She sat on the cold floor with her newly wedded husband lying in her arms, the tears that once were streaming from her blood-shot eyes now dried on her skin. She felt numb, her body aching from sitting there cradling him for too long, but she was not yet willing to let him go.

Watching her husband in pain for the past hour had exhausted her. Catching him as he collapsed into her arms had weakened her heart.

“Ri?” A familiar voice broke the silence. “What’s going on?” Hyuk knelt down beside her, confused at what had happened.

She shook her head, too weak to even speak.

"Ri... Really, what happened to Bin?" He asked as he looked down at her husband.

She sobbed quietly, tears running down her cheek.

“Can you help me…” she finally said, her voice barely audible.

"Hmm?"He raised an eyebrow.

They were both medical doctors, trained to deal with medical emergencies despite the fact they worked at a nano-biotech lab. They transported his body back to the lab and smuggled it inside through all of Hyuk’s protests. He examined Hongbin’s body thoroughly and found that he’d died of an aneurism, something that could not have been avoided.

She sat watching him in silence, feeling numb inside. She nodded as he spoke, the words hardly registering. She didn’t react when he sat down beside her and hugged her.

Two weeks later...

Hyeri was tapping away at her laptop while humming a little tune.

"Good morning, honey," a cheery voice said from behind her.

She smiled as she turned to look at the man. "Good morning!"

Hongbin tilted his head and gave her a kiss on her cheek.

“You're up early," he said.

"Yes, just wanted to finalize this new experiment," she said with a smile as she gestured toward the work spread out across her workbench in their home lab.

Hyeri was finally back to her usual self again, after all the stress and tension of reviving Hongbin's life. Finally they could be together again and Hyeri had never felt happier.

It had taken her only a few softly spoken words to convince Hyuk to help her reanimate her husband’s lifeless body using the nano-biotechnology at the lab.

"I can't live without him"

A week later

Hongbin had been acting strange. He was his usual nice self most of the time, but at times he would snap at her or speak rudely to her out of nowhere, which was something he had never done before.

Hyeri worried some errors may have occurred during the process of reviving him, so she asked her partner, Hyuk, to check the method they had used thoroughly.

"Seems like nothing was wrong in this, you did everything according to the set program," Hyuk said as he looked at the monitor.

Hyeri looked closely at the screen again, studying all the formulas. "That's strange..." she muttered.

Hyuk poked her head lightly. "Yah! It went perfectly well, you're worrying too much."

"I swear, Hyuk, something’s not right. I’ve never seen him act like that before," she replied with a frown.

"Relax Ri, I will make us some coffee. You worry too much." Hyuk chuckled.

As Hyuk turned the corner he nearly bumped into Hongbin who was standing at the entrance to their lab. "Hey Bin, come to see Hyeri?"

Hongbin merely stood glaring at him. Hyuk shrugged and walked out.

"Hey sweetie," he greeted as he walked in.

"Hey Bin!" She smiled at him while quickly exiting the screen as she noticed him looking at it.

"What have you and Hyuk been up to?" He asked.

"We were just discussing our new experiments," she said with a smile.

"You're spending too much time with him."

"Come on, it's just work." He wrapped his arm around her, hugging her tightly to his side.

"But still, you are neglecting me."

"Silly," she said trying to pull away and be held so tightly.

"There is nothing going on between you and him right?"

"Silly, of course not!" Hyeri giggled.

Hongbin gazed down at her without blinking and held her so tight it made her feel uncomfortable. "Bin... I… can't breathe," she choked out.

He quickly pulled away. "Ah, sorry Honey.” He smiled down at her. “You want some coffee?"

"Hyuk is making some now," Hyeri replied as she rubbed her arms.

Just then Hyuk came back with the coffee and walked toward them.

"Here, Ri," he handed the cup to her.

She held it with two hands and sipped a little." Mmm... thanks Hyuk, I needed this."

Hongbin kept staring at Hyuk as he took a sip of his own cup.

"Sorry Bin, my hands were full,” Hyuk said as he noticed Hongbin’s gaze.

Hongbin's face turned dark and he walked out without a word.

“What was that about?” Hyuk asked with a frown.

“I told you something wasn’t right.”

One night, Hyeri woke up thirsty and sat up to go get a glass of water when she got the eerie sense that someone was watching her in the dark.

Finding the space next to her empty, she rubbed her eyes and blinked to adjust to the dark, realising Hongbin was sitting in the chair opposite the bed watching her. She the bedside lamp and looked over at him, maybe it was the way the light hit his face, but his eyes seemed cold.

"Honey, is something wrong? Why are you sitting there in the dark?"

He didn’t reply, rather sitting there silently looking at her. She got up and walked over to him, touching his shoulder lightly.

"Bin?"

"Ah, sorry, you were sleeping so sweetly, I couldn’t help myself,” he said finally.

She laughed and walked out to get the water, but something in his eyes made her nervous.

His behavior was getting stranger, there wasn’t any one thing she could point at, but something just wasn’t right with him.

One time he hugged her so tightly she could feel that her bones were near to breaking. She struggled so much he eventually let her go and apologized, treating her so sweetly the rest of that night she thought she’d imagined the whole thing.

And another night, she awoke in a panic, feeling her air cut off only to open her eyes to him looking down at her with his hands wrapped around her neck. He wasn’t squeezing hard enough to hurt her badly, but it still scared her. After she shoved him off and scrambled off the bed to get away from him he hurriedly apologized, explaining he wasn’t awake and must’ve been dreaming.

A few weeks later

Hyeri found a lost kitten while she was out jogging and after asking around the neighborhood and finding no one was missing a kitten, she decided she would keep it.It was the cutest thing, but when she showed it to him he glared at it furiously and walked out of the room.

Hyeri loved the new member of their family, snuggling it close whenever she could.

After a week, she came home and called out to him, finding it strange that he didn’t come running at the sound of her voice. She searched everywhere and eventually found it lying in the garden under a tree, it looked like its neck had been broken.

Hyeri cried as she dug a hole for the tiny body. Her neighbour came over to the fence to talk to her after she’d buried him.

"Oh what a pity, he was such a cute little thing.” Her neighbour shook her head sadly. “I saw him playing around here all day and then your husband picked him up and took him over to the other side of the yard.”

Hyeri looked at the woman in surprise, but just nodded. She had asked him if he’d seen the kitten that day, but he denied it.

She turned to look back at the house and found him standing at the window watching them with that same cold face she’d seen before.

What was even stranger was that a few days later her neighbour hung herself in her kitchen. Hyeri felt really sad, she was such a sweet lady and always seemed happy. How did no one ever notice she was having problems?

Work eventually took up more of her time, with new programs to be tested and experiments that meant she and Hyuk sometimes had to work late into the night.

Hongbin would come by every now and then, often surprising them as they worked. By then even Hyuk was sensing that Hongbin was acting weird.

"Come to check on Hyeri again?" Hyuk would ask every time Hongbin came by unannounced. As always Hongbin would merely stare at him silently before turning to talk to Hyeri.

One morning Hyeri was at the lab early, they had arranged to meet before everyone else showed up and finish their experiment, but Hyuk was late. Hyuk was never late, so Hyeri got worried and called him.

There was no answer. She was about to put her phone down when something told her to try again, so she did.

Just before she hung up someone picked up.

"Help!" Hyuk’s voice said from the other end. “Ri…”

"Hyuk?”Hyeri felt panic rise inside of her. “Where are you?"

"I’m…” He coughed. “Arrghh… Bin... what are you… nooo..." "Hyuk! Hyuk!" she shouted, but the line was dead.

She rushed out to drive to his apartment. She arrived to find the door was slightly open, entering to find blood stains on the floor and also on the wall.

"Hyuk?" she called out as she searched the house, but it seemed empty. Everywhere was a mess.

She called his number again but the phone rang in the other room.

"Hyuk, where are you?" She whispered to herself as she sat down on the couch wondering what to do.

She remembered him saying Hongbin’s name, so she called him, but he didn’t answer the call. “Police. I have to go to the police.”

Just as she got up to leave Hongbin walked in and stood in the doorway looking at her.

"So, you're really here? You came. For him?" He hissed.

"Bin... what are you doing?" she said as she looked up at his fierce expression, backing away from him as she spoke.

He took a few steps toward her and grabbed her by the shoulders.

"You really love this guy? You came here to see him? To save him?"

"You're hurting me, Bin," she whined as his fingers dug into her flesh.

"Tell me, you love him right?"

"No, I don't love him. I love you.” She looked up into his eyes, seeing the doubt flicker there.

“I brought you back, Bin. I couldn’t live without you. It’s only you I love.”

"You're sure?" He stooped down to bring his face level with hers.

"Yes. Yes, he… he is just my partner for work. He’s a good scientist. That is all. I was just worried because he didn't come to work and we have an important experiment."

"Really?" He asked still looking at her in doubt.

"Bin why are you like this?" She asked as she reached out to touch his face.

"You made me this way."

"What?" She raised her eyebrows.

"Why did you bring me back to life just so you can neglect me?"

"But I didn't..." she said.

"You did. You were so obsessed with work. You were always with Hyuk. Then with that dirty kitten," he hissed.

"Bin, I didn't neglect you. Wait... how did you know this place?" She was puzzled. “How…”

"Honey, for such a smart girl you are really slow." He chuckled.

"You know where Hyuk is?"

"I got rid of him.” He laughed. “For good.”

Hyeri gulped nervously, feeling shivers run through her at his cold words. Tears were welling up in her eyes, but she knew she had to keep them from flowing. She needed to remain level headed.

"Why?" She asked as calmly as possible, trying to study the species before her, for that was how she saw him now. Her husband was no longer in the shell, just something that was trying to mimic him.

"Because they took up too much of your time," he said calmly with a shrug.

She was still watching him closely, trying to find a way out without upsetting him.

"And Kitty too?" she asked.

He nodded.

Hyeri paused for a while, nodding slowly.

“You’re right. I didn’t bring you back just to neglect you.” She smiled up at him, reaching to his cheek softly. "Can you forgive me?”

He lifted her hand from his cheek and kissed her palm.

“Let’s go home,” she said softly.

They drove home together and spent the day cooking together and talking and laughing, the way they always did before he died. It was a lovely day and she knew that despite the things he’d done, she would treasure the memory of that day forever.

Later that night as she lay in his arms watching him sleep, a tear slid down her cheek as she reached under the pillow and pulled out the syringe.

His eyes flew open as the needle pierced his skin, she pushed down on the tab that would release the syringe’s contents into his system. He looked at her with accusing eyes as he realized what she’d done.

“I love you,” he whispered as the nano-bots flooded his system, spreading the programmed toxins that were specifically designed to shut down his system. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she held her dying husband in her arms for the second time since they had been married.