I know that I've imagined love before
And how it could be with you
Really hurt me, baby, really cut me, baby
How can you have a day without a night?
You're the book that I have opened
And now I've got to know much more
Unfinished Sympathy, Massive Attack
"We really need to do some furniture shopping," Soo Ah said one morning, standing at the counter eating her yoghurt and looking around their large but spartan apartment. "It's a bit embarrassing. We look like we spent all our money on the apartment and didn't have enough left over to furnish it."
She could see Saeroyi raise his eyebrows from over the rim of his coffee cup. "So this isn't what you were going for? I thought you were a minimalist."
"Not this minimalist!" she laughed. "I do think some furniture is necessary, you know."
It had been two months since they had married. The one thing they had managed to do in the time between the proposal and the wedding was to find and buy a marital home. Apart from location, Saeroyi hadn't been particularly picky — Soo Ah was the one who had pushed the realtor on size, layout, insulation and natural light. She thought about things that had never crossed his mind. Money wasn't an issue so it hadn't been long before they found something they both liked — a spacious apartment in Gangnam, close enough to both their offices.
So thankfully, the issue of a home was sorted out. But the house was barely furnished — they had a bed, and a housekeeper who came in daily to clean and stock the fridge. And that was it. Whatever meals they ate at home were at the kitchen counter because they hadn't even had the time to buy a dining table or any living room furniture.
"This needs to be a priority," she said. "When are you free? Should I speak to Secretary Lee about your timing?"
"I don't think my wife should need to book a slot with me through my secretary," he said, amused. "That's for everyone else."
"You know your schedule? Then when can we do this? Probably the weekend right?"
"It's not about whether I'm free," he said, grimacing. "It's just that I can think of better ways to spend the weekend than going furniture shopping."
"We just need to bite the bullet and do it," she said, drawing close to him to fix his tie. "Or else we can hire an interior designer to do it all. Which would you prefer?"
"The option that would enable us to do more important things," he said. Their eyes met and the movement of her hands at his throat stilled.
She bit her lip. "More important things?"
He took hold of one of her hands, which was resting high on his chest near the knot of his tie, and kissed it. "We have so little time as it is," he said huskily. "I'm not going to waste a minute of what we do have."
"As long as we're together, I don't count the time as wasted," she said, smiling despite herself.
"I could think of a million other things I'd rather be doing with you," he said, starting to nuzzle her neck.
She gave up. Her arguments were dissolving into thin air as his lips traced her collarbone. "We're going to be late for work," she said, breathlessly.
"Yes, I think we are," he said, as he captured her mouth with his own.
Needless to say, Saeroyi got his way — they hired an interior decorator and spent the entire weekend in bed.
Soo Ah had always wondered what being married to him would be like. She had never guessed that it would mean so much sex. No matter how busy their schedules were, no matter how late they came home or how tired she thought he'd be, he was never too tired for her. He didn't seem to need much sleep.
She'd thought that being married, living together, seeing each other day in and day out would diminish the novelty somewhat and lessen their physical need for each other. She was starting to realise that that was never going to be the case.
Maybe it was because they actually saw less of each other now that they were married than they had before. Indeed, in a marriage between a CEO and a COO, the hardest part was ensuring that they spent enough time together.
The timing was such that both of them now had careers in high gear — Soo Ah was busy trying to rebuild and rebrand the new Jangga while Saeroyi, after completing the national franchising of Danbam, was taking the brand international by pushing into China.
It seemed to Soo Ah that things had happened at lightning speed since she brought down the chairman — the buyout, her installation as COO of the company, the proposal, the wedding... With the upheaval in her professional and personal lives dovetailing, Soo Ah sometimes felt overwhelmed, trying to deal with all that was happening. She dealt with it the only way she knew how, being more rigorous than usual with her scheduling, and noting down every single thing she needed to do.
Her two priorities had been to hire a personal assistant and a housekeeper. "Get Secretary Lee to help," Saeroyi had said. "After all, the housekeeper is for me as well. And she can help you vet PAs. She's very good at her job, so she'll know what to look for."
Soo Ah had been relieved. "She won't mind?"
"Why should she mind?" he asked. "She's here to assist me, which means assisting you, if required. Besides, she's super efficient. Sometimes I feel like I'm not giving her enough work."
Secretary Lee was calm, unflappable and organised. She had an inscrutable expression and nothing ever seemed to faze her. Since their first encounter, when she had surprised them by walking into Saeroyi's office while Soo Ah was on his lap, Soo Ah had wondered if her impressions might not be tainted with some disapproval.
"You're still embarrassed about that?" Saeroyi was amazed. "You're my wife, not some floozy that I was fooling around with. She has no right to judge you. When did you start caring what other people think about you anyway?"
"That's a good question," she said. "Maybe since I married you?"
Saeroyi gave her a quizzical look. But he went ahead and instructed Secretary Lee to assist Soo Ah and before she knew it she found herself with a shortlist of desirable candidates to interview for both positions.
The entire episode had been illustrative of all the changes that Soo Ah was grappling with in her life right now. She had not anticipated some of the things that marriage would bring — not least of it that she now had access to all of Saeroyi's not inconsiderable resources, financial or otherwise. For someone like her, used to being alone, fending for herself, not having anyone to depend on, worrying always about financial security — it was a lot to wrap her head around. She still wasn't sure if she had processed it fully.
So if anyone had asked her which required more adjustment — her new position as COO or her new role as wife, she would have answered quite honestly that it was the latter that had her feeling out of her depth. While COO was a huge step up from her previous title, Soo Ah knew that she was equipped with the right skills and experience and had the confidence that it was just a matter of time before she made a success of it.
Being a wife was a whole different kettle of fish entirely. There had been zero training for this. In contrast, she was born and bred to be a career woman. Yet she knew that Korean culture in this day and age still had traditional ideas about how wives should behave and what they should do. She was pretty certain that she was failing on many fronts. There was no one to advise her — Min Jung was the only older woman she was close to and she was even less familiar with this topic than Soo Ah herself was. The only saving grace here was the fact that Saeroyi had lost his own mother at young age, and had been raised to be independent and to take care of himself by his father. He probably hadn't entered this marriage thinking he'd be fussed over or mollycoddled. As to what his expectations were on this front though, she had no idea.
"What time is your flight tomorrow?" Soo Ah asked later that night, when they were in bed. He was starting to travel to Shanghai now for business meetings, something that neither of them was happy about.
"9am," he said, stroking her shining hair absently.
"Have you packed? Should I help you?" she sat up suddenly.
"Of course I've packed," he said, looking at her with surprise. "Why do you think you need to help me?"
"Isn't that what wives are supposed to do?" she asked. "I don't cook for you, I don't help you pack, our house doesn't have any furniture. I'm afraid I'm proving to be a terrible wife." She flung herself back on the bed with a sigh, staring up at the ceiling despondently.
"Not many wives are COOs," he reminded her, rolling up on his elbow to look at her. "Your KPIs are somewhat different. Where are you getting all these ideas anyway?"
"I'm not sure," she replied. "It's just that I'm so used to living on my own and only taking care of myself, I'm aware that there must be a lot of things I'm not doing for you."
"Well, I'm used to taking care of myself as well," he said. "I don't know why you think you suddenly need to be doing other things for me. You're a great wife and I'm the only one whose opinion matters here."
"You're not just saying that to make me feel better?" she sat up, looked at him doubtfully. Her long black hair rippled down her back while the wide collar of her nightshirt gaped askew, baring one creamy shoulder alluringly. Desire flared in him anew. Why did she think he cared about anything except being with her like this?
"No," he said. "As far as I'm concerned, I have one primary need and you take care of it admirably."
"Do you think of anything else besides sex?" she laughed.
"Not when I have you in bed with me, no," he smiled, pulling her down toward him.
"Mmm.." she hummed in pleasure as he covered her face in light butterfly kisses. "How long will you be away?"
"Three days," he answered as he moved down to her throat and shoulder.
"I guess I will have to give you three days' worth of loving tonight then," she murmured, kissing her way down his chest, past his abs, before getting to her destination a little further south.
Saeroyi was more than a little sleep-deprived when he boarded the flight the next morning. Not that he minded — every single minute Soo Ah had kept him awake had been more than worth it. This would be the first time they'd spent a single night apart since they'd gotten married. He wasn't sure how he was going to handle it but his ever resourceful and surprising wife had had a suggestion.
"Virtual sex?" he had asked, doubtfully.
"Uh-huh. I'll turn on my camera so that you can look at me naked as you touch yourself."
She had blushed at the look in his eyes. A look of dawning amazement, awe, wonder, desire and delight, all swirled into one heady mix.
She might not have fully understood what it meant but Saeroyi knew that in Soo Ah he had that rarest of unicorns — a gorgeous wife whose desire for him was the equal of his for her. He'd thought Soo Ah had been smoking hot in bed before they wed, but after marriage she as good as scorched the sheets every time they made love. She started to dress differently, and began to do things she'd never done before, setting off a raging conflagration in his veins every single time.
Saeroyi sometimes thought that his life was clearly divided into half — the first half had been terrible, all trouble and torment and struggle; the second half was like heaven on earth. The villain of the piece vanquished, his company flourishing beyond his wildest dreams and most importantly, Soo Ah by his side.
Not many men got to marry the girl of their dreams, even fewer were those who found that the dream didn't dissolve after the wedding. But marrying her was clearly one of the best decisions he had ever taken in his life. Making that ultimate commitment had improved their dynamic so much that Saeroyi found wedded life to be bliss — everythig he had done for her, every struggle he had endured for her, every sacrifice he had made to win her had been worth it.
Was this what Happy Ever After felt like?