The Day I Quit Being a Wife (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 14
Although all the hospital room windows were closed, it felt as if she could hear every sound of the rain outside.
Eun Soo took off Hyuk Joo’s coat and hung it on one side of the sofa.
On the sofa table sat a shopping bag bearing the logo of the bento brand Hyuk Joo liked to eat.
Eun Soo turned her head and looked at Hyuk Joo.
“Haven’t you eaten yet?”
“I was planning to eat together with you.”
“If you’d just let me know in advance…”
“You’ve never once left the hospital whenever you came here, so of course I assumed you’d be here.”
His words, as if saying that she was the one who’d broken the pattern, left Eun Soo without a reply.
Just as he’d said, Eun Soo rarely stepped out of her hospital room unless she was going home. She usually handled everything she needed right inside the room.
She couldn’t blame Hyuk Joo solely for bringing takeout without first checking whether she’d already eaten. Still, Eun Soo had something she wanted to say—she hadn’t expected him to show up so suddenly.
Eun Soo opened the shopping bag and pulled out one of the bento boxes inside.
“Let’s eat.”
“I’m fine.”
“…Don’t you need to go back to the office?”
“No.”
“Then go home and have dinner. I’ll tell Director Joo to have your meal ready.”
Eun Soo put the bento back into the shopping bag.
Hyuk Joo didn’t respond to her words. Although such silences between them weren’t unusual, for some reason it felt more noticeable today—
to the point of suffocation.
She wished Hyuk Joo would just leave the room soon. But he stood by the window, staring expressionlessly at the rain outside.
Eun Soo quietly watched his back for a while, then went into the attached bathroom.
She squeezed toothpaste onto her toothbrush and began brushing her teeth.
While brushing, she silently hoped Hyuk Joo would say he was leaving. But when she finally finished and came out, he was still standing in the same spot, gazing out the window.
What could he be thinking about so intently?
His reflection in the window looked deeply serious—his slightly furrowed brows and tightly pressed lips made him seem like someone struggling with a difficult decision.
Eun Soo walked over to her mother’s bedside. She lowered the sheet halfway and gently turned her mother’s body to lie diagonally instead of flat on her back.
Remaining in the same position for too long could impair blood circulation and cause pressure sores, so Eun Soo always emphasized to the caregivers—
more than anything else, they must pay special attention to repositioning her mother regularly.
Thanks to her diligence, her mother had never suffered from pressure sores, unlike other patients in similar conditions.
“…”
Suddenly, Eun Soo wondered if pressure sores had already formed in her own heart.
People were supposed to change gradually over time, yet Oh Eun Soo had always stayed in the same place, steadfastly standing beside Moon Hyuk Joo.
Convinced that she alone had to endure every hardship surrounding their marriage, Eun Soo had lived while ignoring her own feelings.
Over time, they festered—again and again—until her heart had simply died.
Eun Soo lifted her head and looked at Hyuk Joo’s back once more.
Perhaps he wasn’t all that different from her.
It must be agonizing, too, to be unable to be with the woman he loved and instead share his life, out of obligation, with someone he didn’t love.
What if I were the one to let you go first?
Eun Soo’s lips twitched. She almost said something to Hyuk Joo, but then closed her mouth again.
Not yet.
She couldn’t impulsively suggest a breakup before she was truly ready.
Just as she had once needed his money and influence, she still needed them now.
After standing silently for a long while, Hyuk Joo picked up his phone and made a call.
“This is Moon Hyuk Joo.”
As Eun Soo massaged her mother’s arms and legs, she listened to his conversation.
“I’d like to ask a favor for just today. Eun Soo needs to go home.”
Surprised by his sudden statement that she needed to go home, Eun Soo looked up.
Having clearly finished his call, Hyuk Joo ended the conversation with a word of thanks.
Before Eun Soo could say anything, Hyuk Joo spoke first.
“She mentioned you’ve been staying at the hospital quite often lately.”
“…”
“I did tell her that myself, but I thought it’d be better if we just went home tonight.”
“…All right.”
Since his aunt had brought it up, Eun Soo had no choice but to agree to leave.
Not long after, one of their employees entered the room—apparently, Hyuk Joo had called the one stationed nearest to the hospital.
Apologizing for summoning them in a hurry and asking them to take good care of her mother, Eun Soo left the room together with Hyuk Joo.
His car was parked right in front of the main entrance.
“It’s fine.”
When a man who looked like a hospital staff member tried to open an umbrella for him, Hyuk Joo raised his hand to decline. He opened the umbrella himself and helped Eun Soo into the passenger seat.
Once settled in the driver’s seat, he started the car and said,
“Let’s eat dinner before heading in.”
“…”
“I don’t feel like hearing complaints from the kids about skipping meals this late.”
“Do as you please.”
She had already finished eating, but Hyuk Joo hadn’t eaten anything yet.
Moreover, since he’d gone through the trouble of bringing takeout specifically to share a meal with her, Eun Soo couldn’t object to his suggestion.
The car stopped at a hotel.
They went up to the Western-style restaurant on the hotel’s upper floor.
“We’ll seat you at your usual table.”
Sitting down at the table the server led them to, Eun Soo stared out the window and bit her lip hard—because of the hotel annex illuminated brightly with colorful lights.
That was where their wedding ceremony had taken place.
Back then, during the wedding, everything had felt thrilling and wonderful.
She’d believed that if she tried hard enough, she might at least grasp the very edge of Hyuk Joo’s heart. She’d even hoped that, over time, he might gradually start showing her some attention.
At the time, she hadn’t realized just how futile that hope truly was.
If only she’d known then…
What if she’d completely extinguished her feelings for Moon Hyuk Joo before entering this marriage?
Perhaps she wouldn’t have been so unruffled when he later told her that woman had returned.
She wouldn’t have been overwhelmed by that hollow despair of losing the last hope she’d clung to.
Eun Soo gazed blankly at the outdoor wedding venue, drenched thoroughly by the winter rain and looking utterly forlorn.
“One set menu A, and dessert for this person, please.”
“Yes, Deputy President.”
Hearing the exchange between Hyuk Joo and the server, Eun Soo slowly turned her head.
She suddenly wondered whether he recognized the place visible through the window.
He probably did. But since it held no meaning for him, he likely kept that indifferent expression.
Hyuk Joo was looking out the dark window.
His eyes were so hardened that Eun Soo couldn’t tell whether he was truly looking outside or lost in thought.
Their ordered meals arrived.
Hyuk Joo began eating in complete silence.
Sitting across from him, Eun Soo picked up her fork and ate her dessert—
a tart topped with sweet-and-tart figs.
It was her favorite dessert. She’d lifted her fork with enthusiasm, yet ended up leaving about half uneaten.
“Aren’t you going to eat any more?”
Noticing Eun Soo setting her fork down midway, Hyuk Joo asked. She shook her head faintly.
“I’m full.”
“Wasn’t this something you liked?”
“…I do like it.”
“You used to finish it even when you were full, but today you’re eating much less.”
“It’s nighttime.”
Eun Soo found it odd that Hyuk Joo pressed so insistently for a reason why she’d left her dessert. So she quickly added an excuse.
“I’m worried about gaining weight.”
“I really don’t understand why you’d worry about that.”
Speaking as though completely baffled, he furrowed his brow, then picked up the fork and knife in both hands and began cutting into the steak on his plate.
The cross-section of the medium-rare steak showed just the right hint of red.
Watching Hyuk Joo chew a piece of the sliced steak, Eun Soo thought he looked like a predator at the very top of the food chain.
Perhaps that wasn’t such a mistaken impression after all.
Moon Hyuk Joo was always the one in control in every relationship.
‘This is Moon Hyuk Joo.’
Whenever he phoned and stated his name, whoever was on the other end would immediately bow their head in submission.
Moon Hyuk Joo was not a man who ever bowed first.
So when he’d said the woman he held in his heart had returned—and added that he had no intention of divorcing—it had been a kind of verdict.
Hyuk Joo must have surely weighed many factors when that woman had contacted him again.
Quietly, without showing her anything, he must have thought it all through alone—and ultimately concluded that divorce was out of the question.
Thus, his declaration that he had no intention of divorcing might well mean he would never, under any circumstances, change his mind.
If Eun Soo were to disregard his words and propose separation herself…
She felt uneasy—perhaps he wouldn’t be overjoyed at finally being able to spend his life with that woman, but rather offended that she’d dared to overrule his decision.
Once again, Eun Soo reaffirmed the choice she’d made when leaving the hospital: it still wasn’t the right time to speak of parting.
When the couple returned home, their aunt merely greeted them indifferently before heading straight to her room. Chairman Moon Kyung Soo was away on an overseas business trip.
The couple went upstairs to the second floor, to their private space.
As soon as they entered the bedroom, Eun Soo held out her hand to take Hyuk Joo’s coat.
“Take your coat off first. It’s a mess.”
At the word “mess,” Eun Soo looked down at her own coat.
What she’d thought was just a light splash of rainwater was actually a deep, unsightly stain—likely muddy water.
She started taking off her coat.
“…”
Eun Soo was startled when Hyuk Joo took her coat from her. His small act of kindness felt so unfamiliar that she instinctively hunched her shoulders.
Hyuk Joo hung her coat on the laundry basket at the far end of the dressing room, then began taking off his own.
After removing his coat, he took out his phone and car keys from the pocket and placed them on the shelf.
Then, from the same coat pocket, he pulled out something that rustled softly.
A small folded piece of paper.
“I’ll have your coat specially cleaned tomorrow…”
Eun Soo, who had just stepped into the dressing room, stopped mid-sentence when she saw the paper in Hyuk Joo’s hand.
It was the note listing her mother’s hospital expenses.
She’d jotted it down earlier, considering various possibilities and following In Woo’s advice. She’d tucked it into Hyuk Joo’s coat pocket back at the hospital entrance—and forgotten to take it out again.
Hyuk Joo unfolded the paper with a puzzled look. As his eyes scanned the words written on it, a strange expression began to settle on his face.
Male lead is a Love-Obsessed Merman
When he discovers she has gone, he risks everything to pursue her on land, enduring agonizing pain to transform his tail into human legs…
One-line summary: Male lead chases female lead. The male lead’s love is a bit sick, an invincible love brain.
Synopsis
During a voyage at sea, Jiang Yang accidentally captures a merman.
Servant: I heard that mermen are fierce and brutal.
Jiang Yang looks at the merman obediently rubbing her palm like a puppy: “You call this fierce and brutal?”
Servant: I heard that mermen have no human nature.
Jiang Yang looks at the merman with wet puppy eyes, obsessively calling her ‘A Yang’ like a childish infant: “You call this having no human nature?”
With great difficulty, she releases the merman back into the sea and returns to shore.
Who would have thought that in less than half a month, the merman, who should have been freely wandering in the South China Sea, would shed his scales, endure the pain of losing his tail, transform into human legs, and come ashore to find her?
He kneels at her feet, rubbing her palm, with merman tears rolling down: “A Yang, don’t abandon me.”
_____
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The extreme miscommunication is getting on my nerves now.
I wish he could actually say what he fully means for once
Hyuk Joo does not mess around. When dealing with someone like this you have to be direct!