Page 77 of Perfect Happiness
“Watching YouTube,” Eun-ho said as he pulled his hand out of his pants pocket.“I couldn’t sleep.”To Eun-ho, his own voice sounded like a distant echo.His vision was also trembling slightly.His whole body might even have been shaking, but he had no way of knowing.Wife reached out and grabbed his elbow, as if to prop him up.
“You were sleeping when I got home.Are you hungry?I can cook you some instant ramen.”
Eun-ho shook his head.
“It’s too late to eat.We should go back to bed.”
Wife followed Eun-ho as he moved toward the door.Her hand was still holding his elbow.And when they entered the bedroom, her hand sat him down on the bed.He felt like he was being detained by the police; the only difference was that he had Wife’s hands instead of a pair of handcuffs.Wife got into bed once he lay down.
“Don’t try to do this all on your own.”
Wife lifted her hand and touched Eun-ho’s cheek, then forcefully turned his chin to look at her.With his back flat on the mattress, his head was turned ninety degrees toward her.
“I’m here, too.You can lean on me.”
She looked up at him, her eyes within just one finger width from his chin.With her hand still on his cheek, she stroked the skin next to his eye with her thumb.She did this so slowly and delicately that Eun-ho could sense the grain of her fingertips and the warmth radiating up from her capillaries.
Finally, Eun-ho turned the rest of his body to face her.He wrapped one leg around her butt and pulled her toward him.Using this motion as a distraction, he pulled out her phone and placed it under her pillow.After completing its mission, his right hand transitioned smoothly to the back of her head.Eun-ho cupped the back of her head, which was small and oblong like a melon, and brought her face to his chest.He didn’t feel like he would be able to act well while looking her in the eye.
“Let’s get some sleep,” Eun-ho said as he brought his lips to her forehead.Wife wrapped her arms around his waist and brought the rest of her body in contact with his.Tucking her hand under his shirt and stroking the vertebrae of his spine, she whispered to him:
“No.What we need is comfort, not sleep.”
Chapter 6
Jane left work as soon as her meeting finished to come home to Jiyoo.
Jiyoo wasn’t allowed back at school even after being discharged from the hospital.The school asked that she stay at home for another week before coming back.They didn’t seem to understand when Jane told them that it wasn’t contagious.Because of this, Jane had to find someone to look after Jiyoo while she was at work.
Jane still couldn’t get in contact with Yuna.No one was picking up the home phone.And when she called Yuna’s company, they said she was on her “annual leave.”Of course, if she really needed to get in contact with Yuna, she could take Jiyoo to Cheongyeon and bust through the door.But Jane didn’t consider this a valid option.
Jiyoo was precocious.She was sensitive, self-aware, and didn’t express her emotions often.In Jane’s opinion, this was an extremely dangerous combination.Jiyoo might conclude that neither her mother nor her aunt wanted her.She might think that she wasn’t welcome anywhere, and this might lead her to question her own worth, just like Jane had as a young girl.
Jane needed to look for a nanny.The woman she found was far from satisfactory.She boasted three decades of experience as a professional nanny, but Jane doubted this.Everything about the woman, from her patronizing tone to her preference for wiping her hands on her pants instead of washing them with soap and water, was unbecoming of a “professional” nanny.In fact, the only thing she seemed to be an expert at was calculating overtime pay and refusing work that wasn’t in the contract.But Jane didn’t have a choice.Unprofessional nanny was the only person who contacted her back.
It was raining outside and the roads were jammed.Once Jane entered downtown Incheon, she got stuck in stop-and-go traffic.It probably would have been faster had she walked.Jane turned off the main road several times looking for a faster route, but always ended up in yet another line of cars.
Her phone started ringing.It was coming from her home phone.It was most likely the nanny calling to complain about Jane being late.The ringtone sounded like it was nagging at her: “Hurry up so I can go home!”Jane reluctantly answered the phone call.
“Miss Shin, you didn’t tell me someone was coming today.”
The nanny’s shrill voice came out of the earpiece and pierced Jane’s eardrum.
“What are you talking about?”
“If she steals something, don’t ask me.I’m not responsible.If you keep doing this, I won’t be able to work in this house much longer.You’re always late.And today some strange woman barges in and starts tearing the place apart—”
Jane had no idea what she was talking about.But the nanny was talking too fast for Jane to interrupt her.She just listened patiently.Combining the bits and pieces she gleamed from the nanny’s nagging, Jane figured that a woman claiming to be Jiyoo’s mother had showed up at the apartment.She said she was here to take Jiyoo home.When the nanny told her to wait for Jane to get off work, the woman told the nanny to go into the kitchen and wait there.She said she was going to pack Jiyoo’s bags, but what she was really doing was tearing the house apart.The nanny wanted to stop her, but the woman was acting like she owned the place; there was no stopping her.The woman didn’t answer when the nanny asked questions.She seemed more like a debt collector than someone coming to pick up her daughter.The nanny asked Jiyoo, who confirmed the woman’s identity.
“Nanny, hold on a second,” Jane said, finally managing to cut her off.“Does Jiyoo’s mother know that you’re on the phone with me right now?”
“She’s in the master bedroom and I’m in the kitchen.I doubt she can hear us.Does this happen often?You don’t sound at all surprised.”
Jane had no reason to be surprised.Cutting into someone’s lane suddenly without signaling was a perfectly “Yuna” thing to do.Nor did Jane have any desire to stop Yuna.Even if she tried, it was impossible.Jane would only end up hurting herself.
“Nanny, don’t tell Jiyoo’s mother that you talked with me on the phone.”
“You mean you’re not coming?”Nanny asked in an irritated tone.It seemed like she had misinterpreted Jane’s simple request.
