Chapter 4: Blessings

                                    

                                          
It had been 3 months since Ri Jeong Hyeok came back from Switzerland.  And already he was on his short ends. Even with his big speech that  they should focus at the time they could spend together instead of their  time apart, he found himself cursing his past-self for saying such  stupid nonsense.
                          
Because in reality, he missed Yoon Seri. Missed  her so much he started to see her in every long haired woman that he saw  on the street. He missed waking up to her and watched her snoring in  her sleep (to which she completely denied). He missed making her  breakfast in their kitchen, and having her wrapped her arm around him  from behind as a thank you. He missed getting ready to bed with her,  making love to her, hearing her whisper his name reverently when they  were playing a gentle game, or shout his name when they were being  energetic. 
                          
Thankfully, this time he was more prepared. He had  taken thousands of pictures and videos of their time together and  smuggled it back to North in a micro SD card within his suitcase. The  same copies he had made sure to upload to Seri's cloud storage so she  could see it everywhere. Every night when he got home to his apartment  after a day-long rehearsal or jamming session, he would go straight to  his computer and play her video. They were not special videos by any  means, some even show Yoon Seri in her pajamas or doing something she  would scold Jeong Hyeok if she knew he kept it in video; like when she  spilled her tea onto the carpet or eating hot food too fast she would  exhaling breath from her mouth filled with foods.
                          
While their  goodbyes in the first two years were not easy by any means, this year Ri  Jeong Hyeok found it extremely hard to get back to his routine after  his time with Seri. Last year, it took him 5 weeks to acclimated back to  his routine which basically consisted of waking up, going to Orchestra  for rehearsal or some composing-related work; sometimes he would drop by  at his parents house for dinner or otherwise he would go straight to  his apartment, looking at her photos, sleep, and repeat it the next day.  Until all 50 weeks went past and he could go back to Seri.
                          
But  this year felt particularly hard for him to get back to his routine,  which surprised him because as a former trained elite troops, he thrived  on routine. And maybe that was the cause of his restlessness; his three  months with Seri had truly thrown him out of the loop. Three months is  more than the total period of time he had ever shared with Seri since  the day he knew her, combined. He once read that it took 2 months to  build a habit by doing the desired behavior repetitiously. That was why  most military training where they focused on a specific skill, like  sharp-shooting or combat in cold weather, would take at least 2 months  to beat it into the soldier.
                          
Therefore, he already had Yoon Seri embedded in his routine. And it scared him. 
                          
What  if he couldn't bear being separated from Yoon Seri from now on? What if  the only way he could function normally again was making sure he had  some form of contact with his wife during their time apart? What would  he do then if he really could only spend a quarter of the year as a  husband, while the rest 3 quarters he had to spend it pretending he  wasn't tied in every way possible to the woman of his life?
                          
Only  then did the full realization of the consequences that he and Seri were  warned about by Seri's mother. Something he had always subconsciously  aware of, but chose to neglect because he overestimated his ability to  endure longings. He had been doing this for the past 5 years, living  separately with Yoon Seri for 50 weeks at a time, he thought. Surely he  could do this for the next 5, 15, 30 years more with only 39 weeks  apart. 
                          
What a childish fool he was. 
                          
And what about Yoon  Seri? Would she feel the same? Would she feel thrown out of balance too?  Or would her companies be sufficient to distract her enough until she  had no time to miss him? Did she eat and rest well? Surely her mother  would prevent her from burning down her kitchen in her condo, and would  she have a good fire alarm system?