“Mr. Seok, even back then I could hold my drink better than you. Stop being so stubborn and help me out. This is the first production I’m coming back to.”

“You’re not even drunk, so why are you being this relentless?”

“Mr. Seok, I need to earn money and go study abroad. You know what my family is like.”

“You’re going to study abroad.”

It struck him as odd that a girl who had married into a family everyone knew would come back to this field to earn her tuition, but he didn’t ask about what she wasn’t saying.

“Yes, that’s the plan. I’m going to be done with it.”

He didn’t know what exactly she meant by done, but at least it wasn’t done with living, and that was a relief. Mr. Seok watched Yunjoo quietly at the hollow sound in her voice. She was fairly drunk by now, turning her glass in her hands, smiling faintly as she let out what was in her heart, then tipped the rest of her drink back.

He didn’t know how long it had been since she had let something like this out to anyone. And at her own words, she caught herself slightly and went quiet.

Seok Cheolwoo had the reputation of a master craftsman, but Yunjoo alone still called him the same thing she had from the very first time they met. It seemed this time he would have to be the one to give in. The fact that this girl had come to find him with such pained eyes told him she had made up her mind about something. For some reason, this one always tugged at his heart.

She had always been a little anxious about doing work her family forbade, yet her eyes would light up and she would be so happy. He had found that endearing. And now, three years later, those eyes have changed. He didn’t know what had happened to make Yunjoo so different, or what had led her to the thought of leaving the country, but for now he figured she needed to sleep, so he spoke.

“Alright, stop drinking and go get some rest.”

“So you’ll do it?”

“Let’s talk about that in the morning with a clear head.”

“I’m not drunk. You’ll do it, right?”

Yunjoo decided not to push any further and thought she might as well talk in the morning like he said, so she went to the small room, laid out her bedding, and lay down. The alcohol kept pulling her inner thoughts toward the surface. For some reason, being in front of Mr. Seok made her open up.

When he had lived in Seoul, she would sometimes stop by the house on a visit, and his wife would be so glad to see her and treat her like a daughter, and she had gone even when Mr. Seok wasn’t there. Yunjoo liked the people here more than she liked her own family home. She had drunk a lot, but she woke up early and came down to the yard to breathe in the morning air.

The air carried a cool, fresh scent unlike anything in Seoul. Yunjoo briefly entertained the thought of what it would be like to live here, then looked up at the sky and smiled. What a ridiculous idea. In her situation, that kind of thing was a luxury. She was standing there smiling at her own useless thoughts when she heard Mr. Seok’s voice behind her.

“What are you out here smiling to yourself about first thing in the morning? If you’re not done sleeping it off, go back to bed.”

“Mr. Seok!”

“Come inside. Have some hangover soup.”

“Did you go out to get hangover soup? And please give me your answer about yesterday.”

“Come inside and we’ll talk.”

She followed Mr. Seok inside and kept pestering him as they set the table. He was acting so firmly like he would never agree that she was starting to wonder if she really had to give up.

“All right. I’ll do it. But only for the work you’re in charge of. I’m not working for Art Entertainment. Let’s be clear about that.”

“Yes, thank you. Mr. Seok!”

* * *

While Yunjoo was still in Icheon finishing her hangover soup with Mr. Seok and taking her time setting off, Kangwook was at home waiting for her to come back. According to the person he had assigned to keep watch, she was in Icheon. She had stayed out overnight. Kangwook couldn’t believe this absurd situation had actually happened.

Cha Yunjoo, the woman who was supposed to be his wife, had not come home without a word. They weren’t even divorced yet, and she was acting like a woman who gave no thought to his existence at all. Kangwook had told himself she would come back late at the very least, but she hadn’t come back at all, and she hadn’t even called.

‘Cha Yunjoo, you stayed out overnight without a single word!’

Kangwook had barely slept, and when morning came he let out a hollow laugh. He couldn’t understand himself. He had waited alone, grown angry alone, and was burning up over a Yunjoo who didn’t give him a second thought.

He was operating the coffee machine when Yunjoo’s words came back to him and one corner of his mouth lifted. He remembered how she had assumed he couldn’t do anything and dragged him into the kitchen to explain things one by one. But Kangwook did know how to handle simple things.

He had gone abroad to study alone at sixteen. There was someone who helped out, but in the evenings he was on his own in the house. That meant there were countless times he had to fend for himself when it came to eating. 

Back then, Kangwook had resented his father. His father was always rigid and strict, and Kangwook had found him suffocating. He had hated the loneliness of those years when he had to make every decision and bear every responsibility alone.

From that point on, Kangwook carried loneliness with him, but he began using women as a cover to bury that feeling. And yet, through all of that, he was slowly learning something. That there were positions you could only hold if you were strong, and that people who wanted to see him fall existed close by.

Even after returning from abroad, Kangwook hadn’t moved back into the family home and had lived alone. He had come to think of home as a cumbersome thing. Then came the word that he should marry Yunjoo, and he had gone ahead and done it. At the time it was an arranged marriage that wouldn’t have been much different no matter who it was with. And for him, it was a marriage that required a contract.

But somewhere along the way, living with Yunjoo, he had been learning that home was a place he could always come back to, a place that would always be there. Kangwook hadn’t even realized it himself until he saw the divorce papers Yunjoo had handed him. That he had been coming home because Yunjoo was in it. Kangwook picked up his coffee and sat down on the sofa, and his phone rang.

“She’s entering the residence now.”

“Got it.”

Kangwook’s anger had risen to the top of his head by the time Yunjoo walked through the door. It wasn’t even a long trip, but the drinking must have taken its toll because she was quite tired. 

She stepped inside heading straight for the second floor when she spotted Kangwook sitting on the sofa and startled. He was someone who had absolutely no business being home at this hour. She looked at him with a visibly surprised expression.

“Oh, you scared me! Why aren’t you at work? Why are you home? Did something happen?”

“It seems like something happened, but not to me. To Cha Yunjoo.”

“Me? Why me?”

“Why me? Do you know what time it is?”

“Ten in the morning.”

Watching her answer with such a calm, unbothered face made the anger he had been holding back start creeping up.

“You can say that so casually?”

“Why?”

“You stayed out overnight without a word!”

Kangwook’s voice finally rose, but Yunjoo didn’t flinch. Not even a trace of surprise on her face.

“Oh, I had some things to take care of so I went to Icheon and it got late, so I stayed over.”

“Oh, you say. And that’s it?”

“What else is there to say? Do you have a work trip? Is that why you’re leaving late?”

“Cha Yunjoo……!”

He didn’t even know what to say. He was so dumbfounded the words wouldn’t come.

“Say what you want to say. I’m busy. I need to change and get to the theater company.”

“You really don’t know why I’m like this right now?”

She was the one calling herself busy. And yet watching her act like she was the busy one left him completely at a loss.

“I don’t know. That’s why I’m asking.”

“How can a married woman stay out overnight and act like nothing happened?”

“Oh, is that what this is about? I thought it was something else. Isn’t my situation a little different? That’s how I see it.”

She said it without any hesitation. They weren’t a normal couple, and she didn’t even consider that a grievance, so Kangwook being the one to take issue with it just seemed stranger to her.

“Different how?”

“You’re not asking because you don’t know. We’re married but we’re people who are going to divorce, and I’m a married woman but also not really one.”

“That divorce hasn’t happened yet.”

“We’re a couple with a different kind of relationship from everyone else, and we’re about to become strangers. But were you waiting for me? Why? Why do you keep acting strange? Let’s just live comfortably, like before. Once I start the stage work, there might be a lot of all-nighters. If you’re going to be like this every time, it’s going to be pretty ridiculous, like we’re some devoted couple.”

“You’re telling me not to worry even if you come home without a word?”