That one afternoon was particularly colder than the usual – it was January and was raining hard after all. You were trying to go through the sea of crowd that won’t let you pass, and it took nearly fifteen minutes for you to reach the French restaurant in the corner of the street from where you parked your car. The fresh smell of pasta went straight to your nose once you entered and you immediately spotted someone in his suit, seating at one of the table. “I thought you changed your mind,”. The man spoke up when you finally took a seat in front of him. “Do you bring what I asked you to on the phone?” You replied nonchalantly. “I did, but as your family lawyer, I need to know what are you going to do with them,” The man responded, but he took out the file from his suitcase nonetheless. “I want a divorce, Lawyer Kim,” You replied as you took the papers from him. “I thought you are happy, Mrs.Park,”. He was looking at you rather too seriously as you caught the confusion painted on his face. “Where did they put the clause about when I can divorce him?”. You ignored his statement before. “It’s on splitting option section, page six, if I’m not mistaken,”.

“Exactly two years,” You muttered slowly. “Yes, now tell me, what’s with the sudden divorce?”. Your lawyer looked a little troubled, and you couldn’t be more careless. “It’s an arranged married, Lawyer Kim, it stated here that the marriage is allowed to be ended with the approval of both parties,” You snapped. “But divorce needs a certain particular reason, Mrs. Park, you can’t just decide when to get a divorce, you have to have a sensible and acceptable reason to the court. There’s a procedure to be done,” He sneered and glared at you at the same time. “The marriage contract is not legal as it only made by the approval of both parties but not approved by the law, so you can’t use that clause at the court. Trust me, divorce is not as easy as it may sounds,” He continued but it was interrupted by the ringtone of your phone. Park Chanyeol was written on the screen.

The calls didn’t stop until the third times as you ignored all of them and keep glaring at your lawyer who gave you a skeptical look. “You know that the basic requirement to file a divorce – or even, in the clause you just read – that both parties must agree to divorce, right?”. He raised his eyebrow in amusement. “It’s none of your problem, Lawyer Kim, you are my legal advisor, you should be on my side,” You replied. “Alright, I’ll make the divorce paper and will send it to you. Once you and him signed the paper willingly and without any force, we will have a meeting with him and his lawyer to discuss about the prenuptial agreement,” He explained. “If you could ever get him to sign it but I should trust you, right?” He scoffed at your face and you only gave him a death glare.

“Why a divorce? I mean, I need something to work with on the divorce paper,” He said. “It’s an arranged married and sometimes things don’t work out when it was forced,” You said nonchalantly. “Yeah, but why?”. He was staring at you, he was judging you, and he was asking you for the real reason. “You were happy with him, Mrs. Park, it doesn’t need an expert to see that,” He said, a little bit with a softer tone this time. “It’s just bound to happen, okay? That’s why we put the clause at the marriage contract, and the whole section just to plan our split. And being happy, Lawyer Kim, is not exactly the same as being in love,”. You frowned at your own statement before your phone screen lit up and notified a new message. I know you are mad about something but stop ignoring me and come back home. “Just get it done fast, Lawyer Kim, and please give a call to his lawyer, I want this to end soon,”.

---

For the whole twenty-three years of your life, you had never been more nervous than you were right then. Your lawyer just called you and informed that he has made sure that Chanyeol got the divorce paper, and you were just clueless about what his reaction would be. You wanted him to feel the same thing as you were – even though you were not really sure what feelings are exactly you were thinking, you were not that sad and you were not excited either, you were just disheartened. But when you found him leaning at the wall beside your new apartment’s door, you knew you were kind of screwed. He was so handsome as usual, with his tall figure and long black coat, and also his ripped black jeans that was hugging his long legs perfectly, his usual messed up jet black hair and his adorable big rounded eyes – he was just simply stunning.

You shouldn’t have admiring his perfection right then because it gave him time to notice your presence, and when your eyes met his, he was frowning as you noticed the file folder on his hand. Your mind wasn’t working right when you turned back to the elevator, which was still opened and quickly pressed the closed button before he got there. You could hear the fast steps when the elevator’s door was half-closed and he was right in front of you when it finally closed. You leaned on the side and took a deep breath – you can’t face him right then, it was too overwhelming.

Your phone rang immediately when you reached the ground floor as you went right into your car and drove away, but you picked the call nonetheless – you knew who was calling anyway. “You can’t avoid me forever,”. His deep voice sounded so addicting – heck, you realized you probably miss it more than you think you were. “Listen, we need to talk,” He added. “Where did you get my new address, Chanyeol?” You asked, ignoring his statement. “Does it even matter? You are my wife and I have every right to know where you are,”. He snapped. “And come and see me and tell me in front of my freaking face why you filed a divorce without any of my consent,”. He was angry, you know from his voice. “No, you know damn why, Chanyeol, you know ing why I filed a divorce,” You retorted back.

“I actually don’t, at least come see me, because I need to talk to you,”. He was calmer when he replied – goodness, he almost sounded desperate. “No, just sign the paper,”. You can’t believe yourself that your voice cracked when you said that. “No, I dumped those piles of bulls already anyway,” He replied nonchalantly and your eyes widen in disbelief – you should expected that coming, it was the Park Chanyeol that you were dealing with. “Just for one day, no, just for a moment, I just wanted to see you,” He said. “Please,”.

---

You remembered it clearly when your parents announced that you were going to marry the son from another empire for business. You were not even surprised, as the sole daughter and the only heiress of the company, your parents have controlled your whole life – and that’s include the man you have to be with forever. But turned out your parents were kind enough to made what’s called a marriage contract to protect your rights, as they called it. You couldn’t even be more careless to be honest, the son could be some lazy and clumsy spoiled brat and you couldn’t even say no. But when Chanyeol came to the dinner both of your parents set up, you had to say he was everything that screams breathtaking. He was two years older, a nice and well-mannered guy, he was on the top of his class and he completed the army duty after he graduated from high school – that explained his nicely built body. He was every parent’s ideal son-in-law – he was every girl’s ideal husband.

He was still all of that even after you both were married, his only flaw was he was in love with someone and it was not with you – which you completely didn’t give a damn about. But then the first three months of your marriage, he rarely spent times with you – you both were practically ignored each other – but when the fourth month came, he started to spend every day at home and all you knew was that his girl decided to study aboard. He started to smile a lot and talked more with you, he opened up about his life and you did the same until you both didn’t even realize it that you have gotten a lot closer with him.

He started to cook breakfast in the morning when you were too busy with college, drive you when you had morning classes, sharing bedroom because he claimed that the guest room’s bed was ty and he had suffered enough for a half of the year. After a year passed, he then grew a habit of stealing back hug and kisses from you, and his adorable morning face was the thing you woke up every morning and the way he nags at you when you skipped your meals was just the cutest, his laughter then become your favorite sound and his smile became your favorite addiction. 

He was always perfect, just like he was right then, while trying to find a comfortable seat position in front of you. “Hey,” He finally said with his same goofy smile. “Hey, Chanyeol,”. You smiled slightly back at him, trying to ease away your nervousness. “Have you ordered anything yet?” He said while looking at the menu. “No, I am not hungry,”. You shook your head. “You should eat a lot. You are doing your thesis, aren’t you? You need a lot of energy to continue,” He sighed. “I really want to continue to nag at you but I wanted to talk about the recent incident,”. He took a deep breath. “Why are you avoiding me?” He finally asked. “I thought we are going to discuss about the divorce,”. You raised you eyebrow.

“Oh, darling, I don’t like to talk about something that is not going to happen,”. His lips curled in disdain, he was pissed and you could tell. “Oh, it is going to happen, Chanyeol,” You said nonchalantly. “Oh, what a false confidence you have there,” He sneered. “Why are you avoiding me?” He asked once more. “Because I don’t want to be with you anymore,”. The words slipped from your mouth and you feel like it can’t be any bitter than that. “Liar,” He snapped. “And when did our second anniversary happened anyway? We can’t divorce yet,” He said as his brow rose in confusion. “It was last week, Chanyeol, you were on your business meeting,” You replied. “No, it was not happening until next week, I have it here in my phone,” He said as he slides his phone to her side and a red mark was circling the number twenty-two.

“Our wedding was on twelve,” You said. “, my secretary must’ve messed it up, dammit,”. He palmed himself as he sighed in disbelief. “Is this why you are avoiding me? I am really sorry, he didn’t mess it up last year, I didn’t know –,”. “It’s not,”. You cut him before he could finish. “I know you didn’t go on a business meeting that day,” You muttered. “I saw you with her on the fancy restaurant you always talked about, Chanyeol,”. You actually managed to give him a slight bitter smile when you saw his eyes widened. “No, this is what you are thinking about, I’m not cheating on you,” He said as he tried to reach your hand and you let him, because truthfully you missed his touch. “I know, that’s why I wanted a divorce,” You stated at the end.

“I mean, it just made me realize that all we have been was a time bomb, Chanyeol, we are going to be damaged sooner or later and this is why we are allowed to split after two years, we were married to feed the public to fulfill what they wanted to see from two huge companies family, we were married to raised the stocks, we were married to create an illusion, a distraction,”. You took a deep breath, “We are just a fiction, Chanyeol, we deserve better than being a ing unreal and set-up story,” You said and goodness, you thought you have it all planned in your head but when you saw Chanyeol’s darkened expression, everything went into a blur. “I saw you with her, and it made me realized that we were always better before we were together,”. “Do we, really?”. He sounded so broken right then and suddenly it killed you.

“Do it, so we can fall in love without being any kind of illusion, and so we can marry someone without any force and a stupid contract. We at least deserve to fall in love freely,”. You smiled bitterly at him again, as you pulled out the divorce paper from your bag and pushed it towards his direction. He was hesitating before he looked at you one more time and nodded. He took out the pen from his coat and opened the last page before he signed it. “Thank you,” You said as you saw him getting up from his seat and walked towards your direction. “Anything for you,”. He kissed your temple gently and gave you a faint smile after, and you swore getting hit by a car would hurt less than that.   

---

“Stop it,” You hissed at him when he keeps hitting your legs under the table. “What?”. He smirked mischievously at you, as he acted innocent. “And that’s for the separation of all the investments you both have, do you guys have any objection?”. His lawyer was eyeing both of you, who were in the middle of staring game. “Honestly Lawyer Lee, she could have all my properties and I couldn’t be more careless,”. Chanyeol smirked at you again. “Great, does it mean that our job done here?”. His lawyer glared at him. “Wait, what about custody?” He suddenly snapped. “You both don’t have a child, do you?”. Your lawyer raised his eyebrow. “Wrong, what about Prince? Who have his custody? Can we solve this in the court, Lawyer Lee?”. He sounded so panicked that it was kind of funny to see him like that – you were smiling at his action.

“It’s a dog, Park Chanyeol, you don’t go to court to win a custody over a freaking dog,”. His lawyer scoffed at him, which he replied with a pout. “He’s living with me then, you can visit him at my place,”. He pouted at your direction. “Okay,”. You nodded – you can’t believe he was picking a fight over the custody of a dog. “Do we have anything to talk about again?”. He turned his head to his lawyer’s direction. “So when will we can hit the court?” He continued. “First of all, the court will send you to the guidance and reconsideration period for one month, which you are obligated to talk to professional counselor, see if we can still have a conciliation, if that didn’t work, then we will hit the court,” His lawyer replied. “What?”. You both answered in unison – you were shocked and he looked kind of happy instead.

“It’s the rule, Mrs. Park,”. Your lawyer eyed you with a sarcastic glance, as if he was saying it again that divorce is not as easy as it sounds. “Can we just skip all of that?” You snapped. “Oh no, Mrs. Park, we cannot go against the law,” Chanyeol scoffed at you as he was giving you a huge victorious grin. “Here, learn your divorce report, so you both won’t have different series of stories in front of the court later,”. His lawyer handed you both the files before you started to read the first few pages, until Chanyeol let out a shocked gasp.

“I am against this bull clause, Lawyer Lee, it stated here that the following case for this divorce is that the essence of a marriage that is based on mutual affection and trust, has been irrevocably damaged and therefore forcing the continuation of such marital life exposes a party to the marriage to unbearable sufferings. Please explain what kind of nonsense is this,”. His whole-face screamed offended as he threw away the file to the table. “It’s the acceptable reason for the court, Chanyeol-ah, you cannot just stated, this is a freaking arranged marriage, please let us go through with the divorce because we are forced to do this freaking joke from the first place,” His lawyer taunted him with a sarcastic smile. “But, but, this is not making any sense with all those difficult words,” He replied nonchalantly but was cut abruptly by the incoming foods from the waiter.

“Is that prawn on your soup?”. Chanyeol was actually eyeing the food on spoon you were about to eat with a judging glance. “No, it’s a corn soup,” You replied nonchalantly. “Yah, it’s a prawn, I can even tell from the smell,”. He took the spoon from your hand and ate them. “Seriously,” He said. “This have prawn, you could’ve die,” He continued. “They didn’t write it down on the menu,”. You shrugged and frowned. “I’m going to talk with the manager, and you should be more careful, goodness,”. He put down the spoon as he raised his hand to call the waiter. “You really don’t have –,”. “I have to, because you are still my wife,” He snapped. “You are still my responsibility, period,”.

---

“I can’t believe they actually ditched us after you went furious in front of the manager,” You said as you walked beside him. “What a useless lawyers,” He huffed as you nudged his arm slightly and smiled. “You didn’t really need to do that, you know, being all mad, I’m fine,” You chuckled. “Yeah, because I was there to save you from being dead,” He laughed back and you swore you could live just fine just by hearing it everyday. “But on serious note, please take care of yourself more, it is fine if I was here with you, but I probably won’t in the future,”. He looked at you with a gentle expression as he intertwined his fingers with yours. “You still owe me the rest of the day because you agreed another one day with me,”. He grinned cheekily at you.

“Where does my princess wish to go?” He smiled at you as you raised your eyebrow. “What? It still legal to hold your hand and call with you with cute names,”. He shrugged nonchalantly. “That’s true but –,”. “But what?”. He stopped his and yours track just to stare at you and it made you blush. “It’s going to chase all the men who wanted to know me,” You said and smirked when you succeed at making him pout. “I’m still your husband, woman, even though we are filling a divorce,” He huffed in annoyance. “And honestly how can you look at other man when the Park Chanyeol is standing strong beside you, really?” He added. “Bookshops because reading only business books for my thesis makes me want to die,” You finally said and his lips curled up in happiness. “Sure, wherever you want,”.

You both got into a little bookshop that was five minutes away from where you were earlier, and you loves small bookshop because the books are usually one of a kind. The smell of the wood from the walls went straight to your nose and calmed your sense. You could feel Chanyeol was right behind you while you were strolling the shelves because you could feel his warmth presence most of the times. You looked up and down for the book that interest you, until you find one at the top of the shelf and you couldn’t reach it. You frowned and cursed under your breath because there is no way you could reach for it, but just then you could feel how Chanyeol leaned his body and trapped you between him and the shelf as he reached for the book you were aiming for. He rested his chin on the crown of your head as you could feel his breath when he muttered the title of the book before he handed you. “Nerd,”. He chuckled lightly before he unattached himself from you, and you suddenly feel empty all of the sudden, you wanted him to be close to you.

“Thank you, Chanyeol, for using your perk of being so tall,” You grinned at him. “Hey, it just that you are too short, honestly, I’m not that tall,” He grinned back playfully at you. “My advice is, please look for a tall man, shorty,” He laughed at you. “Yah, you didn’t just call me short, I’m at the average height for woman,”. You pouted. “Whatever,”. He rolled his eyes. “But I like your tall though, your body fits me perfectly, it’s like you are on the perfect size from me to hug you, it’s adorable,” He said as he smiled when he looked at you, goodness, he was going to notice how you were blushing madly. “See, adorable,” He pinched your cheek and took the book from your hand. “Anything else?” He asked and you shook your head. “Okay,”.

The two of you headed out from the shop after he paid for your book and his hands immediately found its way to yours again, making your heart did a thing once again. It was ridiculous, really, how your stomach can’t stop feeling butterflies when he was around you, it was just his effect. You realized that in the whole twenty-three years of your life, you never cared about someone like you care about Chanyeol. He might never be your right one, but you doubt it that you can feel so much affection to someone like you did to him. Maybe in a different life, you would let yourself sink inside him, live alongside to his heartbeat and claims that he is yours truly and infinitely, but not this one life though.

“Where do you want to go next, pretty?”. He turned his head to your direction, distracted you from your daydream, as he stared at you with a soft smile. “You decide, this time,” You replied and smiled back at him. “Home, then,” He said sheepishly. “The day is still long, Yeol, let’s go somewhere else, you only have me for one day,” You replied with a grin. “Ah, you are right, how if we changed that? One week?”. He grinned mischievously. “No,”. You shook your head and all of sudden he pulled you closer as his arms were then found its way across your shoulder. “How about cakes?”. He muttered. “Okay,”. You nodded your head slowly as you follow his steps to the shop, his warm body pressed against yours so close that you forgot that it was a cold afternoon indeed.

---

You were busy unpacking the boxes of your stuffs from you old house – yours and Chnayeol’s house, to be exact – when you heard your doorbell rung. It has been almost three weeks since you last met Chanyeol and you missed him dearly, you missed waking up and seeing him walking around the house with his messy bed hair and sleepy face with your dog trailing behind him, waiting for food. You missed having him ruffle your head and give you a soft pat when you were trying to finish your assignments. You missed him going out in the middle of the nights and shared a good portion of McDonald’s with you. You missed him, god, you just missed him more than you think you would. He was a good – no, perfect husband, the perfect person for you to fall in love with.

And you did – for the whole twenty-three years of your life, you had never been more in love with someone else like you were with Chanyeol. But when you saw him on the restaurant that night with the girl he was supposed to be with years ago, and the gentle smile never left his face for even a second, you didn’t have a heart to face him right then, you didn’t want to see the smile you love so much fade away from his beautiful face. You just wanted him to be happy, and like every cliché moment, in order for one to be happy, the other one must let go.

You walked to the door’s direction and without looking at the monitor, you opened the door and the figure you knew too well was standing in front of it. “What are you doing here?”. You raised your eyebrow in confusion when Chanyeol was holding a glass jar while leaning at your doorframe. “Oh, hi there, I’m your new neighbor,”. He was grinning with his signature boyish smile and held out his hand. “Neighbor?” You replied nonchalantly. “Yeah, I just move next door, Park Chanyeol, by the way,” He said while still grinning. You stood there in silence with a pure confusion painted all over your face before you took a deep breath.

“I know we are getting a divorce, Chanyeol, but you don’t really have to act like you don’t know me at all,”. You sighed. “But you said you wanted to fall in – forget it, can I have a salt?”. He was blabbering before he grinned again. “Chanyeol, there’s a supermarket just at the end of the street,” You replied nonchalantly. “Cheapskate,” Chanyeol muttered under his breath as he pouted. “I’m a new person in this neighborhood, I don’t know the way, please show me,” He whined cutely and you were not that heartless to say no when you looked like a lost huge puppy. “Okay, let me grab my coat,”. You sighed in defeat while his face lit up in happiness when you let him inside your apartment as you grabbed your coat.

It only took you both fifteen minutes to get Chanyeol some salt, but he insisted for you to get him a tour around when he finally decided to buy some sweet potatoes. “Out of all the apartments in Seoul, Chanyeol, why must you chose the one beside mine,”. You finally brought the topic again after Chanyeol avoided the question for the nth time. “It’s affordable and strategically close to everywhere,”. He shrugged like he did before. “Chanyeol,”. You sighed deeply and he noticed how you leaned far forward from the bench you both were sitting at as he suddenly d your back gently. “I want to stay close to you,” He suddenly said. “So you won’t have any other chance to look at other guy, so other guy also won’t have the chance to see you without you seeing me first,”.

You turned your head around only to find his gaze went straight to your eyes. “So I’m still the first person you see in the morning, so it still only took you a minute to find me, so if what you wanted is to fall in love with someone else without any force that person would still be me,”. He was your hair gently as he looked into your eyes with a smile. “Because I’m confident that the person I love is you, so all I need to do is to charm you enough so the only person you would want to spend the rest of your life with is me,”. His hands moved from your hair to your cheek. “I thought after all this time you would forget how we were once just a result from an arranged marriage just like I did,” He said as he smiled bitterly.

“And if only I could go back in time I would tell you the truth, goodness, I hurt you bad. The reason why I met her was to tell her that I had moved on, that the center of my world has changed to someone else,” He muttered and all you gave him was a complete silence. “Say something, anything, if you hated me then it’s okay, because –,”. “She must be lucky, that girl, who has become the center of your world,”. You chuckled slightly, you were trying to hide the fact that you are going to choke from your own tears any time soon. “I know you know it’s you, silly,”. Chanyeol’s lips formed a smile while cupping your face with his huge palm. “Those times being married to you was the best time of my life, you were amazing and the most beautiful person I have ever met and I’m glad that you are my wife,”.

---

You once again woke up in an empty bed, alone and you had a sudden panic attack and only calm down when you found Chanyeol was on the kitchen and the smell of bacon went straight to your nose. You then walked towards him and leaned your body to him as you heard a deep chuckle. “Morning, prettiness,”. He turned around and gave you a bear hug as he planted a kiss on the crown of your head. “I’m not pretty in the morning, Chanyeol,” You chuckled as you inhaled the smell of his shirt when you were pressed against his body – gosh, you love his smell so much so could live just by it. “You are always pretty, princess, what are you talking about?” He chuckled again. “Oh, you are good at being greasy like that, Chanyeol, when will you ever stop?”.

“It amused me how I practically showered you with affection for the last, I don’t know, twenty months and you still thought that I’m better off without you,”. He sneered at you. “Shut up,” You hit his chest slightly before you pouted – oh, you just knew he wouldn’t let go the fact that you wanted to divorce him for a stupid reason and he won’t miss any chance to make you feel any stupid that you already has. “Wait here baby, let me finish making you breakfast,” He said as he picked up so you could sit at the counter and watch him cook.

“Can I skip class today?” You blurted out right when he turned off the stove. “You are in your final year, princess, it’s not good to skip classes, hm?”. He went to your direction and placed his hands on both of your sides. “I’ll pick you up today, how’s that sound?”. He smiled as he kissed the tip of your nose lightly. “But still,”. You shrugged. “Oh, no buts, pretty, I love you and such but I won’t let you skip class today,”. He chuckled as he picked you up again all of sudden and threw you over his shoulder as he headed to the bathroom. “Yah, Park Chanyeol, I swear I would really divorce you if you didn’t put me down immediately,” You shouted but all you got was his victorious laughter. “No, you won’t,”.

He then put you down and made you sit on the toilet lid as he sat down on the bathroom floor. “Do you want me to bath with you or what?”. Chanyeol raised his eyebrow playfully when you were still frowning. “Say that again,”. You suddenly grinned. “That I want to bath with you?”. “The other one,” You snapped. “I love you,” Chanyeol smiled. “Do you love me?” He asked when all you gave him was a huge grin. “More than you know, Chanyeol,”. And then you could feel how he pressed his soft lips to yours gently and lovingly and you thought your whole body would melt down immediately. “We just say the almighty words to each other in the bathroom,” He suddenly burst into laugh. “Way to make the mood, Chanyeol,”. You rolled your eyes but joined his laughter nonetheless.

“Tell you what, I’ll take a day off today, and I’ll pick you up,” He suddenly spoke up. “Then we’ll go to my lawyer’s office to cancelled the divorce and then we’ll go to Jongin’s house to visit Prince,” He added enthusiastically. “I can’t believe you rented the apartment next door just to stay close to me and I don’t even want to know how you convinced Jongin to let Prince stay with him,” You chuckled. “You see, things I do for you,”. He shook his head. “We have to search for an apartment that let pets in, and we are going to sell that goddamn huge house because it’s easier to bump into you on apartment,” He added. “Oh and before the day end, I want the premarital agreement, the marriage contract and the divorce paper are all burnt into the ground,” He said rather seriously.

“But, we might need them, Chanyeol,”. “No, we don’t because I don’t even want to imagine life without you anymore, you scared me enough, I almost die,” He frowned cutely as you ruffled his head. “Don’t worry,” You smiled at his antic when he stood up and kissed your forehead. “I know,” He smiled back.

“Because you also cannot imagine yourself without me, right?”.