Chapter 4
“HOW CAN HE DO THIS TO ME!” I yelled while I walked up the stairs. There was no elevator in the villa, and this made me even angrier since I needed to walk to the fourth floor. I got madder and madder at her for creating this mess. How can she flirt with him? How can my nice brother treat me like this!
I sighed like a fire breathing dragon as I arrived in front of her home. It felt like JiKyung’s voice was still ringing in my ears.
“My life has been with you for the last 28 years. If I must choose, I’d rather be with her for the next 28 years,” he had said.
My brother made a stupid choice like that because of you! I angrily stared at the door, thinking about Na AhJung behind it. Suddenly, the door opened and someone came out.
“Oh my god!” The middle-aged woman who walked out of the door looked at me with surprise.
“Is Na AhJung living here?” I asked.
“Have you come here to meet her?” asked the woman.
“Yes. I have something for her. Is she here?”
She examined me, looking unsure, but then a look of realization crossed her face.
“Ah! Are you the one who was at the parent meeting? Sah-Don?”
Once she said that, I remembered her face from the meeting, too. She was the one sitting next to AhJung. This must be her step-mom.
“Not exactly. I’m the one you saw at the meeting, but not Sah-Don,” I said.
“Huh?”
“I have something for Na AhJung. Can you get her if she is in there?”
The woman turned back to check.
“She’s still sleeping,” she said and turned back to me.
“Wake her up, then.”
My demand was very simple but the look on her face told me she didn’t want to do that.
“Um... I’m about to leave now, so you go in to wake her up, Sah-Don. I’m too busy right now. You guys have a good time, see you later,” she said, then left.
Why is she dreaming so big? Who is Sah-Don? Is she crazy? I was more irritated by being called Sah-Don than by her walking away from me in the middle of a conversation, but before I could complain to her, she had already left.
I peeked inside through the gap between the doors. There was a living room that was smaller than my bedroom. I spotted something on the floor, which made me so curious that I ended up going in. I took a couple of steps and was already in the room. There in front of me was AhJung, sleeping on the floor like a homeless person.
Looking at the living room that seemed to be full with just one girl with a blanket, I became speechless. Looking around, there were only three rooms and one of them was the restroom.
Her parents, step-brother and step-sister lived there and since there were only two rooms...was the living room her bedroom then? I looked down at her, shocked by my realization. AhJung had wrapped her feet with a towel and was sleeping like a shrimp.
Why is she sleeping so poorly? What is that on her feet? I was so taken aback that I just set her backpack down on the floor and pushed it towards her with my foot.
“Sorry,” I whispered, unwillingly. There. I had apologized. I could now return home with my mission completed. When I was about to move, the phone in her backpack rang loudly.
* * *
Na AhJung
The sudden sound of a phone ringing woke me up, and I reached out in the direction of my ringtone. After I found my backpack with closed eyes, I fumbled for the phone and put it to my ear.
[Hello?]
“Yeah... JiKyung?”
I was too lazy to open my eyes, but I recognized his voice.
[Is this AhJung? Did you meet my brother?]
“Your brother...yes, he’s such a lunatic!” As I remembered what had happened the day before, I suddenly raised my voice. Even though I’d wrapped my feet with a cold, water-soaked towel, they still ached.
[I’m sorry. I didn’t know he was that crazy.]
“Do you think it makes sense you didn’t know?” I get up and reply with attitude. “If he’s that crazy, he’s definitely antisocial. He’s a crazy, insane, lunatic. I barely know him and I realized this, how could you not know?”
[Didn’t he apologize?]
“Yeah, right”
[Did he just give you the phone and leave?]
“Give me...the phone?”
Something was not right.
“Wait, my phone...how can it be here? Last night, I left it there. Why is it here now?”
I opened my half-closed eyes and scratched the back of my head. There was an answer, but it didn’t come from the phone, it came from behind me.
“Because that lunatic is behind you.”
I opened my eyes all the way and whirled around. JiHan came into my sight, looking down at me with crossed arms. I got goosebumps as if I had just seen a ghost. I pulled the blanket around me and hid inside it. JiHan’s voice came from outside the blanket.
“I came here to return your phone and apologize, but instead I get called a lunatic?” His tone made it seem like I was the absurd one.
[Hello? AhJung? What happened?]
The phone, which shone like the only candle in a dark cave, delivered JiKyung’s voice. I tried to ask for help through the phone.
“JiKyung, the truth is...”
As soon as I opened my mouth, my blanket was ripped off of me. My hunched body was revealed like a peeled pea.
“Whoa! Hey, please!” I exclaimed.
I started to form an excuse, but JiHan took my phone out of my hand and spoke into it.
“Brother, did you hear? She called me a lunatic! You heard that!”
My red feet still hurt but I toughed out the pain and stood up in an attempt to get my phone back.
JiHan gave me a cold stare. I stepped back, frightened. It sounded like JiKyung said something over the phone.
“What’s going on? I apologized as you told me, and I get called a crazy, insane, lunatic!”
“Um... that...that’s...” I stammered.
Ignoring my voice, JiHan focused on the voice over the phone. After JiKyung spoke again, JiHan looked off into the distance, anger on his face.
“Why am I supposed to take that? When she’s talking sh*t behind my back! How can you get married to a girl like this? Brother, how can you get married to a girl who talks sh*t about me? You can’t, right?”
JiHan gave me a cold stare once again, and exhaled so strongly his shoulders moved.
Why is he so mad about this? Did I say something crazy? Doesn’t he care about what he did?
I bit my bottom lip and made a fist. I looked at JiHan’s face with bravery, but I was still too scared to say anything out loud, so I said it in my head.
I’ve got something to say...me too! Yesterday I was... because of you...!
Before I was done talking to myself, JiKyung’s voice spoke again from the phone. I couldn’t hear it clearly, but I noticed JiHan’s face change. He looked like he’d just lost everything.
“How...how dare you do that to me...how can you be on her side?”
JiHan frightened me like a tiger, but hearing the sadness in his voice made me sympathetic. His brother’s one statement broke his heart. I felt so sorry for him that I put my head down.
What should I do... what should I do... Why does it feel I did something wrong? I don’t know if I did anything wrong. I kept my head down and started biting my nails. A moment later, JiHan threw my phone away. When I picked it up, he had already walked out of the door. His silhouette looked so defeated that I chased after him.
* * *
I barely caught him outside the villa since I was still barefoot. I stood in front of him, out of breath, babbling unorganized words.
“I...I didn’t intentionally do that... I didn’t know you were there...I just talked....I didn’t know... you were listening...” I finally managed to collect my words. “I didn’t know you were here. I literally didn’t know.”
JiHan looked away as if he didn’t even want to make eye contact with me.
“Even if you didn’t know, does that resolve everything?” he asked.
“No, I shouldn’t have said anything. I’m sorry,” I said.
My guilt made me keep talking. “I don’t know what JiKyung said but don’t take it too seriously. He probably–”
“Hey, if you are going to act shamelessly, at least have some sense! Do you think I want to talk to you now?” JiHan said, glaring at me.
I stepped back reflexively, but noticed something unusual. On his scowling face I spotted...a tear? This guy is crying! I would be less surprised if I saw a statue crying.
“Hey, are you crying?” I asked. “Why? What did he say?”
I didn’t know what to do. I paced back and forth, then I touched his sleeve. He shook me off violently.
“It’s because of you!” he yelled.
He looked at me with eyes full of wrath and tears.
“I’m not going to approve of this marriage until I die!”
JiHan turned back and ran away, too quickly to chase, drying his tears with his sleeve.
* * *
I called JiKyung back as soon as I came home.
“What did you tell him?” I asked.
[I said being called a lunatic is not a big deal. I don’t want to cancel the wedding just because of that. Everybody talks sh*t and considering what he did, it was justified. You were just so frustrated. I said he had to understand you.]
“Is that all?”
[That’s all.]
“You didn’t curse at all?”
[Why would I do that.]
“That’s all you said and he’s acting like this?”
[Why? What did he do?]
“He was crying!”
[What?]
“He cried! That’s why I thought you said something harsh. I was surprised.”
I felt sorry because I could still picture JiHan crying in front of me. If I had hurt him, I felt it was my responsibility to help him.
[It’s not because I was harsh but because I was on your side instead of his. This shocked him. It seems you are more important to me than him. He feels he’s now less important than you. You are taking precedence over him and it feels like he’s a nuisance now.]
It’s because of me taking his older brother from him. Technically, I am the responsible one...
“If you know that much, why wouldn’t you be on his side? I’m in his doghouse.”
[I can’t be on his side against you, he wants me to cancel the marriage. How can I do that?]
“That’s true but...”
[I don’t feel comfortable either. Why won’t he back off at all? Why doesn’t he just embrace this and feel happy about it?]
I heard him sigh over the phone. I sighed as well because I felt for him. I had an idea, so I shared it with JiKyung.
“If I tried my best, would he embrace me?”
JiKyung sighed more deeply. [It’s not about what you do]
“Why?”
[I’m sorry for talking like this, but the reason he doesn’t like you is your financial situation. These things are not changeable. You can’t make enough money to make your whole family rich, nor can you become a famous actress right away. And–]
His calm voice pointing out why I’m not the one makes me yell at him.
“Why didn’t you meet the right girl! Why did you ask me to marry you! Why!”
[That kind of a girl wouldn’t want this kind of marriage.]
“These brothers both f*ck me up! I wouldn’t have married you either if it wasn’t about money!”
[Sorry, Sorry. I just mean you don’t have to do anything unnecessarily. He won’t embrace you anyway.]
“No. He will. Maybe he’s actually a nice guy who realizes what’s more important and will like me more than you do.”
I was so mad that I started saying crazy things. I knew everything I was saying was bullsh*t. After I heard him laugh out loud though, I felt the urge to take on the challenge.
“Hey look. I’m going to receive his approval!”
JiKyung didn’t stop laughing at my statement, instead he laughed harder.