[Seoul, South Korea]

Ji-Hyo couldn’t exactly pinpoint when things started going so wrong for them but she did know the exact moment when hit the fan.

She heard Jong-Kook breathe deeply from the other side of the line and she clutched the receiver tightly. She was aware of the anger that was bubbling just beneath the barely calm surface he was projecting. Truth be told, she was angry too. She was just as angry as he was, maybe even more, but she told herself not to blow up. Not again. Not when they have too many things that needed to be discussed.

“Seung-Im-ah­, you can’t expect me to just nod and smile again. It’s happened too many times now for me to ignore,” Jong-Kook said. His tone was level and Ji-Hyo registered the beginnings of his temper seeping in again. He always spoke calmly when he got truly angry, a trait that he shared with her mother; one that had her shrinking in fear whenever they used it on her.

The fear that struck her on habit made her pause for a moment but it was a second that was mistaken for hesitation. Hesitation and guilt that, the person on the other end of the phone call believes, is plausible given the circumstances. Jong-Kook scoffed on the other end of their phone call.

“So, it’s true then? Is that why you can’t tell me your usual excuses again?”

Ji-Hyo heard the tremor in his voice this time. His calm demeanor had slipped. His anger had given way to an emotion that she herself was encroaching on. “Yah…” she said softly, voice trembling, as tears started to pool in her eyes. “I’ve told you since the beginning, Kim Jong-Kook. You can’t believe the rumors about me. I’m your wife. You’re supposed to trust me.”

She wiped away the tears before they could fall. She refused to break down before they could resolve this argument.

Jong-Kook sighed on the other end. “That’s just the thing, Seung-Im-ah… You’re my wife. But every single week I see so many pictures of you, arm in arm with another man, each one different from the last, and I’m miles away and alone with my thoughts,” he said. He sounded so tired. “I don’t know what to believe anymore.”

“Believe in me, you idiot! I’ve never been unfaithful to you!” Ji-Hyo snapped. She couldn’t believe they were back to him questioning her fidelity. “Grow up, oppa. You said you understand my line of work. I went into this thinking I had your full support!”

“Then what am I supposed to think when I get bombarded with article after article of you leaving your co-star’s house early in the morning?” he asked.

Ji-Hyo groaned. Her hand went up to pinch the bridge of her nose in a useless attempt to chase away the headache that assaulted her. That damned article and the pictures was the cause of all this.

“Do you know how Dong-Hoon and Jae-Suk-hyung looked at me when they saw the article?” Jong-Kook continued. “They looked at me with so much pity and I am so tired, Seung-Im-ah. I’m so tired of defending you when you keep getting into these dating scandals and rumors week after ing week,” Jong-Kook paused for moment to let himself calm down before he would start raising his voice again. He couldn’t allow his temper to flare again. It wouldn’t solve anything.

Ji-Hyo let him have a moment to himself but tears prickled at her eyes again and she quickly blinked them away. She reminded herself not to break down. Not yet.

Finally, after a short pause, Jong-Kook continued speaking again. He sounded so dejected. “You tell me to believe you but the entirety of South Korea is saying otherwise. You tell me nothing’s going on between you and your co-star but the pictures say something different.”

“And I am telling you again, oppa. There’s nothing going on between me and Dong-Wook, jinjjaro,” she ran her hand through her hair. “How many times do I have to repeat it?”

“That depends. How many times does it take for it to prick your conscience, Seung-Im-ah?”

Ji-Hyo in a breath to try and calm herself. “Yah… I already told you I’m not guilty of anything. I’ve already told you he offered his house to the entire filming crew so we stayed over. I’ve explained this to you so many times. What exactly do you want to hear, oppa? I even gave you my manager’s testimony, my styling team’s testimony, hell, I even had to beg for the director to release a statement about the entire crew staying over at Dong-Wook’s place. What more do you want from me? What else do you want me to do?”

“Tell the public.”

Ji-Hyo froze.

“W-What?”

“Tell the public you’re married. Tell them you have a family here in LA.”

Ji-Hyo couldn’t formulate a response quick enough for her husband’s liking. She heard him give out a hollow laugh on the phone. “O-Oppa… it’s not that I won’t do it. It’s just that I… y-you know I can’t. I signed a contract—”

“To hell with that contract! Either you tell them or you really have something going on with Lee Dong-Wook!” Jong-Kook yelled through the phone. Ji-Hyo had to move the receiver away from her ear. “Seolma… are you enjoying the recognition that the public is giving to your affair?”

There it was.

Affair.

He believed that she was really having an affair.

Ji-Hyo now realized that it was futile trying to reason with him in his current state. She, herself, was tired of defending her innocence. She felt like a parrot, saying the same things over and over again but none of it had gotten through her husband’s already made-up mind. They’d been having the same argument ever since she decided to enter the entertainment industry in South Korea. She had warned him beforehand about the scandals she might be accused of and he had promised her that he would always believe her over the rumors but look at how that turned out.

She put a hand up to her head and closed her eyes. She counted silently to three before answering her husband. “I don’t know what else to say to convince you I’m not lying,” she said weakly. Her heart felt heavy and every accusation Jong-Kook threw at her was a knife that dug deep. “Please, oppa… I don’t want to end this call without resolving this.”

The call started with so much shouting and heated arguments but they were both spent now. She was tired of trying to explain herself to a man who refused to listen. It’s not that she didn’t understand where he was coming from. They had been trying and failing to maintain their long-distance marriage for some months now. She was in South Korea and he was on the other side of the world, in LA, with their four-year old daughter.

She flew out to South Korea two years ago with the intention of staying for only three months at most. Her father’s company had found itself in a bind and he needed her help