Page 129 of Perfect Happiness
“Is it frozensolid?”
Eun-ho tilted his head in confusion.Why was she asking?
“Don’t give me that look.What’s so hard about just saying yes or no?”
Wife’s voice was suddenly dripping with irritation.
Eun-ho waited a second before answering.
“The surface of the marsh was covered in snow.But I’m not sure if it’s ‘frozen solid.’”
Eun-ho put the bread in his mouth and started chewing.It was so dry that he would have been happier taking off his belt and chewing on that.He was incapable of tasting anything and felt like a prisoner on death row eating his last meal.
Wife didn’t say anymore.The house was quiet.All he could hear was the clinking of dishware on the kitchen table.Suspicions were accumulating in his head like frequent flier miles.He wanted to know what the source of that sound earlier was.And why had Wife sent him and Jiyoo to the wetlands as soon as they heard the sound?Oddly enough, they hadn’t heard that strange sound since.
Wife said it was the roof, but he didn’t believe this.If that were true, wouldn’t they still be hearing it?The wind hadn’t stopped blasting the house.There was also something mysterious about the way Jiyoo called it a loon.It almost seemed like the loon was code for something or someone.That would make more sense.Could it possibly be referring to her father, Joon-young?
Eun-ho thought about the car at the abandoned house they had seen on their way here.That was an odd place to park a car.The village was barely populated, and no one lived in the old house, it seemed.Nor did it look like a junk car.Judging from its outline, it looked like a large SUV or jeep.The blue hue of its chassis had been just visible through the snow.
“Thank you for dinner.”Jiyoo was the first to put down her utensils.The goulash on her plate had hardly been touched.The only thing she had eaten was two pieces of bread with jam and her glass of orange juice.
“Yes, thank you for dinner,” Eun-ho said as he put down the butter knife in his hand.He, too, hadn’t eaten much: only the champagne and two pieces of bread with peanut butter.
Wife showed no reaction.Her eyes were cast downward as she pushed the goulash around the plate.She looked even gloomier than before.Judging from the way her pursed lips were focused to a point, she seemed distracted by something.
“I’ll do the dishes,” Eun-ho added.
Wife looked up and made eye contact with him, looking like she had just been taken out of a dream.
“Would you?I’ll take Jiyoo upstairs and tuck her in.”
Jiyoo glanced over at Eun-ho.She looked flustered.As far as Eun-ho remembered, Wife had never tucked Jiyoo in.At least, not at their house in Cheongyeon.If anything, it was Jiyoo who had the honor of bidding Wife goodnight.
“Jiyoo, shall we go upstairs?”
Wife put down her utensils and stood up.Jiyoo hurried to her feet.A few moments later, the two disappeared upstairs.
Eun-ho started clearing the table.Even as he moved all the plates to the kitchen sink, his ears were sifting through the sounds upstairs.It seemed like they still hadn’t entered Jiyoo’s room.He could hear intermittent murmurs, but their voices were so quiet that he couldn’t tell what they were saying.
As Eun-ho turned on the kitchen faucet, his brain became muddled from images popping in and out of his mind, as though he were about to fall asleep.His eyelids felt scratchy.He blinked several times, but it didn’t help.It felt like his eyelids and cornea were stuck together.The room was starting to spin, and his sense of distance disappeared, as though he was looking at everything through a mirror.
Even his hands were moving strangely.This wasn’t the first time he’d done the dishes, but his movements were clumsy like a baby’s.Twice he dropped a plate.He even dropped a spoon on the ground while trying to bring it over to the drying rack.Following the loud sound, Wife called from upstairs.
“Honey, did you break something?”
Eun-ho didn’t know what she was doing, but she seemed like she was still in the hallway.
“No.”
Eun-ho’s voice as he answered felt detached from his own body, as though he had plugs in both ears.The fishy smell that had been assaulting his nose this whole time suddenly disappeared.He couldn’t tell if he had just gotten used to the smell or if his sense of smell was being shut off.
There was no way he had taken a sleeping pill.He hadn’t touched the goulash, and the champagne was a new bottle.This had to be the effects of sleep deprivation.Eun-ho had been suffering from insomnia ever since the incident.And last night, after asking for a divorce, he was too afraid to go to sleep.
Of course, the divorce wasn’t his true goal.His true reason for asking for a divorce was to see what Wife would do if pushed over the edge.He didn’t answer any of her questions; he merely told her he wasn’t in love with her anymore.
This wasn’t a lie, nor was it an exaggeration.After Noah died, he spent many nights sleeping in Noah’s room.He also ended up sleeping there the night he stole Wife’s phone.He tried his best to endure her advances, but in the end, he couldn’t.He wanted to throw up as soon as her tongue slithered between his lips and into his mouth.He pushed Wife away and fled to Noah’s room.
Using that night as an example, Eun-ho explained to Wife the extent of his disillusion.He didn’t answer her when she asked what she had done wrong.Nor did he respond when she blamed him for making their marriage difficult.
