E I G H T

Word of the Day – “Marinate”

Holy cow. The day that Kyungsoo had been dreading was finally coming. The moment he left that house was the last time he had seen her. He had been successfully avoiding all possibilities of running into her. The unfinished divorce proceedings were even all handled via emails and phone calls—credits to the ex-wife’s efforts, mostly, he had to give her that. The woman was passionate about the divorce, or at least for him, she was.

He always knew that this day was eventually going to come. But he was really hoping for it to be fifty years from now or even sixty or seventy—not one year after the divorce. As much as he hated the fact, he began wondering what had changed in her. Had her hair grown longer? Or did she cut it shorter? Did she lose weight? Did she gain weight?

Was she happy, finally?

“Hey, wake the up!” Finger snaps halted his train of thoughts. “What, are we just going to sit here and stare at the house until your fiery glare sets it on fire with your ex-wife still inside?”

What a brilliant idea, once again. But no, that wasn’t right. He didn’t really want to set the house on fire with her inside. He just didn’t want this to be happening right now; not tomorrow, not next week, not any ing time soon. If there was a way to just get this done without—actually, there was a way. Should his belongings be mailed instead? He could do that, right? But then, he would seem like a total chicken if he went that far. Hell to the no. “Ugh, just shut up for one second.” He honestly wasn’t in the mood to deal with Miyoung’s side comments right now, he was way too stressed out already just by pulling up the driveway. He opened the car door and stepped out with a wrinkled frown. “Just stay here, I will be quick—”

“Woah, hold up! I can’t just stay here now; I want to see the show. Are you kidding me? You forced me to come with you and then you leave me here? Nu-uh, not happening.” The woman left the vehicle as well, eagerness filling up her expression as if she was a kid about to finally see the premiere of a long-awaited Barbie franchise movie she had been waiting for.

A cold sweat broke over him as he looked up at the house once again. His gaze found its way back to the unconventionally over-dressed Ra Miyoung who was leaning by the car, raising an eyebrow at him.

There were rare times that he didn’t find Miyoung’s smirk beguiling. Today was one of those times. She was obviously enjoying what was about to take place and he didn’t want to see that.

What was he thinking about bringing her with him to do this? He must really have officially lost his mind since this woman—not a kid anymore, unfortunately—came back.

“So? Are we meeting your ex-boo or not?”

Ex-boo. Yeah, that’s some way to start it. “You’re really enjoying this, aren’t you? Aren’t you supposed to be hating this right now? You might get jealous.”

To his surprise, Miyoung took a few steps closer until their bodies were dangerously close. “Is that why you brought me along? You wanted to see me get jealous because of you? How come? Hm?” And again, the beguiling smirk came back. “Don’t tell me you’re considering our little talk about you being … a sugar daddy again? You can’t move on from that, really? Did I wake up something in you, perhaps?” Her fingertips reached to the collar of his shirt as she fixed it neatly.

He felt a familiar stiffness on his fly that made him take a big step backwards while aggressively wagging a finger at her. “Okay, you’re—you’re not coming.”

“What if I want to come? I so badly want to come, Chef. Please, make me come?”

Kyungsoo choked on nothing and started coughing severely. He death gripped on the roof of his car while tapping his chest. Miyoung’s gaze darkened into a disgruntled sneer as if she knew she had won this time around. She twirled her finger around a loose clump of hair while tipping her head on one side, waiting for him to say something. His lips only managed to make a weird sound as he looked away and began walking to the gates. He felt her trail behind while laughing evilly. “You’ve met her, right?” Actual words finally came out of his mouth after a while.

“I think once. You brought her to my sixteenth birthday. She basically crashed the party, you know? She wasn’t on the invitation. I don’t remember ever talking to her though.” Miyoung replied in such a sassy way.

“She technically was. She was my plus one, remember? And I did try to introduce her to you but you just walked off like you always do. Too bad, you two would have been besties.”

As expected, she threw him a death glare. To his surprise, however, she suddenly did the honours of pressing the doorbell. “Hey—oh , I wasn’t ready—” He pushed her hands down while glaring down at her. “Ready for what? What the hell, Kyungsoo? You used to live here before.” She argued back while folding her arms on her chest. “Yeah, and I also used to sleep with the person living inside that house. So, don’t question me. I wanted to be ready before I hit the—”

The gate opened and the two of them turn to face it at the same time. What Kyungsoo saw next was something he had never seen coming.

Pregnant lady. Pregnant. Lady. Lady was ex-wife. What the actual ery was this?

His eyes skim from her face to the bump on her torso, back and forth, back and forth. He immediately started doing math in his head, panic b his whole body despite that it didn’t make any ing sense.

“It’s not yours, don’t worry.” Her painfully familiar voice sent shivers through his nape and down his spine. He watched her the baby bump while glancing down at it. “Hm, someone’s ready to pop.” Miyoung suddenly interrupted his growing thoughts and he looked down at her again, he could see Sera also gazing at the same direction. “Hi, I’m Miyoung. Remember me?” She offered a handshake which the pregnant lady hesitantly took for the quickest handshake before she bowed instead. “I think I kind of remember you, but—”

“How long have you two been … divorced again?” Miyoung cut her off, a sly smile forming on her lips.

Instead of answering the excellent question, Sera opened the gate wider for them to come in. “Your stuff is ready inside, I put them all in two pieces of luggage, I hope that’s okay.” Kyungsoo hesitantly went in, his eyes still glowering over the baby bump. And somehow, he found himself answering Miyoung’s question. “Separated for thirteen months, officially divorced for ten.” He said with a faint voice.

Miyoung opened to speak but before any word came out of her, he grabbed her hand and dragged her to walk faster into the house. “Wait, this is interesting, Kyungsoo let’s ask her about the timeline of her dating history after the—”

“It’s doesn’t matter!” he unknowingly raised his voice at the woman.

He turned away and cranked the front door open. Conveniently, the two big pieces of luggage were already waiting right there for him. Nice, she really wanted to make sure he didn’t last in the house for too long, huh? It didn’t even take him three steps to pull them out. “Let’s go, pull this one.” He passed one luggage to Miyoung. “Ew, no. You pull them yourself.” She declined right away.

Not allowing her attitude to win, he grabbed her hand and made her hold the handle of the luggage. “You will he—help me.” His voice cracked mid-sentence and her frown slowly faded away, the creases on her eyebrows deepening as she looked up at him. Once she was holding the luggage, he pulled the other one down to the porch stairs, meeting his ex-wife down to the garden by the gates again.

“Okay, let me just get this straight.” He lifted a finger upwards. “I don’t care whatever the you did af—after I left the house but I just want to know … how soon did you start seeing other—” He turned away, one side of his lips curving up into a crooked smirk. “—you didn’t even wait for the divorce papers to be finalized, huh? Or were you doing it even before it was filed? Or even before I left?”

Hurried clicks of Miyoung’s stilettos echoed behind him and he felt her peering over his shoulders as if she was watching the most intense episode of a telenovela where the villain is about to grab the poor main character by the hair to p