The Blind Date

Once the storm of the fight had blown over, Seon-sim followed the still-seething Jin-sang into the master bedroom and shouted at him as he hunted for a cigarette to clamp between his lips.

“Why did you throw a spoon at her face? Don’t you know the wedding is only two weeks away?”

“Didn’t you hear what that bitch said? Doesn’t it make your blood boil? Or doesn’t it?”

Jin-sang snapped irritably at Seon-sim for failing to grasp how he felt.

“Who said you couldn’t hit her? Of all the places, why the face? They’re already not happy with her over there—do you have to go and create flaws that weren’t even there? Who wants a defective product!”

Seon-sim was equally terrified the marriage might collapse; the thought alone was drying up her blood.

There must be no situation in which they would have to cough up the hundred million won Jae-mun had handed over for wedding preparations.

They had already spent every last bit of it, after all.

Of course that was not the only reason.

As Jin-sang said, how had this marriage even come about? It was only possible because Jae-mun liked Hye-won.

From a family living on monthly rent to becoming in-laws with a chaebol—this was the once-in-a-lifetime chance to end this squalid, gutter-like existence, an opportunity that would never come again.

After Jin-sang’s business failed, Seon-sim had cut off contact with every elementary, middle, and high-school classmate. Only recently had she made a glamorous comeback at a reunion.

She had casually rejoined the gathering by sharing the news that Hye-won was marrying into a chaebol family.

Really? The man who’s going to be your son-in-law is a chaebol heir? Who is it?

Just the name and everyone knows the house! Once the wedding’s over you won’t be able to stay ignorant even if you want to. The whole country will be buzzing.

So it really is a chaebol son. Looking at how private it is. I’m so jealous! You never know how a person’s life will turn out! Lucky you! You’re going to have to treat us properly, right?

Just one treat? Next reunion spot is mine. I’ll rent out an entire hotel buffet.

Wow! Amazing! That’s our No Seon-sim—always knew she was the flashy type!

Their gazes, sliding past envy straight into jealousy, instantly resurrected the self-esteem that had been crushed into the dirt.

Who would have thought that a life which seemed destined to end in misery still had a moment this thrilling waiting for her.

Whatever relationship Jae-mun might have with some bar girl no longer mattered.

What mattered was that she could finally live like a human being again, that No Seon-sim’s life was not going to end like this.

That alone was reason enough for this marriage to succeed no matter what.

Hye-won had left the house without a plan and wandered the neighborhood for a long time.

She simply could not bring herself to go back inside.

She was passing the noisy front of the corner store after walking down an alley lined with long stretches of streetlight when the owner spoke.

“Why’s your forehead like that again?”

Grandma Jeom-sun, wiping down the low table set out on the wooden platform with a dishcloth, had spotted the wound.

“I bumped into something.”

Hye-won pretended to scratch her forehead so she could cover the mark with her hand, but she could not fool Jeom-sun’s eyes.

“Your father’s doing again?”

“No.”

“What do you mean, no! Let me see.”

Jeom-sun pulled Hye-won’s hand down and examined the forehead. She frowned as if the spoon-shaped mark itself was painful to look at.

“That damn bastard! That son of a bitch! Living off his own child and he still lays hands on her? Those bastards deserve to die! Heaven will punish them! Better off without them!”

Cursing a blue streak, she disappeared into the store and came back out with ointment and bandages.

“I can put the bandage on at home.”

“Just stay still.”

At Jeom-sun’s insistence Hye-won stood quietly and offered her forehead.

“Why do you just take it like an idiot? Father or not, if he hits you, hit him right back!”

Jeom-sun mimed a headbutt into empty air, and Hye-won burst out laughing.

“You’re laughing now? You’re so soft that’s why you keep getting hit. That’s no father. Just run away. Don’t get caught like last time—go all the way abroad!”

Apparently she had never heard that Hye-won had been caught at the airport; Jeom-sun stressed the word “abroad” several times.

“Have you eaten?”

“I have.”

“Sit. I’ll bring you a bowl of dried-radish-greens soup.”

“I really did eat dinner.”

Hye-won declined again and again, but Jeom-sun knew perfectly well it was only a polite lie to avoid imposing. She hurried back inside the store.

Left alone on the platform, Hye-won lifted her face.

“Haa.”

A white puff of breath scattered into the air. The cool night air that filled her lungs to their depths only made her chest feel emptier.

Far away, stars floated above the mountain ridge.

It looked exactly like the night sky she used to watch while waiting for her high-school brother to come home from school.

“Oppa.”

The black night, the tiny stars—everything was the same as before. Only her brother was gone.

To a girl who had always been especially fearful, her brother had been her entire world.

He had promised to protect her for life, to stay by her side forever, and then he had become a star.

The days of walking home nestled against his broad back now lived only in distant memory.

It was a night when she missed him with a physical ache.

Whenever she felt abandoned alone in the world the way she did today, thoughts of him rose even stronger.

A teardrop fell with a soft plop.

Just as she brushed the tears away with her fingertips, hating the way her heart was weakening, her phone rang. It was Chae-na.

According to Chae-na, Do-heon was the son of Kangho Group. Kangho had started as a small food business and was now one of Korea’s top ten conglomerates.

Rumor said teaching had been his dream, but his father’s opposition had been so fierce they compromised on two years in the classroom; the first school he was assigned to had been Hye-won’s high school. True to the agreement, he entered Kangho Group after those two years, and according to the family tradition that required marriage before the age of thirty-three, he was now going on blind dates.

“Chae-na… maybe… could I go on that blind date instead?”

“You? On a blind date?”

Do-heon climbed to the second floor and set his suitcase down inside the room.

The space was so free of dust and so meticulously ordered that the full year of his absence was almost impossible to feel.

The desk clock, the lamp, even the pencil holder sat exactly where they had before he left for America.

The only change was the curtains, perhaps.

Beige had become blue-green.

Had her tastes shifted in the meantime?

Or had the tastes of the shaman Ho-yeon visited every three days simply changed?

Ho-yeon would drink lye if a shaman told her to.

The thought that bright-red talismans were probably hidden all over this room again drew a quiet snort of laughter from him.

“Haa.”

He tossed his jacket onto the suitcase and was carelessly loosening his tie when a knock sounded and Ho-yeon’s voice asked if she could come in.

“Tired?”

Ho-yeon entered carrying a bowl of warmed herbal medicine.

“A little.”

Her expression said she had something to discuss.

Certain the conversation would drag on, Do-heon made no effort to hide how exhausted he looked.

“Drink this and sleep. Your father personally asked Dr. Oh to prepare it.”