Whenever testing comes up, I swallow my food
When testing came up, Doyun folded the information sheet and pushed it beside his bowl. After that, Mina kept swallowing the same words at the dinner table.
Mina wants to talk about sexual health testing, but each time she brings it up, her partner turns it into a question of trust, and she gradually loses her words.
When Mina brought up testing at dinner, Doyun put the information sheet away. The same thing happened again days later, and in the counseling room, Mina finally faced the words she had never been able to say.
When talking about testing gets stuck
Wanting to check your health and suspecting your partner do not mean the same thing from the start.
Where do you most often stop when you try to bring up your health?
The moment the information sheet was folded and pushed beside the bowl stayed with me. I saw someone who wanted to talk about testing being placed in the position of proving her trust instead of checking her health. If there are words you swallowed at a similar threshold, please tell me.
Scenes
- 01 · The information sheet on the table Where the words were brought up — When Mina brings up “testing” and slides the information sheet to the center of the table, Doyun puts down his chopsticks, folds the paper, and pushes it beside his bowl. Mina: How about we get tested together? Doyun: Do we have to talk about that while we’re eating?
- 02 · The morning the paper was thrown away The hand throwing away the paper — The next morning, Doyun put the folded information sheet in the recycling bin, and Mina couldn’t bring herself to stop his hand. Mina: Why are you throwing it away? Doyun: We don’t need that between us.
- 03 · Again, before the appointment Words that stopped before the appointment — When the appointment reminder sounded a week later, Doyun stepped toward her by the entryway and asked her to cancel it. Mina held her phone close to her chest. Doyun: Can’t you cancel that appointment? Mina: Why?
- 04 · The words she couldn’t say The one sentence that remained — Whenever Mina brought up testing, she spent so much time soothing Doyun’s words that she couldn’t finish the sentence left in her own mouth. Mina: When I say I want to get tested, it makes me sound like I don’t trust you, Doyun. Haeon: Before the words “I want to get tested” could even end, they had turned into the question of whether you trusted Doyun. What were the words you couldn’t say then?