joohyun wakes up with the sun in her eyes. she looks over and sees she’s all alone on the bed; seungwan’s side left cold. mornings has been like this lately and seungwan’s been awfully distant.

joohyun knows what’s going on and she can only sigh at the thought.

she gets up and walks over to the kitchen where she hears seungwan pattering around. 

she leans against the wall and observes seungwan with her guard down; she’s yet to notice joohyun’s presence. she’s in a loose, oversized shirt and it slips past her slender shoulders; the sun softly kissing the exposed skin. joohyun catches sight of an ill-concealed bruise on seungwan’s shoulder blade. the bright purple-red mark mocks joohyun. it’s too fresh, too recent, too new.

joohyun walks up to the younger girl and wraps her arms around her waist. she presses the side of her face against her back and feels the girl tense up momentarily.

joohyun lets the silence sit, neither of them greeting each other a sweet good morning like before. seungwan continues cutting up the vegetables in a rhythm that joohyun finds oddly comforting.

“aren’t you tired?”

seungwan stops cutting and joohyun’s fingers are drawing mindless circles against her stomach. she hasn’t done that in while. 

“we just woke up, why would i be tired?”

seungwan sounds and feels so different it’s scary. joohyun barely knows her anymore.

joohyun shakes her head. “aren’t you tired of us?”

she knows the other girl is seungwan’s colleague. joohyun knows the younger girl isn’t working overtime hours in her office as often as she says. 

joohyun clenches her fist against seungwan’s skin at the thought of her in another woman’s bed, at the thought of someone else’s name falling out of in pleasure.

“of me.”

seungwan turns around and caresses joohyun’s cheeks.

“hey, hey. don’t say that.”

joohyun can’t remember when was the last time seungwan held her like this. how depressing. joohyun’s certain her eyes are glistening now. she bites her trembling lip and tries her hardest not to fall apart.

“i’d never get tired of you, love.”

love. seungwan hasn’t called her that in so long, it sounds foreign now. she wonders if someone else is enjoying the privilege of being seungwan’s love. 

“i’m giving you two weeks unnie.” sooyoung said with a tone of finality in her voice. “if you don’t confront her about it by then, i’m kicking her myself.”

joohyun holds seungwan's gaze and wonders if things would be better if she never found out.

she looks for a hint of the old seungwan, of her seungwan, only to break eye contact because seungwan looks too much like a stranger nowadays. her eyes don’t hold the same sparkle and it’s been forever since a genuine smile graced her lips.

joohyun presses her face against the younger’s chest and sees their calendar. it was their anniversary yesterday and seungwan’s yet to realize she’s forgotten it. 

“i’ll always love you hyun.”

joohyun’s got two days ‘til sooyoung’s deadline.

she figures seungwan can lie to her ‘til then.