@park hyunsoo ⁹⁸ [ date: feb 20, 2021. / tw: mentions of infidelity + abortion ]
It was Saturday night, and like many other nights before this one, Esther was home alone. And like those other nights, she did her best to smile and pretend like everything was okay. Like her husband wasn't cheating on her, like he hadn't gone and gotten someone else pregnant, like their marriage was the Cinderella-esque fairytale everyone imagined it to be. In the fantasies she had conjured in her mind, Hyunsoo was merely away on another one of his business trips and he'd be back home the following day. If she could just fool herself into thinking that, everything would be okay, and this too would pass.
They were sensible people after all, so it'd be alright if they forgave and forgot. She was willing to do it and so was he. This much was made apparent last week, when they spent much of the day wrapped in each other's arms, bare skin and silk sheets, whispers of love murmured between their lips as lovers' limbs tangled together. They would pretend that the past few months were nothing but a fever dream and they could go back to loving each other as wholeheartedly as they did all those years ago, when they were nothing but naïve teenagers drunkenly in love with each other and the big city.
Couldn't they?
The door to their shared bedroom is slammed open, the sound reverberating throughout the entirety of their otherwise tranquil floor, and she flinches in place. He's upset, she can tell—anyone could—but why? Confusion paints her face but she still pulls herself up to greet him—("You're home early. Did something hap—")—but the feigned smile she's trying to plaster upon her lips disappears when she feels his fingers dig into her arm. His next words stun her, and while a loud silence drapes over them, the way she wraps her arms around her torso defensively indicate that she knows what he's talking about.
For a second, she considers bluffing her way out of this. (What was he talking about? Why would she get an abortion if she wasn't pregnant?) But the sheer rage in his eyes is nothing she has ever seen before. Park Hyunsoo does not get angry at Hwang Eunhye. He does not raise his voice at her, and he most certainly does not grab her like she's an object he can chuck across the room. He's hurt, she knows, and there's no way either of them can get out of this unscathed. Perhaps it's this knowledge that prompts her to say what she does next, even if she knows her words will be a catalyst that unravels the foundations of their relatively stable marriage.
Valentine’s Day was nothing more but an opportunity for capitalism in his eyes but he found himself spreading petals within their house that very day. After what seemed to be an eternity, they had consciously taken a step back from their own bustling worlds to stay within the comfort of their home. His excitement mirrored that of when summer breaks were about to come, a point wherein it’s just him and her, creating countless of memories while time permits them to. And although effort from him on such an event was subject to his shifting mood, as his wife experienced first-hand, something had caused a change of heart. Perhaps he got tired. Of the nights spent in someone else’s arms. Of the missed opportunities. Of the concealed guilt chipping every inch of what’s left of him.
He had looked into her eyes while holding her close, her skin burning against him. And just like the night he asked her to be his, she was the only one he could see. Esther. A woman of beauty and wits, the sole being to subdue him. It was an unspoken cry but that was the only place he wanted to be in for so long, to be undone in her arms once more. No words were needed and it was as if nothing ever changed. He was ready to let go of everything else. She was ready to forgive. But one phone call from his mistress and they were back to ground zero with an ultimatum at hand. “I’m pregnant.”
Endless meetings had concluded and there he was at the last stop, their family friend’s clinic. Albeit trusting them, Hyunsoo had a nondisclosure agreement prepared for every single person who would come across the ugly truth behind their fairytale; that he’s nothing more than a cheating with an expecting mistress. He sat across the doctor who was scribbling God knows what on a piece of paper after a few questions. “I thought you’d come back with your wife, Mr. Park,” the four-eyed woman chirped as an attempt for small talk. He was caught off guard, ending up with him indulging to satisfy his curiosity. His brow rose. “Esther? For what was she here for, if I may ask?” Contrary to the courteousness of his words was his tone demanding for an immediate answer, one he regretted hearing.
“She consulted for an abortion too.”
His heart dropped and with the onslaught of emotions being too much for him to handle, he had lost control of reasoning. His mind fabricated scenarios, vivid pictures of what could’ve been their future yet they faded into oblivion all at once. Leaving everything behind to his secretary, not a second did he waste, stepping on the gas like madman as if racing against time.
Hyunsoo’s like a ticking time bomb, heart pounding against its cage while he storms in their home only to find her in their room. The look he has is laced with resentment, him getting closer to her. Fingers heedless to the force he placed upon grabbing her by the arm. And off he mutters. “Did you get an abortion?”
