Choi Seung Hyun pulled his Mercedes into his four-car garage with precision. It was important to him that his cars line up along the front bumper. So much so that when the garage was built, he had the contractors paint a thick white line.  He got out of the car and inspected his parking skills; he lined the car up perfect as always.

…The black Jaguar however…

Choi Seung Hyun knew it would be a loosing battle trying to get his wife to do anything he asked of her, including parking her very expensive import that she insisted on bringing with her from America. He stood between it and the white line, measuring the distance with his long legs. The Jaguar was at least a half of a meter from the clearly marked line. Choi Seung Hyun hit the button to close the garage door and watched as it barely missed hitting his wife’s car.

With a sigh, he hung his keys on the hook labeled “ Mercedes 1”. He debated asking his wife to come out and park the car properly; the only way to get her to submit to his demand would be to punish her for not completing his instructions in the first place. Choi Seung Hyun thought otherwise though. It was late and he was sure there would be some animosity from her anyway because he had not come home to eat dinner. He reached to grab the keys off the hook labeled “Leena’s Jag”, but his hands came up empty. This caused Choi Seung Hyun to purse his lips, slightly disgusted by the situation, and barge into the home.

The home smelled like fabric softener, freshly steamed asparagus, and well-seasoned tender loin. It was the perfect Thursday smell. It meant that his wife, Leena, did the laundry and made the dinner he insisted on having every Thursday. Choi Seung Hyun place his coat and shoes in their designated space in the closet next to the garage before moving on to inspecting the rest of Leena’s chores.

His long toes were met with the grit of a carpet that had not been vacuumed. He moved into the cream and beige living room and ran his finger against the end table situated behind the couch. There was a photo of he and his wife on their anniversary trip to Paris in a gilded frame sitting on the table. He traced the frame with his finger as well. As he suspected, a thin layer of dust coated everything.  Not a big deal really, anyone walking into the living room, the entire home actually, would have said the place was clean and warm. No one would have noticed the dust.

Choi Seung Hyun noticed it though, therefore it was a problem.

The sound of running water telegraphed the location of his wife upstairs in their bedroom. He took the steps two at a time, determined to figure out why his wife hadn’t cleaned the house the way he specified. The car not being parked the way he wanted he couldn’t say he cared much about. It was her car that she paid for, therefore if she wanted the garage door scrapping the back bumper that was more or less her business. But the rest of the house…he paid for that carpet, and the furniture, and the gilded frame so he’d be damned if she let it go to ruin.

He leaned against the doorframe of the master bedroom. His wife came out of their obscenely huge master bathroom and pretended not to know he was standing there. She picked up her brush off her vanity and began to wrap her hair up in preparation for bed. Choi Seung Hyun took in her silhouette; Leena was wide and too shapely. The white cotton of her dress contrasted awkwardly against her dark skin. Basically she was very American. A huge contrast from Mary who had the phrase grade A Korean supermodel stamped on her forehead. Leena finished wrapping her hair. She  gripped her meaty fingers around her wine glass  and took a sip of wine. She then grabbed the moisturizer to finish her before bed ritual. She still had yet to acknowledge he was home.

“I’m Home.” Choi Seung Hyun said, never taking his eyes off the woman he couldn’t believe at one time he thought was attractive.

Leena looked at him in the vanity mirror then went back to rubbing in the rest of the lotion. “ I heard you come up the steps.”

“I’m sure you saw me standing here.”

“You’d be right about that.” Leena took another sip of her red wine.

“So…you don’t greet me or anything?”

“I figured I’d let you stare.”

“When did you start being so Impolite, Leena?”

Leena picked up her glass and took another long sip. She never took her eyes off of Choi Seung Hyun’s reflection in her vanity mirror.

“ I guess I started being so impolite about the same time you stopped coming home at a decent hour.”  Leena finally responded. She took another sip of wine as she got up to move to the bed.

Fed up, Choi Seung Hyun swiftly crossed the distance between the two of them and reached to yank the wine glass out of Leena’s hand. He misjudged her grip and sent the glass and that last remnants of its contents to the ground. The red wine splattered much like how Leena thought blood would all over the crème carpet. The two of them stood there for a moment, just staring at each other. Choi Seung Hyun could almost hear the burgundy liquid seeping into his twenty thousand dollar carpet. Leena could see the panic in his eyes. She could see that he expected her to rush and clean it up. 

Leena was the first to move. She didn’t go for the spot remover that was kept along with other chemicals under the bathroom sink. She didn’t reach for the towel that sat draped over an armchair from when she took her shower all but thirty minutes before Choi Seung Hyun came home. Instead she simply stepped over the wine stain and set on the edge of the bed. She set her alarm clock, swept her feet into the bed, and pulled the sheets up to her chest.

Choi Seung Hyun stared at her contemplating his next move. How could she possibly let that stain sit there? It was her fault for drinking wine in the bedroom. He asked her a few times not to drink anything but water in anyplace that wasn’t the kitchen.  Choi Seung dashed for the spot remover and the towel draped over the armchair and started scrubbing. He prayed that it hadn’t sunk into the carpet too much.

“Where have you been tonight?” Leena asked quietly from her position in the bed.

Choi Seung Hyun didn’t answer. He was so intent of getting that stain out of the rug.

“I asked you a question.”

“I had to work late.”

“Really because when I called Youngbae and Jiyong they had no clue where you were.”

Choi Seung Hyun was happy to see the stain coming out. He sprayed more spot remover and scrubbed furiously trying to get the now faint pink stain.

“I was by myself, working. I needed to get out of the studio. Here is a better question though, where did you go today.”

“I didn’t go anywhere today.”

Choi Seung Hyun stopped what he was doing and looked up at her. How could she say that with such sincerity in her voice? The car. The dust. The gritty carpet. They all said that she went somewhere today.

“Don’t lie to me.” Choi Seung Hyun said as he sprayed more spot remover. Much more then he needed to.

“I would never lie to you.” Leena had to keep herself from rolling her eyes as she said it.

“The carpet in the living room…” Choi Seung Hyun let the statement trail, and Leena let it sit in the air for a moment.

“What about it?” She rolled over onto her side so she could get a better look at Choi Seung Hyun’s back. He was scrubbing so hard at that stain that she new would never come out.

“ It isn’t clean. The whole living room isn’t clean.”

“And…”

“And, Leena, it’s Thursday. You are supposed to clean the damn living room.”

“There is nothing in that damn living room that is mine.”

“Damn straight, Leena. I paid for everything. From the paint on the walls, to the throw pillows.”

“So why should I clean it?”

That answer took Choi Seung Hyun by surprise. He was sure that she thought it. There was no doubt that her behavior lately even screamed that statement. It was another thing, however, to hear it out loud.  He thought about it for a moment.

Leena was sure she had won that argument. She closed her eyes prepared to drift off to sleep.

“What about your Jag then, Leena?”

Leena’s eyes opened. “What about it?”

“That was the only thing that you brought into this marriage, and yet you don’t even park it correctly.”

“Excuse me.” Leena said to his back. Her eyes were wide, and she was happy that he was still working on that damn stain.

“You heard me. I was going to park it properly against the white line that I paid an additional labor fee of five hundred dollars to be put down on the floor, but your key’s were missing.”

“What does that have to do with me cleaning your crap?” Leena stated simply.

Choi Seung Hyun didn’t respond. He didn’t have anything worth saying really. And he was sure that if he said anything more, Leena would keep going till she had the final word.  He stopped working on the stain too. The pink leftovers of the red wine weren’t going anywhere. No matter how hard he scrubbed or how much spot remover he sprayed on it, that stain would always be there in the white carpet.

As Choi Seung Hyun settled into bed next to his wife he made a mental note to call his contractor. The only way to remove the stain is if he put a fresh carpet down.