Chapter 48 – Episode 48 – [Side Story] Jeong in-Ae – Mother’s Infidelity (2)
“Wonjoong, since when have you been up?”
As I got off the bus and walked home holding the hands of my two children, I asked, unable to bear the anxiety of wondering how far my son had seen.
“Huh? Ever since mom saw me earlier.”
“Oh, did it happen when I made eye contact with my mom?”
“Uh. When she woke up, her mother was lying down next to her, facing the man.”
“Oh… My mom dropped something on her floor, and I was picking it up.”
“Ah…”
Was it my lack of qualifications? My son didn’t seem to think much of it. Actually, I wasn’t old enough to think that was strange yet. I thought it would be more dangerous to go into it for no reason, so I stopped talking and changed the topic. The taste of a man’s semen still remained in my mouth.
That was the first injustice I committed. Although they didn’t have sex, they allowed another man’s hands on their precious space and even touched and sucked the man’s penis. I felt guilty for a while looking at my family who knew nothing and only knew me as a chaste wife and her mother, but after a while, I fell into an unsatisfied sexual desire again.
I didn’t have the courage to actively have a relationship with another man. However, I got to the point where I enjoyed the dirty looks of men looking at me and imagined myself being harassed by them. Clothing when working at a store has also become bolder than before, sometimes wearing tight clothes that reveal the curves of the body. My husband was a person who was indifferent to this to begin with, but since he came to work earlier and left later than me, he never had to see my work attire. Since it was something I did in the neighborhood, I couldn’t do anything very bold for fear of spreading rumors, but the secret glances on my body and the sometimes changing expressions of men’s faces when their bodies touched were my own little pleasures. How would I react if they actively harassed me? I might have been scared if it had happened in real life, but when I masturbated, I always imagined my body becoming the object of men’s wild desires.
And finally, something happened.
It was the summer of the year my daughter was in 6th grade and my son was in 5th grade, a year after the incident on the seat bus. I went on a summer vacation every year, even if it was only for a short period of time, and that year I decided to go to the East Sea for 3 days and 2 nights. It was my daughter Su-ah’s last vacation before she entered middle school. She started to think that this might be the last time she would travel with her family like this when her daughter, who had already become an adolescent and refused to travel with her mom and dad, entered middle school. I really wanted to have fun with my kids on this trip.
Before the trip, my family went to a department store and bought new swimsuits. Even before I went, I told my husband that I wanted to try on a bikini.
“Are you really going to buy that?”
When my husband saw the bikini I chose, his eyes widened, and he asked.
“Why? Isn’t it pretty?”
“No, it’s pretty, but isn’t it too bold?”
It was an extremely ordinary bikini with no particularly bold design. It was white that suited me best.
“All bikinis are like this, huh?”
My husband chuckled and said, “If you want to buy it, buy it.” When she said that she wanted to try something she had never done before she got older or before her children grew up, her husband willingly gave her permission.
“You’ll be pretty enough to wear a bikini even when you’re in your 60s.”
It was a kind husband who said this.
That day, after the kids went to bed, I tried on the new swimsuit I bought in front of my husband. Can I really stand in front of others dressed like this? The image reflected in the mirror was definitely erotic. Even though it was a design that I thought was ordinary, it seemed to show too much of the breasts and barely covered the important areas below.
“It’s because your body is so pretty. If other women wore it, it wouldn’t look so sexy, right?”
My husband said that to me, who was crying because I thought it was too pornographic. And that day, he hugged me for the first time in a long time. My husband’s penis, which had always been flaccid these days, became firm and strong that day.
And then the day of travel arrived. Our family, who did not have a car, had to take an express bus and booked accommodation at a bed and breakfast. I wore a short-sleeved shirt and hot pants. I have had particularly large breasts and buttocks since I was young, so I didn’t usually wear hot pants because I thought they looked too sexy, but in this case, I thought it would be okay to be a little bold. My daughter Su-ah was dressed similarly to me. Su-ah had already grown to near my chest. Her face still looked young, but if you look at her body, she was no different from a fully grown woman. It was Su-ah, rather than me, who was worried about her husband being exposed. Although they were only one year older, their son Wonjoong was still a child.
The sunlight was scorchingly hot, and the air was damp. As soon as I went outside, my whole body was wet with sweat. The bus was full of tourists going on vacation. Although most of us were parents with young children, there were also young people traveling with friends. Among them, there was one party that particularly stood out.
It was a group of four men, and at most they were in their early to mid 20s. Two of them were tall; one had a stocky body like an athlete and had sports hair, and the other had tanned brown skin and blond hair. The other two were a little shorter than the other two, one had flashy black hair and earrings that looked like an idol, and the other looked ordinary but had tattoos on his arms. All four of them were good-looking, but they had an overly bad-guy feel to them. It was clear that they were gangsters going to the beach to seduce women. The feeling it gave off was different from the other young people who appeared to be college students. For some reason, it felt like the background color was different only around them.
I thought it would be great if our Wonjoong would never end up like that when he grows up. When I saw my husband taking care of the children and my son smiling brightly, I thought it was nothing to worry about.
My husband and son sat together, followed by my daughter and I. I had the kids sit by the window, and my husband and I sat on the aisle. The four people who were smoking outside until the end happened to be right next to my family. As I sat down, I felt the eyes of all four people scanning the body of my daughter sitting next to me. Even though I was really uncomfortable looking at my daughter’s body, I couldn’t say anything, so I just looked out the window.
Soon the car started, and as I looked out the window and answered the questions of my daughter who was still curious about this and that, and quietly listened to the conversation between my husband and son from the front seat, the four men sitting next to me became more and more excited. I lost interest. The car, which had been noisy for a while after leaving, gradually became quieter. My husband and son seemed to be asleep. Suah, who was sitting next to me, was also asleep, leaning against me. Traveling with children is hard work. It was clear that today would be hard all day, so I closed my eyes and tried to sleep.
How much time has passed? It felt like I fell asleep for a very brief moment. I opened my eyes and looked to the side because of something strange.
In the seat next to my husband and Wonjoong, there was someone with blonde hair and sports hair, and in the seat next to me, there was someone with earrings and a tattoo, and they were looking at me and giggling. When they made eye contact with me, they politely bowed their heads in greeting and started whispering among themselves again. Before making eye contact with me, their gaze was clearly directed at my body. For a moment, discomfort and shame enveloped my entire body. Anyway, how could they be so rude and shameless towards a woman who is ten years older than them and is a married woman with a husband and children?
From the moment I first encountered them, their gazes were filled with desire. When I left home in the morning, I was definitely excited about the family trip and felt bright and clean, but before I knew it, it felt like black, sticky dirt was stuck somewhere on my body. I turned my head and looked out the window, thinking I would just have to wait a moment. I covered Sua’s legs with clothes just in case.
Even when I stopped at a rest area, I felt their lewd gaze throughout the bus ride. And after arriving at my destination and getting off the bus, I realized that my thought that I would just have to wait a little while was wrong.
The guesthouse was located about a 15-minute walk from the beach. It looked shabby from the outside, but the inside was clean and spacious enough for four people to sleep in. It was a bit odd that the bathroom and shower room were shared, but I didn’t think it would be a big deal. The room we booked was on the second floor.
As always, the children were excited when they came to a place they had never seen before. Since it was already past lunchtime, we left the room to eat first. And surprisingly, what I saw outside were the same men from earlier. I was talking with the owner of the bed and breakfast. It seemed like he had reserved a room on the first floor. The men who made eye contact with us coming down the stairs smiled meaningfully at me.
