Fei had been considering the option many times, and finally decided that she paid her ex-husband a visit at the prison. Over the course of five days, Fei received three phone calls from her mother-in-law, who technically, didn’t have any kind of legal relation with her anymore. She kept telling Fei to be responsible about her son, but there was nothing that Fei cold do about him. Jia tried to convince Fei that the woman was simply harassing her, and that she could report it to the police about her behavior. Fei believed in a much more passive response, which was to not take the woman seriously, and paid a visit on her ex-husband.

“Maybe I should come with you.” Jia pouted and crossed her legs. She was sitting on Fei’s bed as she watched the other woman dressing up. Fei chuckled.

“I told you, I’ll be fine. I think I should solve this alone.” Fei put up her hair in a neat ponytail.

“Do you… not like me interfering with your matters?”

Fei sat next to Jia and cupped her face.

“No, it’s not that. In fact, I’m really thankful that you care so much.”

“Then why can’t I go with you? I can wait outside. I don’t have to see him; I don’t think I’ll be allowed to anyway.”

Fei smiled. She stood up, ready to make her move. Jia stood up along with her, still hung up on her unanswered question.

“Don’t worry about me too much.” Fei told Jia before she pulled her best friend in a hug. “I’m so glad that I have you. Thank you so much, Jia.”

Fei let go shortly after and then disappeared behind the door.

Jia didn’t like the feeling she was having right now. It felt like a goodbye.

-

Fei walked into the room with her stubborn heart thumping wildly under her chest. There was a long, narrow path into the room and multiple booths arranged in a line on one side of the room. There were dividers between each booth, and each was separated with a glass wall to an adjacent room where the prisoners would sit. Fei sat in an allocated booth for her, guided by a police officer. He reminded her that she had an exact twenty minutes with the prisoner before he left.

A moment later, a prison guard appeared in the other room, bringing along a prisoner with him. Her ex-husband.

He had obviously lost a lot of weight, looking at the much more prominent recess in his cheeks. His skin was pale, and he looked a bit unwell because he kept coughing.

Fei stayed calm and picked up the corded phone; the only mean that enable their verbal communication.

“Fei,” he spoke first.

“Hey, Sungjoon. How are you doing?”

He scoffed, looking bitter. “How do I look like I’m doing?”

Fei immediately brought her face low, a mechanism she had developed whenever she sensed negative emotions from her husband, no, her ex-husband.

“The food is bad, the room is cold. I can barely sleep on the hard surface they called bed.” Sungjoon added.

Fei nodded, slowly losing words to say to him.

“How you doing?” Sungjoon casually asked her.

“I- I’m doing fine.”

“Of course you would, without a guy like me constantly beating you.” He scratched the top of his head, his eyes finally left hers and dwelled somewhere else in the room. “Good for you,” he added, mumbling his words.

Fei nodded to herself. They each stayed silent afterwards, letting the time passed. Both of them were at lost for words.

“Listen, Sungjoon… I… I’m here to tell you something.” Fei braced herself and made sure she had all the words ready in her head.

“Go ahead.”

“I’m here to say goodbye. We’re not going to be together anymore so don’t… Don’t expect to see me here again. I'm… I'm sorry and… Goodbye, Sungjoon." Fei stood up even though she still had ample time to talk with him.

"Fei, wait!" Sungjoon stood up along with her, pressing his palm against the glass that was separating them. Fei looked at his pleading eyes and decided to listen to him for one last time.

“I need you. I know, I was such an idiot for treating you the way I did all these years, but I promise it won’t happen again. Please say you’ll wait for me, please?”

“What if… What if it happens again?”

“It won’t, I promise you. I promise, Fei. Just give me one last chance. One last chance. Please say you’ll wait for me. Don't you remember those days when we were so in love and everything was just perfect? Let's work on that. Let's do that again. Fei, I promise you. I love you."

I promise.

Trust me.

I promise you.

Just give me one last chance.

Fei remembered those words, and yet she couldn’t remember how many times she had heard them before. To be exact, she had lost counts of them.

“Fei, trust me. It’s real this time. Please?”

Fei slowly sat back on her seat. “Really?”

Sungjoon nodded and smiled at her. "It’s real this time. Just wait for me. Please?"

-

2 month later…

Fei started painting again. She still did her regular office work, but she was an official assistant for Jia after her work hours, and did small scale paintings on her own. She couldn't believe she forgot how much she loved painting before. Jia couldn't be happier, now that her partner in crime had returned to her post.

Except during those times when she missed Kyungha so much.

Jia had been working on redecorating her own room since the morning. She wasn’t planning to do much change, except for painting the wall in white, just like all the other parts of the apartment including Fei’s room. Jia’s room was previously painted in pink, and had stayed that way for a long time. Pink was her favorite shade of color, but then she decided to apply the same Scandinavian style of home decorating into her room as well, maintaining the concept from the kitchen to her living room-slash-home office-slash-personal studio. She had lots of vibrant colored furniture and accessories, she thought they all would look great in a white room. Plus, the airy feeling the white walls gave to its tenants compliment the much needed fresh breath of air in her life.

Fei was sitting on her stool, working on a painting when Jia finally decided to take a break from her room painting. She put down a tray of cold drinks on one of her working table. Jia sat on the sofa and fiddled with her phone with hands that were smeared with paint for a moment before she looked up at Fei.

"Fei?"

"Yes?" Fei replied, her focus still directed on her work.

"Do you ever… miss your ex-husband?"

Fei stopped her work and looked over her shoulder with curious eyes. She put down her brush and sat facing towards Jia. A small smile tugging at her lips.

"Of course I do. A lot of times. We had a lot of great memories, but the bitter ones make me want to forget him more than remembering him. Why do you ask?"

"Nah. Just curious that is all." Jia put down her phone on the table and reached for her drink. "You don't regret leaving him for good, do you?"

Fei shook her head gently. "I think it's best for both of us to separate after all. I don't think any of us could recover by being together." Fei paused briefly before she decided to ask, "Do you, Jia? Do you regret breaking up with Kyungha?"

Jia sighed and buried her face in her hands.

"I don't know. I'm so confused. I hated him and yet, it hurts me more everytime I think that way."

Fei took a deep breath and sat next to Jia. She took Jia's hand into hers and squeezed it gently.

"Have you ever talked with him ever since your break-up?"

Jia shook his head. "Neither of us tried to contact each other. But his sister, Sunha contacted me a few days ago. She said that Kyungha had been visiting them on the weekend and spending more time with them ever since that day. She said she missed me and wanted me to come over sometimes. Sunha didn't know that we are not together anymore. I don't know what he is thinking, but I think he hasn't told his family about us yet."

"Maybe the both of you are ready for a second chance. You should have a talk with him. Before it's too late."

Jia searched deeper into Fei's eyes, as if the answer to her doubt lied within those dark orbs. Jia was still debating inside her head if she should follow Fei's advice, but the door bell suddenly rang, bringing her back from being lost in millions of thoughts.

"I'll get it." Jia told Fei and left the sofa.

She opened the door without much thought. Turned out she had an unexpected guest who almost knocked the wind out of her.

"Hey, Jia." Kyungha greeted with a solemn looking smile. He was dressed in a shirt of muted shade of olive. His sleeves were rolled to his elbows and the shirt neatly tucked inside his denim pants. Jia hated the colour of his shirt but he still very looked handsome in it. Jia realized how much she missed that face; she almost wanted to throw herself onto him and hugged him tight.

"Hey." Jia replied. She silently contemplated whether she should let him in, but she took too long and missed her timing that Kyungha thought his visit was unwelcomed.

"I'm sorry that this is so sudden, I should have told you sooner that I'm coming."

"No, it's not that-"

"Five minutes. Just give me five minutes, and then I'll leave."

Jia took a deep breath. "Okay."

"Look, Jia, I… I really hope we don't end this way. I took you for granted, and I did you wrong for so many times. I know apology won't cut it but still… I'm sorry. These past couple of months were so difficult for me. I was so used having you by my side I couldn't imagine moving on without you."

Jia nodded, still breathing calmly. She waited for Kyungha to continue.

"Jia, you've been amazing. Eveytime I look back, I can't believe how you put up with me all these years. You’re always so considerate, so happy, so understanding.” Kyungha briefly looked at Jia’s hands which were smeared with white paint, and chuckled. “You always have paint in your hands, and I love that too. I am hoping that you would give me a second chance to start over, to prove to you that I can be the person who deserves you."

Jia let out a weak, bitter laugh, "Kyungha, I don't know… This is too sudden, I…"

"No, no, it's okay. You don’t have to answer now. You don’t have to answer at all if you want to. Just know that… I love you."

Their eyes locked for a while. It felt as if time had stopped; neither of them moved nor spoke. Kyungha was the first to break the frozen moment as he reached out his hand, gingerly brushing her cheek with his coarse palm. Slowly, he bent his neck and left a chaste kiss on her lips. Jia's eyes were still locked on him as he pulled away and took a step back.

Without looking at his watch, Kyungha announced, with pain in his voice which was almost visible to Jia's eyes, "I think my five minutes is over. Goodbye, Jia."

Kyungha smiled. He took another step backwards before he finally turned around and left. Jia closed the door with a heavy heart, feeling helpless from not knowing what to decide. She looked up and saw Fei walking towards her.

"Fei, I, I don't know!" Jia claimed, tears which she held back since before finally streamed down her face. Fei took Jia's hands in hers.

"Jia, go after him. Give yourself a second chance with him."

"But what if history repeats itself? You don’t give Sungjoon a second chance."

"I've given him hundreds of opportunities throughout our marriage. Even until the end, he's always talking about himself. He promised me a thousand of promises, but he broke each of them and never apologized to me, not even once. Jia, you can’t compare Kyungha with Sungjoon. They are different people."

Jia stared back at Fei through the eyes blurred with tears. Should I?

Fei chuckled as she wiped away Jia's smeared face with her thumbs. "Jia, go! Go now before it gets harder later."

Jia blinked back her tears and suddenly looked determined. She hugged Fei briefly, yet tightly. "Thanks, Fei!"

Jia opened the door and ran down the hallway. Kyungha was nowhere in her sight, he was probably already at the ground floor. The old elevator was taking too long to get back on her floor so Jia decided to run down the stairs. She ran past the main entrance and paused briefly to scan her surroundings. She looked to the left and right but Kyungha wasn't around.

"Calm down, Jia, calm down." Jia told herself and looked around again, this time inspecting each detail she might have missed the first time around. From the distance, Jia finally located those drooped shoulders draped in olive coloured shirt. She ran towards him, as fast as her legs could take her.

"Kyungha!" Jia screamed. "Kyungha, wait!"

Kyungha paused his steps and turned around to make sure he heard right. Someone was calling his name, and she was none other than Jia, who was running towards him.

“Jia?” His eyes widened.

Jia let her tears fell free as she crushed into Kyungha, wrapping her slim arms around him and held him tight.

Don’t go, she tried to say, but her overwhelming emotions didn’t let her.

“Jia…” Kyungha called her gently.

Jia finally looked up, looking into his eyes. “Let’s start over,” she croaked.

Kyungha chuckled, partly too happy to believe that this was happening, another was at her funny, ugly crying face.

“You’re laughing at my face, aren’t you?!” Jia’s wailing suddenly grew louder. She hit his shoulder with her fist because he laughed so loud.

“No, baby, ssh…” Kyungha wiped away her tears with his thumbs as he continued to laugh. “Let’s start over. Let’s start over.” He coaxed her in gentle tone. Kyungha ignored the people passing by who gave them weird looks and once again claimed her lips with his. Meanwhile, Fei watched from above, from the window of the loft apartment with a big smile on her lips.

Some people said, ‘No compromise in love’, while others said,’Compromise makes a relationship works’. Both were true to a certain degree. You didn’t change yourself into someone else or into of lower importance for love, but you could subtracted or added up a few things in order to make love worked. After all, love was a shared feeling between two people. It was almost like a Scandinavian room. The wall was always kept in white, the neutral point amongst millions of other possible hues, and yet all sort of accessories and furnitures of any colors were welcomed to accompany the white setting. The room looked merrier, happier, warmer, with all those colours and yet it retained its originality.  

[Author's Notes] Sobbing because I feel so bleeeh rn. I rushed a lot to finish this story. Wish I did better for the last paragraph but I'm l a z ...  
Thank you to all readers! Your comments are very much appreciated ;A;