Lion and Hyena

"Oh! Your hairstyle is just as cool as an old lion.” A friend I met in Seoul for the first time in a long time winked at me, saying to my husband who had long gray curly hair. "Then, what am I, the hyena hanging around my husband?"

I cooked two pieces of frozen flounder that my husband liked, with putting green onions and soy sauce. I opened the lid of a sizzling frying pan in front of him, who is holding chopsticks. His eyes glowed as if he had met his acquired prey. With his fast using chopsticks, the Gaza Strip showed only the bones in an instant. I couldn't even touch one flesh, and I searched for crumbs on the bones. Our marriage life began in this way.

I had a comprehensive health check-up by begging my husband, on our way to our home country. As a result, what I gained in 28 years of marriage, I got protein deficiency and he was overweight.

These days, I say a word, holding my chopsticks as soon as I put a flounder in front of him. "You know I'm short of protein." He slips the big flesh toward me as if he's missing it.

He always walks in the lead. I followed diligently and fell behind again after catching him. While living with him, he has never waited me, and left at all. He disappeared with a quick step as if in pursuing after catching food in the woods. When I came back exhausted after searching for him, he lay asleep. Maybe he wanted me to disappear. Is that why he was so busy walked trying to get out of my sight?

As he grows older, he beckons and waits for me to come quickly. I got used to his back by following him hard so as not to miss him. If there is no husband in front of me who hates talking to me while eating food that suits his taste, how would I eat alone? What am I supposed to see and walk if I can't see his back?

I am grateful to be able to follow my husband even if he is left behind with healthy legs while looking on his back. And I am grateful for my husband looking back to see if I am following well.