Page 15 of Perfect Happiness
The mere appearance of Jane was beyond suspicious.He had never met Jane before, and that was because Wife and her were not on good terms.As far as Eun-ho knew, Jane would never show up at his door as Yuna’s relief pitcher.
In fact, Jane hadn’t even come to their wedding.And whenever Eun-ho and Wife went to her mother’s house, Jane was always absent, even though he knew she lived with her mom.She was never around, not even for holidays or family events.The explanation he usually got was that Jane had to work overtime or was on a business trip.But after a year of her coincidentally always being out of the house when they showed up, he started to wonder if she even existed.
Of course, he had heard a few things from his mother-in-law—mainly that Jane was single, worked as a journalist, and had moved back in with her mother after their father passed away.But that was about it.Everything else he knew about Jane was from things Wife had told him.The point of all those conversations, however, was about how much they hated each other as sisters.
Even stranger was that Wife never used the familial termUnnieto refer to her big sister.She only referred to her by name, which was very odd, like calling one’s parent by their first name.Janethis, Janethat.And sometimes when she was emotional, she would forego the name and just call her “that bitch.”
The feelings had to be mutual.Even if they weren’t, Eun-ho doubted Jane could be fond enough of Yuna to make this trip for her.Based on these observations, Eun-ho edited his original assumptions:
Jane really had come to see Wife.Which meant Wife wasn’t at her mother’s house.
But this only led him right back to where he started:Where was Wife?
Eun-ho carefully retraced his memory.Had Wife actually said she was going to her mother’s place?She hadn’t.He’d just assumed that was where she went because she took Jiyoo with her.Now that he thought about it, he realized that whenever Wife left the house like this, he never actually went to Incheon to make sure she was where she said she was.Only once had he asked her where she disappeared to.
Wife’s answer: “I went home.”He didn’t ask any more.He didn’t want to look paranoid because, according to Wife, only neurotic people were paranoid.Instead, he asked his question again, but this time to Jiyoo.
“Jiyoo, where were you and Mom?”
Jiyoo answered without much hesitation.
“Home.”
Would Jiyoo lie?Or perhaps this was a clever white lie.Home could mean many things.It didn’t necessarily have to refer to her grandma’s house.Eun-ho thought about what other homes could exist.There were three that came to mind.The first was Jiyoo’s grandmother’s home in Incheon.The second was Eun-ho and Wife’s home in Cheongyeon.And the third was her biological father’s home, whose location Eun-ho didn’t know.
A bolt of lightning struck Eun-ho’s skull, starting a fire inside his consciousness.Jiyoo had to be at her biological father’s home.
Eun-ho glared at the red traffic light above the intersection when another question popped into his head.But was this just the first time?
*
Eun-ho hung up the phone after hearing it ring for the twentieth time.
Since arriving at school, he had been calling home at one-hour intervals.It was already six in the afternoon, and no one had answered.This meant that his wife hadn’t come home yet.It also meant he had to move on to Plan B.
Their original schedule had been to go to Hanam early on Saturday morning to pick up Noah and his grandmother and head to the Yangpyeong camping site.There they would play soccer with Noah and have a barbeque before coming back to Cheongyeon Sunday morning.
Noah’s grandmother didn’t usually accompany Noah to their home in Cheongyeon.The reason they both were coming this weekend was because her apartment in Hanam was undergoing renovation.It would take several days before she could move back in.The renovation was scheduled to start Monday, so Noah and his grandmother were planning to stay until Wednesday.
Eun-ho had kept the camping plans a secret from Noah and his grandmother.He was planning on surprising the two of them, especially Noah.He wasn’t good with surprises, but he was hoping to change that.
But as things turned out, it was lucky that he hadn’t told them.He wasn’t prepared to be scolded by his mother for ruining such a perfect weekend.It would be like giving Noah a bad check for his birthday.
Noah believed Eun-ho was coming today.Noah lived for the weekends when he could see his dad.Despite knowing this, Eun-ho hadn’t gone to pick up Noah.He couldn’t bring his mother to his house in Cheongyeon, not while Wife was AWOL.
Eun-ho’s mother was unaware of Wife’s sudden and frequent sojourns away from home.And he was trying to keep it that way.The effort it took to keep her out of the know was less than the effort it would take to clean up the mess once she found out.This was a lesson he had learned from his first (albeit short) marriage.Eun-ho was hours away from being checkmated, but he wasn’t ready to give up.He couldn’t let his mother get involved in their problems.
That morning, Eun-ho had called his mother as his first step of damage control.He told her that Wife’s mother was sick and had gone to the hospital to get tests, that Wife might have to stay by her side at the hospital.He used this as cause to delay picking up Noah and her until later that night.This was the best excuse he could think of.It had the benefit of allowing him to sneak in the caveat “If Yuna comes home, that is.”
And now that he had confirmed that Wife wasn’t home, there were two steps he could take.First, he could try calling Wife on her cellphone.She might not be taking Jane’s calls, but she might take his.If he could convince her to come home—that is, if he raised the white flag—they could go to Hanam together to pick up Noah and his grandmother.This was the easiest and most reasonable solution.Although, it was also the thing he wanted to do the least.
It wasn’t just because of his pride.His original goal of fixing Wife’s frequent sojourns away from home had been completely thrown out the window by this visit from Jane.He was less afraid of calling her than he was of what that call would confirm: the creeping suspicion growing in his mind, the suspicion that his wife was using her daughter as a shield to meet her ex-husband, the suspicion that his wife was at her ex-husband’s house.He was afraid that when he asked her where she was, she would answer him truthfully.
Please, be anywhere buthisplace.
Although he had lived in voluntary obedience to her until now, he wasn’t going to allow her to step outside of the ring and shoot him in the back of the head with a gun.
The way things were going, there was a good chance that he would give up on Wife, which was the thing he feared the most, more than even her cheating.
