Just like old times, we talked about our days before we went to sleep. I went on meeting the Man of the Day, and Jaehee and her boyfriend continued to avoid the Roommate/Jieun issue like it was a flagged landmine. They seemed to have decided it was like living with an embarrassing family member. But whenever he was drunk, Jaehee’s boyfriend would say something along these lines:

—You do know that this situation would be unacceptable to anyone else.

Who cared? I expected them to break up one day, but the boyfriend had more stamina than I thought. Jaehee said he was more down-to-earth than anyone else she had met, and it was lovely that he always listened to what she had to say.

—He does everything I suggest, like a pet dog.

He had no weird habits, and unlike her other men, he didn’t find her drinking tiresome, going so far as to joke that it was like meeting a new woman every night. (Sure it was.)

Jaehee would always fall asleep before midnight. Her work must’ve been draining, because she came home after ten every night and lay around the apartment like a deflated balloon, but if I messaged her saying I was close to scoring and was staying out, she’d reply like a mother waiting up for her child:

Try not to pick one who’ll die before you this time.

I’ll do my best.

◊

Right around then, Jaehee’s boyfriend proposed to her, and she said yes. They had been going out for three years. When I heard the news, I remarked that the hyung seemed like a nice guy and all but had no eye for women. Jaehee replied, “I know, right?” And added:

—He said he loved how I would make him laugh for the rest of his life.

I hoped he didn’t end up getting slapped in the back of his head for laughing so much.

But his words did make me realize that he was seeing in her the same qualities I loved. Jaehee wasn’t pretty or kind, but she was definitely funny.

Still, it wasn’t as if that hyung was that old—why was he in such a hurry to marry? Because he was such a congenitally down-to-earth person? From what I knew, he had an older sister who hadn’t married yet . . . It did cross my mind that Jaehee’s biologically male roommate may have had something to do with his decision to marry, but I decided not to think too much along those lines. Or really to think about anything that had to do with me. An excess of self-awareness being a disease in itself . . .

4.

Things moved along quickly after Jaehee announced her marriage.

For the three months before the wedding, I got to witness how shitty it was for a man and a woman in Korean society to unite as one family, which made me cease resenting the fact that I couldn’t even dream of marriage. Not that I was confident it wasn’t jealousy.