Chapter 11

The warmth of the sunrays accompanied by the cold autumn breeze softly kissing his skin interrupted his dreamless slumber. His eyes twitched at the light that tried to enter his closed lids. Feeling annoyed, Kris grumbled as he pulled the cover even more to envelope his body. But suddenly a bell rang inside his head reminding him where – or rather with whom - he was sleeping. He abruptly sat up with eyes wide opened as if he just had a nightmare. He then looked to his side and found no one there.

Last night

When he entered the room, Yeojin was already asleep with her back facing the door. Kris slowly sat down on the bed making sure not to wake her up. When he finally lay down, he couldn’t sleep at all. The guilt was eating him out and lying beside her didn’t help at all. He tossed and the bed and finally decided that it was better to sleep on the couch; however, an arm suddenly wrapped around his waist.

“Dad…,” Yeojin mumbled as she snuggled closer to him. Surprised by this, Kris raised his arm a bit. Her forehead was wrinkled as her eyebrows met in the middle. “Please don’t leave me, Dad…,” she sleep-talked again but this time with a sniff.

“Y-ya…,” Kris wasn’t sure what to do. “Yeojin…,” he poked her shoulder before trying to remove her arm from his waist. But Yeojin only hugged his waist tighter.

After a few failed attempts, Kris gave up.

/“She’s just a highschool girl.”/

He remembered Grandpa’s words.

/” You have been married only for two years, but you've been best friends for all your - okay maybe her - life before the marriage. Are you going to throw that just like that?”/

He sighed and unsurely rested his arm around her body. It just made it harder for him to sleep. He kept on thinking of what Grandpa said to him.

What Grandpa said was right. They were the best of friends. And, he would be lying if he said all the times he spent with her then was not memorable. He began thinking that he indeed had been way too rude and cold towards her after all she had to go through and after all that they had been through together. Yes. Grandpa was right. But there was something he was wrong about. Their marriage wasn’t the first reason he distanced himself from her. It was something else. Something that he had been trying to cover with his cold act towards her. Something he believed was not there anymore.

After hearing his and her steady breath for a few minutes, Kris finally fell asleep too.

He heard someone talking outside on the balcony. One of the doors to the balcony was opened allowing the sunrays and breeze that woke him up to pass through. The curtain lightly fluttered as the wind blows from time to time. He finally got off the bed, stood up and walked towards the balcony. He peeked outside and saw Yeojin leaning forward against the rail with her back facing him. She was tucking a few strands of hair behind her ear. A phone was pressed to one of her ears. He heard her softly giggled and wondered whom she was talking to.

“I’m so going to kill her for telling you!” Yeojin growled.

[“Hey hey! She was just trying to help cheer you up!”] The person on the other end chuckled.

“By telling you?”

[“Well… It worked didn’t it? I’m successful in cheering you up, right?]

“Yeah yeah. Whatever.” Yeojin rolled her eyes as another chuckle was heard from the other hand.

[“Hey don’t sulk for too long. It would only make you look weak and he would think that you just want to cling on him. And I know you’re not like that.”]

“We have just known each other for, what? One day right? And you already know me that much?”

[“One day was enough for me to know how strong you are just by how strong you stepped on my foot,” he laughs.]

“Hey!” Yeojin pouted but soon smiled again.

A temporary silence fell as they both sighed and smiled to themselves.

[“Hey…,” he called softly, “Don’t be sad aymore, kay? Remember you got us. And now you have me too! That should be more than enough!”]

Yeojin giggled tucking a few strands of hair behind her ear and felt her burdened chest finally expanded in happiness. “Whatever, lover boy! Talk to you later then. Oh! And tell Sunhee she’s so going to get it!”

[“You mean get kisses from you for letting me cheer you up? Yeah sure.”]

Yeojin rolled her eyes. “Whatever you say! Bye, Jongin!” Yeojin ended the call with a sigh. The upward curve on her lips remained decorating her face.

As weird and goofy Jongin was, she was glad someone like him was added to her life. She turned around to walk back inside, but immediately stopped in her steps when she saw Kris leaning on the doorframe. The smile on her face was instantly wiped away, and a stoic expression replaced the smile.

“Oh! You’re awake,” she soullessly stated as she entered the room passing him like he was not really there. Kris shuddered at how cold she was. This Yeojin felt unfamiliar. “I’m going to take the shower first,” she informed him as she walked to the bathroom.

Kris stopped her by lightly puling on her elbow. Her shoulders slumped as she heaved out a breath before turning around to face him. She cocked an eyebrow waiting for him to say something.

“I…,” he lowered his gaze as he let go of her, “I’m… I’m sorry. I’m really sorry for what I said yesterday.” He still couldn’t meet her eyes.

“Yeah. Okay,” Yeojin replied nonchalantly and walked to the bathroom.

Kris was left baffled when Yeojin entered the bathroom and closed the door behind her, but he completely understood why. He was the reason she acted that way. His words cut deep in her heart. Grandpa was right. He was wrong. Completely utterly wrong for venting his anger out on her. He out of all people, beside her family, knew that she was not the kind of person he was accusing her of.

For the rest of the day, she acted normal. At least to the other family members she did. But she – and Jinho - completely ignored him. She smiled her brightest smile, but she treated him like he was invisible. Kris couldn’t shake off the uncomfortable feeling in his heart. His relationship with her was never really good when they married, but this? This Yeojin was unexpected. It – compounded with Jinho’s silence treatment - strangely bothered him. He had sincerely apologized to the other family members the other day and they had accepted his apology – except for the little boy – but he knew he had to say something to Yeojin too. He knew that his apology was not enough. He tried to talk to her several times but to no avail. He couldn’t even make her stay close to him long enough for him to say something. Though he was at his wits end, he still tried at dinner.

“Here take mine first,” Kris, sitting beside Yeojin, offered his chicken to her when he saw how she struggled to reach for the chicken on a plate a little far away from her.

“Lin,” Yeojin called out with a smile, “can you please pass me the plate?” She pointed at the plate of chicken in front of Lin.

Lin – and the others too – paused for a moment. She took a quick glance at her brother who was slowly lowering the chopsticks that was sandwiching the chicken. “S-sure, Eonni,” she replied awkwardly while passing her the plate.

“Thank you!” Yeojin smiled brightly at her.

Lin honestly felt uncomfortable. She wasn’t sure if it was because of how Yeojin ignored her brother, or because she ignored her brother but smiled so brightly.

“Let’s eat!” Grandpa clapped his hands once to dismiss the awkward atmosphere.

“Let’s eat!” The others simultaneously repeated.

“Oh! By the way,” Yeojin suddenly said, “Lin, why don’t I sleep at your room tonight?” Lin blinked several times. “We can have some girl talks!” Yeojin said with a grin.

“Come in,” he replied. The moonlight shone on his face as he sat closing his eyes and knitting his brows inside the dim-lit room. He propped his elbows on the arms of the chair and brought his hands whose fingers intertwined each other close to his lips.

The door clicked opened and he heard someone stepped inside. He didn’t swivel his chair around letting the man see only the high backrest of his chair that hid himself.

“He’s here, sir,” the man who just came in reported and he slowly opened his eyes.

“Let him in.”

He heard someone else stepping inside and only then did he turn his chair around.

“You may leave,” he told his assistant while gesturing for the new comer to come closer. “So?” He placed his locked hands on the lap of his crossed legs.

“It’s hard to find a loophole between them. They are hardly seen together outside besides this one day,” the younger man handed him two photos.

He took them and eyed the two photos. The first one was of a tall guy with an umbrella talking to a girl and the other one was of the same guy wrapping his arm around her shoulders while his other hand held the umbrella.

He let out a light scoff and a smirk appeared on his face. “They’re really good in hiding. And I would actually be surprised if you could find any loophole. Even if there were, she would still be in the way.”

“Yes, sir. You’ve said that. That’s why I took more time following her. And though I couldn’t find anything between them, I found something else.” This time the younger man handed him a stack of photos. “These were taken on different days,” he explained as the older man flipped through the photos.

A glint of interest became more and more evident in his eyes as he saw the photos. “Well, well, well…” A wide grin spread on his face and cold shudders ran down the younger man’s spine at the sight of the grin. The older man pressed on a button on his desk and soon his assistant came in.

“You called, sir?”

“Get me in touch with my old friend Oh,” he ordered not taking his eyes off the photos.

“You mean Mr. Oh Jaehan?”

“Yes. Him. Tell him…,” he looked up, “I’m inviting him and his sons to play golf the day after chuseok.” His assistant nodded obediently and exited the room. He then shifted his gaze on the younger man who was still standing in front of him. “You did well. But your job’s not done yet. Look for more.” The younger man bobbed his head while he looked back at the photos. Another smirk decorated his face. Might as well try to kill two birds with one stone.