Chapter 8.2

Café Corner located in Buam-dong was as rough as its name suggested.

It was a date spot that Ah-jin had been recommended by her friend Eun-hee. It was the place where the scene of the female and male protagonists’ reunion was filmed in a recently ended mini-series.

Since it was the number one rated drama, it had become a hot place that people kept visiting.

Today, only Choi Jin-wook and Ah-jin were on the terrace side. While the drama OST flowed gently, a part-time worker brought drinks and strawberry cake and tactfully disappeared.

“You said you wanted to come. Is it not good?”

Choi Jin-wook, who was drinking hot steaming americano, glanced at Ah-jin. He had expected her to be noticeably pleased, but Ah-jin was quiet.

“I like it. It’s just that everything is so good.”

“But.”

“Still, renting it out for the whole day seems too much.”

“Not at all. We have to be careful.”

Choi Jin-wook was more serious than ever. He reached out his hand to stroke Ah-jin’s belly. She should be used to it by now, but Ah-jin’s cheeks turned red.

Exactly one week ago from now, Ah-jin had morning sickness. It had happened at a seafood specialty restaurant they had gone to together.

When they immediately went to the obstetrics and gynecology clinic, she received a diagnosis of six weeks pregnant.

Jin-wook, who was comforting Ah-jin as she cried in disbelief, seemed calm, but he too was equally unable to grasp the reality. Since he had been determined to get her pregnant, the pregnancy itself wasn’t surprising.

However, the fact that his child was in Ah-jin’s small body was simply wondrous.

“My belly isn’t even showing yet.”

“It’s my child.”

Touching Ah-jin’s belly had become such a habit that even he wasn’t aware of it. Just looking at it made him find it pretty and want to stroke it.

“Still, right now it just feels like my belly fat.”

“You don’t even have belly fat.”

“I probably do. Maybe it’s because I only do breathing exercises.”

They said that someone with Ah-jin’s body type wouldn’t show much of a belly. Even so, as he watched her muttering that she should start exercising, he calculated the dates.

Today was exactly the third week. A child had been conceived as he had hoped, but Ah-jin still hadn’t given him a definitive answer that she wouldn’t leave.

Was this what it meant to have one’s heart burn with anxiety? He had never once waited for someone’s decision. Since he had always been the one giving orders, even this feeling of being worn down day by day was a first for him.

Ironically, he also didn’t want to hear Ah-jin’s answer. He just wanted to pretend that she had never brought up divorce and continue living like this.

In front of him, his wife had become more talkative and more proactive than before.

Choi Jin-wook had now become so accustomed to such a wife that he no longer wanted to go back to how things were before.

If his wife insisted on leaving, he wouldn’t be able to let her go.

Where could his wife, who was even carrying his child, go while avoiding his eyes?

A week ago, when they left the obstetrics clinic, he had already planned out all the countermeasures for that situation. So that his wife could never leave his side, even in death.

“This isn’t very sweet and tastes good, right?”

Choi Jin-wook’s dark insides had burned so much that only ash remained.

Only Ah-jin, who had caused all this, seemed completely unaware. The way she deliciously ate the strawberry cake with a fork was incredibly cute.

While having morning sickness, Ah-jin’s food preferences had changed somewhat from before. She had started eating sweet things well, and it was also cute how she worried about belly fat in the midst of it all.

“I’ll buy a box to take home.”

“This is enough though.”

“We can buy it and eat it together.”

Ah-jin still didn’t know how to openly ask him to buy things for her. When she just said something was delicious, he would quickly step forward to order packaging and pay.

Since Ah-jin was someone who matched Choi Jin-wook’s tastes from the beginning, she wore and ate whatever he bought for her without complaint.

Thanks to Ah-jin, recently, Jin-wook had discovered the thrill of spending money. Swiping his card frequently, he could at least mask his nervousness in front of his wife.

“Eat this too.”

He pushed his portion of cake toward her as well. After declining a few times, when he directly fed her with a fork, she received it well, saying it was delicious.

Perhaps because he hadn’t seen Ah-jin eat things deliciously very often, watching her receive food with her small mouth made him want to put anything in her mouth.

So this was what it meant to feel full just from watching someone eat.

Jin-wook was only recently, in his 30 years of life, beginning to understand the meaning of those words.

“There’s actress Hwang Jin-hee’s autograph here. It’s so amazing.”

After quickly finishing two slices of cake, Ah-jin was now looking at the opposite wall. She seemed to be talking about the autographs of the drama’s lead actors.

“Do you know that actress?”

He had heard of her often, but having no interest in entertainment, there was no way he would know.

“Oh, just. She’s famous for being such lovebirds with her husband.”

Ah-jin scratched her cheek. Wondering if she was a fan of the actress, he went over to look together out of curiosity, it wasn’t particularly an admiring gaze.

“I think she used to be a department store model.”

He remembered. When he made his rounds of the stores in the morning, her pictorials were often hung up.

“Actually, I… envied that actress a lot.”

“I don’t understand why.”

In Choi Jin-wook’s view, Ah-jin was in no way inferior to the actress. It was natural for an actress to have that level of appearance. Compared to that, Ah-jin’s beauty as an ordinary person was more remarkable. Even if Ah-jin was embarrassed when he was being a doting husband, the truth was the truth.

“Wow! Look here. The actress’s husband has already been here too.”

Ah-jin’s hand pointed to the area below the actress’s autograph. The strong, bold handwriting was sending praise about his wife. A man’s name, Lee Hyo-shin, was written together with it.

Seeing Ah-jin genuinely envying just two palm-sized autographs, Choi Jin-wook clicked his tongue inwardly.

As a result of him, who was hopeless with such emotional matters, racking his brain hard, Ah-jin seemed to want to imitate those two.

“If you’re envious, do it.”

“Are you going to write together too?”

“What’s so difficult about that?”

“Hmm. We don’t even have a pet name.”

She seemed to want to imitate them after all. Wondering what a pet name was, when he looked at her, she said they were called the ‘Hyo-Jin couple’ by taking the middle character of their names.

So that’s what it meant. While feeling his limits, Choi Jin-wook still racked his brain. If Ah-jin wanted it, he had to accommodate her. His head, which had only worked on business plans, tried this and that before coming up with an answer.

<The Best Couple Was Here. 2019.12.31>

[T/N: In Korean, the husband’s surname is Choi (최) and the wife’s surname is Go (고).

When Jin-wook writes 〈최고 커플 다녀감. 2019.12.31〉, it literally means “The Best Couple was here. 2019.12.31.”

However, there’s a clever wordplay here:

최고 (Choi + Go) is formed by combining 최 (Choi) and 고 (Go) — their surnames.

But 최고 (choi-go) is also a common Korean word meaning “the best.”

So his phrase “〈최고 커플 다녀감〉” carries a double meaning:

Literally, “The Choi–Go couple was here.”

And figuratively, “The best couple was here.”

It’s a cute, affectionate pun — the kind of “couple nickname” that Korean couples often make from their names.]

The Best Couple, taking from both their surnames. He had written it after much deliberation, but Ah-jin’s reaction was strange.

“Don’t you like it?”

“I really… didn’t know today was the last day of the year.”

Only then did Jin-wook also check the date he had written. He had just seen it on his phone screen when he woke up in the morning, so he knew it was the 31st. Hearing his wife’s words, it really was the last day of the year.

“Time really flies.”

He had run forward like a legendary racehorse, looking only ahead.

Having been trained and raised that way, he had thought it was only natural. There was no leisure to stop for a moment to look back or trace the path he had run.

If it hadn’t been for his wife’s declaration of divorce, he would still be looking over New Year’s plans at the company. He would have been unable to understand the employees who had a party atmosphere every year-end.

He would have just lived dedicating everything only for the company.

Choi Jin-wook as a human being would never have been possible, and he would have met a bitter death like his father.

He thought that perhaps his father too might have regretted only just before dying. But once dead, that would be the end of everything.

“Thank you. I never thought I’d be able to feel the year-end atmosphere with you. I’m truly a blessed person.”

Ah-jin had been moved even by a glass of honey water. Just from coming to a cafe together once, seeing his wife speak with moistened eyes, a sigh escaped from his mouth.

“I’m sorry. I haven’t done much for you.”

It was self-reproach and lament for having turned away from and been indifferent to such a wife all this time.

“Don’t say such things. I’ve never regretted marrying you.”

“If it’s the same for you… could you think in a way that’s favorable to me, even now?”

“Well. If so, that would really be fortunate.”

It seemed like it was time for his wife to give him an answer.

That feeling came to him. His heart began to crumple up. With his hands clasped together, Choi Jin-wook was now experiencing what could be called extreme nervousness.

“I thought hard for the past three weeks. You said to have the greatest divorce if I was going to do it anyway…. I could do as you said, but I didn’t want to right now. If you’ll allow it, I want to stay by your side for the time being. I’m sorry for being so indecisive.”

His crumpled heart was in his wife’s hands. Every time his wife uttered a word, it repeatedly shrank and then expanded.

Only after confirming that his wife’s lips had stopped did he catch his breath and could open his mouth with a heavy heart.

“Are you sure you’ve thought it through enough?”

“Yes.”

“Think carefully. You might be able to postpone as you please, but you can’t set the deadline as you please.”

For the time being could become forever. Because that’s how Choi Jin-wook would make it.

“Even if you bring up divorce again, I won’t let you go. I can’t let you go. So if you’re going to come to me, give up. In this life, just live as Choi Jin-wook’s wife.”

He was warning her that now was the only time to run away. Because there wouldn’t be a second chance.

“Why does that sound like a proposal to my ears?”

A gentle smile appeared on Ah-jin’s face. At that smile, the thread of reason he had barely been holding onto finally snapped.

“Because that’s what I meant it to be.”

Ah-jin already knew everything he wanted to say. Maybe she even knew why he’d come here. So she was teasing him now.

“You wouldn’t by any chance, no way. It couldn’t be.”

“Why do you start talking and then stop?”

“No, you wouldn’t by any chance… you didn’t prepare a ring or anything, did you?”

There was a reason Jin-wook hadn’t taken off his suit jacket even after coming to the cafe. Jin-wook, who had been reaching his hand inside his jacket, froze for a moment and then let out a long sigh.

“Maybe I’ll just keep it and give it to you next year.”

It was something he had prepared ambitiously. Although Ah-jin wasn’t tempted by money, if it came with a proposal, she would like it too.

Above all, since it was something Choi Jin-wook had custom-made only for Go Ah-jin, he had thought that once she understood the meaning, she would never reject it.

“Oh my! It was real? How wonderful!”

“Whose wife are you, really having no sense.”

“I’m sorry. I was too quick to catch on. I don’t know anything. Let’s do it again, okay?”

Ah-jin hung on his arms. At the sight of her pleading while blinking her big eyes, Jin-wook, who had tried to act a little sulky, was helplessly won over.

He had no way to handle the unexpected cuteness that Ah-jin, who claimed she had no aegyo, occasionally showed.

“One carat per year. That means you’re stuck with me for ten years.”

He quickly slipped the ring onto her finger. The ten-carat diamond, intricately crafted, shone even brighter against her pale hand.

He decided to seal the deal this time.

On their wedding anniversary last year, Ah-jin had bought a cake and waited for him.

At that time, he had been on the other side of the world and only learned about it a month later. Determined not to repeat that mistake, he had ordered the ring last summer.

“Let’s count properly. That makes seven years left.”

“Ah-jin.”

“I like money too, you know. I just pretended I didn’t, so you’d think better of me. You didn’t know, right?”

Ah-jin said even such things seriously, and even that looked pretty to him, so there was nothing he could do.

Wasn’t this actually a good thing? Where else could he get a 7-year extension with just one diamond ring?

“Fine. Seven years.”

In that time, they could probably have at least two more children.

If that meant she’d grow more attached — whether to people or to things — he intended to use it to the fullest.

To Choi Jin-wook, both as a businessman and as a man, this was an immensely important deal.

More than anything, he was determined to stake everything on this one bet.