"Give me the saw."
It seemed Kwon Chae-woo had no intention of giving her time to think, as he immediately positioned himself against the branch.
"…Ugh."
She pressed a hand to her racing heart and handed him the saw.
Right now, Kwon Chae-woo was completely vulnerable. If she were to strangle him from behind or strike his head, he would be defenseless. Her gaze grew subtly heavy.
"—Ms. Lee."
"…."
"Ms. Lee Yeon!"
"Yes, y-yes?!"
She startled and straightened her back.
"You need to instruct me."
"…Ah, yes, right."
Lee Yeon shook her head a few times to collect herself.
Before long, the saw began to rotate with a whirring noise. She provided detailed instructions—from the angle of the wrist holding the saw to the blade's direction, rhythm, and pressure—and Kwon Chae-woo executed it flawlessly. His manual dexterity was far better than that of most veteran older men.
"—You're doing well! Go a little deeper from there."
"Like this?"
"Yes, that's good right now!"
Lee Yeon stretched her neck forward, completely absorbed. Her deeply furrowed brow looked serious.
"Now maintain that strength until the very end!"
"…."
"More, more, harder!"
Kwon Chae- flinched and rubbed his ear against his shoulder.
"…How is it now?"
"Good, just right—ah! Don't pull out yet!"
"…!"
"Put it back in the groove! Don't pull out until I tell you to—push with a feeling of driving it deep! Good, I'll just lower my wrist a little!"
"…."
"Ah, there! There! Yes, there!"
"…."
"Ha… Almost there! Almost there! You're doing well! A little more! Now hold steady like that! We're almost at the end!"
"…."
"One last time, strongly! That's it, pull out—!"
Finally, the branch fell with a crack.
"Hah, hah…! Kwon Chae-woo, you were amazing!"
Lee Yeon was breathless from having raised her voice.
But Kwon Chae-woo's trapezius muscle was visibly stiff. Thinking he must have been quite tense, Lee Yeon offered uncharacteristic praise.
"Was it hard? Still, you have more talent for this than you look. Good strength, good hands—I was really satisfied!"
Suddenly, he let out a sigh of indecipherable meaning.
"Ms. Lee Yeon, you have a talent for teaching too."
"Really?"
"Yes, enough to make me look forward to the future."
Lee Yeon grinned, and Kwon Chae-woo grit his teeth.
Finally, the troublesome branch had been removed. Where the pain had broken away, new and healthy branches would surely grow in time.
The sky they gazed upon together was incredibly refreshing.
* * *
"Suddenly climbing up barehanded like it was a pull-up bar, whoosh whoosh—I thought that kid had lost his mind."
At the dinner gathering held to celebrate passing the first examination, Lee Yeon put nicely grilled meat in her mouth.
"At first he just stared at your backside without blinking, but the moment you wobbled, he shot up like some leopard—I'm telling you, ten Jindo dogs couldn't compare."
She'd already thought the lower part of the tree looked rather sparse.
Listening to the vivid firsthand account, Lee Yeon scratched at her innocent nape. Whether from the heat of the grill, her skin felt flushed.
Lee Yeon glanced sideways at Kwon Chae-woo, who kept transferring meat to her side dish plate as it cooked.
"The one who did the big work should receive the glass first."
When Chu-ja moved to pour soju into his glass, Lee Yeon stopped her chopsticks and rubbed her knee.
"Um, Ms. Chu-ja. For someone in pain, alcohol is a bit…."
"Someone in pain? Someone in paaain—?"
She clicked her tongue and gave a loud snort.
"Would a sick person carry a girl in one arm from that height? If that's what being on death's door looks like, I'm already a corpse."
"…."
Unable to make her point, Lee Yeon quietly turned her gaze to the grill. At the edge of her vision, his fingers caught her attention. The long hands idly fingering the glass had calluses here and there, but were unexpectedly pretty in shape.
"Still, if you drink too much alcohol…."
His true form might return, you know…
The sincerity she couldn't bring herself to say lingered in her throat. But Chu-ja, beginning to feel the alcohol, didn't notice Lee Yeon's hint. Simply caught up in the mood, she poured Kwon Chae-woo another drink.
"Kwon son-in-law, receive it."
The moment Kwon Chae-woo looked at Lee Yeon as if seeking permission.
She nimbly snatched the bottle and gulped it down, shaking out every last drop.
"What are you doing!"
Chu-ja was horrified and rushed to stop her.
"From now on, I'm drinking all of Kwon Chae-woo's alcohol!"
"What's a girl who can't even drink talking about!"
"A person with a headache is still a person in pain! If you discriminate based only on physical activity, the already insufficient brain cells will get even more twisted! I'll drink all the alcohol!"
Before long, the hastily swallowed alcohol completely severed Lee Yeon's memory.
When Lee Yeon opened her eyes again, her feet were dangling in midair. Feeling as light as a cloud, she gently swung her legs.
"Ms. Lee Yeon, stay still."
"Hm?"
Lee Yeon rubbed her face against something flat and hard as if talking in her sleep. When a surprisingly solid frame pressed against her cheekbone, she faintly furrowed her brow.
At her small, barely audible whining, Kwon Chae-woo stiffened Lee Yeon's body once.
"Ms. Lee Yeon."
A familiar voice resonated through the cheek pressed against him.
"Do you dislike me drinking alcohol?"
Lee Yeon, completely unaware that she was being carried by Kwon Chae-woo, just kept giggling. Perhaps because it had been so long since she'd had a drink, her mood was endlessly buoyant.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"…Because if you drink, I was worried you might remember."
"…."
Kwon Chae-woo, who had been walking silently, suddenly stopped. The faint smile lingering at his lips gradually faded.
Stories of men who transformed and acted out whenever they drank were as common as rotted cigarette butts. He still hadn't forgotten the old wounds on Lee Yeon's body. His complexion darkened to the point of despair.
He tried to force himself to walk to shake off the self-loathing pressing on his shoulders, but she drove in a wedge.
"…You know that? This relationship is abnormal. No matter how I think about it, it's completely crazy. I must have lost my mind for a moment. I shouldn't have accepted it from the start…."
Her loosened tongue made each slurred word pierce his chest like a dagger.
This was Lee Yeon's true feelings that Kwon Chae-woo had so desperately wanted to hear. Wasn't this the moment So Lee Yeon's guard finally came down? But far from satisfaction, his throat felt choked.
A shabby ending that didn't even give him a lowly sense of victory.
She was regretting the marriage.
"So you want to run away?"
"…I can't say I haven't thought about it. Whether when I was young or now, that point never changes. Even if I want to run away, I can't escape."
"Have you ever tried?"
"Of course. I even went as far as the police station."
His helplessly eyes crumbled. Why would a police station be involved in a conversation about marriage? Kwon Chae-woo assumed the worst and grit his teeth as if pushing out his molars.
Kwon Chae-woo, that bastard.
He repeatedly trampled on his past self that he couldn't even remember. He put it in a coffin and buried it deep underground. It now became certain that it was an ego that must never crawl back out.
"I just hope… that someday it all ends."
She murmured as if in resignation. In her feeble voice, no hope or excitement could be found.
"Ms. Lee Yeon, was I frightening to you?"
"…Yes."
"So you wanted to send me away and feel relieved?"
"…Yes."
Her voice heavy with drowsiness rubbed against his shoulder again.
Why exactly did he lose his memory? Leaving all the painful memories to her, why did he alone forget everything? He was utterly shameless to the end.
"Did I ever… physically hurt you?"
"Yes."
At the unhesitating answer, he froze cold. His body trembled, and bile rose up. This was the moment suspicion became certainty.
"Habitually?"
"Even if it wasn't necessarily me, it looked familiar."
He closed his eyes deeply, then opened them, swallowing his anger again and again. His Adam's apple moved relentlessly up and down. The ash that remained after burning through his esophagus clung to the mucous membrane, gradually constricting his breath.
But—
If this too was an opportunity. If a second chance to fix their disastrous married life had been given.
Rather than dwelling on the unreachable past, Kwon Chae-woo began to nimbly calculate the tomorrow he could change.
When it came to Lee Yeon, who held his mornings, his body moved by instinct. Fearing he might lose her, he tightened his grip with force.