the safety of the employees even if it meant sacrificing his own life. Was there an axe inside that pretty wrapping cloth? A knife? He didn't know what might be inside.
“The General Manager has a busy schedule today, so it will be difficult to meet...”
“What did you say?”
Her expression turned cold in an instant. She didn't know what it was, but she felt like this was a ploy to deliberately keep her away from him. She began to probe. Her greatest specialty.
“I’m going to call him right now and ask if he has a busy schedule.”
“...”
“Just try saying he does, and I’ll have you and the other security staff investigated and disciplined. Do you understand?”
“B-but, Madam, that’s...”
“Do you think I can’t do it? He told me he had nothing to do today before he came to work, so what is this nonsense!!!”
Let’s not forget. Before being a bitch & an interpreter, she was, in fact, a bona fide diplomat who had entered and graduated at the top of her class from the Korea National Diplomatic Academy.