CH 81

A moonless dawn. Someone staggered across the backyard.

The figure dragged itself as though it couldn’t walk properly. It was Lee-yeon who had come out secretly after Kwon Chae-woo had drifted off to sleep.

Someone had said it right, at the end of pleasure was only pain. She felt all the muscles in her body ache. Her lower place hurt a lot. It felt strange as though he was still inside her.

She still remembered his eyes, his moans, his skin against hers… If she let her guard down even for a few seconds, her mind drifted off to that moment.

“Phew….” She sat on the wooden stool and sighed. I made a mistake. A huge one…

Lee-yeon rubbed her face. She felt tired. Kwon Chae-woo was still in her mind but it didn’t make her happy. She felt like she could never be happy. It felt like she had dug her own grave this time.

Lee-yeon stared at her phone and scowled at the name that popped up. Kwon Ki-seok.

He picked up the phone on the first ring. He always did when she called.

She was enraged. He was the one behind this mess. She understood why Choo-ja had smacked her on her back when she found out that she had slept with Kwon Chae-woo.

Choo-ja was worried that this would get more complicated if emotions were involved. She took a deep breath.

“Kwon Chae-woo, please promise me something. Never…ahh… get your memory back. Never.”

“Then I won’t.”

Lee-yeon closed her eyes and sighed. Then she opened it again with a twisted determination settling in her heart. She had a white handkerchief in her hand.

When she unfolded it, there was a thin gray string nestled there. She had hidden it two years ago. Kwon Chae-woo’s string.

He had attacked her with this string in the forest that day. He had wrapped it around her neck and had almost killed her.

Is it used in some kind of a factory? It’s thin like an aluminum string, but hard and elastic…

Lee-yeon turned on the lighter and set fire to the string. I will do the same. I will never remember that day again…

Her heart pounded as though she was doing something wrong. Kwon Chae-woo was sometimes rough but he was nice to her. He couldn’t even wake up if she wasn’t by his side. He worried about being abandoned by her. All of it held her together and strengthened her resolve.

She threw the burning string on the ground and covered it with dirt. That night she let go of everything…

***

“Lee-yeon, it’s time to wake up,” said a gentle voice.

But she was too tired. She snuggled deeper into her blanket. She smelled coffee. A rough but gentle hand brushed her hair back from her face.

She opened her eyes with difficulty to see a tray with coffee and sandwich. Along with the man who had made them for her.

“Did you sleep well?” He smiled radiantly.

“Uh…”

The sunlight seeped through the curtains and brightened the room. After a pause, Lee-yeon’s face turned red.

She was embarrassed to see him. Lee-yeon pulled the blanket all the way up and hid inside it. Kwon Chae-woo didn’t like that she was trying to avoid the whole situation, but he understood that it was only natural.

According to Choo-ja, the first experience for a woman is 80% hype. She would always say that men would come at you as though they could do something amazing, but it ended up being nothing much. But Lee-yeon knew better. She had almost blacked out.

Choo-ja, it was me who offered nothing in return! When Lee-yeon woke up, she saw that everything had changed. She had been cleaned and dressed in fresh new pajamas. Her ripped clothes were nowhere in sight. The stained bedsheet was gone too. The room looked clean. It looked like nothing had happened here last night.

Lee-yeon looked around in confusion. She wondered if she had imagined it but the throbbing pain between her legs said otherwise.

When she realized that he had cleaned everything, including her, she blushed.

“Lee-yeon.” He pulled the blanket away. Messy hair covered her eyes. He leaned over to her.

“Thank you very much for yesterday!” she blurted out. “I appreciate your hospitality.”

He laughed. “This feels weird,” he said, looking at her in amusement. “I feel like you will have me a couple of bucks to use it for the taxi to go home.”

“What?”

“Do you really want to say that after what we did yesterday, Lee-yeon?”

“Ah. No…”

“I might have surprised you more than expected. I guess I went harder on you because you wouldn’t even touch me a little.” He smirked. “But I am glad you appreciate my ‘hospitality’.”

Lee-yeon opened her mouth to retort but Kwon Chae-woo changed the subject. “Does it hurt anywhere?” he asked.

“Well, the way you manhandled me last night, what do you think?” She didn’t want to be nice to the man who was teasing her early in the morning.

Kwon Chae-woo bit on his lips to hold back his laughter. “I wanted to talk to you about something.”

“What is it?” she asked.

“The way you lied yesterday.”

Lee-yeon lowered her head in shame. It was not good for a legally married woman to see other men behind her husband’s back. Although she wasn’t married to him for real, she still felt guilty. She felt like her parents had cheated on their spouses. She felt ashamed.

“I am going to tell you this again,” said Kwon Chae-woo. “It doesn’t matter what you do. You won’t be able to rip me off with those tiny hands.”

He was about to touch her hair when she flinched. Lee-yeon covered her face with her hands. She felt suffocated.

“Lee-yeon,” he called her name gently.

“It was all my fault,” she mumbled. Her voice trembled. Kwon Chae-woo looked at her.

“I really wasn’t planning on it. I wasn’t seeing other men in the way you think. I was just… curious. I wanted to see how other men were different from you. Whether my heart pounded for them like the way it does for you. I just wanted to check.”

“…”

“Because I really…”

Lee-yeon couldn’t utter the words. Kwon Chae-woo stared at her. She didn’t remove her hands from her face.

“I just… you are so scary. I am afraid of you when I think about the kind of person you used to be. When you said you would be my dog, it was a little better to be with you. I always looked at you while you slept…”

Kwon Chae-woo raised his eyebrows when he heard this. “It’s the first time I feel so annoyed with someone,” she continued in a soft voice. “Everyday feels annoying because of you.”

“What do you mean?” he asked. And why are you blushing? Your ears are turning red…