Page 75 of Perfect Happiness
He heard the car door opening.He also thought he heard the faint sound of the front door opening.After that, silence.At least until Wife knocked on the bedroom door.
Eun-ho sucked in his breath.He had almost said “Come in.”Then the voice in his head whispered to him.What are you doing, man?Pretending to be asleep, in your own home, because you’re afraid of your wife?
Eun-ho could sense the door opening and a light shining into the room.It wasn’t the ceiling light.It was too faint.It must be coming from the playroom.
“Eun-ho.What are you doing here?”
She spoke as if she knew he wasn’t asleep.The loud voice inside his head directed him.Pretend to open your eyes.Naturally.And don’t embarrass yourself by getting caught with bad acting!
Eun-ho wanted to know.He wanted to know who his wife was, this woman whom he had once been head over heels for, whom, aside from a few exhausting personality flaws, hestillloved.Did he really know her?What exactly was she doing behind his back?And how were those things related to what was going on right now?To answer these questions, he needed to put to sleep the voice in his head.
He started singing a silent lullaby to the voice in himself.
Hush, hush, little baby.Cuckoo, cuckoo, quiet chicken.Don’t you wake upthe baby.
Eun-ho sensed Wife coming closer.It sounded like she was barefoot again.Even Eun-ho’s own heartbeat was louder than her footsteps.It took an unbearable amount of time for her to reach him.He didn’t know a human could move this slowly.As the suspense drew on, Eun-ho felt like his spine was going to start spasming.The tingling sensation travelled all the way down to his toes.This caused his toes to move on their own.
“Eun-ho?Are you asleep?”
Her voice was right above his face.He continued to focus on singing the lullaby that his grandma used to sing to him.
Don’t you bark, little doggy.You will wake up the baby.
“What are you doing sleeping here?It’s so cold.”
Wife’s cold hand touched his cheek.Immediately, his breathing started to quicken.He might have even flinched slightly.He continued to sing the lullaby as though he was casting a spell.
Don’t you bark, red doggy.
Don’t you bark, blue doggy.
Don’t you bark, yellow doggy.
Wife’s whispering tickled his ears.“Sleep.I’ll turn on the heat for you.”
Eun-ho could feel Wife getting farther away, unbearably slowly, just like when she had approached him.It felt like a century passed before he heard the door closing.Once the dark silence returned to the room, he was able to let out the breath he’d been holding in.At the same time, he unleashed in his mind the loud voice he’d been suppressing.
Well, what are you going to do now?
Thankfully, he had all the time in the world to think about this now.
3 a.m.He got up from the bed.He walked out of the room barefoot, just like Wife.Without turning on the light, he felt his way along the wall and moved toward the edge of the stairs.The house from the top of the stairs looked like a large pit of darkness.Unable to see the light from the street, Eun-ho figured all the curtains in the house had been closed, from the balcony and the back door all the way to the kitchen windows.
Eun-ho pulled out his cellphone.He turned on the flashlight and descended the stairs in silence.He crossed the living room, being careful not to bump into anything.When he arrived in front of the master bedroom, he lowered the intensity of his flashlight to the lowest setting.In the instance that Wife was still awake, he would pretend like he was coming back to bed.
When he arrived at the head of the bed, he paused.Wife was lying on her side and facing the wall.Eun-ho couldn’t tell if she was awake or asleep because he couldn’t see her face.On the bed next to the nape of her neck was her phone.Just from the position of the phone and her hand, it seemed like she had fallen asleep while looking at her phone.
Eun-ho picked up her cellphone.He pressed the home button and was met with the lock screen.Eun-ho knew it would be locked.But he had to check anyway.The palm of Wife’s right hand was face down on the bed just beneath her chin.He would need her right thumb if he wanted to unlock the phone.
If Wife had been lying on her back or if her side of the bed wasn’t right up against the wall, this would have been easy.But because Wife was facing away from Eun-ho, and because there was no way for Eun-ho to walk to her side of the bed, getting at her right thumb was going to be difficult.He would either have to bend her arm and bring her hand to the phone, or he would have to bend over and bring the phone to her hand.
He picked the latter.If Wife woke up, he could fall on her and pretend that he was trying to cuddle with her.Eun-ho first put his own phone down on the floor and shined the light toward the ceiling.Next, he raised one knee up onto the bed and shifted his weight onto the mattress.The mattress shook slightly, but Wife didn’t show any reaction.He brought his torso over her body and placed one hand on the bed for support.He looked down and studied her face.
Although it was still fairly dark in the room, thanks to the light from his cellphone which was illuminating the ceiling, he could see the outline of her pupils beneath her eyelids.He leaned his ear toward her and was able to hear her slow and steady breathing.Her lips were slightly parted.According to what he read yesterday, she was probably in REM sleep, which meant he would need to do a lot to wake her up.
Eun-ho slid Wife’s phone under her thumb and lined up her fingerprint with the phone button.He then pressed down lightly on her finger until he heard a click.
The screen turned on, and the phone was successfully unlocked.At the same time, Eun-ho thought he saw his Wife’s eyelids move slightly.Her pupils moved slowly toward the corner of her eyes, as though she were watching what he was doing through the skin of her eyelids.Eun-ho held his breath.He stopped moving and prepared himself to pretend to throw himself onto her.
