Page 34 of Perfect Happiness

J ane left work as soon as her meeting finished to come home to Jiyoo.

Jiyoo wasn’t allowed back at school even after being discharged from the hospital.

The school asked that she stay at home for another week before coming back.

They didn’t seem to understand when Jane told them that it wasn’t contagious.

Because of this, Jane had to find someone to look after Jiyoo while she was at work.

Jane still couldn’t get in contact with Yuna.

No one was picking up the home phone. And when she called Yuna’s company, they said she was on her “annual leave.” Of course, if she really needed to get in contact with Yuna, she could take Jiyoo to Cheongyeon and bust through the door.

But Jane didn’t consider this a valid option.

Jiyoo was precocious. She was sensitive, self-aware, and didn’t express her emotions often.

In Jane’s opinion, this was an extremely dangerous combination.

Jiyoo might conclude that neither her mother nor her aunt wanted her.

She might think that she wasn’t welcome anywhere, and this might lead her to question her own worth, just like Jane had as a young girl.

Jane needed to look for a nanny. The woman she found was far from satisfactory.

She boasted three decades of experience as a professional nanny, but Jane doubted this.

Everything about the woman, from her patronizing tone to her preference for wiping her hands on her pants instead of washing them with soap and water, was unbecoming of a “professional” nanny.

In fact, the only thing she seemed to be an expert at was calculating overtime pay and refusing work that wasn’t in the contract.

But Jane didn’t have a choice. Unprofessional nanny was the only person who contacted her back.

It was raining outside and the roads were jammed. Once Jane entered downtown Incheon, she got stuck in stop-and-go traffic. It probably would have been faster had she walked. Jane turned off the main road several times looking for a faster route, but always ended up in yet another line of cars.

Her phone started ringing. It was coming from her home phone. It was most likely the nanny calling to complain about Jane being late. The ringtone sounded like it was nagging at her: “Hurry up so I can go home!” Jane reluctantly answered the phone call.

“Miss Shin, you didn’t tell me someone was coming today.”

The nanny’s shrill voice came out of the earpiece and pierced Jane’s eardrum.

“What are you talking about?”

“If she steals something, don’t ask me. I’m not responsible. If you keep doing this, I won’t be able to work in this house much longer. You’re always late. And today some strange woman barges in and starts tearing the place apart—”

Jane had no idea what she was talking about.

But the nanny was talking too fast for Jane to interrupt her.

She just listened patiently. Combining the bits and pieces she gleamed from the nanny’s nagging, Jane figured that a woman claiming to be Jiyoo’s mother had showed up at the apartment.

She said she was here to take Jiyoo home.

When the nanny told her to wait for Jane to get off work, the woman told the nanny to go into the kitchen and wait there.

She said she was going to pack Jiyoo’s bags, but what she was really doing was tearing the house apart.

The nanny wanted to stop her, but the woman was acting like she owned the place; there was no stopping her.

The woman didn’t answer when the nanny asked questions.

She seemed more like a debt collector than someone coming to pick up her daughter.

The nanny asked Jiyoo, who confirmed the woman’s identity.

“Nanny, hold on a second,” Jane said, finally managing to cut her off. “Does Jiyoo’s mother know that you’re on the phone with me right now?”

“She’s in the master bedroom and I’m in the kitchen. I doubt she can hear us. Does this happen often? You don’t sound at all surprised.”

Jane had no reason to be surprised. Cutting into someone’s lane suddenly without signaling was a perfectly “Yuna” thing to do. Nor did Jane have any desire to stop Yuna. Even if she tried, it was impossible. Jane would only end up hurting herself.

“Nanny, don’t tell Jiyoo’s mother that you talked with me on the phone.”

“You mean you’re not coming?” Nanny asked in an irritated tone. It seemed like she had misinterpreted Jane’s simple request.

“I’m on my way. It’s just that there’s a lot of traffic. I’ll be there in under thirty minutes.”

“You want me to wait here like this for another thirty minutes? Do you know what time it is?”

Jane looked at the clock. 7:35.

“Fine, you can go home.”

Nanny hung up without replying to this. Jane could feel her grip on the wheel beginning to tense up.

Yuna’s world consisted of three types of people.

Winners, losers, and strangers. She treated you differently based on which type she thought you were.

Winners she treated like her tongue; losers she bit with her canines; and strangers she avoided like bad breath.

To Yuna, Jane was a loser. And it was a rule of Yuna’s not to explain things to losers.

In other words, Yuna wouldn’t explain to Jane where she had been or why she was picking up Jiyoo without any warning.

Jane just had to accept it, just like she had to accept it when Yuna first texted her to pick up Jiyoo from preschool.

But even so, Jane wanted to say bye to Jiyoo and get some information, although she wasn’t sure if either of these would be possible.

The roads finally started to clear up. At the very least, Jane wasn’t stuck in stop-and-go traffic anymore.

She whipped in and out of her lane like a delivery moped, using her high beams to warn other drivers.

The last time she had driven like this was the night her father died.

Jane arrived in the underground apartment garage in just under ten minutes.

Her timing was perfect; Yuna was just walking out of the elevators, a travel suitcase in one hand and her cellphone in the other.

Jane got out of the car holding her coat and bag.

Jiyoo, who was following closely behind Yuna and with a small suitcase of her own, saw Jane first. Startled, Jiyoo stopped walking.

Instead of calling out to Jane, Jiyoo turned to look at the back of her mother’s head.

Yuna was distracted by her cellphone. Based on how fast her thumb was moving, Jane figured Yuna was sending someone a text message.

Jane closed her car door. The sound caused Yuna to look up from her phone. Her eyes locked onto Jane like a prison searchlight. She put her cellphone in her pocket and stopped walking. Jane stared right back at her.

Father Time had favored Yuna. It had been years since they last saw each other, but Yuna hadn’t aged a day. Long black hair, porcelain-white skin, peach-colored cheeks, and long, straight calves that looked like they belonged to a ballerina.

Yuna pulled her suitcase along as she marched toward Jane, chin tucked in, back straight, and hair flowing. The sound of her high heels hitting the concrete stabbed Jane’s ears like pistol gunshots. Pop, pop, pop .

Jiyoo hurried along behind Yuna with her head down.

She looked like a court dwarf to a medieval queen.

The sight of this disgusted Jane, but she couldn’t look away.

Jane put on her coat and hung the strap of her bag over her shoulder.

She approached Jane the way the heavyweight champion of the world enters the ring to stare down his challenger.

The parking lot wasn’t particularly cold, but Jane’s spine was shivering.

Soon, Yuna arrived in front of the BMW parked next to Jane’s car. It just so happened that Jane had parked right next to Yuna’s car.

Yuna gathered the hair that had fallen across her cheek and tucked it behind her ear. She then turned her body to face Jane. Simultaneously, she took her keys out of her coat pocket and unlocked the car doors. With her eyes fixed on Jane and moving only her lips, Yuna spoke to Jiyoo:

“Jiyoo Cha, get in the car.”

Cha? Since when had she changed Jiyoo’s last name? Had Joon-young consented to that?

“Should I sit in the front?” Jiyoo asked as she poked her head out from behind Yuna, like a shadow at dusk.

“No. In the back.”

Jiyoo stepped out from behind Yuna. She bowed her head and pulled her eyelids back to look up at Jane.

Her eyes then arched sideways to glance at Yuna.

With hurried steps, Jiyoo disappeared around the car.

A few seconds later, there was the sound of the car door opening.

Yuna and Jane waited to hear the door close, but it never did.

“Jiyoo, close the door.”

“Yes.”

And with that, the door closed.

“Did you just get back from a run?” Yuna asked. “You look out of breath.”

Yuna’s eyes became slightly longer. The light flickering in her pupils resembled a grin. Jane had seen this look many times before when they were young. And every time she saw it, she wanted to smack it with a heavy book.

“Were you worried? Afraid I’d touch your things?”

Yuna was taunting her, but Jane could tell she was caught off guard by Jane’s appearance.

When Yuna was embarrassed or flustered, her defense mechanism was to mock people.

Jane’s suspicion that Yuna wanted to take Jiyoo while Jane was gone was right.

But it wasn’t because Yuna felt uncomfortable around Jane like the way Jane felt uncomfortable around Yuna.

It was just that Yuna resented having to acknowledge Jane’s existence with a hello.

“Are you taking Jiyoo for good?” Jane asked.