grasp, looking defiantly at him. “But I hope you can see now what kind of woman she is!”
“Thank you for the invitation, but we really should—” said Soo-Ja, turning to Min.
“A woman who steals other men’s husbands!” burst out Eun-Mee, staring straight at Soo-Ja.
Soo-Ja felt her face turn hot. She understood, with no uncertainty, why Eun-Mee had brought her there—to unmask her, in the most public and embarrassing way possible.
“You’ve ruined everything in my life!” yelled Eun-Mee. Then, out of nowhere, as if to punctuate her words, Eun-Mee slapped Soo-Ja with the palm of her hand. The gesture made a sickening noise, and hit Soo-Ja so hard that it caused her to stumble and fall to the couch.
“Soo-Ja!” Yul shouted, jumping to her aid.
Her anger still unsatisfied, Eun-Mee reached toward Soo-Ja again, but Yul grabbed hold of her, restraining her with his arms. It took all his might to pull her away, as her body swung wildly in Soo-Ja’s direction, her elbows and feet kicking into the air.
Soo-Ja put a hand on her throbbing cheek, her mouth agape in shock. She felt her eyes well with tears, blinking madly. The moment felt blurry and out of focus. When she wiped the tears from her eyes she saw Yul dragging a screaming Eun-Mee into the bedroom. Soo-Ja thought about the house, the afternoon at the park, the warmth of Yul’s hand.
Soo-Ja’s cheek felt as if it had just been burnt with coal. It would probably bruise later, Eun-Mee’s palm leaving her mark. Soo-Ja shook slightly, her breathing deep and fitful. The same urge kept thrashing at her over and over, Get up, Soo-Ja. Get up.
Through all of this, Min said nothing, not moving from his chair. As Yul and Eun-Mee fought in the bedroom, their harsh words pounding the air, Min looked confused and out of place. The last few minutes, with all their commotion, felt unreal, the kind of thing you hear about secondhand, told in the form of gossip. It was strange to live it, to be a part of it, to be tossed and turned like Jonah inside the whale. Min would have to lie in bed for the rest of the day. He would feed off the events like a sick patient on a special diet, as if the wrong had been done to him.
After a few seconds, without helping Soo-Ja get up, Min rose from his chair. He headed to the kitchen, where he opened a cupboard and began taking out its contents. He found a tote bag lying on the floor and started filling it with packets of barley tea, jars of dried seaweed, and packages of anchovies. He added some peppermint candy, cakelike chocolate, and squid-flavored chips.
Soo-Ja got up on her own and joined him in the kitchen. “What are you doing?” she asked, using the wall for support.
He did not reply, just kept filling up the bag.
“They’ll know it was us,” Soo-Ja said. “And if you want things, we can buy them ourselves, or we can ask Yul if we can have some of this. But we can’t just take it. We can’t just take it without their permission.”
Min stopped for a moment and glanced at her, registering the stricken look on her face. He then resumed his looting, reaching for more and more food. On the way back home, he made her carry the bag.
For hours, Min lay on the floor without speaking, staring at the ceiling and eating his food. He opened each bag one by one, emptying it, then moving on to the next bag. Soo-Ja sat a few feet away from him. All day, neither acknowledged what had happened.
“Stop eating so much. You’re going to get a stomachache,” said Soo-Ja.
Min said nothing, just kept opening more and more packages, his stomach a pit, his hunger unable to be satiated. Soo-Ja grabbed a bag of anchovies away from him.
“Stop. Go to sleep,” said Soo-Ja, reaching up and turning the light off.
Neither of them moved.
“I’ve always been afraid of you leaving,” he said in the dark, as if he’d been waiting for some way not to see her. “Every day of my life I have this fear. I wake up in the morning and ask, Is it today? Is it today that she’ll be gone?”
“As long as Hana is here, I’ll be here, too,” said Soo-Ja. They were still in the same position as before she turned out the lights—Min lying on the floor, she still sitting.
“The only time I’ll be