Chapter 15
A few hours earlier, Jisu, who had been tormented under Jaegyeom’s loving touch until dawn, fell asleep as if she had fainted the moment they left Seoul for Gyechon and slept for a full two hours. She only woke when they stopped at a rest area halfway there, filled her stomach lightly with snacks, bought coffee, and set off again.
‘We’ve already come this far. I’m sorry I slept so much. You’re not supposed to sleep in the passenger seat while someone’s driving.’
‘I did something last night, so if I didn’t even let you sleep, wouldn’t I be too bad a guy?’
‘…….’
At the words ‘did something last night,’ the beginning to the end of the previous night passed slowly through Jisu’s mind.
From the entrance, through the bathroom, to the bed—in every space of the small house……. The tender feelings that had been soothed only through messages and phone calls for two weeks lost all self-control the moment they touched each other’s skin and smelled each other’s flesh. The heat from just a few hours ago was so vivid that Jisu couldn’t say a word, her face turning red as a beet, and she only sipped her coffee. Jaegyeom, driving, caught sight of Jisu’s ear turning bright red in his peripheral vision and threw out a joke, ‘Lim Jisu is having dirty thoughts again.’ Jisu couldn’t deny it.
If they went about another hour, they would arrive at Gyechon. The two talked about the holidays each had spent in the meantime.
‘When I was young, I didn’t really know Korean holidays, but after my mom married her boyfriend in the U.S., he said he was curious about Korean traditional culture, so we made songpyeon and ate tteokguk. It was really fun.’
Jaegyeom’s past was naturally divided into his childhood in the U.S. spent with his mother, and his high school days in Korea.
‘After I came to Korea, I spent every holiday alone.’
‘Alone?’
‘It’s only natural that I couldn’t easily blend into my father’s family…… From that household’s perspective, they were being considerate of me in their own way. Since I was born and raised in the U.S., Korean holidays would be unfamiliar, so they told me not to force myself to come and be uncomfortable trying to follow the customs, but to rest comfortably.’
Jisu didn’t ask further. As a third party, it was hard to judge right and wrong, but her heart felt terribly uncomfortable. Was it really consideration? Jaegyeom probably didn’t think it was genuine consideration either.
She felt sorry for Jaegyeom, who must have spent every holiday alone since his mother passed away. And if they arrived at Gyechon like this, Jaegyeom would again spend the five-day holiday alone. That was why. Without even consulting her mother, she had blurted out the invitation.
‘Jaegyeom. My dad passed away when I was in elementary school, you know? It was hard for me too, but my mom suffered terribly. Even when she was doing okay, she’d get depressed whenever it came time for ancestral rites or memorial services. After I entered high school, I think…… Mom and I talked. That the two of us being sad wasn’t what Dad would have wanted. So from then on, we entrusted Dad’s memorial services and ancestral rites to the temple, and holidays became “Oh Hyesuk and Lim Jisu’s recharge time.”‘
Jisu explained briefly. Her mother made various foods to get into the holiday spirit, but it wasn’t for ancestral rites. On the morning of the holiday, the first place she and her mom went to after heading out into downtown Gyeongju was a jjimjilbang. After that, they’d walk around downtown, buy and eat delicious things, go to cafes or bookstores, and if there was a movie they wanted to see, they’d watch it.
‘Yoon Jaegyeom. I’ll specially include you in our mother-daughter recharge this time.’
‘Sounds good. Let’s just change the name to “family course” with the son-in-law included.’
At the sudden ‘son-in-law’ remark, Jisu’s face, which had cooled down, heated up again.
‘W-what son-in-law.’
‘I’m going to your house with you as a son-in-law candidate, aren’t I? I even brought all the empty dishes your mother packed side dishes in last time. And I bought gifts too.’
After visiting her house last time, Jisu hadn’t told her mother anything about breaking up with the person she’d been seeing or whatever. She hadn’t introduced Kim Yeongbaek either, and Jaegyeom hadn’t pretended to be Kim Yeongbaek. Of course, she was dating Jaegyeom, but she didn’t think that was directly connected to marriage. Even counting from the day they first spoke and slept together rather than the day they decided to date, it was still a premature relationship of less than two months. But Jaegyeom’s thoughts were different.
‘As I said before…… My father and stepmother want me to quit life in Gyechon and come up to Seoul, so I think I’ll go up before winter. Once I go up, I want to marry you right away and live together.’
‘Cough!’
She choked at Jaegyeom’s sudden marriage declaration. The Americano she was drinking felt like it was blocking her airway.
‘Jisu. Why are you so surprised? Were you really planning to play with me and throw me away?’
‘What are you talking about!’
‘No, isn’t that the case? On the first day, you tried to sleep at my house and run away. Look now too—when I said I wanted to be your mother’s son-in-law, that I wanted to marry you, you didn’t give a single answer. Anyone would think that. Wow, the generous region, Gyechon’s pride, is being ungenerous and trying to eat me up and run…….’
‘Eat you up and run! Be quiet!’
Far in the distance, a sign reading [Welcome to Gyechon, the generous region] came into view. Jisu organized her complicated thoughts simply. She had been going to marry Kim Yeongbaek anyway, so there was no reason she couldn’t marry Yoon Jaegyeom. This side was much better, in fact. Then there was no reason to refuse, was there.
‘Um, Jaegyeom. Let’s talk about marriage slowly later. It’s not that I don’t want to, it’s that it’s too early. And regardless of the marriage talk, let’s still spend this holiday together. Mom already knows you as a son-in-law candidate anyway…….’
It wasn’t a completely satisfactory answer, but Jaegyeom accepted it reasonably. Then they were discussing dropping Jisu off at home first and Jaegyeom coming back to pick up Jisu and her mother on the morning of Chuseok.
‘If we’re not holding your father’s ancestral rites ourselves…… that recharge time, we can start today, right?’
‘I suppose so?’
Jaegyeom’s stepmother sent him lodging vouchers for Daeyun Hotel, one of Daeyun Group’s affiliates, through the secretary’s office every year around the holidays and summer and winter vacation seasons. It was an indirect way of telling him not to come anywhere near the main house in Pyeongchang-dong. The vouchers he received that way had always been used by Jaegyeom alone. Daeyun Hotels existed all over the country.
There was a Daeyun Hotel in the Gyeongju tourist complex as well.
‘Jisu. I have a Gyeongju Daeyun Hotel voucher. The sauna there is good, and there are lots of tourist spots nearby, so it seems like it’d be nice to go with your mother. How about we all go there together?’
At the same time Jisu, her mother, and Jaegyeom were checking into the Daeyun Hotel in the Gyeongju tourist complex and starting the first day of their hotel vacation, Kim Yeongbaek got off at Gyechon Station.
He had called Jisu numerous times, but she had long since blocked him, so no contact reached her, and he was pacing anxiously.
“Ah, annoying! Why won’t she answer the phone! Ha…… Should I just take a taxi and go to Seoul right now? Mom told me to definitely win Lim Jisu over and make up with her, what do I do.”
Time kept passing, and the accommodations in Gyechon town were already fully booked, so Yeongbaek was placed in a situation where he’d have to sleep rough in the Gyechon Station waiting room.
Meanwhile, in Seoul, a report text from an executive secretary was delivered to Jaegyeom’s stepmother, Madam Jin Songhwa.
[Chief Secretary Jo: Madam. Yoon Jaegyeom has checked into Gyeongju Daeyun Hotel.]
It was a report that came every holiday, so Madam Jin was about to let it pass without much thought, but her expression took on a strange light after checking the next text message.
[Chief Secretary Jo: There are companions.]
“Companions?”
Madam Jin calmly replied with a message saying ‘Report any information you can ascertain about the companions.’ Within seconds, a reply arrived.
[Chief Secretary Jo: Two people total, one woman in her 20s, one woman in her 50s.]
Below the message, a captured image from the hotel lobby CCTV appeared. Staring intently at Jaegyeom holding a young woman’s hand in the photo, Madam Jin’s eyes narrowed like a snake’s.
“Of all things…… it seems he’s dating someone. Good. If I tear apart even that relationship, it’ll be even more satisfying.”
Somehow it felt like it would be an enjoyable Chuseok holiday, and Madam Jin unconsciously hummed a small tune and smiled.
