Yun Hee fluttered her eyes open and squinted them right after that because of the blinding light that was coming through the window facing the bed. Irritation bubbled up inside her as she realized that Sehun had forgotten to close the curtains for another day. She opened her eyes wide and looked at the clock placed on the bedside table only to let out a sigh. She had planned to sleep in that day, after going through a hectic week; but apperantly, her dearest husband could not bear this happiness of hers and decided to ruin it for her. She turned around with a mind that was plotting her revenge and was about to wake him up, but stopped in the midway when she saw the serene look on his face as he was deeply asleep.

His eyebrows were resting in their respective places, his pouty lips were letting out small puffs of air, making soft sounds and his head was resting on his right palm. The sight in front of Yun Hee made her feel a weird kind of peace and she felt her fingers moving on their own accord, reaching out to caress his eyebrows. Soon, her fingers trailed down to his pointy nose and further down. Suddenly she regained her senses and stopped her fingers before they could reach his lips. 

Yun Hee shook her head and sat up on the bed, removed the blanket from her body and covered Sehun properly with it. She tied her hair in a bun and went to the washroom. She washed up and changed her outfit into a tracksuit before getting out of the house for a walk around the neighborhood.

Sehun woke up to an empty bed which made him slightly confused, since he clearly remembered Yun Hee telling him that she was going to stay home the whole day. He looked at the clock and saw that he was quite late for his work, so he brushed away those blurry thoughts and made his way towards the closet to pick out his outfit.

When he was ready for work, he made his way downstairs and went towards the dining table, hoping to see Yun Hee sitting there but found her chair empty. He saw butler Jun coming from the direction of the kitchen to let him know that breakfast had been served and immediately turning to leave. He was about to ask him about the whereabouts of his wife, but stopped when he heard the front door opening and went to the living room to see Yun Hee entering while wiping her sweats and talking to someone on the phone.

"You are so dramatic, Yeong. He is not gonna do that, at least not to you. But if you still can't help feeling insecure about your figure, then you could join those yoga classes for pregnant people. It will help your body as well as help in you in clearing out your mind.-------"

So it was Yun Yeong on the phone.

"Alright, I will let mom know. Give love to my baby, Ara and say hello to your husband. Ask your pumpkin to kick your belly as a form of goodbye. Take care."

Sehun saw her hanging up the phone and closing the door behind her before turning her attention to him.

"Hey, you are awake. I went out for a walk since I woke up early", she gave him a stink eye, "All thanks to someone who forgot to pull the curtains."

Sehun bit the inside of his lips as he remembered not pulling the curtains close in the previous night. He let out a sheepish smile to show that he was guilty but stopped doing that when he saw that Yun Hee was not even sparing him a look and was busy arranging the plates on the table. So he just sighed and towards her, held her shoulders with both of his hands and then turned her around, so that she could face him.

"Sorry, Yun Hee. No one knows it better than me how much you were wanting to sleep in the whole day, given that how tired you are. I am sorry."

Yun Hee looked at him and saw that he really feeling guilty when the matter was not even that serious. So she removed her hands from his hold and held them out to fix his collar, while looking at him with soft eyes.

"It's okay. I am not feeling that tired. Besides, I have already made plans for the rest of the day, so sleeping in is not gonna work anyways. Don't feel sorry, alright? Lets have breakfast. I hope you know that you are getting late." She smiled at him before moving to take out a chair for her and sitting down on it. Sehun sat on her left and returned her smile before serving food in both of their plates.

"So what are your plans for the day? Am I included in any of them?", he said while buttering his bread.

"Nope, mister, you are not in any of them. The day is gonna be for the Lee women, me, Yeong and mom, just like the old days."

"So, this is what you two were talking about on the phone?"

"I must say that you are quite interested in gossip. Well, we were kind of talking about that, but we were mostly discussing her insecurities over her figure. She is getting desperate over that."

"Isn't it normal for pregnant women to gain weight?"

"Well, my genius sister certainly doesn't understand that. So today she is gonna join yoga classes and to boost her confidence, me and mom are gonna accompany her. Then we will go to a salon and have a massage, then have lunch before ending our outing."

"Woah, quite a plan, I see. Well then, enjoy your day", Sehun said while pushing his chair to get up. "I am leaving now."

He placed a short kiss on Yun Hee's forehead before turning to make his way towards the door that butler Jun was holding open for him. "Tell mom and Yun Yeong that I said hi." And then he was gone.

It took Yun Hee exacltly 4 minutes and 23 seconds to get out of her daze that was caused by a sudden show of affection from her husband.

When Yun Hee came home, it was already 5 in the afternoon. She headed towards her bedroom and took a long shower to freshen up. When she came out of the bathroom, she looked at the clock and realized that Sehun would be home anytime. So she decided to kill her time by reading a book while waiting for Sehun to return. 

It was two hours later when Yun Hee realized that Sehun was really late. She closed her book and went to her dresser, took out her phone from her purse that she had forgotten to take out after returning home earlier. She turned the homescreen of the phone on and and saw that there were two missed calls and one unread text message waiting for her, all from Sehun. She opened the text and read it. He sent it to her mentioning that he would be late that night. She sighed and was about to call him to ask his whereabouts but stopped when she felt a slight hesitation. She didn't want to disturb him in case he were busy. She pondered over her thoughts for a while before deciding to not call him for another half an hour.

She went back to her bed and picked up the book that she was reading earlier, before getting out of her room and making her way to her mini library to keep that in its rightful place. After keeping the book where it used to be, she made her way out of the room. While walking, she was planning to go to the kitchen to bring some snacks for herself when she stopped right in front of the study room. She scrunched up her eyebrows as she saw that the door to the study room was open, when it is usually kept close unless one of them were to use the room. So she felt curious upon seeing that and opened the door wider to see if anyone was there inside the room. She the light that was hanging above the table and looked around the room. There was nobody. 

"The maids must have opened it to clean it up. I am so silly", she said before shaking her head, feeling ridiculed and was about turn around when her eyes fell upon a generous sized cartoon box, placed besides the shelves in a corner of the room, lying on the floor without any care. She tried to rake her memories in search of some familiarity of that box but found none. So she ended up concluding that it must have been something of Sehun's and decided to put it somewhere better. She went towards it and saw that the box was open. She picked it up nonetheless and her eyes fell down on the contents of the box, despite of trying her best for not doing it. There were handmade friendship bands, colorful paper cranes, pencils, notebooks and many other things. But what stood out most from all of them were the photographs, countless of them. She would not have bothered to spare them a second glance, knowing that they might have been someone's personal stuff, if all the photographs were not portraying the faces of two very familiar smiling faces, with a few additionals in some of them.

She picked up one of the photographs and saw two people looking at each other with the brightest of smiles, as if they were the only ones existing at that time. One of them was Sehun, her husband; while the other one was someone whom she had met face to face a very few times but knew her face very well because she had seen her countless times on TV, internet and billboards in the streets. Kang Jieun.

Sehun came home expecting to see his wife welcoming her, but got no sight of hers. He went upstairs but found her absent even in their bedroom. He freshened up before making his way downstairs, his voice could be heard all over their house, calling out for his wife. The maids informed him that Yun Hee was in the house but did not anything else about her whereabouts. He thought of searching for her in her library and was making his way towards that room when he stopped midway after seeing the door of the study open and a light shining inside the room. He poked his head inside the room and finally found his wife there, sitting on the floor in one of the coners of the room, hunched over something. He sighed in relief and opened his mouth to call her, but closed it again when he saw what she was holding in her hands. That pink card he had gotten from Jieun in preliminary.

Sehun soundlessly entered his study, not fazed by the new furnishing his parents had spent their money on. He focused on her, and the memories she held in her hand. Sehun watched her eyes glow and her tender fingers trace his face with a little smile on her face.She moved him, swayed his heart, to the point he could feel it touch his ribs and make him sit down beside her. She didn't notice. Yunhee was that engrossed with his pictures.

He crawled next to her, his mouth close to her ear. "Boo," he said in a whisper.

Yunhee gasped, hitting his face with the cardboard pink heart in her hand out of defense. Sehun's hand immediately flew to his nose, which he could bet was red by now due to the hard blow. Yunhee seemed like a karate pro who would jump into hitting people like this out of instinct. "Ouch," Sehun muttered, rubbing his nose.

Yunhee's wide eyes calmed down gradually. "Oh, it's you," she said. "Well, I can't say you didn't deserve that." Sehun watched how her hands skilfully pushed the cardboard box aside, her eyes distracting him from looking at it. She was afraid he would scold her perhaps, that was why she was hiding it behind her back. Yunhee was smart.

"What for?" Sehun asked, touching her hand and stopping her. Yunhee's eyes shot up. Sehun smirked at the response.

"For not pulling the curtains last night," she swatted his hand away, making a face at him.

Sehun sat back against the couch, "You're still holding me up for that? I remember you saying that I was forgiven. Were you lying?" he gasped dramatically before chuckling. "What are you hiding behind your back? Can I see them too?" He reached for the box, making her gulp and grow flustered. Sehun smiled at her face, "Are these pictures of your husband, young lady? Ah, look at him. He's so handsome."

Yunhee was dumbfounded as she had thought that he would be fuming at her if he caught her touching his things. They were friends alright but not to the point that she could predict him, or to the point of sneaking into his office and looking into his personal things. Sehun was supposed to be judging her and saying mean things to her inside his head for the sake of living together peacefully. But here he was, laughing at his childhood memories which were supposed to bring him pain.

Because they were memories of Jieun.

Sehun picked up a picture, eyeing it with a smile in his eyes. "She didn't like the sea much. I really didn't know people who disliked the sea so I found her intriguing. She had reasons, which made me feel scared of the sea too. There was magic in her words," she watched him look up at her, as if he was speaking to her. Yun Hee didn't give him a reaction. In his fingers, he held the picture of a girl and a boy; the girl hiding her face in the boy's arms while he posed at the camera. He seemed happy, very, unlike now.

Her gaze fell on the picture, she traced it with her eyes. Sehun's lanky arms were around his girlfriend, seemingly protecting her from every danger out there in the world because he loved her so much. She could only imagine the pain in his chest when she chose that very world instead of his safe arms. "I bet if she came to me and started to make me understand why she broke up with me, I would be absolutely convinced. I would be hurt but I wouldn't blame her even if all of this is her fault. That's how good she can be with words," Sehun said, tracing the picture with his thumb.

"This was in a field trip," his face immediately lit up in a glow when he selected another picture from the cardboard box. "We were eight maybe," he chuckled. "Kids in a sunflower field. Jongin got lost that day, I remember."

"Jongin got lost?" Yunhee's eyes widened.

Sehun laughed, "He was just sleeping among the flowers and we were looking everywhere for him."

"Oh, that sounds like Jongin. Once a derp, always a derp." Sehun turned to look at his wife and saw that she was laughing softly at the mention of his best friend, but he shrugged that thought away.

"Do you see Jieun?" He pointed at the little girl smiling brightly among the flowers while Sehun was crouching low, probably to get one for her. Too bad they couldn't just pluck the sunflower. "It was as if the sunflowers were facing her, like she was the sun."

Yunhee couldn't help but look up at his face. He intentionally avoided her gaze, gulping down and letting her know that he was fine. He picked up another picture that made him snicker almost immediately at the remembrance of the situation.

"Just look at this one." Yun Hee looked at the picture and saw a very young Jieun laughing her heart out while holding her stomach and a young Sehun lying on the streets with a cycle over him and crying. Yun Hee laughed when she realized what must have happened at that time.

Sehun looked at her in disbelief and said, "Are you also laughing at my plight? Oh my god! I was about to say something like how it was so cruel of Jieun to be laughing after seeing a boy falling down when he attempted to learn cycling for the first time. I can't believe it. You girls are so mean. Damn you and damn that stupid Jongin for clicking this photo. If only Jieun hadn't insisted on keeping this, then I would have it thrown away long ago."

Yun Hee got over her laughing fit and wiped the happy tears forming on her eyes before saying, "Sorry, couldn't help it. You were looking so cute, yet at the same time, hilarious. Never thought I would get to see the almighty Sehun crying." Then she started laughing again.

When she was done laughing, she looked up to see Sehun's face looking at her intently, his eyes bearing a fond look. Though the look was nothing compared to the looks he was showing in the photographs, Yun Hee still felt a surge of warmth spreading through her body. She shyly glanced at him and said, "You guys went way back, didn't you? You literally spent all those years knowing that you guys were meant to be together, forever. I kind of understand the extent of your feelings for her."

Then she looked away, not wanting to acknowledge the heavy feeling that was growing inside her. 

Sehun held out his hand and held Yun Hee's chin before turning her face towards him. He saw her looking down and sighed. 

"Yun Hee, look at me."

And she did, her curious brown orbs looking at him attentively.

"I cannot deny the fact that what we had was real. I also cannot deny that we had the best time together. And I certainly cannot deny that I still love her. I have known her for almost all my life, I have loved her for almost as long as that. She was, is and will always remain a huge part of my life and will always occupy a significant chunk of my heart. But the last few days have made me realize that I can live without her, perfectly well and happy, something I didn't know I had the ability to do before. I feel at peace, I feel calm, I feel fresh. I am starting to enjoy things and seeing them in a new light. And do you know who made all of these possible?"

Yun Hee could feel her heartbeat quickening, yet her brain was not functioning enough to pay attention to that, her whole being was anticipating Sehun's next words.

"It's you."

And she felt her heart bursting in an unknown wave of happiness,

"Yun Hee, Jieun has left a big wound in my heart and left it open, bleeding. You are the one who is patching it up, slowly but surely. I can see the world as it is, not as something that has Jieun. You have opened my eyes. Now I want to move forward to see the world with you. And in order to do that, I have already left my previous destination behind."

"How?"

"Why do you think I came home late today? Why do you think the box of photographs appeared in this room suddenly out of nowhere? I was out there doing something to take a step for our life together and I was the one who sent this box here through my secratary from where they used to be."

"What do you mean?"A breathless whisper came out of Yun Hee.

"I have put the penthouse, where I used to live together with Jieun, for sale."

thank you for reading til this *blows kisses*

leave you thoughts behind!