Chapter 105: Change of Heart (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 105: Change of Heart (1)
The day after the face-to-face meeting.
I had an early class, so I was getting dressed when someone knocked on my door.
Thump, thump, thump!
I knew who it was just from the sound of the knocking.
There was only one person who would kick the door that hard.
“Hey, open up!”
Just as I thought, it was Shin Yu-jeong.
What was she doing here so early in the morning?
I threw on the shirt I’d laid out for the day and walked over to open the door.
“What took you so long to open the….”
Her voice, which had started with its usual irritation, slowed to a halt as her words trailed off.
Her blatant stare was fixed on the opening of my unbuttoned shirt.
The way her throat was working, it looked like she was practically drooling.
She’s such a closet pervert.
“What’s up this early?” I asked, deliberately buttoning up my shirt. She licked her lips.
“Tsk… Time for breakfast.”
“Oh?”
Shin Yu-jeong, making sure I had breakfast? That was a little unexpected.
“What’s with that look?”
“Just a little surprised, that’s all?”
At my honest reply, she answered with a slightly embarrassed expression.
“What was I supposed to do? Mom made a huge deal about me making sure you eat breakfast while she’s gone.”
My eyes widened slightly at her words.
While she’s gone… It sounded like Ajumma had gone somewhere.
For several days, at that.
“Seo… I mean, where did Ajumma go?”
Once I say her name, I keep wanting to use it.
I quickly glossed over my slip-up and asked about Ajumma’s whereabouts, my voice tinged with confusion.
“I don’t know.”
“…You don’t know?”
“Yeah. She said she wanted to get some fresh air and would be gone for a few days. When I asked where she was going, she said it was a secret.”
“Ah, I see…”
“I thought Mom would have told you, but I guess not.”
“I guess not.”
Her sudden decision to take a trip was probably because of me.
For someone with so much on the line, was a confession as blunt as a fastball more painful than pleasant?
The fact that she left without a word to me must mean she needed time.
Time to sort through her confused feelings and decide on an answer to my confession.
And yet, it was strangely touching to hear that she had insisted I be fed breakfast before she left.
“I’ll have to wait, I guess…”
“Wait for what?”
Shin Yu-jeong tilted her head, questioning the words that had slipped out.
I shook my head.
“It’s nothing. So, did you make breakfast today?”
“Well, the fridge is packed with side dishes. I just made some simple doenjang-jjigae [soybean paste stew]…?”
“I’m really looking forward to it, since you made it. Let’s go eat before it gets cold.”
“…Is it just me, or does that ‘looking forward to it’ sound incredibly suspicious?”
“Probably just you.”
With Ajumma… Seo Jeong-hee, gone on a trip without a word, there was only one thing I could do.
Just wait.
How long it would take, whether she could sort out all her thoughts, and what decision she would ultimately make.
I didn't know any of it, but I had no choice but to trust her and wait patiently.
“Honestly, it doesn’t matter which way she decides.”
My mood might change depending on her answer, but my own feelings wouldn’t.
I have absolutely no intention of giving up on her.
“Hey, what are you doing? Hurry up!”
“Coming.”
Hearing her call from downstairs, I put my thoughts aside and went straight down. We finished our breakfast, just the two of us.
The moment I tasted the doenjang-jjigae Shin Yu-jeong had made, I had a thought.
Another reason not to give up on Seo Jeong-hee had just been added to the list.
* * *
Her decision to go on a trip was rather impulsive.
She felt a desperate need to go somewhere and have some time to herself.
So she decided to leave.
When she thought about it, she realized something.
There was not a single reason she couldn’t leave.
‘My daughter is all grown up. There’s no reason for me to be tied down anymore.’
In the past, she couldn’t even dream of traveling, unable to leave her young daughter behind, but that wasn’t the case now.
That evening, she immediately booked a train ticket.
When she told her daughter she was going on a short trip, she readily agreed.
From booking the ticket to packing her bags, it took less than thirty minutes.
A bitter smile escaped her lips at the feeling of emptiness.
“Why was it this easy…?”
A wave of regret washed over her. Why had she never done something so simple until now?
She left the house early in the morning.
The dim light of dawn, just as the sun was beginning to rise.
With a heart full of anticipation, she boarded a train at Seoul Station.
Her destination was Jeongeup, in North Jeolla Province.
She had heard that it was incredibly pretty and beautiful there in the fall.
Soon, she arrived in Jeongeup.
The red and yellow scenery she saw there was beautiful enough to meet all her expectations.
“Haaah… this is nice.”
Everything was perfect.
The beautiful landscape, the feeling of being utterly carefree.
She walked around with a light spring in her step.
She rode the cable car at Naejangsan National Park, looking down at the scenery spread beneath her feet, and also visited a place called the Maple Tunnel.
Red, yellow, and even the fresh green of leaves that had yet to change color.
The three colors mingled together, the maple leaves covering the sky so completely that she understood why this open space was called a tunnel.
“I should take a picture and show my daughter.”
She was excitedly taking photos with her smartphone when it happened.
A man, his face as red as an autumn maple leaf, approached her with shy steps.
“Excuse me…”
“Oh my!”
Seo Jeong-hee jumped, startled by the unexpected voice.
The man quickly bowed his head.
“I-I’m sorry for startling you.”
At his polite apology, Seo Jeong-hee’s expression softened, and she smiled gently, shaking her head.
“It’s alright. I guess I was too focused on taking pictures.”
Her gracious response seemed to ease the man’s stiff expression.
“But what can I help you with…?”
“Ah, well, you see.”
The man hesitated, fumbling for words, before finally squeezing his eyes shut and shouting at her.
“Um, miss! I-If you’re here alone, would you like to look around with me?!”
“Oh.”
Seo Jeong-hee was surprised once again.
This time, for a different reason.
The man didn’t look very old.
At most, he seemed to be in his early thirties.
He appeared a bit naive, but he wasn’t bad-looking, and he was dressed quite well.
That’s why she was a little curious.
And she soon got her answer from the man himself.
“W-Well, I saw you from a distance, and you’re just so beautiful. I-I’m really not the type of person to approach someone like this… but I felt like I’d regret it forever if I didn’t.”
He called her beautiful.
A man who looked to be in his early thirties, to her, a woman in her mid-forties.
She suddenly became curious.
“How old do you think I am?”
The man, flustered by the unexpected question, replied.
“Huh? Ah, well… maybe early thirties…”
“Hoho, really?”
A sense of joy slowly filled her chest.
But despite that, she smiled awkwardly and declined his offer.
“Thank you for the offer, but I’ll have to say no.”
“Ah…”
As she spoke, Seo Jeong-hee held up her right hand, which the man hadn’t been able to see.
A ring was on her fourth finger.
Its meaning was clear.
The man’s face turned an even deeper shade of red.
“I-I’m so sorry. I had no idea you were married.”
“It’s alright. You made my day.”
And it was true.
She felt a mix of joy and relief, thinking that she hadn’t lost her charm as a woman yet.
After that pleasant little incident, she checked into the hotel room she had booked for the evening.
It was worth paying a little extra for a room with a good night view.
Just looking at the beautiful scenery from the upper floor made her feel good.
She ordered wine and some simple snacks from room service and took a sip.
“Haaah…!”
The feeling of alcohol flowing through her body.
It felt as if the fatigue from a busy day of walking around was melting away.
She recalled what had happened earlier.
“Hehe…”
It was a pleasant memory, even thinking back on it.
But there was something a little strange about it, too.
When she had shown the ring on her finger to refuse the man’s offer.
The person who had come to her mind wasn’t her husband, but Kim Do-jin.
“I wonder if he’s eating properly…”
Her thoughts kept drifting to him.
She now found herself worrying more about Kim Do-jin’s meals than her husband’s.
It used to be that if she didn’t hear from her husband for a long time, she would call him out of curiosity, but now she was becoming a little scared of how she just let it be.
She felt like she was becoming the wicked woman from a TV drama, caught in an affair.
She knew it was wrong, but she couldn’t pull herself away.
He was changing at a frighteningly fast pace.
And the direction of that change was perfectly suited to shake her to her core.
“What should I do…”
Seo Jeong-hee was lost in her worries.
His passionate confession had filled her with happiness.
If she could, she would have thrown herself into his arms and said she would go with him, but she couldn’t.
No matter how far apart they were, she still had a husband.
But what she truly feared wasn’t the presence or absence of her husband.
When Kim Do-jin came at her with his heart on his sleeve, it made her think.
Could you really call this a marriage, being so far apart that you only see each other on holidays?
Living apart like this, or breaking up and living as strangers.
What would really be so different?
No matter how much she thought about it through the long night, she couldn’t find an answer.
Divorce… she hesitated.
But she knew it wouldn’t be easy to distance herself from Kim Do-jin now, either.
Worrying by herself, she changed her travel destination.
To Haenam, the village at the end of the land.
To the place where her husband was busy working.