June 9, 2024
Paris
"I hate conferences. And flight cancellations. And train delays. And most of all, being away from you."
Mi-rae rubbed her thumb along that final sentence as she read it over again. And then she sighed.
I miss him so much.
Kim Mi-rae was sitting at a cafe in the city where she had promised to take Han Ji-pyeong while looking up at that wondrous circle of blue a year ago. But she was unexpectedly alone on the night of their first wedding anniversary.
Ji-pyeong had been abroad for three weeks meeting with investors in Birdhouse while she closed a deal for SK Venture Capital in New York. He had wanted to skip the Bio-Europe conference in London this week. But Mi-rae had insisted that he not just because of their anniversary. It was the most important conference of its kind in Europe and the industry would expect the CEO of a cutting edge generic therapies startup to attend. A conspicuous absence could generate speculation that something was amiss at a critical time. And so Ji-pyeong dutifully presented this morning to an auditorium filled with thousands. And then he raced to the airport to meet her in Paris a few hours after her arrival from New York.
But then his flight was canceled. And the remaining flights were overbooked. And then he traversed from Heathrow back into the city to take a train. And then that had been delayed. Now he was texting her from the middle of the English Channel instead of eating at the three star Michelin restaurant that they had reserved over a month ago to celebrate their anniversary.
Mi-rae let out a breath and looked around at the blue tables and chairs filled with couples and friends laughing and talking together. Music was drifting in words that she could not understand in the still evening air. If New York was defined by angles and perpendicular lines, then Paris was full of sensuous curves undulating all around her as she had walked its streets alone. At the table next to her, a man leaned forward to shyly take the hand of a woman. Mi-rae watched as her fingers slowly unfurled to accept him. A smile curved up her lips at their tentative affection.
Being alone at a table feels so weird now.
Her eyes averted to give the nascent lovers privacy. Instead, Mi-rae watched the bubbles of her champagne floating in the soft glow of a small candle. The seemingly endless depths of her emerald ring glinted as she reached to lift the glass to her lips.
She felt a shiver of anticipation for Ji-pyeong's arrival as the bubbles washed down her throat. Just over a year ago she had met her future husband while drinking champagne alone to mark the end of her first marriage. Now Mi-rae was waiting to celebrate a year of being married to the love of her life.
Mi-rae picked up her phone to write back to her husband. There was already another message waiting.
"I am so sorry."
She frowned as she imagined his brow lined with worry awaiting her response. Mi-rae typed quickly in reply.
"There is nothing to be sorry about! We still have four days here, my love. Don't worry about the actual date. We picked it over pizza so we can just as easily celebrate it whenever we want. I am so excited to see you!"
Three dots appeared immediately.
"I love you so much."
More dots appeared and lingered for a moment. And then they disappeared like the bubbles in her glass meeting the surface.
Mi-rae bit her lip as she considered what to say next.
He wants to ask me about it.
She knew that he was wondering about her reaction to his letter. Ji-pyeong had fedexed it so that she would have it before she left New York last night. His eager faithfulness to a proposed ritual was so endearing that at first she regretted not having thought to do the same for him. Now Mi-rae was grateful that she had waited.
