Warning(s): suggestive and mildly ual scenes (no )
Length: 10.5k words

“Sehun,” Areum gasps again. “What are you doing here so early?”

“I tried calling but you didn’t answer.” He nuzzles himself against her. “I bargained my way out of another two or three months of filming,” Sehun whispers in her ear. His arms wrap themselves tighter around her, telling her that this all too real. He’s here. There’s something about this gesture that used to leave her breathless that feels all kinds of wrong. Perhaps it’s the fact that Chanyeol does the same thing to her. “I don’t want to keep missing you, Areum,” Sehun mumbles lowly. “And I know you don’t want to either.”

Areum sighs softly at his words. She no longer knows if he means it. “Sehun, you shouldn’t have. I thought you really wanted to work on this movie.”

“I did, but I also really want to spend more time with you.”

“What did you have to do?”

“Nothing.” Areum can hear the smirk in his voice as he says this. “I just realized I’m Oh Sehun, and I can write a lot of my own terms.” He snuggles his nose in the crook of her neck and unknowingly teases the aching bruises there. “I told the director that if I dropped out of the movie early, I would work with him a second time—with you too.”

Areum’s heart rate suddenly spikes, and Sehun must feel it too because he chuckles. The director Sehun had been working with—T.H. River—is a popular British director that anyone would be blessed to have the opportunity to stand in the same room, much less shoot a movie. At the end of the day, Areum is still an actress herself, and she would be honored to have even a small role in a T.H. River movie. But if it’s because of Sehun, she doesn’t want any part of it.

“Sehun, you didn’t,” she breathes. “That’s amazing. Thank you...”

“Anything for my beautiful wife.” Sehun disconnects himself from Areum to lean over and turn off the stove. “Your eggs will get burned.”

He turns to her and for the first time in months, she gets a clear view of his face.

It is a fact that Sehun has flawless skin that Areum envies. He always seems to glow, and he never gets extremely tan like her. But today Areum doesn’t care much for his complexion. She cares about how close and real it is that he’s standing there in front of her. His stormy eyes inches away from hers. His tongue his lips. His nose getting bigger as he leans over to kiss her. For a second, Areum sees Chanyeol and not Sehun, and it disturbs her so much that she gasps softly.

“Sehun.” Areum breaks off the kiss before it can happen. “No.”

“No?” Sehun has more self-control than Chanyeol, it seems, because he actually doesn’t try anything to kiss her despite her protest. “Is there something wrong?”

“I just want to eat.” Areum shrugs and pushes past Sehun to turn the stove back on. “Do you want some?”

Sehun leans against the counter and shakes his head. “Thank you, Areum, but no thank you. I want to know what’s wrong.”

“Does there have to be something wrong? Can’t I just not want to kiss you?”

He crosses his arms. This is part of what Areum likes about Sehun. Unlike Chanyeol who likes to bite back but harder, she can be cold or instigating in her replies, and Sehun would only respond coolheadedly—most of the time. Like most couples, they have arguments where both people get too angry to want to say anything with a calm and collected tone.

“You wanted me to come back early,” Sehun says each word carefully, “so I did. I was expecting a warmer welcome.”

“Well, I’m tired and not in the mood.”

“It’s a kiss, Areum.”

“And?” Areum angrily flips her eggs over. It makes an angrier sizzling noise. Sehun’s presence, though he obviously doesn’t mean it to be, annoys her and crawls under her skin. “Every time you want a kiss, you also want something else.”

“Is that what this is about?” Sehun raises his hand to pinch the bridge of his nose. “Areum… I know what I did last time was wrong. I shouldn’t have done that.” The fact that he alludes to their last encounter with vague words tells Areum that maybe he feels slight remorse, but Sehun’s a good actor. Much, much better than her. “I’m sorry for using you.”

Areum, in all honesty, doesn’t care as much as she used to about Sehun’s manipulation of her. It’s the guilt that she was just letting Chanyeol touch her and her on the very countertop that he’s leaning on now.

“Whatever,” Areum murmurs. “Talk to me later.”

“Later?” Sehun arches his brows as Areum pushes past him to get a placemat on the table. “Are you busy with something?”

“Yeah,” Areum lies. “I’m going to Seulgi’s.”

“Oh.” Sehun walks over to where Areum’s standing and engulfs her in another back hug. “I guess I’ll unpack then while you’re gone.”

He hums lowly against her shoulder, and it’s a gesture that reminds Areum so much of the golden days—the days when they were younger and only in that dating stage. Back then (even now), Sehun hardly ever expressed his feelings in public displays, and Areum distinctly remembers being so proud when he held her hand or kissed her or hugged her. It was all for her, he said.

“Uh, yeah, have fun with that.” Areum pulls away from Sehun’s embrace.

“I love you, Areum,” Sehun says quietly.

Areum wrinkles her nose as she sits down to eat. “I love you too.”

Thank goodness her back is turned.

- - - - -

Areum leaves her house when Sehun heads upstairs to unpack his luggage. She never had intentions to see Seulgi, but she needs to get out of that house and away from everything that reminds her of what she did. So she goes to the only person she should go to. Chanyeol. It’s too risky for her to meet him in his hotel, so she picks him up in Jay’s car.

“You good?” Chanyeol asks right away. He has barely closed the door when he starts to reach over and touch her face. “Areum? You never call me first.”

“Sehun’s back,” Areum blurts out.

The ever-expressive Chanyeol widens his eyes. “Are you ing kidding me? I thought we had another two or three months.”

“He struck some deal with the director.” Areum shakes her head, still unable to believe it. “He told ing T.H. River—that’s right, T.H. River—that he would work with him again and with me if he got to leave earlier.” Chanyeol frowns, probably unable to believe it himself. “I can’t believe he’d do that. I thought maybe he’d be too busy banging another girl.”

Chanyeol says nothing as he leans back in the car seat. His face has to speak for him, but there’s only so much that Areum can gather from a frown.

“So, are we done?” Chanyeol says when they stop at a red light.

Areum shakes her head almost immediately. “No, we can’t be. I can’t handle this alone, Chanyeol! What would I even say to him? How would I say it to him?”

“Honestly…” Chanyeol bites his lip as he stares out of the window. Then he turns his attention back to Areum with pursed lips that seem to hesitate. “Maybe you don’t need to tell him. Maybe you should, I don’t know, file for a divorce.”

Areum’s jaw falls. “That’s the worst idea I’ve heard from you.”

“It seems like the smartest thing to me.” Chanyeol huffs, crossing his arms. He does that cute thing where he tilts one corner of his lips so that a dimple appears on his cheek. “You don’t even really love him. If you did, you’d be back home talking to him instead of me.” Areum averts her gaze from Chanyeol. “See? I’m right.”

“Whatever,” Aruem mumbles, ashamed that he knows her that well. “It’s not like I can just suddenly file for divorce. People will want to know. My family. My friends. Sehun. Literally everyone else.”

“Tell them the truth then. You fell out of love.”

“That’s not easy, Chanyeol. People like to pry.”

“Fine,” Chanyeol says with a heavy, frustrated sigh. “If you don’t want to get a divorce, then what are you going to do? Don’t tell me you’re going to put your wedding ring back on and pretend like everything’s okay.” His eyes cut her, and he smirks smugly. “Don’t tell me that you’re going to pretend like you don’t think of me when you sleep on a bed where I’ve touched you more than your own husband has.”

Areum swallows upon hearing the dirty truth that comes out of Chanyeol’s shameless mouth.

“You’re not making this easy for me,” she mumbles shakily.

“I’ll make it easier then.”

Chanyeol leans forward, and Areum has her lips poised for a kiss, but instead he snuggles his nose in the crook of her shoulder and neck. Unlike Sehun, however, he knows where the bruises he left are, and he teases those areas with deliberate movements.

“I guess I can’t leave any marks on you anymore.” Chanyeol’s hands move to her waist and hips where underneath her sweater and shirt are bruises in the shape of his fingers. “We have to be even more subtle.”

“As if there was anything subtle about us in the first place.” Areum whimpers when touches a tender area in her inner thighs. “That hurts.”

“Sorry, I forgot.”

He totally remembered. (That cheeky .)

Areum rolls her eyes and moves away from Chanyeol’s roaming hands. She tries to look at Jay through the rearview mirror, but he’s too busy driving. “Jay. Can you drive around randomly for 20 more minutes?”

“Of course, ma’am.”

Today Chanyeol has his hair worn up so Areum can see his eyebrows raise in question. “20 more minutes?” he asks. “Why?”

“Sehun’s home.” Chanyeol smirks again. “And I need to figure out what to do.” Areum takes her place beside him again. “Maybe I should move back home with my parents for a few weeks after filming to figure things out. I could call it a vacation or something since they live by the beach.”

“You’re terrible at this.” Chanyeol yawns. “I’m telling you. A divorce is the best thing you can do. Who cares if people will want to pry? You’ve lived your entire life under scrutiny. How is this any different?”

“Because this is something substantial.” Areum sighs heavily as she seeks warmth from Chanyeol who gives it to her. He wraps his arms comfortably around her and unintentionally makes her feel guiltier. “It’s cheating. It’s universally morally incorrect. The only argument I have that justifies what I did was right is that he did it first, and that’s such a ty argument. I cheated on you because you cheated on me first. That’s so ing petty and stupid.”

Chanyeol makes no comment on this. “I’m telling you. Just get a divorce. Who cares? I’ll be here for you every step of the way.”

Areum smiles at his small gesture. I’ll be here for you. It’s not enough, she knows that. One person telling her that everything will be okay compares to the thousands that will judge her and tear her apart. None of the magazines and no random tweet will make her feel as bad as seeing Sehun’s face as she breaks the news to him, however.

- - - - -

When Areum comes home later that night, she sees Sehun passed out on the couch. He sleeps so peacefully that it makes Areum feel guiltier. She can no longer the same comfort in this wretched house. Everything reminds her of Chanyeol, and Chanyeol reminds her of what she did wrong.

- - - - -

“This is so hot.” Chanyeol chuckles lowly in Areum’s ear. He’s in between her legs and pressing light kisses by her neck; it nearly distracts from the fact that Sehun will be home in 10 or less minutes. “You’re so hot.” He moves his body harder against hers, and she whimpers softly, too afraid to get any louder. “Why are we doing this again?” Areum literally can’t utter a comprehensible word, and lets out a small, high-pitched moan. “That’s hot.”

“Chanyeol, shut—oh.”

“Mhm.”

Areum glances at the clock on the wall. It’s almost 7. So much for having an hour dedicated to working out. Because Chanyeol, the man who probably wants to get themselves caught, just had to have his way. Though, Areum can’t actually blame him because she consented to this too.

As she’s looking at the clock, writhing and panting in Chanyeol’s arms, she hears the familiar sound of the car Sehun loves so much. His revered 1969 Boss 429 Mustang. He spent so much time revving that thing when he first got it that Areum has the sound ingrained in her head. Memories of what they did on its leather seats do too. And so, she can no longer revel in her own pleasure.

“, Chanyeol, get out.” Areum pushes him away from her to much of his displeasure. “Sehun’s coming!”

“He is?” He arches a brow and leans down to pull his pants back up. “How the hell do you know that?”

“Because,” Areum spits, “I know what his car sounds like.”

She quickly fixes her ponytail to make it look like it wasn’t just smashed against the wall, and she gathers her yoga pants off the ground. Behind her, she hears Chanyeol push the gym door open to presumably throw away the . While he’s doing that, she inspects the home gym for any signs of their activity. There’s nothing—at least nothing extremely noticeable.

“Chanyeol!” Areum tries to softly yell his name out. “Take the back door! I’ll distract him.”

“There’s no need.” Chanyeol emerges from the bathroom looking less sweaty than her. “I’m an actor. I can pretend that I’m just visiting you and you happened to be working out.” He shrugs like it means nothing before pulling out a handkerchief from his pocket and wiping his forehead. “As long as you can control yourself around me, we should be great.”

“You’re so funny,” Areum deadpans. She rolls her eyes and heads to the kitchen. “Quick. We have to make everything look casual. Pretend you’re eating something.”

“I was just eating you—”

“Chanyeol, for ’s sake!”

“Okay, okay.” He chuckles as he grabs an apple off the fruit basket Areum has in the kitchen.

It’s at that moment that Areum hears Sehun fumble with the lock on the door until he finally opens it. Areum then freezes for a second before she takes out a cookbook off the shelf.

“So, yeah,” she says as she flips through it, “I don’t really like eating pork and beef.”

“You like fish though, right?” Chanyeol picks up the hint as he takes a crunchy bite of the apple.

Sehun enters the kitchen space, and Areum pretends to not care that he’s there by casting only a short look towards him.

“Hey, Sehun.” Areum swallows her spit and tries to regulate her breathing. She’s still sweaty from her workout, and he can probably see that—along with Chanyeol. “You know Chanyeol, right? He’s my co-star for Stay Longer.”

“Hey.” Chanyeol nudges his head at Sehun. He walks over closer to Sehun and offers a hand out which Sehun takes. “How’s it going man?”

“I’m good.” Sehun and Chanyeol exchange that hug/handshake that guys seem to do a lot. “Did Areum invite you for dinner?”

“Yeah, I did,” Areum speaks up. They turn towards her, and she feels her heart beat against her ribs. It’s a strange sight to see both of them in the same room. Aside from being two, towering figures, she has had more than intimate connections with which makes it that much more threatening to have them both there. “I forgot though, and I was working out when he came.” She shrugs and holds up the cookbook. “Do you want anything special, Sehun, or should we just order out?”

“Order out,” Sehun says with a yawn at the end. “I’ve had too many fancy dinners while in Italy and Switzerland.”

“How was it?” Chanyeol asks. “Italy and the Swiss land, I mean.”

“Cold.”

Areum grins as she reaches for her phone. Sehun turns his back on them to get water from the fridge, and Chanyeol takes it as his time to profusely shake his head. He’s of course complaining about Sehun’s terse words, but Areum finds it endearing that Sehun reverts to his quiet, introverted self when they’re not alone.

“Sehun.” Areum hands him the piece of paper they have for their favorite fast food restaurants. “I’m going to take a shower. Can you take care of the food?”

“Of course.”

Areum casts Chanyeol a look just before she goes upstairs. He winks at her. She rolls her eyes.

When she comes back down 20 minutes later, she witnesses the strangest of all conversations that she has ever seen.

“What was your favorite thing about being in the Alps?” Chanyeol asks. He takes a bite of the pizza Sehun must have ordered.

“Exercise.”

“Oh? What was so different about the exercise there?”

“Higher altitude.”

“Oh,” Chanyeol nods, “I get it. You liked exercising up in the Alps because it made you feel more out of breath. You felt like you worked out more.”

It’s strange how their conversation works—Sehun saying the least as possible and Chanyeol somehow drawing conclusions from that.

Areum finally takes a seat next to Sehun.

“What’s going on here, guys?” She tries to tease the atmosphere, but Sehun shows no sign of making it less tense.

“I’m talking to a rock.” Chanyeol eyes Sehun to see if he’ll react, but like a rock, Sehun doesn’t even blink.

“He just doesn’t like talking too much.” Areum casts a more concerned glance at Sehun. Although it is true that he doesn’t like talking in general, he knows how to be warmer towards acquaintances and interviewers—even if it’s just a little bit.

“Whatever.” Chanyeol waves it off and so does Areum.

Later that evening, their dinner consists of sitting in a circle playing poker for the last slice of pizza. Chanyeol loses terribly to Sehun who purposely loses to Areum.

- - - - -

RING-DING-DING-DING-DING—

Areum groans as she shuts off her purposefully annoying alarm. She places her feet down onto the cold carpet just in time for Sehun to roll over. Unfortunately, her alarm might have woken him up.

“Areum,” he says with a husky morning voice, “can we talk?”

She looks over at his pouting lips and disheveled hair. Once more his eyes are stormy though they only have very small storms. Even after just waking up, the first thought he has is to talk to her about their problems. It’s thoughtful, really, but it gives Areum no solace from the guilt that has begun to hold her sleepless for hours at a time.

“It’s been longer than a week now,” he says. “Can we?”

“Honestly, it’s fine, Sehun.” She shrugs and quickly gets off the bed.

“Then why have you been acting so distant?”

Areum pretends like she doesn’t hear him as she heads over to the bathroom to get dressed. At this point Sehun must know that something’s up. She never had a problem with taking off her clothes in front of him, but since he came back, she prefers to do it without him watching. Chanyeol no longer leaves marks on her, but it’s still uncomfortable to have Sehun see her.

While Areum’s inside the bathroom brushing her hair, her eyes fall onto the counter where a familiar ring—her wedding ring—is. She nearly drops her brush at the sight of it. The fact that it’s on the counter instead of under the curtains where she left it means that Sehun was doing some cleaning and found it—most likely amongst other things too. Maybe he even found Chanyeol’s extra shirts that she stashed under their bed in an old bag.

She quickly finishes brushing her hair and teeth so she can head out of the house and go to “Seulgi’s.” In the past few weeks, “going to Seulgi’s” meant that she was really going to see Chanyeol and drive around with him.

“Areum.” Sehun must have used the spare bathroom in the hallway because he’s already dressed too. “We need to talk. Stop ignoring me.”

“There’s nothing to talk about.”

Sehun grabs her wrist to turn her around. “Oh really?” His voice is softer, but when it comes to him, a softer voice means that he’s angry. “I found your wedding ring under the curtains. I thought you dropped it.” He holds up her hand to reveal that her ring finger is still bare. “I put it on the counter, but you’re still not wearing it.”

Areum averts her eyes from his. “I don’t need to,” she mumbles. “It’s just a ring.”

“It’s just a ring?” Sehun exclaims. When his voice raises, it usually never means that he’s angry. In fact, it means the opposite; he’s hurt. “How could you say that?”

“Sehun,” Areum says his name like it’s a thorn on her tongue. “Why are you being so insecure? It’s literally just a ring. If you’re so perturbed by its absence on my finger, imagine how I felt when you weren’t around.” She shakes off his hand. “Now, I’m busy, so I’m going.”

When Areum leaves their house, she shivers despite the warm air. The look of absolute hurt on his face. His stormy eyes. His silence. Those are all things that will haunt her forever.

- - - - -

Breakfast with Sehun is more awkward than when Areum was 13 and her mother started talking to her about reproduction and being safe. (And to be clear, that was insanely, absurdly awkward.)

“Did you have a good rest?” he asks as he pours himself a glass of orange juice.

“Yeah,” she says while keeping her eyes on her phone. She never reads the news because she doesn’t need to feel any worse, but she bites her tongue and reads it anyway to have an excuse not to look at him. “Did you?”

“I’ve slept better.”

Areum nods and takes another bite of her toast. “Did you hear about the government shutdown?”

Sehun shakes his head. Unlike her, he wasn’t born in America and he probably couldn’t care less about American problems. It’s not like Areum cares too much about the government’s problems either since the entire thing had long became a joke to her, but if it makes conversation go, then she’s willing to say something about it.

“There was a question someone on Reddit asked,” Areum tries again. “What is the most random slash bizarre thing someone has asked you?”

“Did you hear about the government shutdown?”

Areum nearly chokes on her toast. She stops talking at all soon thereafter. Sehun’s gaze is heavy, and she can feel it on her skin so she stops looking in his general direction too.

- - - - -

“Lil mama she gonna work out. When she do the Bowflex then we have more .” Chanyeol places his hand on Areum’s thigh and shoots her a cheesy grin. “Sweat, drippin’, now I wanna kick it.”

Areum eyes him as he sings the words to the softly playing on the car stereo. She never listens to music while being driven by Jay since she prefers to use that time as introspection, but Chanyeol insisted, and she should have known better.

“Your momma wouldn’t be too proud. Girl, we in public. Don’t be too loud.”

“You are so unbelievable.” Areum grabs Chanyeol’s phone to lower the volume until it’s so quiet that they can only feel the beats. “You can’t keep coming over to my house anymore.”

“You don’t mind, though.” Chanyeol hums happily as he taps his fingers on her thighs. “If you really cared about your husband not finding out, then you would haven’t invited me over. And you wouldn’t have opened your legs so quickly.” He throws her another cheesy expression that Areum wishes she could wipe off. “I’m tired of doing it in cars. I get dizzy, and it’s not the good kind.”

“There’s a good kind of dizzy?” Areum starts to ponder what he means, but she quickly shakes her head. No, she won’t be distracted by him. “Doesn’t matter. We need to figure something out.”

“I know. How about you get a divorce so you can come over any time?”

“Chanyeol, no—”