what could the spiciest gossip of gwasuwon be? someoneâs child winning a local writing competition. maybe the love confessions of the resident, âwill-they, wonât-theyâ couple. a business going under. myunghwa wasnât sure what she was even fishing for in asking such a question. the answer was predictable. yet the same news packaged differently had excited her in the past. their family friendâs son winning a national writing award. when gyuri and jihoon finally started dating ( their romance short-lived ). the party that came after her father acquired a bankrupt business rival. less the subject-matter, disinterest was caused more by her lack of familiarity with the characters. because to her, they were just that. characters in a story with no buy-in from the listener.
now sunheeâs own tea, that was intriguing. she had context. sunhee was known and thus, myunghwa was invested in her life. a divorce or missing child support payments was no different than reading the newspaper ( which unsurprisingly, she rarely did ). scooting slightly to ensure she had enough room, myunghwaâs patience was limited. she was itching to know what it was that happened. yet when the news came, she was aghast. âwhat?â a breakup?! the last time theyâd spoken, she remembered sunhee mentioning a partner, seeming absolutely lovestruck. myunghwaâs own romantic past far from simple, few relationships, many flings, the otherâs stable relationship was a thing of envy.Â
so who was this man that dared break-up with her? outrage rarely displayed in her love life surfaced at the injustice towards sunhee. âhow dare he?!â she began, asking no other details. âwhat was he even thinking? how ridiculous. eight years!â people were lucky if relationships lasted eight months, let alone eight years. here sheâd been thinking theyâd begun dating recently. âwhat an asshole.â alcohol and food all of a sudden less appealing, her entire focus shifted. âdid you tell him that? did you tell him heâs an asshole and he will never do better? and that heâll go bald? and his teeth will fall out? and,â curses cut off abruptly, an important question unasked before sheâd launched into her tirade.Â
âhow are you doing?â her hand covered the older womanâs, doing her best to be empathetic. yet it was easier to rage than understand because sheâd never really been in this position before. Â
Sunhee was used to the reaction, people not believing she was going through a breakup because they seemed so good together, like the perfect couple with no troubles and granted, Sunhee thought the same, so she understood the initial surprise. It was not something she particularly enjoyed talking to but to Myunghwa? She liked her and she needed some well deserved girl talk. Too bad the only thing she had to say was how surprised she was and how unexpected it had been.
âI told him a lot of thingsâ In between tears, most of them, the pain of his words making her question herself more and more. She was more insecure now, a painful gift that he had given her as his good bye, and now as time passed Sunhee thought of more and more things she would like to say, except that now she didnât have the chance to. Even for a small town, he was doing a great job avoiding her. âI hope he goes bald, sadly, he is still very much attractiveâ Maybe it was because it was still fresh but she found it difficult to find bad things to say about him. After all, he was the love of her life. Or had been. She wasnât sure yet.
âThe other day a girl showed up at my placeâ She told her, deciding it was too painful to speak about her ex, and instead, she would tell her another painful thing âShe was six or seven, little girl had no home, she was starvingâ She still remembered each second of it, still questioned if she had done right or wrong. âI considered keeping her to myself, if thatâs something people can do. But someone must be looking for her right? I went to the police station and they said they would take care of her. Did I do wrong? Should I have kept her?â