I crept down the stairs.  The house was dark as the sun had departed the sky and a brightly lit moon took it's place.  Jungsu sat on the hallway where we had fallen in our mass of heartache and betrayal - clutching at each other and searching for the one piece of hope none of us could suffice.  I wanted to make this go away.  I wanted to give him my promises, but I was afraid to let him in.  Afraid to let him take my promises and ruin me before leaving once more to return to the cold Jungsu that tore my heart and crushed me.  The feelings I endured while watching Miyoung in his arms struck me like a blow I have never experienced before.  Even thinking of it now, it left me unable to breathe as my chest became tight and my heart felt a pain like no other.

I slipped into the kitchen, wishing that Jungsu would stay in his state of numbness long enough for me to deal with the troubles down here.  This was our home.  I wouldn't let anything come into our home and make the atmosphere as hostile as it was rapidly becoming.  The door to the back garden was left ajar as was the door to the maid's room.  I closed the back door and locked it, taking a second to peer around the space to ensure no-one was hiding in the shadows.  The maid's room was dark and I had to flick on a light switch in order to inspect the small box-room.

The sight of Jungsu's laundry placed out on the table made me flinch.  I stared at the clothes, neatly pressed and folded.  The clothes symbolised more than a maid doing her chores.  They showed care - love.  They showed the intimacy it took for a woman to deal with her lover's clothes - taking all of his hard work and stresses out of the creases and making them fresh and presentable to wear another day.

Jealousy filled me.  I picked up a shirt and the smell of musk hit me hard.  She had sprayed his clothes with his cologne.  The bottle sat on the table presenting the washing powder and other cleaning essentials and I strode towards it, fetching the bottle and smelling the spray, confirming that it was the same smell on Jungsu's shirt upstairs and his clothes on the table here.

Opening the door of the washing machine, I hastily shoved his clothes back inside the drum.  I would wash her from his clothes.  I would wash her from our lives.  I couldn't wash her from his memory but I could try to fill his memory with other memories, better ones.  I would do anything to erase her from our lives.  As sorry as I felt for her, seeing her approach Jungsu and seeing how weak he was against her made me loathe like I never had before.

"What are you doing?"

I pushed another pair of work trousers into the machine before working the dials and turning to look at the man in the doorway.  He slouched against the door frame, one ankle crossed over the other as his eyes locked on me.  I exhaled in a rush and pushed the remaining clothes on the table back into the laundry basket.

"I'm doing the laundry."  My voice cracked, betraying my appearing sense of unaffected collection.

"You don't have to do that, I'll call someone.  We can hire so-"

"Don't.  I'll do it, we don't need a maid."

My voice didn't crack.  It was clipped this time.  I refused to let another woman deal with my husband's personal dealings again.  No.  Never again.  If he wouldn't let me love him any other way, this would be how I showed him.

"Okay.  But for now, can we just sleep?  We still need to move your stuff into my room."

How could he appear so beautiful?  He captivated me and twisted me in ways I never knew was possible.  My emotions curled around his existence and I felt my thoughts revolve around only him.  My Jungsu.  My husband, Park Jungsu.

He took my hand and pulled me out of the room.  I opened the fridge door and pulled out some banana milk, placing a straw between my lips as I sat on a stool at the island, I watched as Jungsu pulled a can of soda from the cooler and poured it's contents into a frosted glass.  His movements were linguid and I found it difficult to imagine how anyone could appear so lithe, even in the comforts of their own home.

"Who was she?"

I wasn't sure I wanted the answers.  I wasn't sure I wanted to know of their history.  But the curiosity of why he was so weak against her, melting like putty when she touched his shoulders.  The curiosity of how she won his heart got the better of me, and I quickly began to wonder how such a steel heart could be stolen.  He was my ice King, frozen and repellent, until he saw Lee Miyoung.

"She was an old friend.  That's all."

"That's the girl you want to be with.  You said it.  You told me you should be with her."

"She was an old friend.  That's all."

The repetition of his statement did me no justice and I quickly became frustrated.  Tapping the straw with my fidgeting fingers and clipping my heals together under the stool.

"Do you love her, Park Jungsu?"

He stared at me.  His eyes were fathomless.

"I thought I did."

"Until?"

"What does it matter?  She's gone.  She won't be back.  Let it go."

"What if I can't?"

The ache in my chest became more prominent.  He was protecting her.  He was shielding his memories with her and keeping them from me, unwilling to share them and to release them.  Unwilling to make room in his wonderful head for more memories - memories with me.

"You're scowling."  Jungsu's fingers lifted, his arm hardly stretching across the island.  His fingertips traced the lines marring between my knotted eyebrows and my muscles instinctively relaxed, a blush creeping across my cheeks and claiming me just as his eyes were doing - holding me in a gaze that I couldn't dare break, not even when he let his fingertips fall slightly to graze against my cheekbone, following the sweep of my blush as amusement glistened in his eyes.

I gulped and waited for him to say something - anything.  He was killing me for surely the lack of air in my lungs and the betrayal of my muscles, imobilizing me to move away or to look in another direction, was a mere sign of his hold on me.  He was a sorcerer and he had caught me in his spell.  I was enthralled and I couldn't break his grasp of me.  Although I'm not entirely sure if I wanted to anyway.  As much as I tried to move away, I desperately searching for more - for more signs that he cared, for more of his loving actions.

Park Jungsu was my life.  And I realised at that moment that I would do anything for him - anything to make him smile, to erase his wretched memories and to give him a hopeful future.  He could obtain anything with his expenses, but I would give him the priceless.  I would give him love and care.

I would give him me.

--

[A/N:  Annyeong-haseyo~ 〜(￣▽￣〜)

Ahh, this week has truly been an amazing week for me in terms of connecting with readers.  I feel as if I've made so many new friends and I really have no idea how to thank you all for being so kind and considerate.  I hope you enjoy this chapter and I look forward to conversing more with you individually.  This week has given me a lot of inspiration and motivation and I hope to carry on this story for a long while yet.  So thank you for giving me that revelation and I do pray that we can take this journey together.  Ｏ(≧▽≦)Ｏ

Please comment or send me private messages with your thoughts/opinions - many of you have been very vocal and that helps me so much.  I love hearing what you think/feel while reading and although I feel that this chapter is short, I also feel that a lot was said during this chapter that I think I needed to clarify through the main characters, Jungsu and Hyojin.  So please let me know if you think this was a good/bad move to make so that I can use your feedback to progress and make the fanfic an enjoyable experience for all of my readers.  Odds are that if you feel something while reading, then most readers will feel it also, so please let me know your thoughts.  (　＾∇＾)

Again, thank you all so much for the constant support and I look forward to uploading again on Sunday!  ⊂((・▽・))⊃

Love and light,

-Kang Hyekyo~ (-‿◦☀) ]