Page 15 of Perfect Happiness

While Jiyoo slept, Jane informed the kindergarten that Jiyoo would be absent for the next several days and called her manager to get some time off and reschedule her visit to the Han Yong-un Museum in Baekdamsa Temple for the following week.

She then went home to get the things she would need to stay several nights at the hospital: toiletries, blanket, clothes, notebook, and the critical biography of Han Yong-un.

Jane couldn’t tell Yuna of the situation.

She had no means of getting ahold of her.

Jane’s number was still blocked. She tried calling Yuna through a public payphone, but Yuna still wouldn’t answer.

She gave up on trying to get in contact with her.

She was able to reign in her anger when she convinced herself to imagine that Yuna simply didn’t exist.

Jiyoo awoke around lunchtime. At first, Jane hadn’t noticed that she was awake. As she organized the items she brought from home, she turned around to find Jiyoo staring at her in silence.

“Jiyoo, you’re awake.”

“Yes.”

Jane walked over to her.

Jiyoo looked Jane in the eye and asked, “Auntie, am I in the hospital?”

“I brought you to the ER earlier this morning. You don’t remember?”

“A little. You called out to me, right?”

“You heard me?”

Jane extended her arm and brushed back Jiyoo’s disheveled bangs.

“I heard your voice in my dream,” Jiyoo said. “I tried to call back, but I couldn’t make a sound.”

“What was your dream about?”

Jiyoo’s eyes bounced around Jane’s face. She looked like she was thinking hard about something.

“I don’t remember.”

Of course she didn’t. With a fever like that, it was amazing that she remembered anything at all.

“Jiyoo, when did you start feeling sick?”

“My head hurt the day I went to Stepfather’s house.”

Jane was just about to ask what day that was when she heard a knock.

The door opened and a nurse entered the room.

The nurse put Jiyoo’s noontime medicine down on the table and left.

After her, the lady who served meals came in and handed them a tray of food.

Rice porridge, watery soybean paste soup, tofu, unseasoned steamed white fish, and a side of lightly cooked zucchini.

This was the kind of meal that Jane would only eat if she were dying of starvation.

Without even batting an eyelash, Jane lied about the food:

“Wow, looks delicious.”

Jane set up the bedside table and put the tray on top of it. She narrated her actions as she sat Jiyoo up for lunch.

“All right, Jiyoo. It’s time for lunch.”

Jiyoo looked down at the tray and sighed with her shoulders. Apparently, she didn’t agree with Jane’s lie that this looked delicious.

“If you spoon some rice porridge, I’ll put side dishes on top. Deal?”

Jiyoo reluctantly picked up her utensils. Jane used her chopsticks to pull fish meat off the bones. Thankfully, Jiyoo seemed to like the side dishes. Although, not enough to swallow, apparently.

“You have to swallow, silly. Once you eat all your food, then you can take your medicine. And once you take your medicine, then your fever will go down.”

Jiyoo winced as she swallowed the food in her mouth.

She looked like she was being fed poison.

Jane picked up some of the zucchini with her chopsticks.

Utilizing all manner of persuasion and coercion, she eventually managed to get Jiyoo to finish a whole bowl of rice porridge.

After making Jiyoo take her medicine, Jane fed her two strawberries as a palate cleanser.

But when Jane offered her a third strawberry, Jiyoo gave an exaggerated sigh with her shoulders.

It was her way of telling Jane not to push her luck. Jane took the hint.

“Jiyoo, can I wash your face before laying you down?”

Jiyoo nodded.

Jane prepared a wet towel and wiped down Jiyoo’s face and hands. As she did this, Jiyoo’s eyelids started to droop.

“Thank you, Auntie,” Jiyoo muttered in a sleepy voice as Jane laid her down and pulled the blanket over her.

Jane stopped what she was doing and looked Jiyoo in the eye. There was guilt in Jiyoo’s voice. Yuna had probably drilled into Jiyoo that she always needed to be grateful whenever someone did something for her.

“If you have another bad dream, just call for me.” Jane then leaned over to whisper into Jiyoo’s ear. “Auntie’s not going anywhere.”

Jiyoo fell asleep shortly after this. Jane put her laptop on the edge of Jiyoo’s bed and used the guest bed as a chair.

She opened the document file for Chungju Literature Museum and opened the recording file.

She felt like she was going to collapse from exhaustion, but she couldn’t do that just yet.

Even though she had taken a few days off from work, she was still responsible for getting this article out on time.

It was dark out by the time Jane checked her work email.

There were dozens of emails accusing her of being a trash journalist. Most of them were lambasting her for last week’s article about the Chae Man-sik Literature Museum.

“I guess pro-Japanese collaborators enjoy luxury even in death.” “Should murderers be forgiven just because they apologized?”

One email subject among these caught Jane’s eye.

Jane, it’s Min-young. Please read this.

Yesterday’s events at the café flashed through Jane’s mind.

She closed her eyes to suppress the emotions that followed.

Her intuition was telling her to press the delete button.

It warned her that she would get tangled up in Min-young and Joon-young’s problems if she opened the email.

Jane clicked delete. After quickly organizing the rest of her inbox, Jane closed the window.

And then, just before she turned off her computer, she remembered what Jiyoo said last night.

From the Half Moon Marsh, Dad is calling.

Jane also remembered what Min-young had said.

I haven’t heard from him since Tuesday afternoon.

Jane could hear a voice inside her head telling her this wasn’t a coincidence.

Jane searched through the trash bin and found Min-young’s email. The email started with the words, “Jane, I’m sorry.” The next paragraph caught Jane off guard.

I know you must be angry. I’m sorry for embarrassing you like that. There must have been a lot of your coworkers around. Please forgive me. That’s not why I asked to meet you. I lost my cool . . .

Jane didn’t quite believe this apology. It seemed insincere. Jane skipped over these pointless apologies until she got to the body of the email, which started on paragraph three.

Jane, I’m in Wonju now. I live in a small one-bedroom apartment. I moved here when I got my job. My company is nearby. For the last few years, I haven’t been able to see my big brother often. He was just too busy after the divorce.

Last Tuesday, I was in Seoul for work. I hadn’t seen him in a long time and decided to give him a call. But I couldn’t get through. His phone was turned off, as I told you yesterday.

Nothing seems right. My big brother has never turned off his phone on purpose.

He’s never gone off the grid. I can’t take time off work to go looking for him.

We just started an audit. I thought he might have gone back to Geoje Island to see our parents, but when I called, they said they hadn’t heard from him.

I wasn’t able to return to Seoul until Saturday.

The first place I went was his apartment.

But he wasn’t there. I couldn’t tell when the last time he had been home was.

The place hardly looked like someone lived there.

There wasn’t a speck of dust on the floor.

I tried calling his friends and coworkers, but no one had seen him recently.

And the delivery company he worked for said he quit the week before. I was the last person to talk to him.

I’ve already gone to the police. I tried to make a missing person’s report. But the police wouldn’t take me seriously. When I told them everything, they just told me to wait a few more days. They seem to think a grown man can’t be in danger.

I had no idea what to do. Then I realized I needed to meet Yuna, somehow someway. That’s why I came to you. I thought you could help me arrange a meeting.

You probably want to know why I want to meet her so badly.

After all, they got divorced so long ago.

I shouldn’t have any business with Yuna.

I thought for sure you would understand.

I thought you were playing dumb. That’s why I got so angry.

I’m not sure why it never occurred to me that you wouldn’t understand.

I only remember what my big brother did to you on my way back to Wonju.

You and he dated until you were nineteen, and then he dumped you and married your sister.

If it were me, I would have killed them both.

That must be why you decided to cut ties with them.

But that’s why I’m sending you this email . . .

Jane looked up from her laptop. The letters in the email were jutting out of her screen like two tightly clenched fists.

Her nose felt like someone had punched it.

Her breath was unsteady, and her head was beginning to spin.

She was filled with deep regret. She shouldn’t have run out of the café like that yesterday.

She should have broken Min-young’s fingers.

That way she wouldn’t have been able to send Jane such an infuriating email.

Jane got to her feet suddenly and walked over to the windowsill. She brought her face close to the glass and looked out into the darkness as it consumed her field of view. She could hear Joon-young’s voice from all those years ago.

“Jane, I’m getting married.”