The Unbreakable Word
Now that I think about it, Mother hasn’t changed at all. If you stay in this house any longer, you’ll be punished for the tattoo removal multiple times over. I can’t bear to watch that. We should just stop this.
But “stop this” was a line she would not accept. Jaye quickly grabbed Seonwu’s arm.
“Even so, I can’t leave like this. I can’t end it here.”
Thinking only of herself, it didn’t matter whether she left now or waited for the contract to end in a month. But if she fought with Okhyeon and walked out the door, the shaman grandmother’s revenge would follow, and the mother who lived with her would be in trouble. Besides, she had discovered that Seonwu had helped erase the tattoo, and no one in this house could breathe easy with him.
The mother would torment Seonwu in any way she could until the Samjae ended. But Seonwu seemed not to hear a word she said.
“I have an apartment I bought. You’ll stay there for now. I’ll send the divorce papers in a few days so you can prepare.”
“It’s not because there’s nowhere to live that I’m refusing to leave. What I meant to say is—”
“I never thought of kicking you out naked. I’ll give you enough compensation to take your mother out of the hermitage, so don’t worry.”
She had worried about tuition money after the divorce, but she had never planned to take compensation from him just to end it. She had never even allowed herself to fall in love with him for the five billion won, let alone receive his money.
Her real concern was Seonwu left behind in this house, and one more month of Samjae meant his safety.
“If I leave like this, Mother will have a breakdown and collapse, and Director will suffer every day. Please, for Mother’s sake, just—”
Jaye tried every way she could to soften his heart, but Seonwu cut her off coldly.
“I won’t say it twice. The contract is over.”
He had already made up his mind.
Since he collected his words, he was taking Jaye out the door exactly as he had warned his mother.
“Director…”
“Jaye, don’t live under this kind of treatment here. Step outside and live like a human being.”
The words like a human being brought tears to Jaye’s eyes.
She had lived as a slave to Yonghwa Bodhisattva for years, and Seonwu was the first person to treat her like a real human.
She forced her eyes to stay dry and pulled the suitcase out of the dresser again, putting her things back inside.
“Shin Jaye, what are you doing?”
Seonwu stared at her in disbelief as she filled the drawer with clothes.
“You said you couldn’t leave.”
“If you stay in this house, you’ll be treated worse than an object. You shouldn’t be here under such treatment—”
“I know! I know it!”
She knew, but there was still something she wanted to protect for him.
It wasn’t love she wanted to keep intact. What she wanted to protect was Jeong Seonwu.
Once Yonghwa Bodhisattva discovered the truth about the Samduiljogungbo tattoo, her ability to foresee the future terrified her even more.
Samjae is coming. The bad things will be even more fierce just before they are erased.
Plus, the shaman grandmother said another greater disaster would fall right at the end of Samjae.
Just in case, she needed to stay beside Seonwu until his Samjae ended.
“I’ll be here for the remaining month.”
“How can you say that after seeing Mother? What kind of treatment do you want me to give you?”
“Mother is still here. I just want Director to be safe…”
She didn’t believe in shamanism, but once she had a precious person, her heart changed.
If she could stay and protect him from even one danger, enduring the object treatment for a month was worth it.
She knew Yonghwa Bodhisattva was using that thought, yet she trembled anyway.
“I’ll handle my own safety. If I was going to die from Samjae, I wouldn’t have lived this long. How many times have I faced it every nine years?”
“Still, it scares me. I’m scared Director might get hurt.”
“Why are you scared?”
Her lip was split from the blow she had taken late from Okhyeon, and blood trickled down.
Jaye pressed the back of her hand to the cut and looked at him.
“When I saw her today, the shaman grandmother already knew I erased the Samduiljogungbo tattoo… I was terrified it might bring one of the disasters she mentioned down on Director within a month.”
“Your face is swollen. There’s no reason to keep treating yourself like trash like this.”
Seonwu snatched the clothes from Jaye’s hands.
“I’ll handle my own business.”
“I like you. I like you so much! That’s why I’m scared you’ll get hurt. That’s why—”
Just as she tried to put the words back in the suitcase, Jaye let the truth slip out.
The shirt in her hands fell to the floor instead of the suitcase.
“I don’t understand what you’re saying right now.”
Jaye stared at the shirt he had dropped, stunned.
She knew he saw her as a woman.
The look in his eyes was not love but pity. The things he gave her were not kindness but small acts of mercy. She knew all of that.
That was why she had planned to divorce him coldly the moment Samjae ended.
Jaye lowered her head to hide her shaking eyes and picked up the shirt he had dropped.
What she wanted was something graceful, something that didn’t cling. One careless sentence had turned all her efforts to hide her feelings into nothing.
“I’m not asking you to like me separately. I won’t cling to you or make things difficult even if the divorce doesn’t happen.”
She wanted to erase the image of a woman who clung to him right now. Jaye forced a trembling voice and tried to explain.
“My feelings for Director have nothing to do with staying here.”
She didn’t want him to see her as a woman who begged for love.
At least that was the only way she could keep her dignity as a person.
“Lucky me. If you said you couldn’t leave because you liked me, I would have been heartbroken too. But since it’s not that, it’s better this way—for your sake.”
“All I want is for Director to be safe. I won’t cling or make trouble after the contract ends. Just… keep me here until Samjae passes.”
“There’s no need to say that now. You don’t believe in Yonghwa the shaman either.”
Jaye looked up at Seonwu, who was trying to send her away.
Even though it was unrequited love, she wanted to leave him with a good image of herself.
She didn’t want to put any burden on his shoulders.
But now she saw that if he had felt no burden, he would have sent her away long ago.
He had come this far only because of responsibility.
Jaye bit her dry lips.
She had no other way to hold him back without emotional manipulation or clinging.
After Samjae ended, they could part and never see each other again.
But not now.
If they broke up and the shaman grandmother’s words came true—if something big happened to him—then not clinging to him in this moment would haunt her forever.
“Anyway, I’m not leaving.”
“Did you not hear Mother say she’d re-tattoo you? Do you want to be treated like that?”
“I’ve never lived alone, so it scares me!”
Seonwu had always been a responsible man. Jaye decided to cling to that responsibility.
“What?”
“I’ve never lived alone, so I’m scared of apartments or anywhere.”
It was a lie. After the divorce, she had already planned to rent a one-room and calculate every monthly living expense.
If he knew, Seonwu would send her away without a second thought.
And she really didn’t want to leave him that quickly.
Only about a month remained on the contract. Even if it was expected to end in a month, she wanted to stay beside him just for that month, before they became strangers again.
Seonwu stared at her with a stunned face.
“Yeah… that could be.”
“Huh?”
“You’re still young. Of course independence would scare you. You just didn’t think about it.”
Fortunately, he believed her.
Because he had always treated her like a child, he fell for that one word and felt sorry for her.
“Even so, I can’t leave you with Mother. She already knows I erased the tattoo, so she’ll make things even harder for you.”
“I’m fine.”
“No, I’m not fine. I can’t always be beside you. And while I’m gone, Mother might call Yonghwa the shaman again and re-tattoo your back.”
Concern filled Seonwu’s face as he looked at Jaye.
“Then let’s do this.”
“How…?”
“I’ll stay with you until you get used to apartment life.”
“You will?”
“I was going to give you the apartment after the divorce anyway. Mother wanted me to bring her to Seoul. You’ll need a place to live.”
Knowing he had arranged a place for her and her mother, Jaye stared at him blankly.
She had thought their relationship would end the moment they divorced, but she never imagined he would still be thinking about her future.
“Let’s stay together until you’re used to apartment life.”
Jaye watched his retreating back as he walked away from her dressing room.
Before he left, Seonwu added one last thing.
“Pack your bags. We’re leaving right now.”
All at once, Jaye felt a strange certainty that even after everything ended, her feelings for Seonwu would never fade.
Seonwu carried the suitcase across the courtyard toward the garage. Okhyeon, who wasn’t even wearing shoes, followed behind him.
“You can’t abandon your mother like this! Seonwu, you can’t do that!”
The dignified image vanished. The servants at Unamjae turned their heads and walked away from the son who was cursing his own mother.
Okhyeon tried to snatch the suitcase, but Seonwu tossed everything into the trunk.
“I have no intention of abandoning Mother. Cut off all attachments to gut and talismans, and I’ll come back when that happens.”
“For whose sake is this?!”
Her monthly fortune-telling visits were almost entirely about Seonwu.
Staring at her son’s unblinking face, Okhyeon turned and rushed toward Jaye.
“Jaye, if you go like this, I won’t stand for it. Even through Bodhisattva, I won’t let you leave—”
“Mother!”
Seonwu stepped in front of Jaye and shielded her with his body.
“I’ll forcibly take Jaye away. If you bring her back here, I really won’t be your son anymore.”
Okhyeon’s face turned deathly white at his words.
She was a mother who would give everything for her son.
Before the threat of severing the mother-child bond, Okhyeon trembled like a willow in the wind.
“Y-you say you want to abandon your mother?!”
Seonwu bowed deeply in front of her without changing his expression.
“I’m leaving.”
He carried Jaye to the passenger seat and got into the driver’s side.
Okhyeon ran to the car and pounded on the window, but Seonwu didn’t flinch. The car pulled out of Unamjae and drove away.
“Seonwu! Seonwu!”
Okhyeon called her son’s name in desperation, but the car kept moving and disappeared from Unamjae.