It had been 4 days since the day he had met Jieun. She was officially the owner of the penthouse they used to refer to as home, or at least Sehun did.

In the last few months, Sehun had never thought of her as nothing more than a passing past. He didn’t need to, after all, he was loved by the best woman in the world, Yun Hee. But when he saw her that day in his office, he couldn’t help his thoughts wavering. With the question of why she would buy that penthouse of all other in Gangnam, when she herself was supposed to be starting a new life with her fiancé, Jieun had made her place in his mind again. That too, in a way, he couldn’t even tell his wife about, at least not after what had happened the time when he had mulled over Jieun’s engagement.

Sehun was confused, conflicted and scared. He thought he had his life sorted. After his girlfriend of 8 years turned fiancé left him for unknown reasons, leaving no means of contacting her, he had picked up the broken pieces of his life bit by bit and glued them accordingly. He had learnt to be carefree and happy again, had learnt to feel for someone else, someone more deserving. He was complete when that someone returned his feelings with the same passion, possibly more. He had moved on from Jieun... or so he thought.

Because if he really had, then the penthouse should have been just like any other part of past and Jieun should be just an old friend who was interested in buying it. And he knew very well that none of those were true.

Then after all this time, where did he stand? Sehun didn’t dare to ask that question to himself because he knew that if he did, then he would have to admit that he had no answer to that. And admitting it would be like admitting that the last few months were for nothing, the months that were supposed to be the best time of his life.

So Sehun decided to do something he thought would be the best thing to do – ignoring the matter altogether, not knowing that in the future, the outburst of his suppressed question would end up hurting the one person for whom he was doing this and thus result in his own destruction.

He was brought out of his reverie when he heard a small yapping noise nearby and was about to get up to look for the pup when he heard someone laughing and flinched in shock. He turned around to find Yun Hee standing right behind himself with Gummy in her arms. No wonder the bark sounded so close.

Sehun looked at his wife who was having quite a hard time with keeping herself in order because of the way she was laughing. Her head was rolling around and her right hand was clutching her stomach tightly, her left hand was struggling to keep the jumpy pup in place and letting it loose ultimately. She laughed even harder when he gave her a sour look for laughing at him.

“I can’t be blamed”, Yun Hee said breathlessly while trying to stop laughing. “You should have seen yourself when you jumped in fear.”

She was still chuckling when she took a seat on the couch, right beside him. Putting a bowl of popcorn on the coffee table, she looked at him with a smirk before sticking out her tongue at him. Then she shifted her attention to the movie playing on the TV, smiling when Gummy jumped on her lap and made himself comfortable, her fingers starting to comb through his fur out of reflex.

Sehun couldn’t help following her every single movement with his eyes. Her eyes were sparkling because of the light coming from the TV, her teeth were biting her lower lip, her feet were tapping on the floor continuously. If anyone were to see her at that time, they would think that she was completely immersed in the movie. But Sehun knew that the situation was something else. Her eyes were sparkling with fear, her teeth were biting her lips because of the eeriness around them and her feet were tapping on the floor due to anxiousness. He didn’t even need dog ears to detect the unusual pattern of her breathing.

He smiled when he sensed her scooting closer to him slowly, leaving no gaps between them ultimately . Looking sideways, he saw her clutching Gummy close to herself, the puppy deeply asleep even with the creepy sounds of the horror movie playing on the TV. His smile widened when he felt her hiding her face in his shoulder. Sehun guessed that a ghost might have appeared in the screen, not knowing what was going on in the movie because of not paying heed to it from the very start. How could he know when his whole attention was focused on the girl who was now whimpering against the bare skin of his neck?

“Who told you to choose a horror movie when they creep you out so much?”, Sehun asked looking at the miserable state of his wife.

Yun Hee timidly looked up at his face, her chin still grazing his shoulder and her left hand clutching his t-shirt tightly. “Because I wanted to test something.”

“What?”

“If your presence would make me feel any better than usual while watching them?”

“And what do you think?”, Sehun asked.

“I don’t find any difference”, Yun Hee said, her face sporting a smirk, getting rid of the fear.

Sehun looked at her with narrowed eyes, his face faking disbelief before it wore a mischievous smile. Seeing him leaning towards her with that expression, Yun Hee inched away from him and looked at his face warily.

“What if I do something that could lessen your fear?”, Sehun whispered in her ear, smirking when he felt her shivering, “Something not-so-decent.” Then he gave her earlobe a soft bite before on it, feeling Yun Hee shuddering under his touch and letting out a moan

Sehun knew that he was successful when he saw Yun Hee getting up from the couch with Gummy in her arms and went to place the sleeping dog in its crate before coming back and getting on his lap. Straddling him, she wrapped her arms casually around his neck before diving in for a kiss.

He lost his sanity when Yun Hee pulled away from the kiss and started on his neck, compelling him to get up from the couch with Yun Hee in his arms and her legs wrapped around his waist. Sehun carried her upstairs without breaking their kiss, having detours from time to time when his desires to touch her got the better of him. The movie playing downstairs was totally forgotten by the two people lost in each other.

Thus that night became their another step towards their end. After all, unanswered questions have always had the power to destroy even the strongest bases of faith.

“Hee, I think Baek is cheating on me.”

Yun Hee was busy getting rid of the mask and gloves when she heard Min Ah murmuring behind her.

“Min, what are you talking about?”

“You heard what I said.”

Yun Hee approached her friend who seemed disturbed and placed her hand on her shoulder. “Min, it’s Baekhyun that we are talking about. He cannot even think about anyone else except you.”

Then she held her chin lightly and tilted her face upwards to face her properly. “Tell me. What made you think something like that?”

Min Ah looked at her with doubt so, Yun Hee took her hands in her own and squeezed them lightly, assuring her to go on. Feeling slightly comforted, Min Ah took a deep breath before starting to tell Yun Hee about the cause of her suspicion.

“You know, Hee, yesterday while searching for an old stuff of mine, I found a blue velvet ring box deeply hidden in his side of the cupboard. I excitedly opened it, thinking of it as a surprise gift for me only to find it empty. It wasn’t for me, Hee.” Min Ah paused before looking at Yun Hee with anticipation, giving her a chance to say something.

“So what? I don’t find anything weird in it. It’s just an empty ring box.”

Min Ah grasped her hands desperately before saying, “You don’t understand, Hee. Baek has been behaving weirdly for the past few days. He is glued to his phone the whole day, looks anxious whenever I touch it and keeps talking to a woman the whole day.”

“How can you be so sure that he keeps talking to a woman? I mean, he could be busy with…”

“His call list is filled with calls from Jaera.” Min Ah shouted in frustration. “Does that name ring a bell?”

Everything seemed to make sense to Yun Hee at that time and she felt like laughing at that masochist of her friend who was so fond of assuming nonsense. It’s true that the name Jaera, Baekhyun’s ex has always been a triggering point for her best friend, but Yun Hee knew the reason of Baekhyun contacting his ex very well. After all, she was the one who had approached Jaera to help him plan the event for which he was working day and night. In fact, even the mystery of the empty ring box also seemed childish to her then. How could that box contain something when Baekhyun was practically roaming around with the ring in his wallet?

Damn Baekhyun who couldn’t even plan a proposal properly! Yun Hee felt like laughing and crying at the same time because of her best friend, laugh because her friend was too stupid and cry because again, her friend was too stupid. But she knew better than to let out anything about the real story.

Trying really hard to contain her feelings, Yun Hee looked at her friend who had started crying by then and hugged her tightly, before letting out her own mixed emotions after hiding her face in her hair, her face stuggling to stop the smile threatning to show.

“Min, I think you should wait a little before doubting on Baekhyun. He is Baekhyun, you know. The guy who cried when you refused to be his grilfriend, the guy who gets insomniac without you beside him, the guy who cannot go even a minute without holding your hand when you two are in the same room. He loves you, Min and has been doing so for the last 7 years. Give him some credit, darling.” 

Then Yun Hee pulled back from the hug and reached out to wipe the tears from Min Ah’s face. "About Jaera, He probably had some emergency for her and was going to tell you later. So don't fret over it, hmm? They were done a decade ago. There is nothing about her for you to be afraid of. They are just friends."

Yun Hee stopped when Min Ah looked at her hopeful eyes, an indication of her believing her words. Then she continued, “And stop crying. You genuinely look ugly when you cry and you know that I am not joking about that.” She laughed when Min Ah lightly kicked her leg before laughing out loudly. “And stop checking his phone, will you? This is one hell of a rude thing.”

“I know that. I am not the type to check my boyfriend’s phone”, Min Ah said while trying to defend herself. “It’s just that he was driving me crazy with his weird attitude, so I couldn’t help it. I promise not do that ever again.”

Yun Hee smiled in satisfaction before standing up to get ready for her next shift while nudging Min Ah to do the same as well. She had her back turned to Min Ah when she heard her saying something.

“I know that you are not much into makeup, Hee but you should at least know how to use your concealer properly”, Min Ah said randomly as she approached Yun Hee.

“Why this sudden concern?” Yun Hee asked with one of her eyebrows raised as she took off her scrub, “That too when I am not even wearing makeup?”

“This has nothing to do with you wearing makeup, honey but it sure has things to do with you hiding the fact that you had quite a passionate night”, Min Ah smirked.

Gasping in shock, Yun Hee rushed to the washroom and looked at the mirror to check if the marks on her neck were visible or not. She had half a mind to scold her husband right at the moment for being so obsessed with her neck. Yun Hee was looking at the mirror desperately, trying to find traces of those purple bruises when she heard Min Ah laughing loudly behind her.

“I was just teasing you, Hee”, Min Ah said while trying to catch her breath from laughing too hard. “They cannot be seen from even from a little distance. I only noticed faint traces when you had hugged me.”

Yun Hee glared at her best friend for making fun of her like that but still looked at the mirror one last time to make sure that there was nothing to worry about. Min Ah snickered behind her, but she paid no attention to her as she went back to what she was doing earlier, arranging her stuff in the locker.

“You know, Hee? Judging from the pace you two are going, you might get knocked up anytime soon. I mean you two are not being exactly careful”, Min Ah said as she took out her stethoscope from her locker.

“Well, that’s the plan”, Yun Hee said, her face hidden from Min Ah by the door of locker.

Hearing her best friend, Min Ah slammed her locker shut and went to stand behind her like a predator. “What do you mean by that’s the plan? Don’t tell me you two are…”

“Don’t you think it’s the perfect time?”, Yun Hee said as she also closed her locker. “I mean, we will be finishing our internship in about 7 months.” Then she went towards the row of the benches in the room and sat down on one of the, with Min Ah following closely. “If I were to get pregnant around this time, then I can finish it before my delivery, probably by the of my second trimester starts. Then I can easily start my residency after my giving birth, or if things get tough, then I can easily take a break for a year.”

“Hee, I get the schedule. What I meant to say is that are you and Sehun ready? You know it very well that your relationship isn’t quite a normal one. You guys started everything a year later.” Min Ah let out a deep breath, making Yun Hee smile. “Stop taking everything so lightly. Are you sure you two are ready to be parents? Are you sure Sehun is ready to be a parent?”

Yun Hee looked at her best friend sitting in front of her, her face marred with worry for her. “Min, calm down. We are doing fine, more than fine actually. Trust me, I know it from my heart. I can see us working out.” Then she took Min Ah’s hand to calm her down. “About being parents, Sehun and I, we have been talking about it for a while and he is the one who is more eager. And you know once I start my residency, a vigorous training of at least 5 years for someone like me who wants to be a surgeon” Yun Hee paused, “I think it’s better if I have my first baby before that.”

“I get that, Hee. Just, don’t bring a child when you are not sure where you stand. It applies to both of you. Don’t give the fragile being a responsibility of binding you two even before it is born. Make sure that you are ready for the long run before bringing a child in this world. Do you get that?”, Min Ah looked at her with stern eyes, making Yun Hee amused towards her worrisome of a friend.

“I get it, mom.” Yun Hee laughed. The mere thought of having a complete family with Sehun made her excited. After all, what could possibly go wrong if they were to go like how they were doing at that time?

“You are really happy, huh?” Min Ah said, looking at her with amusement. “Your face, it is always glowing with glee.”

“Because I am happy. Should there be any reason for that?”, Yun Hee said as jumped up from her seat and went to Min Ah to hold her by her shoulders. “Now, start moving if you don’t want to get late for our group shift.”

She slung an arm over Min Ah’s shoulder as she stood up and urged her to move. Min Ah shook her head as she saw Yun Hee skipping in her steps. She just hoped this happiness of her friend would stay forever.

When they were out of the door, Min Ah suddenly spoke up, this time to remind Yun Hee of a mistake she had probably made already.

“Did you tell Sehun during lunch about working in our house after work?”

Yun Hee looked at her best friend with her eyes bulging out from their sockets as she remembered her mistake. “Oh crap! I totally forgot about it, Min.” Then she was already on her way back to the locker room to get her phone. “Let me just call him. Thanks Min, for reminding me.” Then she was gone.

Min Ah laughed at the silliness of her best friend before walking in her regular pace towards the general ward, knowing that waiting for Yun Hee was going to be futile. Who knew when she would be done after flirting with her husband like there is no tomorrow? She was happy for her friend nonetheless.

Sehun let out a tired sigh as he leaned on his chair after finishing his work for the day. His eyes fell on the clock which said that it was only 7, meaning Yun Hee would not be home.

He reached out for his phone and stood up from his chair before starting to collect his stuff lazily. Knowing that Yun Hee would not be there anytime soon, Sehun didn’t find the urge to hurry for home. His mind went back to the last conversation he had with Yun Hee, who had called to ask him not to pick her up from the hospital.

Sehun knew how hard his wife was working for her internship that was nearing its end, barely at home because of her job and studies. And here he was, losing his hair over thinking about his conflicted feelings in her absence. He felt guilty to his core, but couldn’t do anything about it because nothing was working in his favour. He was afraid, afraid of not getting the answer he was hoping for, not being able to stop himself from making mistakes and hurting the person who was the reason why he was intact till then. He was afraid of Yun Hee, afraid of her finding out about Jieun’s return and afraid of her giving up on everything they had worked so hard to build.

Sehun was about to open the door of his room when he felt the phone in his hand vibrating. Seeing an incoming call from an unknown number, he picked up the call without thinking much while opening the door. He had just closed the door behind him after getting out of the room when he heard the person on the line speaking, the painfully familiar voice made him halt in his step.

“Hi, Sehun.”

“Jieun?” His voice sounded unsure, still not believing the situation. He had gotten a call from Jieun, something for which he would have given his everything even a year ago. His mind travelled back to the days he used to try to call her every single day, sometimes with his own number, sometimes with different ones. He remembered the day he had finally given up on calling her, crying helplessly in the middle of a busy street. People passing him were giving pitiful gazes, but he was too hurt to care about anything else, just focused on letting out that immense pain by crying.

“Yes, it’s me.”

“Why are you calling?”, Sehun asked with a coldness he didn’t think he could ever show towards someone else.

“Don’t be so cold, Sehun. I just wanted to ask if you are free after work.” He felt enraged after hearing her talking as if they were nothing more than old pals.

“And why would want to know that? I thought we were done dealing for the penthouse.” His voice not toning down the coldness.

“Sehun, I just wanted to meet you, like a casual hangout.”

“Well, I am not free, so that’s not happening.” Sehun was about to hang up when he heard Jieun’s last sentence.

“Meet me in the café near our school. I will be waiting.” And he hung up. He was not going there, not in a million year.

“You are quite early for someone who hung up on me for suggesting the meeting.”

Sehun heard Jieun saying this as he approached her. She was sitting on the table they used to occupy always. He looked around the place he hadn’t stepped his feet in for years. So many things had changed, but the café still managed to bring out the good old memories.

Sehun didn’t know what she was trying to do, but if her motive was to make him nostalgic, then she was doing quite a nice job. Buying the penthouse, then calling him to the place where they used to have their school days dates and sitting where they used to sit, she was definitely trying to prove a point.

“Why did you call me here, Jieun?” Sehun said while taking a seat in front of her.

“You didn’t use the nickname.” He saw her eyes flashing something akin to hurt for a moment before it disappeared. “It’s okay. At least you are here." Then she moved her eyes towards the counter. "What would you like order? The usual?”

“Cut the crap, Jieun. I am not here for small chit-chats.” Sehun was getting exasperated at her nonchalance. “Why did you call me?”

“Even your tone towards me has changed”, Jieun said with an amused smile.

Sehun felt his blood boiling in her words. What was she expecting? Some warm greetings?

“People keep changing, Ms. Kang”, Sehun said with a smirk. “It’s not like you haven’t changed too.”

“Do you know why people change, Mr. Oh?” Jieun leaned back in her seat and looked sideways. “They either change because they want to, or change because of their circumstances.” Then she looked at him with a piercing gaze.

“I assume, you belong to the first category”, Sehun said with a mirthless smile.

“That’s where you went wrong, Sehun.” Then she leaned towards him and folded her hands on the table. “Having two different fiancés in a such short span of a year can be quite a circumstance." She lowered her gaze. "Life has changed me.”

He noted the fatigue in her posture, but his anger towards her was too much to keep in himself. “Two fiancés in a year, quite a number, huh?” He taunted her. “Sounds like someone who has commitment issues.”

“After committing to someone for more than a decade, I think I deserve more respect”, Jieun said as-a-matter-of-factly. ‘

“Not after leaving that person without proper explanation.” Sehun spoke up loudly. He felt his nose flaring in anger when he saw her smiling at him casually.

“Being a happily married man, you are not supposed to be this bitter towards your ex, Sehun. It gives off wrong signal, you know? As if you still haven't forgotten her.”

“Don’t talk to me like you know everything”, he hissed out. “Forgiving and forgetting are not same.”

“And you did neither, Sehun.”

“What do you mean?”

It was Jieun’s turn to smirk. “If I tell you everything in the first meeting, then there would be nothing left for the next ones.”

“There isn’t going to be any next time.”

“You sound too confident for someone who came here despite of claiming the opposite.”

Sehun was about to say something when got a text in his phone. He opened it to see that it was from Yun Hee, who was oblivious to everything that was happening. Guilt punched him in his guts again. What was he doing here?

Where are you, Hun? I was waiting for you. Baekhyun had dropped me home an hour ago.

He looked in front of him and saw Jieun sitting with a smug smile and her arms crossed over her chest. He looked down at his phone and typed a quick reply.

Meeting a client for dinner. Might get a little late. Don’t wait for me and get some sleep.

Plain and simple, but a lie. This was anything but right. Feeling miserable because of his own actions, he hastily got up from his seat and looked at Jieun.

“If you don’t have anything important to say, then I am leaving.” Then he was off to the exit, giving her no chance to say anything. He stopped in his steps when he heard Jieun calling out for him.

“When will be our next meeting, Sehun?”

“I have told you. There will be no next time.” He said with his back facing her.

“Are you running away from me?”, he heard her saying from his behind.

Yes, he was. “No. Why should I?” But he spoke otherwise.

“Because you are afraid. Afraid of facing the truth.”

He finally turned around to look into her eyes. “What truth?”

“That I still affect you very much.” Words that kept haunting him for the rest of the night.

Sehun had never felt an urge to prove someone wrong as strong as that night but didn’t do anything. Because somewhere in his mind, he knew that she was right. And that’s where he was defeated.

Yun Hee woke up somewhere in the middle of the night to find Sehun sleeping at the furthest corner of the bed, leaving quite a gap between them. She smiled wearily before scooting closer to him and hugging his back, satisfied that she had closed the distance. She fell asleep peacefully, ignorant of the cracks that had already formed in their relationship, with someone trying to wedge herself in it.