They returned safely to Yook Family House. The Park sisters only cried a little, and Sungjae thought it was a huge achievement.

A week after his wedding day, Sungjae would go back to work. The office of his family’s rice planting business was at the right-front part of the huge house complex. Besides selling rice to the Imperial family, Yook family also sold their rice to markets in several cities in the kingdom.

His father, who was still very healthy and in his mid-forties, decided he’d take an early retirement. Yook Hyunseung would then use his time to visit his friends, have long talks with them daily over soju and exquisite meals, and visited various beautiful places in the kingdom.

This was a plan he had always wanted to fulfil all his life, and his wife agreed that there would be no harm in that. They believed Sungjae would do well in managing the family business. He would grow to be really busy, and barely ever needed to ask his father’s opinions.

Yook Hyunseung would have one week of hiking, then another week of visiting his friends. He would only be home during the weekends, and he loved the arrangement very much. He enjoyed the nature and his friends’ company, even saying that he had never been that happy in his life before.

Sungjae's mother, Madam Im Jin Ah, still managed Yook Family House and did it really well. Beside that, she had a secret fondness of creating new hanbok dresses. With her husband leaving in weekdays, she had lots of time to follow this particular interest of hers, and spent her days sewing dresses one by one, and when it’s done, she’d give them to her daughter and daughter in-law.

Meanwhile, a day before Sungjae officially took over his family business, he let Baekhyun and another servant brought two big wooden chests of books to Sooyoung’s pavilion.

“These are the books from my first year in Sungkyunkwan. You may use them as you please” he said to his wife.

As Baekhyun opened them and Sooyoung saw the stacks of books, she laughed, cheered, and even, dare I say it, jumped in excitement.

“Omo, omo, omo! I finally get to read Sungkyunkwan books! Ahhhh this is a miracle! Oh my God, I’m so happyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!”

She was literally jumping in joy, making Baekhyun and the other servant gaped at her.

Sungjae cleared his throat. “Park Sooyoung-ssi, calm down.”

Sooyoung stopped jumping and realized there were male servants there.

“Leave us” Sungjae ordered.

“Mianheyo. I’m—I forgot there were other—men.”

“Shall I take these books back?”

“No! Jebalyo! I’m wrong, please forgive me.”

“You don’t know how to behave properly in front of male servants. How could you jump like that in front of them?”

“I was wrong! I’m sorry! I’ll never do that again!”

“Do you promise, Park Sooyoung-ssi?”

His tone was scary. It’s the first time he was really angry, and she bowed, promising she’d behave better.

“Ahrasseo. Just remember you’re not a child anymore. You’re a grown woman, and you’re married. Don’t let other men see any sides of you except calmness and dignity.”

“Ye, Yook Sungjaenim, I will listen.”

Sungjae then nodded, and went to a chair, pouring himself some tea.

“Can I see them now?” Sooyoung asked hopefully.

“Go ahead.”

Sooyoung eagerly jumped to the first wooden chest, and sitting on the floor, she then looked at the cover of each book.

Sungjae didn’t see Taeyeon’s angry look at him, as she walked to help her mistress.

“Scolding my Agassi like that—who does he think he is? Aish!” Taeyeon grumbled in a low tone.

“Sshhhh!” Sooyoung warned her.

“Glaring at my Agassi, hemph! Crazy person—“

“Yah, he’s my husband. He has all the right to scold me!”

“But he didn’t have to be so stern!”

“What are you two whispering about?” Sungjae suddenly asked.

Sooyoung flinched, “A—aniyo, we’re just really impressed with all these books.”

They were really impressive for Sooyoung. There were books about literature, Confucianism, government politics, law, finance, philosophy and ethics. The other chest was full of Sungjae’s works. His homework and writings, his exam papers and the notebooks from his class.

“His handwriting is horrible” Taeyeon commented spitefully.

“Hush! Unnie, he’ll hear you!”

“I don’t care. I hate him today for scolding my Agassi.”

“I bought you a new bookshelf” Sungjae said from a few meters away, “Use them to place all my school books.”

“Manhi gamsahamnida!” Sooyoung said happily. Sungjae smiled at that, making Taeyeon snorted. “Scolding my Agassi one minute, smiling at her one minute. Tsk!”

***************************************************

The next day, Sungjae started to work, as it was also his father’s first day of hiking.

Sooyoung’s regular days then would be the same as that day. She’d always write her letters first thing in the morning. For Sungjae’s relatives, he always wrote letters to congratulate a birth or a wedding, then said her condolences for any deaths in any relative's family. Afterwards, she wrote letters to her sisters and four friends.

In that era, letters were the number one source of communication and entertainment. The wealthy ladies who could write would write lots of letters everyday, and they would all have couriers personally assigned for sending their letters to their family members and friends.

Sooyoung didn’t understand how there were still parents who didn’t care of their daughters education. Some girls were really brought up just to take care of their husbands and produce children, really.

She was a part of the few young ladies in that era who were lucky, having parents who hired tutors to teach their daughters to read, write and count. The popular thing to do for the modern parents like hers was to hire retired palace maids to teach their daughter of elegance, manners and ethics.

Once she finished writing her letters, she would then sit down to read Sungjae’s school books. She was learning Government Politics first, because she had always wanted to read those books, but they were always strictly for Sungkyunkwan students or scholars who were preparing for the national exam to be government officers.

After lunch, she’d continue studying, alternating with embroidering or painting when she’s tired. She liked to walk around the different pavilions and gardens in Yook Family complex before dinner, accompanied by Taeyeon. On the weekends, Sungjae liked to accompany her in these early evening strolls.

Other husbands would not even allow their wives to go near those books, for fear they would learn too much, be too smart and then rebel.

But Sungjae didn’t see the harm, and let Sooyoung learnt as much as she wanted.

One day, when he had lunch with his friends, a friend, Eunkwang, asked him whether it was true that Sungjae’s wife was studying his books from their first year at the academy.

“It’s true. She’s obsessed with them. If I don’t ask her to stop studying, she’d continue without eating or sleeping.”

“That’s really unusual” another friend, Hyunsik commented.

“But I don’t see the harm, so I let her.”

“Why does she study?” Shin Dong Geun asked, “I mean, we studied because we had to. Our abojideul would kill us if we couldn’t graduate Sungkyunkwan, but why does she study? She doesn’t have to.”

“She said it’s fun” Sungjae answered shortly, before continuing to munch his food again

“Fun???” his friends retorted back in shock.

“Ne. She’s happy when she studies, so I let her.”

“Yahhhhh, I wish Park Sooyoung is a guy. I’d be able to discuss about a lot of things with her” Minhyuk commented, impressed.

He was just officially hired as a Sungkyunkwan Academy lecturer. They were all already married and he’d continue living in his own house, but he’d go everyday to the academy to teach.

“I’ve had enough of studying” Sungjae confessed, “But you, Minhyuk hyung, you even return to the academy and will work there your whole life. I really can’t believe you love it that much.”

“Because I agree with your wife. Studying is fun.”

The topic ended there.

Day by day, Sooyoung happily buried herself in Sungjae’s school books. She also did all the homeworks Sungjae did on new, blank notebooks.

Though Sungjae was never enthusiastic about his own education, he always got high scores in his homeworks and exams, as he was naturally smart. His writings were all straightforward and completely logical.

Sooyoung wrote in a letter to her friend, Bae Joo Hyun, that she felt she understood her husband better by perusing his school books and works.

This resulted in such curiosity that Bae Joo Hyun invited Sooyoung to her house.

At dinner that night, Sooyoung asked Sungjae’s permission to go to her friend’s house for lunch the next day.

“Is this one of your four friends?” he asked.

“Ne. We haven’t met for a month.”

“Why can’t she be the one to visit you? Why do you have to go to her house?”

“Because she’s heavily pregnant.”

“Ah. I see. What’s her name again?”

“Bae Joo Hyun unnie.”

“And what’s her husband’s name?”

“Kim Junmyeon-ssi.”

“Wait—is she that Bae Joo Hyun?”

In their generation, Bae Joo Hyun’s beauty was legendary. Mothers even warned their sons to never looked at her in the face whenever she visited the market or went to the temple, because it was a matter of course to fall for her just after one look.

Ever since she turned fifteen, men had been proposing for her hand in marriage.

The letters of proposals were so many that they said her father asked his secretary to choose one hundred of the wealthiest ones and asked his daughter to just choose one of them.

They said she always asked her maids to burn these letters.

Her father thought she’d never marry and would just opt to be a nun, since she always returned every single gift the men who were enamoured of her showered her.

It was a huge surprise when she told her father that she would marry her childhood friend and neighbour, Kim Junmyeon, after all.

By that time, she was already twenty three years old, and was considered a spinster by the sharp-mouthed girls of that era. Probably the most beautiful spinster in the kingdom, but still a spinster.

They were all surprised because she finally announced she would marry the childhood friend. The previous day, Kim Junmyeon was promoted as one of the twelve main officers in the Ministry of Law and Justice.

Some said she wouldn’t leave her house unless with the biggest dowry ever. But Sooyoung, as one of her close friends, knew that her Joo Hyun unnie had always promised to marry her childhood friend. She just kept postponing it to encourage Kim Junmyeon to be the best he could be.

And she succeeded at that. The other main officers at the ministry were all at least a decade older than him.

Kim family gave Bae Joo Hyun such a lavish wedding that would make even a princess jealous.

“It feels a bit silly to do all this just to move next door, really” Joo Hyun said to her friends, as they all gathered in her house a day before her wedding.

“Their family managed to get the prettiest and most sought after daughter in-law in the kingdom, of course they’ll celebrate hugely” Son Seungwan replied.

“I’m not that anymore. I’m already old.”

“Unnie!!! You look younger than all of us!”

“You say that just to entertain me. I’ve lost all my beauty because I was waiting for that silly Junmyeon to succeed.”

“Unnie! You are prettier than ever now! And you will only just grow prettier!” Sooyoung protested then, hooking arms with Joohyun.

*******************************************************

Back to a year later in Yook family home, as Sooyoung asked permission to Sungjae to visit her unnie:

“Do you really want to go?” Sungjae asked.

“Very much.”

“Ahrasseo. Have lunch there and come home before dinner. Or sooner than that, if possible.”

“I’ll come home before dinner. Gamsahamnida, Sungjae-nim.”

***************************************************

It was strange to see Bae Joo Hyun, who had always been slim, with a huge belly. The hem of her hanbok shirt even lifted a bit to accommodate her tummy.

Her due date was near. She was having problems to get up on her own after sitting down, and her feet would be swelling if she didn’t take a walk in a long time.

“Unnie, I will go to a temple for your safe delivery” Sooyoung exclaimed.

“I’ll go with you” Seulgi said, earning agreements from Yerim and Seungwan.

“Aigoo, gamsahamnida. I’m sure I will be safe and my baby will be born healthy.”

“You’re sure, Unnie?” Yerim asked, “How can you be so confident? This is your first baby!”

“Because I decide so. I believe even the Gods would not defy me.”

They had the chills by then. The real Bae Joo Hyun was this fierce.

“Yeokshi. Uri Bae Joo Hyun unnie is really like this. I do believe even the Gods would not be so heartless as to give you troubles on your delivery” Seungwan nodded.

“So, Sooyoungie, how are you? Is this true what I hear that Yook Sungjae-ssi lend his school books from Sungkyunkwan to you?” Joo Hyun asked.

“I’m good, Unnie. And yes, that’s true. He’s very generous.”

“Omo, he’s nicer than I thought he would be” Yerim commented.

“He’s just sly, that Sungjae-ssi. He knows you like studying and love books the most. He’s just trying to win your heart” Joo Hyun added.

“Even so, that’s really nice of him.” Seungwan chimed in.

“Uri Sooyoungie already had enough jewels from her parents, she prefers books more” Seulgi said, nodding with it.

“Aigoo, don’t think too much. I just asked for it, and he was nice enough to lend me.”

*************************************************

Meanwhile, during lunch with his friends—Sungjae had lunch with his friends during weekdays. They decided it was the only time they could still socialize with each other—Sungjae said his wife was having lunch with her friends at Bae Joo Hyun’s house.

“Ah.....I was one of her admirers before I married” Ilhoon confessed dreamily.

“She married Kim Junmyeon. That’s really a big blow.”

“.......were you one of those who proposed to her as well?”

“I sent her a letter and a gift” Ilhoon said, embarrassed. “It was returned without being read or opened.”

“Yahhhhh, so she was really that cold” Eunkwang exclaimed.

“But Kim Junmyeon is really handsome, right? And they’re childhood friends. It’s not that surprising that she married him, actually” Minhyuk commented.

“Be careful, Sungjae, if Sooyoung-ssi meet Kim Junmyeon, she might fall for her” Changsub teased.

“Tsk. What nonsense are you talking about?” Sungjae replied, feeling annoyed.

“What? I’m not speaking nonsense. Kim Junmyeon-ssi is really, really handsome! He has lots of admirers! So many girls were heartbroken when his wedding with Bae Joohyun was announced.”

“So? What’s that got to do with me?”

“I’m just saying, you should be careful. It wouldn’t be the first time a man’s wife go crazy over Kim Junmyeon. He really had married women offering themselves to him!”

“You mean he’s not loyal?”

“He’s as loyal as a stone! He only cares about his wife! That’s what makes all the girls go crazier about him. The perfect guy they could never get. I’m just saying, you should be on constant vigilance. Don’t let your wife caught the Kim Junmyeon bug.”

Eunkwang kicked Changsub’s leg under the table.

“Stop it, Maknae looks already upset.”

“When else can I bully him like this? It’s always he who bullies me! Now it’s his turn!” Changsub whispered.

Sungjae really became quiet after that. He barely said another word until the lunch was over.

*****************************************************

When Sooyoung was preparing to go home, Kim Junmyeon arrived from work.

The four guests bowed to him and asked how he was doing.

He answered politely, saying he was doing well, and asked about them.

After an equally polite reply from them, he walked to his wife.

“How are you today, Joo Hyun-ah?”

“I’m alright. My back just hurts a little” she reported.

Junmyeon immediately reached for her wife’s back and gave her soothing pats.

Sooyoung was amazed. Her friends were all really beautiful, but Kim Junmyon barely spared them a glance since he entered. His eyes were all for his wife.

Ah, so this is how a loyal husband looks like, she thought.

Joo Hyun patted her own shoulder.

“You need to rest. Your friends should go home.”

“Don’t be rude to my friends, aigoo. I was the one who asked them to come” Joo Hyun scolded him.

“Aniyo, it’s alright. We stayed too long. We need to go home.”

“Oh. That’s good. The maids will walk with you to the front gates.”

“What are you talking about? We’ll send them to the front gates!”

“But you’re tired, Joohyun-ah.”

“I don’t care. I will go send them out.”

“Unnie, I think you better just stay here. We can just go with the maids to the front garden” Sooyoung said.

“My due date is near, who knows when can I see you again?”

“Ah unnie! Don’t speak like that!” Sooyoung protested, almost crying.

“Didn’t you say you decide to be safe and healthy?” Seungwan reminded her.

“Right. I can do it. I can do it, right?”

“We believe in unnie! Unnie, you can do it! Have a safe delivery, Unnie. We will pray for you and your baby’s safety.”

“You all have to, alright?”

“We will!”

They all hugged her one by one, then said their goodbyes and left the sitting room.

“I’ll call the doctor” 

“Don’t overreact. I’m just tired because this baby in my tummy is heavy, that’s all.”

“You need to lie down, then.”

That was the conversation they heard as they walked out of the pavilion.

Such a sweet couple, Sooyoung thought. Extremely good-looking too.

*************************************************

At dinner in her pavilion that night, Sungjae asked, “How’s your visit to your friend’s house?”

“It was nice. I had great fun.”

“Is Bae Joo Hyun-ssi healthy?”

“She gets tired easily and had a backache. But beside those, she’s really healthy.”

“Did you see her husband?”

“Ne. He arrived when we were preparing to go home.”

“How is he?”

“He’s really handsome.”

Sungjae choked at that. Literally choked.

He coughed and gasped, hitting his own chest in desperation.

“Sungjaenim!!! Did you catch the fish’s thorn?”

It took him some time, but he finally could breathe again.

He then received the water Sooyoung poured for him, gulping it slowly, before taking a shuddering breath.

“Was it the fish’s thorn?”

Sungjae waved his hand, his face was red and he had to cough several times.

Sooyoung stood up and patted his back worriedly.

“Yah, Park Sooyoung!”

“Should you swallow a big chunk of rice? Omma always told me that’s the thing to do when you accidentally swallow a fish’s thorn.”

“Yah, Park Sooyoung, you’re really something! I’ve always been kind to you—but you—you cheated on me!”

“Eh? Cheated? Me?”

“Yes, you!”

“I? Cheated on you? Whatever could you mean, Sungjaenim?”

“You! You’re being unfaithful, Park Sooyoung-ssi!”

Sooyoung’s expression was a very obvious question mark. She looked at her husband with utter confusion.

“You didn’t just watch a peasants’ theatre at the market, did you, Sungjaenim? And decide to act it up in front of me?”

“I didn’t! I’m really angry right now, Park Sooyoung-ssi, jebal, take me seriously!!!”

“But I don’t understand you!”

Sungjae had to take a deep breath.

“You, Park Sooyoung-ssi, you just said another man is really handsome!”

“........that is being unfaithful?”

“Of course!”

“But—I was merely stating a fact.”

“Yah, Park Sooyoung, you really—aigoo, what is this? Are you rebelling?”

“........are you joking with me, right now, Sungjaenim? Is this one of your pranks?”

“Park Sooyoung-ssi! I’m really disappointed at you!”

“I didn’t do anything!”

“You look at another man!”

“Wh—then what I am supposed to do? Close my eyes when there’s another man?”

“Yah, are you arguing with me?”

“Sungjaenim,” she tried, forcing herself to reply in a calm tone. “You know I’ll be the first to apologize if I’m wrong. But I didn’t do anything wrong!”

“You will just go on saying another man is handsome? What if I say another woman is beautiful? Wouldn’t you be angry?”

Sooyoung frowned. “Why would I be angry if that’s a fact? There are lots of beautiful women in this world!”

Sungjae was speechless, patting at his own nape in anger.

“Please be sensible, Sungjaenim. Don’t be angry of things that don’t exist!”

“You really did say another man is handsome!”

“How can that be unfaithful? I don’t understand!”

“You! You could say another man is handsome but you’ve never told me I’m handsome, not even once, while I, I tell you you’re beautiful all the time!”

Sooyoung was so surprised by this attack that opened wide in shock for three full seconds before she replied, “I am shy, Sungjaenim. I’ve never been close to another man before, and then all of a sudden, I’m married to you! How can I say you’re handsome so easily?”

“You’re shy but you can praise another man so easily?”

“I was merely stating a fact, Sungjaenim. It’s not like I’m having an affair with him!”

Just the fact that she was saying “affair” and “him” in one sentence made him angrier.

“Just tell me, who is more handsome to you, that Kim Junmyeon or me???”

“How can a man who is angry because of something that doesn’t exist be handsome for his wife?”

“PARK SOOYOUNG-SSI!!!”

Sooyoung glared back at her fuming husband, equally angry by then.

Sungjae stood up so harshly, until the wooden chair nearly toppled over, “That’s it. I’m sleeping in my own room tonight!”

Sooyoung was shocked. She could only stand motionlessly when Sungjae walked away.

Yet when she saw his back and how tense his figure was, she realized it was really her who could only stop this needless fight.

She was not going to have them fight horribly only on their second week of marriage, over something that didn’t exist too!

She ran to stop him, when he nearly opened the doors.

“Don’t be like this, Sungjaenim. Why do you have to go?”

“Don’t stop me! I’m just a joke for you!”

“You’re not! You’re my husband, Sungjaenim. Please! I can’t let you go back to your pavilion while you’re angry with me. Jebalyo, this doesn’t even make sense!”

“Was it fun, making me angry like this?”

“It’s not! It’s driving me mad! Why do you have to be so angry?”

“Why do you have to say another man is handsome, Park Sooyoung?”

“I have eyes, Sungjaenim. Unnie’s husband is handsome, just like the cherry blossoms are beautiful and the sky is an awesome sight! What is there to be angry for?”

“Because you look at another man long enough to praise his looks!!!”

“What does it matter? I just looked at him for a few seconds, I’m going to live the rest of my life with you!”

Sungjae sighed. He actually knew he was being irrational, but he couldn’t help it.

“You never told me I’m handsome. You never even told me you like me even a little.”

“Words like that are hard to say! How can I say those things to you?”

“You can say another man is handsome.”

“That’s because he doesn’t matter to me, you are!”

“Jinjja?”

Sooyoung inhaled and exhaled, feeling exhausted.

“Isn’t it obvious?”

“What is?”

“That you mean a lot to me!”

“Really? I didn’t know that.”

“Please. Are you done being angry?”

“No.”

“What should I do to make you stop being angry?”

“I don’t know. Try harder.”

Because she didn’t know what else to do, she reached for his hands and held them.

“Jebalyo. You mean more to me than any other men.”

“Am I? How?”

“You’re really kind to me. You lent me your school books! I’ve never heard any other husbands done that, ever!”

“.......that’s it?”

“What else do you want me to say?”

“Who’s more handsome, Kim Junmyeon or me?”

“You are! You are, alright? Because you’re my husband, you’re the most handsome for me! There, I said it! Can you stop being angry now?”

Sungjae grinned. “Ahrasseo.”

“Thank the Gods!” Sooyoung exclaimed in relief.

Sungjae pulled her to his arms, and they stood like that for awhile.

“Can we please continue dinner? I’m starving.”

“Hm. Give me another minute.”

Sooyoung whined, but didn’t move. The usual Park Sooyoung would fight him until her voice became hoarse. But she realized she was Park Sooyoung the wife then, she rather gave in a little than being stubborn, and letting the fight became worse.

Sungjae held her tight and realized that was how jealousy felt. He became an irrational, crazy person. It didn’t make sense for a girl he just met two weeks ago to bewitch him so, yet it was really happening.

He then let Sooyoung brought him by the hand back to the circular dining table.

He felt embarrassed by his outburst. Sooyoung scooped the best part of the fried fish on his bowl. And just like that, he melted.

“Gomawo” he smiled, then resumed his dinner.

Marriage, Sooyoung thought. So it was like this.

Sungjae nearly gave her a heart attack that night, but when she thought about it, he was that irrational because he was really jealous, she thought it was cute.

Does he like me that much?

At that time, Sungjae looked up from his bowl, and smiled at her.

She couldn’t help smiling back at him.

He could make my world better just with a smile, and there he thought I saw another man as better than him.

How silly.

**************************************************

Author’s Note:

Because Monday is also my day off. My day offs are Sunday and Monday.

What do you think of their first fight?

It’s a bit silly, but in character, I think.

I don’t think I’ll be able to write again until the next weekend, sobs.

Thank you for reading. See you around!