"Are you sure? I will immediately hire someone to clean up your space in case you change your mind." Rin offered to Jae Kyung while she's stuffing up her sandwich with some lettuces, while trapping the phone in between her cheek and her shoulder.
Jae Kyung was almost tempted to say yes, but she had already decided last night. She already faxed the papers to Jeonghan's lawyer and the other legal papers that need her signature. And now, she was just waiting for her home to be handed down to her estranged, forgotten husband.
"No, it's okay, Rin." She even shook her head. "It will only occupy some space if I send my things there." She frowned as she imagines how much things she's going to bring if she's going to live with Rin.
"Oh, c'mon, Jae. It's actually okay. You can leave your things that were not needed at the basement though. But it's good news that your client is so considerate towards you. Imagine, he or she is letting you stay there even if he already bought it."
She grimaced at the wistful voice of her friend. "And there goes that too." She said blankly.
If only Rin knows who the client is and how much Jeonghan has been making her suffer, maybe those words won't come out of her own mouth. And if only, she wouldn't live there even if she got all poor.
But she can't deny the fact that she's also glad that she could stay at her home. That's the only place that connects with her past memories.
But with Jeonghan inside the same house, she might just leave also. But it was that single condition he said in buying the house and that undeniable yet ugly fact that she need him to remember — almost as she needed her home — made her decide to stay.
"But until when will you allowed to stay there?" Rin asked.
"I don't really know, Rin." She sighed before munching down the sandwich she made. She really needs to buy decent meals.
"I guess I just have to save first before I move out and find my own place." She continued.
But fortunately for her, she could have time to do that and she doesn't need to deal with Jeonghan since he's not planning on staying there. She knows she own his own mansion, condo unit, vacation house, and any other properties all over the country. Surely, he won't stay in one place when he was moving from place to place constantly due to his business commitments. She knew the likes. So maybe it's alright for her to stay there for months or even years until she could finally stand on her own. She won't let herself live there for her whole lifetime. What if Jeonghan decided to live there? That would be her cue to leave.
But while she's still there, she still needs to have the answers from him. Or better yet, she'll have to force herself to remember.
"Is your buyer a girl or a boy?" Rin asked.
"A man, actually." She answered. But she immediately regretted it when she heard the amusement in Rin's voice.
"Oh . . ."
Her forehead creased at her friend's tone. "What?"
"Nothing."
Jae Kyung rolled her eyes at her friend's teasing. But she stopped herself from telling her that her past boss that fired her from her work was the one who bought her house, for her to stop teasing.
"He'll not be staying here." She said to clear things out. "He just bought the house in addition to her already billion worth properties."
"Is he that wealthy?"
She made a face as she bit another piece of her dry sandwich. "That's how boastful he is."
"Oh, then just let him be. He's somewhat kind enough."
Kind?! He won't even buy the house if she's not part of the package. And with all the things he has said to her? No. She wouldn't call or describe Jeonghan as kind. It's the least of the word she could come up with, or would not even think of.
"Oh my! I'm going to be late! Then let's talk more later."
"Hmm. Take care, Rin."
"Yep. You too." Rin replied sweetly that made her smile.
"Hmm. Bye." She said. She was sure she was not breaking any one's heart. She's not like that. With those co-doctors who made their selves clear on their intentions to her, she just can't give them back anything especially now that she already know the reason why her heart won't open up for somebody so easily.
She looked at the wall clock in the kitchen to see that it's almost nine in the morning. She's been up for hours since she had that dream and didn't return to sleep again.
Jae Kyung stared at the clean dining table as she remembers her dream. That dream scared her. That was not just a nightmare. She feels like it's more than just a nightmare.
She could still feel the same heavy feeling because of that dream. Yet after her conversation with Rin, she felt a little better now.
The shrill sound of her door bell broke her thoughts. Her forehead creased as she walked her way out of the kitchen. Did she leave her gate open again?
No. Not unless . . .
She cursed inside her head when she remembered who else know their gate's password except her sisters.
"I thought you have an appointment today?" She immediately asked Jeonghan when she opened the door for him and she didn't even prepare herself when he met her with his beautiful eyes.
He was leaning a shoulder to the doorframe and his brows shot up quickly once his eyes traveled from her messy bun to her disheveled top, unmatching yoga pants, down to her bare feet and then settled on the unappetizing sandwich on her hand.
"What are you . . ." She trailed off when she noticed two duffel bags lying down the floor. Her brows knotted together. "And what are those for?"
He didn't answer her question but instead he snatched the sandwich she's holding. "This is what you're having on breakfast?"
She gave him death glares and the sandwich on his hand. "Don't criticize what I am eating. What's with those?" She asked when he moved to pick up his two huge duffel bags after munching on the sandwich.
"I'm moving in." He simply answered and entered without giving her the time to retort back.
She even almost stumbles because of his two huge duffel bags, if only not with the door behind her, she would definitely fell down. She followed him inside when she recovered from her won shock.
"Are you joking?!" She exclaimed.
He stopped in the middle of the house, turned around with one bag hanging on his shoulder, the other swinging beside his hips. "Was it funny?"
"No."
He didn't say anything and just gave her a pointed look, saying 'So, there.' He put down his bags on the floor and walked to the kitchen, going directly to the fridge as Jae Kyung followed him like a puppy.
"Damn." He muttered under his breath. He turned to her with a glare. "This is your food?"
She shuffled on her feet from embarrassment. "Stop checking my fridge." She then moved to throw her sandwich on a trash bin. Her appetite left her the moment Jeonghan came.
His brow twitch at what she said. "Your fridge? All I know is this was my house since yesterday."
Jae Kyung crossed her arms. "Technically, no. You haven't paid me yet and I still have the documents for this house."
He closed the fridge and leaned on it with his hand, his tongue sticking against his cheek. "Technical or not, this is my house now." He sounded annoyed. "And don't worry about the money. You'll have it in your bank account tomorrow. Or if you want you can have it later today."
She stopped herself from rolling her eyes on his bashfulness. "Tomorrow's fine." She said grumpily. She'll just turn over that money to the bank he owns. So what's the fuss?
And why is he mad just because she doesn't have anything to eat on her fridge? Is it her fault that she doesn't have the money to buy some? It's his fault it's empty.
Jae Kyung wants to badly escape the kitchen as she continues to watch Jeonghan's face turned darker and darker. He was surveying every nook and corner of the kitchen and so far, he did not like the sight.
My god! I hope he won't be staying here! Please. Let him leave me here alone . . .
"That's it." He snapped and suddenly grabbed her arms. "Come on."
Her eyes widen at the sudden contact and she immediately pulled the trench coat at the rack before they could get out of the house. "Wait, wait! Where are you going?"
"We're going shopping. Someone needs to fill that fridge."
"What?" He let her go when they're in front of his Bugatti. "The go shopping by yourself. Since it's your fridge, right?"
Jeonghan looked at her as he open the door of the driver's seat. "I don't spend my time buying my own groceries. Someone's doing that for me. Besides, you know how to choose fresh meats." He harshly closes the door when he finally entered.
Then why can't that someone do the shopping for you now? She wanted to say but clamped her mouth shut and just slipped inside his car and sat beside him. He revved the engine and moments later, they were driving to the nearest supermarket.
"What happened to your evil sisters?" He said, breaking their fuming silence.
Jae Kyung glared at him. "They're not evil." She said defensively.
She's still irritated about how he suddenly showed up on her footstep and hauling her out her house and into his car in just a minute. The information of Yoon Jeonghan staying, on living at her own house still hasn't sink in her.
She saw him smirk. "You keep saying that but I don't see their horns coming off very soon." Then he suddenly turned serious. "Why aren't they helping you? Don't they know I'm growing pain in your neck?"
She didn't say a word because if she'll speak, it's like she confirmed what he said about her sisters.
She admits she doesn't have loving sisters as she would hope them to be. Even if she loved them both, mas the two still loves each other more that her. She already accepted that truth way before, and even if it hurts as she knows the truth, she still loves and adores her sisters even if they're blaming her for their own mother's death, not just their mom's death but even their own father.
"They dumped everything on you again, huh?"
Her thoughts were cut out the very moment Jeonghan spoke. Again?
She sensed some nagging feeling that Jeonghan and her sisters were not in a good terms. Why? Is that why her sisters never mention to her that she's married to Jeonghan? Why did they hide that truth from her?
Jeonghan broke into her thoughts again. "Jae Kyung, you should learn to stand up from them. Until when are you letting them push everything to you?" He said clenching his jaw. And she would think he was actually concerned if she didn't think of how he treated her these past few weeks.
It was you who's giving me a hard time.
But her words never came out of her mouth because of a phone ringing. Jeonghan and her looked at the phone on his car's dash board.
Eunha calling . . .
Jea Kyung jerked her eyes away from the flashing name. She could feel that arrow again, piercing deeper inside her. Who is she?
Jeonghan looked at her slightly before reaching for his earplugs and answered the call.
"Hello . . . Oh, damn! I'm sorry, Eun, it slipped out of my head . . ."
Jae Kyung heard the distinct softness of his voice as he talked and laughed. And she does not really like the reactions he's giving to that woman.
She turned her gaze onto the road and tried to calm her heavy heart down as if she's not listening to them talking or rather, Jeonghan talking. She hugged herself with the thin trench coat she had.
Jeonghan glanced at her. "Well . . . I'm pretty busy right now." He said that made her turn to him. He was reaching for the air-con and she saw him adjusting the temperature. Her forehead creased. He did think she's getting cold. She wants to stop him but she didn't move and let him do everything he wants to while listening to his words.
"Just reschedule it for me. . . Yup. Lunch is good. Thanks. I'll see you later." He took his earplugs out and looked at her. "Still cold?"
She shook her head. At least not on the outside. She didn't think the air-con is enough to warm her inside.
"Who's Eunha?" She asked Jeonghan when he turned silent again. She doesn't know if she has the rights to ask him that, but she can't just stay still everytime she hears that name.
Jeonghan threw her an irritated look. "There you go again and your . . ." He stopped, his frown was deepening. "You can't remember Eunha?"
Jae Kyung shook her head again. "Your g-girlfriend?"
"What?! No!" He said incredulously. He's even laughing while shaking his head. "She's my lawyer. I thought you two already talked?"
"Oh . . ." That's what she said and looked at the road. She could only focus on the distinct heaviness being lifted out of her chest. She didn't even know they already arrived at the supermarket.
Jeonghan got off the car and she didn't even notice herself following behind him. Jae Kyung rewound her memory the day she received a call from the real estate broker, as she watched Jeonghan walking carelessly with his grey t-shirt, and khaki shorts.
The broker said someone wanted to buy her house and then immediately faxed her a mail. She didn't really directly talk to her through phone that's why she didn't know that she's a 'she'. She thought she's a guy with the name written on the mail. Attorney E. Jung.
So that's what the E means. Eunha Jung.
If she's Jeonghan's lawyer, did Eunha know that she's married to Jeonghan? Does she also know her? Was that why she was feeling like that when she hear her name?
She's at that thinking when she passed by two ladies while whispering at each other.
"He's so handsome."
Her eyes immediately went to where Jeonghan is. He was walking ahead of her, pulling out a cart from its train. He even cursed softly as he can't do the thing right. Then he smirked when he managed to pull one out, then looked around as if he's looking for something.
"Damn it! He really is so gorgeous in person!"
Jae Kyung sighed and continued walking, trailing behind Jeonghan as the two girls eventually became a small crowd.
If she could go back in time, in her 20-years-old self, Jeonghan won't be the kind of guy she would like. She liked silent, mysterious type, nerd, bookish, and anti-social. She doesn't want those eye-catching guys, the too gorgeous ones, and charming. Everything that was Yoon Jeonghan – a total package with abs, muscles and all.
So why did she marry him? How did they even meet?
"There you are." Jae Kyung was surprised when Jeonghan held her hand. "Where did you go? Why are you so slow? I thought you're lost."
Jae Kyung gaped at his worried face, even with the eyes that were focused on her.
Something gripped her chest when she remembered those eyes that once looked at her before. She's not good with directions. She's frequently lost during fieldtrips in school. That's why she always has a map with her before.
Jeonghan knew that too?
"Oh. Who is she? His girlfriend?" Someone whispered behind her.
"Maybe not. A servant, perhaps?"
She then scanned what she's wearing and immediately frowned at it. No wonder they would think like that. She sighed. Why oh why did Jeonghan grab her looking like this?
"C'mon." Jeonghan passed her the cart. "Let's get moving." And then he left.
"Told you. She's just a servant."
Jae Kyung just shut her eyes closed at what she's hearing. It's okay, Jae Kyung. It's true, though. You will be Jeonghan's slave, starting from now.
But until when? Why does Jeonghan have to move in?
Her head starts to ache because of too many thoughts. Her thought are running round and round her head. She didn't see Jeonghan anymore until she reached the canned goods section. She then grabbed anything on her reach and put them in the cart because she knows Jeonghan would pay for them. And if he decides to buy the whole supermarket, he could eventually do that.
She was looking at a can of new flavored tuna when Jeonghan threw a bunch of onions and some root crops in the cart. It's too much that their cart is almost full.
"Jeonghan, what are these?!"
He picked up the onions and other three items from the cart. "Onions, carrots, uhm . . . What is this again?" He waved a certain item to her.
"Ginger."
"Right. Ginger, tomatoes, potatoes . . ."
"Jeonghan, we don't really need those." She cut in. "We still have them at home."
Jeonghan's forehead creased and his shoulders sagged down. "But you love spices, that's why I want to buy more."
She's about to argue back when she realized what he just said. How did he know that?
He was your husband, idiot.
"Fine." He said after a while and started to pick them up. "If you want we can get them ou—"
"Ah, no." She immediately stopped his hands from taking away the items. Jeonghan looked at her hands then at her face, wondering. "Let them be." Then she immediately let go of his hands.
"Okay." Jeonghan shrugged. "Let's go to the meat section."
She sighed deeply and followed Jeonghan as he walks towards the meat section. For a while, she found herself feeling nervous right there. Why does he know so much about her?
God! She can't believe she really married someone like him. But why didn't it work? Why did they separate? Why is he so mad at her? What did she do? Who's that French doctor he's talking about?
Why did she end up in that hospital and woke up without Joenghan?
She was pressing the thong on the chicken breast, thinking wakeless thoughts, when Jeonghan suddenly stood closely beside her. Goosebumps stood at her nape and she had to drag a rugged breath because her lungs closed up as she caught a whiff of his scent. She needed to move a little away before she could turn to him.
Her heart almost flipped over when she found him smiling. She stopped what she was doing and Jeonghan looked at her, eyes still smiling. "Why are you on the brink of laughing?" She asked him.
"Nothing." He shrugged and smiled, a dimple deepening in his cheek, and it did funny things in her stomach. "I just remembered something funny." He confessed. And then something happened.
She was somewhere, with so many people, but it was a supermarket too. She saw Jeonghan standing beside her, a younger looking Jeonghan, carefree, laughing, and happy.
"Why do you keep pressing that?" The man in her memory asked.
"To know if it's fresh or not." The voice answered. She had goosebumps all over her again when she recognized the voice.
Yet . . . it was not entirely her, or the woman she is now. Her voice sounded so cheerful and warm.
And the she saw Jeonghan leaning down on her. "Oh, so that's what the pressing is for, huh?" He drawled before he captured her smiling lips in a toe-curling kiss. And her toes really curled because she could vividly feel the way his tongue stroked hers, his teeth nipping on her mouth and she heard herself giggling inside her head when Jeonghan's hands brushed the underside of her breast. . .
"So, which is the fresh one?" Jeonghan's deep voice penetrated into the memory flashing back in her head.
She blinked numerous times as she gaped at him and she realized how her toes curled. Jeonghan's eyes narrowed at her flaming cheeks, and she knew they were thinking the same thing.
She slowly breathed out and let her taut body relax, and then she faced the frozen meat and pointed the one she had been poking. "This." She answered Jeonghan. "It seems like everything here is new. You can actually choose any of them."
She walked out and left him; she even left the cart with hi and went to somewhere away from Jeonghan.
That intimacy she just remembered . . . and felt, made her want to crawl under a near table. It made her feel out balanced. Scared.
Yes. Scared. She realized that when Jeonghan was staring at her. She realized that everytime she was getting close to something, getting a closer glimpse at her lost memories, she felt scared and frightened. And she doesn't understand why. She doesn't know why.
Was her past so scary that her mind shut it down?
With some pieces of vegetables she looks for Jeonghan and their cart. They already finished grocery and shopping and seems to be that they can already leave.
She was at the canned goods section again when she found Jeonghan. He's not alone, though. He's with a woman. A tall, beautiful woman. And she was hugging Jeonghan. Her arms were locked at the back of his neck while she kept her body pressed against him.
A throb of pain slammed right into the middle of her chest, sharp and immediate, blindsiding her that she couldn't take a breath properly from it.
"Really, Jeonghan?" The woman purred in his ear. "You could've called me if you wanted to go here than have lunch."
Jeonghan laughed. "Next time, babe."
"So how about dinner later tonight, hmm?"
"That would be great . . ."
Jae Kyung quickly stepped back when she saw Jeonghan's hands held the woman's waist and left. She doesn't need to see what Jeonghan would be doing next. She held her breath as another wave of pain lanced inside her. She stopped in a corner for a while. She kept her hands steady and her breath calm and slow as she held the vegetables in her hands. She would destroy them if she won't calm herself down.
Just breathe, Jae Kyung. Breathe. Just keep breathing.