[CONTENTID1]001[/CONTENTID1]

[CONTENTID2]Expired Bonds[/CONTENTID2]

[CONTENTID3]

 The pin-drop silence gripped him. Under the golden chandelier, the two of them sat. Forks and knives met expensive ceramic plates with clanks, glasses clicked, the laughter from the tables around them drew a dark thick line around the silence of this table he was sitting at, with the person he used to love. He reached out, resting his hand on the table, unfolding his fingers, asking wordlessly if she wanted to hold his hand as much as he wanted to hold hers. 

 Was it only him? Only him who stared into her eyes and still noticed the traces of the future he had planned all along? How in the world was he to erase her from his tomorrow's? And how did she do it so easily? 

 The food grew cold, the distance between them grew longer. Sehun experienced a bitter pang in his chest when he watched her pale, cruel smile. She looked as beautiful as the day she left, the chapped lips and the untrimmed eyebrows, appearing nothing as fancy as the restaurant they were sitting inside. But she won't touch his hand. For some reason, the table grew in size, taking the two of them further from each other, to the point where even if she reached out to take his hand, she would be able to touch it. 

 "Why now?" He asked, "The dream I was having was quite nice until you barged in."

 Her lips tugged upwards, "Let me see you wake up if you hate me so much."

 Sehun disliked that in the back of his head, he knew it was a dream. Did it not mean that he was somewhere in the middle of sleeping and not sleeping? In his daze, why was it that his brain conjured up the picture of a Misun who was living comfortably with his chapter deleted from her life? Yet, this was the one place he found her in. She knew he wouldn't be able to strike her off  his life. Everyday he lived, he felt he owed it to her in some way. 

 "I will one day, I will wake up," he murmured to himself.

 "Are you really happy with Jennie?" 

 "Of course," replied Sehun, almost too defensively, too quickly. It gave everything away and she smiled, picking the truth up in his flustered gaze. "Of course!"  He found himself screaming. Her gaze traveled upwards as he stood up, slamming his hands on the table. The cutlery bounced, trembling against each other. But nothing wiped off the know-it-all smirk of her face. "Go away! I don't want to see your face!" Sehun's voice quivered, his heart sank because that was not the truth. Yet, in the peak of his impatience, he picked up the nearest object and aimed it at her, using the invisible strength dug up by the frustration of only seeing her and never being able to touch her. 

 The wine glass did not touch her, they never did. Sehun wished the fire of his anger would turn her to ashes. The candle stand was flung at her, yet she did not flinch. Sehun felt the sense seep out of his brain. The thunder from the day she left surged into his heart from the depths of his stomach. He broke everything, anything he could get his hands on, wishing to break that smile from her pale face, wishing he was breaking her instead. 

 When he brought her his blanket after braving the cold winters of his life, Sehun was not expecting her to burn down his house because she didn't need him anymore. The air was suddenly rented by the sound of breaking glass. He felt his heart being smashed, stepped on over and over again, and as if he was a fragile piece of glass, he felt his body ground to the finest piece of dust under the calmness in her eyes, the calmness that haunts and makes him ask himself, was I the only one who loved? 

 He woke up to the white of the ceiling, realizing his tight sweaty grip on the blanket. The sticky dampness on his neck left its imprint on the pillow. Sehun couldn't grasp the reason why he was shaking. The morning shone on him and he willed himself to let the sun of his misery sink inside his heart for a new sun of hope. Sehun's blue morning deepened at the sound of the soft snores right beside his ear. One second, Sehun felt wrapped in a lava cocoon, almost throwing the blanket off his body, another second, the hair on his skin rose and crippled him with an unforgiving cold shiver. Sehun wordlessly sighed, drawing Jennie's body towards him with the sweetness he could manage while he climbed down the height of his anxiety.

 She stirred to consciousness but Sehun patted her back, pressing his cheek to her hair line before kissing her forehead. "Sleep," he whispered against her skin. Jennie hummed, falling along to the rhythm of his now calm heart. A sturdy arm s around his torso while she pressed her body more into his, leaving no airspace, so tight that he wondered whether it would make him numb. Sehun couldn't help but return the gesture, digging his nose into her hair to breathe in the scent of summer vacations and the beach. He was immediately reminded of their little trip to the sea last week and how happy they had been, the three of them, in their own little world of sand castles and sea shells.

 Are you really happy with Jennie?

 He was...there wasn't a second in which she gave him a chance to second-guess her love for him. And of course, he loved her too. Perhaps this love wasn't as sparkling as the one he shared with Misun but this love was reassuring enough. He touched Jennie and the feeling of safety surged through him. As they lied next to each other, using all the strength left in their bodies after the night before to hold each other, Sehun finally felt the new day on his bones. He could face today, he could face tomorrow, and a million days afterwards only if he woke up in these warm arms.

 Jennie's internal alarm clock made her wake even before Sehun had taken her into his arms. It was a gesture she had dearly missed whenever she woke up alone on work days to an empty bed back in her own apartment. When his heart stilled to a rhythm, Jennie wondered with closed eyes if he was falling back to sleep. To escape the sunlight, she pressed her face into the crook of his neck. Unable to press her urge down, she slightly raised her body to kiss the line of his jaw. He only hummed before resuming the light pats on her back.

 "Sehun? Are you awake?"

 "Hmm. Good morning, love." The tired lips of her smiled and her body grew hotter. "Did you sleep well?"

 She giggled in a sleepy manner, "I could keep sleeping though."

 Sehun's hand came up to pat her cheek, "Nothing's stopping you. I'll pat you back to sleep. Do you want anything to eat?"

 "No," she replied, "I just want to keep lying here with you all day."

 His fingers melted into a soft caress against the skin of her waist. "Your wish is my command," and the whisper felt too good against her ears to physically go back to a peaceful slumber. Jennie pushed her way into his pillow and looked him straight in the eyes. 

 "It is, huh?" she blushed at his reassuring nod. "Not what you said last night."

 Sehun laughed at this one. His heart jarred so pleasantly against her palm and the warmth in the core of her body became uncontrollably hot. "I like hearing you beg for certain things," he said, the peaceful quietness of his voice accompanied by the rawness of the morning in his throat helped accelerate the beat of her heart. She barely stopped herself from rubbing her thighs together. "But you'll never have to beg me to be by your side," he continued. "I'm all yours."

 "Thank you...for saying that."

 "Hmm. Now sleep, I'll be here when you wake up--"

The sound of a familiar ringtone climbed into their ears from the living room. It was Sehun's phone. His phone ringing early in the morning meant only one thing. Jennie couldn't express the frustration she felt when Sehun jumped out of the bed, forgetting the promise he was just about to make. Lying in the absence of her boyfriend's presence, Jennie sighed before willing herself to get up too. Her body ached and the pain was delicious, it reminded her of last night and she hoped the crunching of her bones and the bluish marks on her skin would stay with her until the next time. 

 She grabbed the first thing she could find, the shirt he was wearing last night lying on the floor of his living room. He was answering his phone, already in his gray trousers. "No darling, I'm on my way to you right now," he lied into the phone. "What proof do you need? What? You want our car to honk?" Panic filled Sehun's eyes. Jennie laughed silently as he was getting caught by his own daughter who was no more than five. 

 Jennie gestured to Sehun to pass the phone over to her. Attempting the closest she could to the horn of Sehun's car, she repeated it thrice. Dalrae took a few seconds to buy the sound. "Okay," she said, "I'm waiting for you. I miss you, Papa."

 "We miss you too, Dalrae," Jennie smiled into the phone before returning it to Sehun. The man used the remaining time to converse with his daughter. Sehun left Dalrae at his mother's place last night promising her he will be back in two hours, as he had assumed their date would end within that time. But, welp, it took until the morning. Of course, Dalrae was unhappy about it.

 Jennie made him his breakfast which he basically did not touch, putting his clothes on in haste. It was as if he suddenly remembered he had a daughter and instantly forgot Jennie took a day off only so that they could spend the day together. 

 "I'll be back once I drop her off at school," he told her, only momentarily letting go of the phone and covering the speaker before going back to keeping his daughter busy. So that she didn't miss him too much. So that he could hear all about what she did with grandma while they were apart. So that he could promise her ice cream to make it up to her after school. Jennie heard the door click shut. The pin-drop silence gripped her.   

 Her hollow eyes were dabbed in makeup, layers and layers of it to cover the way her eyes seemed so emotionally drained. Her hands shook as she piled the papers in front of her in order, sitting behind the desk with the camera right in front of her. Misun felt ber heart in yet her job required her to be calm as she read the news of her own daughter missing.

 "Ready, Ms. Jung?"

 She nodded with a straight face. "Just in," her voice shook today. "The four year old granddaughter of Mayor Oh Sungjoon is reported to be missing. It is assumed she was abducted while waiting for her father to pick her up from school. Reports suggest that the safety of Seoul is shattered after the news and that the act wasn't caught by any of the cameras installed at the school premises."

 She looked down at the white page, lips trembling slightly. "We will now hear from our news correspondent, who is waiting for the audience right in front of the Mayor's residence. Can you hear me, Byull?"

 She was holding her breath. Misun was dying inside to know what Byul had in store. "Y-Yes, Misun," the audio wasn't as clear.

 "Byul, have you been able to gather any new reports on the abduction of Oh Dalrae?"

 "Ah, yes Misun." Byul read from a little paper in her hand. She was wrapped in a huge jacket, giving away how cold it already was. Misun's heart accelerated. Her daughter was out there too and probably not being kept snug and warm. Her face began to crumble bit by bit. "...We are trying to reach the head of the Seoul police department, regarding the suspicious abduction process. As far as we were informed, there were no traces of either Dalrae or her kidnapper in the CCTV footages of her kindergarten school--"

 "No trace?" Misun interrupted, leaning forward with the unmistakable worry in her eyes. Her fingers shook uncontrollably. "Have you spoken with her father? Where was he when the abduction took place? Where was he--"

 "Misun, what's wrong?"

 She was pulled out of her trance. When she glanced at the camera crew, she realized how out of breath she was. "Sorry," it was almost inaudible, almost not on her face. She wasn't sorry, shouldn't be either, her own daughter was m