The Husband Returns
The next day.
Monday morning, eight o’clock. Jung Na-yeon set kimchi fried rice and a fried egg on the table and called for Hyun-soo. While the two of them sat across from each other eating, conversation was scarcer than usual. After breakfast she set down her spoon, scanned the living room once, and nodded with her lips pressed tightly together.
“If you’re finished, let’s get started.”
She rose from her seat and headed for the sink.
“Ah… that hit the spot.”
Hyun-soo let out a light burp, set down his spoon, picked up his empty bowl, and stood to place it in the sink.
While he stepped into the bathroom she finished the dishes in a rush and peeled off her rubber gloves. The wall clock pointed to 8:40.
“We’ll start with the master bedroom closet.”
“Got it.”
The two of them walked into the master bedroom and opened the closet. She paused a moment looking at the side of the rack where Hyun-soo’s clothes hung, then pulled out three shopping bags and spread them on the floor. One by one she folded a linen shirt, khaki pants, a black collared tee, and a crew-neck T-shirt into the bags. Hyun-soo opened a drawer, took out underwear and socks, and set them aside. Jung Na-yeon watched him for a beat; her hands stilled.
They were the clothes she had chosen for him herself. Sniffling at the tip of her nose as she looked, she spoke.
“Hyun-soo, I’ll handle this. You do the bathroom.”
“The bathroom?”
“Yeah.”
She handed him an empty pouch.
Toothbrush, razor, foam cleanser, towels—everything of his had to come out of the bathroom.
Once the master bedroom was cleared they came out to the living room, opened the refrigerator, and packed the canned beers he drank into a plastic bag. She took the work clothes down from the drying rack and even checked the laundry left in the washing machine.
“This too.”
“Give it here.”
He held up a single sock pulled from the washer with a bitter smile.
Next he fished a charging cable from between the sofa cushions and dropped the hand cream beside the television into the pouch.
From the entryway shoe cabinet he took out the safety shoes and packed them together with the bento bag.
She drew the photo-booth picture frame from a drawer, slipped it into the inner zippered pocket of her handbag, and stared at it for a long moment.
Without stopping there her hands quickened as she stripped the bed. She pulled off both pillow covers, tossed them into the washer, and replaced everything with fresh sheets and covers.
She sprayed fabric deodorizer across the mattress, erasing Hyun-soo’s scent. As the last trace of his body odor faded, her expression twisted strangely.
“It’s weird. Without your smell it doesn’t feel like my home.”
“That’s how used we’ve gotten to rolling around in this bed.”
“Is that so?”
“It’s a married couple’s bed.”
“Don’t say that.”
Jung Na-yeon’s face flushed red.
She rested her palm on the new sheets and looked. Three shopping bags and two plastic bags were piled by the entrance; she gazed at them and let out a long sigh.
“Let’s take them up to the third floor. I’ll carry them for you.”
“You’re going to help?”
Jung Na-yeon lifted two shopping bags in both hands and looked up at him.
“Of course. You’d have to go back and forth several times alone with these.”
“Will you be okay?”
Hyun-soo lifted a bag to gauge the weight.
“I’m not weak, you know. I’m a woman who can hoist a sack of rice by herself.”
“Really?”
“Don’t underestimate me~”
At his look of admiration she shot him a sidelong glance.
They changed from slippers into sneakers. The way she took out outdoor shoes instead of the indoor ones she usually wore only inside the house meant she was treating the task with complete seriousness. She opened the front door and checked the stairwell. Confirming there was no sign of anyone in the villa corridor, she nodded.
“The grandmother on the second floor should have gone to the senior center by now.”
“Let’s move them quickly.”
She hugged the shopping bags to her chest and started up the stairs. Hyun-soo followed. Climbing the narrow steps from the first floor to the third, her sneakers tapped the concrete. When they passed the second floor she unconsciously quieted her footsteps; he did the same. Arriving at the third floor she caught her breath in front of Room 301. When Hyun-soo opened the door, the musty air of a room that had not been ventilated in a long time rushed out.
She wrinkled her nose and stepped inside.
A dusty desk, crumpled blankets, empty cup-ramen containers remained exactly as they had been left.
“You haven’t been here for over a month.”
“I’ve been living downstairs the whole time.”
“It shows.”
Setting the shopping bags down on one side of the room, she looked around. The life Hyun-soo had lived before coming down to the first floor was preserved intact, like a specimen.
Jung Na-yeon opened the closet and began hanging the clothes from the bags on the hangers. Her hand paused for a moment as she hung the linen shirt she herself had chosen, then moved again. She pushed the safety shoes deep into the shoe cabinet and set the bento bag on the desk. Placing the pouch that held the toothbrush and razor on the bathroom shelf, she looked at her face reflected in the mirror.
The corners of her eyes were red.
She wiped them with the back of her hand and turned around.
“Let’s go down for the rest. One more trip and we’re done.”
As she left the room, strength entered her fingers.
“Did your emotions well up?”
Going down the stairs she stopped midway. The hand that had been holding his came free as she gripped the railing.
Her shoulders trembled finely.
She stood for a long while without turning her head, then wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.
“No.”
Her voice cracked.
“It’s just being apart for a little while. So why does my heart well up like this?”
She sniffled once more, looked up at the ceiling, and drew a deep breath.
“I said no.”
She finally turned around.
Her eye rims were wet and red; moisture clung to the tips of her lashes.
She pressed her lips tightly trying to smile, but the corners of her mouth would not obey.
“Just hanging your clothes.”
She gave his chest a light push with her palm.
“It’s the shirt I picked out for you. Hanging it on the hanger, suddenly I wondered what this even was. We chose them together, tried them on together, and I was so happy saying they suited you. Now I have to hide them away in that room.”
Hyun-soo gently wrapped her shoulders and drew her into his arms.
“It’s for us.”
Jung Na-yeon bit her lip against his chest.
Morning sunlight slipping through the stairwell window lit the wet corners of her eyes.
“I don’t know why I’m being so stupid.”
She rubbed both cheeks three times with the back of her hand.
“We just have to put them away.”
“After Tuesday passes we can take them out again.”
He comforted her, stroking her back. She clutched the front of his T-shirt with both hands and buried her face against his chest. Her breath echoed softly in the stairwell.
“I didn’t know erasing every trace that you were here would hurt this much.”
Her voice rumbled, muffled against him. Her shoulders heaved twice; then she exhaled deeply and lifted her head.
Looking up at his face she forced a smile. He wiped the remaining moisture from her eyes.
“Don’t worry.”
At his words she nodded.
Then she lowered her head and gave him a light kiss.
It was brief, yet as their lips parted her fingers slid slowly along his cheek.
“Let’s go down and get the rest. Finish quickly and I’ll make you another meal.”
She squeezed her eyes shut once, then opened them wearing a smile.
Back on the first floor they lifted the remaining bags by the entrance. The plastic bag of canned beer clanked.
“This is heavy—I’ll take it.”
Hyun-soo claimed the heavier ones.
Jung Na-yeon took the lighter ones.
“Nothing left behind? Did you check the washing machine?”
At her question he went to the laundry room himself, opened the lid, peered inside, and returned.
“It’s clean.”
Nodding, she carried the last of it up to the third floor with him again.
“Aren’t those canned beers heavy?”
“I’m going to drink them anyway, so whatever.”
Passing the second floor Jung Na-yeon suddenly stopped and pricked up her ears.
She put a finger to her lips and checked the second-floor front door. After a few seconds of silence she sighed in relief and continued upward.
“Grandma really isn’t home. Thank goodness. That woman’s eyes are sharp as anything.”
Inside Room 301 Hyun-soo pushed the beer bag into the refrigerator.
“Does this fridge even run?”
Curious, she asked at the sight.
“It does.”
He checked the temperature and set the laundry bag in front of the closet.
When he left the pouch in the bathroom and came out, she slowly looked around the room.
“Now there’s not a single thing of yours left on the first floor.”
She tried to smile, but the corners of her mouth only twitched.
Opening the window of Room 301 to air the place out, she drew a finger across the dusty desk.
“Shouldn’t we clean this a little? Look at all this dust.”
“We should.”
She frowned at the gray film on her fingertip.
“The moment that person leaves, you come straight back down. Understood?”
“Got it.”
She looked straight into his eyes.
“It’s only a day or two. I can endure that much.”
She muttered the words as if speaking to herself.
Standing before the door of Room 301 she gripped the handle.
“Let’s go down. We need to check the first floor one more time. Not even a single hair can be left.”
Descending the stairs she glanced back.
“Ah—and when that person arrives on Tuesday, you stay on the third floor. Absolutely do not come down. Promise me.”