The setting sun looked like a fireball on the ground; spitting out its rays and painting the sky orange. A flock of birds flew across the orange sky crossing the clouds looked like flumes emanating from the fireball. The tall buildings stood like guards throwing its shadow on the streets making the asphalt roads look darker. Strolling through one such streets, Sohyun made her way towards the station.

Work got over for the day. But, she felt restless and sighed imagining the mess piled up at home. She is not a person to have the things organised nor does he. So, their disorganised things became a mess and the messes got worse and worse. Seungho works for long hours and comes back home late in the night, so, she never asks him for help. Instead she drowned herself in household chores.

After tidying up everything, she fell on the bed exhausted. But, being an intern, she had her homework following up the housework. She’ll nibble on some bread and study till she falls herself to sleep. This has been the routine ever since, Seungho took up a new project past month which got him busy till late night.

Hardly having any quality or quantity time for themselves, their life ran monotonous, until one day, the head nurse at the hospital congratulated her saying, “Congratulations! You two are the first couple working in our hospital!”

Throughout the period since Jaeha told Sejun that she is married, she had been hearing the congratulations from many people in the hospital. They customarily added, “You two look good together”. She recollected the incident where Seungho and Jaeha stood side by side when the nurse at the information desk mentioned ‘husband’. She assumed that the nurse meant Seungho though she never introduced him to anyone beside Jaeha and one of her college seniors. She presumed, maybe someone told them about Seungho, but now she got enlightened.  Before she could explain herself, the head nurse took her leave. She felt edgy and apprehensive about this misunderstanding. Now, she understood why the seniors who had suffixed ‘-ya’ behind her name replaced it with ‘-sshi’.

If Jaeha is being linked with her in the marriage rumours, he should be getting the congratulatory messages or at the least the rumours must’ve reached his ears. She felt at fault for involving an eligible bachelor in such rumours. To clear the misunderstandings and to offer a word of apology, she went to find him.

On reaching his room, she found that the door was left open, “Is anyone there?”, she asked standing outside while expecting an answer from the empty room.

“Here!”, a husky voice from behind startled her.

“If I die of heart attack, you’re responsible!”, Sohyun complained on finding Jaeha behind her who was playing the trick.

“Came to see me?”, he asked making his steps towards his room.

A doctor who passed by his room, stopped for a moment on looking at them and said, “Just now I heard the news! Congratulations!”

While Sohyun’s eyes widened, Jaeha replied him with a smile, “Thanks!”, and went inside.

As soon as he passed by, she asked him anxiously raising her brows, “Thanks?”

He saw her standing beside the door frame and said, “I have been standing for long hours performing a surgery. My energy is completely drained. I can’t shout sitting here so that you could here me while standing there!”

“‘Come in’ would suffice”, she said and stepped in. She took a seat in front of his desk facing him and asked in whispering tone, “ Do you know what’s that ‘congratulations’ for?”

He sighed loudly saying, “If you see someone being wished ‘Happy Birthday’, would you ask the person ‘Is it your birthday?’ and then wish him?”

She rolled her eyes and said with a forced smiled, “Congratulations!”

He gave her a cheeky smile and said, “Thanks!”

“Why am I congratulating you?”, she struck him with a question promptly.

“Well… I got transferred to the research department! I applied for the transfer a month ago and was eagerly expecting it” and added, “Though the transfer was confirmed only yesterday, I’ve been receiving congratulatory messages for the past few days!”

“I’m sorry!”, she said in a contrite tone.

He looked at her raising a brow, questioning the reason for the apology.

“People mistook us as married couple, so… the congratulatory messages…”

“Ahh….”, his realisation remark cut in her statements, “It’s alright, I don’t have a girlfriend!”, he said nonchalantly.

“It’s not alright for me! If you have a girlfriend, then I just have to explain it to her. Since, you don’t have one, I have to explain to everyone so that it won’t hinder your future possible relationships”, she said and continued in murmuring tone, “moreover, if Seungho knows then I’m a goner!”

Jaeha who was listening to the first part of her conversation with a smile, turned bitter at her murmur. He said with straight face, “Don’t worry! I know someone who is capable of broadcasting anything to this entire hospital. I’ll relay the message to him!”

She thanked him and got up from her seat to leave.

She was stopped by Jaeha’s words, “Your dad…”. She immediately sat down which marked a half smile in him. He continued, “his health isn’t good…”. “What happened?”, she asked him knitting her brows in worry. “It’s smoking induced anaemia, nothing serious… just thought I should give you a heads up”.

Sohyun nodded but the distress didn’t leave her face throughout the day. On the way back home, she called Jiwoo to enquire about her father’s health. Jiwoo told her that he is doing good now. When she asked Jiwoo why she didn’t tell her about father’s condition earlier, Jiwoo replied that she didn’t want to worry her. Her reply made her helpless.

Because they didn’t want Sohyun to worry, Jiwoo didn’t tell her and even, Seungho never comments on his workload. Being kept in dark though of ‘not so important’ issue, made her feel subdued. Since, they were already keeping their concerns inside them, she didn’t want to burden them with hers. By the time she realized, she was already struck in that vicious cycle.

She reached her house and took heavy steps on the stairs bearing the weighing down thoughts. Her eyes were downcast with heavy heart. Standing in front of the gate, she took the keys from the bag. She heard someone running from behind approaching her, before she could turn back, her eyes were covered by hands of someone.

A familiar one. “Can’t you see the door is already open?”, Seungho’s voice struck her while his warm breath her neck.

“What are you playing at? I know it’s you….”, she said with tired voice. But, he still had her eyes covered, “Why are you still covering my eyes?”, she asked him.

“I got you something!”, he said without taking his hands off and guided her in.

“For me?!”

“Yes, for you! Our recent project’s success took a turn and we landed on something big!”, he said walking through the living room still covering her eyes.

He stopped facing the balcony. She could feel the breeze her face, “You left the balcony door open?”, she asked.

“Mmm..,”, he said, slowly uncovering her eyes.

Though the bright glare of sun rays made her to avert her gaze from seeing what’s in front of her, soon her eyes widened on witnessing an acrylic swing in front of her hanging from the ceiling facing the balcony. The acrylic swing had a delicate transparent glass seating with its four corners chained by a steel hanger. It had the sun in the background and the breeze played the background score.

In Sohyun’s eyes, the swing looked like it was floating in the orange sky which could make her fly through the balcony.

Curtailing her smile and surprise immediately, she pretended to be disappointed, “You bought THIS for me?”

Fooled by her pretence, he asked, “Yes…, don’t you like it?”

With her hands brushing the hanging chains, she said, “I thought you brought me lots of dresses, jewelleries, diamonds…”

He noticed the excitement in her face and her eyes fixated on the swing and realized that she is pulling his leg. “I have brought it all. Come, I’ll show you”, he said and sat on the swing pulling her beside him. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder resting his chin in the crook of her neck and said facing the sky through the balcony, “Can you see it?”

She stared into the orange tinge sky holding his hand that was around her shoulder and said softly, “I don’t see anything”.

“But, I can see it”, he said sweetly and added, “I see a big house like a palace…”

“I see it too… the dishes which were left undone. No utensil to cook tonight!”

He gazed at her smiling and went back to stare into the sky, “I see a big office with signage ‘SH’. The building is bigger than Samsung”

“I see the clothes in the laundry basket. You have to leave for the office in your underwear tomorrow, if it is not taken care of today!”

He smiled at her for knocking him into reality again and continued, “I can see you too… fat, your heart shaped smile, wearing a heavy necklace to suit your dress, walking with swagger…”

She cut him sulking, “I won’t get fat…”

“Ok, why would I spoil your fantasy… Slim, smiley, wearing a diamond necklace and even a hip chain while walking with swagger! You are looking like the queen of 21^st century and…”

She laughed and completed his sentence saying, “I look very happy… WITH YOU”.

As Seungho went silent, Sohyun turned towards him confused, but found him gazing at her. He came in closer with their noses less than an inch away from each other. She looked into his eyes, but his eyes wandered her face scanning very inch.

He stared at her forehead where her bangs swept to one side. He noticed a sweat drop on her forehead and wiped it gently while caressing it. As his eyes moved onto her eyebrows, cheeks, nose and at last her lips, a sweat escaped his temple.

She knew what he meant by his intense stare and nudged her nose against his. He smiled, tilted his head and moved in closer to her lips. But, she came in meeting his lips in the midway. She gave him quick kisses once, twice and thrice like a swing. But, this time when she withdrew from a short caress of their lips, he held her head and gobbled her lips hard as the urge dived in and all her words. He pulled back, realizing that she had gone breathless. He got carried away. His veins throbbed, and her head started spinning. Before she could gather her mind, she knotted a fist in his shirt and pulled him hard against her. She could feel his face burning through the warmth of his lips. He kissed her softly at first, but soon the intensity rushed when he felt her fingers through his hair. At her grant, his tongue entered into her lips and started tasting her and so does she.  She didn’t mind his hands that ran all over her as his mouth was already on hers. He suddenly pulled back. With their breathes more warmer than the steam, he said panting, “Doctor, we didn’t have our bath yet”. But reading in her downcast eyes, in the fall of her dress, in her every curve and dip of her lips, he knew it’s love she has for him. “Let’s help ourselves, then!”, he said and kissed her slowly nibbling her lower lips while lifting her up. As she wrapped her legs around his waist, they went to drown themselves in love.

After the Sun hid itself under the blanket of earth, Sohyun nudged Seungho who were cuddling under the sheets and said with puppy face, “I’m hungry!”

Caressing her cheeks, he asked lovingly, “Shall I order for home delivery?”

On seeing her nodding cutely, he leaned and kissed her forehead before turning over to get his phone to order online.

After a while, when the door bell rang, Seungho got up, wore his shorts and undervest to fetch the order.

“Wear your tee”, she threw one at him and said, “If it is deliverywoman, you might make her uncomfortable!”

“Still, I’m wearing something unlike you!”, he teased while putting on the shirt and left to fetch the order.

Sohyun heard the door opening and closing, but the house went silent for a while. She immediately went to check out after wearing her night shirt. While she was looking for him inside, she heard his voice from outside.

She opened the door crying, “What are you doing outside?”. There was no one, but Seungho who was then staring into the blank courtyard, now turned looked at her surprised and flustered. “Were you talking to someone?”, she asked him scanning the courtyard. He immediately stood in front of her blocking her view, “The food… our order!”, he stuttered, handing over the delivery in one hand and having the other hand behind him. On receiving the food, she said, “It had become cold! Was it left outside for long?”. He nodded saying, “May be…” and rushed her, “let’s go in, don’t come out barefooted”. His eyes traversed the courtyard again, before going in.

After locking the door, he saw her staring at him, it was a glare not a gaze. When he raised his brows, she tiled her head looking at the hidden phone behind him. He who flustered at first, snickered the next second asking, “wondering if I was talking to a girl on the phone?”

She gave a flat smiled and nodded, but indifferently carried the food to warm it up in microwave.

He got the plates from the dish rack beside the kitchen sink while laying his eyes on her watching out for signs of jealously but couldn’t read her poker face. Arranging the plates on the coffee table, he asked curiously, “Shouldn’t you be jealous?”

Placing the warmed food on the table, she sat on the couch beside him gazing into his eyes and shook her head in denial saying, “You wouldn’t flirt with other women, coz… You’ve been spellbound by me!!”

He looked at her in daze for a moment and said, “The lights, the look in your eyes, especially… your night shirt… Mmm… how do I put it in nice words… kinda… turns me on… no… not kinda… it really does…”

She was knocked out by his unexpected reply. Gathering her words of discontent, “What...”- Seungho’s phone rang interrupting her.

He hushed her and took the phone to the corner to answer the call. He had an invisible force field around him which no one would dare to intrude. After some minutes of the confidential call, he went inside the room in search of something. A few more minutes relapsed, he shouted from the room, “Sohyun-ah! Where are my documents? Didn’t I tell you not to clean my table?”

Sohyun rolled her eyes; put down the chopsticks in her hand onto the table; picked up a marker. She circled the date in the calendar, which had all its past days circled and said while making her way towards the room, “My table? We’ve got only one table, and didn’t we agree to share it?”

“Where are the documents?”

“You always make a mess out of your papers, how am I supposed to use the table full of mess?”

“Chuck the table, where are the papers?”

“It will be there… I didn’t throw away anything and don’t know the whereabouts of the papers you are talking about!”

The night went by as their arguments and warmed up food were left to cool down.

Next day, early in the morning, Sohyun got down at the bare station and walked through the subway towards the hospital. In a hurry, she almost bumped into someone on her way. Since, she is in a hurry, without looking up, she gave a short bow excusing herself and took a step aside. The man’s footsteps moved in her direction and stood blocking her way intentionally. She looked up to find a tall, well-built man in a black suit who looked like a loan shark. She bowed again and took another step aside. He blocked her way again and shoved his hand into his pockets. In an instant, a group of five men surrounded her. She stood frozen and her eyes trembled. The man in black with his haughty posture and domineering look said with an arrogant smile, “If you don’t want to be branded as a widow, then tell your husband to quiet down!”. After those words left his mouth, everyone left the scene after giving her a second look.

It sent chills down her spine. She sweated profusely. She couldn’t recollect what had happened, but she is sure that it wasn’t something that can be forgotten. She took out her phone and called Seungho. The signal was poor to connect the call. She looked at the aloof subway in a blurr. Her legs weighed a ton with thoughts. She treaded on the floor like it was being hit by an earthquake. Dragging her legs and wiping her tears, she reached the end of the subway; leaned on the subway wall and glided down against it. Her hands were shivering but she couldn’t move it freely at her will either. She tried to connect the call. It did!

Seungho who was on the other end of the call, heard her silent cry and sniffles. His eyes wandered restlessly, “Where are you?” escaped his mouth.

Author's note:

Great to see you again!  Thank you so much  for reading! (I swear I didn't copy paste these words!)

Hope you have wonderful days ahead!