Ria left work while he was showering, leaving the lingering chill of his presence behind her. His attitude had bothered her all the way home, but there was nothing she could do about it.
She decided to forget Baek Shin-woo and think only about Yoon-i.
When she reached the front of her house, Okja was standing outside the village community center.
“Auntie, why are you out here?”
“I was going to go inside with Yoon-i.”
Ever since Yoon-i had started talking, Okja had been delighted that she could actually have conversations with him.
Yoon-i thought of Okja as his maternal grandmother, and Okja cared for him as though he were her own grandchild. Ria was simply grateful for the endless love she gave Yoon-i.
“If I don’t see him for even one day, it feels like I haven’t seen him for a whole year.”
After Yoon-i was born, Okja had taken care of Ria as if she were her own daughter. She made seaweed soup every day and paid attention to everything, even making sure Ria ate properly so she could produce enough breast milk.
And it wasn’t just Okja. All the residents of Nasari had helped Ria just as she had.
Nasari felt like her hometown now, almost like her parents’ home.
“Um… you know…”
At Okja’s hesitant manner, as though she had something to say, Ria waited.
Only after several cars sped past them did Okja finally manage to speak.
“How old are you this year, Yoon-i’s mom? Twenty-seven?”
She suddenly asked Ria’s age, then seemed to remember that Ria had come here five years ago and nodded to herself.
“It’s just that… you know Mauri, the village next to Nasari?”
Ria answered with her eyes.
“There’s a single man there who’s thirty-nine. Would you like to meet him?”
She emphasized the word single man as though that were the most important part.
Ria’s bewilderment was written plainly across her face.
“He runs the biggest motel in town. It’s called a motel, but it’s practically a hotel, and he’s very wealthy. Yoon-i’s mom, you’re at the prettiest age right now. It would be such a waste to let your youth pass like this.”
Ria was grateful that Okja cared about her, but this was crossing a line.
She didn’t need a wealthy husband.
She didn’t even need a husband who would cherish and love her.
Her greatest wish was simply to live quietly and peacefully with her son, Yoon-i, without any trouble.
“That motel owner also owns some land in Nasari. They built an outlet there, so apparently he received a huge compensation payment.”
“Auntie…”
A headache began to throb.
She was uncomfortable with this kind of conversation, and she didn’t like hearing about someone she didn’t even know.
“I’m not interested. I appreciate you worrying about me, but I’d rather you didn’t bring up things like this with me again.”
When Ria firmly expressed her feelings, Okja’s face darkened.
She looked at Ria cautiously and blamed herself.
“I was being thoughtless. I really was.”
Ria understood her feelings.
More than anyone, Okja sincerely wanted Ria to live a happy life.
But Ria couldn’t accept being introduced to another man.
There was no more love in Ria’s life.
The most important person to her was Yoon-i.
“Actually…”
“Yes?”
“No. Just forget what I was about to say.”
It seemed as though she had more to say, but Okja closed her mouth.
Ria didn’t press her.
As silence settled between them, Ria looked at the rice fields and farmland before her.
Beyond them stood a wide, towering mountain ridge.
If she followed that ridge, she would eventually reach the village where he was.
It was close, yet somehow felt impossibly far away.
It wasn’t simply a matter of distance.
It was a matter of the heart.
A distance she could never cross no matter how much she walked or ran.
A distance like a maze in which she could only keep going around in circles.
“I only brought it up because I thought it was a shame for Yoon-i’s mom to waste her life like this. I’m sorry for overstepping.”
Ria’s hand touched the calloused hand beside her.
Okja’s hands were rough, cracked, and hardened from years of work.
Ria turned toward her.
Okja’s eyes were reddened as she repeatedly apologized.
“Auntie.”
Ria gently patted the back of her hand to comfort her.
Just then, a yellow bus arrived.
Okja quickly wiped her tears with the back of her hand and hurried toward the bus.
She greeted the child getting off even more enthusiastically than Ria did.
“I’m home.”
“Our little prince is home? Let’s eat meat at Grandma’s house today.”
Okja had bought pork belly and pointed toward her house.
Yoon-i was so happy that he ran ahead and opened the gate to Okja’s house himself.
While they prepared the grill and washed the lettuce, Okja’s son, Park Jun-ho, and his wife arrived together.
When the couple saw Ria and Yoon-i, their faces brightened.
“If you’d told me beforehand, I would’ve brought some beef.”
“Yoon-i wants beef. Beef.”
“Then shall we go buy some beef with Uncle?”
Ria tried to refuse, saying it wasn’t necessary, but Park Jun-ho had already taken Yoon-i and gone outside.
Soon, the table was filled with lettuce wraps, pork belly, and various side dishes.
Before long, Park Jun-ho returned from the supermarket with both hands full.
“Mom, look! Uncle bought this for me.”
Excited, Yoon-i pulled out a toy and proudly showed it off.
It was a character toy that was expensive enough that even Ria had kept putting off buying it.
“I told you not to buy him things. Why do you keep spending money on him?”
“Can’t an uncle buy his nephew a toy?”
“The problem is that you buy them too often.”
“Toys like this are only important for a certain age. Yoon-i, ask Uncle to buy you more.”
Rather than stopping him, Park Jun-ho’s wife actually encouraged Yoon-i.
The corners of Jun-ho’s mouth lifted.
The couple had been married for seven years and had recently entered the early stages of pregnancy.
Ria was grateful that they cherished Yoon-i like their own nephew.
Jun-ho took out the beef he’d just bought and placed it on the grill.
Yoon-i watched the meat with sparkling eyes when Ria’s phone rang.
Yoon-i picked up her phone and brought it to her.
The manager’s name appeared on the screen again.
With an uneasy feeling, she pressed the call button.
She hoped it wasn’t something ridiculous like yesterday…
“Yes, Manager.”
—Ria, I really hate calling someone after they’ve already left work.
There was an apologetic note in the manager’s voice.
—The CEO is looking for the cufflinks he left at the home bar. Did you happen to put them somewhere else?
A headache began to pound.
There had been nothing at the home bar.
No, she hadn’t seen the cufflinks anywhere on the second floor.
When the manager added that the cufflinks were worth tens of millions of won, Ria pressed her fingers against her temple.
—I’m sorry, but could you come back and check?
At the manager’s troubled and uncomfortable tone, Ria let out a quiet sigh.
“Mom, why? Who were you talking to?”
At Yoon-i’s question, Ria answered him.
“Mom has to go to work for a little while. Eat with Grandma.”
“Is it something important enough that you have to leave in the middle of dinner?”
Ria couldn’t answer Okja’s question.
It was something trivial, but she knew why Baek Shin-woo was being so unreasonable.
“Yes. I’ll be back soon.”
“You should go with her.”
Park Jun-ho’s wife gestured toward her husband.
He had been cutting meat for Yoon-i, but immediately stood up.
Ria didn’t want the meal to be ruined because of her.
“No, it’s okay. I’ll take a taxi.”
“Why bother calling a taxi? Come on.”
“That’s right. Take Jun-ho’s car and hurry back.”
Even Okja ordered her son around.
With no choice, Ria got into Park Jun-ho’s car and returned to the village with him.
She left him in the parking lot and hurried up to the second floor.
The living room was dark, while light spilled out from the bedroom.
Ria knocked on the door, but there was no response.
She knocked again.
Then, from behind her, he approached like a massive wave.
The strong smell of alcohol reached her, and she instinctively turned slightly away.
His upper body was bare.
He shook his wet hair and swung the bedroom door open.
Ria was pushed inside ahead of him as though swept forward.
Facing Baek Shin-woo, she spoke.
“I didn’t see the cufflinks.”
“If you didn’t see them, then someone from the facilities team must have.”
“They weren’t at the home bar. I checked.”
“Are you taking that employee’s side now?”
She wasn’t taking anyone’s side.
She was simply stating what she had seen.
She had cleaned the home bar herself and hadn’t seen anything.
How could the facilities employee have seen them?
It wasn’t as though the cufflinks had somehow hidden themselves inside the lighting.
“Perhaps you’re mistaken…”
His gaze turned fierce, and she couldn’t bring herself to finish the sentence.
Ria thought back to his study and dressing room, but she hadn’t seen the cufflinks anywhere there either.
“Why? Do you think I’m drunk and imagining things?”
“No. I’ll look for them again.”
“Forget it.”
“Then I’ll be going.”
Facing him when he was in such a bad mood was exhausting.
She said goodbye and turned around, but he called her from behind.
“Maria.”
“Yes?”
He called her, but said nothing.
After staring at him for a moment, Ria asked first.
“Is there something you need?”
“Something I need?”
If there is, will you satisfy it all?
With that look in his eyes and an almost confrontational stance, he approached her.
Ria shrank her shoulders and looked at him.
Baek Shin-woo’s cold gaze seemed to choke the breath out of her.
“There is.”
‘Don’t touch me. It’s disgusting.’
Suddenly, the words she’d thrown at him at the police station came back to her.
Tiny blood vessels had burst across Baek Shin-woo’s eyes like a spiderweb.
It was as though he, too, was thinking of that same day.
But the words that came from his mouth were completely unexpected.
“A woman.”
