Although Irene didn’t want to admit it, she enjoyed the leisurely time she spent that afternoon with Sehun. She rarely had a free afternoon like that. All her life, she’s always been a very diligent student, studying until the evening. On weekends, she had piano lessons, ballet or going out with her friends and parents. Irene was rarely ever alone.

Taking a half day off was something close to unimaginable for her.

They first went to the house Sehun bought for her and her friends to stay in. He bought it by instructing his father’s secretary to do it, so it would be the first time for him to see it.

It was a simple house with three rooms, and his comment was, “It’s so small, aigoo. I can’t believe people could live in such small spaces”

“I also thought this house was very small. The size of the room is only as big as our bathroom in Seoul, but Ahjussi said this is one of the biggest houses in the area”

“I guess so. Living here is not that bad, then?”

“We cope up well”

Sehun nodded. “Which one is your room?”

Irene pointed to a door at the end of the short hallway and he went inside.

“........you sleep on folded mattress?”

“Ne”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I thought it’s supposed to be like this”

Sehun immediately called his father’s secretary, “Ahjussi. You’re letting my wife sleep on the floor”

Irene listened to him scolding the secretary for some time, before he hang up and informed her, “Proper beds will be sent from the nearest shop in Busan on Monday”

“You’re the one who can’t sleep on this folded mattress, aren’t you?”

“Ani, that’s not a problem for me. But it’s such a hassle to open it then tidying it up again everyday, right?”

“There’s the ahjumma who do that for us everyday”

“Still, I don’t like to think that you’re sleeping on a mattress on the floor”

“Ahrasseo”

Irene stopped commenting on the matter and they went back to her car.

*****************************************************

He drove them around the village, going through the quiet roads and small houses. Not many people owned a sedan in that village, so people were staring at the car.

“No malls, no cafes, no boutiques. No decent restaurants except fried chicken. How can you live here for two years?”

“I don’t go to malls or boutiques that much in Seoul anyway. And the girls I usually go to the cafes and restaurants are here with me, so I’m going to be alright”

He secretly liked the village, though. It’s very peaceful.

The driveway near the beach was nice too.

It’s not the tourist spot kind of place. People got ready for fishing were seen, not people who were on holidays. But everything looked so simple and uncomplicated here.

“People here all look so relaxed. I get why—“

When he turned around, he saw Irene sleeping beside him.

He sat silently for some time, staring at her. “Working hard again, as usual, huh?”

Sehun lowered her seat as far as it could go, before taking off her seatbelt.

She smelled like cherry blossoms, always.

It’s her shower gel, lotion and perfume.

Cherry blossoms.

When she first went, his room still retained the smell of her perfume. It got fainter and fainter until it was completely gone a week later.

****************************************************

It was 8 PM when Irene woke up. Sehun had parked the car at the beach and let her sleep to her heart’s content.

“You should’ve wake me up”

“You’re welcome” he replied lightly.

“I slept for three hours, wow”

“You work too hard again. Rest enough, will you, Noona?”

Irene took a proper look at him.

She felt awkward, like there were things she should have said but it couldn’t get out from .

Finally, she just said, “Shall we go back to the house?”

*******************************************************

Her friends were already ready for bed when they reached home, having to wake up early the next day.

Sehun went for a shower then, not without complaining how small it was and how there was no bathtub there.

“It’s a village Oh Sehun, what do you expect?” Irene answered from outside the bathroom.

After her turn to shower was done, she sat on the floor to put on her moisturizers.

“I’m starving” he announced.

“Ah, right, we haven’t eaten dinner yet”

She hurried to the kitchen, but there was no food left. The ahjumma that cleaned the house cooked for them also, but the girls had eaten everything, probably thinking she and Sehun already ate outside.

“There’s no food left”

“What?” Sehun exclaimed, completely scandalized. “There’s no delivery either, here, right?”

“Ne”

“Ottoke, I’m starving”

Irene opened the rice cooker. It was empty.

There’s a box of raw rice, but she was suddenly hit by the fact that she didn’t know how to cook rice.

She never even had the need to cook. She had servants all her life. Food was things in plates and bowls served for her, delicious and ready to be eaten.

But she had a starving husband, and it was not right to wait until the ahjumma came in the warning. Sehun always ate no matter how late it was, after he hang out with his friends and reached home in Seoul.

So there was no way he would be patiently waiting until the ahjumma came in the morning.

“Do you know how to cook rice?” Irene asked him.

“No”

“I thought so”

“Do you?”

“No”

“I’m very starving” he insisted once more, holding his belly like he had ulcer problem.

She opened drawers and found more forks and spoons, but no food.

Sehun copied her and opened the cupboard above.

“There’s ramyeon. Cook me some, Noona”

“Um........”

“You’ve never cooked ramyeon before, right?”

“Ne”

“Neither do I” Sehun added.

“We’re so useless without our servants, aren’t we? This is why I need to learn to live here”

“You have an ahjumma who cooks and cleans for you, Noona” he reminded.

“Ne, but it’s less service than in Seoul. Let’s try to cook those ramyeon”

“It should be easy”

“I heard we should just boil water and put the ramyeon inside the water”

There was the original and spicy ramyeon.

“I can’t eat the spicy one”

“I know. But I like it”

She ended up boiling two pots of water as she cooked the original and spicy ones in different pots.

“I like mine with eggs” Sehun informed, opening the fridge and taking the eggs.

Irene only stared at the raw eggs.

“..........I should’ve learnt to cook before getting married” Irene said with regret.

“Ne, you should”

“It’s not my fault, I marry without enough preparation”

Sehun snorted.

“I think they crack it with a fork, right?”

“Maybe” Sehun offered, not helping at all.

They obviously had no interest for cooking shows on TV, because they were both so clueless just with ramyeon.

The kitchen in their family’s mansions were not a place they usually visit.

Irene carefully cracked the eggs with a fork.

“I like the ramyeon with cheese”

“It’s too salty” Sehun interjected.

“Get me some cheese. We had bread with cheese yesterday”

Sehun found the cheese in the fridge and handed it to her.

They waited for some time until the noodles were cooked, and Irene carefully poured them onto big bowls.

“Wow. The first ramyeon I’ve ever made on my own. That felt like getting an A”

Sehun beamed and immediately dug in to his ramyeon.

Irene tore a slice of cheese into tiny pieces and spread it on her bowl before eating.

“Omo! Ramyeon at this night is always the best!” Irene exclaimed happily, after sampling hers.

They were silent for a while as they slurped their noodles and drank the soup, apparently both very starving.

Until Sehun broke the calm.

“Noona, I’m actually here to tell you something”

“Oh? What is it?” Irene asked, adding more cheese into her bowl.

“You know I had a relationship in high school, right?”

That got her full attention.

“Ne”

Like any other girl in her class, thrown into an arranged marriage, the only thing she did to try to know her husband better, was to find as many details as she could about him before the marriage.

“Her name is Lisa. And..... she’s the type of girl I should have avoided. But I was stupid and ...... went out with her. We broke up because – because I found out she slept with someone else. However, she was angry when I married Noona, because – it was only a month after I broke up with her. She got this idiot idea that I married Noona for revenge or something. She was in New York for the past year, and now she’s back in Seoul. She might try something crazy, like causing a misunderstanding. I don’t want Noona to be confused when something negative happens in the future, so I’m telling Noona to believe nothing if one day you heard something strange about me and Lisa”

That was a lot to take, and Irene couldn’t say anything for some time.

“You had an interesting high school life” she commented.

“Too interesting, I guess. A stupid one”

“I still acted like a child when I was in high school”

“.........I can imagine”

“Did you really marry me because your family chose me or was it to hurt your ex girlfriend?”

“I married Noona because my family told me so. And Noona sounds like a good girl. Someone who’s on the right track of what she wants to become”

“I must be boring compared to that Lisa”

“No, you’re not”

Irene smiled. “Tell me about your high school days, sometime. I guess you and your friends were those bad boys gang who were playboys?”

“Those were stupid days. Probably the last carefree moments of our lives”

Irene could get that, really. She completely, totally got that. Wanting to do all the wrong things because your time to be free was running out. In her case though, she always chose to avoid those wrong things.

“I kinda feel defeated. I have no ex boyfriends to warn you about”

“No ex boyfriends. But Noona has fans wherever you go. I heard boys used to peek at your class’s window in high school to see you. And I bet all the guys in the hospital ship are in love with you already”

“..............did you do nothing but watching dramas when I’m not in Seoul?”

“Ani. It’s the truth. Like Doctor Park, for example. He’ll try to get you sometime, mark my words”

“Sehun-ssi, what are you talking about? He knows I’m married”

“You know what they say, the forbidden ones are always more tempting”

“.........you’re not drunk, aren’t you?”

Sehun laughed at that.

And she smiled back, before giving him a thoughtful look.

“Wae? Why are you looking at me like that, Noona?”

“Did you come all the way here just to tell me not to misunderstand about your ex girlfriend?”

“It’s one of the reasons, ne. I also want to check whether Noona is settling down here well, or not”

“Sehun-ssi?”

“Yes?”

“You’re a nice guy”

He was surprised at that, before smiling until his cheekbones hurt.

*********************************************************

She only had one folded mattress in her room, not two.

It unnerved her a lot, but she finally just lied there like she had no problem about it, though she felt like she couldn’t breathe as he lied carefully beside her afterwards.

“God. What if I kick you?”

“I’ll just kick back” she replied seriously, making him chuckled.

This is too close, too close, too close, too closeeeee!!!

Irene screamed inside her head, before decisively turning and giving her back to Sehun.

“Noona’s picture was pretty” he suddenly said.

“What? What picture?” she asked, suddenly turning to face him, forgetting that he was far too close. One of them moved a little and they would be kissing.

“Noona’s picture on your profile. The one that Appa gave me when he told me I was about to marry you. It was easier to say yes because of that”

“Um. Eh.....gomawo”

He was staring at her in that way that made her needed air again. When his eyes moved to her lips, she turned away again.

“Good night, Sehun-ssi” she hurried to say.

“Good night, Noona”

*********************************************************

When her alarm rang the next morning, she reached for a phone and was touching someone instead.

She blearily opened her eyes and found that Sehun was hugging her close, that she was leaning on his chest.

She was horrified with that, wondering who moved and made them in that situation, her or him.

It didn’t matter though, nothing awkward needed to happen, because Sehun was still fast asleep.

His hands were around her shoulders, so she carefully pushed his hands off of her, one after the other.

Once she was free, she hurried to the wardrobe, took some clean clothes, and proceeded to shower.

As he heard the sound of water, Sehun smiled and cracked his eyes opened, staring at the bathroom door.

Some time in the night, Irene had turned around and scooted closer.

It made him woke up.

He had stared at her for a long time then, looking at her breathing evenly.

That made him pulled her closer.

Once they were practically side by side, she nuzzled on his chest and mumbled in his sleep.

Sehun turned tense.

He counted until thirty before finally giving up and s his arms around her, pulling her closer still and tucking the blanket around her more snugly.

“No one else can see you like this, Noona, do you hear me?”

He was answered with gentle breathing.

“No, you don’t” he answered his own question, sighing before relaxing against her.

Before long, he fell back to sleep.

***************************************************

He apparently dozed off, and woke up again with her shaking his shoulder.

“I forgot I don’t have to work today. Come outside, let’s have breakfast. Ahjumma cooked some kimchi fried rice."

He had trouble to contain smiling too much. Once he could control his expression again, he’s going to have breakfast with his pretty wife, who slept in his arms last night.

****************************************************

Author’s Note:

This is turning to be very cheesy.

I hope you like cheese, then.

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