This Burns My Heart Page 0,36

quietly. “You’re not scared of me. Why are you not scared of me? I talk to my friends. Their daughters-in-law are terrified of them. But you, you’re not afraid of me at all.”

“Why would I be? You’re not a mountain bear.”

“And how can you not be afraid of Father-in-law? The way you talk to him… it’s so informal. It’s almost brazen.”

“I don’t see why I should treat him like some god just because he was born a man.”

“I knew you’d make a bad daughter-in-law, but I didn’t expect you to be this bad.”

Suddenly, Mother-in-law grabbed the kit back from Soo-Ja’s hand and pulled some of the cosmetics out of the bag. She then proceeded to break the lipstick off at the base, snap the cover off the foundation case, and tear off the tips of the mascara brushes. She did this with the quick movements of a child, completely focused on the task, glancing over at Soo-Ja occasionally, daring her to stop this. Na-yeong watched this, too, with a look of surprise on her face, and a tinge of regret, as if all these items could have—should have—been hers. Finally, Soo-Ja reached over and took away some of the pencils and lipsticks that her mother-in-law hadn’t yet gotten to. While Soo-Ja leaned forward, her mother-in-law tried to pry her fingers open, slapping at her arm.

“Stop that!” Soo-Ja told her.

But her mother-in-law kept hitting her, and she leaned forward clumsily, so that her arms and hands fell over Soo-Ja for support. When Soo-Ja moved to get away from her slaps, Mother-in-law lost her balance, fell back, and hit her head on the floor. She gave a great cry of pain.

The commotion brought Father-in-law and the boys to the room, along with Min, who appeared a few seconds later. Soo-Ja pictured the tableau through their eyes: Mother-in-law rubbing her head with her hand, squinting her eyes in obvious pain; Soo-Ja—enemy, attacker, villain—standing over her with no apparent weapon but her strong hands.

“She hit me! She hit me!” Mother-in-law cried out.

“I didn’t!” Soo-Ja called out. “She fell on the floor by accident.”

“I fell because of you! Because you hit me!” She began to bang on the floor, like a woman whose body has been overtaken by a spirit. “Aigo meah! Oh my Lord!”

Everyone’s eyes turned not to Soo-Ja but to Min, to see how he would respond to this. Soo-Ja looked at him a little complicitly, expecting him to ask his mother if she wasn’t sure she’d fallen by accident. He was, after all, her husband, and she expected him to side with her. But instead, he turned to his wife, hate flashing in his eyes.

“Why are you so mean to my mother?” Min cried out. He reached for Soo-Ja’s arm and shook her. “I know what goes on behind closed doors! You act nice to her in front of me, but I know when it’s just the two of you, you’re abusive to her! Well, you’ve been caught this time.”

Soo-Ja looked back at him in disbelief, and then she turned to Na-yeong, waiting for her to tell them it had been an accident, and that she had never laid a finger on Mother-in-law, even while she was slapping her. But Na-yeong said nothing, and the men stared down at Soo-Ja in fury.

“Hana’s father, you don’t believe her, do you?” asked Soo-Ja. “I didn’t hit her.”

Min did not answer. Instead, he spied a pair of scissors on the floor near a sewing kit and dove to grab them. In a second’s flash, he was waving those scissors in front of Soo-Ja, not saying anything coherent. Soo-Ja watched the sharp blades as they punctured the air. All the others stepped back, afraid of getting hit by accident.

If you stab me, my death will be slow and agonizing, thought Soo-Ja.

It was Du-Ho who quickly grabbed Min’s hands from behind and took the scissors away from him. Soo-Ja noticed that Min gave them up freely, as if he had been waiting for someone to do precisely that.

His hands now free, Min used them to grab Soo-Ja. He dragged her all the way to their room, where he finally let go of her arm. He did it with such force that Soo-Ja almost fell to the floor.

Sitting down, Soo-Ja massaged her bruised skin and looked at Min with anger in her eyes. “Don’t you have any desire to hear my side of the story?”

Min paced the room in a half circle, his fist tapping against the walls.