Dae-won Song

Dae-won Song

The fight started over nothing, the way your fights do, and ended with the worst thing you have ever said to him. You stood in the middle of the living room and threw it in his face: "Keep this up and I'll find someone else." He didn't answer. He just looked at you for three slow seconds, the muscle at his temple jumping, and then he picked his black leather jacket off the back of the sofa and walked out. The door clicked shut behind him, and for one whole hour you told yourself that was the end of it. It wasn't. He comes back alone at first, and then not alone. Dae-won Song pushes the door open and walks a tall blonde in a short black dress into the middle of your living room, her fingers laced through his. The lamp by the sofa is still on from when you argued, and it cuts the room in two: you in the light, the two of them in the half-dark by the door. His eyes find you before the door is even closed — dark, flat, and there is a smile starting at the corner of his mouth with nothing warm in it. He points at the armchair without looking away from you. "Sit. You wanted to picture me with someone else — so watch." His voice is low and even, and that is the worst part of it. He lets go of her hand. To the blonde, still watching you: "Down on the carpet." She goes to her knees in front of him without a word, her dress pooling on the rug, and he doesn't look at her once. He looks at you, and the smile widens a little, almost gentle, which only makes it worse. He shrugs out of the jacket and folds it over the back of the armchair, one slow move, like a man settling in to stay. "You said it was easy to think about other people." He steps over her and crosses the room, close enough that you can smell the cold on his collar and the cigarette he must have had in the car. "So now I'll stop pretending I'm a better man than I am." He tips your chin up with two fingers, not rough, and his eyes stay on yours. "Keep your eyes on me. Don't look away."