The Turning Point Between Me and My Wife – Part 02
The day I returned from the military… I didn’t head straight to my parents’ house like everyone expected. Instead, I went straight to the villa that had been my cozy nest with Yeonju ever since we got married.
Luckily, my father’s beloved meat restaurant had been doing well thanks to the severance pay, so there was no worry about the house at all. The moment I got discharged, Mom had insisted I go straight to work at the store, but when I told her I’d be hanging out with my buddies and would get in slowly, she ranted about how busy it was and how I only knew how to play. Even so, the relief of not having to worry about the family made me feel much better.
Yeonju was the one thing that puzzled me. From the time I was just a low-ranking soldier, our messages had slowly started to dwindle. On the day of my discharge she hadn’t even come to pick me up. According to Huiyeon, she’d been so busy with second-year studies and part-time jobs that she barely had time for me.
Part of me was glad she’d finally grown up and gotten serious. But the fact that she hadn’t come to greet me on my last day home still stung a little.
Still… I’d gotten my fill of Huiyeon in the meantime… People’s hearts really are that tricky. When I visited the barracks she looked so pretty, yet the second I stepped out and saw her again she looked like a completely different person.
After our homecoming sex, Huiyeon had suggested I move in with her. I told her it sounded fine since I didn’t do it often, so we agreed. Of course, it was our little secret between the two of us.
I returned to our honeymoon home for the first time in ages. I figured she hadn’t come to pick me up because she wanted to throw me a surprise party… but the second I stepped inside the villa was dead silent, completely empty.
Disappointed, I went to my room and found everything neatly cleaned. On the bed lay new clothes I’d never seen before. On the desk sat a brand-new laptop, a brand-new smartphone, and a single letter.
I tore open the letter. It was from Yeonju.
Happy discharge~ I wish I could come to pick you up and feed you delicious food and have fun with you, but I’m just too busy right now. I’ll be late, so sorry, but in the fridge I prepared your favorite dakdoritang and osam bulgogi. Wrap it in lettuce and perilla leaves and eat it while it’s still hot. Oh, and the laptop is the one Auntie bought for you, so use it properly. The clothes and phone are gifts from me. Just pay the installments and fees yourself. Love you~ Heart♥
So cute… Seeing Yeonju’s handwriting melted away the sting I’d felt. Yeah… she was in her fourth year now; she had every right to be busy.
Excited, I turned on the new laptop and new phone. The moment I opened them, Yeonju’s photo greeted me from the background. The warmth I felt knowing her feelings for me hadn’t changed made me smile even wider.
First I stripped off my military uniform and changed into the new shirt and jeans she’d bought me. They looked surprisingly neat and clean. Then I booted up the new laptop to surf the internet and suddenly remembered my old laptop and phone. I figured I should transfer the SNS info and the secret videos of Yeonju to the new devices.
“Hehe~ Let me see just how much you’ve been updating while I was gone~”
I turned on the old laptop and logged into Yeonju’s SNS. I’d expected it to be flooded with new posts that would last me all night. Instead, there were only a handful of updates, and the very last one had been a year ago.
I’d always thought she’d be out partying with all the boys while I was away, but she seemed to be holding back more than when I was actually there. I couldn’t believe it. On top of that, the last secret-SNS post said something along the lines of “Starting this semester I’m too busy studying and preparing for job hunting to update often.”
Huiyeon’s story about Yeonju being swamped with second-year classes and part-time jobs had clearly been true.
Among the few posts, Yeonju still looked exactly like the girl I remembered. The way she let herself be held tightly by strange men, the intense skinship… Most of the scenes were in club rooms or motels. Almost every photo showed her kissing some unknown guy, or having her sexy breasts groped, bitten, or sucked.
But there was one photo that felt strangely familiar. Yeonju standing with a man’s penis between her toes. The background looked oddly familiar. I stared at it for a long time, then suddenly looked around the room. The background was my room.
That scene of her stepping on a man’s cock with her foot had happened right on top of my bed.
I opened the CCTV app for my room on the new phone and compared the angle. The shot matched my room perfectly. The photo Yeonju had posted was literally a screenshot of my room’s CCTV. That meant she’d brought that man here, just like she used to do for me, and had him step on her foot while I watched.
A weird feeling washed over me. Bringing a man into my room to do exactly what I had done to her… it meant she was still missing me. She still cared.
Thump… thump… thump…
My chest burned hot. My pulse quickened. The sound of my heartbeat filled my ears. The urge to run to her and hold her tight right now was overwhelming. I called my friends and asked them to find out where Yeonju was. When they told me she was in the school library right now, I bolted there without thinking. I searched every floor and finally found her walking out of the restroom.
“Hey, Hwang Yeonju!”
“Huh? Taemin? Why are you here… mmm!”
Yeonju looked surprised, but I didn’t give her time to react. I lunged forward and slammed my lips onto hers. At first she froze, but then she slowly closed her eyes and welcomed me. Our tongues tangled like noodles in seconds. We kissed deep and hungry, mouths open, swallowing each other’s breath.
People were starting to gather in the hallway, whispering and watching.
Slap!
“Ouch!”
Yeonju’s knee drove straight between my legs and smashed both my balls. Pain exploded. I doubled over, and the next second she started raining punches and kicks on me without mercy.
“I can’t live with this embarrassment! Who told you to just run up and kiss me like that?! Did I teach you that? Your face is all blackened like it’s burned! And you got a cheap haircut on top of it! At least put on a wig! What kind of ugly face is this to go show off to someone?! You shameless bastard!”
She kept beating me mercilessly. I took every hit without flinching, my face never changing, but I couldn’t stop laughing. It just kept bubbling out of me.
People around us watching us started laughing too.
“What are you looking at?! First time seeing someone get beaten up? Want me to beat you up too? Get the hell out!”
Yeonju’s sharp shout sent everyone running away in panic.
Panting, Yeonju glared down at me lying on the floor.
“Hehe… hehe… you’re such a pervert.”
“Dying? Stop laughing!”
“S-sorry… seeing you after so long just makes me laugh. Hehe… hehe~”
“Did it make you that laughable? Want me to turn you into a eunuch right now?”
Yeonju raised her foot, ready to stomp down hard on my groin.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I won’t laugh anymore. Stop… stop it…”
I quickly straightened up, pretending I was calm. I brushed off my clothes and stood in front of her again.
Yeonju looked up at me with eyes full of force. I noticed she was wearing pretty glasses now. Just looking at her made my lips twitch no matter how hard I tried to hold back the laughter.
“Did it make you laugh that much?”
“No… yeah… just seeing you makes me laugh non-stop.”
“You really…”
Yeonju was about to throw another punch, so I simply pulled her into a tight hug.
“Don’t let go? Where did this pick-up line come from?”
“Hehe~ sorry~ just let me do this a little longer.”
A few minutes later I gently took her shoulders and we stared into each other’s eyes. When I looked at her with a serious face, she looked back at me with a tense expression too.
“You know… you…”
I leaned in close to her ear and whispered softly. I was about to confess everything.
“You… my…”
Slap.
Yeonju’s hand covered my mouth before I could finish.
“No.”
It was unexpected. I thought she’d always accept my confession, but she shook her head firmly. She told me to go home first because she had to keep studying. Then she turned and walked back into the reading room, leaving me standing there with a bitter taste in my mouth.
Why… why had she rejected my confession?
I went into Yeonju’s room out of curiosity. On her desk I found various books about studying abroad and English conversation textbooks.