Page 48 of Perfect Happiness
I asked him why he wanted to get a divorce.His answer was simple.He thought he would die if he kept living with her.He said he thought about getting a divorce a long time ago.I would guess that he started thinking about it as soon as they got married.I also think he tried his hardest to save the marriage after Jiyoo was born.
Do you know how much Joon-young loves Jiyoo?This is also just my guess, but I think he endured it because he was afraid Jiyoo would get hurt.But then he reached his limit.In the end, he did it for Jiyoo.He couldn’t allow her to grow up under a mother like Yuna.He didn’t want Jiyoo to become like her mother.He didn’t want Jiyoo to become Yuna’s scapegoat.
Yuna refused his demands for a divorce.She said divorce didn’t exist in her life.She had done everything in her power to protect their family, and she would continue to protect them.My big brother hadn’t made much money during the four years of their marriage.None of his plays made it to the stage, and he rarely got commissioned.Yuna put food on the table by working at your father’s company.And when they bought their house, it was thanks to Yuna that they qualified for a loan.Or so she said.
That day, Yuna told Joon-young they had been living off stolen money from your father’s company.She did it because she didn’t want the three of them living in poverty.The loan she said she took out was also just company money.As the lies piled up, your father eventually found out.
Your father told her to leave the company.He told her he wouldn’t sue her if she returned everything she stole.Yuna signed a document saying that she would repay the money in installments after a ten-year grace period.That was the same day Joon-young asked for a divorce.
Joon-young wasn’t able to get in contact with Yuna after he asked for a divorce and left the house.He returned to the apartment to find it empty and the padlock changed.He didn’t know that your father had died.No one told him.It seems your mother was already aware that Yuna and Joon-young were getting a divorce.
He learned about your father after the funeral.He had gone to your father’s company, where he heard the news.I guess he went to your parent’s house after that but was chased away by your mother.He said she pushed him out the door like he was some beggar.In the past, she used to dote upon him.
The divorce wasn’t easy.Actually, it was downright nasty.As soon as he filed for divorce, she matched him with her own divorce suit.My brother offered to pay back the money Yuna stole from her own parents.He even offered to give up his share of the apartment as a form of alimony.All he wanted was to maintain custody of Jiyoo.
But Yuna didn’t just want custody; she wanted to strip Joon-young of his parental rights.And to accomplish that, she claimed he had repeatedly molested Jiyoo.Can you believe it?
In the end, Yuna won.Everything—alimony, child support, custody—went to her.Apparently, she hired a bigshot lawyer who specialized in divorce lawsuits.The only thing my brother got in return was visitation rights.I guess he offered to pay for everything as long as he had the right to see his own daughter once a month.
The problem was that Yuna didn’t allow even this.She changed her number, moved her residence, and cut all contact with him.She even moved your mother, I heard.That made it impossible for my brother to find Yuna or Jiyoo, even though he faithfully paid all the child and spousal support.That was why he had several jobs.Sorry if I’m repeating what I told you yesterday.
Anyway, my brother must have made a request to enforce his visitation rights.But Yuna never showed up at court, even though the court summoned her several times.I’ve never met someone with such guts.
I met with Joon-young earlier this month.He talked about you that day.He said he was thinking about going to see you.I think he wanted to ask you for help.I doubt that was an easy thing for him to do.He knew what he did to you.He might act like an idiot sometimes, but he’s not completely devoid of shame.
I think this should explain things, why I came to you, why I asked you if you’d seen him, why I think your sister is a con-artist.And now, I’ll explain to you why I need to meet your sister.
Joon-young used to frequently send me pictures of Jiyoo.Because Jiyoo was just a baby back then, the pictures were usually of Yuna holding her.I showed one of those pictures to my boss.People like to brag about their nephews, and Jiyoo was so cute.I’m sure you won’t like to hear this, but Jiyoo looked just like Joon-young.Even my parents think so.She looked just like him when he was a baby.
But my boss was more interested in Yuna than he was the baby.He looked at the picture for a long time and then asked if she graduated from Dong-a University.He knew her by name.He had never taken a class with her, but he could still recognize her just from her picture.
I didn’t have a chance to ask him about Yuna after that.He was transferred to Jeonju.But then earlier this year in the spring, he returned to Wonju, and at the welcome party he took me aside to ask me if my brother was doing all right.
It was so unexpected.Why would he ask about my brother?I thought it was Yuna whom he was interested in.He then told me that at his college reunion, he had heard that Yuna had gotten remarried.In fact, one of his old classmates who was there that day was the friend of her new husband.The friend and Yuna’s new husband were teachers at the same high school.He wouldn’t tell me the name of the friend though.He just referred to him as “K.”
Anyway, according to my boss, Yuna was notorious for jumping around from guy to guy.He told me she was the type of woman that attracted men like a magnet, despite not being particularly beautiful.Women like that have a talent for always being the center of attention.
He said there were two incidents in particular that caused an uproar on campus.The first was a suicide, and the second was a car accident.
Regarding the suicide, he told me that the body of her boyfriend at the time was discovered in a pond on campus.The police determined it was a suicide.Despite the fact the autopsy confirmed he had sleeping pills and alcohol in his system, they didn’t find enough evidence to think there was foul play.
There were rumors, however.Apparently, at midnight of the day he committed suicide, there were two people who said they saw him commit suicide.The rumors were that they were drinking on a bench nearby when it happened.The problem is that these were just rumors.The two people never came forward as witnesses.And there were no CCTVs in the area to confirm their story.
The second incident happened two years later, when Yuna was a senior.I guess she was living with her boyfriend who also went to the same school.The night before he died, their neighbors said they heard shouting.But no one knew if it was because they were having a fight or just having really noisy sex.Rumor has it that they were planning on going to Moscow after graduation to study abroad together.Coincidentally, “K”, Yuna’s current husband’s work colleague and friend, was a friend of her boyfriend at the time.
But then the boyfriend died in a car accident.They said it was because he fell asleep at the wheel.
My boss heard that the boyfriend had a change in heart and tried breaking up with Yuna.He asked his friend K to go with him to their apartment to collect his things.The accident occurred on their way back from the apartment.K was next to the boyfriend in the car when he fell asleep at the wheel and crashed the car.He had fallen asleep, too.
I wonder, could it really be a coincidence that both fell asleep in the car?People at school were all asking why Yuna Shin’s boyfriends kept dying.After a while, coincidences stop being coincidences.If they drank something that made them fall asleep at the same time, that wouldn’t be a coincidence.And I doubt they would drink soju just before hopping in a car.
K survived the crash.Only he knows the truth.But my boss says K’s lips are sealed.
Jane took her hands from the touchpad.She was at the bottom of the screen, but there was still another page of email.Jane looked over at Jiyoo.The details of Min-young’s story were being organized on Jiyoo’s forehead.
Living together.
Break up.
