After her meltdown, Jodi put her phone on 'Do Not Disturb' and went up to her studio. She painted, and painted. Nothing in particular, just swirls and splashes of angry reds, sad blues, and abysmal blacks. The art that she created was as depressing and chaotic as she was feeling inside.

Around 3p.m., her phone began to ring nonstop. “Yeoboseyo?”

“Anae!” JiYong greeted happily. “Yah, what have you been doing? I've been texting and calling all day.”

“Sorry, I'm up in my studio. You know how it is.”

“Arrasso. I thought that might be the case. Well, I'm back in Seoul. I want you to meet my friends. Want to come out and play tonight?”

“I'm really not in the mood, Ji. I think I'll stay in,” Jodi told him while she chewed on the end of a brush.

“Do you feel okay? Need me to do anything?”

“No, I'm fine. I just need some quiet.”

“A time out?”

“Yeah.”

“Can I come over later?” he asked hopefully. “I really miss you, Jo.”

“I miss you, too, babe, but I know I won't be good company. I'd rather be alone tonight.”

“Arraso,” JiYong sighed sadly. “Call me tomorrow?”

“I will,” she promised. “Go have fun with your friends and don't drive home.”

She could hear him laugh into phone and it made her smile. He made kissing noises at her, and she did the same before hanging up.

* * * * *

Jodi laid on her couch that night, eating funky cheeses on apple slices, drinking wine and watching 'Hero' with Ebah asleep on her feet. Jodi had just finished an hour long fight with her insurance company while they gave her a series of bull excuses about why they couldn't give her a rental car until Monday.

Beyond that, she had spent the day in relative silence, trying to listen for the Universe tell her what to do next. As a Buddhist, she firmly believed in Karma. Moral Causation. What you put into the universe is what you get back, whether positive or negative. But for the life of her, she couldn't understand what amazing wrong she had done to deserve her recent happenings.

She liked to think of herself as a realistically positive person. She treated people respectfully, she didn't hold grudges, she was careful of words said in anger, and under no circumstances did she forget to be thankful. Every day and every challenge was supposed to teach her a lesson, but she really couldn't understand what the hell this one was was supposed to be about.

Jodi was still pondering when Ebah lifted her head suddenly and broke Jodi's concentration. The dog looked towards the door, so Jodi did the same. Ebah jumped off the couch and trotted over to the door, wagging her tail the whole time. Thinking she may have to use the bathroom, Jodi opened the front door, only to find JiYong leaned against the jamb. His hair and clothing were disheveled, his cheeks were just as red as his eyes. He reeked of alcohol.

“I forgot the number,” he slurred pathetically and followed it with a drunken giggle.

After closing her eyes and counting to five, she asked him, “What are you doing here?”

“I was missing you. I wanted to spend the night with my wife.” JiYong lunged forward to hug her but she blocked him with her hands. “What? You aren't happy to see me?”

“I told you that I wanted to be alone tonight,” she said sharper than she usually would have addressed him, but no, she was not happy to see him.

“What? Is your boyfriend here?” he joked.

“Shut up, JiYong.” She gathered up her dishes and made her way to the kitchen. JiYong was sitting on the floor, struggling to remove his shoes when she looked back in his direction. She let him struggle. “Did you drive here?”

“Ani. SooHyuk brought me. He can't wait to meet you. I talked about you all night.”

“That's nice.”Jodi responded uninterestedly. “Use the bathroom in my room to clean up before you go to bed. Don't use the one out here.”

“Yah, Jodi!” he yelled, swaying while attempting to stand up. “Yeobo~ Can you make me hot chocolate?”

“It's late, JiYong, and I am really not in the mood. Please, just go to the guest room and sleep it off.” Jodi dropped the dishes in the sink and turned away.

“I don't want to sleep in the guest room,” he pouted.

“Too bad,” she shot back over her shoulder.

“Get back here!”

She stopped in her tracks and spun slowly to face him. “Excuse me?”

“Aren't you going to take care of me?” he asked. He stumbled a few steps closer to her, holding the back of the couch for support. “You're my wife. You have to take care of me.”

Jodi took a few steps toward him and stopped. “So. I told you to not use that bathroom. Why? Because my brothers broke the toilet and I can't afford to have it fixed yet.” She ticked the offenses off on her fingers. “I had a shoot get cancelled, I was extremely late to another one, one of my employees quit, the others threatened to do the same unless I gave them more money—which I don't have! I broke a camera, SooYoung wrecked my car, and my mother quit her job. All I wanted was some time alone to pull myself together, and you disregarded that! I have had a spectacularly ty week! And on top of all that other madness, my mother disowned me and took my babies from me. I am completely ed up about it, JiYong, and I don't have the energy! to take care of anyone else right now!”

Jodi stomped off to her room and slammed the door behind her. She made it as far as the foot of her bed before she dropped to the ground. With her back pressed to the footboard, she drew up her knees and buried her face in her knees. The tears started slowly, then the dam broke. Jodi felt so overwhelmed that all she could do was cry.

She was aware of the door opening over the sound of her sobbing, but she didn't lift her head. Nor did she lift her head when JiYong sat next to her and rubbed her back. When she calmed down, she tilted her head back and wiped her eyes. “I'm sorry that I yelled at you.”

“No, no. Don't,” JiYong said softly. He moved to his knees at her side, cupped her cheeks and used his thumbs to brush her tears. Jodi noticed tears in his as well. “I'm sorry. I should have listened to you.”

“It's okay.”

“It's not okay," he countered. "I was being selfish and I'm sorry.” JiYong kissed her softly, hugged her to his chest and whispered his repeated apologies in her ear. Jodi eventually lifted her arms to hug him back, signaling to him that it was really okay. After a time, JiYong stood and pulled her to do the same. "Go ahead and lay down. I'll clean up, then I want you to tell me what happened."

Jodi her lips and looked at her feet. "I am aware of how weak this will sound, but . . don't go. Please?"

"There's nothing weak about you, Jodi," he told her as he hugged her once more before gently pushing her towards the bed. He took off his jacket and laid down beside her. Jodi tucked her face into his neck and closed her eyes when he her hair. "Alright. Start from the beginning. Tell me everything."

And so she did. She began with how sick she was on Sunday and finished with the events of the morning. She didn't cry during the retelling, but Jiyong could hear the profound sadness in her voice. Especially when she talked about her brothers. "I don't know what I'm gonna do, Ji. I've built my life around them, I've worked my schedule so that I can see them all the time. It feels like I have this massive hole in my chest when I think about them not being here.”

“This might sound cold, but don't think about them. Right now, focus on the things you need to do. Tell me your plan.”

She laughed softly. “There is no plan. I'll just have to put out one fire at a time."

"What's the first fire?"

"I would say the car, but that won't be so bad. I get a rental car on Monday and I can keep it for a month. That'll give me time to look for a new one and figure out how to pay for it. I'm not pressed about the bathroom, I have extras. With the crack on my phone screen, I can't text, but I can still get phone calls, so that can wait, too. After that, the easiest to deal with will be the camera. All of my equipment is insured. I'll have to pay for the camera up front, but they'll reimburse me half the money a few weeks later. I'm just so glad it wasn't my DSLR camera. I probably would have strangled Baby Z over that one."

JiYong smiled a little and hugged her tighter. "And the fire after that?"

"The employees, I think. I'll have to talk to my accountant and see how I can make that work. I can understand where they're coming from. The money is inconsistent for them, but hell, it's inconsistent for me too. It's going to be a stretch, but having to replace half of my staff would be devastating. For them, and for me. They have families and people depending on them.”

"So do you," JiYong added gently.

“Well, not as many as I did twelve hours ago," she quipped. JiYong squeezed her arm lightly, letting her know he didn't think her joke was funny.

"Do . . . do you think she was serious about all that, Jodi?”

"Oh yeah. I'm sure she's been wanting to do that for a while,” Jodi said with a humorless laugh. She was quiet for a time after that, then she said softly, “It's one thing to know she never really wanted me, but now I know. She and I have never been on good terms, but it was worse after daddy died. I would like to think that she isn't so shallow as to make this about money, but I can't put much past her anymore.”

“What do you mean?”

Jodi rolled to her back and put her hands behind her head. “She made a comment about the insurance money from when appa died. Cops are about that kind of thing, keeping their affairs in order, you know? So he had several policies, like most cops do, and for some of them, I was the sole beneficiary. Some of it I got immediately, the bulk I couldn’t touch until I was twenty-one. I assume that he hadn't had a chance to change these to add the twins because he died before they were born. Anyway. On the largest one, he split it 60/40 between my mother and I. I got the 60. I offered to give her more of the money, but she refused. So I bought this building with that money. I invested in good cameras, lighting equipment, computers and staff. I used the money like I was supposed to. I secured my future with it.”

“Then why would that be a problem for her?”

“I really don't know,” Jodi said with a sad shake of her head. “And while she worked, I raised her children and supported her family like a good daughter should. Honestly, I feel used. She took my family from me in one fell swoop. My grandparents, my uncle, my aunt, my cousins, and my babies. Gone, because she said so. I'm alone again.”

“No you aren't,” JiYong declared firmly. He tugged on Jodi's shoulder until she faced him again. He wiped at her tears again and kissed her sweetly. “What I don't understand, is why you didn't call me.”

Jodi shrugged one shoulder. “You were busy.” JiYong thumped her on the forehead. “Ouch. .”

“The same way you are never too busy for me, I am never too busy for you. Aside from being your husband, I am your friend. Day or night, you call me. Issues big or small, you call me. If you're having a terrific day or a terrible one, you call me. Understand?”

“Sorry,” she mumbled. He thumped her again. “Dammit, JiYong!”

“Stop apologizing.”

“Stop hitting me!” she laughed while rubbing her head.

“There it is. There's that smile I love,” JiYong said with a satisfied grin.

“You could have just told me a joke.”

“I don't know any good ones,” he confessed. He gripped the back of Jodi's neck and laid her head on his shoulder. “Sleep now, anae. We'll figure things out together. Everything is going to be alright.”

He felt her nod against his shoulder. He kissed her in all the reachable places and rubbed her back. JiYong thought she had fallen asleep until her heard her say, “Thank you. I needed to hear that.”

JiYong smiled into her hair and squeezed her tighter. So glad to have his arms full of the woman he loved.

* * * * * *