1988

"Why did you leave him then?"

Misun picked up the menace in Jennie's voice. It was slithering like a snake behind her every expression. The dressing room grew stuffy for the both of them. Misun turned her gaze to the door after having stared at Kim Jennie for long enough. 

Jennie couldn't help the anger from seeping out. She couldn't be as professional as Jung Misun and it both hurt and comforted her. Jennie somehow wanted to convey to this lady sitting before her that her love for Sehun surpassed everything else in her life and for the happiness of her man, she would not hesitate to bring emotions into her work, to squeeze the details out of Jung Misun, to move her into thinking that she had lacked in various places as Sehun's wife. 

 It hurt her because Jennie wished she could compartmentalize. She wished she could force herself to be rational. But the tears streaming down his eyes brought the worst out of her. Jennie couldn't think straight. And after witnessing Sehun seek comfort in the arms he claimed he had long forgotten, she just completely lost her mind.  

 "...I began to like another...man," Misun answered. Good, Jennie thought. There was shame in her voice. "And I left Sehun to marry him. But...that never happened. So here we are, Inspector."

"How...could you find another person who is in any way better than Sehun, Misun?" The question slipped out of . Jennie couldn't keep control of anything that happened afterwards. Her lips ran, she was yelling, tears of frustration escaped her eyes. It all happened in a matter of seconds. "Do you know about the nightmares he still has about you? Every time he sleeps beside me, I wake up to your name incessantly ringing in my ears! He loved you with every bit of his soul and you crushed him, Misun...you are such a treacherous woman,  you shameless...heartless, cold creature..."

Misun didn't move an inch, drinking in Jennie's haggard appearance. "What was it, huh? Money? Time? Was it the daughter you wanted to leave behind at all cost? The daughter you never wanted or loved?" Crimson eyes accused her. Jennie was red with anger, about to burst at the way not one of Misun's muscles moved despite the heavy insults. "What was it?! His inheritance? ? What was it, Misun?!"

"Inspector, calm down," was all Misun said. "Your questions are quite personal. I told you what you should know. I reject the questions that are not going to help my daughter."

Jennie snorted at her cold reply. Misun coolly pointed out what her job was at this moment and Jennie refused to hear it from a woman who had brazenly committed adultery and who didn't hold any shame in pronouncing it. "It's just like he said...you're a ."

Misun finally smiled. It was hauntingly beautiful. Jennie wished she could deny it. She wished she could permanently damage her face, her fingers began to trace the pocket-knife inside the pocket of her jacket. Misun stood up, her hand reaching out to grab her purse. 

"Perhaps I am," she said, "So it is in your best interest to not make me prove it to you, Inspector."

 "You already have," Jennie didn't want to back down. She was jealous of Misun. She ached to know how Sehun was like in college, how it would have been to meet the clean slate that he was, the one who slept peacefully at night, the one who kissed a little harder in the rain, the one who sketched the picture of a happy future with the one he loved. Jennie hated Misun for painting her black, for splashing an ugly color all over his complete puzzle