AAE -- For Better For Worse

Part 3 -- Chapter 17

by LoveCR2

edited by All-About-AAE

 

 

Hyung-Chul sits on the rusty courtyard bench, cigarette dangling from his lips, a can of Heineken next to him providing fortitude. He checks his watch. Five hours had passed since Sun-Mi left to sell their rings.

 

"Where could she be?" he wonders to himself. "This isn't like her. What happened in Seoul, that she isn't telling me?"

 

 

Tossing the butt on the ground, he grinds it out with his boot and lights up another. He sucks the nicotine-rich smoke deep into his lungs and exhales slowly, mulling over what Sun-Mi had said before going out...

 

'I could sell myself to other men. Would you rather I do that, instead?'

 

"She wasn't serious, right?" he raises the question to himself before dismissing it out of hand. "She was just being dramatic, over the top, as she always does to make a point."

 

The thought calls back memories of Sun-Mi, some amusing, others still stinging...

 

'You're calling me petty?! You hit me with your car just because I was lost in thought! Now you eat my whole lunch, too! Aren't you overdoing it?'

 

'How much did you laugh?! ... How amusing was I to you?! ... Even mannequins behind windows aren't treated like me!'

 

'I thought you'd be different from the others... But you're just a hypocrite!"

 

'Asking for a ransom on an innocent child... They're a bunch of bastards!'

 

'I'm not just helping him. What if I say I want to marry Woo-Jin? I might do that!'

 

 

Remembering what Yoo Joo-Hee had said bolsters his assessment, 'Was there ever a more good-hearted, naive, and devoted girl than Jin Sun-Mi?'

 

"There's no way," he assures himself, deciding it was constitutionally impossible for Sun-Mi to even think of selling herself for money. And even less to follow through and actually do it.

 

Hyung-Chul sighs guiltily. Perhaps he should have married Joo-Hee instead, instead of fighting against his fate, and spared Sun-Mi having to suffer through the mess he had made of his life -- and hers.

 

 

He looks up at the sky, where dark clouds threaten, then at their apartment, with the windows wide open to air it and laundry hung out on the small balcony. He takes another draw from his cigarette and swigs down the last of the brew. Crushing the can in his fist, he gets up just as the first sprinkles fall.

 

 

A few minutes later, back in the apartment, Hyung-Chul is taking down the dry bath towels, when he hears the door open, then Sun-Mi's voice, "Senior? I'm back..." followed by a surprised, "What the...?"

 

Coming into the kitchen with the laundry basket, he watches bemused at her astonished expression. While she was out, he had been busy, too...

 

Sun-Mi looks around, mouth agape. That morning she had left with the apartment in disarray, stinking like a garbage dump. In her absence, it seems like a miracle has occurred. The room is tidied up, smelling clean and fresh. The dishes are washed, dried, and put away. The floor is swept, scrubbed, and polished. The waste bin is empty, all the trash hauled out. A vase on the table holds a dozen daffodils -- nicked from the courtyard, she suspects -- cheering the room with a bright spot of yellow. The Seollal decorations are gone, replaced by a poster of Claude Monet's 'Water Liles', a painting she had often admired. Even the windows are clear and sparkling.

 

She steps over to check out the bedroom. The floor is picked up, cleaned like in the rest of the apartment. The bed, remade up with freshly laundered sheets, is covered with dried and folded clothes, ready to be organized back into the cupboard. Their wedding picture, damage mended, hangs on the wall in its proper place.

 

Turning back, she greets Hyung-Chul with a grateful kiss. "Thank you, Senior!"

 

"I made the mess. It was mine to clean it up, too," he answers with a boyish grin, pleased with himself. "How did it go?"

 

"I'll put on the kettle, while you empty that basket," she dictates. "Then I'll tell you."

 

 

When he comes out of the bathroom, Sun-Mi is finished making the tea. Bringing the teacups, she sits with him at the table.

 

"You can have this back," she says as she hands him his wedding band. "I didn't have to sell it, after all."

 

"What about yours?" he asks, noticing her ring is missing.

 

"Oh..." She gets the ring from her pocket, and slips it onto her left hand.

 

 

"So if you didn't sell the rings, what were you doing all this time?" he asks the obvious.

 

"I stopped at the club to see if I could work a few hours today. Instead I got a better job," she informs him of the unexpected outcome. "It pays about double what I earn now, and it's a lot easier than bussing tables. Manager Chin even advanced me the money for the rent!"

 

She shows him a sealed envelope with the word 'Rent' she had written on it.

 

"Great!" He smiles, relieved their crisis was past. " So what's the job?"

 

"I'll be working as a bar hostess in the upstairs lounge. One of the girls recently quit, and Manager Chin said he'd been considering asking me when I got back," she states proudly. "Apparently he'd had his eye on me for some time. It's quite the coincidence, don't you think?"

 

 

"What?" Hyung-Chul is incredulous. "Are you joking me? You're a thirty year old married woman!"

 

"Are you saying I'm too old?" she retorts. "Manager Chin says that I have the looks and figure like I'm still in uni, and that the men like college girls, so I can get big tips."

 

His face darkens. "Do you know what hostesses do to earn those big tips?"

 

"Yes. Be pretty, smile a lot, serve drinks, and chat up the customers," Sun-Mi answers crisply, then adds wryly, "Except for serving the drinks, it's not that different from being a TV announcer."

 

But Hyung-Chul doesn't smile. "Stop acting naive! You know what kind of women work as hostesses!"

 

"Yes. Women like me, who need the money!" Sun-Mi bristles defensively at his reproach.

 

 

"Go back and tell this Manager Chin you changed your mind!" he puts his foot down.

 

"How can I do that, without returning the money?!" she argues. "Why are you acting like this? I thought you'd be pleased I found a way to resolve our situation."

 

"Not this way! I won't accept my wife being ogled and pawed by other men, like some kind of slut!"

 

"Spoken like the hypocrite you are!" Sun-Mi's riposte stings. "It's unacceptable for other men to look at me, but okay for you to ogle someone else's wife or daughter!"

 

"That was only once, and I told you, nothing happened there," he defends himself.

 

"And nothing is going to happen here, either," she holds firm. "Manager Chin assured me the club enforces a strict no-touch policy on the premises, for both the hostesses and patrons."

 

Knowing that further arguing is useless, Hyung-Chul concedes. "All right. I won't stop you."

 

Still upset over their tiff, Sun-Mi stands up.

 

"We'll discuss this later. I'm starting tonight at six. I need to go now."

 

"Why go so early? You just got back."

 

"I have to pick up my cheongsams from the tailor's -- every hostess needs two in case of spills -- and then buy some new high heels. I should've kept a few pairs of my Louboutins and Choos from before."

 

Hearing this, Hyung-Chul's eyebrow raises.

 

"Don't worry. Manager Chin let me pay him back over time," Sun-Mi preempts his question as to where she got the money.

 

"First the rent, and then clothes, too? Is there anything else?" Hyung-Chul airs his suspicions. "It smells fishy!"

 

"Then maybe you're still carrying the stink from the fish market!," she snaps.

 

"But..."

 

Sun-Mi's stern glare cuts him off.

 

"Did I cause these circumstances?!" she lays the fault squarely on him. "If you don't like it, blame yourself!"

 

 

Knowing that further arguing is useless, Hyung-Chul concedes. "All right. I won't stop you. But I don't agree, either."

 

"I'm not asking your permission," Sun-Mi states her position clearly. "I'm doing things my own way now!"