Page 17 of Perfect Happiness
It was already dark out.Eun-ho thought of his house, which would be completely empty right now.He asked himself the same question that he had asked every day for the last four days when heading home from work:Will Wife be there when I get home tonight?If she was, there was no avoiding the emotional collision that would ensue.And if she wasn’t, Eun-ho’s head might explode.Either way, Eun-ho didn’t want to be sober when he got home.
“How about drinks instead of dinner?”Eun-ho asked.
Jinu agreed immediately, not even pretending to think about it.Thirty minutes later, they were seated in an izakaya located on a busy street in Jeongin-dong.It was just the right amount of noise and commotion to distract Eun-ho.Plus, he was with an old friend, someone with whom he could sit down and enjoy a drink in silence.
Despite having finished two bottles of soju, Eun-ho didn’t feel drunk enough.He felt more like he had been sipping on shots of beer.It was only enough to dull the pain of his headache.
“It’s been what, more than two years?”Jinu asked with no pretext or follow up.
Since what?Eun-ho asked with just his eyes, a glass of soju resting on his lips.
“Drinking together!”
Eun-ho felt his face become hot.His ears were burning from embarrassment, as though they had been stung by a hive of bees.Eun-ho emptied the rest of his glass into his mouth.
Jinu and Eun-ho had been friends since high school.It was pure chance that they were hired by the same school in the same year.They had gone their separate ways in college, but working together at the school had rekindled their friendship.They went to the gym together, went to baseball games together, went to see Noah together—they even sometimes took Noah to the coast together.
But that all changed once Eun-ho started dating Yuna.She didn’t like him associating with Jinu.She had three reasons for disliking him: he was a bragger whose only gift was a large frame; he lacked social awareness; and he slept like a bear whenever he got drunk.
“Let’s have one more before we go,” Eun-ho said as he pressed the service bell.
Jinu stole a glance at his watch before asking, “You sure?I know how Yuna can be.”
“Yeah.”
“But shouldn’t you at least call and tell her you’re going to be late?”
Eun-ho moved his cellphone from the table to his bag.He meant it as a sign to stop asking, but Jinu was doggedly persistent.
“It’s the weekend.Isn’t she waiting for you at home?”
Which home?Eun-ho clenched his jaw to stop himself from saying something he would regret.His whole body was getting warm, probably from the delayed effects of the alcohol.And his vision was starting to go cross.
“Did you guys have a fight or something?”
Eun-ho could sense a disingenuous sense of anticipation in Jinu’s tone.He sounded like he wanted to hear a juicy story about marital fighting.Eun-ho shook the empty bottle of soju to show the waiter who was approaching their table.
“If you’re not careful, you might go in your sleep.”
Jinu said this and began snickering to himself.Eun-ho didn’t understand what Jinu meant, but these words none-the-less irked Eun-ho.Jinu had said the same thing last year at their wedding.Right now, Eun-ho was in a shitty mood, and this sounded like a mean joke.He glared at Jinu without responding.
“I’m just worried, that’s all.”
Jinu stopped snickering and looked Eun-ho in the eyes.He was studying Eun-ho’s face.
“After all, I’m the one who introduced you two, aren’t I?”
While it was true that Eun-ho and Yuna never would have met without Jinu, to say that he “introduced” them was an exaggeration.
“You don’t need to worry,” Eun-ho said, ending the conversation.
Jinu and Eun-ho left the bar two hours later.Eun-ho called a surrogate driver for Jinu and helped him into his car.After Jinu left, Eun-ho called his own surrogate driver and stood by his car as he waited.Snow began to fall.Although, being early winter, the snow was closer to sleet than anything else.The wind made it feel like ten degrees below zero.With every breath, the tip of his nose stung as a droplet of moisture dripped from it.At the same time, his face was burning red.His stomach was rumbling, too.And inside his mind, a pointless question was spinning around like a song stuck in his head.
If I had known it would be like this, would I still have married her?
The answer was probably yes.He used to be crazy for her.Actually, he was still crazy for her.And not just a little.
It was three years ago, around this time of year.Eun-ho had just heard the news that Yoon-hee, his new ex-wife who had gone abroad to study as soon as they got divorced, had eloped with a redneck from Texas as soon as she arrived in the U.S.Apparently, she had met him when she used to work as a corporate interpreter.While it almost sounded like a rumor, Eun-ho knew it wasn’t because he had heard it from Yoon-hee’s mother when he and Noah bumped into her at the department store.Yoon-hee’s mother started crying in the middle of the store, lamenting the fact that Noah would have to be raised by a single father—or worse, astepmother.
