Karma (3)
"Th-that's..."
He had no idea how to even begin. The words simply would not come.
"You gonna say it yourself? Or should I say it for you?"
The air had gone so dark, so thick with threat, that if he stalled even a second longer it really would be over.
"Th-at's..."
He squeezed his eyes shut and was just about to force the words out when—small mercy in a disaster—Jia appeared, having changed into something comfortable.
"Huh? You guys still talking? I'm hungry..."
She came padding over in pink dolphin shorts and a white crop top that left her navel bare, rubbing her stomach as she walked.
"Jia."
The voice had dropped to a register so low it barely sounded human. Jia must have felt it too, because she flinched hard and froze mid-step.
"..."
One word from her mother and Jia locked up completely. Jiwoo, for her part, only turned her head a fraction and said nothing more. Still, Jia tried to salvage the mood, her voice creaking as she offered,
"M-maybe we should, uh... eat first...?"
"..."
"Hic...!"
Even standing still, the killing intent rolling off Jiwoo was so sharp it seemed to sting the skin. Jia, terrified out of her mind, hiccupped.
"Hic...!"
The killing intent pouring off his wife frightened him too—but Jia's reaction was, in its own wretched way, kind of adorable.
C-cute...
As if she'd plucked the thought straight out of his head, Yang Jiwoo whipped around and locked her gaze back on Hanbyul. Just meeting those eyes made his heart feel like it was crumpling in his chest.
"Hah..."
She raked her fingers roughly through her hair, and those sharp, cat-like eyes stood out even more.
She delivered the line like a death sentence, then turned and went inside. She stopped near the shoe cabinet and snapped at the two of them, still standing there in a daze.
"Both of you. Get inside."
Even furious, she looked unusually cold and composed—the image of the household's head of family, ice where there should have been fire. Father and daughter could only stand there, gutted.
"D-Dad...? What do we do...?"
Jia's face said she had no idea what any of this was about. Better to talk to Jiwoo first and explain afterward than try to fill her in now.
"It's okay. Dad'll... I'll talk to her."
It was reassurance that reassured no one.
"What are you doing? Planning to stand out there all day? I said come in. Come. In."
She was holding a knife now instead of a ladle—one she'd apparently been using to cut kimchi, red juice dripping from the blade. Drip. Drip. There was no way that knife was coming for him. Probably. Still, the sight of it drained every drop of color from his face.
Like prisoners with their hands bound, Hanbyul and Jia filed into the house with their palms folded politely in front of them. Just watching it unfold was enough to make it hard to breathe. And it kept going.
Clink. Clink.
It had been a long time since the Hanbyul household sat down to a family meal together. You'd think a long-awaited dinner would mean catching up, asking how everyone's been, conversation blooming across the table...
"..."
And yet not a single word was spoken. You couldn't even hear anyone breathing. It felt like being led to the slaughterhouse. The suffocating pressure of it, the knowledge that there was no way out, only tightened the vise.
If this kept up, he'd get torn apart by Jiwoo without ever getting a word in. He opened his mouth to break the ice.
"Um..."
"Did you have a nice trip?"
The Queen asked, her face ice-cold, chopsticks moving with mechanical precision.
"Y-yeah! It was great...!"
Jia tried to look cheerful, sneaking glances at her mother's face. As her father, he couldn't just sit there in silence.
"It was so much fun...! R-right, Jia?"
"Yeah! That's right...! I wish Mom could come with us next time...!"
"Is that so? Well, that's a relief."
"..."
The conversation lost its thread again. Hoping to ease the awkwardness, he picked up his spoon to compliment the kimchi stew.
"Must've been so happy spending time with your daughter, huh? I could hear every word of it from outside..."
"Cough—cough!!!"
"You love your daughter so much you couldn't even focus on a conversation with me after all this time apart. How sad. How. Sad."
"Huh...? M-Mom...?"
"And even while we were talking, you were thinking about some other bitch. Hah... fuck."
"M-Mom... why... why are you being like this..."
Jia fidgeted, her pupils shaking as she called out to Jiwoo. As if in answer, two chopsticks stabbed down into a rice bowl. Thunk.
"I can't live without Dad. It has to be Dad. As long as I have Dad, that's enough. Dad is everything. I want to do it with Dad."
She recited it in a flat, even tone, like a computer reading text off a screen. The words were familiar—he'd heard them somewhere before.
No way...
Those were the things Jia had said to him right in front of the house.
"Is it okay to pressure your dad like that? Asking if it felt good? Jia?"
His wife tilted her head, looking at them with a faintly vacant expression.
"..."
"Or did I just mishear?"
Silence seemed to be the only option left.
"Hah... unbelievable. You just kissed her right out in the open? Families can do pecks on the cheek. But a kiss? Hah... I must've been seeing things, right?"
Jiwoo had been watching them the entire time—from the moment they left the playground all the way home. You'd think they might have looked up at least once, or sent a text, or called to say they were almost there. But no. She'd just stood there and watched the two of them nuzzle and coo, sprouting something that looked an awful lot like love. She'd gripped the ladle so hard without realizing it that the handle had bent.
She looked past Jia, who had buried her face in her rice bowl, and turned to him.
"And you, Jeon Hanbyul."
"Y-yes...?"
"Is this really how you're going to be?"
Jiwoo's eyes were full of grief and rage. Her face, her tone—they shifted by the second.
"What the hell did I do wrong? You're really gonna pull this shit? Why aren't you focusing on me? You'd rather talk to those stupid bitches? If that's not it, then pay attention to me. Focus on me and only me, fuck. I'm starting to lose it, you know? No—I've already lost it. You leave me hanging, go chat it up with other bitches, get all cozy with them, and I swear to fuck I don't know what I'll do."
"J-Jia... hup—!"
He'd been spending so much time with Jia lately that when he meant to call Jiwoo's name, Jia's came out instead.
"Hah... this is fucking disgusting."
The scrape of a chair. She set her rice bowl in the sink and disappeared into a room.
Click.
Jiwoo stared blankly at her daughter's firmly locked door.
"Hanbyul. You know, don't you?"
"H-huh...? Know what...?"
"That Jia sees you as a man."
He'd known. He'd just been pretending he didn't. She ran her tongue across her lips, clicked her tongue, and looked at him.
"Wake the fuck up. You're mine. Mine. Got it? No matter what bitch you put next to me, I'm the only one who fits you. Me, you fucker. Even if that bitch is our daughter... So why are you this shaky? Am I not enough for you?"
"..."
He had nothing to say. Maybe she took his silence as an answer.
BANG!!!
All the feelings she'd bottled up yesterday came bursting out like a dam breaking.
"You're going to pay for hurting your one and only wife. For making her worry. If you've got a problem with that, say it now, you fucker."
"N-no..."
"Right. Like you'd have a complaint. Even if you did, I was gonna tell you to go fuck yourself and do whatever I wanted anyway."
A killing intent so sharp it cut. No—this had gone past killing intent. This was madness.
"I was too busy on my business trip to take proper care of you. And in that short time, you went off and played around with other bitches, didn't you?"
He pressed his lips together, trying to hold back the sob that threatened to burst out. It backfired. His lips had puckered, and she must have taken it as him being playful—like he was joking around.
"Ohhh, so now you're joking with me? What is this? Have I gotten too familiar? Have I become cheap to you? Have you actually lost interest in me? I think about you every single day and you don't even seem to notice. What am I supposed to do? You break your promises, and then... then what the fuck am I supposed to do that's right...?"
Her voice trembled, thin and fragile. Of course it did. It was a natural reaction, and he had nothing he could say. He'd been the one in the wrong. He'd been the one who'd disappointed her. Of course Jiwoo would react like this. He knew that anything he said would just sound like an excuse, so he stayed quiet. Watching him sit there and take it, Jiwoo only pressed harder.
"So you betrayed me? Huh? Nothing to say? Are you mute? Is that mouth just for decoration? Why aren't you saying anything? Is it just a dedicated masturbation toy that only gets used when you're licking pussy?"
The words dedicated masturbation toy hit a nerve. He shoved his chair back and stood up—
"What? You mad? Getting pissed because I called a whore a whore? Fuck. I should be thrilled I have a whore for a husband, huh?"
Jiwoo closed in on Hanbyul, who stood there like a folding screen, unable to do a thing. Every step she took forward, he took one back, overwhelmed by her presence.
"Where do you think you're going?"
Step.
"Trying to run?"
Step.
"Huh?"
Step.
He kept backing up until—thud—he hit the wall. He'd already been a rat in a trap. Now he'd fallen even further, right into the palm of her hand.
BANG!!!
She wasn't about to let that slip. She drove her fist into the wall beside his head, pinning him there, and murmured, low and close.
"Can't say a word, can you? You're nothing but a dog in heat. Living with me is the only way you survive, you know that? Without me, what the hell could you even do on your own?"
"..."
"Hey. Look at me. Look at me, you fucker."
She grabbed his jaw roughly and forced his face toward hers.
"Hanbyul. I just figured out what I need to do. Actually, I've been thinking about it for a while. But now I think I have no choice."
Her stiff face twisted into an unnatural smile, the corners of her mouth lifting.
"Want me to tell you what it is?"
She looked at Hanbyul, whose eyes were brimming with unshed tears.
As if she were determined to melt his brain, a voice sweeter and more dangerous than ever before drove itself into Hanbyul's ear.