Page 73 of Perfect Happiness

Lucid while asleep—Confuse reality for dream.Bright light.White hand.

Wife’s right hand—Bandages on her hand.Stitches on her fingers and palm.

Quince tea—Red, blue, and yellow cups.

Mom—

That night—fell asleep with the lights on.

Wife’s miscarriage and Noah’s picture—

Tuesday the 16th—Wife leaves home, ex-husband disappears.

Jinu—Tells me I can call him if I have “something I want to ask him.”What does that mean?

Eun-ho called his mom.She answered the phone in a voice that was stronger and brighter than he was expecting.She asked him questions until she was out of breath.How are you feeling?Have you eaten?What did the school say?When she ran out of questions, Eun-ho was finally able to ask his own.

“Mom, the night it happened, did you come into Noah’s room to turn off the lights?”

“You mean the night Noah ...?”

“Yes.”

“No.I was so tired that I fell asleep right after washing up.Why do you ask?”

So, she hadn’t turned off the lights.And Eun-ho doubted Noah did it.And definitely not Jiyoo.

“Then you slept straight through the night?”

“Yes.Completely unaware what was becoming of my baby—”

The strength drained from her voice.Eun-ho knew if he didn’t stop her, she would start weeping again.He asked another question to quiet her.

“Mom, do you always sleep through the night like that?”

“You still don’t know your own mother’s sleeping habits?Your father used to always grumble about how you were just like me, always waking up in the middle of the night and going to the bathroom.But strangely enough, I slept like a corpse that night.I haven’t felt that way since that time they took out my appendix and gave me anesthesia.”Noticing something odd about this line of questioning, she paused before asking, “Why?”

“I was just curious.”

Eun-ho hung up and looked down at the notepad again.

Mom—Slept like she was on anesthesia.

Eun-ho tore off the paper and hid it with the test results under his rubber floor mat.He put his cellphone in his pocket and left the study.He went into the master bedroom and started opening the drawers to the vanity.After that, he rummaged through the jewelry box and the bags in the walk-in closet.He was thorough in his search, even turning out coat pockets, like he were a forensic scientist.

At first, he didn’t know what he was looking for.Only when he stopped his search of the master bedroom and came out into the living room did he realize what it was: sleeping pills.

He stood at the bottom of the stairs and looked down at the thousand won bill he had in his hands.This was all he had found after snooping around for an hour.All at once, he was overwhelmed with relief that he hadn’t found anything, guilt over suspecting his wife, and embarrassment for tearing apart their master bedroom in search of evidence.He would have stopped there had there not been a wriggling doubt at the bottom of his subconscious.

If it were me, I wouldn’t hide it in the master bedroom either.

Eun-ho’s watch was pointing to five.He went up the stairs.Wife would be leaving work soon.Even if she left right now, she wouldn’t arrive until seven.That meant he had about two hours to play with.

Eun-ho went into Jiyoo’s room and turned on the light.This was the only place in the house he never ventured.The room was oozing with Wife’s taste in interior design.A pink bed canopy, white sheets and white pillows, lace curtains with butterflies on them, a cabin-shaped wardrobe, and an old-fashioned roll top desk.In the desk drawer were new stationary items that hadn’t even been taken out of their packaging yet.Pencils, colored pencils, felt pens, markers, sketch books and notebooks.

There wasn’t anything unusual in the wardrobe either.Just two sleeveless summer dresses.But there was something between the wardrobe and the wall.It was obscured by the curtains, but Eun-ho could tell that it was large and thick.He stuck his hand behind the wardrobe and fished the object out.

It was a thin brown cardboard box, about the dimensions of a laptop.Inside, there were yellow files sealed with strings.Eun-ho checked his watch.6:15.He had a bit of time before Wife returned.