Cadella sat on the edge of the bed as she rehearsed her lines in her head. Cadella couldn’t possibly see how she, and Ha-Kyung could work if he continued to have split personalities. When they were alone, he was a decent human being and treated her with some amount of respect, but when anyone else was around, he turned into a control bigot, who constantly wanted to monitor her every action. Cadella heard the door open and close behind her and so she blurted out what she had practiced so carefully in her head.

 “Ha-Kyung I refuse to marry you. Once we leave here, I’m going back to the life I remember. I just wanted to let you know so that when I’m suddenly gone you will have no reason to worry about me…” Cadella exhaled heavily as she waited to hear his response. At the sound of silence, she turned around to face him. “Jeong Ha-Kyung did you-”

“I thought we had this conversation before. You said you would give me another chance at making you fall for me again. I need more time to do that.”

Cadella stood to her feet to face Ha-Kyung. “That doesn’t matter anymore. I can’t continue to put my life on hold as I wait for whatever memories of ‘us’ to come back.” Cadella motioned between her and Ha-Kyung.”I’m sorry but a lot of what I feel fro Ha-Kyung is…”

“What? You feel what?”

“Mistrust…”

“When have I ever lied to you?”

“...and you are always so quick to become angry.”

“I do not get angry!”

“Yes you do, and you become mean too, whenever people are around you completely disregard me or my feelings.”

“Fine. I’ll treat you like a princess. What do you want? Diamonds!? Fine. You want a new car?! Fine. I’ll get you whatever your little black heart desires!”

Cadella balled her fist up and pushed Ha-Kyung out of her way, slamming the door behind.

“Women.” Ha-Kyung mumbled to himself as he made his way towards the bathroom. Ha-Kyung looked in the mirror and was surprised his cheek had turned so red. “Damn. Dad may have gotten older, but his slaps still hurt like hell.”

…

As Ha-Kyung dried his hair and stepped out of the shower, he heard the sound of movement coming from the bedroom and smiled to himself. “Look, I know I can be complicated from time to time, but I’m trying alright.” He tied his towel around his waist. “… You have to understand that I do have an image to uphold. It seems to be the only method of acquiring respect that appears to work with these people.”

“…”

Ha-Kyung was growing more and more agitated by Cadella’s silent treatment. He quickly opened the door to be greeted by an empty room.

…

Ha-Kyung woke up the next morning in a cold sweat, following another one of his usual nightmares. He breathed heavily as he sat up, alert in bed.

“What the hell are you doing?” He yelled loudly.

“I was just coming to wake you up, but you were having a nightmare and…” Cadella pulled her wrist away

“Sorry.” Ha-Kyung ran his hand through his hair and attempted to catch his breath. “Why are you in here?”

Cadella rubbed her wrist gently “I was having trouble sleeping too and was wondering if you wanted to get breakfast or something.”

Ha-Kyung shook his head at the memory. He looked to his side and saw that her side of the bed hadn’t been slept in. He quickly stood up to check the bathroom and closet for any sign of his fiancé. “!”

…

Cadella stood at the front door of her apartment building and pressed the buzzer for the doorman to let her up.

“Who’s there?”

“Cadella. Cadella Moore.”

“Who?”

“The foreigner on the fifth floor.”

Cadella heard a brief pause and hoped he wouldn’t give her too much of a hard time. At the sound of the buzz, she quickly opened the door and caught the elevator to the fifth floor. She ran her hand across the top of her door and found the spare key she always kept. When she flipped the light on she took a look around and acknowledged the feeling that she hadn’t felt in a long time. Comfort. She looked at the refrigerator and remembered how she always had some leftovers. She was able to identify what was in each room before she even opened the door. She saw her answering machine and saw that she had well over 50 missed calls. “My boss is going to kill me.” She sat on her bed and fell back embracing the scentless smell of her sheets. “Might as well get a good night’s sleep before I die right?” As soon as Cadella closed her eyes she was out like a light.