Phase 3. Mom Gyeong-ae (2)
Hee-kyung fled from the spot.
Gyeong-ae had been targeting her own older brother and husband, and had even declared she would snatch him away for herself.
More than the fact that her mother wanted her son as a man, what terrified Hee-kyung even more was the inexplicable dread that she could never win against Gyeong-ae.
The moment she entered her room, Hee-kyung bombarded Gyeong-hun with endless KakaoTalk messages.
But there was no reply. Not even a read receipt.
Why aren't you answering, Oppa? Am I not precious to you?
She pleaded, but still nothing. Silence.
She flew into a rage, then apologized, yet the anxiety only stoked her anger higher again.
Then, at last, she got through to Gyeong-hun.
"Say it. Tell me you love me."
Hee-kyung begged him for love.
"I-I love you."
"Again."
"I love you."
"Put my name in it."
"I love you, Hee-kyung."
"One more time."
"Hee-kyung, Oppa loves you so, so much."
Deep relief washed over her. The trembling in her body finally subsided.
At that sweet voice she could never tire of hearing, Hee-kyung swallowed her tears and put on a cute act.
"Eeeeng~. Hee-kyung loves Oppa so, so much too~."
Even after the call ended she wiped her tears with her arm and chanted it like a spell.
"See? Oppa loves me. He loves me. He's the man I worked so hard to get."
How could you ever seduce a man like Gyeong-hun with those easy tricks you always pull?
She flinched!
"No, it wasn't easy. He came to me even knowing my wounds. He tore down my walls...!"
Was it right to keep hurting someone who likes you and keeps showing it?
No matter what she threw back, Gyeong-ae's questions clung to her like tags she could not shake off.
She did not want to admit it. Even though she refused to admit it, she could not even form a proper excuse against Gyeong-ae's questions.
Facing a Gyeong-ae more terrifying than ever, all she could do was stammer and look pathetic.
"He's precious. So precious. Our Oppa is really precious. I will never give him to anyone else!"
A KakaoTalk notification chimed.
A message from Gyeong-hun saying he was on the subway.
Just that alone moved Hee-kyung so deeply she hugged her phone to her chest and cried.
"Look at this. Look how much he loves me."
And still she could not stop the anxiety from swelling larger and larger.
From the subway on, I kept KakaoTalking with Hee-kyung the whole way home.
What class she had taken, what I had been up to—back and forth—while she kept urging me to hurry because she wanted to see me soon.
Lie.
When we sleep I'll give her my arm for a pillow and sneak a feel of her side.
No—wait. If we have sex again tonight I'll be holding her waist anyway, so I'll get to touch it naturally, right?
The image of Hee-kyung's slim waist and full hips made my cock start to stir.
I couldn't hold back and fired off another message right away.
I left the station carrying that warm feeling with me.
The walk home from the station.
It had been a long time since I really looked at the people on the street while I walked.
But the farther I went, the heavier my heart grew.
Blank faces I could live with, but the people walking with sharp, hard eyes fixed straight ahead—
Near the station the crowd was thick; when people nearly collided, one simply ignored it and kept going while the other made no effort to hide their irritation.
One young woman cursed loud enough for everyone to hear; some old man muttered and grumbled to himself, making people give him a wide berth.
This neighborhood, I swear…
Not everyone here was trash. But the ratio of people who made up the place was like that—full of complaints, sharp toward everyone but themselves.
Maybe it was a class thing. Then again, I was born and raised here too. Maybe it only looked so negative because this was the neighborhood I had shared with my father.
"Haa."
I sighed under the weight of it all and found myself staring into the window of the little neighborhood jewelry shop.
A young couple was carefully looking over ring after ring of different designs, smiling at each other.
I put myself and Hee-kyung in their place.
Oppa, what do you think?
My innocent Hee-kyung would try one on and show it to me. It would probably be her first couple ring ever.
She would light up at my material show of love and pick one out.
Just imagining it filled me with pride.
Love only I could give her.
No matter how much the ring cost, if Hee-kyung wanted it I would get her that one, no questions asked.
The two of us, rings on our fingers, working hard, buying our own place, building a home in a better environment… and when kids came along…
I would be a good dad. I had to be.
By then Hee-kyung would be a little more at ease, a little softer.
That was how I would build my own happy family.
The brief hope for the future was crushed again under the weight of reality.
I still had to get free of my father's swamp-like grip, and deal with Mom's increasingly blatant looks, before any of that could happen.
And then there was Gyeong-jun's situation on top of everything.
Outside, inside the house—everything just piled more weight on me.
The heavier it got, the more I wanted to see Hee-kyung, the driving force of my life.
My fragile, delicate wife.
My lover I couldn't even hold a proper wedding for, the one I still had so much to learn about and so much to adjust to.
You don't know how much I treasure you. How carefully I hold back.
Without your permission I can't even hold you, because I'm terrified of touching your wounds.
A dull throb.
My petty little heart insisted that I had wounds of my own too.
A guy should know how to just bury that shit and keep walking.
I snapped at myself and the heart left only a faint lingering ache before falling silent again.
"Huff… huff…"
I realized I was running. I had started running without noticing, just to see her even a little sooner.
After a full sprint on a summer day my back and underarms were soaked by the time I reached home.
I unlocked the door and stepped inside; Hee-kyung came flying at me in an instant.
"Eww! Sweat smell!"
Summer heat must have made the odor especially strong.
"Sorry…. I wanted to get here so bad I just ran without even looking at my phone. Whew…"
"That's actually kind of cute of you? Heehee."
Just seeing her in a good mood made the whole thing worth it.
She was so adorable I started to reach out to stroke her hair—then realized my hand was dripping with sweat and clenched it into a fist, pulling it back.
"If you'd stroked me just now I would've gotten mad~."
Hee-kyung giggled, praising my sense.
Did that count as one step closer to being a good husband?
"Gyeong-hun's home~?"
Mom appeared from the kitchen, wiping her hands, apron still on.
The gentle smile on her face showed none of the strictness she had used that morning when scolding Hee-kyung.
"You worked hard again today~."
"Nah, I'm dripping sweat."
I tried to stop her as she came toward me with both arms open, but Mom paid no mind and pulled me into a tight hug.
Then she even patted my back.
"I said I smell like sweat."
"Do you?"
"Yeah."
"Sniff… ahh! Mom just likes it~?"
Her boldness froze me solid.
Mom chuckled softly, pulled a dry cloth from her apron pocket, and carefully wiped the sweat from my forehead and nose.
That delicate, caring touch made something flutter uselessly in my chest.
"Go wash up and rest. Dinner will be ready soon."
"We're eating already?"
"Better than eating late, right~?"
Mom tucked the cloth she had used on my face back into her apron.
"Ah, give me that. I'll throw it in the washer while I shower."
"You want to wash it with the rest of the clothes? Mm-mm~. Nope, no~."
She refused gently and headed back to the kitchen. As I watched her go, Hee-kyung kicked my shin.
Thud—!
"Ow…! Oppa, why are you so hard!"
"You okay?"
"I said you smell like sweat~!"
She kicked me, hurt herself, then complained about the smell when I worried about her.
People really did act different over text versus face to face.
Well, text and real behavior—of course they were different.
"Hee-kyung, you okay?"
She kept clutching her foot for a while, so I asked again.
She stared at me, took a deep breath, then spread her arms the way Mom had.
"…Want a hug?"
It was a pretty tempting offer, but even I could tell how bad the sweat smelled, so I shook my head.
"After I wash. Still, thanks for asking."
Lately Hee-kyung had been making a real effort to come closer to me even outside the bedroom.
That cuteness almost made me reach out to stroke her again; I yanked the hand back just in time.
Close call. I almost touched her hair with a sweat-soaked hand.
"I don't mind…"
"No, I'll go wash first."
"Okay. When you come out I'll love you a whole bunch."
The way she whispered it so Mom wouldn't hear was adorable.
I stepped out of my shoes into the house and felt an empty ache in my hands, a faint throb that wouldn't quite go away.
Still the same petty, narrow-hearted bastard. I sighed inwardly and went to grab a change of clothes from the room.
"Oppa, wash your feet before you go in!"
"I know~."
It sounded so much like a wife scolding her husband that a hollow little laugh slipped out of me before I could stop it.