Page 54 of Perfect Happiness

Jiyoo didn’t answer. She was both anxious and suspicious.

All she had said was that Mother hadn’t told her to lie.

Was that enough for him to know what he wanted?

And how did Stepfather know that Jiyoo had been here with her father?

And why did he keep asking the same question?

Jiyoo studied Stepfather’s face, but nothing was written on it.

“Shall we?”

Stepfather started walking again, but this time he was a bit distant from Jiyoo, with one foot on the path and the other on the snow-covered reeds. The silence continued for a while. Jiyoo started talking when she thought of something to say:

“You shouldn’t step on the reeds. If you get stuck in the mud, you won’t be able to pull your foot out.”

Stepfather laughed once. “Don’t worry. The ground is frozen solid.”

“But still. You should let me go first. Just follow me.”

Jiyoo felt at ease once she couldn’t see Stepfather’s face anymore.

As the burning sensation on her cheeks subsided, she was finally able to concentrate on her walking again.

The farther they walked, the harder it was to see the footpath.

Just when Jiyoo thought they should have arrived at the Half Moon Marsh, she was met with an unfamiliar sight.

Only when she discovered the feeding rock, which jutted out of the snow, was she convinced of their location.

“We’re here.”

Jiyoo climbed onto the snow-covered boulder. She did this slowly and carefully, testing each step so that she wouldn’t slip and fall. Stepfather followed her onto the rock and stood next to her.

“Is this the Half Moon Marsh?”

“Yes.” Although, it wasn’t the Half Moon Marsh that she knew.

The landscape was wholly unfamiliar. It had turned from a blue pond to a white sheet of ice, the way a swimming pool might transform into an ice rink.

Jiyoo couldn’t see any cordgrass or ducks.

The only evidence Jiyoo had for this being the Half Moon Marsh was the feeding rock on which they were standing.

“The ducks are all gone.”

“They must have migrated somewhere warmer. Do the ducks usually live here?”

“Yes. There are all sorts of ducks.”

Jiyoo looked toward the mountain peak beyond the wetlands. But she couldn’t see anything because of the snowstorm. Jiyoo perked up her ears and held her breath hoping for the sound of birds, but there was nothing. All she could hear was the howl of the wind as it blasted snow into the wetlands.

Jiyoo thought of the light she had seen that night moving along the path from the wetlands, and she thought of Mother in the front yard pushing the wheelbarrow. The questions that she had been suppressing in her mind surged forward like a bad dream. Why had Mother gone to the Half Moon Marsh alone?

“Should we go back now?” Stepfather asked.

*

Maria, Maria, you are my love, Maria…

Jane could hear her father’s voice in the darkness.

This must be a dream, she thought. She was seated next to her father in the front passenger seat of his truck.

Sometimes his voice sounded like it was inside her head, and other times it sounded faint and distant.

And then his voice would be carried away by the cries of the wind.

After I sent you far away, I planted a flower

I planted a flower in my weeping heart…

Cold and shivering, Jane awoke to find herself lying in the dark.

She was in the fetal position with her legs bound and her arms tied behind her back.

She wanted to open her eyes, but they were sealed shut.

In fact, she couldn’t move any part of her body, not her head, not even a single finger.

Perhaps she was experiencing sleep paralysis.

Spring has returned and the flower has bloomed

The flower has bloomed like my longing for you

As Jane drifted in and out of consciousness, she realized something.

She wasn’t experiencing sleep paralysis.

She was experiencing pain. It was pain that was keeping her down and preventing her from moving.

Pain so intense it felt like her throat had been pierced by an arrow every time she tried to breathe.

Pain that caused her nerves to throb in agony with every heartbeat.

She hadn’t been dreaming about her father’s singing.

No, his voice was ringing inside her ears like she were under some spell.

She tried to open her eyes again. But her eyelids stung and felt heavy, as though they had weights tied to them.

She had a gag in her mouth, and her wrists and ankles were bound with rope.

To make things worse, the rope connected to a noose tied around her neck.

It had been tied so that the knot would tighten when she tried to straighten her body.

I cut the flower to cure my longing

I cut the flower as I wept for you, my love, Maria

Jane wanted to cry. She let out a silent scream. She wanted the voice inside her head to stop. She didn’t need flowers. She hated flowers. What she needed was a knife. Something to cut this goddamn rope around her neck. Something with which to slit Yuna’s throat!

Jane thought she could beat Yuna. Or more accurately, she thought she could overcome the guilt buried deep inside her and do what was necessary. But as she watched Yuna’s handbag fly through the air toward her left eye, she realized she had been lying to herself.

Avoiding Yuna, cutting off relations, looking the other way when it was convenient—all those attempts to overcome Yuna were nothing but shadow boxing.

Had she really won, she wouldn’t have come all the way out here just to prove Yuna’s innocence.

She would have gone to the police, handed them this address, and let them take care of her.

At the very least, she would have used the knife in her hand when Yuna appeared.

That was what normal people did when faced with a threat.

But she hadn’t done any of that. And for that, she let herself be overpowered and knocked unconscious.

When Jane first woke up, she was lying face down at the bottom of the stairs with both hands tied behind her back.

Yuna was standing to Jane’s right, a cleaver in one hand and a rope in the other.

In a matter of seconds, Yuna had gone from hunted to hunter.

“Time to get up. You’ve kept me waiting,” Yuna said.

She lifted Jane to her feet. More than the knife, Jane was concerned about Yuna’s foot, which she could see out of the corner of her eye.

Jane’s left eye, which was the one that had been struck by Yuna’s bag, was already swollen shut.

If Yuna decided to kick her right eye with her foot, she might lose her vision completely.

“Go up the stairs. I’ll take you to the room you so badly want to see.”

Yuna then brought the cleaver up to the back of Jane’s neck and added, “Just so you know, I’ve handled more knives than you have.”

She was probably right, but what did it matter? Knife or no knife, Yuna was in control now.

Jane walked up the stairs. But she tripped twice in just ten steps. The first time she only bumped her knee, but the second time, she hit the bridge of her nose on the edge of the steps and fell over. It was the fault of the blurry vision in her left eye and the poorly lit stairs.

She let out a groan as she lay face down.

It felt like she had broken her nose in two places.

She had just enough willpower to prevent her groan from turning into a whimper.

Yuna, not surprisingly, didn’t seem to be fazed by this trivial accident.

She merely tapped the back of Jane’s head with the cleaver:

“Would you hurry it up, unni . I’ve got to get home and feed Jiyoo.”

This was the first time in thirty years that Yuna had referred to Jane as unni .

It startled Jane so much that the hair on her neck stood up.

Without saying anything, Jane got to her feet.

A few seconds later she was standing in front of the door to the attic.

Yuna took the key from the drawer in the dresser in the hallway and unlocked the door.

When the door opened, a cold, damp breeze seeped into the hallway.

Yuna turned on the lights to the attic and showed her inside. Turning her head on a swivel, Jane surveyed the room with her right eye. A small, long room with no windows, a slanted roof, books, old fans, piles of junk against the wall, cardboard boxes, a large plastic tub and a plastic bucket.

This must be the attic from Jiyoo’s dreams. Not surprisingly, Joon-young wasn’t here. And there was no indication that he had even been here. If he were stuffed in a cardboard box or plastic tub, Jane would at least be able to smell him.

“Sit over there.”

When they reached the end of the room, Yuna pointed to the wall with her cleaver.

It was the side of the room where the ceiling was the highest. Judging from the layout of the house, it must be the wall connected to Jiyoo’s room.

Jane crouched as she pushed her butt into a space between the large and small boxes stacked against the wall.

“Good. I didn’t even need to tell you where to sit.”

Yuna was standing in front of her, her legs in a wide stance. She seemed to find this funny. She bared her teeth and smiled arrogantly.

“If you crouch like that, your legs are going to cramp. Sit with your legs extended.”

“That’s my problem, not yours,” Jane said, causing Yuna to poke her with the back of the blade.

“You’re even more stubborn than Jiyoo. If you don’t put your legs out for me, how can I tie them?”

Yuna was someone who didn’t understand the law of parsimony. You shouldn’t use figures of speech when you can use straightforward expressions. Especially when having a conversation. Jane had mistaken Yuna’s words as concern.