The Mothers' Conversation 1
— Two hours earlier —
Mi-ho had gone into the office that morning still unsettled by everything involving Han Pan, yet the thought of finally sitting down for drinks with her best friend Yoo Eun-yeong and her beauty-pageant little sisters, Park Hye-seon and Eun Mi-jo, put her in a genuinely good mood.
Eun-yeong had been her closest friend since high school. She had entered the beauty pageant a year ahead of Mi-ho and placed. Hye-seon had competed the same year as Mi-ho, and the two of them had grown close sharing a dormitory. Mi-jo had come up in the same year as Eun-yeong, and after the competition the four of them had simply stayed in each other's lives.
All of them had married young and raised children of roughly the same age, so their interests had always aligned and their temperaments had always clicked. The four of them had run around together for years, and true to their pageant origins, wherever they went they drew men's open admiration and women's open envy.
Once she finished work, Mi-ho drove over to Eun-yeong's boutique. The staff had already gone home, and she found her friend waiting on the empty first floor.
"Mi-ho, you're here?"
Eun-yeong greeted her with a bright, delighted smile.
"Are the others here already?"
"Yeah, they're upstairs. Come on."
"Alright."
Up in the VIP lounge they found Hye-seon and Mi-jo already settled in and chatting. Both women still carried the unmistakable bearing of former pageant contestants — tall, long-limbed, with small, sculpted faces. The difference was in the impression they left. Hye-seon had the demure, almost Joseon-era grace of a classical beauty, while Mi-jo projected a relaxed, expensive urban elegance.
"Unnies!"
They traded cheerful, chattering greetings, cracked open the wine that had been set out, and passed the glasses around. Conversation bloomed almost at once.
Somewhere in the middle of it the talk turned to their children, and Mi-ho's mind snagged on the night before with Han Pan — and on everything that had led up to it. What had happened yesterday had crossed a line she could not easily walk back, and a heavy conflict sat in her chest. She wondered, briefly, whether she ought to say anything to women who, like her, had sons of roughly the same age.
Time slipped by. Reunited at Eun-yeong's boutique after so long, the four of them drank and talked, one story leading into the next — everything that had happened lately, everyone around them. One bottle of wine emptied, then another, and the atmosphere had grown warm and loose when Eun-yeong turned to Mi-ho.
"So, Mi-ho — how's Han Pan doing these days?"
The mention of his name made Mi-ho start.
"Huh? Han Pan? He's fine… He got discharged a few days ago."
"Oh my god, already?? Time flies… Feels like he just left for the military the other day…"
"Yeah. Time really does go fast."
Eun-yeong gave her arm a light tap.
"I'm curious, though — how did he react when he saw the new you?"
"Uh… well…"
Mi-ho hesitated, searching for the right answer, then said,
"Actually… that's exactly why I've got something on my mind…"
"Oh yeah? What is it?"
Eun-yeong leaned in with bright, eager eyes. The other two broke off their own conversation, ears pricked, and fixed their attention on Mi-ho's mouth. Feeling the weight of every gaze, Mi-ho shifted uncomfortably — until Eun-yeong grinned and tapped her arm again.
"I think I already have a pretty good idea… and if what you're about to say matches what I'm thinking, I'll spill a secret of my own!"
Mi-ho managed a small smile.
"Honestly, Han Pan's reaction was good… too good, actually… How do I put this — it feels like he's started looking at me as a woman…"
She had softened it considerably. Eun-yeong let out a short laugh.
"Oh, come on — isn't that obvious? Hahaha, my son does the same thing!"
Mi-ho blinked in surprise.
"Really?"
"Of course! We've all got one son each — is there anyone here who hasn't gotten that kind of attention?"
Eun-yeong looked around the table. Under her gaze, Hye-seon and Mi-jo glanced away at first. Then Mi-jo broke into a laugh, and Hye-seon smiled with her. The three of them — everyone except Mi-ho — exchanged looks charged with a knowing, shared amusement. An unspoken understanding passed between them.
"Mi-ho, there's this whole trend among younger guys right now — dating an attractive mom. Like… how do I put it… girls their own age are still immature, so they go for women like us. Women who actually know how to have sex, who have that ripe, mature energy. My son says guys call women like us MILFs."
"MILF? What's that?"
Eun-yeong thought for a second, then said,
"M-I-L-F. Mother I'd Like to Fuck."
Mi-ho stared at her, momentarily speechless.
"What? There's actually a word for that?"
"Yeah. It started in America, basically. Women who have kids but still keep their youth, who still have that mature sex appeal — the kind of moms who never forgot how to be sexual. A whole new type."
"Is that right?"
"It is! Especially among younger guys — apparently quite a few of them have that fantasy."
"Really? Men half our age actually like that?"
"I mean… it's a fantasy, a fetish, something like that, right? And we enjoy playing with younger men too, don't we?"
"Casual one-night guys and our own sons are a little different, though…"
"Doesn't that make it even better?"
"How?"
"Well — you can trust them, and as long as you're careful, there's basically no fallout. You can try all kinds of things, can't you?"
"Huh?"
"We cross the line every now and then ourselves."
Mi-jo let out a low whistle.
"What? How far over the line are we talking?"
Eun-yeong looked briefly cornered. Then she drew a deep breath, lifted the wine glass in front of her, knocked it back in one shot, and said,
"We've already had a few drinks tonight… and it's you guys, so I'll say it. I do it with my son."
Mi-ho's eyes went wide.
"Do what? Wait — you mean… sex? Are you serious?!!!"
Eun-yeong set her empty glass down and nodded calmly. She held Mi-ho's gaze, then looked in turn at Hye-seon and Mi-jo. Hye-seon's face, already flushed from the wine, went a deeper red.
"Actually… I guess I should confess something too…"
"Unnies… so it wasn't just me being weird… I also…"
Mi-ho felt as if someone had taken a hammer to the back of her skull. The words were too much. Her closest friend and the little sisters she was so fond of — all of them having sex with their fully grown sons. The shock of it was almost physical. But the deeper blow was realizing that, of the four of them, she was the only one who had not actually gone that far. Last night had been sex without being sex, and the real thing was an entirely different matter. For a moment she wondered if she was the one who was wrong.
Eun-yeong watched her sit there, speechless, and said,
"Look, it's not normal… If people found out, they'd call us crazy bitches and point fingers all day long… Aigoo… Hye-seon, Mi-jo, you two are something else too… Hahaha… So I wasn't the only lunatic after all… Hahaha! I feel like we just forged some kind of major secret tonight, hahaha."
She clapped her hands, thoroughly delighted. Watching her, Mi-ho said,
"You have a husband… What could you possibly be missing… You all get along with your husbands, don't you…"
Eun-yeong frowned slightly and waved a hand.
"Getting along is one thing. Sex is something else entirely."
Mi-jo chimed in.
"Unnie, please don't even bring up my husband — it's depressing. Always tired, always something. The second I try to set a mood, he finishes and dies on me… I've had a really hard time for a long while."
"Even so… isn't this just cheating?"
Eun-yeong looked faintly offended.
"Cheating? Oh, please. This is a proper romance, darling. A romance!"
"What?"
"When someone else does it, it's an affair. When I do it, it's a romance, right? Hahaha."
She found her own line so funny she laughed freely, then cast a teasing look at Mi-ho's still-awkward face.
"Mi-ho, if you decide it's weird, it stays weird forever. If you decide it fits, it fits perfectly."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"Your son is in his prime!"
"Yeah."
Mi-ho nodded.
"And aren't you in yours?"
Mi-ho tilted her head, uncertain. Eun-yeong pressed on.
"I'll be honest — I'm in my prime. No — this is basically the peak of my entire life. My so-called prime time! And since we're friends, I'll say it straight: I need a man. A healthy, young man. A man with a magnificent piece that can actually satisfy me! A man who can go several times a day and still not flinch!"
She put particular weight on the last word — man.
"And that's Won-cheol?"
Eun-yeong looked down at her empty glass. Mi-ho picked up the bottle and refilled it without being asked. Eun-yeong knocked the wine back hard again, then shot Mi-ho a look that said, your turn. Mi-ho drained her own glass. Eun-yeong refilled it. She raised the full glass toward Mi-ho; Mi-ho tapped hers lightly against it. Hye-seon and Mi-jo lifted theirs as well and joined the toast.
"First… finish that glass. Then try thinking a little more loosely."
Mi-ho raised her wine and, following Eun-yeong's example, sent it straight down her throat. The sharp, full-bodied red hit her hard, rolling through her whole body. Eun-yeong watched her and spoke again.