He didn’t touch her on the first night – fine. It made sense after she’d gone off at him about how she didn’t want to be married to him and how could they have slept together. Maybe he didn’t want to sleep with her anymore? Maybe she’d turned him off?

Areum watched him playing some stupid game on his phone that didn’t need data. It was amazing how a President of a Multi-National could spend hours on a game. She drummed her fingers restlessly on the table, then tried to concentrate on reading some of her old research papers. The old her had been some sort of big shot. The old her was impressive, sophisticated, accomplished – worthy of standing beside a President – but the new Areum, was not new and improved. She felt primitive and basic.

“What?”

She blinked, coming out of her daze, “Mmm?”

“You’ve been glaring at me for a while now.” He put the phone to one side.

Was she that obvious? She tossed the report aside, “I have a question…” she took a deep breath, “You and the old me –  I mean the old Areum, obviously had this amazing marriage and from what I can see she’s everything that I’m not so…I guess I’m asking do you really want to remain married to the new Areum? Won’t you miss her?”

Jungkook looked pleased with the question, “It’s what I wanted to say yesterday. You can change the way you dress, maybe you can even forget you were an accomplished researcher who headed up a lab, but you can’t change the fundamentals. The way you laugh or what you laugh at…” he approached the kitchen counter where she sat, “Or who you’re attracted to, or why you trust me even though you can’t remember me.” He was close now. He had placed his hand flat on the counter, if he wanted, their fingers could touch, “Whether you realise it or not, you want to be where I am – right?”

Areum wanted to say no, just because she hated sounding dependent on him but he didn’t wait for an answer, “I’m having a beer.” He rounded the counter and pulled out a beer from the fridge. 

“I think the reason you don’t want to stay and give this a try is because some part of your sub-conscious, remembers that we were having issues around the marriage contract.”

“I guess that is a possibility.” She