[Side Story 1] Seducing the Husband 2023.07.
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4. A person only gets one newlywed period in life. Of course, some people have several, but at least for Taehyeok, it was only once. Unfortunately, however, his wife was a second-year resident during their honeymoon phase. The age when she was just beginning to get a taste of the operating room. Damn it. Lately, Taehyeok had developed a habit of keeping track of not his own surgical schedule, but his wife’s. “Looks like you’re planning to do every surgery in this hospital yourself.” Taehyeok clicked his tongue, thinking this wasn’t right. How could she be going into more surgeries than him, a professor? At this rate, she’d obviously just sleep deeply at night again, claiming she was tired. Last time, she had fallen asleep in the middle of it, and Taehyeok had been very, deeply hurt. Taehyeok scoured with fire in his eyes for any surgeries he could pull using his authority. He couldn’t take his own. That would be too obvious. He had to be careful—if he angered his wife, it could bring about a crisis of separate bedrooms. Suddenly, Taehyeok felt that he was truly pitiful. How many husbands feel this sense of crisis during their honeymoon, he wondered. No, more than anything—wasn’t the person who first said “be a father” at the wedding practically asking when they would have their baby? Taehyeok muttered as he looked at the bright sky outside the window. “I’m confident I’d be a good dad too.” But with mom living in the operating room like that, how could there be time to have a baby? If he could, he wanted to give birth himself. Just then, the phone rang, and Taehyeok swallowed a sigh as he picked up his cell phone. “Yes, this is Choe Taehyeok.” [Professor! Dr. Mun Nayeong has collapsed!] Taehyeok shot up from his chair.
*** “It’s sleep deprivation.” Donggeon, now a fellow, said bluntly. Just that she hadn’t been able to sleep. Still, Taehyeok didn’t believe it and stared holes into the test results. An aura of “if anything shows up, I’ll kill you” radiated off him in waves. But no matter how many times he looked, there was no other illness. “Do you not let her sleep at night?” “Shut up.” “I’m asking as a doctor.” “Then do I not look like a professor to you right now?” When Taehyeok came at him savagely, Donggeon gave up asking. Before leaving the patient room, Donggeon warned Taehyeok. “Anyway, don’t wake her. Just let her sleep.” As if warning a kindergartener not to eat something off the floor. As Donggeon opened the patient room door, the last thing he saw was Professor Choe Taehyeok holding Nayeong’s hand tightly with both hands and looking at her as if she were a terminally ill wife about to die. Why like that. He had told him she was just sleeping. Thinking he couldn’t understand it, Donggeon left the room. Even after only the two of them remained in the patient room, Taehyeok couldn’t take his eyes off Nayeong’s sleeping face. Earlier, he had felt so hurt by her, but now he was furious that he hadn’t noticed until her body became this exhausted. If no one else, he should have noticed and taken care of her beforehand. Because he was her husband. To think he said he could be a good dad when he couldn’t even act properly as a husband. It was truly a shameless thing to say.
*** Three hours later, when Nayeong woke up and realized she was lying in a patient room, she was startled and shot upright. “Surgery!” Hearing what she said the moment she woke up, Taehyeok felt sorrowful. “Shouldn’t you be looking for me first at a time like this?” Nayeong asked him, bewildered. “Don’t tell me I’m sick?” “Sleep deprivation.” She had thought it might be that. She hadn’t been able to sleep properly lately. She had hospital work during the day, and newlywed life at night. She really wished she had two bodies. When Nayeong tried to get out of bed, Taehyeok grabbed her. “If you’re trying to go into the operating room even now, I won’t let you.” “Why? I’m not sleepy anymore.” “So you’re going to keep living the same way? Then you’ll collapse again!” When Taehyeok got angry, Nayeong was rather dumbfounded. “Then just let me sleep at night.” When Nayeong blamed him, Taehyeok choked up. “Because of me? Was it only good for me? Am I the only one on a honeymoon!” Nayeong, who hadn’t known he would get this angry, was a little flustered. “This isn’t something to get angry about.” “I’m not angry, I’m hurt.” Taehyeok shot up and walked out of the patient room. Nayeong stared at the door he had left through and muttered. “What. Could this be a marital fight?” What kind of marital fight does one have alone. It was practically a monodrama. Still, because she was bothered by Taehyeok saying he was hurt, Nayeong went home earlier than usual that day.
The two of them were living in the house Taehyeok had lived in before marriage with O Seungjun. The reason was simple. It was very close to the hospital. O Seungjun later became indignant upon learning that not just the house, but the entire building was property Taehyeok would inherit. To think that with such wealth, he didn’t give him a house but only a room! In any case, thanks to the two of them getting married, O Seungjun was able to return to his own apartment, so it was a happy ending in its own way. After getting married, Nayeong had never cooked for Taehyeok herself even once. They had been too busy to even go on a honeymoon. They had agreed before marriage that instead of marrying quickly, they would go on a honeymoon after Nayeong finished her residency. However, Nayeong had often eaten meals that Taehyeok cooked. So, strictly speaking, there had been a difference in how much care they put in. So today, Nayeong decided to cook for Taehyeok. Because they were newlyweds. While she was busy cooking in the kitchen, she heard the sound of the door lock password being pressed. Even though he obviously knew she was home first, the fact that he didn’t ring the doorbell meant he was still angry—no, still a hurt husband. Nayeong walked to the front door. And greeted Taehyeok cheerfully as he opened the door and came in. “Are you off work now?” Come to think of it, this seemed to be the first time she had waited at home for Taehyeok to get off work. Could it be that he had really been hurt enough to deserve this? Taehyeok tried to walk right past her, pretending not to see her, but stopped when he smelled food. “What’s this smell?” “I made dinner. Curry.” Even she, who couldn’t cook, could manage curry. “Go wash your hands.” When Nayeong kindly said this while taking off his jacket, Taehyeok’s rigid expression softened slightly. When she treated him well, he couldn’t help but feel good. Like a total pushover. When Taehyeok returned after washing his hands, dinner was ready on the dining table. The refrigerator was always packed with food sent by Mrs. Hwang and Nayeong’s mother, so the two of them didn’t really need to cook. Yet cooking was an expression of affection. “I didn’t burn it this time.” She boasted. The galbitang she had made before marriage had been spectacularly burnt. “There are hardly people who burn curry.” At his words as he picked up his spoon, Nayeong’s gaze changed. Sensing it, Taehyeok immediately ate the curry with rice and praised it. “It’s delicious.” It tasted like curry. Because it was made with curry powder. “I think my cooking skills have improved a bit.” Taehyeok took it as a joke and laughed.
“I’ve been thinking.” When she said she had been thinking, Taehyeok tensed a little. Nayeong was absolutely not the type to speak with aegyo. It was impossible to hear her call him “oppa” in this lifetime. Even if he died soon, he was still “Professor.” He couldn’t change jobs because of that either. “Since it’d be hard for me to have a baby right away, how about we raise a dog?” “…….” At her telling him to become a dog dad, Taehyeok was momentarily at a loss for words. Nayeong observed his reaction and said. “You said you raised a dog before, Professor.” “Yeah, and when it died, it was incredibly hard.” When something completely unexpected came out of his mouth, Nayeong flinched. Taehyeok turned his head and said in a subdued voice. “I had forgotten, but now I remembered again.” The words she had brought up to find something he could pour his attention into besides her had backfired instead, and Nayeong quietly ate her rice. This must mean she had to devote her body to serving him. That was probably the only way his mood would be lifted.
*** When Nayeong finished the dishes and entered the bedroom, Taehyeok was already washed up and on the bed. He was wearing only a bathrobe instead of pajamas, so his chiseled pectoral muscles were immediately visible. Nayeong deliberately averted her gaze and sat down at the dressing table. She undid her hair, which had been tied up in one bunch, letting the long strands fall loose. As she brushed her hair with a comb, her eyes met Taehyeok’s through the mirror. There were moments when Taehyeok truly felt that he was married. When he watched her sitting in front of the dressing table brushing her hair, when he opened his eyes in the morning and saw her face sleeping right beside him, when she scolded him for squeezing the toothpaste from the middle, when she tied his necktie before he left for work. That he was married, and that the woman before his eyes was his wife—was still amazing. That such a thing had happened to him. So just by watching her brush her hair, Taehyeok’s heart was completely melted. To think he was a husband this easy. Rather than resentful, he was almost embarrassed. Nayeong applied hand cream on her hands and lightly spritzed perfume on the backs of her hands as well. And she glanced at Taehyeok through the mirror. He was holding a book in his hand, but he hadn’t turned a single page since earlier. Nayeong stood up from the chair and walked over to the bed. “Are you going to keep reading?” “……
Yeah.” His answer came out slowly. Nayeong climbed onto the bed and sat on his lap. He raised his chin and looked at her. “What are you doing?” She swept her long hair over one shoulder and smiled softly. “Seducing my husband.” In truth, he was always the one who seduced. So perhaps he had begun to take it for granted. Love was something given and received, yet he felt he had only been receiving. Nayeong reached out and slipped her hand between the parted folds of his bathrobe. His skin was cool from his recent shower, and his muscles twitched at her touch. Taehyeok grabbed her wrist. “Don’t do things you don’t usually do.” “So you don’t like it?” His expression crumpled. The problem was he liked it so much it drove him crazy. He felt like he would turn into a beast at any moment. But Nayeong was sleep-deprived. For the time being, she really intended to just sleep. Taehyeok laid Nayeong down on the bed beside him in one swift motion. And looking down at her from above, he spoke as if giving an order. “Just behave and sleep.” He tried to pull away from her right then, but her two arms wrapped around his neck and pulled him down. As their lips collided, his patience snapped strand by strand. In an instant, their kiss deepened as if to devour each other. At the end of the heated kiss, she asked. “You don’t regret marrying me, right?” Taehyeok pressed his forehead against hers and shook his head. There was absolutely no way. “Then hug me. Right now.” Just as she could not refuse his orders at the hospital, at home he could not refuse her orders. Their night stretched from their wedding night into the night of a couple now together forever. Until death parted the two of them.