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“What kind of wedding do you want?”
Joo-hyuk leaned back in his chair and asked Sena.
“Pardon?”
“I’m asking if you have a dream wedding in mind.”
“Well, I’ve never thought about it.”
Sena had never thought about marriage, and she certainly hadn’t expected it to happen so suddenly like this.
“Where do you want to go for your honeymoon?”
“Honey…moon. Well…”
Sena’s face flushed under Joo-hyuk’s intense gaze, which seemed to scrutinize every detail of her face. The image of the two of them spending their first night together after the honeymoon flashed through her mind so naturally that it flustered her even more.
‘I’m going crazy, Kang Sena.’
Sena pressed her lips tightly together.
“I guess it would be strange to think about a honeymoon destination when you’ve never even thought about a wedding.”
“What about you, Joo-hyuk?”
She forced a smile and asked back.
“Hmm…Capri?”
“Capri?”
“It’s an island in southern Italy.”
“I know that.”
“I went there once before, and it’s small, quiet…and most of all, the sea is beautiful.”
Joo-hyuk’s gaze drifted into the air for a moment, as if reminiscing about the memory. While he was lost in his memories of Capri, a place he had visited with someone she didn’t know, Sena took the opportunity to observe him.
His neatly combed-back, dark brown, wavy hair revealed a handsome forehead that gave him a refreshing impression. Thick eyebrows, long eyelashes, eyes as deep as the sea, a high-bridged nose with well-proportioned nostrils, clear skin, and reddish lips. He was so handsome that she could easily believe he was an actor who had just stepped out of a TV screen, and she found herself enjoying the observation.
“Stop staring at me like that. My face will wear out.”
Joo-hyuk said, pulling Sena’s gaze, which had been fixed on his lips, back up to his eyes, as if he had finished his trip down memory lane.
Sena’s face flushed deeply, and she picked up her cup and drank some water to hide her embarrassment.
“The wedding will be in three months, but the honeymoon might be a little later.”
“Why?”
“Because of the launch of KMS Broadcasting.”
“Ah. Yes, I understand.”
“There’s plenty of time, so you should start looking into places you’d like to go from now on.”
Sena nodded.
She liked Joo-hyuk’s straightforward personality. Even though this was a forced marriage for him too, he seemed considerate of her, which was impressive.
But in the end, he was just the son of a man who had gotten rich by exploiting people without money. He was from the upper class, who had grown up with all kinds of privileges by sucking the blood of people like her. That stopped the growing feeling of goodwill Sena had felt towards him.
“So, are we getting married?”
“Let’s meet for a while first.”
After asking about her dream wedding and honeymoon destination, Joo-hyuk took a step back.
“Don’t you like me?”
“It’s not really that. It’s not like I’m in a position to say I like or dislike this marriage, just like you.”
It was as she expected.
She wondered what kind of parents would try to control their son’s marriage to such an extent. Surely, those upper-class people wouldn’t have a family as bleak as hers.
“Let’s date while preparing for the wedding.”
“Date?”
“I mean, let’s get to know each other. I don’t mean anything else.”
“What if we don’t like each other?”
At Sena’s question, Joo-hyuk stared at her face for a moment. A hint of something like curiosity flickered across his cold face.
“Who?”
“Pardon?”
“Are you worried that I might not like you?”
“No, well…”
“Don’t worry. As of now, I quite like you.”
At Joo-hyuk’s answer, Sena quickly averted her gaze.
To say such things with that face. Could he be a playboy?
The thought suddenly crossed her mind.
“The opposite could happen too, you know.”
“Don’t worry about either scenario. I’m not that picky.”
He smiled brightly with a relaxed expression. For some reason, facing that smile eased Sena’s heart.
She then realized how scared she had been inside about her father trying to marry her off to a man she didn’t even know.
“Your tea will get cold.”
He picked up his teacup, his thick smile still lingering. His long, white fingers were beautiful, unlike a man’s hands. Thinking they would be well-suited for playing the piano, Sena picked up her own teacup.
Perhaps this marriage could be enjoyable.
She hid an unseen smile behind her teacup.
After getting off the subway, where the air conditioning was blasting, it took less than five minutes to reach “Sim-an Counseling Center,” but Sena’s forehead and back were damp with sweat.
“Good morning.”
As she entered the center, two women who had come to work early, making coffee and sitting facing each other, turned their heads.
“You’re a bit late today?”
“I’m sorry. I missed a subway train.”
“There’s no need to apologize. It’s not like you’re late. There’s still more than 30 minutes before the first scheduled client arrives.”
Center Director Joo-ah waved her hand dismissively at Sena’s apology.
“Why do you look like that? Are you sick somewhere?”
Seol-young, a fellow counselor, frowned and asked worriedly.
“No, I’m not sick.”
Sena answered with a smile and went into her counseling room.
She took out a mirror from her bag and checked her face. As Seol-young had said, dark circles were deeply etched under her eyes. It was because she had had a nightmare for the first time in a very long time the night before.
A chill ran down her spine as she thought about what the dream, which would have continued if Hae-na, who used another room, hadn’t come in and woken her up, might have been about.
“What did you do over the weekend? I asked you to watch a movie.”
“I was a bit busy.”
“So what is it? A homebody who’s always at home.”
‘I met a man I’m going to marry because of my father.’
Sena couldn’t bring herself to say those words. She knew Seol-young would jump up and get extremely angry if she heard.
“I’m busy when I need to be.”
And she would be even busier for a while.
She knew she would have to tell Seol-young, her best friend, about her marriage someday, but not today. She planned to tell her after meeting Joo-hyuk at least a few more times.
“Don’t tell me you’re thinking something foolish again?”
“Foolish thoughts?”
Raising her head, wondering what she meant, Sena met Seol-young’s worried eyes. They were eyes that let her know exactly what she was worried about.
“It’s nothing like that.”
“Are you taking your medicine regularly?”
“Yes. Don’t worry.”
Sena gave Seol-young a faint smile to reassure her.
Seol-young was worried because she knew how serious Sena’s illness had been in the past. But it wasn’t to the point of such worry now. She was taking her medication regularly, and unlike before, Sena knew how to love herself.
“Be sure to tell me if anything happens.”
“Yes, I’ll be sure to tell you if anything happens. Shouldn’t you get ready for your consultation?”
“Hmm, alright.”
Only after receiving Sena’s definite answer did Seol-young head to her own consulting room.
If Seol-young knew that Sena was marrying Joo-hyuk because she couldn’t resist her father’s threats, she would surely call her crazy. She would tease her, comparing her to Shimcheong, who jumped into the Indang Sea for her blind father, but her father hadn’t raised Sena with the same devotion as Shim Hak-gyu, and Joo-hyuk was certainly not the Dragon King living in the Indang Sea.
Thinking this way, it felt like she was jumping into a terribly hopeless marriage.
“I’m tired.”
She lightly wiped her face with her bare hand.
Before her sigh could disappear from the consulting room, her first client of the day entered the center.
“Why don’t you say something? Why are you just sitting there with your mouth shut?”
A woman who had brought her high school daughter was scolding the child with a tearful face.
No matter what the woman said, the child only stared blankly at the picture in the frame hanging behind Sena.
“Ma’am, please calm down.”
“No, you see, she’s always like this. I need her to say something so I can know what’s going on in her mind, but she just keeps her mouth shut.”
“That’s why you came for counseling. Bringing out what’s inside is the treatment, ma’am.”
Sena calmed the woman down.
“Would you like to go out and have a cup of coffee with our center director for a moment?”
“Why? Can’t I stay here with her?”
“Well, children tend to be reluctant to talk when their parents are present.”
“But…”
The woman was about to say something but glanced at her daughter’s face. There must be some problem for them to have come, so she went outside as Sena suggested.
The child’s face darkened even more at the woman’s sigh, which sounded as deep as if the ground was sinking.
“Park Mi-sun?”
Sena closed the consulting room door and called the name written on the record sheet. The child’s gaze finally turned to her.
“I heard you refused psychiatric counseling?”
“Do you think I’m crazy?”
Mi-sun retorted with a thorny voice.
“No.”
Sena responded at a moderate pace, neither too fast nor too slow.
“But if you keep bottling it all up inside like that, you might really go crazy.”
“So? What do you want to hear from me?”
“Nothing.”
Sena showed Mi-sun paper and a pen, seeing her looking dejected.
“Do you want to draw?”
“No.”
“Alright then.”
It wasn’t uncommon for children not to open up during their first consultation. Today’s session would most likely be considered a complete waste of money by Mi-sun’s mother.
But how this moment was spent would determine whether the child’s heart would open or close.
Sena turned on classical music on her cell phone. She saw Mi-sun’s brow furrow, but she didn’t pay it any mind.
“What’s that painting?”
Mi-sun asked, pointing to the painting she had been looking at since earlier.
“Monet, Morning in Antibes.”
“Monet, Morning in Antibes… It’s pretty.”
Mi-sun repeated Sena’s answer verbatim.
For almost an hour, Mi-sun sat in her seat, blankly staring at the painting on the wall, listening to music, and then left.
“I’m in front of the station.”
After checking Joo-hyuk’s message, Sena took a deep breath and headed to the station.
Two weeks had passed since their arranged meeting, and Joo-hyuk, despite being busy, spent time with her whenever he could. Every time she said yes to his contact, she would feel a brief pang of regret afterward, wondering if she had done the right thing.
But seeing his car with its hazard lights flashing in front of the station, that thought quickly vanished.
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