Weekend Date
Morning sunlight poured down the glass and spilled across the king-size bed. Rose petals lay scattered over the sheets, and on the floor a shirt and a knit dress were tangled together—proof that after the sofa they had carried the second round into the bedroom.
Jung Na-yeon opened her eyes first inside Hyun-soo’s arms.
She rubbed her cheek against his bare chest and gave a soft yawn.
“What time is it…”
She checked the clock on the side table, then burrowed straight back into his embrace. Sunday-morning light was breaking gently over the Han River. She stretched and sat up. The blanket slid to her waist, baring her back; last night’s marks still bloomed along her neck and collarbone. Jung Na-yeon touched the bruises on her throat with her fingertips and let out a quiet laugh.
“We went at it pretty hard, didn’t we?”
She slipped out of bed, pulled on a hotel robe, walked to the window, and threw the curtains wide open.
The Han River on a Sunday morning stretched out in quiet stillness.
Jung Na-yeon turned and looked at Hyun-soo. Her hair was tangled to one side, yet she was smiling hard enough to crease the faint lines at the corners of her eyes.
“I’m hungry. Is breakfast included?”
“I was going to order room service.”
“Yeah?”
She flipped through the hotel booklet on the table, scanning the room-service menu, then held it out toward him.
“They have eggs Benedict. Let’s get that together.”
She picked up the phone and ordered room service, naturally asking for two portions. After hanging up she came back, sat on the edge of the bed, and poked the top of his foot with her finger.
“How many times did we do it last night?”
“No idea. I wasn’t counting.”
“Is your back okay?”
“Fine.”
She laughed softly at his answer and began kneading his calf.
“I want to stay here all day today.”
“You like it here?”
“Mm.”
She lay down beside him again, wrapped her arm in the sleeve of the robe, and pressed her cheek to him.
“What time’s checkout? Can we do late checkout?”
She picked up her smartphone to check, then her eyes went round as she stared at the screen.
“Two missed calls from my husband.”
She looked at the display a moment longer, then casually pressed the power button and shut it off. Burying her face against Hyun-soo’s chest again, she mumbled,
“I don’t care. I just want to stay like this today.”
“What’s with that? He hasn’t come home in two months and suddenly two missed calls?”
She lifted her face from his chest and pouted.
“I know, right? I don’t get it either.”
She sat up and tapped the dark phone screen with a fingertip.
“After nothing but the occasional text for over two months, two calls out of nowhere means he must have something to say. Maybe he’s looking for something he left at the house.”
“Asking you to bring it to him?”
She set the phone back on the table.
“At first, when it was only texts, I felt so cold about it. I even thought about calling him myself. I waited for my husband like that.”
She drew her knees up, pulled the robe around them, and rested her chin on top.
“But now… I just don’t feel anything.”
She gazed out at the Han River beyond the glass and spoke in a calm, even voice.
Joggers moved like tiny dots along the Sunday-morning riverside.
“It’s actually funny—the man who never sent a single text on our anniversary or my birthday suddenly called twice.”
She turned her eyes to Hyun-soo, reached out, and brushed his hair back from his forehead.
“That man can’t even imagine where I am or what I’m doing right now.”
A smile touched her lips—an expression in which a strange satisfaction and a quiet bitterness passed through at the same time.
“If he found out I spent the whole night rolling around in a hotel with the tenant, he’d faint.”
“It wouldn’t stop at fainting.”
“No?”
“There’d be absolute chaos.”
“He’s cheating too, so what.”
“Even so, it feels different. Me cheating versus my wife cheating.”
“So he’d be jealous?”
“Maybe.”
“Hmph.”
Jung Na-yeon tugged the collar of Hyun-soo’s robe and drew her face close.
“But you know…”
She lowered her voice and looked straight into his eyes.
“I’m not answering that call. Not today.”
She brushed a light kiss across his lips, pulled back, and smiled. Just then the sound of a room-service cart rolling down the hallway reached them.
Knock, knock.
At the knock Jung Na-yeon sprang up and tightly knotted the belt of her robe.
“Food’s here!”
When she opened the door, a cart carrying two plates of eggs Benedict, orange juice, and croissants rolled in.
She moved the tray to the table by the window and beckoned to Hyun-soo.
“Hurry up. Let’s eat before it gets cold. You burned through all your energy last night, so you need to eat properly.”
“I was hungry anyway.”
She arranged the tray on the window table and set the fork and knife neatly in front of him.
“Eggs Benedict tastes best before the sauce hardens.”
“It tastes bad if it hardens?”
“Yeah.”
She lightly slit the poached egg on his plate with the knife so the yolk would spill out. She slid the glass of orange juice in front of him and spread a napkin across his lap with the easy, practiced motion of someone who had done it every morning of her life.
“Put lots of butter on the croissant. You always eat bread half-heartedly.”
She scooped a small piece of butter with the knife, spread it evenly across the cut face of the croissant, and set it beside his plate.
“Oh—you buttered it for me?”
“Thank you?”
“I’m actually touched.”
“Tch…”
She still hadn’t touched her own food; she simply watched him eat.
“Is it good?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m glad.”
She wiped a smear of hollandaise from the corner of his mouth with her thumb, then slipped that finger into her own mouth and sucked it clean.
“Mm. Delicious.”
Only then did she pick up her own fork and take a bite of eggs Benedict.
Even while chewing, her eyes kept checking his plate.
When his orange juice was half gone, she poured some from her own glass to top it up.
“You must have been exhausted last night. Is your back really okay?”
“You don’t have to worry.”
“You use your back every day loading and unloading. What if you overdid it?”
“If it’s this kind of overdoing, I can do more.”
“Pervert.”
She pulled her chair right up beside him and gently pressed the small of his back with her palm.
“It’s knotted here. When we get home I’ll put a patch on it.”
When the meal was finished she stacked his plate on the cart, brought a damp towel, and wiped his hands one by one. Carefully cleaning between each finger and over the calluses on his palms, Jung Na-yeon bent her head and pressed a light kiss to the back of that hand.
“These hands lift heavy things every single day.”
“Amazing?”
Hyun-soo said it like a joke.
“Yeah.”
But Jung Na-yeon took the words seriously.
She cupped his hand in both of hers and looked up at him.
Morning sunlight warmed one half of her bare face; the afterglow of the night before still lingered on skin free of makeup.
“Late checkout is until two. Let’s rest a little more until then. I’ll stay right here.”
She tugged his arm and led him back to the bed.
She swept the remaining rose petals to one side of the sheets, pulled the blanket up, and pressed herself flush against his side.
“Don’t move. Just like this.”
She laid her cheek on his chest and rested her head there.
Beyond the glass the Han River flowed in silence; now and then the distant whistle of a cruise ship drifted in.
Her fingers slowly traced patterns across his shoulder as the quiet minutes passed without a word.
Perhaps an hour went by.
She woke first and quietly looked down at his face.
She smoothed the faint crease between his brows with a fingertip and gave a soft laugh.
“Even in your sleep you’re frowning. Must be carrying boxes in your dreams too.”
She carefully rose and went into the bathroom.
The shower ran for a while; then she came out with a towel wrapped around her hair.
Confirming that Hyun-soo was still lying there, she took out two bottles of water and set one on the table.
“Cute…”
Looking at his sleeping face, Jung Na-yeon murmured the word under her breath.
She sat on the sofa by the window, adjusted the robe around herself, and turned on her smartphone.
The missed-call notifications from her husband were still there, and one new text message had appeared.
Jung Na-yeon stared at the sentence for a long time, then pressed her lips together.
Her husband was coming.
The phrasing—“stop by”—meant he wouldn’t stay long, but still, he was coming.
She gave a quiet snort of laughter and closed the screen.
She left only the read receipt and sent no reply.
She rose from the sofa and returned to the bed.
She tucked the edge of the blanket around Hyun-soo and kissed his forehead.
“He said he’s coming home next week.”
She spoke the words softly and lay down beside him again.
“I don’t know what for. Maybe just to grab some clothes.”
She stared at the ceiling and took his hand.
Their fingers laced together, pressure firm.
“But strangely, I’m not nervous at all. Before, I would have been a complete mess.”
She turned her head to look at the sleeping Hyun-soo and let a small smile touch her lips.
“Maybe it’s because you’re right here.”
If she had been alone, a storm of feelings would have risen. But the Jung Na-yeon of this moment felt none of that. A man who truly cherished her and loved her was lying beside her. There was no longer any reason to cling to her husband.
She simply kept staring at Hyun-soo’s sleeping face.