[ Yoon Se-ri is no happier to see Cheol-gang than he is to see her. It's been like this for four and a half months now, and all the benefits of conforming socially and presenting the image of a married man with a beautiful wife do little to snuff out the reality that he now comes home to someone he doesn't like. At least she's usually sleeping at the odd hours he steps through the threshold, which have of late been odder, further into the night just to ensure that interaction stays to a minimum.
But, to her credit, she collaborates and cooperates. It's still hard for a woman from the South to adjust to her place here and accept that how much power she holds in this world is connected to his status and his status alone, as her behavior constantly indicates, but there's a shrewdness to this woman, a conniving streak, that he can at least respect. So he finds himself sharing more than he'd thought he would when marriage was still an abstract concept and the image of the nebulous figure being referred to as a hypothetical wife was a North Korean one. Only what's directly useful to her, what might qualify as her business - things that would incriminate her too.
Along with the fact that she's legally bound to him now. His death, his imprisonment or torture is hers too, a concept he's made certain she knows well.
On this particular night she's sitting at the table when he steps through the door, drinking tea in her nightclothes instead of sleepingโthe image of a loyal wife waiting for a husband to return from work, at least in the eyes of someone who doesn't know better. Cheol-gang takes off his hat, hangs it, sighs. ]
We're going to Pyongyang on Wednesday. Do you have something you can wear to a wedding tour?
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[ Yoon Se-ri is no happier to see Cheol-gang than he is to see her. It's been like this for four and a half months now, and all the benefits of conforming socially and presenting the image of a married man with a beautiful wife do little to snuff out the reality that he now comes home to someone he doesn't like. At least she's usually sleeping at the odd hours he steps through the threshold, which have of late been odder, further into the night just to ensure that interaction stays to a minimum.
But, to her credit, she collaborates and cooperates. It's still hard for a woman from the South to adjust to her place here and accept that how much power she holds in this world is connected to his status and his status alone, as her behavior constantly indicates, but there's a shrewdness to this woman, a conniving streak, that he can at least respect. So he finds himself sharing more than he'd thought he would when marriage was still an abstract concept and the image of the nebulous figure being referred to as a hypothetical wife was a North Korean one. Only what's directly useful to her, what might qualify as her business - things that would incriminate her too.
Along with the fact that she's legally bound to him now. His death, his imprisonment or torture is hers too, a concept he's made certain she knows well.
On this particular night she's sitting at the table when he steps through the door, drinking tea in her nightclothes instead of sleepingโthe image of a loyal wife waiting for a husband to return from work, at least in the eyes of someone who doesn't know better. Cheol-gang takes off his hat, hangs it, sighs. ]
We're going to Pyongyang on Wednesday. Do you have something you can wear to a wedding tour?
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