Chapter 13

“It’s the only one that never talks back to a thing I say.”

She had misread Jun-hyeok’s reaction. Embarrassed, Seo-ha stroked the back of Dodam, who stood at her side, just to give her hand something to do.

Han Jun-hyeok’s words, ‘the only one on my side’, felt as though they would stay with her a long while. They did, right up until she heard what he said next.

“So, will my future wife be completely on my side?”

His face came close enough that his breath touched her cheek. Seo-ha flinched, then asked her question slowly, wondering as she did whether her own breath would reach him too if she spoke.

“You have the only one on your side, but it seems you don’t have a perfect one yet.”
“Sadly, no human one.”

The answer came back in under a tenth of a second, and Seo-ha very nearly laughed in spite of herself. She had found something in common with Han Jun-hyeok, a man as unlike her as anyone could be.

“Actually, I’m the same.”
“That one thing’s good, then.”

Jun-hyeok drew his face back. Strangely, Seo-ha felt a pang of regret to see it go, and she licked her lips.

“What is?”
“We’re two of a kind, so it’d be nice if we at least took each other’s side.”

Seo-ha nodded quietly, thinking that when it came to words, she could hardly keep pace with him.

“All right. If that’s what you want, I’ll do that for you too.”
“What kind of kid says she’ll do anything the moment she’s asked? Keep that up and you’ll be shaken down for your liver, your gallbladder, your soul and all. I happen to be fairly greedy.”
“Isn’t getting along better than biting and tearing and fighting?”
“True enough. People to bite and tear at are lying around everywhere, in sickening numbers.”

Someone must have crossed his mind, because Jun-hyeok let out a hollow breath and pressed his large hand lightly down on the crown of Seo-ha’s head. The sudden touch startled her into biting her lower lip.

“Drop that childish habit, too. We’ll be married soon, you know.”

Jun-hyeok’s long fingers touched her lips. The hand that freed her bitten lip felt unusually cold, or perhaps her own lips had simply flushed hot.

Seo-ha licked her lips again and spoke slowly, afraid that if her words sped up, he would catch every last bit of how shaken she was. Reason warned her to be wary of Han Jun-hyeok, while her heart kept surging the other way entirely. It might only be her imagination, she told herself, yet the feeling of his gaze on her made her lower her head.

“I feel like I keep saying this over and over. I’m already an adult.”
“Getting a few years older doesn’t make you an adult.”

The remark seemed to carry more than it said. Seo-ha was still turning it over when another member of the medical staff came up to Jun-hyeok.

“You’re Karon’s owner, aren’t you? He should be able to go home in about a week. The vitals are stable now, too.”
“Ah, thank you.”

Before Seo-ha could puzzle out what he had meant earlier, his tone had turned businesslike again. The staff member answered kindly.

“Not at all. We’ll be taking good care of him, so go home and rest. If anything comes up we’ll contact you right away.”
“Yes. I’ll leave him in your hands.”

When she heard him finally let out a breath of relief, the tightness in her own chest eased a little. Struck by the thought that she had intruded here without meaning to, she carefully said her goodbyes.

“They say it’s all right, so don’t worry. Go on home. I can get back on my own with Dodam. Or I could call someone, so…”

Jun-hyeok cut her off before she had even finished.

“Get back where, exactly.”

Something must have rubbed him the wrong way again, because he answered flatly and abruptly took her hand. His touch no longer felt awkward to her, and that flustered Seo-ha. He was the first person she had ever gotten used to this quickly, and the guard she had resolved on again and again kept coming apart.

“You said we’d register the marriage.”
“Right now…?”

At her bewildered question, Jun-hyeok pressed her again.

“I thought it was odd, all those excuses about Karon and everything else. You were planning to slip away, weren’t you?”

The skin below Seo-ha’s ears went hot in an instant, and she shook her head hard.

“No, I wasn’t. It’s just that the traffic is bad, and it’ll be the end of office hours soon, so…”
“If that’s all, there’s no problem. It’s Thursday.”

What on earth did the government offices closing have to do with today being Thursday? Seo-ha could not follow him at all. She was still looking bewildered when he explained, offhand.

“It’s the day the evening civil-service desk runs until eight.”
“Ah…”

Seo-ha had never once gone to a government office on her own, so she had no way of knowing that. A thoroughness that left nothing out startled her, and her small lips parted slightly. Her chatter must have done some good after all, because the worry over Karon had thinned a little from his voice.

“Let’s go. Time to put our seal on it.”

Instead of answering, Seo-ha quietly curled her fingertips into her palm. She did not want Han Jun-hyeok to see that this was a moment she had agonized over and waited a long time for.

Her hunch had been right after all. She would probably not be going back today to the house where Cha Mi-yeon was.

The district office was so crowded with people there on business that cars were backed up all the way from the entrance.

While everyone else ran far ahead in what they knew, Seo-ha felt as if she alone kept standing in the same spot, and it made her needlessly sad. The past few years of quietly holding her breath while she watched for her chance felt as though they had turned her into a slowpoke turtle.

Filling in the marriage registration form and submitting it with the required documents was so easy it felt anticlimactic.

“Is that everything?”
“Congratulations on becoming a married woman.”

She had never once imagined that label attaching itself to her, and Seo-ha’s face stiffened awkwardly. Not knowing what to say, she only worked her dry lips until at last she managed to put a single sentence together.

“Congratulations on becoming a married man…”

After all that hesitating, she had only handed his own words straight back. He gave an incredulous laugh and passed her a square panel.

“…What is this?”
“Hold on to it properly. And keep your eyes at two o’clock.”

Doubtful, Seo-ha lifted the square panel as he told her to. Just then Jun-hyeok whispered low against her ear, and when his hot breath met her sensitive skin without warning, she drew her neck in like a turtle, ticklish.

“Anyone looking would think you were being sold off. Smile.”

The hand on her shoulder pressed lightly, drawing Seo-ha closer against his chest. She seemed to be the only one rattled by such casual contact, which was embarrassing.

“Right then. Say cheese.”

At his word, Seo-ha reflexively lifted the corners of her mouth. A phone camera’s shutter sounded once, then again.

“That came out well.”

He sounded pleased with the photo. Once again, Seo-ha alone found the whole situation stifling.

“What is this thing, anyway?”

Jun-hyeok took the panel from her and asked slyly.

“Curious?”
“Yes.”
“It’s a secret.”

For a moment a shrill sound almost escaped Seo-ha. Being teased was fine once or twice, but she was the only one who didn’t know what was going on, and it was driving her up the wall. She had never wanted so badly to see what was right in front of her.

Seeing her cheeks go red and blotchy, Jun-hyeok put something else into her hands.

“This one’s a wedding present.”

It was something long and flat, like an artist’s carrying tube, along with a single folded card. At the thought that he might really have prepared it himself, her heart gave a pointless thud. But the flutter didn’t last even a few seconds.

“The district office was handing them out. Give it here, I’ll read it to you.”

Jun-hyeok drew the card out of her hand. She had not been expecting anything, yet his unruffled tone stung her with disappointment and embarrassment.

Whether or not he sensed how she felt, Jun-hyeok read it out in a deep, resonant voice.

“You, who have begun a new life under the name of husband and wife. May the married life you build be happier than anyone else’s.”

Jun-hyeok stayed composed, but hearing them left one corner of Seo-ha’s heart uneasy, because phrases like ‘husband and wife’ and ‘happy marriage’ grated on her for no good reason.

“What’s in the tube is a Taegeukgi, it says.¹”
“…It’s a meaningful present, in its own way.”
“Fly it next National Liberation Day.²”

Next summer.

She could not be sure she would still be at this man’s side by then, but Seo-ha nodded as if it were nothing.

“All right.”

As though getting that done had lifted a weight off his chest, Jun-hyeok took her hand again.

“Now let’s go and put down the last seal we agreed on.”

Han Jun-hyeok was just like the horn of a rhinoceros³, going forward exactly as he pleased, swayed by no situation at all.

“What? Another seal? Where? On what…?”

As he sent Seo-ha and Dodam on ahead of him, he added one more thing.

“The contract I told you about.”

Surely it couldn’t already be finished?