Prenup of a Third Son novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: Ink

Seo-yeon called Yu-na right there in the plaza, with Tae-joon watching her.

It rang out.

She called again. It rang out again.

Tae-joon looked at the fountain.

"She won't answer you either," he said. "She stopped answering me in Jeju."

"Then why did she call your mother?"

He shook his head.

"I don't know." He sounded genuinely lost. "I don't know anything she thinks anymore."

He turned to go. Then stopped.

"Seo-yeon," he said, not looking at her. "In the lobby. With the ring. How did you do it?"

Seo-yeon thought about lying. She didn't have the energy.

"I stopped looking at your mother," she said.

He stood there a moment longer, his hands in the pockets of his cream coat.

Then he walked away across the plaza without another word.

Yu-na didn't answer for two weeks.

She texted Bo-ra once, of all people, to ask for the name of a good obstetrician in Seoul.

Bo-ra sent three, and a photo of a chicken, and got a heart back.

Then, on the Friday before the wedding, Seo-yeon's phone rang at seven in the morning.

"I'm at Gimpo," Yu-na said. "Come and get me. And take me to the Teacher."

She came through the arrivals gate in a long white coat that didn't close over her stomach anymore.

She was carrying a small suitcase and a paper bag of Jeju mandarins.

"The housekeeper sent them," she said. "For the Teacher. She says the Teacher will know."

The reporters had long gone from Bukchon.

The cat met them at the blue door and walked them through the neighbour's yard.

The Teacher was in her room at the back of the hanok.

She was kneeling at a low table with a sheet of paper, a stone and a stick of ink.

She looked up and saw Yu-na in the doorway, and saw the paper bag, and her face did something soft and complicated.

"Sit," she said. "Both of you. I'm grinding."

They sat on the floor.

The Teacher went on grinding the ink stick in slow circles on the wet stone.

The smell of it filled the room, smoky and sharp, like a burnt-out fire.

"You told Madam Heo yes," the Teacher said, without looking up.

"I told her yes." Yu-na set the mandarins on the floor.

"She wants me at the end of the family table, in front of eight hundred people."

"So everyone will see me sitting there and say nothing."

"And you'll sit there."

"I'll sit there." Yu-na's mouth went hard. "Then I'll stand up."

Seo-yeon stared at her.

"You'll stand up and say what?"

"That's mine to know." Yu-na looked at her and almost smiled. "You taught me that. It's not yours to tell."

The Teacher laughed under her breath.

"It's a girl," Yu-na said suddenly, to the ink stone. "I found out on Tuesday. In Jeju. The doctor showed me on the screen."

The Teacher's hands stopped.

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