Needless to say, our first night together was not a normal one.

Our parents had somehow managed to buy us a house, all to ourselves. My mother had packed away about half of my closet and sent it to our house, where one of our five maids kindly sorted and put them away somewhere. The same thing must have happened with Jongin.

I explored the house, room by room, amazed by the sheer size of the place. What were we going to do here, all alone, when he refused to spend more than five minutes around me? Resigned to my fate, I hopped into the shower and came out feeling fresh and much more positive about everything. It's amazing what a nice warm shower can do.

Jongin must have done the same in some other bathroom in the house, because as I entered the master bedroom, he was dressed in a black t-shirt with a pair of shorts, towel-drying his hair. He looked up as I walked in. "What are you doing here?"

I raised my eyebrows at the question. "It's my house too, where else would I be?"

Jongin rolled his eyes. "I didn't mean why you were in the house, I meant what are you doing in my room?"

"Your room? You do realize that this is the master bedroom. It's our room."

He threw the towel on the floor and flopped onto the bed, turning on his tablet. "Yeah, yeah, sure. Just because we're legally married doesn't actually mean...you know."

"I'm very well aware of that, thanks," I said as I crawled onto the other side of the king-sized bed and slipped under the blankets, ready to sleep. "Either way, this is the master bedroom, and it's also the nicest. I'll sleep on this side, you sleep on that side, and we should have no problems."

Jongin was studying me intently, as though the fact that I even talked back to him was a surprise. But after a moment, he rolled his eyes yet again, and said nothing, focused on whatever he was doing on his tablet. I turned my back to him and fell asleep almost immediately. The day, as well as the whole month spent preparing for today, had worn me down.

When I opened my eyes, yawning, I almost thought that I was back at home, in my room. Then I realized that I, in fact, was not. The windows were on a different wall, so the morning sunlight came in at a different angle. It slowly came to me where exactly I was, and I turned my head to the side to see if he was there.

He wasn't. The bed was empty and as nicely made as possible, considering I was still sleeping on the other end.

I sighed, but whether from disappointment or relief, even I couldn't tell. I got up and stretched, then headed to the bathroom to wash up and get ready for the new day. When I returned to the room to get a change of clothes, I found that the bed was already made. It was almost creepy; the maids were fast and efficient, but they were also quiet. It was as though I had ghosts in my house, tidying everything up.

I shook my head, then grabbed a sweater and a pair of jeans for my morning routine of a jog. I tied my hair up and headed downstairs, where I saw Jongin fixing his tie, looking in the mirror. He was dressed especially fancy today; suit and tie and all. He spared me a glance as I came down, but looked away as though I didn't exist. Jongin then grabbed his keys and headed toward the door.

"Uh..have a nice day!" I offered.

The door slammed shut.

I sighed, wondering why I even bothered when I knew that he would just ignore everything I did or said. Then, slipping on a pair of running shoes, I put in my earphones, my music, and set out, trying to pretend that today was just like any other day. I slowed to a walk once I reached the neighborhood park, where I was stopped by a few ahjummas who recognized me. "Oh, So Eun!" they exclaimed. "We heard you got married yesterday. Handsome boy, too. How was last night?" they asked mischievously.

"It was..." I struggled for an appropriate adjective, but they took my silence differently.

"Ahhh," one of them said. "We understand." She winked at me, and I tried to smile back.

I left as soon as I possibly could without seeming rude, and made my way back to our house--home, I told myself. It was home now.

I took off my shoes and tried to calm my breathing down as I headed to the kitchen, where normally I wouldn't enter, because it was technically the maids' part of the house. But I didn't care, because if I didn't get to know the maids, then I would basically be living in a mansion all alone.

I knocked on the door, then entered. The chatter between the ahjummas ceased as they stopped and stared at me. One of them asked, "Agashi? How can we help you?"

"Please," I said, tired of the formality. "Don't call me agashi. My name is So Eun. You can just talk to me informally, it's fine. May I please have a glass of water?"

The one who asked me the question hurried to poor me a glass of water. "Thank you," I said as I accepted the glass. "It's rather lonely here, so I thought I might as well get to know all of you and thank you for doing such a good job with taking care of the place. It's practically spotless." The tension eased as I saw them start to smile and relax. "What are your names?"

"Oh, I'm Eun Hye," the one who spoke first said. They took turns introducing themselves, and in no time, I found myself laughing and enjoying myself for the first time in a month.

Then the conversation turned to Jongin. "So," Eun Hye started, "this Kim Jongin, the dolunim. How is he treating you?"

"He's...decent," I replied, uncomfortable.

"So Eun, honey, you can be honest with us. We work here, and live here, so we'll find out eventually anyway. And it's not as though there is anybody for us to tell all of this to."

I sighed. "Well, honestly, he is decent. He may not be friendly or even approachable, but he's better than my sisters' husbands. They're abusive and I felt so sorry for Eunji and Hana whenever they came home. Compared to that, getting the silent treatment is no problem. At least he leaves me alone. I can pretend I'm still living a normal life."

Eun Hye patted my back. "Well, now that you say that...that's true. The dolunim doesn't seem that bad. He just keeps to himself. But either way, if you have any problems, just tell one of us, and we'll probably do something about it. Add some extra salt to his food, for example..." I smiled at the thought of how Jongin would react to that, and she winked at me. "I mean it, too."

I laughed and got up. "Thanks," I said. "But I hope it doesn't come down to that. Either way, I had an appointment with a friend, so I have to go now. Thank you for taking care of me."

All of them smiled and said goodbye, which made me happy inside. It was more affection than I'd ever really had; it was like I had five mothers.

I checked my phone once I got to my room, and saw that I had five new messages, all from Chanyeol, telling me to meet him at our coffee shop. I grabbed my bag and headed outside, humming to myself. The day was getting surprisingly better and better.

I found Chanyeol sitting at our normal table at the back of the shop, with two cups of caramel latte, my favorite drink, ready. "Hey," he greeted me with a smile. "What, you two newlyweds so lovey-dovey that you're late?" he teased, waggling his eyebrows.

"Psh, as if," I stuck my tongue out at him, then sipped at the latte.

"Did you two even talk last night?" Chanyeol asked, drinking from his own cup.

"Surprisingly, yes," I answered. "We even got to our record of three sentences each."

"Wow, impressive," he said, but his eyes betrayed his concern.

"Look, Chanyeol, don't worry too much. I'm still able to live a normal life, and pretty much nothing has changed except for this," I said, raising my hand and showing him my wedding ring, a gold band with a diamond, along with "J ♥ S" carved on the inside. Whose idea it was, I had no clue.

"Yeah, I know." Chanyeol looked out the window. "But still, you're married. Shouldn't you at least be talking?"

I sighed. "We're legally married, but that's the extent of it. You should know this by now. We're not a couple; we've never dated. How can you expect him to just be openly friendly to me?"

"I don't know," he said, sarcasm dripping. "Maybe it's because you're trying, and he's just refusing every attempt you make. Maybe it's because I'm seeing you getting hurt, and I know that he probably doesn't care."

"Chanyeol," I said, getting annoyed. "You don't have to worry about this. We're friends, and I love you, but my relationship with Jongin has nothing to do with you. I should probably go now." I stood up and left, not sure why I was so irritated, but irritated all the same.

As I walked out the door, though, I heard Chanyeol say, "I love you too."

A/N:

........

My heart actually kind of broke, writing this :3