Husband Role - Episode 7

A glass of milk was placed in front of her a little while later. Jung-hyuk was filling his rocks glass with an amber liquid.

Eun-seol felt strangely resentful. She was just silently looking at Jung-hyuk, when he spoke to her without even looking at her.

“I’ll teach you about alcohol next time.”

“Why…?”

“I can’t send you home smelling like booze.”

Jung-hyuk said he never intended to get her drunk from the start. He just needed a place where he wouldn’t be disturbed.

“I don’t think anyone would care much.”

Eun-seol murmured without realizing it. Startled, she looked up at him. Jung-hyuk was also staring intently at her.

“Why do you think that?”

“Ah… Because I’m an adult.”

Unlike her bland answer, Eun-seol was mocking herself inwardly.

She merely possessed an ID in an old ivory leather wallet, proving she was an adult.

The age recognized by the state was of no help to her.

“It’s not like you’re being mistreated or anything, are you?”

Eun-seol was momentarily speechless at the casually thrown question. Then, she forced the corners of her lips up and replied, “Of course not.”

She didn’t want to reveal her family affairs. She didn’t want to draw him in too deeply. More than anything she was ashamed.

“What do you mean by saying you’d be more comfortable than Mok Min-seo, then?”

She flinched at Jung-hyuk’s sharp remark. That’s right. When proposing marriage, she had confidently declared,

‘If you have to go through with a political marriage anyway, I’ll be more comfortable than Mok Min-seo.’

That was the truth. She, who no one cared whether she lived or died, would be more convenient in many ways than Min-seo, who had been raised like a precious flower in a greenhouse.

But Eun-seol couldn’t say it as it was. If this marriage of escape was successful, they were a family she wouldn’t look back on.

So, she decided to tone it down and talk about it.

“I don’t receive as much attention as Min-seo does. Probably because she’s a niece.”

Jung-hyuk asked in a low voice, “Is that so?” and Eun-seol nodded with a firm expression.

“We’ll see if that’s really the case.”

Jung-hyuk said meaningfully. Eun-seol replied softly, “Yes.”

A temporary silence fell.

The ice in the glass in front of Jung-hyuk melted, clinking softly. The sound seemed strangely loud and clear.

Eun-seol, feeling her lips dry, moistened her throat with milk, and Jung-hyuk drained his glass in one gulp. Then, he stared deeply at Eun-seol again.

“Why did you take a leave of absence from school?”

He asked in an indifferent tone. It seemed like it was starting now. Getting to know each other.

Eun-seol hesitated for a moment, then decided to be honest.

“I went to clinical practice.”

Jung-hyuk looked at her with eyes that said he was listening.

“I froze in front of a cadaver.”

“Didn’t you expect that much when you went to medical school?”

“I did.”

“And?”

He asked, filling his glass. And swallowed it. The half-empty glass was placed on the table in front of him with a thud.

“That cadaver…”

Eun-seol’s lips trembled slightly as she began her story.

It was the first clinical practice session in the first year of medical school.

The professor told the students that they were ‘lucky’ to be able to practice with a new cadaver. The professor had been keeping an eye on the bright Eun-seol, and so he gave her the opportunity to hold the scalpel first.

Eun-seol was nervous, but she stepped confidently in front of the cadaver. But on the left chest of the cadaver, she saw a familiar shape of a mole. It was a dark brown mole in the shape of the Korean peninsula.

She froze on the spot.

It was because the shape and location were exactly the same as the mole of her biological father, who had died protecting young Eun-seol from being hit by a truck.

The professor, seeing Eun-seol pale and trembling, ordered her to dissect the body immediately.

The pressure was immense, but she moved the scalpel. Cutting through a body hardened with chemicals was no easy task. Cold sweat ran down her face, her stomach churned, and she felt nauseous.

‘Harder!’

The professor shouted in succession.

‘Put more strength into it!’

Eun-seol panicked. In an instant, the terrible smell of the chemical that had hardened the cadaver enveloped her like a nightmare.

Her vision blurred for a moment.

‘Lee Eun-seol!’

The professor’s shouting voice grew more and more distant.

‘Get a grip—!’

With that firm voice, she lost consciousness and collapsed.

The other students who had finished their first cadaver practice were also shocked.

For a while, they all hung out together. They drank themselves to death and threw up their insides. Everyone struggled to shake off the nasty feeling.

Most of them overcame it, but Eun-seol failed.

“…I’m sorry to the teacher.”

“What are you sorry to me for?”

“You worked harder than anyone to get me a junior.”

“I was your homeroom teacher.”

It was something he had said once a long time ago. That it was just a duty or responsibility.

But Eun-seol knew that wasn’t the only reason.

What homeroom teacher would bring a student lunch on the day of the college entrance exam?

That day.

Walking into the test center through the students receiving enthusiastic support from their families was a tearfully lonely thing.

All Eun-seol had in her hand was a paper bag containing bread and milk. She didn’t want to be conscious of it, but she couldn’t shake off the feeling of being shabby. Her throat swelled hotly with sadness.

Light snow fell from the gray sky. It was not her body but her heart that froze in the face of the biting cold. She was lonely to death.

Then Jung-hyuk appeared and handed her a lunch box, saying he had just ‘bought and packed it’.

‘Just do as you usually do.’

That was all his encouragement. But it gave her tremendous strength. Her whole heart vibrated. That day’s gratitude remained in Eun-seol’s heart like a brand.

So, even after the connection with Jung-hyuk was cut off, she listened to his movements. She sincerely wished.

That the teacher would always be happy.

“So, what do you do these days?”

“A close older sister is pregnant. She runs a flower shop so I go there on weekdays. I help with small things.”

“A part-time job?”

“It’s not exactly set like that.”

Jung-hyuk frowned slightly as if he was thinking. He probably didn’t understand. Eun-seol somehow wanted to persuade him.

“If I stay still, I keep getting random thoughts.”

Only then did Jung-hyuk nod in agreement.

If he asked a little more, she was willing to tell him in detail that she was considering whether to change her career path to a medical malpractice lawyer. But he didn’t ask any more.

The two talked about this and that for quite a long time.

It was mainly Jung-hyuk asking and Eun-seol answering. The conversation continued quite well without too many questions or too few answers.

“Lee Eun-seol is very neat.”

Jung-hyuk had said that in the middle. Eun-seol understood the words immediately.

He probably meant that she kept the line well.

She wanted to tell him that the teacher was no less so.

And that’s why we seem a little alike.

In the end, she ordered another glass of orange juice. The two stayed in their seats until Eun-seol had finished it all.

Jung-hyuk called a designated driver to take Eun-seol home. Eun-seol bowed deeply to the car. At that moment, the rear window went down silently.

Jung-hyuk’s cold face slowly appeared.

Streetlights shone down on it like a curtain. Because of this, his features, which had become more pronounced in the shadows, looked perfect, like a well-honed blade.

“I’ll contact you.”

His voice, resembling the night, was low.

I’ll contact you.

It stirred Eun-seol’s heart once more. She liked those words very much. It felt like she was gaining the strength to endure another week.

“Drive safely.”

Eun-seol smiled slightly and said goodbye.

“Go in.”

Eun-seol stubbornly refused his stiff encouragement. Eventually, after the car left first, she walked halfway around the building to the garage. The iron door that opened with a clank felt lighter than usual today.

As soon as Eun-seol entered the basement, she was dragged into the first-floor living room by Mrs. Ma-san. It seemed that So-hee had given the instructions in advance.

“So you’re just going to go out in the open now, huh?”

So-hee said. She was sitting at the head of the table, and Min-seo was sitting diagonally, glaring at Eun-seol.

Mrs. Ma-san perked up her ears, pretending to clean up the unlit kitchen.

Dae-hyuk was nowhere to be seen. He was either passed out drunk or entertaining to get passed out drunk.

“Did you go out and sell your body again?”

It was Min-seo whose face turned red at So-hee’s prodding.

Eun-seol also stared back at Min-seo, who was glaring at her with resentment, and answered slowly.

“Is it a problem between people who are going to get married?”

“So! Are you saying you matched your sexual compatibility in advance or what?”

As soon as So-hee retorted in an absurd tone, Min-seo, who had sprung up like a spring, slapped Eun-seol on the cheek. The sound of the slap rang out sharply.

At that moment, something fluttered and fell. It was the bandage that Jung-hyuk had put on her. Enraged by this, Eun-seol pushed Min-seo away.

Min-seo was pushed back down onto the sofa.

The family members, surprised by Eun-seol’s first counterattack, looked up at Eun-seol with stiff faces. Then So-hee jumped up from her seat.

“How dare you.”

It was the moment she raised her hand high.

—Ding-dong.

The doorbell rang suddenly.

In an instant, the air froze as if a glass window had been shattered. After a few seconds of silence, it was when So-hee and Mrs. Ma-san exchanged embarrassed glances.

—Ding-dong.

When the bell rang again, Mrs. Ma-san moved quickly. Soon, Mrs. Ma-san’s face turned pale after checking the intercom screen.

“Who is it?”

So-hee asked back irritably, and Mrs. Ma-san barely moved her parched lips.

“…Jung-hyuk came, madam.”

Jung-hyuk in the screen had a stiff face as if he was angry for some reason.

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