Chapter 6 - Her Birthday

Realizing why she was feeling this way too late, Sun Ha shook her head to focus herself and put strength into her shoulders. She then suddenly looked as if she’d decided on something as she took an umbrella and left the apartment at around 8 p.m.

Running through the somber dark sky and its heavy rain, Sun Ha entered the local famous franchise bakery and, her eyes sparkling, she chose the cake that she liked the most.

“Is it someone’s birthday today?” asked an obviously innocent teenaged part-timer who had glanced over and walked up to her.

As she couldn’t bring herself to tell them that she had come to buy a birthday cake for her own birthday, Sun Ha replied with a smile instead.

Sun Ha realized that feeling sad from his actions was silly. Her husband was ignorant of everything not work-related. He was someone who couldn’t be bothered to remember his own birthday, so it would be even weirder for him to remember her birthday.

On top of that, she hadn’t even told him that it was her birthday, so she shouldn’t really blame him for being his usual indifferent self and not having breakfast with her nor have any proper eye contact. He must have thought that today was a day like any other, after all.

‘You just need to say it to him. Tell him to congratulate you.’

Sun Ha did her best to be confident, saying to herself that it was an extremely easy thing to do. If she were to ask him to eat the cake with her, he might look slightly annoyed for a moment, but he wouldn’t decline to join her. After all, it was extremely rare for her to request something like this from him.

It was definitely not a weird thing to ask. He definitely wouldn’t get any clue about what she was really thinking from this trivial request of hers. Though, he still wouldn’t understand why she would buy her own birthday cake just to ask someone to congratulate her.

Sun Ha carefully picked up the cake, along with two long candles and eight short ones, then headed back home while avoiding the rain as much as she could. She put the cake in the corner of the refrigerator and blankly waited for him to return.

She’d fallen asleep while wishing for the rain to die down before he got back, and when she woke up the rain was falling even harder than before.

Sun Ha, still in a stupor that took a little while to recover from, heard the doorbell ring twice more before going silent.

She hurriedly stood up and went to the front door, where she saw Do Ook already stepping inside. As he rested his long umbrella on the front of the shoe rack, she saw the ends of his hair were moist with rainwater.

“I thought you were sleeping since you weren’t opening the door. Did I wake you up?” Do Ook looked over at Sun Ha. Though there was no evidence on her face that she had just woken up from a deep sleep, her loose, long hair was still a little disheveled.

Even on the days where he couldn’t come back home until after midnight, she would always wait for him to arrive before going to bed. Do Ook wasn’t enough of a romantic to look forward to someone welcoming him home. Instead, he just thought that she was wasting her time by doing this.

He had kept telling her there is no need to wait for him like this. However, Sun Ha would always nod but not follow his wish, making up silly excuses like saying she wasn’t waiting for him but rather just didn’t sleep until he came back.

It seemed like she had a great ability to detect his presence. No matter where she was in their large house, she would always immediately notice when he’d come back and hurriedly come to greet him. It became such a routine that, one day, he started to push the doorbell and wait for her instead of opening the front door himself to get in.

A few minutes before, as he pushed the doorbell and waited like usual, he noticed that the house was still quiet and suddenly felt a strange sensation. The daily routine of having someone at home ready to welcome him whenever he arrived suddenly felt unfamiliar to him.

He quickly hid his unexpected feeling of agitation by frowning and quickly typing the password to the door to go in.

“No, I wasn’t sleeping.” Sun Ha shook her head, denying it, but her eyes were slightly relaxed, evidence of her still feeling a little drowsy. Seeing her in a defenseless state with a sleepy expression made Do Ook bite his lips hard to suppress his urges.

It had already been ten days since Sun Ha’s time of the month started. She’d said it lasted around a week, so it must have been over by now.

Often, Do Ook would think about how much it tested his patience that he could not embrace his wife as often as he wanted a whole week out of every month. When he finished work after a few days of consecutive long shifts or came back from a business trip, he would be immediately aroused to no end from not being able to satisfy himself for a week. If his arousal coincided with her time of the month, he would immediately fall into a deep despair that practically broke his will to live.

Sun Ha would react as if thunder had struck outside from just the touch of his fingertip, so Do Ook couldn’t even do anything sensual to her body let alone attempt to insert his rod into her.

They said that women got very sensitive when their time of the month came, and it seemed like that applied to Sun Ha as well. Though it was difficult making sure he didn’t touch even a hair on her head until her period was over, he was also thankful that she never refused his advances towards her after it ended.

His pupils narrowed as he looked up and down her body.

He felt the sudden urge to rip off the white, transparent nightdress that so nicely matched her skin tone. He made sure to take his fiery eyes off of her before he did anything, taking off his jacket and stepping quickly inside.