My Platinum-Blonde Childhood Friend is Too Pretty - Chapter 128

WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

◈ My Platinum-Blonde Childhood Friend Is Too Pretty ◈

Chapter 128: 51. The Husband Who Enlisted, the Wife Left Behind -2

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Elli didn't break down sobbing right there, didn't twist her face and let all the grief she'd been holding pour out at once.

She just cried quietly.

In front of her eyes, the image of Lee Do-yoon's face kept floating up, that warm smile and that pretty grin.

The face of a husband she wouldn't be able to see for the next five weeks.

"...It's okay."

She told herself that.

Last night, she hadn't wanted her last memory with Do-yoon before his enlistment to be her being selfish and petulant, so she'd forced herself to compose, late as it was. She'd talked softly with him before sleep, and until she drifted off she savored the warmth of being held in his arms.

And today.

Do-yoon, who had never once shown her a side of himself that was anxious or struggling, had, for the very first time in his life, visibly let it show on his face. His features had gone stiff with the weight of enlisting.

He was wearing a smile, but it wasn't really a smile. Anyone who knew him could see that at a glance.

That he was letting it bleed through like this, that he couldn't hide what was inside him, that it was anxiety showing rather than joy, this was the first time in Elli's memory that she'd seen it.

Watching that.

"Then I need to be the one who holds it together."

She made up her mind.

She'd already promised herself the night before that she would keep smiling as much as she could for their last moments together, that she wouldn't let him see her struggling. But now, right when she had finally steadied herself, Do-yoon was the one letting his soft parts show, only now that the day of departure had actually arrived.

He must have been anxious inside all along, long before today.

She felt grateful for the kindness in him, that he hadn't let it show to her, that he'd tried instead to comfort her. And the sight of him trembling like a small kitten made her heart hurt.

Though that pathetic little trembling somehow combined with his freshly buzzed head to look almost, for just a moment, kind of cute... no, that wasn't the point.

Anyway. Seeing him struggle like that, she understood that she was the only one who could give him even a little bit of strength right now.

So she kept holding his hand without a word, and kept smiling as she saw him off, right up until the moment he moved away from her side.

By the time he left, he did seem a little better.

"This is enough."

This was enough. They were a married couple now, marriage registration and all, and they were adults.

It was different from when they were little kids and being apart even for a single day would make them both miserable.

Her husband being away for five weeks was no reason to sit around crying like a fool. She needed to be thinking about what came after.

Even so.

The hollow ache in her chest, like something had punched a hole straight through it, drew tears out of her before she even realized.

"Hic... Elli, what do we do... don't cry..."

The family around her, Lee So-yeon included, saw it.

They saw the way she had been pretending to be strong so as not to worry Do-yoon, and only now, with him gone, letting herself cry.

That tender, heartbreaking, quietly brave sight of her cracked their chests open.

Lee So-yeon, who was a person of extreme feeling even setting that aside, clung to Elli's side and burst into tears far louder than Elli's own.

Even just as an observer, it was impossible not to feel your heart squeeze.

So-yeon had been watching the two of them since elementary school. She knew how hard they found being apart, and she knew just how hard Elli would have it, waiting for Do-yoon at home.

"You know Do-yoon. He's the type who won't get hurt, he'll have fun and come back before you know it. So... please don't make it too hard on yourself."

Even Joo Hye-ryeong, who had come to know them a step later than So-yeon, knew that much. She, too, had tears brimming in her eyes as she comforted Elli.

"Why is our little fox crying so much... do you want to come stay at home for a few days?"

"Let's do that. Mom will take care of you for a while so you can get your head back together... goodness, and here I am missing my son-in-law already..."

Song Ji-eun, who was hopelessly devoted to her son, felt her eyes sting less from pain over the son who'd just enlisted and more from pity for this dear, good daughter-in-law crying her quiet tears as she sent him off.

Jung Ye-in had her own worry for her son-in-law who would be going through hardship, but seeing her daughter, who had almost never cried in her entire life, hurting in silence, she let a few tears fall too.

"Elli. Do you think you're okay to drive? On the way back, one of us could... how about Mark does it for you? Go home and rest comfortably. You must have been carrying a lot just preparing to send Do-yoon off."

"That's a good idea. Elli. Leave the driving to me and get some rest. If there's anything you need, just say the word."

The two fathers spoke gently to her as well, comforting their daughter, their daughter-in-law they loved like their own.

Surrounded by the warmth of people who cared for her, Elli smiled faintly even through her tears.

There was a part of her that wanted to give in to that comfort, to do nothing for a few days, to miss Do-yoon and just rest.

But she pulled herself together.

She took the tissue Hye-ryeong was holding out and dabbed at her eyes, then opened her mouth with resolve.

"It's fine. No one touches my steering wheel except me and Do-yoon."

She turned and started walking. She had no desire to keep standing there like a monkey in a zoo while the people around them whispered, "must be a foreign girlfriend..."

"I'm heading out now. I have a short shoot scheduled this evening, I need to get ready."

"Sob... Elli... are you okay...?"

"I'm fine. Everyone has to go, Do-yoon just went too. What can you do. And I'm the one who sent him off, so why are you crying so hard."

"How could I not cry... hic... just rest for today, at least..."

"Rest, nothing. If we're going to buy a house and have a baby someday, I need to be working harder than I am now."

With that, Elli walked ahead.

Her chest hurt. The longing for her husband, for Do-yoon, was bigger in her than anyone else standing here.

But just sitting down and staying down wasn't in her nature.

Sure, she'd done her share of being stubborn, being pouty, acting spoiled right up until now.

But once something was already happening.

She had to look ahead of it.

She had wanted to be Do-yoon's delicate princess, wanted to be the good wife who waited quietly at home.

"Still, I can't do it. I can't just cry and wait like an idiot."

There were things she could do for her husband, for their future together, and she couldn't just not do them.

If this time without Do-yoon was going to be empty anyway.

It was better to work hard toward what was ahead than to spend it crying. She planned to throw herself into shoots more actively, for his sake.

"I don't plan on doing shoots with men or anything too revealing, not going forward either... but bumping up how often I shoot, getting involved in other projects, that kind of thing is fine."

One and a half years ahead.

With living expenses coming in from home, she could comfortably earn three to four thousand on her own during that time.

She'd already saved up quite a bit.

If she kept at it, by the time Do-yoon graduated and started working, they'd have laid at least a small foundation.

"We need to have the wedding before Do-yoon gets a job, because after that it'll be hard for him to find the time. And once he's working, I'll start pulling back on shoots and we can try for a baby."

Elli looked toward the future.

Without Do-yoon here, the emptiness in her chest couldn't be filled regardless. So she soothed herself by thinking of that happy day she would reach with her own two hands.

And she gripped the steering wheel firmly.

Please.

Let her husband come home without a scratch, without getting sick, healthy and whole.

* * *

"Move it, move it!"

The instructors barked at them politely in form but without a shred of gentleness.

The faces of the training cohort around me, men who hadn't yet fully registered that they'd left society behind, were taut with visible nerves.

Wedged in among them, I wasn't much different, but I kept my grip on my sanity by thinking of Elli.

Right from the start, the recruits including me stumbled around looking like we'd lost half our brains and got absolutely chewed out by the instructors.

Things we would have handled without a second thought back in the outside world simply couldn't be done as a matter of course anymore.

Even something as basic as going to the bathroom or saying a word was now subject to control, so even for minor things we couldn't tell clearly what was and wasn't allowed.

In that environment.

The first few days after arriving were a war against boredom.

Training didn't begin right away. Various tests and classes and physical examinations came first, and with so many people, the waiting stretched on endlessly between each one.

So what I could do was either picture Elli's platinum hair, her smile, her voice, all of which I was already aching for.

"Hey, wanna play omok?"

"Sure."

"What do you mean omok. Let's get enough for Zertz."

Or get closer with the training cohort sharing the same room and mess around with them as we slowly started talking.

As rough as things were, goofing off with the guys like this was surprisingly fun.

Honestly there wasn't much else to do anyway.

We'd fool around with the guys, get caught and get yelled at once, drag through another long stretch of waiting, get some military drill training, have a completely pointless debate with the guys about why we had to march in formation just to go eat, head back and forth to the mess hall and have one person go down for push-ups because they couldn't keep their step.

In the evening free time, I'd look at photos of my wife, who I missed desperately but who looked more beautiful every time I saw her, and let that fill me back up.

By the fourth day.

"Is that your girlfriend's photo you keep looking at? Can I see?"

One of the guys in the next bunk had apparently been curious about what I kept staring at, and without waiting for a yes he shoved his face right over my shoulder.

"...Wait, is she foreign? Holy sh-- no, hang on. Let me get a proper look. Am I seeing this right?"

The moment he got a look at Elli smiling with her arm linked through mine, his face went blank with shock and he snatched the photo right out of my hand.

I'd brought plenty of extra copies in case one got lost or torn, and there was no reason to hide the most beautiful woman in the world, so I just let him.

"Is that Do-yoon's girlfriend? Is she pretty?"

"She's insane. She doesn't even look like a real person."

"That good? Hey, me too!"

The military had improved a lot, and instead of old-style bunks we had bunk beds with only sixteen people to a room. With so few of us we'd gotten close fast. The whole room had been worn down by the frustration and boredom of having nothing to do, and the moment they heard the sounds of admiration they came swarming over.

"Oh my god, she's gorgeous!"

"What the... is she actually dating you?"

"Ha, damn... I'm so jealous..."

"Wait, wait? I saw this girl walking by on the day you guys enlisted! She was Do-yoon's girlfriend? She was absolutely stunning in person too... my life is garbage."

The moment they saw the photo, voices full of envy and longing burst out from every direction.

In the middle of it all, I was leaning back against the wall, sitting easy, and I opened my mouth to correct the wrong information.

"Well, technically she's not exactly my girlfriend..."

"Hold on, she's not your girlfriend?"

"For real? Is she a celebrity or something? A model?"

"Oh, she's a celebrity? Give me her name. I'm switching careers to be a fanboy starting today."

"So how do you know her? Is she a foreign relative?"

"It's not like that."

I was being deliberately vague, and I could see in the shaved heads around me the silent prayer of "please God let that be it."

Sadly I couldn't grant them that wish.

It was true that Elli and I weren't dating, but it wasn't like we were strangers either.

"We're married. So she's not my girlfriend... more like my wife?"