SATURDAY 8

It was about an hour of suffocating silence. The atmosphere was so awkward that I felt like jumping out of the car. Mr. Taeseon kept his eyes fixed on his business tablet the entire time, while I sat as close to the door as possible, staring out the window.

In the past, even if Mr. Taeseon was working, I used to lie on his lap and act spoiled….

“Let’s go quietly. Just being in the same car as you is nauseating.”

“….”

Today was the day I was moving into the marital home I had prepared with Mr. Taeseon. I never imagined it would happen in this form, but regardless, I was secretly happy to be going to the home I had visited several times and had been dying to move into.

The shaman is currently up in the mountains for prayer and cannot be reached. Having heard those ominous words from Mr. Taeseon, Mom was beyond flustered and seemed truly anxious. After consulting with Father, it was decided that I would move into the marital home after just one week.

As I got out in the garage and entered the path leading to the house, I suddenly heard a shhhhh sound above the roof. The weather had been overcast for a while, and it seemed the rain was starting to pour. At the loud sound of rain hitting the roof, my shoulders instinctively hunched.

Mr. Taeseon had already reached the front door. Fearing he might go in and leave me behind, I hurried after him, and the door opened. Without a single word telling me to come in, Mr. Taeseon stepped into the house first.

A familiar entrance. Decorative items we picked out together. For the foyer and the hallway, we chose a method of turning on the lights with switches instead of sensors. Because of that, the spacious foyer was pitch black, except for the indirect lighting under the shoe cabinet. In the awkward atmosphere, I called out to him without realizing it.

“Um, Mr. Taeseon….”

In the gloom, Mr. Taeseon turned around with his back to the inner door.

“….”

He stared intently at me. No matter how much I heard that he was a frigid and cold person, I never took it seriously. I just let it go in one ear and out the other, thinking he was simply a bit blunt with others.

But now, I think I understand how those people feel. Mr. Taeseon stood there as cold as an ice statue, and his gaze was filled with contempt. I froze right there, unable to say a word.

After a brief silence, Mr. Taeseon suddenly moved slowly. In the blink of an eye, that movement accelerated, and before I knew it, he had gripped my throat and slammed me against the front door with a thud. My back and head hit the metal door hard. For a moment, my head spun.

Then, strength flowed into Mr. Taeseon’s hand. The force strangling my neck was extraordinary.

“Ugh, ack….”

I knew well that Mr. Taeseon was strong, but I truly felt like a tiny creature in front of a predator. Without changing his expression at all, Mr. Taeseon gripped my throat with force, and I instinctively flailed while my toes barely brushed the floor.

“Dressing like Inyoung, calling me like Inyoung used to call me…. When did I ever tell you that you could call me ‘Mr. Taeseon’? Isn’t it a bit too cunning to call me that the moment Inyoung died?”

“Hng, that’s, not it….”

“If it’s not that, then what.”

Angry pheromones suddenly surged over me and pressed down on my body. It felt like my breath was being cut off further and my lungs were being crushed. Mr. Taeseon let go of his hand just seconds before I would have fainted. I collapsed forward, coughing violently with heaves of nausea.

Mr. Taeseon looked down coldly at the sight. Because the distress wouldn’t subside, I rolled as if crawling on the freezing foyer floor. After gasping for a long time, I was finally able to breathe properly, and he grabbed my upper arm, hauled me up, and stepped further into the house.

As he dragged me along, the most I could manage was to barely kick off my shoes. He took me to the second floor. …”Took me” might be too polite an expression.

“I’ll show you the house.”

Was there even a need to show me? I know every detail, starting from the structure of this house to what was used for the floors, walls, and lighting. Because I chose them.

While choosing, I even got annoyed with Mr. Taeseon for trying to match everything to my opinion alone…. And Mr. Taeseon would smile and soothe me as I got annoyed.

Like an utterly ordinary engaged couple, that is how the house was decorated.

Mr. Taeseon dragged me, stumbling, as he climbed the stairs. He didn’t care even as my legs hit the steps. I will surely have bruises. I was used to this kind of physical pain, but the fact that Mr. Taeseon was the one inflicting it felt so alien.

Reaching the second floor, he walked right past the master bedroom, which was the first room. That is clearly the space Mr. Taeseon and I were meant to use together, but Mr. Taeseon didn’t even open the door. The place he took me to was the room at the end of the hallway.

“You’ll like the layout.”

He spoke dryly as he opened the door. Whether I like it or not, I know what it looks like here too. A bed, a desk, a mirror, a minibar, a refrigerator, and a small attached bathroom… exactly a hotel room layout. This room and the one next to it. They were places made to be used as guest rooms. Guest.

“Tae, ah, um… h-here is, a guest room….”

The words came out in a mumble.

“And?”

“….”

“Stay there. Since your space is only there and the kitchen, don’t loiter elsewhere and make sure you don’t run into me.”

“Tae, Taeseon…. Ack!”

Mr. Taeseon grabbed me by the collar and threw me onto the bed. It was a soft bed, but it wasn’t without impact. It was more of a mental shock than a physical one….

“Try calling me Mr. Taeseon one more time. I feel like I might actually kill you.”

“….”

“Wear the clothes you used to wear, and act like the human trash who fears nothing in this world. Just like you’ve done until now. That’s how you’ve lived. Hasn’t it?”

“Ugh….”

“Don’t… fucking imitate Inyoung, is what I’m saying. Understood?”

Mr. Taeseon’s hand gripped my jaw. A dull pain rose to the top of my head. At the same time, I became unbearably sorrowful. Even while looking at me, even though I wore the clothes I usually wore, and even though I acted as I usually did, he didn’t realize that I am Yoon Inyoung.

I thought Mr. Taeseon, perhaps, might recognize me.

As I thought, am I just Yoon Inha, while only I alone think I am “me”? Is that why no one recognizes me…. Have I disappeared?

Even so, I thought Mr. Taeseon at least would recognize me. It was a foolish expectation. He let go of my jaw as if tossing it away and took out a handkerchief to wipe his hand.

At that sight, it felt as if a needle was piercing my heart.

At this point, there was no reason to be hurt by such actions from another person. However, just the fact that the person was Mr. Taeseon made me feel like I would crumble. If even Mr. Taeseon treats me like filth, I…. I tried to hold it back, but tears fell with a plop.

Mr. Taeseon stared at me as if looking at something bizarre. For quite a while. Perhaps the way I cried reminded him of “me.” Even though he knew the person was “Inha,” he couldn’t help it.

As expected, a flash of embarrassment crossed his face before it settled back into coldness.

“Since when did you get so good at acting? No, then again… you were born that way. Being loved among a crazy family who abandoned their child at a single word babbled by a shaman, how absurd.”

“….”

“It would be best if you didn’t come out of the room as much as possible. A staff member will bring your meals. You’re lucky; it’s a room with a view of the garden. Unlike the room Inyoung lived in.”

The room I used…. The one who picked that room was Inha. Originally, I used an ordinary room that shared a wall with Inha. But from a certain day, Inha claimed his head ached and pointed to me as the reason. He said it was because I was in the next room. He told them to move me to another room.

And what he picked was that back room, which for several years had been called a guest room.

In fact, that room wasn’t even used as a guest room from the start. Although it was roughly decorated, it got the least sun in our house and had small windows, so a gloomy energy lingered.

Actually, while sleeping in that room, I don’t know how many times I suffered from sleep paralysis. Mr. Taeseon knows that fact.

The raindrops hitting the window were fierce. Above the streams of water flowing down like sand, lightning flickered and a faint rumble, like the sound of a beast crying, occurred.

It hasn’t fully started yet, but it seems a thunderstorm is about to break. My body froze. Terror revived on its own.

The memory of that day, the blood, Inha’s… no, my appearance, horribly mutilated…. And the words “I” said while being carried into the ambulance. I’m Yoon Inyoung. I’m twenty-two…. And then, “Inha”.

“Why did you push me?”

“…Ah, ack….”

My head throbbed. My heart was beating incredibly fast, and at that moment, the surroundings turned pitch black with a pop. The sound of rain outside and the darkness. I felt like I was going to vomit.

The panic returned. I curled up and trembled violently. I could feel that Mr. Taeseon was right nearby. But, if Mr. Taeseon is here, why isn’t he comforting me?

My confused mind couldn’t judge the situation properly. A seizure subsides after time even if you do nothing. It’s just that the time spent is agonizing enough to die.

The vividly felt terror of death, the feeling of my heart being constricted, the stuffiness as if trying to breathe underwater.

When I came to my senses about ten minutes later… the room had become bright again. I couldn’t tell if the emergency generator had kicked in or if the power had come back on.

Mr. Taeseon was looking at me with one corner of his mouth curled up.

“Not even funny.”

And he just left the room like that. I felt like following him out, but I couldn’t move my body.

“…What should I do from now on.”

I couldn’t know anything.

Tears fell in a shower.