All together now...FINALLLY! An update! LOL

Ten years ago

As soon as Joohyun was certain, she hurried to tell Hyunjae the news. He was thrilled.

“A baby? Our own little one! Half you, half me.”

“Your very own son and heir,” she said, snuggling blissfully in his arms.

How he laughed.

“I’m just a common labourer. Labourers don’t have heirs. Besides, I want a girl-just like you. I want another Irene.”

Her pregnancy brought out the best in him, and she discovered again that he was a marvellous man, loving, tender, considerate as few men knew how to be. Later, when joy was replaced by anguish, it was his tenderness that Joohyun remembered most wistfully. How gently he took care of her, how worried he always was about her health. Nothing was ever too much trouble for him to do for her.

Her father was away a lot that summer, visiting his various interests, and there was little chance to tell him. When he did return it was only for a few days, filled with phone calls. Joohyun didn’t want to break the news until she was sure of having all his attention, so she waited until she knew he would be home for at least two weeks. By that time she was three months gone.

“And you will tell him this time?” Hyunjae asked.

“Of course. I only want everything to be right when I do.”

“I want to be with you. I won’t have you face his anger alone.”

“What anger? Dad will be thrilled,” she predicted blithely. “He loves babies.”

It was true. Like many bullies Andrew Bae had a streak of sentimentality. He cooed over babies and the world said what a delightful man he was.

“Honestly,” Joohyun said cheerfully, “this will make everything all right.”

How stupid could you be?

Her father was almost out of his mind with rage. ”You got yourself knocked up by that boy?”

“Dad, I didn’t get ‘knocked up’. I got pregnant by a man I love. Please don’t try to make it sound like something dirty.”

“It is dirty. How dare he lay a finger on you?”

“Because I wanted him to.”

“Don’t ever let me hear you say that again!” Her father shouted angrily.

“It’s true! I love Hyunjae and I’m going to marry him.”

“You think I’m going to allow that? You think my daughter is going to marry that low-life? The sooner this is fixed the better.”

“I’m going to have my baby.”

“The hell you are!”

She ran away that night. Her father followed her to Hyunjae’s house and tried to buy her back. But the mention of money only made Hyunjae laughed.  Later Joohyun was to realise what her father heard in that laughter. It was the roar of the young lion telling the old lion that he no longer ruled. Perhaps her father’s real hatred dated from that moment.

He tried to enlist the help of the locals, but he was thwarted. Andrew Bae was powerful but everyone remembered that the Yoons had always been kind, and nobody was ready to raise their hand against their son.

But Joohyun knew he wouldn’t give up, and in the end it was she who suggested they leave.

“Just for a while. My father will feel better about it when he’s a grandfather.”

Hyunjae sighed. “I hate running away, but all this quarrelling is bad for you and the baby. We’ll go for the sake of some peace.”

They fled and stayed with his friend. After two weeks he bought an old car, repaired it himself, and they set off again, heading south. Two weeks there, then north again.

They talked about marriage but never stayed anywhere long enough to complete the formalities, just in case her father managed to track them. Wherever they went Hyunjae’s skilled hands found him work. It was a good life.

Joohyun had not known that such happiness was possible. She was over the first sickness of pregnancy, feeling well and strong, spending her life with the man she adored. Their love was the unquestioning, uncomplicated kind that inspired songs and stories, with a happy-ever-after always promised at the end. She loved him, he loved her, and their baby would arrive soon. What more was there?

The thought of her father was always there in the background, but as week followed week with no sign of him he faded and became unreal, a ‘maybe’ rather than a genuine threat.

She began to understand Hyunjae better, and herself. It was him, and the life they lived, that she was able to stand outside herself, and look with critical eyes. What she saw did not please her.

“I was horrid,” she said to him once. “A real spoilt brat, taking everything for granted, letting Dad indulge me and never wondering where the money came from. But it actually came from men like the ones who stopped me that day. He practically stole from them. You can’t really blame them, can you?”

“You can’t blame yourself, either,” he insisted.