Well, this is obviously not 100 words.…

“Did you love him?” Gary asked, his voice strained. Jihyo refused to look up, maintaining her silence.

“Did you sleep with him?”

She continued to keep quiet.

“Answer me! How long has it been?” Gary asked, exasperated now, almost yelling. Jihyo looks down, ashamed and not wanting to answer.

“I’m asking you!” Gary yelled, now gripping her shoulders, shaking her. In her own defence, her pushed him away. Finally, she nodded. They slept. Gary raised his hand, ready to hit her. Jihyo flinched instinctively. Gary stopped his hand before it landed. He stared at his hand, shocked at both the fact that he almost hit her, and her confession.

His eyes were wet with tears now. If Jihyo was in pain, she was holding it in.

“Do you,” he asked slowly, “still love me?”  He looked at her pleadingly, willing for her to answer.

Instead of giving a definitive answer, she whispered, “I never meant to hurt you.”

Defeated, he let go of her. She went back into the room- their room- finally allowing the tears to fall. She felt guilty, she wanted to cry all along, she wanted to plead for forgiveness- but she had no right to seek for forgiveness or cry in front of him. Afraid to make a sound, she huddled up in bed, alone and vulnerable.

In the study room, Gary looked at the photos of them together. The photos of the love of his life- and perhaps, his only true love. As he looked at their wedding videos, he remembered their promise to treasure and to hold each other until the end of the world. Tears streamed down his cheeks. What went wrong? What did he do wrong to make her go to someone else?

Unable to sleep with his mind bustling with question, he penned down his thoughts.

About an hour after they fought, he slipped into their bedroom, where Jihyo was sleeping. He moved slowly, not wanting to disturb the silence. He sat down on the edge of the bed, where Jihyo was. She was on the verge of falling asleep, but not quite yet. She felt the movement, but she didn’t want to wake up and face him all over again.

“Jihyo,” he called softly. “I know you’re awake,” he said, reaching out to brush her hair. “You don’t sleep like this.” He noticed her tear-stained face. “If you don’t want to talk, will you just listen?

“Truthfully, I want to you to talk to me. I want you to tell me why you did what you did… but I know that you don’t want to, for whatever reason… But know that I will wait for you…”

He paused, looking at his letter, reading off from the paper.

“When I first had the doubt that you were cheating on me, I was angry. At you, and also angry at myself, for harbouring such thoughts. I wanted to deny the suspicions, but it got too strong for me to ignore it. So I searched deeper, even though knowing the truth would hurt me.

“But I didn’t think about what I would do after I find out. Maybe deep down, I wasn’t prepared for this after all. Would I divorce you? Would I continue to hang on to you? Would I continue to love you?”

Her tears fell, his tears fell. He pressed on.

“To be honest, I think I still love you. It may seem strange, but I think I still do. Of course, I was angry. I still am. What did I do to make you cheat on me? Did I not love you enough? Did I not treasure you enough? I want to ask you all this, but I will wait for you to be ready to answer. Or maybe, the answers don’t matter anymore…

“I think that if you truly loved someone, you’ll always love her… so, despite all of this… I still love you. I think you still love me too. Perhaps it’s hidden away, and you don’t feel it anymore… but I want to believe it still exist. Something between us is broken, I know, but the love is still here.

“So, will you fix this with me? I… don’t want to break the promise we made at the beginning of our marriage without trying.”

Her tears kept falling; she sobbed into her pillow. Gary waited for her to sit up, but she didn’t. He sighed, left for the door.

“I’m sorry,” she said, right as he left the door. He stood there, knowing that she would continue.

She did.

“I thought I was doing fine… But I guess I wasn’t fine after all. I didn’t realise I was stretching myself out too thinly- I’m too exhausted to even feel exhausted anymore. It wasn’t until meeting him, then I realised how tired I was… He made he feel at ease, I’m sorry I have to say this, but he made me happy. When I’m with you, we talk about our son, household chores, and sometimes our work. We barely grasped what problems the other is facing. But he understood me. I’m sorry…”

Gary’s heart tore. He understood me.

Didn’t he try to understand her? Did she even try talking to him? Gary felt frustrated, indignant, and even betrayed. He worked hard for her, he stayed loyal to her, but she betrayed him. He wanted to yell. He opened his mouth to argue, to snap back, but she continued.

“I know, it’s still my fault. You’re tired too, you work hard too. Everybody lives like that, but not everyone cheats. I’m sorry… I was too weak… I succumbed to this. But I never meant to hurt you. I didn’t mean for this to turn out this way. I don’t know how…”

She choked on her own tears. She was a crumbling mess.

“But I don’t have the right to seek for your forgiveness. I knew it was going to hurt you, but I did it anyway. I am sorry… I don’t have the right to continue loving you, nor to receive your love. I…”

Hearing her cry like this, seeing her so weak and vulnerable… Gary moved towards her. It was like he was conditioned to comfort her, to be there for her, even when she tears his heart apart.

He hugged her, despite his angry mind telling him not to.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry…” She sobbed into his chest, suddenly realising how much she missed his arms around her.

He too, realised that it had been a long while since they shared such skin-ship. It had been a long while since he hugged her to tightly and so closely. It was just non-committal hugs and brief kisses. Maybe like what she said, they were too caught up with their own lives that they forgot they were one.

They stayed like that for a long time, their hearts beating against each other’s, until Jihyo’s crying finally stopped.

“Things fall apart,” Gary said. “To see if they’re worth the effort to be put back together again. You’re worth everything to me…”

“You’re definitely in the wrong here, but it doesn’t mean that I wasn’t. I must have noticed how weary you were, but I pushed it to the back of my mind, thinking that you could handle it. I was so used to having you around that I stopped noticing how you felt. I know you made a mistake, but if you still love me… will you fix this with me?”

Their eyes locked.

And she nodded.

Inspired by Jihyo's new drama. I should be hating her for it because I really hate cheating partners... but looking at her so lonely and vulnerable... I just couldn't.