Dinner ended in a silence that nobody mentioned. Mrs. Min filled it with talk about the persimmon trees, the neighbor's dog and the price of fish at the market. Mr. Min nodded in the right places. Seo-yeon answered when she was asked something. Min Yoongi didn't say a word. He pushed rice around his bowl and kept his eyes on the table, but every time she looked up, he was looking at her.
When the plates were empty, Mrs. Min stood and started stacking them.
"Leave those," Mr. Min said, rising too. "Let the young people sit. We're going for our evening walk."
Mrs. Min stopped with a bowl in each hand. "Walk? Now? I haven't washed up."
"The dishes can wait."
"Honey, we have a guest."
"Exactly," he said, in a voice that sounded casual and wasn't. He took the bowls out of her hands and set them down. "Get your coat."
She looked at him, then at the two of them across the table, and understanding crossed her face.
"Oh," she said. "Yes. Our walk. We go every evening." She untied her apron. "Seo-yeon, dear, stay as long as you like. There's fruit in the fridge. Yoongi, take care of our guest."
"Mom..."
"We'll be an hour. Maybe two." She patted his shoulder on the way out. "Be nice."
The front door closed. The gate slid open, then shut. Footsteps faded down the street, and then it was quiet.
Seo-yeon sat very still with her hands in her lap.
Min Yoongi pushed back his chair and stood up. He walked to the window, then turned around and walked back. He took off his cap, ran a hand through his hair and put it on again.
"Where did you go?" he said.
She didn't answer.
"I'm asking where you disappeared to." His voice was low and unsteady. "After that night, you vanished. I looked everywhere for you."
She kept her eyes on the table.
"I know I left first," he said. "I'm not pretending I didn't. I woke up and I walked out before you opened your eyes. No note, no number." He pressed his lips together. "But I went back. I went to that bar the next night. I asked the bartender about a girl in a gray dress. He said a lot of girls wear gray. I went again the night after, and again. I sat there for hours watching the door like an idiot."
She said nothing.
"I didn't have your number. I didn't know where you lived or worked. I searched your name online, do you know how many Han Seo-yeons there are?" His voice rose. "Then a while ago the manager sent me to a meeting with an event planning company, and they said someone had just resigned that morning. Han Seo-yeon. They showed me your picture. I ran down five flights of stairs and into the street, and I missed you by ten minutes. Ten minutes!"
"I didn't know that," she whispered.
"Of course you didn't. You weren't looking for me." He straightened up, and his jaw was tight. "And now I walk into my parents' house and you're sitting at our table eating my mother's soup. And she says you're pregnant."
The word hung in the room.
Min Yoongi looked at the edge of the table, at the place where her stomach was hidden. His voice dropped, and it was worse than the shouting.
"Is it mine?"
Seo-yeon's hands tightened in her lap. She lifted her chin.
"No."
He stared at her. "What?"
"It's not yours." Her voice was thin but steady. "I don't know why you would think that."
"Stand up."
"What?"
"Stand up, Seo-yeon."
"No."
"Then I'll say it from here." He came around the table and stopped a few steps away. His eyes went to her stomach, and he swallowed. "Look at yourself. Look at your stomach. The timing fits. It fits that night. You know it does."
"You don't know anything about..."
"I know enough." His voice cracked. "Don't tell me you slept with someone after. Don't tell me it's your boyfriend's. I know you caught him cheating, you told me yourself, you walked out of that house. You were gone from him before you ever came to that bar." He pushed his hands through his hair. "And I was your first time, remember? You told me. You said you were glad you never gave it to him. You said you wanted it to be me."
Her face went red. "That's not..."
"It was you who said it!"
"I was drunk!"
"You weren't that drunk." He was breathing hard. "You knew exactly what you were saying. I tried to talk you out of it. I tried twice. You looked me in the eye and said you wouldn't regret it."
She turned her face away. "I don't want to talk about this."
"Then tell me who else it could be."
"It's none of your business."
"None of my business?" He laughed, and it wasn't a kind sound. "You're sitting in my parents' dining room, pregnant, and it's none of my business?"
"It's not yours, Yoongi."
"Stop saying that."
"It's the truth."
"It isn't!" His voice rose again, and he cut it off with an effort, glancing toward the hallway. He lowered it to a hard whisper. "You're lying. I can see it. You can't look at me."
She didn't look at him.
He stared at her, and the anger in his face slowly changed into something more confused. His eyes moved over her, from her lowered eyes to her hands twisting in her lap, to the wet shine on her cheeks.
"Wait," he said slowly.
"Don't."
"The fan meet." His voice had gone strange. "The big one, in the city hall. In the middle of signing, I felt someone staring at me. I looked up and scanned the room, all the way to the back. There was nothing but a pillar and a crowd." He stared at her. "Seo-yeon. Look at me."
She kept her eyes on the floor.
"It was you."
She didn't say yes. She didn't say no.
"It was you," he said again, and he laughed once, a short, helpless sound. "You were there. You were in that room. I felt it, and I told myself I was imagining things." He pushed his hands through his hair. "I told Jimin about it that night. He said I was tired."
"Yoongi, please..."
"You were standing right there, and you didn't say anything!" His voice cracked. "You were thirty feet away from me!" He took a step closer, and his hands hung in the air as if he didn't know what to do with them. "If it's not mine, then why were you there? Why would you come to find me at all?"
"I was a fan. I went to a fan meet. That's all."
"After that night? After everything? You expect me to believe you just happened to be there?"
"Believe what you want."
"I want you to tell me the truth!"
"I did!"
"You did not!" He was shouting again, and this time he didn't stop. "You're lying to my face, and I don't know why! What did I do? I left, I know I left, I was a coward, but what did I do that was so bad that you would hide this from me?"
"I can't do this," she said. She pushed herself up from the chair with a hand on the table. Her whole body was trembling. "I can't, not tonight."
"Don't walk away from me."
"I'm not walking away. I'm telling you I can't."
"Then say it's mine. Say it, and I'll stop."
She opened her mouth. Nothing came out.
"Say it," he said, quieter now. "Say it's not mine, and say it looking at me."
Seo-yeon lifted her eyes at last. They were red and wet, and they met his for one long moment. Her lips parted.
"It's..."
She stopped. Her mouth closed, and she looked down again.
Min Yoongi stood very still. The clock ticked in the hallway. Outside, a dog barked somewhere down the street, and the persimmon branches scraped softly against the window.
"You can't say it," he said.
She didn't answer.
He let out a long, uneven breath and turned toward the window. He pressed one hand against the glass and stood there with his back to her, his shoulders rising and falling. He didn't cry. His jaw was set so tight that she could see the muscle jump in his cheek.
Behind him, Seo-yeon stood holding the edge of the table with both hands and said nothing at all.