“Aren’t you still my wife? I was just reminding my wife of the rights she has. It seems like foolish Cha Yunjoo keeps forgetting.”

Yunjoo felt disoriented. She could accept him taking her side as something he did for his own dignity, but words that sounded like genuine concern were hard to take at face value, and they stirred a feeling of resentment in her. He had never been the type to pretend to be an attentive husband, not even for appearances.

‘You should have looked sooner. Why does it have to be now, when I’m trying to leave you? And because you’re only seeing me now, you keep catching sight of the shameful parts I don’t want you to see, and every time that happens, I become less and less able to stay by your side.’

“Are you pitying me?”

“Yunjoo.”

“Don’t feel sorry for me. It’s miserable, but I’m fine.”

“I don’t pity you, and I certainly don’t feel sorry for you. But I don’t like that you’re fine.”

“What?”

Yunjoo’s gaze locked onto Kangwook at his words. He didn’t like that she was fine? Why would that bother him? It should be easier for him, less of a burden.

“What’s fine about it when you’re not fine?”

“I’m fine because I’m fine.”

“You really are a fool.”

Kangwook’s voice dropped so low it sounded like a sigh. The words came from somewhere deep, low and quiet, and Yunjoo pressed her lips shut. She was afraid to open her mouth with a man who kept prying into her and seeing through her. She was fine, and that was that. What did he think he knew?

“……”

“Cha Yunjoo.”

She could see what was in Kangwook’s voice. Thud. She felt it move through her and opened her eyes wide against it. She couldn’t let it in.

“Don’t call me like that.”

“It’s not pity, and it’s not feeling sorry for you. You’re too spirited and too strong for that. But you’re not fine. Why are you trying to deceive even yourself?”

“I know myself well. You’re overstepping.”

“That’s the first time I’ve heard that. You’re right. That’s not something I do.”

“You’re right, and I’ve already been grateful enough. This is plenty.”

“Foolish Cha Yunjoo. If you’re not fine, say you’re not fine.”

Tap. She had lived saying she was fine because saying otherwise changed nothing. It was something she had said to herself every time she hit a wall, every time she had to give something up. This was a first. Kangwook was the first person who had ever asked her why she said she was fine when she clearly wasn’t.

Yunjoo felt disoriented. She stood there in a daze, and then Kangwook took her hand and led her out of that place before she could think. And without her even realizing it, tears had started running down her face. The way her heart kept softening like this was probably because Kangwook kept taking her side and telling her to lean on him.

‘Why are you doing this? Why do you keep doing this?’

The things Kangwook said carried a great deal of meaning. They hadn’t been a real couple during those years, but he had never once dismissed her or looked down on her. That was why she had been able to endure three years, and why she had been able to grow stronger. It had been a time that gave her at least the minimum amount of self-worth she needed.

Kangwook stood on the street for a long while, watching Yunjoo cry, and he waited without telling her to stop. He stayed by her side and made himself unobtrusive so she could be at ease.

Lately, Kangwook had been seeing Yunjoo’s tears often, tears he had never once seen in three years of living together. And he hadn’t known they would strike his heart this hard. When Cha Yunjoo cried, his heart ached. That was another thing he had come to know.

‘If only you had shown me your face like this sooner and snapped me out of it. I didn’t know you were hurting because you never let it show.’

Kangwook’s sigh dissolved into the night street. There was nothing he could do for Yunjoo as she cried. All he could do was stand there with her. It was the first time he had ever felt this powerless. After some time, Yunjoo’s crying gradually quieted. Kangwook held out his handkerchief to her, her face a mess of tears. He had been holding back the urge to wipe them away himself, the urge to pull her close, and this was the hand he extended after waiting through all of that.

“Done crying?”

Yunjoo took the handkerchief he offered and gave a small nod.

“Really, Cha Yunjoo crying in the middle of the street. The things you end up doing.”

“Was I always someone who cried this easily?”

“No. I almost never cry. Crying makes me weak.”

“Then I’ll have to make you cry more often.”

“Pardon?”

“That’s the only way Cha Yunjoo will soften up.”

Ever since she had asked for the divorce, Kangwook had found himself watching her more carefully. She smiled and talked plenty, but more often than not it unsettled him, and she weighed on his mind more than ever.

“What did you say?”

“Don’t you need to get back to the theater company?”

“No, they don’t need me.”

“Then let’s eat. I’m hungry. Doesn’t someone who cried herself out need to eat too? Yunjoo, do you know what the thing I say to you most these days is? Let’s eat. I feel like all I do lately is feed Cha Yunjoo. Must be because of the strike.”

Kangwook walked without letting go of Yunjoo’s hand, the one he had taken without thinking, and a quiet, satisfied smile settled on his face. He hadn’t let go the whole time she was crying either. Yunjoo didn’t seem to have noticed yet, and she walked along without a word, so Kangwook kept steering her attention elsewhere with one thing after another.

Her eyes and nose were red from crying, and it pained him to see, but Kangwook felt good holding Yunjoo’s hand. He hadn’t known that someone’s warm hand could feel this good. He found it absurd that something as small as holding a hand could make him this happy, but it didn’t bother him at all.

‘Choi Kangwook, look at you, over the moon just from holding a woman’s hand.’

He walked with a soft curve on his lips, a contented look on his face.

“By the way, how did you know to come? Are you watching me?”

“I’m starting to think I really should assign you a guard.”

“Just try it.”

“I had no idea you were the type to attract trouble wherever you go. How is it that everyone around Cha Yunjoo is a man?”

“Kangwook, how did you end up coming?”

“It’s your first production. I wanted to be there for it.”

“Kangwook.”

She was genuinely surprised. She hadn’t thought he would think that far. She looked up at him with eyes that couldn’t hide how moved she was.

“Team Leader Moon is probably sweating quite a bit right about now.”

“Then go, I’m fine now.”

“Team Leader Moon is capable. He’ll manage. In the end, I came all this way and still didn’t get to see Cha Yunjoo’s work.”

The look on Kangwook’s face was one of real disappointment, and something light and fluttery passed through Yunjoo’s chest. He had come to see her work, he said, and now he was walking beside her as though she came before the company. Yunjoo looked at his face as they walked.

“Why do you keep being so good to me?”

“Because it’s you.”

She thought she heard something from inside her chest. Her heart must have taken a real blow from her brothers today. Was it because Kangwook had taken her side in front of them that it was pounding like this? Yunjoo let out a quiet sigh and looked down at the ground as she walked. He caught the sigh she let out just loud enough for him to hear, and his gaze followed hers down to the ground.

“Is Yunjoo buying dinner today?”

“Pardon?”

“I came all the way out here. Shouldn’t you at least feed me before sending me off?”

“You came on your own without being invited, and now you’re asking me to pay for dinner?”

She let his words chase away the shadow that had been on her face and played along with the joke. It didn’t seem so bad to spend the time like this, easy and light, until the day she left, and she told herself Kangwook probably felt the same way, and shook off the tangle in her chest. After all, she had never been a woman to Choi Kangwook. So getting strange ideas just because he took her side was the thing that would be odd, if anything. She told herself not to think thoughts that would give her a headache and took his words lightly.

“My, isn’t that a bit much?”

“Fine, I’ll pay. But I can’t afford anything expensive.”

“That’s a little stingy, don’t you think? I stood out there on the street with you, embarrassing myself. I was going to leave when people started staring, but I stayed for nothing.”

“Wow, what is he saying? Is the man in front of me really Choi Kangwook?”

“If the woman in front of me is really Cha Yunjoo, then probably yes.”

“So what do you want to eat? A man with all that money trying to squeeze a meal out of someone on a modest salary.”

The dark look from before had vanished entirely from Yunjoo’s face without her noticing, and she was enjoying herself, matching his jokes with her own. Yunjoo’s voice filled with playfulness and delight, and Kangwook laughed quietly. At the sound of his laugh, Yunjoo stopped walking and turned around. Choi Kangwook laughing out on the street was a rare sight.

“Why are you laughing?”

“Because Cha Yunjoo is laughing.”