The ride back to school on the first day was pure torture. I knew neither of us was looking forward to classes but it was no excuse to be this awkward. Throughout the nineteen years of being together, this has to be the most uneasy I have felt being around my fiancé.

As one of my favourite songs blasted through the radio, I started singing to myself softly, hoping to alleviate the discomfort I was feeling. However, with a frustrated sigh, Woohyun violently switched the radio off. Was he still angry at me about bringing Myungsoo to dinner? He had no right, my friend was simply helping me and the rest of the family felt no wrong either. Also, it wasn’t like him to not breathe a word about it, Woohyun would usually confront me with regards to any displeasure.

Sitting in complete silence, this was the first time I’m noticing that the air conditioner emits a wheezing sound as it blows out from the vents, that the Audi actually has a rather loud engine every time Woohyun steps on the accelerator.

Unable to stand it any longer, I voiced out, “What’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong? You’re asking me what’s wrong? I don’t see anything wrong,” Woohyun snapped back, voice dripping with sarcasm.

“Are you angry about Myungsoo?” I challenged.

“Why would I be? He chauffeured my princess to our home safely. I should thank him even, with a golden trophy with the words ‘world’s best boyfriend’ printed on it.”

“Nam Woohyun! What’s the matter with you?!” I was unable to contain my frustration.

“What’s the matter with me? How about you? You changed.”

“In what way?!”

“I don’t know…” Woohyun replied in a lowered voice, obviouly unable to provide an answer.

“I’ll tell you what changed Woohyun. You. Ever since you came back you didn’t even ask me how I was, you didn’t even bother telling me if you missed me…maybe you were having too much fun on your trip to care…” I threw accusations at my fiancé in a mad fury.

“As much fun as you?!” Woohyun slammed the brake hard as he pulled into the driveway of my faculty.

Turning his body to confront me, I continued glaring at him, refusing to back down.

“What do you even mean by that Woohyun?”

“What did you want me to ask? About your project? About how much fun you’re having with your project mate from day to night huh?”

I was on the brink of tears at my fiancé’s hurtful words, insinuating that I was having an affair with my kind friend. Unable to carry on with Woohyun’s ridiculous attitude, I stormed out of the car without a single word of goodbye.

“Whoa, you alright sweetheart?” Sungjong asked me out of concern.

“I’m fine…” I reluctantly lied to my friend.

Unfortunately, I failed to deceive my close friend, resulting in him becoming more concerned over my negative mood status. Unable to withstand the burden of inflicting such emotional torture on the kind pretty boy, I revealed the cause of my dampened mood; Nam Woohyun.

“Oh…how was your Jeju trip?”

“I didn’t go…I had that psychology project remember?”

“Oh…” I did not miss the lowering of his gaze and hesitant behaviour and decided to probe him.

Being successful, he finally spoke what was on his mind, “well…it’s just that I may have heard some rumours from a mutual friend who was in Jeju with the gang…he told me that he saw Woohyun picking up some girl from the bar and I told him that it was impossible, he was after all with the Lee Yuri, you know…”

I giggled at his notion of elevating our status and nodded at him to proceed.

“So…I’m going to tell you what I told him…it must have been someone who looked like Woohyun.”

I exhaled and slowly nodded my head, a contradiction to my true thoughts; the new-founded knowledge caused an uneasy stir within the pits of my stomach and a million thoughts were running through my head.

“Anyway…” Sungjong pulled me out of my deep thoughts.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m sure you guys are fine. Maybe Woohyun just misses you too much and doesn’t know how to express it? It is the first time the both of you are apart for such a long duration right?”

“Yeah…”

“See, I’m right. I’m sure I’m going to be seeing your fiancé at the lecture door later with a humongous teddy bear to make it up to you.”

Two hours later, Sungjong was standing outside the theatre chuckling to himself, sending me a wink and mouthing ‘I told you so’. I simply smiled at him back in response before turning my attention back to my waiting fiancé, evidence that Sungjong was in fact right.

“I’m sorry about this morning…” Woohyun apologised immediately.

“Hey baby, it’s no big deal…” I gently answered as I reached out for his arms.

“Shall we head to the mall so I can get you a present?”

“What present?”

“Well…a sorry present.”

“Don’t you usually get me something before asking me?” I was rather surprised at Woohyun’s statement.

“Well…do you want it or not?” Woohyun snapped at me, causing me to gape in shock.

“Feeling better baby?” I asked the question; an irony to the situation.

Woohyun nodded silently, another sign that he was still acting a bit off.

“Really baby, what’s wrong?” I made a second attempt.

“Nothing…”

Not buying his answer, I scooped a mouthful of my chocolate ice cream and brought it to his lips. However, instead of accepting the offer like he usually did whilst flashing me a dimpled thank you smile, he frowned and shook his head.

“I’m just tired ok…”

Sensing his frustration, I kept quiet and consumed the chocolate ice cream myself. Just then, I saw a group of skimpily clad girls enter the ice cream parlour. They were dressed in cropped tank tops, short shorts and skirts and heeled shoes, carrying branded handbags and their faces drenched in thick make-up. Scoffing to myself as degrading thoughts about such females passed my mind, Woohyun finally diverted his attention from his phone to me.

“What?” my fiancé blatantly queried.

“Nothing, just some s,” I replied with the same amount of directness, knowing that we both shared the same sentiments on certain groups of people.

However, the next scenes which unfolded in front of my eyes came as nothing less of a shock to my system. As Woohyun turned his body to face the source of my insult, eye contact between the group of girls and my fiancé was established and their faces exploded into one filled with pure ecstasy. If it wasn’t a nauseating sight enough seeing the pack of wolves eye my gorgeous fiancé with complete eagerness, they had the nerves to come over and envelope him in hugs and kisses; ignoring me and establishing the fact that they were well-acquainted. The strong odour of their cheap perfume struck my nose and my mind was clouded with one thought; ‘how the hell did Woohyun know people like that?’

The words rolled right off the tip of my tongue the moment the girls left the proximity.

“How do you know such people?”

“Well…they’re my friends…” Woohyun stated casually with a shrug of his shoulders in a matter-of-factly manner.

“Exactly, how are you friends with…such…people?”

“What do you mean such people?”

“Like I mentioned; s.”

“How dare you insult my friends Lee Yuri?! What’s wrong with making friends anyway? You don’t control my life, I choose who I want to hang out with.”

His every word made me become a little more frustrated and I stood up in anger, making to leave the place; to leave him.

“In that case, I get to hang out with who I want as well.”

“Oh is it? And I suppose you’re referring to lover boy?”

Instead of assuring him of the innocent truth like I usually did, my anger got the best of me as I countered back.

“So what if I am? If you can choose your friends, so can I; you don’t own me as well.”

However, just as I turned away from my fiancé to attain some distance from him, he grabbed my wrist. Hard.

Facing him, I noticed that his face had reddened from pure anger and he was glaring at me with hate that I had never seen before. I unconsciously let out a small yelp as his grip on my wrist tightened painfully.

“Don’t you dare walk away from me Lee Yuri, you belong to me.”

It left an imprint on her wrist, much likened to that of a tightened handcuff. 

Author's Note:

Please comment, subscribe and upvote <3 It would mean a lot to me.