TYW Ch 3.2

In the familiar tension in the car, Woogeon felt something strange, as if the lower part of his body was tense, and he smiled.

‘Have I been holding back too long in relationships with women?’

The unusual tension in women, which seems to stimulate men. He enjoyed such situations. The excitement that comes when women try to hide their awkwardness, when the tension almost feels like a machine ready to spin—a sensation close to pleasure.

Although he didn’t intend to skip all the stages and go straight to bed, the long-felt tension was quite amusing.

What made Woogeon feel a little disappointed was that he didn’t seem to be able to be the first amazing or impressive man for the woman next to him.

For him, the first experience with a woman felt like a distant memory, and the memories of the women’s first experiences were also blurred, so he felt unable to be the romantic man who could make Rieul’s heart flutter.

“Excuse me.”

Woogeon pressed the passcode on the keypad, and the front door opened. He opened the heavy door and let the young woman go in first. The woman politely greeted the empty house.

“No one’s home “

“I know.”

The woman replied in a soft voice, taking off her sneakers and replacing them with sandals. She passed the entrance, walked down the hall, and stood awkwardly in the living room, not knowing what to do.

Woogeon took off his jacket and calmly observed the woman’s movements. The young woman couldn’t hide her awkwardness and occasionally glanced at Woogeon. Woogeon smiled thinly, then casually loosened his tie and the watch that was tightly fastened on his wrist. He stepped past the woman and sat on the living room sofa. He put his watch on the side table.

“Sit down. Can I get you a drink?”

“No need.”

Woogeon crossed his legs and looked at the woman. The woman walked slowly towards the sofa and sat quietly. The woman’s clothes, were they really her choice, or the choice of an adult? Sometimes he wondered.

The first time she came to this apartment, the woman’s clothes were quite neat. Even today, she wore a beige high-waisted A-line dress, looking girlish but still feminine.

Although still not Woogeon’s taste. If the woman was even slightly to his liking, he would have seated her on his lap and groped her body without hesitation. But the woman remained upright, not turning to him at all, as if she was inspecting the house.

The woman lowered her white hands resting on her knees and started a conversation.

“Why do you keep watching me?”

“Am I not allowed to see?”

The woman looked a little annoyed, and her slightly chubby cheeks turned red. Her hair, which didn’t seem to be styled, had natural curls.

“Who combed your hair?”

“At the salon, someone did it. Grandpa contacted them.”

The inexperienced mature woman awkwardly straightened her hair ends. If Rieul wasn’t sitting there, but a woman to his liking, he would have tilted the woman on the sofa, lifted her skirt to squeeze her white thighs, and kissed her lips that had been applied with dark red lipstick.

As soon as that thought crossed his mind, the muscles below his body tensed. He stopped his thoughts and unbuttoned the top button of his white shirt. His eyes remained fixed on Rieul.

Rieul felt very uncomfortable with Woogeon’s sharp and direct gaze.

“Looking at me like that is very impolite.”

‘Actually, I intended to stop, Miss.’

Woogeon uncrossed his legs and stood up from his chair. “Are you going to take a bath?”

“Pardon?”

The woman’s face turned red and she looked at Woogeon in great surprise.

Woogeon smiled wryly.

“Don’t want to take a bath?”

“Why?”

Woogeon continued to smile mischievously. His expression turned more seductive.

“Don’t you have to take a bath before sleeping?”

“Ah, but you said you wouldn’t bother me…”

“I won’t bother you. Don’t you take a bath after going out and coming home?”

The woman blushed until her collarbone turned red. Woogeon had just realized that the woman’s collarbone was very beautiful and well-defined. The woman had a very slender face with long eyes and deep eyelid folds. Her lips were thick enough and just right to bite, long enough but not too small. The shape of her lips and their slightly curved ends gave the impression of a beautiful smile. Her neck was long and elegant like a swan, her shoulders were straight and smooth.

‘Is her body really well taken care of?’ Did she even have time to take care of it? If so, then it was a natural talent. Because women with upright bodies like that, with shoulders and collarbones that grow very neatly, are very rare. For a woman’s collarbone to grow neatly, it takes effort both naturally and after birth. If after-birth effort is impossible, then she is indeed a woman who naturally has beauty in her bone structure.

“The bathroom is in the master bedroom. The dressing room is next to it. Please wear comfortable clothes.”

“Woogeon…”

“You’re being a bad man again.”

“Then, what?”

Woogeon muttered softly before turning around.

“If I wasn’t joking, I would attack like a dog in heat.”

Woogeon muttered softly before heading to the bathroom.

Rieul felt her face heat up.

“Rieul, physical relationships between opposite sexes are normal. It’s not a bad thing.”

***

Nick was the only friend she had known since she was thirteen. He was a boy she knew through the Korean community, who was very rough and scary. Even though Nick was like that, he was very gentle only to Rieul, which confused Rieul at first. However, after knowing the reason behind it, Rieul felt a little awkward towards Nick. But for Rieul, Nick was nothing more than a friend. Maybe Nick never thought seriously about Rieul either, proven by the fact that he immediately started a relationship with another woman.

Rieul followed the instructions given by Lee Woogeon to the bathroom in the master room. In the small living room that also functioned as a library, there were many books, trophies, and various collectibles. Apparently, there were a lot of trophies there. It seemed Lee Woogeon really liked ice hockey, American football, and tennis. The trophies from these three sports were very numerous. In addition, there was also a gramophone turntable—did he also collect things like this?

Rieul slowly observed the small library before entering the bedroom used by a man. This was the first time she had entered a man’s room alone. That’s when Rieul realized. All this time, she had always smelled the aroma of old wood full of history around Lee Woogeon, as if the wood had long endured and strengthened its place. The deep, fresh, yet low aroma of wood, like the flow of a forest ildara over her head.

‘Is this the smell of this room?’

Rieul felt like she was in a forest. The strong and deep aroma of wood seemed to envelop the entire room, combined with the soft scent of the sheets and pillows, creating a very comfortable atmosphere. However, the owner of this room who gave such a calm impression was the man who had just emitted such an intense aura of strength—very peaceful. He was like a man who owned a forest.

Woogeon came out to the living room while drying his hair and turned on the TV. An entertainment program appeared on the large screen that was like a movie screen, then he changed the channel. The woman seemed to still be taking a bath. There didn’t seem to be a chance to mingle with her in bed. The woman still looked innocent, pure, and had a face like a girl or an immature woman, not the face of a mature woman.

“Lee Woogeon…”

The woman’s awkward voice made Woogeon turn to her. The woman was wearing jogger pants tied with a rope and a large, loose t-shirt. Both of his eyebrows were raised. Of course, because the size of the hoodie or large t-shirt that Woogeon wore was 115. Although the size of ready-made clothes could vary depending on the brand, he usually wore size 115, and sometimes even 120. A woman who was only 161 cm tall and weighed about 40 kg would of course be too big. For such a small woman, the t-shirt looked shabby, and one of her shoulders often fell down.

The woman looked at Woogeon with an awkward expression, as if asking for help. Woogeon got up from his seat and approached the woman. The woman took a step back.

“May I wear this?”

“Nothing’s wrong. In this house, there are no women’s clothes at all.”

Woogeon rolled up the sleeves of the woman’s large t-shirt to her elbows, covering the woman’s very slender hands and arms.

“Is this enough?”

The woman smiled shyly while looking at Woogeon.

‘Don’t smile like that.’

“Why are you smiling?”

Woogeon sat back down and automatically crossed his long legs. The woman sat on another chair on the sofa and smiled shyly.

“Yes, this is my first time experiencing this.”

“What experience?”

“Without adults, being at a friend’s house or another man’s house.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, going to a friend’s house. Sleeping at a friend’s house. I’ve never done it before.”

“Why?”

The woman looked at Woogeon with a strange look.

“Hmm, first of all, I have to work part-time every day. Wake up at 6 AM, work until 10 PM, then go home to take care of grandma. Otherwise, grandma will be beaten by Mac alone.” Woogeon frowned reflexively.

“Grandpa, Mac is a very rough person. He often hits people, often hits grandma. When grandma is working, he’s fine, but at home, there’s no one to protect grandma. Even though grandma actually protects me. One day, I even attacked Mac.”

“Yeon Rieul?”

“When I heard a loud noise, I unconsciously scratched and hit Mac.”

“Enough, I don’t want to hear it. A woman who was beaten, in such an environment.”

“Ah, sorry. It’s an unpleasant story.”

The woman immediately apologized.

“Then, you’ve never spent time like this with friends?”

“No, I always go home after work, don’t go anywhere else. I’ve never been on a picnic either. Couldn’t go to prom, and the environment where I live isn’t a good environment. When the kids gather, they only do bad things.”

“Isn’t that kind of environment scary?”

“Hmm, at first, after my parents died and I moved to grandma’s house, everything felt scary. I didn’t like it, often cried and whined. But now, my parents can’t help me anymore, and I can only live in that environment. Ah, this is a very gloomy story. Let’s stop talking about this. I want to hear a fun story.”

The woman immediately changed her expression to cheerful and active.

“Do you like Korean food?”

“Very much! Since I was little, my mother often made tteokbokki for me. That spicy tteokbokki, I really like it!”

The woman spoke for the first time in a higher tone, showing her excitement. The voice that always sounded calm, regular, and clear like that usually played on classical radio around 2 PM, now spoke in a bright voice like an excited high school teenager, like a college student her age. Woogeon felt surprised and chuckled.

“I didn’t know you could speak that loudly.”

Woogeon said with a wry smile, and the woman’s face turned red to her collarbone.

“Do you want me to make it?”

The woman’s face changed in surprise like a rabbit surprised by Woogeon’s casual sentence. For some reason, that feeling felt so funny. Woogeon got up from his seat and walked to the dining room, while the woman followed behind, like when she followed her grandfather. Woogeon chuckled.

“Lee Woogeon can cook too?”

“When I was in college, I lived abroad, and there was someone who lived in the house to help with housework, but sometimes I also made my own food.”

“Lee Woogeon likes tteokbokki too?”

“No.”

“But, you said you can make tteokbokki?”

“Sometimes if I make it for women, they immediately become happy and forget all the tension.”

“Then, do you have the ingredients to make tteokbokki?”

“In the pantry, there’s everything.”

Woogeon went into the pantry and took out instant tteokbokki.

“How about we make it with an instant cooking kit like this? Just cook it.”

“I like it. Korean instant food is very delicious, Lee Woogeon probably doesn’t know, right?”

The woman seemed to feel more comfortable because there were no adults around them.

A plain face like a peer always appeared on her face.

Woogeon first washed the tteok with clean water and soaked it, then added water to the pot and mixed the spices. The woman sat across the bar and observed Woogeon cooking. “It’s been a long time since I ate tteokbokki.”

The woman, who usually didn’t talk much and often left Woogeon speechless, now spoke cheerfully like a chirping little bird.

“Michael can’t cook. He always asks others or often eats out.”

“I have something to ask.”

Woogeon chopped scallions and hot green peppers. He suddenly felt hesitant. He usually cooked according to his own taste. The woman looked at him with a questioning expression.

“Do you like spicy food?”

The woman smiled brightly.

“I like it very much.”

Seeing the woman who looked carefree, Woogeon laughed.

“It seems Yeon Rieul has decided to marry me before coming here, is that right?”

The woman was silent for a moment. Woogeon, who was cutting onions and scallions, glanced at her. The woman’s face turned red again. Apparently, women of that age were indeed easily embarrassed, even with a little conversation. The spices and tteokbokki had started to boil, so Woogeon turned down the induction stove. Soon, a sweet and spicy aroma filled the room like in a restaurant.

“Don’t you want to talk about it?”

“It’s not like that. Actually, I thought you already knew about it, Lee Woogeon “

“But, when I first met you, seeing your expression, I realized that you didn’t know anything, you were really just called to come, and that made me feel very guilty.”

Woogeon tasted the tteokbokki broth with a different spoon after adjusting the taste. It turned out to be a bit salty and too spicy.

“Try this.”

Woogeon gave Yeon Rieul another spoon and asked, “This tastes salty and spicy, what do you think?”

“Yes, salty. But the spiciness is good. Tomorrow my face will definitely be very swollen.”

The woman laughed innocently. Woogeon adjusted the taste further and slowed down the tteokbokki cooking process.

“So, tell me the whole story.”

“Ah, when Michael came to Seattle, he often talked about Lee Woogeon.”

Woogeon put both hands on the kitchen table and looked at the woman.

“He has a grandson who’s very—”

The woman hesitated.

“Do you want to say a loser?”

“No, I just want to say he’s a bit different.”

Woogeon smiled thinly at the woman who looked confused and couldn’t hide her expression.

“A loser with high self-esteem. A person who lives as he pleases after being born with luck—”

The woman swallowed her lips and reluctantly looked away.

“Because those are words I often hear, so it’s okay.”

“But, he also praised you a lot—Even though he looks like that, I raised him well and he’s polite. Sometimes, out of nowhere he brings that impolite attitude, ‘Yes, grandpa. I understand. I’ll do it,’ he says like that.”

Woogeon laughed casually while preparing spoons.

“Why did you say you wanted to get married?”

“Do you really not think it would be a problem?”

Woogeon took kimchi, pickled red onions, and pickled cucumbers from the refrigerator. The sour smell that came out made him doubt whether the woman would like it. He put the side dishes in bowls and set the dining table simply.

The woman stood up as if to help, but Woogeon stopped her.

“Do you think you would live more comfortably if you married that man?”

“I-if I think so, is that wrong?”

“No, I’d rather think than talk about love or unrealistic things with someone I’ve never met.”

“I’m a very calculating person and used to analyzing. I don’t think women like to be treated like that either—I think it’s natural”

“I have nothing to consider.”

Woogeon prepared pot holders and placed the deliciously cooked tteokbokki pot on them.

“Every day, hearing praise from grandpa like pride, I became curious about what kind of person Lee Woogeon is.”

“And one day, I realized. Grandpa wants to match me with Lee Woogeon. That’s what he wants.”

Woogeon opened the pot lid, and hot steam immediately billowed out, followed by the sweet and spicy aroma of tteokbokki that stimulated the sense of smell and taste.

“He’s handsome, has a masculine appearance, and even though I’ve never talked to you,

I think he’s very cool.”

“Listen—”

The woman held a spoon and looked at Woogeon who sat upright in his chair with a clear point of view. Maybe because she usually avoided eye contact, now the woman looked at him sharply, which made Woogeon accidentally notice the woman’s bright red lips. Those full red lips seemed to contain a sweet taste that came out when bitten, making Woogeon feel restless and frown. This wasn’t because of Yeon Rieul, but because he had been holding back too long against women like this.

“So, even though I know Lee Woogeon won’t like it, I still followed. Because if I lose, it doesn’t matter.”

Woogeon changed his gaze and looked at the woman with a sharp look.

“If I say I won’t get married even if I die, what will you do?”

“I never thought like that. Grandpa said, Lee Woogeon is a greedy person.”

“He must have said I can’t see my plate being stolen, right? Like a dog on a leash, a man who can’t firmly say he’ll meet other women, a shameful person.”

“Why do you talk like that?”

“Because it’s true, right? I’ve never fallen in love to the point of risking my life—I can’t understand someone who goes crazy over one woman and feels their life will be ruined if they’re not with that woman. I’m not that kind of romantic man. Look, this will get cold.”

Woogeon placed a small plate in front of the woman and opened the side dish lid. The woman seemed to look sad, and Woogeon felt he might have spoken too harshly.

***

“He doesn’t know how to share feelings. Since birth, whatever he wants is easily in his hands, so he’s never really wanted something with all his heart, nor does he have passion. At his age, I worked my ass off,” said grandpa.

“Grandpa said he’s a hard worker, right?” Rieul asked.

“Being a hard worker is different from trying to chase something passionately, Rieul. In that regard, you’re superior to him.”

“Grandpa, I don’t have something I really want to achieve either.”

“At least, you know how to share feelings with others. That’s what makes you really rich.”

“Ah, grandpa is just talking nonsense. I’m poor, even in sharing feelings I’m a coward.”

“If you were really a coward in sharing feelings, you would have left your grandma a long time ago.”

“Grandma is an angel. How can I leave an angel?”

The memory of her grandfather laughing heartily still lingered clearly. The meaning of grandpa’s words was that men are only good at taking, but don’t really know how to share feelings sincerely or have them wholeheartedly.

‘Am I capable of sharing feelings with a man?’

Imagining life without grandpa already felt heavy for Rieul.

“If you’re full, don’t force yourself to eat,” said the man.

Rieul looked at the man who seemed to have never lost in life. She knew clearly. Even in the tent camps, especially in the very capitalistic America with deeply entrenched power, those in power were always at the top as the ultimate predators. William, a man of similar type, was a tall and muscular football player who eventually moved to Los Angeles. Even though Rieul never spoke to him, William’s presence alone was enough to get many things—beautiful and sensual women, a slightly more established life, greater power, and even admiration from teachers and other players at school.

This man must be bigger than William, meet more sensual women, and face many people with equal authority and power.

“Yeon Rieul.”

“I don’t like leaving food behind—”

“Stubborn, huh.”

Rieul slowly chewed the remaining tteok that was left. If she didn’t eat this much and become stronger, how could she face a big and healthy man like Lee Woogeon?

“You’re amazing—”

“Of course, I’m very tough. Even my internal organs are healthy!” Woogeon laughed loudly.

“Internal organs, huh…”

As Rieul almost finished her tteokbokki, Woogeon made her a glass of fresh Hanrabong ade. More considerate than she imagined. It seemed impossible that any woman wouldn’t like this kind of attitude. The sweet taste of Hanrabong orange combined with the popping sensation of soda in her mouth felt very refreshing.

“You were born to treat women well, weren’t you.”

***