Chapter 59
For some reason, a woman was rushing, and her hand slipped several times as she stuffed her bag. She dropped her phone, and the face that picked it up was full of despair. The woman ran out to the road without confirming whether she was wearing shoes as the front door closed. The moment a taxi was in front of her, Yuri opened her eyes.
I remembered something again!
Yuri’s eyes were filled with the red sunset. She must have been sleeping for at least three hours because of the medicine and overexertion of her body. She was alone with her seat rolled back with a man’s jacket covering her like a blanket. She could sense the smell of cigarettes and the man’s essence. Tae-jun was vicious but could be gentle at times too.
She organized her thoughts and posed a question on her past self.
Where were you trying to go?
A whirring sound like a broken machine rang in her head. She did not know the answer, and the headache she’d repressed with the pill started again. Yuri held a hand on her forehead and looked out the window.
Where was here?
It looked like an outdoor parking lot. Yuri raised her head as she heard a tap on the window to find Tae-jun smoking a cigarette. He crushed the butt with his foot and opened the door of the car bringing in cold air and lingering cigarette smoke.
“You slept long enough,” he said.
“You should have woken me.”
“The pills seem intense. You didn’t wake up when I shook you. I thought I was driving with a corpse next to me.” His words were sans emotions.
“I was tired. You know the reason why.” She looked at him accusingly.
But when his eyes swept across her, she ignored his gaze as she spoke. “Anyway, weren’t we going to that house? Where is this place?”
Yuri could not recognize the view no matter how hard she tried.
“It’s nearby. I came here to eat.”
Yuri had thought she was asleep for three hours, but it may have been more. She followed Tae-jun to a building with modern design like an art museum. The owner and the chef courteously greeted them, and the table they were guided to had already been set with dishware.
As soon as they sat, they were served food. by Tae-jun must have ordered it while she was sleeping, was the only logic she would come up with. Each dish seemed to be made of the finest ingredients, Yuri was afraid to know the price. Even so, she could not swallow it. Her mouth was dry from the medicine.
Tae-jun’s brows furrowed at the sight.
“Should I ask them to serve us other dishes?” He had clearly misunderstood her reaction.
An apologetic voice answered the irritated one. “There’s no need. I just don’t have any appetite.”
“You know the state your body’s in, right?”
He couldn’t fathom the girl before him. She was frail, she needed food. But instead, she preferred to thrive on the vitamins that contained god knows what and even put her to sleep!
“Yes. You said I’m too thin for your taste. Come to think of it that would be much better for you and me.” She retorted.
“Don’t expect me to let you go for a reason like that.” He warned her. “Try to make me angry if you want to, but there will be consequences.”
In response, Yuri simply lifted her fork again and Tae-jun brought the owner in to order other dishes. While she could not eat meat, she could swallow some of the marinated seafood.
The meal ended without any more conversation between them. She felt a headache coming again and fingered the pillbox after she was in the car.
“You’re going to take that pill again?” he asked in disbelief. She had had a bunch of pills not long ago, and now she was ready for more!
“My head hurts.” She replied flatly.
She had these bouts of migraines often. There was no helping it and the pills were her only recourse unless she wanted to be tormented endlessly.
“Nothing good will ever come by taking that sort of medicine.”
Yuri hurriedly grasped Tae-jun’s hand as he took the pillbox from her.
“What are you doing? Give it back to me!”
Yuri’s hand was cold as ice, Tae-jun’s expression darkened. He drew away from her and tossed the pillbox to the backseat.
She stared at Tae-jun with resentment. She did not know why he wanted to interfere with this issue since s*x and medicine were not correlated. However, she did not want to stimulate the man, as she would be the one left exhausted. She turned around and watched the view out the window in resignation as the car sped.
The townhouse they had lived in together was precisely the same and in the same secure complex consisting of individual houses. Tae-jun passed the garden and entered the front door as if he had only left the house yesterday. Yuri stopped in the garden because of the memory that had only just resurfaced.
Tae-jun turned his gaze back to Yuri when he saw that she was not moving.
“What’s wrong?”
Yuri shook her head and entered the house perfectly organized by the caretaker. The house was in the exact same state as she remembered. She found herself going back to the first day she had come here. She had lied to her father that she would be living in another artist’s workspace.
A housekeeper welcomed Yuri in and showed her room and the things Yuri would be using. The dressing room connected to hers was already full of stuff. Clothes, shoes… cosmetics had been neatly lined up. She was taken aback, thinking they were another woman’s, but she found that they were all new things with tags still attached. She soon discovered that they were all of her sizes, however, she felt disconcerted when she saw underwear and sanitary products.
Tae-jun returned late at night. Unlike the first time, they’d spent quite a long time together. He’d whispered obscene words and Hye-yeon’s name, Yuri’s mind would turn cold everytime, unlike her body.
That’s not me. He only wants a puppet and not my heart. Relax, I’m only a doll named ‘Hye-yeon Jin’.
That night, Yuri came numerous times… but never as herself. Perhaps it was then that she felt her mind and body divided, the boundaries of dreams and reality blur, and the past and present mix.