It was a promise. A promise that was spoken from the bottom of their hearts, a promise that they vowed to keep sacred, a promise that used to be the connection between them. Yet, she broke it unwittingly, he broke it purposely.

“I love you.”

—

Staring at the clock, she counted each tick of the seconds. Her eyes were puffy and swollen, her face sticky with evaporated tears, her arms tucked under her chin, her mind totally blank. Closing her eyes, her attempts to block out the noises from the neighbouring room failed badly. Instead she could hear it even louder and clearer. Biting on her lips, she willed her tears not to flow, not that she had any tears left. With each bump against the wall, her heart steeled, yet with each moan, her heart shattered.

Fists clenched as she took a deep breath, tears rolling down her cheeks unconsciously. Regrets filled her as flashes of his face appeared before her eyes vividly. An expression full of disappointment, despair and anger. She could picture how his fists had balled up tightly, how his jaw hardened and how his stare seemed to pierced through her soul. She remembered how he had walked out of the room, leaving her to call after him frantically and desperately, only to be ignored.

If only time could turn back, she would not gush down bottle after bottle of alcohol. Heck, she would not even go to that so-called celebration. Instead, she would just stay at home, browsing through boring channels on the television while waiting for him to return home with an explanation.

“I’m sorry. I really am.” She mumbled as the walls of her room trembled, yet she could do nothing. After all, she was the one who broke the promise first. That was her punishment.

“I love you, Hyoyeon."

—

The door to her room opened with a click and a head popped in carefully. Eyes darted around the room quickly, catching sight of her curled up in a ball at the far corner of the room, a position he had vowed never to let be in. Frowning at the sight, he made his way towards her and crouched down. A finger gently swept her hair to the back as his eyes caught sight of her tear-stained face.

“I’m sorry, Hyoyeon. I’m sorry. I didn’t want it. I swear.”

Seeing her so vulnerable and fragile tugged a soft part at his heart. For a moment, he wondered if he had gone too far. A part of him wanted to scoop her up in his arms and love her like he promised he would, yet his ego and pride refused to let him yield. He was torn. The love of his life was suffering and the reason was him.  No doubt, he had sworn on their wedding day that he would make her the happiest woman and would never let her shed a tear. Yet, here he was, watching as she cried sorrowfully in her sleep.

One last time, he sighed. Just one last time. Scooping her in his arms, he frowned at the lightness of her petite form, noting the sunken cheeks and skinny bones as he carried her to her bed. Vanilla scent drifted into his nose as he tugged her in. Closing his eyes, he embraced the scent, missing it too much. For a moment, he hovered over her, lips over her forehead. however, he hesitated. Eyes glanced over to her lips, feeling the urge to kiss her, but images of her tangled up in another man’s arms kissing ferociously caused him to flinch. Closing his eyes, he pushed the images away and willed his body to stand up. He could not forgive her just yet, he still had his pride to salvage, but he was sure he could take a step at a time.

“I love you, Taeyeon.”

—

Sunlight shone through the window as birds chirped lightly outside. A figure stretched and tossed, her arm landing on the empty side of the bed. For a moment, she frowned, then she remembered, they had not been sleeping together anymore.

Sighing, she forced her body up and made her way into the washroom. A start of a new day, another start of agony and heartbreak.

—

Walking out of her room, she was met with silence in the house. As usual. She sighed. Hyoyeon would take extra care to avoid her, choosing to go to work earlier and coming home later, sometimes with girls, while she would choose to avoid him by shutting inside her room, refusing to see anything or anybody he brought back. It would break her even more, she decided. She rather not see anything, but hearing it almost every night did not seem to make it any better, putting unwanted images in her mind.

Walking into the kitchen, an unusual yet familiar aroma of food greeted her. Puzzled, she made her way to the table, catching sight of plates filled with food on the table. Her lips twitched into a small smile as she started to dig in, savouring the delicious taste of the food. It had been so long since Hyoyeon had cooked her favourite breakfast. Filling , she started to sob, her heart hurting at the thought of her husband waking extra early just to cook when it should be her, the wife cooking. Reminding herself that she was the one who screwed up first, she cried harder, allowing her sobs to echo in the empty house.

It took her ages before she finally stopped crying and started to wander around the house. Looking at each decorations, it reminded her of each ‘discussions’ she had with Hyoyeon, quarrelling and debating on which items and furniture to buy. Each corner of the house used to be filled with love. She could remember the times where they had cuddled on the couch, him wiping her tears while watching romantic soap operas, or him shielding his eyes from the sudden appearance of the ghost in horror stories, or them making out with each other in the midst of a hot scene on the television.

Walking over to the bookcase, she could remember how he had insisted on getting kids bedtime stories the moment they knew she was pregnant, how he would frown while choosing a book to read as prenatal education, as he called it, and how he was adamant in keeping them after he miscarriage. She let out a sad smile. If she had not been afraid of getting pregnant the second time, they would probably not be giving each other a cold shoulder right now. In fact, they might even be fighting over their child instead, but after that night, Taeyeon was not sure if Hyoyeon would even want to touch her, much less have a kid with her.

Decided that she had enough of reminiscing, she turned her head and walked towards her bedroom for the past few weeks when she stopped abruptly. Her gaze shifted slightly to the tightly shut door, a sudden urge to feel him roused in her. Before she could stop herself, her feet started shuffling towards the door, her hand hovering over the knob. For a moment, she wondered if she wanted to open the door, afraid that it would be a pandora box, ripping her apart carelessly and mercilessly. Yet she could not contain herself. The urge of knowing that he was still around was stronger than ever now that she could not see nor touch him.

Her fingers twisted the cold brass of the knob and the door creaked open. The sight that greeted her made her smile for once. The bedroom was horribly messy, with unwashed clothes lying about carelessly, bedsheets ruffled, bottles on the dressing table opened. Memories of her nagging at him and him whining while clearing the mess flooded into her mind.

Taking at step into the room, her hands automatically picked up the dirty laundry, capping and straightening the mess around the room. It was only until she started to straightened the bedsheets that she stopped and tears welled in her eyes once more. The bed, the very bed they had slept on, cuddled in, made love on, was tinted by the other women he had brought back. Just like how she was tinted by the touch of other men. Her heart sank, disgusted with herself and hating other women for touching her man. Unable to bear the pain anymore, she turned around, wanting to escape yet her eyes chose to catch sight of a picture frame lying downwards on the table.

With trembling fingers, she reached out to pick it, revealing a happy picture of Hyoyeon placing a kiss on her face while she blushing for the camera. It had been a sudden movement from Hyoyeon, a candid shot that he loved a lot. Hyoyeon had wanted to enlarged the picture, framing it on the wall, but she refused, saying that she was shy to look at it. It had led to a lot of pouting, whining and a battle of ageyo that he finally gave in and have it placed in a small frame to put by his bedside, saying that he wanted to see her the first thing every morning, even if she was not by his side. Throughout the years, he had taken great care, not even allowing a scratch on the picture frame. Yet the side of the frame had been chipped off. How much strength he would have used to slam down the picture. How angry he was and how much he hated her. She shuddered to even think of it.

Placing the frame back in its position, she fled the room, unable to bear the guilt and pain piercing in her heart. He had loved her with all of him, yet she had destroyed him within a second.

—

The door creaked open slightly and light shone through the gap under the door, indicating he was home. She glanced at the clock, noting it was an hour earlier than the usual time he would reached home for the past few weeks. She frowned, listening closely if she could hear other movements that indicated he was not alone. Yet all she heard was a single footsteps, walking around the house. Her lips twitched into a slight smile as her hopes grew, thinking that he was alone that night when the chime of the door bell and the sound of a lady talking crushed her heart. She could hear another set of feet walking around the house and the soft voice of the woman as she talked or flirted, Taeyeon thought.

Taeyeon was about to get up and curled her body in bed to cry to sleep as usual when an envelope was slipped under the door. She frowned, wondering what it contained when her eyes caught sight of the name of a lawyer firm at the top corner. At that moment, her heart turned cold as she ripped open the envelope with shaking fingers. Scanning through the documents, she could no longer control the waterworks as she bailed her eyes out. At the bottom of every page was his signature. What she had been afraid of had came true.

Outside the door, Hyoyeon leant against the door, his eyes closed as he tried to prevent his tears from flowing. Yet a tear or two still escaped. It had hurt him a lot, ripping him into shreds to see her puffy and swollen eyes, her red nose and chapped lips from all the crying. However, he could not bear the thought other men touching her. It had pained him so much, shattering his heart into broken pieces that can never be fixed. Their relationship had been broken, their love tinted. There was no way back, no route to return and he could only choose the only way out, to end their suffering.

A divorce.

-TBC-

A/N: It's Hyotae up next coz I missed them. I had it in mind that the main was going to beTae and was thinking of an actual guy, but decided, nah, I don't exactly feel comfortable writin them, but funny how I feel comfortable reading about other writes writing them. So while writing, I was missing HyoTae, so here comes them :D

For those who requested for Jeti, please wait for me tofinish posting this short story or subscirbe to my other fic 'At first sound'. I'm in the middt of clearing my half-written stories so you may anticipate slightly more frequent updates? Hopefully? 

I've said too much. So see yu guys next week, probably. Till then...