I Need a Wife

‘Shit, I’m late.’

The clock was already pointing at 1:10 p.m. and Sun-woo had to run. Although she came because she couldn’t stand her mother’s nagging, she didn’t want to appear rude to someone she first met. Not to mention she had decided not to mull over it and go for it, so at least she wanted to do it flawlessly. Besides, she had had enough of listening to her mother saying about potential suitors and stuff like, “Listen to your mom for once.”

Alas, for Sun-woo who usually woke up around 2 or 3 in the afternoon, 1 p.m. felt like dawn to her. A lifestyle that had long been ruined since working as a freelancer and would take time to change. In addition, she almost stayed up all night yesterday due to an urgent request for revision, then around 9 a.m. she only intended to take a quick nap but turned into 3 hours of sleep.

Sun-woo took out her phone from her handbag and sent a message to someone she met, who most likely had arrived first.

[ I’m in front of the hotel now. I’m sorry for being late. ]

Lee Eun-sung, the nickname of the one she was going to meet with a cat picture as her photo profile. Immediately, the ‘1’ indicator beside her bubble message disappeared, implying the other person had read the message.

[ Don’t worry, please take your time. ]

‘Please take your time, it said.’ Sun-woo chuckled. She found it was a little funny to use formal words while using a profile picture of a kitten with round eyes.

The dress she wore for the first time in a while, hugged her body too tightly. Likewise, the shoes also hurt her feet since it had been a long time since she wore them. Even though like that, she had to walk in a rush. The appointment place, which was a hotel restaurant, was very sumptuous as she expected. There was a small vase with flowers on the table with a white tablecloth while classical music played softly in the background. Soon after she entered the restaurant, she found a man sitting alone. She didn’t know Lee Eun-sung’s face because her friend used a cat as a profile picture. Well, although she could speak for herself since she used a picture of landscape as the profile picture. Sun-woo had no right to complain.

There were only two people who sat alone in a moderately filled restaurant. One was a woman and the other one was a man. Then the answer was obvious. She approached the man sitting alone with hurried steps. A man that looked in his early 30s, wore a dark gray suit while looking at his watch with a frown on his face.

‘Oh no, he’s mad. But I’m only 15 minutes late. Did he perhaps come earlier and wait…?’

Sun-woo sped up to the man. However, she peeked at the woman who sat alone at the next table. The woman was quite beautiful with short wavy black hair. Though, she looked rather frigid. She was wearing a white blouse with a collar looking crisp and gray jacket with neat checkered patterns and slacks with the same beautiful pattern. One of her legs that slanted because she was crossing her legs, showed that she wore tall high heels.

‘She looks tall judging by the height she’s sitting. Definitely not someone who’d go for a meeting with a potential marriage partner.’

Sun-woo admired and shifted her gaze to the man who was glaring at his watch.

“Hello, Mr. Lee Eun-sung… right?” Before the man could answer, she sat down at the table. “I’m sorry. Have you been waiting for a long time?”

The man shook his head at her question.

“Who are you?”

“Oh, I’m Kim Sun-woo. Today, we’re supposed to meet–”

“I think you got the wrong person.”

“You’re not Mr. Lee Eun-sung?”

“I am not.”

At those words, Sun-woo began to scour the restaurant. No matter how hard she searched, she didn’t find anyone sitting alone except this man.

After her eyes wandered around the restaurant in the distance, they stopped at the nearby sight. The woman sat alone at the next table. At that moment their eyes met. Perhaps it wasn’t a coincidence their eyes met. The woman didn’t avoid eye contact with Sun-woo, she even blinked a few times, then picked up her phone, fiddled with it for a while, and put it to her ear. She raised her head and once again looked straight at Sun-woo’s eyes.

Sun-woo felt a vibration in her handbag before she could grasp the situation. With a puzzled expression, her eyes still fixated on the woman and saw the woman pointed to Sun-woo’s handbag with her chin. She fished out her phone from her handbag.

Lee Eun-sung.

Her phone screen flashed the caller’s name. Sun-woo answered the phone without understanding what was going on.

“H-Hello?”

“This is Lee Eun-sung, and you’re Kim Sun-woo?”

A voice came from two places at the same time. One from her phone speaker and one from the lips of the woman sat at the following table.

“I… What’s going on here?”

Sun-woo eyed the woman in front of her and asked the question through the phone.

“For now, let’s investigate it first. I’ll hang you up.”

As Sun-woo was sitting with bewilderment, the man across her waved at someone behind her. “Here.” A woman in one piece with a cardigan eventually walked toward the table and then stared at Sun-woo strangely. “Oh, excuse me, but… the seat…” The man who she thought was Lee Eun-sung and wrongly called him so, requested the seat back with a troubled face.

When Sun-woo turned her head at the real Lee Eun-sung at the next table, the woman pointed her hand at the seat opposite her and signaled Sun-woo to sit down there.