The marriage was arranged, but neither party was very enraged by it. They both knew that it was going to happen, and one didn’t seem to care where the other did. Eunha stared at herself one last time in the mirror before changing out of her wedding dress. Her partner was very pretty, and they didn’t seem to care too much about her hobbies and activities. Sometimes she wondered if her partner was even capable of feeling love.

She liked to go outside, a bubbly individual who loved going places with her friends, maybe a bar, a house party, or even just the amusement park, and stayed at home whenever else she could to play her mobile games. When their house was finally done being constructed and every furniture was placed according to her mother’s tastes besides the bedroom which was actually her own choice, she was surprised that the first night did not happen.

Was she not attractive? She consoled herself that the other was just too unfamiliar with her to try anything, but her partner didn’t seem to have come to sleep in the same bed with her either.

When she asked where they had slept last night, the other only responded enough words to understand that they had been in the guest bedroom.

“I don’t bite.”

“I understand.”

But they still continued to sleep in the guest bedroom. Eunha had hoped that they could at least be good friends if the other wasn’t interested in falling in love with her over time, but her silence that didn’t feel hostile and the presence that wasn’t overbearing in the slightest, made it hard to keep a conversation going whether good or bad.

One time, she went out late at night with her friends, SinB said a new bar had opened up and that she should release some stress with the girls. Of course, Yewon and Yuna cheered her up lots, but at the end of the night she was very drunk and SinB had to call her a ride. Of course, her option was to call the person Eunha was wedded to before calling or trusting a taxi.

She couldn’t quite remember it when she was picked up, but she knew they had a soft voice. They were very careful in placing her in the passenger seat, buckling her in before heading home. On the way back, the drive was so smoother that she had fallen asleep before they made it all the way back. In the morning she had woke up alone in the master bedroom again.

What happened? She asked the moment she ran into the other in the kitchen, they had already prepared hangover soup.

“Just take the medicine and drink the soup carefully. It’s hot.”

Before she headed out of the house. Eunha knew that they worked a job that started at 7 in the morning to 9 at night, but the time she woke up was a few hours closer to noon. Did she stay behind to make sure that the soup would be warm for her when she woke? They could have just left it in the microwave and a note to tell her to warm it herself. She really wanted to know what the other thought, about their marriage, their lifestyle, them.

By the time that Eunha decided to learn more about her partner, they were already gone for a business trip.

“I’ll be gone for a month.”

“Oh. Have a safe trip.”

Well, it wouldn’t be any different. She’d keep having fun the way she wanted to, watching movies late at night, not waking up early in the morning, hanging out with her friends whenever she wanted to. It wasn’t like she didn’t have a job as well, but her mother seemed to take care of everything for her even when she protested that she was living too indulgent of a life. But she was her mother’s princess. That’s right, she was her mother’s princess. This was probably why she was so interested in her partner. They were married because their fathers promised to marry their next generation together, but that was already after her siblings had already been born. Being the last one to be born, the first after that promise, she was destined to the other’s second daughter.

Sojung was her name, but she went by Sowon everywhere else. Just like she was Eunbi, but Eunha everywhere else. Whenever Eunha had the chance to observe her, she was just quietly working. Always tapping away at her laptop, filling in forms or spreadsheets, emails and arranging conferences. Even if her job ended at 9pm, she never seemed to stop working. She did properly sleep on time though and woke up early to get out of the house at 7am. In fact, Eunha was certain that Sowon didn’t need to leave the house for her job anyways, there wasn’t a time that the company demanded of her to stay and leave at, her work wasn’t paid by time. She was a manager higher up in the committee that discussed the future of the companies at times.

That lifestyle would kill Eunha with boredom and hatred. The spreadsheets were enough to make her eyes spin just from peeking into Sowon’s office they had in their home. Unable to work for her own father’s company, Eunha did play with stocks which she had a sense for from playing numerous games that had similar practices in it to make in game currency available.

“Don’t you have enough money to not need to work anymore?”

She just stared at Eunha patiently, her tablet with the news or her meeting notes open in her hands that one off time that Eunha was awake before she left.

“I mean, aren’t you stressed at all from that much work?”

She looked down from meeting Eunha’s eyes and didn’t seem able to respond.

“Do you have fun at work?”

To this, she did shake her head no.

“Then why do you keep doing it?”

“If she doesn’t bother you then you can just do whatever you want to.”

Eunha frowned and downed another shot, the burn making her wince at the strength of the alcohol.

“Why do you even keep bothering to talk to her?”

Eunha hummed, her eyebrows drawn together in frustration.

“I guess I just find it annoying that a person can be such a robot?”

“Are you sure it’s not because you’re interested in them?”

That night, she denied SinB’s suggestion, but it did pester her mind for many more hours at night as she waited for sleep to come. In the morning, she found Sowon had finally come home from her month-long business trip and was already making hangover soup for her again.

“Wait how’d you know I drank last night?”

There didn’t seem to be a reply, but Eunha swore that there was a slight jump in the other’s shoulders. There was no way that she could be cooking a hangover soup without knowing that Eunha had gone out for drinks the day before. It was marked on the calendar that she had re the first flight this morning.

“Did you come into the master bedroom?”

“I’m sorry.”

Surprised at the sudden apology, Eunha raised her eyebrows in confusion.

“Why are you apologizing?”

“Um… the shoes in the entryway was a mess and the living room was a little out of order, so I got worried.”

“About?”

Sowon seemed to wring her hands and stare at the floor.

“If you were okay.”

“….what for?”

“Okay, maybe I have a bit of OCD and accidentally thought that the house was broken into.”

Eunha looked around and winced. She wasn’t the most clean person, but the rest of the living room was really a mess, likely from her stumbling through when she was drunk and knocking things over.

“Hey, putting it as ‘a little out of order’ is putting it lightly. I’m sorry, I must have messed the place up when I was drunk.”

“It’s okay.”

But Sowon had entered the master bedroom to check whether Eunha was okay, already knowing that it was the place to find the shorter whenever she was home. Perhaps she smelled of alcohol, but Eunha still wondered why Sowon cared so much to check for her first instead of calling the police.

“How’d you know I was at home?”

“Your shoes were all there, unless you bought new ones, then you were definitely home.”

Realizing that it was kind of weird to know how many shoes that her wife had, Sowon immediately apologized again.

“I’m sorry! I just…remembered from seeing them in the shelves everyday when I leave for work.”

That was true, Eunha was always home and never slept out at a friend’s house, foregoing sleepovers every single time. Putting that all aside, Sowon basically put it out there that she cared for Eunha. But what kind of care?

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ey where was I? preparing for this obviously haha! part one while the date for me is still the day before Eunha's bday even though it already is Eunha day on the other side of the world, then part two tomorrow! I did want to continue writing today, but I'm running out of time!