Please Divorce Me

Chapter 3

I’m really back!

Eunchae’s quivering eyes filled with elation. She had traveled back to a year before her death and retained all her memories, no less.

But joy wasn’t the only thing she felt. She raised her right hand, checking the inside of her wrist. There was a bright red dot on her pale skin.

She wished that her encounter with the old woman had been a dream, but it hadn’t. That made everything clear. She had an extra year of life to live, but after that year was over, she would die again.

Eunchae stood there in a daze.

“You seem to be out of sorts,” Yeongae said in a worried tone. “Passing out must have done a number on you. Let’s go to the hospital together, ma’am.”

Yeongae leapt into action. “I’ll have to make a phone call to Mrs. Cha as well,” she said, referring to Hyesu.

“Wait, wait.” Eunchae grabbed her. “Where is Jinwook?”

Yeongae seemed shocked that she didn’t know.

“He’s on a business trip, remember? Or do you not remember that, either?” Yeongae asked.

“Oh...”

“I believe he’s coming back tomorrow night,” she added.

Eunchae finally remembered that Jinwook had traveled to Hong Kong at about the same time last year. He traveled on business so often that he usually spent at least half the year overseas. As a result, Eunchae had spent most of her marriage sleeping alone.

“Ma’am, we need to get to the hospital. The chauffeur is on his way.”

Yeongae had apparently called Mr. Kim as well. She cautiously grabbed Eunchae’s shoulder to support her.

“No. I don’t need to go to the hospital,” Eunchae said.

She took Yeongae’s hands, aware that the woman seemed to think Eunchae had suffered some kind of brain damage.

“I’m fine now,” she insisted.

“Are you sure?” Yeongae asked.

“Yes, so please don’t tell Mother,” Eunchae said calmly. “Or Jinwook, of course.”

“But—”

“I don’t want to worry them, is all.”

Eunchae knew that her husband wouldn’t actually worry just because she passed out. But he would be busy working overseas, and she didn’t want him to hear about it.

After reassuring Yeongae, Eunchae headed to the second floor, where the bedroom was. There was no reason for her to linger with Yeongae. She couldn’t afford to waste a single second of her extra year.

She had to come up with a plan for how to spend the time she had been given.

Once she was in the bedroom, she pulled out a journal and writing utensils from the bottom drawer of the dressing table. Eunchae knew that she had no future. That gave her only one goal—to end her life with no regrets.

She began to write down the things that she wanted to do before dying. The list couldn’t be too long, and it could only contain things that were actually possible.

She had filled half a page of her bucket list and was writing the last item when she hesitated. She stopped short and stared at the list, lost in thought. Then she crossed out the final item.

Eunchae was determined to achieve everything she had written in the journal, but in order to get started, she needed to do something first.

Her eyes moved to the calendar. “Yeongae said Jinwook was coming home tomorrow.”

She clenched her fists. Tomorrow would be important.

***

Darkness had fallen.

Jinwook opened the front door and entered the house. He looked a little tired from his extended business trip. As he climbed the stairs, he loosened his navy tie.

He stopped at the bedroom door on the second floor and opened it without a sound.

“Jinwook?” said a familiar voice.

Eunchae was sitting at the dressing table.

Jinwook raised an eyebrow. The hour was late, and he’d expected her to be asleep. Eunchae also seemed slightly taken aback at his arrival. She closed the journal she had been writing in and stood up.

“I thought you were coming tomorrow,.” she added.

“My work ended earlier than expected,” he explained.

“I see.”

He glanced at her face. “I heard you passed out.”

“Oh...”

Eunchae noticed something different about the look in his eyes. He was asking gently, as if they were actually a loving couple. But there was no way he could have actually been worried about her passing out. It was just a social nicety.

She responded calmly, “It’s all right. I felt slightly dizzy for a moment. That’s all. I’m perfectly fine now.”

“You should go see a doctor first thing tomorrow morning.”

“It’s nothing that requires a doctor,” she argued.

“Let the doctor decide that,” he shot back.

“But I’m really—”

“I’ve spoken to Mr. Kim. He will come for you early tomorrow morning.”

Jinwook was overbearing and aloof, ignoring her opinion. He had been like that a year ago, he was like that now, and he would be the same a year from now. One could say he was infuriatingly consistent.

She knew that complaining would only drain the both of them. “All right. I’ll go,” she said.

Jinwook turned toward the dressing room to change, but Eunchae stopped him.

“One moment,” she said.

He stood at the door, gazing back at her. She looked him right in the eye, just as she had the first time they had met.

“I... I have something to say to you,” she stammered.

There was something unusual about the look in her eyes. Jinwook turned around completely to face her.

Eunchae pulled something out of her dressing table drawer and handed it to him. Jinwook looked down at the item, a bank ledger for an account belonging to Eunchae.

“That’s the down payment you gave me for our contract,” she said calmly. “I tried to make up for the amount I already used, but there is still some left. I will pay you back for the rest once I make some more money.”

Jinwook stared at the ledger. Half of the payment that he had given her had been taken out of the account on the same day. Other transactions detailed the amounts he had been giving her every month for expenses.

“And I’m also giving up on the five-hundred million you said you would give me once our contract was complete,” Eunchae added.

Jinwook looked up. “What is the reason?” he asked, his eyes just as cold as his voice.

She met those eyes without flinching. She could no longer live her life the way he wanted—a cog in his machine.

“Jinwook,” she began.

If one year was truly all she had left, then she wanted to start living for herself on a path to no regrets.

“I... I want to stop.”

I want to live my life for myself... and nobody else.

Eunchae put a little more strength into her voice. “I want you to divorce me, please.”

Silence fell over the room.

Eunchae studied his face. Jinwook’s eyes, which had always been sharp, had narrowed as well. She grew anxious and tried to elaborate.

“I know that the contract period isn’t over yet. But I have faithfully carried out my role as your wife for the past two years. I am also returning the down payment and giving up on any alimony. I do not believe this is a disadvantageous arrangement for you,” she explained.

Jinwook nodded. “Yes. But it certainly is for you. You would end up with a total of six-hundred million if you endured for another two years,” he said, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall. “I did not take you for such a fool that you couldn’t even calculate that.”

She said nothing.

“And why do you want a divorce so badly—badly enough to give up on six-hundred million won?” he asked.

His eyes seemed to pierce right into her soul, and she gulped.

It was easy to see why he was often compared to a robot at work. She might not have lasted more than a few days at a job that required working with him as a superior.

Eunchae clasped her trembling hands. She moistened her lips and looked at him. “I’ve found something that matters more to me than money.”

“And what would that be?”

“My time.”

Jinwook’s eyebrows twitched and he furrowed his brow. He didn’t seem to understand her at all.

She continued in her usual placid voice, “I have always lived the way others wanted me to. In the orphanage, I followed the director’s instructions. After I learned the piano, I did what my music teacher told me to do. That was the only way I could make money and go to college.

“I thought I would be free of all that once I was old enough, but that wasn’t the case. After I married you, I became even more conscious of others’ opinions. I hid my real self away. I had a role to play, the role of a dignified, cultured wife.”

Jinwook’s gaze deepened as he noticed how serious she was.

“I can’t explain everything to you in detail. It’s too complicated. But just know... I don’t have much time.” Eunchae’s voice grew stronger. “And I want my life back, even if it’s a bit too late. I want my life to be mine and nobody else’s.”

Jinwook remained silent.

“Please, Jinwook,” she said, her dark brown eyes directed at his face. “Please divorce me.”

More stifling silence fell between them, and Jinwook stared wordlessly into her eyes.

“Fine,” he muttered. “I’ll divorce you.”

Eunchae raised her eyebrows. “Really?”

“On the condition that you can carry out the terms of the contract properly,” he added.

She gave him a puzzled look.

Jinwook’s businesslike tone was unwavering. “In clause five, section two, there is a sentence that reads, ‘If either party is to terminate the contract without justification, the terminating party must provide restitution worth ten times the down payment as a penalty for breach of contract.’”

“Ten times...”

A billion won?!

Eunchae’s jaw fell slack. “A billion?” she said incredulously.

“Yes,” he replied.

“Ten times the down payment... That’s not fair!”

“You’re the one who signed the contract,” Jinwook said, his tone steady.

Eunchae, on the other hand, was at a complete loss. She hadn’t read the terms of the contract carefully before signing. She had been desperate for money and needed a way to escape from poverty.

She scowled. “How do you expect me to pay you that much money?”

“You can’t? Then it can’t be helped.” Jinwook moved away from the wall. He turned toward the door and informed her, “We will discuss the divorce once you have a billion won.”