AAE -- For Better For Worse

Part 3 -- Chapter 13

by LoveCR2

edited by All-About-AAE

 

 

Hyung-Chul stands in the open doorway, cigarette in one hand, can of Guinness in the other, looking over the second floor balcony railing. Taking a deep drag, he exhales a long stream of smoke between his lips as he gloomily observes the unkempt, trash-strewn courtyard below.

 

A few scraggly trees raise their leafless branches skyward. Scattered tufts of ragged grass poke through cracks in the broken concrete paving. On one side, a pair of rusty benches sit empty in a rain drizzling from the bank of low-hanging, slate-gray clouds covering the sky. Four overflowing skips squat in a line on the other side. His eye catches movement in the shadow under one of the skips, drawing his attention. A moment later, he watches as creature, small and gray, darts from the safe haven under that skip to the next.

 

The courtyard was as bleak as his long term prospects for the future. He had left Seoul to begin a new life independent of his inherited obligations, expecting to succeed as he had always done so easily before. He had married expecting a happy and fruitful family life with a woman he loved. But life hadn't turned out as expected. And for the foreseeable future, it seems unlikely he will see a turnabout.

 

'What do you think of a person who deliberately withholds something important, and leads another person to believe something that wasn't true?' Sun-Mi had asked him this, and he had answered, 'I would say that the first person doesn't fully trust the second person.'

 

 If only he had heeded his own admonition, and trusted her love and commitment to him! He deserved everything that had happened in the months since, but she didn't. Yet because of that loyalty, she was dragged down to this godforsaken place with him.

 

 

"Senior! I need your help!" Sun-Mi calls from the bedroom, her shrill voice cutting through his dismal reverie.

 

In no hurry to comply, he ignores the summons and downs a long swallow.

 

"Senior!? I need you!" she calls again, her voice insistently cross. "Now!"

 

He upends the can for a last swig of beer, then stubs the butt out on the doorframe and drops it in the can.

 

"Coming!" he growls back.

 

 

Crossing the living space of the tiny one-bedroom flat, Hyung-Chul passes between a threadbare couch and beat up TV stand before coming to the postage-stamp kitchenette. Moving boxes are stacked in any available space, several opened for unpacking. Though they'd done another round of reductions before moving from his Millwall flat, at half the size there still wasn't enough room to store everything.

 

While he had carted boxes up from a hired van, Sun-Mi arranged the kitchen cupboards and made a kimchi stew for their lunch. Their unwashed dishes clutter the small wooden table of the dining nook squeezed into a corner. To create a more festive atmosphere for celebrating the coming Seollal -- the Korean Lunar New Year -- she had taped bright red diamond-shaped good luck banners on the walls and hung a string of red paper lanterns with gold tassels over the table.

 

Tossing his empty beer can into the kitchen bin, he grabs another from the bottom shelf of the frig.

 

A few steps beyond the kitchen is the bedroom. Barely large enough for a bed and four-drawer cupboard, it is stacked with boxes like the living room. Their bed frame leans against one wall, next to the mattress and box laid on the floor approximately where the assembled bed will eventually rest.

 

 

Stopping in the doorway, he watches as Sun-Mi, tired of waiting, stretches up on tiptoe to hang their framed wedding portrait on a picture hook. She is wearing a short, sleeveless, floral-print Laura Ashley shift dress, belted at the waist, which she had acquired second-hand from a thrift store. As she reaches high overhead to snag the picture wire onto the hook, Hyung-Chul skims his eyes over her slender shape, then appreciatively attends to her bare legs, trim and toned from long shifts bussing tables.

 

"Instead of standing there gawking, could you bother to lend a hand?" she chides without turning to look, hoping her displeasure might spur him to action.

 

Hyung-Chul sets his beer on the cupboard top and steps around the mattress to get to Sun-Mi, offering, "Here, let me."

 

But instead of taking the picture from her hands, Hyung-Chul stoops down slightly and grasps her legs just below the hips.

 

"Senior! What are you doing?" she exclaims, surprised by his unexpected maneuver.

 

"Helping you hang it, like you asked," he replies drolly, easily lifting her with arms muscled up by a series of occasional day jobs ranging from loading lorries to shoveling concrete.

 

Sun-Mi quickly secures the wire over the hook, then carefully adjusts the frame to level it.

 

"All done!" she signals her desire to be put back down.

 

Hyung-Chul complies, placing her again on the floor in front of him, then circling his arms around her waist from behind.

 

 

"It's perfect!" Sun-Mi approves of her effort, admiring the attractive couple in their wedding finery, a smile curving her lips as she recalls the special effort Hyung-Chul had made to surprise her with the beautiful wedding gown of her dreams.

 

But Hyung-Chul focuses regretfully on their rings, displayed prominently in the picture. The two simple gold bands, and Sun-Mi's engagement ring, a large round solitaire diamond flanked by two curved pieces of jet black periodot, are all that remain of the extensive collection of jewelry he had gifted her over the years. The rest they had sold from necessity.

 

Yet if Sun-Mi has similar regrets, she doesn't show them. Eyes lighting up, she adds happily. "Doesn't it feel more like home now, Senior?"

 

"You don't miss the view of Hyde Park? Or even Millwall Outer Dock? This is not even comparable," he grouches, looking out the window at the drab, featureless apartment blocks across the narrow lane.

 

Sun-Mi turns in his arms to face him.

 

"Why focus on that? Anyway, what does the view matter? We should be thankful your flat brought such a good price that we can start a new year, in a new home, debt free," she harkens to the bright side, "A new beginning."

 

She smiles, "I think this is going to be our lucky year!"

 

 

Hyung-Chul gazes lovingly at his wife, his earlier doldrums dissipated by a sparkle in her eyes that is brighter than her diamond.

 

"Since it's a new beginning, do I still have to sleep on that old couch?" He raises his frequent query, hoping that this time the answer might be different.

 

"It's what we agreed to," she refuses as always, pointing to their pact.

 

"But you didn't say then, that I couldn't work at any Korean businesses," he objects. "Otherwise I'd probably have a steady job by now. And you'd have a better one, too, than working at that nightclub."

 

"I didn't have to. You knew we can't take the chance on anyone who knows us finding out our present circumstances," she reiterates the reason for precluding employment within their expat community. "If word ever got back to our families, they'd be shamed!"

 

 

Knowing she is being cognizant of the societal implications, Hyung-Chul drops his argument, retrieves his beer and pops the top open, taking a moment first to wet his throat before trying a different tack.

 

"It wasn't my fault I was let go from the carwash, the assistant manager never liked me," he brings his most recent employment to her attention. "And I've listed at the local temp agency for day jobs. Doesn't that count?"

 

"Hmmm..."

 

"The couch isn't helping my back," he adds, hoping to entice her sympathy.

 

"I do miss having you beside me," Sun-Mi muses, momentarily opening the door a crack. "But -- rules are rules."

 

Sensing an opportunity, he pleads his case, "Can't we make an exception? If I don't get a job soon, I'll go back to the couch, okay?"

 

 

Setting this beer down again, Hyung-Chul eases her into his arms again. "You know, I've been missing you terribly, too," he whispers seductively in her ear.

 

Lulled by his comforting embrace, Sun-Mi softens her stance. "Well, when you put it that way ..."

 

His lips touch a sensitive spot on her neck, setting off sparks that make her shiver. With a series of light kisses, he progresses across her shoulder, raising goose bumps and igniting more tremors.

 

 

Belatedly Sun-Mi realizes his game plan. Squirming to get free before she succumbs to his ministrations, she attempts to put him off, "We still have to finish unpacking."

 

"I can unpack and organize everything while you're at work."

 

"I have to get ready to go soon," she tries again. "If I'm late, I'll be docked."

 

"You don't have to leave for an hour. Even with showering and changing, there's at least 30 minutes remaining," he calculates.

 

 

"All right, you win," Sun-Mi concedes, effectively having no alternative, "But only if you keep your promise!"

 

"I knew you'd see things sensibly," he crows at his small victory. "Now it's almost starting to feel like home."

 

"Almost?"

 

"Since getting here this morning, we haven't had time for a moment together, until now," he hints.

 

She smiles. "You want to hold me for 30 minutes?"

 

"Can you think of anything better?"

 

Tilting her head back, Sun-Mi brings her lips up to his, murmuring sultrily, "Now that you mention it..."

 

 

A mobile ringtone sounds from the kitchen, interrupting them.

 

"Sorry," she tells Hyung-Chul as she slips from his arms and goes out to get her phone.

 

Shaking his head, he chuckles and picks up his Guinness for a sip, listening to Sun-Mi answer the call.

 

 

"Auntie Jin? ... Yes, we're fine. I was just sprucing up the house for Seollal ... What?! ... When? ..."

 

Curious, Hyung-Chul steps into the living room. Sun-Mi, her face ashen, has her mobile pressed to her ear.

 

"Of course I'll come ... Senior? No, with his work, he can't get away right now ... Okay, bye."

 

 

"What is it?" Hyung-Chul asks, worried by her appearance.

 

"It's Daddy. Auntie said he's had another heart attack. He's in the ICU," Sun-Mi tells him the bad news as tears roll in her eyes. "I need to go back to Seoul to be with him!"

 

"Then go," he agrees, "But where will we get the money?"

 

 

Looking down, she raises her left hand. "My engagement ring," she reluctantly replies. "That should be enough for the ticket and our expenses while I'm off work."

 

"Not your ring!" he objects.

 

Sun-Mi removes the ring, laying it in the palm of her hand. "It has to be. There's nothing else..."