Contract Marriage

I met a friend at the Hudson Yards shopping mall in Manhattan. After shopping, we went to a restaurant.

“Let’s have a glass of wine.”

“Alcohol in the middle of the day? Why not! We only have to go home after eating.” 

My friend readily agreed. Staring at the deep red wine at the bottom of the glass, which was as big as a child's head, my friend took a sip and said, 

“Isn't it too much? Spending an entire life with just one person? We need a law that allows renewal every 10 years.”

I responded as if it were the most natural thing. 

“Exactly. No matter how much I like my husband, it gets boring. It feels like being trapped in a cave. I just want to break free and live freely.”

Propping her chin up and looking at me with half-closed eyes, my friend said, 

“Not too long ago, I asked my husband if he didn’t find living with me boring. He said no. At That moment, I felt like I couldn’t breathe. You know that feeling?”

I gulped down the deep red wine, and said, 

“Of course, I know. I feel the same way. It’s not that I hate my husband, but I just need some change. A few days ago, I mustered up the courage and said to my husband, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if you could live with a younger woman after we split?’ He said he doesn’t want to go through the hassle of paperwork and doesn’t trust a new woman. He’s afraid of being swindled out of the little wealth he’s saved. Apparently, everyone just lives like that after getting married.”

My friend’s eyes lit up as she said, 

“That’s what I’m saying. There should be a law that gives the option to renew marriage every 10 years. Wouldn't that be great? Then could part ways without fighting and still be friends with ex-husband, living freely and comfortably. It’s the law that's the problem. The law traps people inside a frame. Oh! I heard there’s something called ‘graduation from marriage’ in Korea. Don’t divorce but live together without interfering in each other’s lives or dividing assets. Isn’t that a great idea?”

I downed the last bit of red wine in my glass and checked the time. 

“It’s time to make dinner. Let’s go home and cook before my husband gets angry. Why do Korean men get so irritable when they’re hungry? Even savages wouldn’t behave that way with so much food around these days.”

My friend jumped up, startled. 

“Oh, is it that late already? I don’t have enough time to make dinner. Let’s stop by H-Mart and grab some side dishes.”

My friend and I hurried towards 32nd Street in K-Town. We each bought the dishes our husbands liked, and then we trudged home, our spirits deflated, toward that fence of what someone once called a successful life after 25 years of marriage."