CH 76

Why is he…

All her attention was now focused outside. The rain fell on the window.

How long has he been standing there? wondered Lee-yeon. Her fingers were cold. She bit her lower lip anxiously. She felt as though she had been caught doing something she shouldn’t have.

Kwon Chae-woo had been only staring at Lee-yeon. His gaze shifted from her to the man sitting across from her. He looked cold and frightening. Lee-yeon got up suddenly. Her knees bumped the table.

“Lee-yeon?” said the man as he held the corner of the table that almost toppled.

“I am so sorry. I have to go home.”

“Pardon?”

Lee-yeon picked up her bag and looked at the man. He looked confused.

“I am sorry. I think this is a mistake.”

“Sorry?”

“I… um… I think I am more comfortable with someone who has less attachments to family than I do, I prefer someone who forgot their past history with other women and chooses to be with only me.”

“Pardon?” His eyes widened.

“My ideal type. I feel comfortable with someone like that,” she continued. “I want to be with someone who wouldn’t react shockingly when the time comes for me to reveal my problems. I guess that would only happen if my partner had his own problems. Otherwise, it will be difficult to understand each other. I don’t like to feel like I am the only one who is broken.”

“Lee-yeon. That sounds a little dangerous. I don’t know what you are going through, but you deserve someone better than the ones at the bottom of the barrel.”

She nodded. “You’re right. But usually with trees, they have insect bites mostly at the lowest level.”

Lee-yeon carried her bag. Her gaze rifted out of the window again. “But chestnuts are an exception. Those insect bites form a characteristic pattern of the chestnut tree. Incomplete without them.”

She looked a little solemn, but her voice was firm. Lee-yeon bowed her head and bid him goodbye. She left the café. When she went out, Kwon Chae-woo was no longer there. Lee-yeon felt restless and looked around for him.

She checked every alleyway without realizing that her clothes were getting wet. Someone pulled on her arm. She was pinned to a wall. She recognized the faint scent before she screamed.

“Kwon Chae-woo.”

His wet shirt was stuck to his chest and showed the outline of his body. His dark air was wet, and the rainwater flowed down to his nose.

“You’re trying to get rid of me.” He lowered his head. “I can smell it from here.”

Lee-yeon’s neck was stiff. She flinched even at his smallest actions. Her body trembled. Lee-yeon was familiar with being cornered like this. She clenched her fists.

She wasn’t going to be swayed by his charm anymore. This time, she decided to act like him. “I can see whoever I want to. I was just trying to have a social life. What about you? Why are you walking around in the rain?”

Lee-yeon glared at him. “You didn’t tell me you were going out, either. What did you do this time?” She could feel a vein throbbing in her neck with the stress.

“I went to get my ID,” he said indifferently.

She froze. Her eyes widened.

“You seem surprised, Lee-yeon,” he said.

“Well, that’s because…”

The two of them glared at each other in the rain, getting even more drenched. Lee-yeon didn’t know what he was thinking.

“I’m just not enough for you, am I?”

“What?”

“I will never be enough for you. So, you went to meet other men behind my back?” His voice was sharp and threatening. “Is it because I am not pleasuring you? You sometimes forget I am your husband. Do you really expect me to open you up by force when you aren’t ready?”

She looked at him, stunned. Her whole body froze. Kwon Chae-woo frowned and sighed. He placed his head on her shoulder in defeat.

“Am I that much of a monster? You really can’t separate the present me from you’re the past version of me who was your husband, huh?” He looked at her pleadingly. “Isn’t that too much? Do you really enjoy making me go crazy like this?”

Lee-yeon flinched at his gaze. He laughed at her reaction. “I know that I was a monster in the past. The Kwon Chae-woo you are trying so desperately to hide from existence. To make me into a new person but what lies have you been telling me?”

Lee-yeon couldn’t even breathe at his words.  “What do you mean…?” Did he finally remember something? Does he remember what he was doing that night? Lee-yeon fretted.

“Let’s just stop beating around the bush,” he said suddenly. “I know you hate me, Lee-yeon.”

“What?” she stammered.

“You think I don’t know that?”

Lee-yeon couldn’t think straight.

“I understand. I know you want to get rid of a person like me who might have hit his wife and has no means to support his family.”

“What are you even saying… hit your wife?!” Lee-yeon blinked.