MR 05

Chapter 05

Let’s Stop the Separation, You and I.

I just blinked my eyes as if I’d been suddenly possessed and had my body taken over. As I stood there, a merciless sneer flew at me.

“Ha! Of course. That rotten temper of yours wouldn’t just disappear. Hey, you. If you’re going to do this, don’t bother with a pathetic imitation—go all in on playing crazy. I’ll have you thrown into a mental hospital today.”

Patience, I must be patient. Baek Ijun, if not here, you really have nowhere else to go, do you?

Despite that resolve, the words, once held in my mouth, seemed to spread like poison and shot right out.

“I’m not mentally ill, it’s retrograde amnesia. I’m not crazy, I’m sick. Instead of grabbing your innocent daughter, how about taking a look at yourself first? Children aren’t born without parents, after all.”

Wow, my sarcasm is top-notch. It’s a wonder I survived this long without getting stabbed.

I admired it like it was someone else’s business for a moment, then hurriedly came to my senses and yanked the corners of my lips up. There was no picking up what I’d already said, so since you can’t spit on a smiling face, I figured I should at least appeal that I meant no malice.

But that face, pretty as white porcelain, was already contorted beyond description, flushed hot with anger. The twins’ expressions as they watched all of this were also stunned.

Then, she who’d been working her mouth like a goldfish, seemingly at a loss for words, finally let out a single word like a groan.

“Get out…… right now.”

Her exaggerated breathing and heaving body made it look like she might collapse clutching the back of her neck at any moment, so I scrambled to salvage the situation by spewing whatever came to mind.

“Um, ma’am—no, Mother. Would you just listen to me for a moment? This is…… I mean, this is—”

Backed into a corner, I signaled the twins for help with my eyes, and at the same time, a thunderous roar echoed.

“Get out of my sight right now—!!!”

– * *

The spring night after sunset was chilly. I paced in front of the low gate, pulling my collar tighter against the cold wind seeping in.

“I should’ve just kept my mouth shut and gotten on my knees.”

A personality that had been the supreme ruler of all under heaven for twenty-seven years wasn’t going to be reformed in just two months. It was my mistake to let my guard down just because I’d lost my memories.

‘I thought noona’s memories had come back earlier. She was exactly like before the accident. Well, she was way gentler, though.’

Compared to the tyrant she apparently was before, I’d been as gentlemanly as a British lord, and yet this was the result—so I could guess without seeing just how bad it must have been in the past.

I wasn’t the kind of great person who’d silently swallow this kind of treatment alone, so she probably went around taking her anger out on innocent people. The biggest victims would have been the twins.

Maybe when they were snot-nosed kids it was different, but why would fully grown kids in body and mind treat such a petty, strong-picking-on-the-weak human as their noona? The twins smiled prettily and answered.

‘Because noona is our leader. We promised to be your minions for life.’

I hadn’t heard the details, but it seemed she must have done her noona duty properly at some point—but so what. She went and caused another huge accident.

Even in the midst of this, I could see that this was the true nature of Baek Ijun, who ran wild without looking before or after.

“No, if you lose your memories, shouldn’t your personality reset too?”

At this point, I might as well practice silent meditation. The ghost of the rotten Baek Ijun who survived without dying.

“How is life a landmine here and a landmine there?”

The outrageous aggression and tyranny of Baek Ijun that caused all this was eighty percent the result of wrong parenting, but blaming it now wouldn’t change anything. There was nothing to do but figure out how to survive on my own.

“Is he usually this late……?”

Just as I was getting anxious and habitually gnawing on my lips, bright headlights appeared from the end of the road.

Here he comes.

“What do I do. What do I say?”

While I was frantically clawing at my head, the glossy black car came to a soundless stop.

He got out with unadorned movements and looked down indifferently at me standing blocking the gate. His expression was completely unruffled, as if he’d expected me to be waiting.

“You must have had a lot of work today…….”

“What is it you want.”

He swept useless preambles far away. He’s a man like a blade. Cold enough to make frost form. He probably was the worst match for Baek Ijun.

If I was a hot ember, this man was an Arctic glacier.

I must have been disgusted by this man’s emotional deficiency, and he must have found my reckless rage pathetic.

We were beings too far apart to understand each other, but still, we were married. No matter what anyone says.

So say it with confidence, Baek Ijun. If you get kicked out of here too, you’ll have to sleep under newspaper at Seoul Station tonight……!

“Let’s stop the separation, you and I.”

A spring breeze passed through the space between him and me as we stood apart.

Somewhere far away, a night insect chirred, and our eyes met without the slightest deviation, facing each other.

“I want to live under the same roof as Han Jeha again.”

Even in the darkness, those vividly shining eyes—I couldn’t read what emotion they held. His face, revealing not a single crack, was like the calm before a storm, no telling when it might rage.

A moment passed as if the world had stopped, and finally, when he parted his lips, what came out was—

“Alright.”

“What?”

“I said let’s do it.”

It was an awfully clear answer. I looked up at him with a dumbfounded expression.

What. Is that it? He’s got that prickly face and he just says okay without even asking questions? I felt almost embarrassed at myself for having been fully prepared to get an earful of curses.

“On one condition—”

Just as I was mulling over how absurdly simply this had ended, his words washed over me and I grabbed hold of my loosening grip on sanity.

Of course. There’s no way things would go this smoothly.

In the brief moment I waited nervously, wondering what condition he’d impose, a clear voice cut through the night air.

“This time, let’s do it properly.”

As I hesitated, unable to grasp his meaning, he spoke again in an unmistakably firm tone.

“I’m saying we should discard the condition—that as long as we fulfill our responsibilities publicly, we don’t interfere in each other’s private lives.”

“Then…….”

In an instant, the shadow that had drawn close gripped my shoulders with force.

Lips pressed close to my ear whispered in a dreadfully low voice.

“Not a show-window couple—let’s be a real married couple.”

The hand subtly rubbing against my collarbone was hot. Paying no mind to me, stiff and frozen beneath that heat, he kept murmuring.

“To do that, I think we’ll need to start by sharing a bed…….”

“…….”

“Can you handle it?”

The eyes boring straight into mine glinted coldly.

– * *

My eyes slid open. It was early morning, the short hand of the clock on the nightstand hovering ambiguously between the 5 and the 6.

Figuring it was too late to sleep more, I sat up and blankly looked around the unfamiliar room.

‘To do that, I think we’ll need to start by sharing a bed…… Can you handle it?’

His words, which had kept me up all night with my eyes wide open, echoed in my head once again. Thanks to that, I buried my head back in the pillow and thrashed.

“Ha…… what do I do.”

Since I had nowhere to go right now, I’d said yes like swallowing mustard while crying, but now that I was actually in the house, it wasn’t as easy as it sounded.

“Isn’t it obvious? No matter how much he’s my husband, I don’t remember him, so he’s a complete stranger—how am I supposed to share a bed with an unfamiliar man overnight?”

I don’t know what the old Baek Ijun’s tendencies were, but for the present me, it was impossible no matter how many times I thought about it.

But as the one who’d made the proposal first, it was awkward to back out, so I agonized and agonized and eventually came up with a pathetic excuse.

“Th-the bed seems like it’ll be too narrow……! If I accidentally roll off, won’t I crack my head open?”

Even I thought it was a childish excuse, but whether out of consideration or something else, he gladly granted me a few days’ reprieve.

‘Fine. Then until the new bed arrives, we’ll use separate rooms as before.’

“But why buy a new bed on top of that.”

I don’t know what wind blew in to make him suddenly want to become a real married couple, but for me—who’d been treated like the worst woman alive at my family home just for mentioning divorce once—it wasn’t a bad proposal.

Except—.

“My heart isn’t ready yet…….”

There’s no sign of my memories returning at all, and neither here nor there will cut me any slack, so I’m running after it all with my legs about to split apart.

“Let me wash up and pull myself together.”

I muttered weakly and headed for the bathroom, when suddenly my vision spun and I staggered.