“D…darling,” he said. His head was swimming; he couldn’t believe this was happening. Only then did she lift her head from the table and stand up, but he quickly realized that she wasn’t planning to come anywhere near him. Instead, she seemed to want to keep the table between them, to stop him from getting too close.

“I hadn’t heard anything from Yeong-hye, so…so I thought I’d stop by on my way to the shop. I just happened to have made some seasoned vegetables, you see.” Her voice was incredibly tense. She was struggling to maintain her composure, as though she were the one trying to justify herself. He knew that tone. It was the slow, low, faintly tremulous tone that meant she was fighting to conceal extreme emotion.

“The door was open, so I came in. Then I saw that Yeong-hye was all covered in paint, and I thought, that’s strange…I didn’t recognize you at first, because your face was turned to the wall and your body was covered by the quilt.” Still clutching her mobile, she brushed her hair back from her face. Both her hands were shaking visibly. “I guessed Yeong-hye had found a man, or maybe that she’d gone crazy for the second time, what with that stuff on her body…I knew I ought to just get out of there, but…that man could have been anyone, and what if Yeong-hye needed my protection…then I spotted the camcorder by the door, and I picked it up and rewound the tape, just like you taught me, ages ago…” She was having to exercise extreme self-control, squeezing out every ounce of her courage so that she could go on. “And I saw you on the tape.”

In her eyes there was a mixture of shock, fear and despair that couldn’t be expressed in words, whereas her facial expression looked almost callous. Only then did he realize that his naked body seemed to be actively disgusting her, and he hurriedly looked about for his shirt.

He found it by the bathroom, tossed in a crumpled heap, and put it on. “Darling. I can explain. It won’t be easy for you to understand, but…”

She cut him off abruptly, raising her voice. “I’ve called the emergency services.”

“What?” He took a step toward her, incomprehension furrowing his brow.

She backed away. “You and Yeong-hye are both clearly in need of medical treatment.”

Several seconds passed before he grasped that she was in earnest. “What are you saying? That you’re committing me to a mental hospital?”

Just then a rustling sound came from over by the mattress. Both he and his wife held their breath. Yeong-hye pushed the sheet aside and stood up, stark naked. He saw that tears were streaming from his wife’s eyes.