"Where have you been until this hour?"

Mun-jong Lee shouted it at Hyeon-ju Bang as she came into the house, irritation in his voice.

Hyeon-ju Bang's mood soured at once, but she pressed it down and held it in, and spoke as she took off her coat.

"I had something to see to, so I went out."

"What business do you have to see to? Your husband is standing at the crossroads of living and dying, and what business is more urgent than that, for you to be running about outside?"

"I went out to save you!"

But the feeling she had been pressing down broke up through Hyeon-ju Bang's throat with no trouble at all.

"Do you think I went out to amuse myself? I went out and came back, all of it to save you. Either know something before you raise your voice, or don't raise it first when you don't know anything!"

"You went out to save me? Did you go to Pyeongchang-dong, then?"

"Why would I go there?"

"Then where did you go?"

Mun-jong Lee raised his voice, demanding where on earth she had been if not Pyeongchang-dong.

Hyeon-ju Bang sat down across from the sofa Mun-jong Lee was on, and told him where she had been.

"I went and saw the second brother-in-law."

"You went and saw Sang-jong?"

Mun-jong Lee spoke as though it were absurd.

"What power does Sang-jong have, for you to go all the way there!"

"I went because I couldn't stand it. In case there might be some way out."

"Running around doing useless things. If you have that kind of time, sit at home and pray nothing goes wrong. That would be the better thing for me."

"Honestly."

Hyeon-ju Bang looked with displeasure at Mun-jong Lee, who had labeled what she was doing useless.

And to let him know how hard she had worked for her husband, she began to repeat what she had heard from Sang-jong Lee.

"The second brother-in-law said this. That no matter who applies pressure, going to a cell can't be stopped."

"There you are. What…