Moon's Whisper, Heart's Echo

31. The Battle

Eun-soo watched her husband's reflection in the bronze mirror as she brushed her hair. Three quick strokes, then pause.

Three strokes, pause. His shoulders carried that particular tension she'd learned to recognize, the one that meant his thoughts were somewhere far from their bedroom.

"You missed dinner again," she said to his reflection. The brush caught on a small tangle.

"Hmm?" Jae-hoon didn't look up from the document he was pretending to read. He'd been staring at the same section for nearly an hour.

"The servants said you took your meal in your study." Another three strokes. "Like yesterday. And the day before."

"I had work to complete."

"Work." The brush clattered against the wooden vanity louder than she'd intended. " Whatever that means.

His eyes finally lifted to meet hers in the mirror. "Eun-soo..."

"Don't." She turned to face him properly. "Don't say my name in that tone, like I'm being unreasonable for wanting to share a meal with my husband."

"I'm tired." He set the document aside, but his fingers kept worrying at the edge of his sleeve. "Can we not do this tonight?"

"When should we do it?" The words came out sharper than she meant. "When you're hiding in your study? Or perhaps when you're staring at nothing during breakfast, barely touching your food?"

"I said I'm tired—"

"You're always tired lately." She stood, her sleeping robe whispering against the floor. "Ever since..." The words stuck in her throat.

"Ever since what?"

"Since she came back." The silence that followed felt like stepping onto ice, uncertain if it would hold. "Since her return."

His hand jerked, knocking over his tea cup. The liquid spread across the table like spilled secrets.

"Don't be ridiculous," he said, but he wouldn't meet her eyes as he mopped at the spill with his sleeve.

"Am I?" Eun-soo watched the tea drip onto the floor. "You barely eat. You avoid our bed until I'm asleep. You spend hours in your study doing 'work' that never seems to get finished."

"You're imagining things."

"Then look at me." She moved closer, close enough to see the pulse jumping in his throat. "Look me in the eyes and tell me I'm wrong."

He stayed silent, still dabbing uselessly at the wet sleeve.

"That's what I thought." Her voice cracked slightly. "Did you love her? Before... before everything?"

"Eun-soo, please."

"I deserve to know. Was I..." She swallowed hard. "Was I just the convenient choice after she disappeared?"

"Stop." He stood so abruptly his chair scraped against the floor. "You don't understand what you're asking."

"Then help me understand!" She grabbed his sleeve, tea-damp silk cold against her fingers. "Because right now, all I understand is that my husband looks at his dead brother's wife like she's the answer to your yearning, and I don't know what to do with that."

"Leave it alone, Eun-soo."

But she couldn't. Not when he had that look.

The look of suffocation at the mention of her name.

"Tell me the truth." Her voice cracked slightly. "Was there something between you? Before we—"

"For heaven's sake!" He stood abruptly, making the table shake. "Must you turn everything into a dramatic scene?"