Chapter 11:

Lee-yeon was dragging a cart with a staggering man on it. She could feel his gaze at her back, but she didn’t look back. The sounds of crickets filled the silence.

“How old am I?” he asked suddenly, leaning back in the cart.

“Uhm….” Countless possibilities filled her head at the question. This was like a game. A landmine, more aptly. One wrong movement and everything could explode in her face.

“I am thirty-two,” she said, turning to look back at him. It was difficult to gauge his age just by looking at him. He as handsome with not a wrinkle on his face. He could be a high school boy for all I know. If he wore a suit, he could even be a businessman. “You are the same age as me.”

He nodded slowly. “But do we always use honorific when speaking to each other?”

“Uh… yes,” she said. “You are always very polite and gentle.” She lied outright. She had to say something! She felt as though thorns were growing on her tongue. Trees have the ability to create branches and and new seed, they grow. Lies do too. Once lies germinate, it spreads out of control.

“What did I do for a living?”

Lee-yeon was speechless. Bury people alive, that’s what you do. You plant them in the ground and kill them.

“Uh… so…,” Lee-yeon stammered. As she hesitated, she felt a tab on her elbow and looked back to see his hand touch her shoulder. She spat out words randomly. “You planted well!”

“What did I plant?”

“Um….” People. You planted people. “Flowers…”

“What?”

“You planted flowers at my hospital. That’s how we met.” She wanted to sew her own mouth shut.

* * *

The man was a mess. He had dirt and wounds all over his body. After he took a shower, Lee-yeon helped apply ointment on his wounds. She frowned at the reddish scratched on his body. However, Kwon Chae-woo did not flinch or groan. There was only calm breathing. Each time she applied ointment to his wound, her hands trembled. She wanted this night to end quickly.

“Let’s sleep here, together,” he said.

Lee-yeon flinched. “What?”

“We are married, aren’t we?” he said, “Can’t we stay together here?”

“I… but you are still a patient here…”

“Yes, I am still a patient, but I am no longer vegetative, and I am still your husband.”

He eyes looked at Lee-yeon with a piercing gaze. She got up from the edge of the mattress instinctively. She had never thought about what it would entail for lying about being a married couple. Her heart began to race.

“Are you uncomfortable with me because I might not be the same as you remember me?”

Lee-yeon couldn’t respond. “I…”

“It’s alright,” he looked at Lee-yeon. “I will not treat you harshly. I will neither force you nor threaten you, just like the old husband you knew me as.”

His eyes looked bleak. It felt like all the violent moments were a mirage. “So, sleep here with me.”

The doctor had told her once that when Kwon Chae-woo falls asleep, no one knew when he would wake up again. So. Making him fall asleep was the priority. Lee-yeon sat laid down next to him without a word. It wasn’t a very large bed but was big enough for two people. She could smell disinfectant.

“I have so many things to ask,” he said turning to look at her. His gaze hit her like an arrow. She didn’t look at him. She stared up at the ceiling.

“What are you most curious about?” she asked.

“How did I become a vegetative man?”

“We… went to the mountain together… and we met with an accident.”

“You too?” he said and frowned.

She nodded. “But I didn’t get hurt a lot.”

She avoided the details and kept it vague so that it would be easier to make up excuses later. Lee-yeon’s heart continued to pound.

“Did you take care of me since then?”

“Yes, but the medical staff struggled more than me.”

She might be killed the moment he discovers all of this was a lie. Lee-yeon had to play it safe. She felt like she was walking on thin ice.

“only think about yourself for now. You will soon be able to meet your family. You have an older brother too.”

“I don’t remember him,” he said.

He held her hand. Lee-yeon tried not to flinch. Although it was only her hand that he had grabbed, she felt like her whole body was tied to him. “The only person I need right now is Lee-yeon,” he said. “It’s only your face that lingers in my mind and nothing else. I guess I love you very much.”

Love…. All of a sudden, the face of her parents came to her mind. Lee-yeon held her tongue holding back the urge to curse. Kwon Chae-woo lifted himself a little and draped the blanket over the both of them. Lee-yeon felt at ease at the sudden warmth. It was cozy enough to relive the day’s fatigue and fall asleep. As she instinctively snuggled in the blanket, her eyes met his.

“When did we marry?”

“Uh… two years ago?”

“Have you ever cried because of me?”

“What?”

“We were newlyweds and you had to nurse me ever since,” he said. “That’s terrible.”

“I’m used to treating patients who can’t speak, so I didn’t cry very much.”

“How long did we date?”

“Ah, um….” The questions were getting a lot complicated. Lee-yeon didn’t know what to do. She had been single her whole. What can she say about someone else’s love life? “We didn’t date long. We got married right after we started dating.”

“Right after?”

Is it wrong to say that we got married right away? There were quite a few international marriages that happened on this island and Lee-yeon would often meet them in coffee shops. When Lee-yeon was lost in thought, he raised his eyebrows.

“One night?”

“What?”

“Did we sleep together right after we met? And you thought I was a perfect partner?”

As she opened and closed his mouth in shock, he smiled. “It’s sad that I don’t remember any of that.” He looked young when he smiled. His eyes especially no longer looked cold and distant. Lee-yeon looked at him in shock and fear. It was like waking up into a nightmare.

“Guess you were quite bold back then,” he said.

“No! That’s not what it is!”

Such a misunderstanding made her feel very uncomfortable. However, she couldn’t come up with a plausible story to refute what he just said. When she was quiet, Kwon Chae-woo tilted his head and rested it on his pillow.