- Present day -

Only thing that prevented silence from completely filling the dining room was cutlery clicking against ceramic dishes. However, neither one of them looked up, both seemingly focused on their servings of dinner made by their housekeeper, Miss Choi.

After making sure the maids were gone, Jiwoo was first to try and start a conversation.

"How was work today?"

"It was good."

She didn't expect much of an answer anyway.

"How's it going with that lawsuit?", she tried again.

Rival company from Busan recently filed a lawsuit for Taehyung's alleged misuse of position. Case was filed by one of his father's colleagues, who was furious about the fact that Taehyung was already in position of acting chairman.

"We fired Mr Han today," he shortly said, downing glass of wine in one go. Every move he made showed elegance worth person of high class. But after living with him for two years, Jiwoo thought of epithet that fit him better.

Cold.

Whenever they were at banquets or formal dinners at fancy restaurants, he would speak normally, laugh like alive person, and even wrap his arm around her when he's in good mood.

But as soon as they're alone... nothing. He refuses to answer her questions with sentences longer than five words, sometimes even acts as if she's not present. The longer he stayed that way, the more it confused his wife. It has come to the point where she wasn't even sure what's the mask and what's his real personality.

"I mean, don't blame him... I would react the same if I saw someone show up and get position that I've been wanting for 10 years in less than 6 months."

He dropped metal sticks on the table and looked at her. It's been quite a while since she last saw him angry, or showing feelings at all.

"Your only role in that lawsuit is to play supportive wife and daughter-in-law, got it?"

"Okay."

Okay. That was the only thing she could say. Only thing she was allowed to say. He'd convinced her that her parents and their hospital are nothing without his cursed money.

But not her.

She knew all too well that she's free to go wherever and whenever she wants to. She could go to 10-day trips or walk around Seoul all day long and he would never ask where she was. The only thing she wasn't allowed to do was walk out of their marriage.

"Mother said she fixed us some arrangement for this weekend. See if the location suits you and give me a call when you verify papers."

Jiwoo rolled her eyes. His Mother often made everything worse by meddling in things that clearly weren't any of her business. Like fixing doctor appointments for her, because she "couldn't get pregnant" or choosing destinations for their honeymoon.

This weekend was supposed to be their two-year anniversary.

"I thought we had a deal for this weekend?"

Deal was to make it look like they went to Japan together. Jiwoo would actually go to Sokcho and Taehyung would go to Busan.

"Yeah, it's off. We don't want them to suspect something, now do we?"

After trying to calm down by counting to ten, Jiwoo took dish still filled with rice and threw it at the door, but he already left.