Page 143 of Perfect Happiness
“I promise I won’t bother you.”
“There’s no time,” Jane said before Jiyoo could say anymore.
“It might already be too late.If you don’t let me go, then—”
Jane paused and thought for a moment.How much did Jiyoo understand about what was happening?Jane quickly realized that Jiyoo probably understood a lot more than she was giving her credit for.If she didn’t, she wouldn’t have freed Jane from the attic, and she wouldn’t have told Jane where her Mother and Eun-ho were.
“—then the thing you’re scared of will come true.”
Jiyoo dropped her gaze slightly.She let go of Jane’s hand, which she had been squeezing this whole time.Jane grabbed Jiyoo’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze before taking her hand away.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
When Jane got to the bedroom door, she heard Jiyoo shouting out to her from behind.
“Auntie!You’ll come back with Mother, right?”
Jane turned around and looked at Jiyoo.
Jiyoo then added in a tone that sounded broken, “Try talking to her.”
Jane couldn’t promise Jiyoo that she would.Even if she tried talking to Yuna, there was little chance she would listen.Even so, she told Jiyoo what she wanted to hear.
“I will try.”
Jane ran downstairs.She frantically searched the living room and kitchen for her phone.She eventually found a set of car keys in Yuna’s bag.Judging from the emblem on them, they were probably to Yuna’s BMW.But she couldn’t find her cellphone.Nor could she find anyone else’s phone.And all the professional-grade tools in the kitchen cabinet had disappeared—the knives, the mixer, the pots, everything.
Jane now had an answer to one of her questions.The reason why Yuna appeared here yesterday was to get rid of the evidence.Yuna must have felt that the police were on to her.Had Eun-ho also started to suspect Yuna?Was that why she was taking him to the marsh in a wheelbarrow?
Jane looked down at the keys in her hand.Was Eun-ho still alive?If he was, then there wasn’t any time to go to the police.And even if he was dead, it didn’t matter anyway.In the time it would take for her to come back with the police, Yuna would realize Jane was missing.And that would be dangerous for Jiyoo.It appeared she had no choice.
Jane looked for something she could use as a weapon, but there wasn’t even a butter knife.She remembered the scissors in the attic, but she didn’t want to go upstairs and risk having to talk to Jiyoo again.She detached the aluminum pole from the mop next to the shoe rack and ran outside in just her socks.
Thankfully, the car was parked just outside the front gate.She used her hand to dust the snow off the front and rear windshields, then got in the car.She stuck the pole between the front two seats, started the engine, buckled her seatbelt, and turned on the high beams.After backing the car up to the road, she positioned the car in the tracks of the wheelbarrow.She was now ready to go.
Jane looked down at the snow-locked wetlands.She tried to convince herself that this was a chance to cross off from her bucket list “racing through the snow in someone else’s car.”Jane clasped the wheel tight as she stepped on the gas.
The car shot forward with a whir.She could feel the blood and adrenaline pumping through her body.She felt dizzy, and her vision was shaking.Her head was being pushed backwards, and her butt was having trouble staying in the seat.The car bounced up and down as it jostled side to side.
And yet she wasn’t hitting anything, nor was the ground as soggy as she thought it would be.Despite the ground being covered in snow, because the path was so uneven, there was enough friction to keep her wheels from sliding too much.The car barreled forward like a tank, erasing the wheelbarrow’s tracks and leaving a trail of fallen reeds behind it.
Time worked differently here than in the attic.While Jane was in the attic, it felt like she was adrift on a placid lake, but now it felt like she was racing down white water rapids in a valley.Jane noticed something ahead.It didn’t take long for her eyes to tell her it was the footpath that circled the Half Moon Marsh.But there was someone standing on the path.
Yuna.This was Jane’s chance to finish this in one fell swoop.It wouldn’t be hard.All she had to do was turn toward Yuna and keep her foot on the gas.She already had the speed, and there was just a small slope demarking the entrance to the path.
Yuna stood there motionless, as if to tell Jane that she didn’t think Jane could go through with it.She was standing next to the wheelbarrow, her arms down at her sides, just staring at Jane.
And she was right.Jane couldn’t do it.Leaning sideways toward the front passenger’s seat, she used her whole body to turn the steering wheel to the right.The front of the car hit the side of the bank, spun at a right angle, and traced the curve of the side path as it kicked up snow and flora.Grasping the wheel and stepping on the brake, she braced herself as the car created a tsunami of snow.Debris rained down on the car, making it feel like she was inside a building scheduled for demolition.
The car came to a stop at the corner of the bank.Somehow, Jane had managed to prevent the airbags from deploying, which would have trapped her in this steaming dumpling of a car.Jane unbuckled her seatbelt, grabbed the mop, and lowered it to hide it from view.
The car’s headlights illuminated the terraced rice paddies below the wetlands.Yuna was standing on the footpath, turned toward the marsh with her hands on the wheelbarrow’s handles.She looked amused by Jane’s theatrics, but still determined to finish what she came here to do.The light from Yuna’s headlamp illuminated the frozen surface of the marsh.With barely any difference in elevation between the water and the land, the marsh looked like a vast snowfield.The wind herded snow along the surface of the marsh like a flock of sheep.Jane heard a siren in the distance.But whether it belonged to a police car or a firetruck she didn’t know.
Jane got out of the car and stepped onto the footpath.She didn’t call out to Yuna or yell at her to stop.Instead, she just started running toward Yuna.It didn’t feel like she was getting any closer.There were only a few seconds separating her and Yuna, but for some reason it felt like Yuna was located on a planet across the solar system.Yuna calmly lifted the wheelbarrow.Jane jumped to close the remaining distance between them, like a sprinter lunging for the finish line.
Three things happened at once.Yuna raised the wheelbarrow’s handles above her head.A man, who Jane assumed to be Eun-ho, slid out and fell onto the snow-covered marsh.And Jane’s airborne body crashed into Yuna.As a result, all three of them ended up rolling onto the ice.
Despite having a thick layer of snow on its surface, the marsh wasn’t frozen solid.As soon as Jane fell onto the ice, it let out a sharp crack and caved under her weight.Immediately, Jane fell head-first into the water.The icy water penetrated her ears, mouth, and nose, preventing her from breathing.
