SATURDAY 7

“A honeymoon? You’re thinking about the honeymoon already? There’s still more than half a year left….”

“I want to think about it early. Don’t you? Well, things might change by then, but still.”

“Mr. Taeseon…. You’re like a little kid before a field trip.”

“It’s more precious than a hundred field trips. Look who I’m going with.”

I smiled and buried my face in his chest. His familiar pheromones brushed against the tip of my nose, and his gentle arms pulled me into a hug. A honeymoon. I couldn’t believe that I could do something I had only ever heard about. It feels like a dream. A pleasant dream….

“….”

I opened my eyes while lying wrapped tightly in the duvet. It was an unfamiliar room. Spacious, well-lit by the sun, and decorated with an elegant atmosphere that matched the trends.

I blinked slowly. Into my vision, which was gradually becoming clear, came several Polaroid photos of a familiar face hanging on a wall garland.

My face?

No, it was Inha.

They were photos of Inha taken by family or friends.

He was smiling brightly in all of them.

Looking at those photos, a heavy anxiety weighed down on my chest, and a strong feeling that I was doing something wrong took hold. As if stealing Inha’s destiny wasn’t enough, now I’ve even taken his body….

Inha used to smile like that, but now he’s gone. He exists nowhere except in this body. And I’ve ended up occupying that body.

Amidst that anxiety, the lingering afterglow of the dream trailed on. Just a moment ago, I was tucked into Mr. Taeseon’s embrace, getting heated up while talking about the honeymoon.

Mr. Taeseon had brought a stack of pamphlets for famous honeymoon destinations and asked that we think about where would be good together, and I loved watching him like that.

Mr. Taeseon’s secretaries used to be surprised by that side of him. They said he was a very cold person on the outside, which actually flustered me. Because he had been kind to me from the very first time we met.

I ended up encountering that cold side of him, unintentionally….

With that, the afterglow of the dream vanished, and I slowly rose from my spot. Dragging my limbs, which were heavy like wet cotton, I went into the bathroom and washed my body. It was already the fourth day of repeating only sleeping, waking, and eating under the pretext of recovering my body.

Even though I was doing nothing, my weight gradually decreased. Inha was originally healthy. Unlike me. I was the one who was sick here and there, but now, having possessed the healthy body of Inha, I am wasting away again.

The shaman said that a body being sick is a matter of the soul, not the flesh. Just as she said, Inha’s body continued to become frail from the moment I entered it. It was a relief, at least, that my parents seemed to think it was still the aftereffects of the traffic accident.

I washed for a long time with water so hot it made my skin sting. The bathroom was filled with steam. While lightly wiping the mirror amidst the hazy steam, I had the foolish thought that perhaps Inha might be glaring at me from inside the mirror.

Naturally, no such thing happened. Because I had already driven out Inha’s soul. Poor Inha, and poor parents. How must it feel to have the thing they love snatched away by the jagged stone they hated their whole lives? They probably won’t ever know, but….

There was a knock.

“Inha?”

“…Yes.”

For a second, I almost didn’t answer. After answering “Yes” without delay, I wiped my body meticulously with a towel and added:

“I was washing up.”

“Is that so? They say CEO Lee is arriving soon, so hurry and get ready to come out.”

“Yes….”

Wiping my hair, I belatedly looked at the calendar. There was a small mark on today’s date. It was the day Mr. Taeseon was supposed to come. They said he was coming straight here after finishing a long business trip yesterday.

He could have rested for a day, but for Mr. Taeseon, who lives a life split into minutes, there wasn’t much of that kind of leisure. Even when a gap opened up, he used it all to meet me.

Then… how is Mr. Taeseon doing right now? Is he working without a moment’s rest? Is he overdoing it to the point of exhausting his body? Such worries suddenly occurred to me.

Because to Mr. Taeseon, I am dead.

Because I am dead…. I didn’t want to make Mr. Taeseon go through something like that….

It would be good if Mr. Taeseon would believe that I am Inyoung.

But, if the body is Inha’s, perhaps I am not Yoon Inyoung. Simply that my consciousness is alive. Truly, where does the essence of a human lie? The soul? The flesh? Am I Yoon Inha, or am I Yoon Inyoung?

Would it be okay to tell Mr. Taeseon that I am Inyoung? Wouldn’t that be deceiving Mr. Taeseon…. The more I thought, the more my head ached.

I went into Inha’s dressing room and spent quite a while picking out clothes. In the closet, which was tailored entirely to Inha’s tastes, there were many clothes that had never been worn, which seemed to have been newly bought by Mom.

For some reason, wearing clothes that Inha had worn felt uncomfortable, so I took out new clothes. After spending a long time picking and choosing while holding things up to my body in front of the mirror, I felt pathetic as the thought of what I was doing crossed my mind.

But I didn’t want to appear before Mr. Taeseon looking shabby. Although there weren’t really any clothes like that in Inha’s room….

Inha and I had different styles of dressing. The clothes Mom had newly bought and filled the room with were all things Inha would like. Among them, I struggled to find clothes that suited my taste and put them on, then dried my hair well and combed it neat.

Checking the mirror, most of the wounds had healed, and I saw a face where the swelling had gone down. Though the bruises still remained, leaving blue and yellow traces.

…The “me” in the mirror felt as if I had returned to my original appearance from Inha’s body. No, actually, I have never thought that my appearance looked like Inha’s.

If not for the tattoo on the ankle and my corpse that I saw in the morgue, I wouldn’t have been able to believe that I had possessed Inha’s body.

“Inha, are you finished preparing? CEO Lee has arrived.”

In an instant, my heart sank. Mr. Taeseon is here. In this house. Today is his third time coming to this house. The first time was when he first came to get permission for the marriage. He was rejected then. And the second time he visited. That was when my parents had no choice but to grant permission for the marriage.

To this place, which he hadn’t even set foot in since then, Mr. Taeseon has come. To talk about the marriage with Inha. I felt a sensation that was difficult to explain. As if my head were spinning… I felt like I was standing alone on a dark street.

I slowly left the dressing room and opened the door. Mom, seeing me in my new outfit, tilted her head for a moment as if something was strange. And then, as if realizing something, she asked carefully:

“Today’s outfit… it feels different from usual, Inha.”

“Does it? I’m not really sure.”

It was natural. Because this was the style “I” frequently wore. I struggled quite a bit to find something like this in Inha’s closet. Mom couldn’t hide her fluster.

After all, I had claimed at the hospital that I was Inyoung, not Inha, before collapsing at the funeral hall before I could even be properly examined. Since then, after waking up, I answered when called Inha and no longer claimed to be Inyoung, so that ended as a mere happening.

But seeing me come out dressed in the style “Yoon Inyoung” frequently wore, Mom’s heart seems to have sunk again. I spoke with a bitter smile.

“I thought the CEO would like it.”

“A-Ah…. Really? Is that so. Well, Mom’s thought is a bit different, maybe you should change and come back…”

“Isn’t the CEO here now? It will take a long time again if I’m to change.”

“I suppose so….”

Having no choice, Mom took me and headed downstairs. In the first-floor living room, the fragrant smell of tea wafted up to the stairs, and refreshments were neatly set on the table. And there, I saw Mr. Taeseon sitting in a disciplined posture.

Mr. Taeseon, who was sitting in the guest seat, stood up when we came down.

“Oh my, CEO Lee. Between us, why act like that. Please sit comfortably. You sit too, Inha.”

“….”

As if he couldn’t hear Mom’s words, Mr. Taeseon stared intently at me. He had a flustered expression.

Is it because of the clothes, after all? Is it because of my face, which looked better than back then? It seemed that I appeared to be “me.” His eyes, which had been wavering as if seeing something shocking, gradually settled and became cold. After a while, even a light of contempt lingered in those cold eyes.

Not knowing what to do, I sat across from Mr. Taeseon. Even while sitting down, I felt a strange sensation. My place is the seat next to Mr. Taeseon, so why must I sit here?

While I sat with my head bowed, dejected, Mom and Mr. Taeseon naturally shared a conversation.

Perhaps worried by my quiet appearance, Mom gripped the armrest of the sofa I was sitting on and called, “Inha?”

When I had no choice but to raise my head, as expected, I saw Mom’s face full of concern.

“Are you feeling unwell? I’m sorry, CEO Lee. Inha’s health hasn’t been good ever since the traffic accident.”

“Is that so…. That is a serious matter.”

Mr. Taeseon spoke in a dry tone that lacked even a shred of emotion, then slowly nodded his head and continued. I couldn’t guess the meaning behind his nod, but hearing the words that followed, my eyes widened.

“I actually came here to say such a thing. Since his health isn’t good, how about he comes to my house to recuperate?”

“Hmm…?”

Mom fell silent with a flustered face.

“The place I’ve prepared as the marital home has good air and not many people coming and going, so it will be suitable for recuperating, Mother. In fact, now that the funeral is over, I wish to prepare the wedding quickly but…. Since they say Mr. Inha is in poor health, I’d like to at least hurry the move into the marital home.”

“W-Wait a moment, CEO Lee. Is there a need to hurry like that? As you can see, Inha is in poor health and….”

“It is because he is in poor health. Mother, didn’t you say there is a shaman who looks after matters at your house?”

They were on terms where they were open to that extent. The shaman was not an existence that had to be hidden, and Mr. Taeseon had known for a long time what kind of work the shaman did for our house.

“That’s true….”

“Recently, I also brought in someone to look after such matters. But… they said that while it might be difficult to have the wedding on the originally set date, it would be best to at least begin living together within a month.”

“Within a month, when the child isn’t even fully recovered, that is a bit….”

Mr. Taeseon paused for a moment to catch his breath, then opened his mouth as if saying something very difficult.

“They say that if he doesn’t come to the marital home within a month, an accident might happen to Mr. Inha as well.”