You sat in the garden with your earphones playing your favorite music. This garden was the highlight of your new house. With the lamp shining down on you, you continued reading the new novel that you had picked up at the bookstore. You were waiting for him to return home although it was a little past midnight. You two were married for a few months already, and you knew better than to be worried about the man you knew all your life. But you couldn’t help to wonder where he could be. His company dinner was definitely taking longer than you expected.

After half an hour, your eyelids started drooping. You took it as a cue to give up waiting for him and just go to bed. Perhaps his phone battery was dead and he couldn’t tell you that he would be late. You wound the earphone wire around your iPod and headed back into the house. Turning off the garden lights, you realized that his shoes were at the door. What surprised you was the pair of heels lying messily near his.

They weren’t yours. With knitted brows, your face turned towards your bedroom. Did you want to know? Slowly you walked towards your bedroom, scared of what lies behind the door. As you got nearer, you heard a woman giggle. Your hand gripped the doorknob tightly and you opened the door.

The woman shrieked a little when she saw the door move. You stood there staring at your husband whose lap was straddled by a woman you have never met. It was better that you never knew her.

“What is it, Hyuna?” he groggily asked the woman. Hyuna was her name. She just stared at you, a little flustered to answer him. “I’ll leave,” you said, staring at the woman. She was still staring back at you with a lost look on her face.

“What?” he slowly lifted his head and saw you at the door. You looked at him with your breath held in. “Don’t go,” he slurred as his head dropped back onto the pillow. He was drunk. Hyuna was still on his lap, unsure whether to move. After seconds, you dropped your head and said, “C-Call me when you’re done.”

You closed the door and froze for a second. You were in too big a shock to process everything and move. After what felt like forever, you shuffled your trembling legs towards the door and grabbed your coat and keys. Still trembling, you walked towards your car. You got in and started the car.

But the car never moved. Your legs were too weak to push the pedal. Your hands dropped from the wheel and your breathing picked up momentum. Your chest was going into shock from the pain you felt in your heart.

As your breathing went erratic, your mind followed suit. You were questioning yourself for being hurt.

Was it the lack of respect? You were his wife. Why would he bring her back here?

Or was it the betrayal? But you were best friends who agreed to marry. There was never a romance between you two.

Or was it your disappointment in him? The fact that he didn’t think about your feelings even as a best friend.

Hot tears fell from your eyes. You were exasperated. You knew about his lifestyle before you agreed to this. You knew that you didn’t want to have with him and he would have to satisfy his needs elsewhere. His affairs were his business all along and you didn’t have to care about it. But to bring another woman into your house and have where you slept vexed you. That you have to sleep where another woman had disgusted you to the point of rage.  You were mad at him for being an adulterating with no consideration even for his wife of a best friend.

And to think, you were opening up to him after the few months of being a couple. You thought that both of you had a chance.

You fought against your erratic breathing to calm yourself down. One and a half years. All because the both of you decided on two years to make this marriage work. All because the both of you were thirty with no one and only nagging conglomerate parents on your backs. One and a half more years and you’re out. You can divorce his sorry and leave this mess you called commitment.

After calming yourself down, you wondered how you were going to walk back inside that house. Right now, the only feeling bigger than the betrayal is your disgust. You never had with him before, and in one moment your bed felt like the dirtiest place in your life. You didn’t want to go back into that house with Hyuna’s face forever stuck in your mind. You felt yourself holding in the rage that you were going to explode on him the moment he was sober.

After 5 minutes, your phone rang. Jiyong appeared on your lock screen as the phone continued ringing. You reminded yourself to calm down before you tapped on the answer option. “Hello?” It was Hyuna. “Erm, we’re done now. So you can come back…” She sounded unsure of what else to say. “Give me a minute,” you said and hung up.

You entered your house and hung yo