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Choi Yeonjun's words came back to Soobin, haunting him as he watched his wife's demeanor change. But then he shook his head to clear his thoughts.
That Yeonjun guy was making up stories. His wife was not having an affair with a woman. She was not even a lesbian.
But that night, as they both got ready for bed, he noticed them.
Ryujin was doing her nightly facial routine on their dresser mirror while Soobin lounged on their bed, going over some e-mails for the next day. He looked up to ask her a question when the sight froze his words. On Ryujin's neck were faint bruises. She was patting what appeared to be BB cream on them.
"What happened to your neck," he asked.
His question caught her off-guard and e saw her flinch. "Oh, I accidentally hit myself with a few branches while going hiking," she said, subtly lifting her pajama collar to cover them up. "It's not a big deal, I was a little clumsy. They'll go away in a few days."
But Soobin was not a fool. He may be uptight now that he is married, but he had his fair share of hookups in his younger days. Those bruises were not caused by getting hit by a branch or any object of some kind. They were hickeys; caused by lips and teeth. Lips and teeth that weren't his.
Ryujin just lied to him.
As she laid next to him in bed that night, he couldn't stop the awful churning in the pit of his stomach. He suddenly wasn't feeling good. Slowly, he turned around to stare at his wife's back. It occurred to him; more than once that they both hadn't shared an intimate moment in so long. And they always had their backs turned to one another while they slept.
How has he been such a fool and didn't notice how distant he was from his own wife? And, yet she never once complained.
The next few days, he tried so hard not to notice anything amiss, but with the idea planted in his head, he couldn't help but notice the signs that he never paid attention to before.
Sometimes, they would be eating dinner and he would spy another hickey peeking out from the collar of Ryujin's blouse. Or they would be sitting quietly in front of the TV together, Soobin immersed in some paperwork while Ryujin would text on her phone, a fond smile on her lips. There was even one time when she was in the bathroom for so long. When he went to check on her, he could hear her giggling through the door. Giggling!
One day, he thought about taking her out to lunch since she preferred to eat surrounded by work. So, he drove across the town to her office during her lunch break, but her assistant told him that she had already left. Then, the innocent young woman revealed that Ryujin had been taking lunch out of the office for some time now.
But, that was fine. It was good for her to get out of the office sometimes.
Another time, he figured he could pick her up from work and called in advance this time, but she told him she had already made dinner plans with a client. Months ago, he wouldn't have questioned it, but now.. that was odd.
