Reason for Marriage

Chapter 31

Camouflage

Sang-yeon’s return home became faster and faster.

Ironically, the more Minju feared him, the more he was afraid that Minju would leave him. The fear the two felt was of completely different nature, but the foundation was the same.

Could they continue this secret marriage? Questions like this were passing through their minds.

One day, Sang-yeon ran straight home from work.

“Minju-ssi!”

Sang-yeon opened the front door and called Minju’s name. There was no answer.

Instead, there was the sound of piano keys being hit randomly without following a certain melody or beat. No matter how radical and solemn the sound was, Sang-yeon’s brain was throbbing as if it were being crushed.

Kung kung kung!

Whenever the piano keys were played, fireworks popped in Sang-yeon’s head! And exploded. Fragments of memories hidden deep down came to mind and began to disturb Sang-yeon’s heart.

During the short moment when he opened the front door, passed through a not-so-long hallway, and headed to the living room, Sang-yeon’s heart was still as if it had stopped for a while. Turning the corner at the end of the hallway, the living room came into view.

Minju, wearing a long white nightgown, with untied hair, was sitting on the frame inside the grand piano. Sparsely empty, the keyboard looked like a smile with missing teeth, and the floor was cluttered with parts of the disassembled piano and tuning tools such as hammers and tuning pins.

Minju hit a key on the keyboard without even knowing that Sang-yeon had come, and tightened a string. Sang-yeon, who saw the piano string so tight that it seemed like it would break, held her hand.

The sound of the piano stopped, and only then did Minju look at him silently with a blank eye. Then she shook Sang-yeon’s hand and tightened the tuning pin again, pulling the string.

The tensed string of the piano eventually broke. The line made of steel wire bounced off and scratched Minju’s hand. Its strength was such that Minju’s flesh was torn and blood leaked over the wound.

“The sound is so frustrating. A bit softer and clearer… I want to make it like that.”

“…”

“The hammer hardened somehow. I need to grab a needle. When I was young, my mom would pick my finger with a needle if I had an upset stomach. It’s very similar to that. It will clear the blocked sound.”

Minju picked up a needle and started to make a hole with it in the wool felt surrounding the hammer. She repeatedly stabbed the hammer with this pointy needle.

“Stop it.”

Sang-yeon held Minju’s hand again, but she did not stop. Eventually, Minju’s needle pierced Sang-yeon’s hand, and blood dripped on the wool felt.

Minju continued to poke her hammer with the needle without knowing that she had hurt Sang-yeon.

“Sang-yeon-ssi, you can hear these noises, right?”

“…”

“The sound is like this because the distance between the sostenuto pedal rod and the damper flange is too close. He said that if you’re a tuner, you should find out at once what is wrong just by listening to the sound.”

“Huh? Who? Who said that?”

“My boss. I learned tuning from my boss.”

Minju was repeating what the shop owner Kang said, who was not even here.

“But no matter how much I open it and look at it, I don’t know where it broke.”

It was not clear whether she was talking to an illusion of Kang, to the real Sang-yeon, or if she was just talking to herself.

Minju gave up tuning the piano with a dazed face and laid down curled up on the frame. Like a fetus in a mother’s womb.

“Minju-ssi, it’s okay. It doesn’t matter if you don’t know.”

As if to soothe a child, Sang-yeon comforted her with a quiet voice.

“I want to go home. I… I don’t know what I’m doing here now.”

Minju’s shoulders shook as she spoke with tears in her eyes.

“Your home is here now, where would you go?”

“I want to do anything, but I can’t here. There’s nothing I can do as I please. You said to think of it as my piano and do whatever I want. But no matter how much I look at it, I don’t know. I don’t know where to start. Can’t I just go home now?”

“Yeah, you can’t. You need me right now. So stay here as I tell you, because that’s good for you. You can do it, right?”

Sang-yeon thought Minju was doing a show, that she was acting like a typical crazy girl to get out of here. He thought that very desperately, with all his might.

“There are so many things I want to ask you.”

“Later, I’ll tell you everything later.”

Sang-yeon hurriedly ended the conversation. I couldn’t open my mouth anymore because I was Minju, who had learned enough about the end of the women who ran away. Minju, who had learned enough about the fate of the woman who escaped, could not keep her mouth open any longer. Even if she clumsily escaped, it was obvious that she would be caught again. And if her escape was not successful, Sang-yeon’s persistent surveillance would further suffocate her.

Efforts were needed to be abandoned, not discarded.

Just as playing dead was the safest way not to be eaten when meeting a wild beast in the mountains, one could lower their body and abandon their free will, doing as they were told, waiting for the beast to lose interest and eventually abandon them. Minju should not irritate him until then.

Could this judgment be called a show? It was just more like a camouflage, an instinctive camouflage technique of animals for survival.

* * *

Yesterday was today and today seemed like tomorrow.

Even though she had put all the sleeping pills in the curry the other day, she still fell asleep all the time after taking the remaining psychiatric medicine. As if walking on a cloud, her mind was hazy and her head was murky as if there was fog before her eyes, but the questions that had disturbed her mind disappeared behind the fog for a while, making her feel more calm.

The effect of the medicine faded. As her mind gradually cleared up, Minju began to feel anxious.

Behind the lifted fog, he, like a devil with an angel’s face, seemed to come silently and take her breath.

She could not stay in bed all the time.

Knock knock. She heard a knock on the door.

“Madam, a delivery for you is here. Can you come out?”

A large gift box was placed on the sofa table in the living room. When Minju slowly opened the lid of the box, she saw a pretty card first.

How about going out to refresh yourself? Can you come to the ballroom of Yeouido Conrad Hotel Park by 6pm tonight? I can’t wait to see you in this outfit.
From Sang-yeon

It was neatly typed. Minju put down the card and opened the finely packaged clothes wrapped with thin Korean paper. A very intense red luxury two-piece suit, which was hard to wear with most confidence, was waiting to challenge Minju.

Minju’s heart sank at Sang-yeon’s unannounced request for a date.

‘I want to go back home, so he wants to go on a date outside? Is he trying to come out with me? Why all of a sudden? Does he feel pity for me, who was withering inside? But what if paparazzi take pictures?’

It was difficult for Minju to guess Sang-yeon’s intentions.

‘Okay, let’s go. We’ll find out when we get there. I just have to do what he tells me to do. I’ll gladly be his marionette.’

“Madam, what time is it now?”

“It’s a little past 3 o’clock.”

“You don’t have to prepare dinner tonight. I’m going to meet him outside.”

Minju hurried up from her seat to transform herself into a woman suitable for the red two-piece.

Among all the large banquet halls in many hotels in downtown Seoul, the organizers chose the venue as Conrad Hotel in Yeouido. It was a symbolic move that indirectly showed how precious they valued politicians by holding an event in Yeouido, where the National Assembly building was located.

The Medici Korea Association awards ceremony was a regular event in which companies and entrepreneurs who contributed to the development of Korean art were discovered and awarded annually, and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism participated to promote companies’ cultural contribution activities to society.

Participants could be largely divided into four categories: paying entrepreneurs, sponsored artists, politicians and reporters. Heo Jong-min from Mungyeong Daily News, who properly introduced himself at the press conference of Sihyang, was also one of the reporters allowed to enter today.

Sang-yeon and Ji-hee appeared arm in arm together in the large banquet hall where string quartets were playing.

“Oh my! Conductor Park, how long has it been?”

The prosecutor general’s wife, who had been let down by Sang-yeon during the last November’s performance, said in a welcoming voice. Then the people’s eyes all turned to him at once.

“Go and do the fan service well. I’ll be on the other side.”

Ji-hee pushed Sang-yeon’s back to the side where the wives of chaebol families were, and she stepped to the other side where key members of the Medici Korea Association gathered.

“Our Mayor, you were here. It’s so hard to see you these days, so I thought you’d already moved to the Blue House.”

Ji-hee spoke to Seoul Mayor Yoo Kyung-deok in a tone-up business voice.

“My my, the number of representatives has increased a lot without notice. What are you going to do if someone hears it?”

“What’s wrong with that? Honestly, today’s Yoo Kyung-deok supporters’ meeting is no different. Who doesn’t want the Mayor to go to the Blue House? Hurry up and move and have a house party. Strangely enough, I wanted to visit the Blue House so badly.”

“It seems that President Seo was the first lady in her previous life.”

Chairman Min of Hyunkyung Group, who was right next to Mayor Yoo, threw a sarcastic remark.

“Chairman, I heard that you’re the winner of the Medici Korea Grand Prize today? Congratulations in advance. Conductor Park will be the presenter in a little while, so please stop being angry and take care of me, okay?”

The Chairman showed signs of discomfort at Ji-hee’s cheeky response.

Meanwhile, the response of the ladies surrounding Sang-yeon was explosive. When Sang-yeon, who was rarely seen, was right in front of them, the pretentious women lined up as if they were at an idol fan signing event and were busy taking pictures with him.

Finally, Shin Yurim’s turn came.

“I don’t know if you remember. We met in the hallway of Yeonhwa University once.”

There were always some people who pretended to know him. Although Sang-yeon thought so inside, he looked at Yurim’s face once again to search in his memory. Who was she?

“I’m Soprano Shin Yurim.”

Aha! It must be the woman who said she was Minju’s high school classmate.

“Oh, right.”

Sang-yeon gave a short answer that was neither positive nor negative.

“But Minju must have changed her name… with Hye-ryeong?”

Sang-yeon could not believe that she remembered the name he had unconsciously spit out on that day.

Yurim’s amazing memory made Sang-yeon uncomfortable.

“Okay, then I’ll take a picture.”

Mungyeong Daily News’ photographer, who volunteered to take pictures, asked Sang-yeon and Yurim to pose.

“I don’t know how you two know each other, but be careful. She’s a completely different friend than she looks.”

Click. A picture was taken of Sang-yeon’s stiff face.