9.

Inside me is you. 

It was a strange day, to begin with. It's March 14, White Day.  

If he was the Jung Yonghwa a year ago, he would've had the urge to skip the day. It was almost as meaningless as any other day people chose to celebrate. In particular, he wasn't fond of going with the trend. He especially didn't like Valentine's Day since it's over-exaggerated, so why should he care about White Day? But he did. It was a strange day, after all. 

He thought she might expect something of him and not because today was supposed to be their end. The last episode of their marriage. Pretend marriage actually. But it's White Day too. What a strange day to end a pretend marriage on White Day.

 Anyway, the moment he woke up this morning, he thought he should make something for her today, besides going with the plan that he had planned days ago and carried with him everywhere he went. He wrote it in a notebook, a hobby that he picked up from her as she always had some sort of notes in her bag as an essential. 

The plan was supposed to make their last moments memorable but for some reason, he didn’t feel like planning at all (although he still did it anyway). The thoughts of planning took up so much space in his head that it felt too much to handle at times. Not only he was physically exhausted, thinking about the plan made him mentally tired too. He didn't like the idea of planning for an ending. How do you plan an end, anyway? 

But anyway, he searched the net for what to give her, but there were thousands of results that he didn’t know where to start. He started to wonder why people even bothered, only to realize that he himself was doing the same thing. He thought of her and that was it. That was the reason why. She was the reason why. He went on and after an hour or two, he ended up making chocolate cookies. 

He never made chocolate cookies before. It took him over two hours and made quite a mess in the kitchen. When Jonghyun came and asked what kind of storm passed in the kitchen, he just shrugged.  

Jonghyun gave him a roll in the eyes, a side glance, said good luck and left. He was sort of relieved that was Jonghyun's only response. He was a little anxious that if Jonghyun had asked why he was doing what he was doing, Yonghwa wouldn't be able to answer. Even though there was a possibility that he already knew anyway. 

 He supposed, there are things that were really better left off unsaid, especially feelings for someone you’re parting with and that can’t possibly be said aloud because things could turn awkward.

 After all, nobody really knew that Jung Yonghwa could be more awkward than Seo Juhyun, who didn’t know how to confess his feelings but instead wrote it down in cookies, hoping at most that she would notice. 

Inside me is you. 

Those words...

It would be a lie to say the words only came as a surprise. There was a lot more that came with them. 

She should’ve been ecstatic or something because they were words that could make any woman swoon, but she found there was more pain than joy about them. Perhaps because she was receiving them on their last day. But despite what she felt inside, she had masked everything else with a happy smile—exactly what was expected of her.

Not until she was at home that night, in her room safely, did