Page 64 of Perfect Happiness

Finally, she could breathe comfortably. The feeling of being drowned in a vacuum also disappeared. Jiyoo patted Jane on the back.

“Auntie, are you okay?”

“Jiyoo—” Her words were slurred like an alcoholic. “We need scissors.”

Jiyoo nodded and ran out of the room. She came back with the scissors from the kitchen as fast as a gust of wind. The first thing Jane instructed her to do was cut the noose around her neck. After that, she had Jiyoo cut the ropes around her wrists and ankles.

Her body was free. Jane stretched her legs and lay down. What happened with Yuna, the noose on her neck, Jiyoo’s rescuing her—everything felt like a dream. Even right now, as she lay on the cold wooden floor with her tongue hanging out of her mouth, she wasn’t sure this was reality.

Jane was brought back to reality by the most realistic of problems; her bladder was sending her a message that it was about to explode. As Jane tried to get up, she fell forward, slamming her chin on the ground. She had no strength in her legs or ankles.

“Auntie, what’s wrong?” Jiyoo asked as she grabbed Jane’s shoulder.

Jane couldn’t answer. It seemed like her bladder, which had been holding on for an entire day, would explode if she opened her mouth.

So, she started doing something that she would never again do in her life.

As drool dribbled from her numb lips, she used her trembling hands to pull herself to the bathroom like a seal on land.

Jiyoo realized what Jane was doing and ran ahead to open the bathroom door for her.

Jane must have been sitting on the toilet for over ten minutes.

As she sat there, her paralyzed muscles started to tingle back to life.

When she was done relieving herself, she dragged her legs over to the sink.

She turned on the faucet and cupped water into her mouth.

She started out sipping small amounts at a time, and slowly changed to chugging the water like a horse.

After this, she washed the blood out of her eyes and looked in the mirror.

The woman in the mirror was someone she didn’t recognize. She understood why Jiyoo didn’t recognize her at first. In fact, she was surprised that Jiyoo had believed her at all. She looked like a UFC fighter who had just lost by decision after five rounds of a one-sided smashing.

Her eyelid had a blood bruise and was stuck to her eyeball, her nose looked like it had been replaced with a fried dumpling, and her lips had gone from an innie to an outie.

There was a rash on her cheek where the tape had been.

Thankfully Jane’s vision was blurry, which prevented her from getting too good of a look at herself.

Jane wiped the water from around her eyes. Only then did she see Jiyoo, who was standing behind her with a towel.

“Auntie, are you okay?” Jiyoo asked as soon as they made eye contact.

Instead of answering, Jane turned around and hugged Jiyoo. The words “thank you” came out sounding like two sobs. She wanted to leave this place with Jiyoo as soon as possible. But before that, she needed to call the cops. For that, she would need to go downstairs and find a phone.

“Your mother,” Jane said as she put Jiyoo in front of her. “Do you know where she went?”

Jiyoo clamped her mouth shut and looked down at her feet. She was clearly hesitant to answer.

“Jiyoo. You must tell me. This is about your father.”

Tears began welling up in Jiyoo’s eyes. What Jiyoo said next didn’t make sense to Jane.

“It wasn’t a dream, was it? It was all real, wasn’t it?”

“What dream? You mean about the loon?”

Jiyoo shook her head before bursting out in tears. This made it hard to hear what she said next.

“. . . the downstairs bathroom . . . the tub was filled with blood . . . two legs . . . real legs . . . with feet . . .”

It was at this moment that Jane’s worst fears were realized. Her heart sank deep into her stomach. Had Jiyoo seen it happen?

“That night . . . when my dad came . . .”

Jane pulled Jiyoo into her embrace.

“Shush, shush. It’s okay. You don’t need to say anymore. I understand.”

But Jiyoo didn’t stop. She continued as she choked on her own saliva.

“Mother told me . . . it was just a dream . . . But I know . . . It wasn’t a dream . . . It didn’t go away when I woke up . . . I still remember it . . .”

Jane could guess what had happened. Jiyoo had seen her father’s body in the bathroom downstairs, and Yuna had brainwashed her into thinking it was just a bad dream.

“The night after that, Mother took the wheelbarrow to the Half Moon Marsh—the one we use to feed the ducks.”

Finally Jane understood the meaning of Jiyoo’s recurring dream.

She thought she knew why Jiyoo was so sick that she was unconscious for several days, and the reason why she was so attached to that puppet.

Subconsciously, Jiyoo must have thought that when she was talking with the puppet, she was talking with her real father.

And she must have believed that her father was still alive, she must have convinced herself that what she saw was just a dream.

Jiyoo’s heavy crying slowly turned to a tamed whimpering.

She opened her mouth several times only to close it again.

But Jane had no hopes of consoling her. Nor was this a problem that could be solved by consolation.

It was impossible for Jane to fathom how much pain this six-year-old girl must have been in trying to keep this horrible secret inside her.

All she could do right now was wait until Jiyoo stopped crying on her own.

Thankfully, this happened sooner rather than later. Jiyoo took herself from Jane’s embrace, her face covered in tears and snot. Although she was still sobbing, she was capable of asking in a clear voice:

“You want to know where Mother went, right?”

Jane nodded.

“Follow me.”

Jiyoo grasped Jane’s hand and led her to the bedroom window. Jane looked down at where Jiyoo was pointing. There was a single faint light moving slowly through the blizzard.

“Is that your mom?”

“Yes. I didn’t see their faces, but in the wheelbarrow, there were le—there were le—”

Jane swallowed hard, forcing spit down her dry, swollen throat. She then asked something she wished had didn’t have to.

“There were legs?”

Jiyoo nodded.

Jane turned her gaze to the window. The legs must belong to Eun-ho.

It seemed to Jane that there was an equal probability that he was alive or dead.

She could guess why Yuna was taking him to the marsh in a wheelbarrow.

She definitely wasn’t taking him there to play hide-and-go-seek, not in this weather.

“Is there a phone in this house? Not a cellphone, but a wired phone.”

Jiyoo shook her head.

“No.”

Of course there wasn’t. Jane nodded. If she couldn’t find her cellphone, she wouldn’t be able to call the police. And what would she do if she was unable to find her car keys? Would she have to go to the marsh herself and confront Yuna?

Jane began trembling with doubt. Did she have the strength to fight Yuna in the snow when her body was in shambles? If Eun-ho was still alive, perhaps the two of them could take her. But what about Jiyoo?

“Jiyoo, can you stay here by yourself?”

“Yes.”

“Don’t leave this room. Not until I come back for you.”

“Are you going to the Half Moon Marsh?”

“I think I must.”

Jiyoo suddenly opened her eyes twice as wide.

“Then you must go along the footpath. I can show you.”

Jane shook her head. “I know the way. You need to stay here. That’s the only way you can help me.”

“But—”

Disappointment was all over Jiyoo’s face.

Jane led Jiyoo over to the bed and sat her down.

“I can’t protect two people at once.”

Jiyoo shook her head furiously, as though she were frustrated that her Auntie wasn’t understanding her. Jiyoo looked up at Jane with pleading eyes.

“I promise I won’t bother you.”

“There’s no time,” Jane said before Jiyoo could say anymore.

“It might already be too late. If you don’t let me go, then—”

Jane paused and thought for a moment. How much did Jiyoo understand about what was happening?

Jane quickly realized that Jiyoo probably understood a lot more than she was giving her credit for.

If she didn’t, she wouldn’t have freed Jane from the attic, and she wouldn’t have told Jane where her Mother and Eun-ho were.

“—then the thing you’re scared of will come true.”

Jiyoo dropped her gaze slightly. She let go of Jane’s hand, which she had been squeezing this whole time. Jane grabbed Jiyoo’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze before taking her hand away.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

When Jane got to the bedroom door, she heard Jiyoo shouting out to her from behind.

“Auntie! You’ll come back with Mother, right?”

Jane turned around and looked at Jiyoo.

Jiyoo then added in a tone that sounded broken, “Try talking to her.”

Jane couldn’t promise Jiyoo that she would. Even if she tried talking to Yuna, there was little chance she would listen. Even so, she told Jiyoo what she wanted to hear.

“I will try.”

Jane ran downstairs. She frantically searched the living room and kitchen for her phone.

She eventually found a set of car keys in Yuna’s bag.

Judging from the emblem on them, they were probably to Yuna’s BMW.

But she couldn’t find her cellphone. Nor could she find anyone else’s phone.

And all the professional-grade tools in the kitchen cabinet had disappeared—the knives, the mixer, the pots, everything.

Jane now had an answer to one of her questions. The reason why Yuna appeared here yesterday was to get rid of the evidence. Yuna must have felt that the police were on to her. Had Eun-ho also started to suspect Yuna? Was that why she was taking him to the marsh in a wheelbarrow?