At first, he had assumed Yunjoo was simply someone who had married for money and vanity. But thinking back on it, he had never once seen her buy anything for herself. She spent money on nothing except the clothes and jewelry she needed for events and the obligatory couples’ gatherings they had to attend together.

Yunjoo had gone to extreme lengths to avoid appearing in public, and since he also had no desire for her to put herself forward, it had seemed like a mutual understanding, and she had kept to no outside activities. The occasions they attended together were limited, and every appearance that made the news he had handled alone. 

It occurred to him now that even that might have been part of a larger plan she had drawn up to leave. It was also why, when he had arranged for her to go to the theater company, no one there had recognized her. The photos of her taken alongside him were nothing more than shots of her back or blurry captures.

So what had she been living on all this time? Wait, she had said she worked before the marriage. She had said she wasn’t sitting idle, even if she hadn’t been a full-time employee. Did that mean she had been spending her own money? Living with him, she had not touched his money for anything outside of their married life together. It was staggering. Apart from household expenses and the costs of things she did with him, she had not spent a single won of his.

“This woman, honestly!”

She had lived with that kind of thoroughness all along, and now she was ready to throw him away like trash the moment she had been waiting for arrived. It meant that to Cha Yunjoo, Choi Kangwook’s worth wasn’t even useful as money. Kangwook pushed back every appointment on his schedule and headed to the theater company. The sense of betrayal stirring inside him over this woman wouldn’t let him sit still.

Kangwook slipped quietly into the theater company and stood watching Yunjoo from the shadows. He stared without blinking at a Yunjoo he had never seen before, her face open in full bloom, her eyes brimming with life, laughing with a bright, bubbling sound as she moved about.

He had never once seen her laugh out loud. But now she was laughing so hard it rang through the whole space, nudging the man beside her playfully, filling every step she took with energy, talking in a loud voice that carried across the entire theater. The woman he had known was someone who spoke so quietly he could barely remember what her voice sounded like, a woman of few words.

This was Cha Yunjoo, a person who was not the wife he knew. Kangwook couldn’t take his eyes off her. He couldn’t stop his gaze from following her every move. She darted this way and that, practically flying, and his eyes moved busily to keep up with her.

“Ms. Yunjoo, can you stay for dinner before you head out?”

“Sure, that works. I didn’t feel like going home to cook anyway, so perfect timing.”

“Then let’s have dinner and a quick drink before we go.”

“Sounds great!”

Watching her make plans as though he didn’t exist, Kangwook reached into his pocket and took out his phone.

— Hello?

“It’s me.”

— Yes.

“Keep your evening free.”

— Why?

“We’re not divorced yet, so shouldn’t we at least do something like this?”

— Fine.

Yunjoo hung up first. That was one more thing that had changed. Kangwook held the phone she had cut off and fixed a piercing look in her direction. She had hung up on him first. No one had ever treated him like that.

After hanging up, Yunjoo’s face took on an apologetic look.

“Sorry about this. Dinner will have to wait.”

“We can do it another time. It’s fine.”

The irritation lasted only a moment, and from a distance Kangwook watched as his eyes lit up and the corner of his mouth curved softly upward before he turned and left. He looked pleased with himself for having stopped her from having dinner with the man.

* * *

She got the call and rushed home, changed her clothes, and headed to the meeting place. The venue Kangwook had named was not somewhere you could walk into dressed carelessly. It annoyed her that she had to go through more trouble than necessary. 

He usually gave advance notice, and this kind of place wasn’t suited for casual gatherings. The venue was unexpected, and once she stepped inside, a staff member guided her to a private room. Since she had never attended small, private gatherings with him, she felt a slight tension as she opened the door and walked in, only to find Kangwook waiting alone.

“What’s going on?”

“I said let’s have dinner.”

“No, I told you I had plans.”

“Right, and having dinner with me counts as plans too.”

“That’s ridiculous. I had a prior commitment.”

“That’s your fault.”

“How is any of this my fault?”

“You said there’s no food at home, so you were going to eat out before coming back.”

“Honestly… really.”

“You’re already here, so let’s just eat. I’m hungry…”

“Why are you doing this?”

Yunjoo couldn’t make sense of Kangwook’s behavior. He was a man who had never done anything impulsive, who seemed not to even know the meaning of the word. Or rather, that was the man she had believed him to be. She had no idea what had gotten into him to act this unreasonably.

He had gone through all this just so the two of them could have dinner? Not once during their entire marriage had they ever gone out to eat alone together. Kangwook looked at Yunjoo and smiled a smile she couldn’t see. 

Without quite knowing why, he had called her, made plans, and now had her sitting here across from him. He was still a little dazed about what had come over him in that moment to bring him to this point, but confirming that she was still under his watch was enough to put him in a good mood.

Until he understood what this feeling inside him was, he couldn’t send Cha Yunjoo anywhere. He had never carried an unclear feeling before. Not knowing his own mind was something he couldn’t accept. He couldn’t bring himself to smile at the woman sitting across from him with eyes full of displeasure, but he could at least show her a calm, unhurried ease.

“Let’s eat.”

Yunjoo was gradually finding her old energy and confidence again, growing accustomed to life at the theater company. She laughed brightly, got along easily with everyone, and was settling into the work. Her dream was to earn enough over about a year and leave this country. A place with no memories she needed to return to. 

Her mother, who always shrank in her father’s presence and couldn’t say a single word to him. She truly hated that apology, those eyes. She hated seeing her mother crushed under the weight of life, powerless.

It wasn’t poverty that kept her mother that way. It was a domineering father who pressed down on her until she lived without a trace of light, and watching that had made Yunjoo feel like she couldn’t breathe.

Her older sister, who had married no differently than she had and was quietly wilting. Her brothers, who were exactly like their father. She felt no attachment to any of it. The only thing that mattered was leaving before her father found out and could do anything to stop her. He was not the kind of man who would leave her alone once he learned she had gotten a divorce.

The marriage to that man had cost her more money than she had expected. She had refused to spend anything he gave her on anything other than things related to him, and that had thrown off her plans. How wretched had the look in his eyes made her feel at their very first meeting? 

His gaze had told her she was nothing more and nothing less than a woman who had come chasing the position of Juon’s daughter-in-law out of hollow greed for money. From that moment, she had sworn she would never touch a single won of his, and that was the vow she had carried into the marriage. But now, thinking that the time she had to spend like this might stretch on longer than expected, she couldn’t shake the feeling that it had been a foolish thing to do.

‘Ugh, Cha Yunjoo, you idiot. You should have just spent it. Then you could have left the moment the divorce was done…’

* * *

Kangwook sat in his office receiving a report from the foundation chairman about Yunjoo. She had more skill than expected, and her ability to connect with people was strong enough that she got along well with everyone. He said the people there tended to be particular and didn’t warm up to others easily, but that he needn’t worry about the madam, she would be just fine. That last part was what stuck in Kangwook’s mind.

The foundation chairman was the only person who knew Yunjoo was Kangwook’s wife, and since Kangwook had asked him to keep it confidential, he maintained things at the level of receiving occasional updates. Kangwook had been holding out a quiet hope that Yunjoo might find it too hard and give up and come back, but it seemed that wasn’t going to happen.

After Yunjoo declared she wanted a divorce and went to work at the theater company, he had looked into who she was before the marriage. She was a completely different person in ways that left him at a loss.

Throughout university, she had pursued a double major without her father knowing, and she had driven herself relentlessly to complete both with perfection. No one in her family had any idea what Yunjoo was doing or that she even had a profession. Cha Yunjoo had carried out her own work with a stubbornness that kept it entirely hidden from all of them.