AAE -- Wishes Of The Heart

Chapter 122

written by LoveCR2 -- 2005

edited by All-About-AAE -- 2018

 

"I don't know whether Hyung-Chul and Sun-Mi are a curse for each other, or a blessing. How can two people have so much difficulty getting together?" -- Yoo Joo-Hee

 

 

PYEONGCHANG-DONG, SEOUL...

 

"Mi-Rae insisted on a second glass of water and giving goodnight kisses to all of her stuffed animals, one at a time," Sun-Dal says tiredly to Joo-Hee, explaining his lengthy absence, as he trudges into their master bedroom suite. "Fortunately, Dae-Hyun is sleeping soundly, for once."

 

"Thanks for going out for me," Joo-Hee answers from their bed. "I felt so tired. The kids were getting to me tonight. You're such a Dear."

 

Sun-Dal glances over at Joo-Hee. Since he'd left to tend to the children, she turned down the bedcovers, leaving only the sheet over her legs. He notices, with instinctual male appreciation, the increased swell of her breasts within her pink lace negligee.

 

"It was my turn, anyway," he deflects her commendation, as he takes off his robe and drops it at the foot of the bed.

 

He climbs back into the bed next to Joo-Hee and starts to pull up the covers, but she stops him. "Don't, I'm burning hot."

 

"Sure," he yields, recognizing one of her frequent hot flashes, and since it will be some time before he'll get to sleep, settles into conversation with her...

 

"I'm thinking you should go to half-days, to have less stress," he suggests. "Nobody is indispensable to the Company, but you're indispensable to us..."

 

"That's so sweet, Hubby," she coos, rolling onto her side to give him a quick peck on the cheek as a reward.

 

He moves his hand to gently touch the growing mound of her belly with his fingertips as he recalls, "With all the excitement at the office, I forgot to ask the result of the ultrasound."

 

Joo-Hee smiles happily, reporting positively, "The doctor says everything's going well, so far we're both healthy."

 

"That's what I want to hear... and what I want to continue hearing," he insists. "The doctor also said you should get plenty of rest, and I worry about you getting overtired. We should think about a full-time nanny."

 

"But Ahjumma can't work every evening or on weekends, and it's so hard to find anyone else who's good with the kids," Joo-Hee points out the problems with his idea. "Plus, it'll be a lot more expensive, too. I'd have to keep working longer, just so we can afford it."

 

"We can manage the money, and... I'd like you to consider resigning as soon as possible," he delivers the main point of his plan, already knowing the response it would receive.

 

 

As he fears, it's not something Joo-Hee wants to discuss, so she changes the subject. "I heard they found Sun-Mi, and she's all right."

 

"That's the official story," Sun-Dal discloses. "The reality's not so good. She had a serious concussion, and has lost her eyesight as a result... Only temporarily, we hope."

 

"How is Hyung-Chul taking the news?" Joo-Hee asks, her eyes showing where her main concern lies.

 

For a moment, Sun-Dal is resentful of the apparent depth of that concern, thinking jealously ... will she ever love me more than him? ... but he quickly pushes those feelings aside, to answer with a steady voice...

 

"He's devastated. When I left him at the club tonight, he was drowning his sorrows, blaming himself for everything," Sun-Dal replies. "Even in his worst days, I've never seen him so depressed."

 

"I once told Hyung-Chul I wished he'd fall in love and suffer for it, like I had," Joo-Hee recalls regretfully.

 

Sun-Dal is surprised. "You actually told him that?"

 

"I never thought it might happen," she explains. "It was out of spite, after he'd rejected me when I went to see him in London. I'd come dressed to the nines, and made him take me out to the Thames, hoping for a romantic moment, but got only a cold shoulder to lean on."

 

At hearing again of Joo-Hee's unrequited love, Sun-Dal glowers in his frustration, as his envious feelings seep back.

 

But Joo-Hee doesn't catch the hint of jealousy in his face, musing instead, "I don't know whether Hyung-Chul and Sun-Mi are a curse for each other, or a blessing. How can two people have so much difficulty getting together?"

 

"You're asking someone who asked that same question... He believes it's their fate," Sun-Dal shrugs off the matter, wanting to turn the conversation away from Hyung-Chul as soon as possible.

 

But she isn't finished, yet, as she has her own pangs of jealousy to deal with ... "Even if that were true, why does Hyung-Chul always think he's responsible for what happens to Sun-Mi? Why does he constantly have to obsess over her?"

 

"He told me that when Sun-Mi was in England years ago, while she was still in University, he knocked her down with his car. She had a concussion from that accident, too, and Atwater deliberately used it to lay a huge guilt trip on Hyung-Chul today."

 

Joo-Hee remembers the name. "Michael Atwater? How did he get involved?"

 

"Apparently he played 'Knight in Shining Armor' and went to Sun-Mi's rescue. He was the one who found her in the hospital," Sun-Dal clarifies. "When he called, he practically accused Hyung-Chul of direct responsibility for her condition, and threatened to take retribution if it's permanent."

 

Joo-Hee flips back to protective mode as she worries again, "Do you think he meant taking the Company away from Hyung-Chul?"

 

"It wasn't certain, but if he wasn't an enemy before, I'm sure he is now," Sun-Dal remarks, gritting his teeth to restrain his instinctive desire to scold his wife for worrying about another man. "I'm more worried that this ends our last hope."

 

 

Joo-Hee catches his mood, and guessing at the reason, snuggles up closer, feeling the tension in his body.

 

"Worrying about something we can't control is pointless," she reminds him, resting a hand first on his chest, then his cheek, to draw his attention before she purrs, in a low, suggestive voice, "Why don't we instead focus our energy on something we can control?"

 

Sun-Dal looks on Joo-Hee's radiant face, made even lovelier by her flushed cheeks. As he gazes into the depths of her smoldering eyes, a grin curves his lips, and he playfully asks, "What exactly do you have in mind to focus on, Mrs. Kim?"

 

Joo-Hee smiles back, a smile expressing the fullness of love and affection she carries for him, and answers that question with her lips...

 

 

MEANWHILE, ABOUT A KILOMETER AWAY...

 

"You were blindsided by your own arrogance, you fool! ..."

 

Kim Eun-Hee castigates her brother as they talk in the privacy of her boudoir sitting room. "You always underestimate people," she caustically points out his problem.

 

"I never anticipated Bae In-Soo would act against his own interests, and betray us by swapping the meds," Eun-Ki grumbles. "I'm still trying to figure out what motivated him to do that."

 

"Whatever the motivation, the real question is, who is behind it?" Eun-Hee wonders. "It must be someone who knew what was going on. But who?"

 

"Does it really matter? There's nothing Hyung-Chul can do now to stop the stock offering from going forward," he reminds her.

 

"Even so, he can cause us plenty of headaches," she frets. "What are your plans to keep him at bay, now that he's back at MBS?"

 

"As the new Director of TV Production, he's in a position with little influence over critical matters," Eun-Ki explains. "And right now, he's totally wrapped up with the 9/11 incident, our spy has kept me informed. Whatever step he might try to take against us... I'm not worried."

 

"It's your lax attitude that worries me," Eun-Hee gripes. "Every time you think Hyung-Chul is beaten, he comes back to get the better of you!"

 

"Those days are past," he cockily assures her. "Hyung-Chul is a toothless and clawless lion now."

 

"So you say," she is unconvinced. "I'll believe it once we have control and the Yoon's are forced out. A lot can happen before then."

 

"Patience, Dear," he urges, "since we've waited this long, what's a few more months?"

 

"That's easy for you to say! You weren't the one suffering through all those years as the despised 'other' woman!" she complains bitterly. "Instead you just reaped the benefits of my shame!"

 

"I don't think you have much right to criticize," he admonishes her. "If it weren't for me, taking you in from the gutters of Seoul and giving you the respectable life of a proper woman of society, you'd have been selling your body in some third-rate brothel in Cheongnyangni 588, instead of 'suffering' the luxuries of being a wealthy man's mistress."

 

"How dare you equate me to a common whore!" she sputters indignantly, rising from the couch and walking over to the window overlooking the gardens. "It wasn't just you who chose me -- I chose you, too. I struggled and schemed, and gave everything for you, to get you where you are. It was only because you insisted, that..."

 

"That what?"

 

She looks away, upset, yet resigned as she answers, "Never mind. It was a long time ago. There's no point in revisiting the past."

 

 

Eun-Ki gets up and walks over to stand behind her.

 

"I'm sorry," he tries to appease her ire. "We shouldn't be fighting between ourselves like this."

 

"You're right," she agrees. "I'm letting the stress get to me... I'm sorry, too."

 

"Let me help with that stress," he offers, starting to massage her shoulders with his hands. "How's this?"

 

"Mmmm...." she purrs, yielding to the ministrations of his fingers kneading her tense muscles.

 

Eun-Ki places a line of light kisses along her nape. "And this?"

 

"Better..."

 

"It's been a long time," he murmurs seductively into her ear.

 

"Too long, my dear..." she agrees. "You know, the cook leaves at nine, so there'll be no one here then, but us..."

 

"When is Hyung-Jae due back?"

 

"The car delivers him from the hagwon at eleven-thirty... there's plenty of time..."

 

"Someday I want him to know the truth, who his father really is," Eun-Ki shares his hope. "I'd like to claim him as my son, and you, as my wife."

 

"That can never happen. We agreed to that at the beginning," Eun-Hee reminds him of their pact. "Hyung-Jae deserves that much from us, to keep his secret."

 

"I just want what every man wants," he sighs, "to live forever in the flesh and memories of his progeny."

 

"And I just want what every woman wants," she insists, "to know that the man she truly loves, loves only her, forsaking all others."

 

Eun-Ki wraps his arms around Eun-Hee, and assures her, "You know I love you, and always have. How else could I put up with this arrangement, having you for so little time, and then only furtively?"

 

"Am I really enough for you? What about all those starlets?" Eun-Hee expresses her constant doubts. "I'm envious of their youth and beauty, afraid they'll steal you away. I hate the idea sharing you with any other woman... you belong to me!"

 

Eun-Ki laughs lightly at her petty fit of jealousy. "Look at it like it is, strictly a business exchange, compensation for giving them what they want," he attempts to placate her. "Women like those only satisfy a moment's need, and are forgotten -- but only a woman like you, my dear, can satisfy my deepest longings, permanently in my heart."

 

Eun-Hee leans back, resting against his chest, and sighs heavily... "When you say things like that, it still makes my heart flutter and shivers run up my spine."

 

"And when I do this?" He moves his hands to touch her in a manner and a place that they alone know...

 

His touch elicits a long, deep moan as her body responds to the sizzling pleasures. Their eyes meet, then their lips, igniting a hunger for greater, more profound satisfactions, as passion, burning hot, relentlessly consumes them...