That night, Kris brought Suhyun and Fany to his apartment. To Suhyun's surprise, it was the same apartment that they shared before. With one glance, she could tell that nothing much was moved or changed since she left except maybe evidence of them being together. Using one hand she tried to lift her luggage into the apartment while she held onto Fany tightly, in her other arm. 

Kris found her struggling. "Let me help you with that." He reached out but only to be stopped by her. 

"I'm already troubling you enough by staying here. I can do it on my own. Besides I've been doing things on my own all this while. I can handle it." She shrugged and continued struggling with the heavy bag, making sure she didn't drop the baby. 

He sighed. "Why wouldn't you just let me help you just this once? You'd rather put your baby at risk than have me help you?" 

She opened to say something but she held her words back. He was right, she should put her baby's safety first. "J-just this once." She stuttered softly. "And I'm going to pay you once I earn some money." She said while following Kris into the apartment. 

"As for the rental, I'm not charging you cash. As you probably already know, I work so hard, I don't have a lack of it. Rather, you can pay me the rent by taking care of the house and cooking for me as and when needed. But of course that would mean you can use the kitchen as and when you need, for your baking and whatever else." He knew she needed the money and he wanted to help her. But he also knew that she wouldn't accept it so he had to come up with another form of payment. To his surprise, she agreed to his requirements. 

After settling her baby down, she finally could lie down to rest. She shared the bed with the baby while Kris slept on the sofa. She processed everything in her mind over again. She couldn't understand why Kris even bothered to help her or why he was even interested and she wouldn't have accepted his help if she had a choice. Just being in this house brought back all sorts of memories from the past. The memories she had wanted to forget so badly. 

Her life used to revolve around Kris. Everything she did, she did it with him in mind. It was hard to cope when she left him, and it was even harder when she found out she was pregnant with Fany. She wanted so badly to run back to him but she couldn't. He didn't even look for her when she left. Then it hit her. Could he have already realized Fany was his daughter and so he's acting this way? It can't be. It's not obvious at all. The thought of it just scared her. She had to work hard and find a new apartment before he finds out. 

The next few days, she went to work and came back to prepare dinner for Kris as if everything was normal. She kept Fany in the room most of the time with the door open. Kris would come home and look at Fany from outside the room but wouldn't say anything or ask to carry her. Suhyun thought of it as a good thing as he probably really didn't know. 

One night, Suhyun woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't go back to sleep. It was something that happened once and awhile when she had a nightmare. A cup of warm milk would solve the problem. She hesitated going out of the room as Kris was asleep on the sofa. But after tossing and turning for the longest time, she had to get a cup of warm milk. 

She opened the door slowly and crept out. Unexpectedly, the light in the study was still on and Kris was sitting at his desk, head bent over and focusing on some papers. He was still the same. She watched him for a moment as she thought about the past. 

"When did you wake up?" Kris' voice croaked a little as he finally noticed her presence outside his study. "Did you have a bad dream again?" 

"Oh?" Was all she could manage to say before nodding slightly. 

"Use the stove to heat up the milk, don't use the microwave." He said monotonously before returning his attention to his papers. She was surprised that he could remember how she would have bad dreams after all this time. 

She finished up her warm milk and he was still at his desk when she walked past the study again. She tried not to look in but she turned when he let out a loud sigh. She knew that sigh meant he was frustrated and probably quite upset. Trying her best to just keep walking, she failed and stopped herself outside the study once again. "I-is there something wrong?" She asked meekly. 

Kris' head shot up from his hands, which were covering his face. Exhaustion covered his face. They stared at each other for a few minutes, not one uttering a word. 

"W-would you like a cup of milk?" She awkwardly broke the silence. To her surprise, he nodded. 

A while later, she brought back a cup of milk. To which, he thanked her for before taking a large gulp. Somehow, deep inside, she felt worried. 

As she was about to leave, Kris cleared his throat loudly. "It's about the wedding. Everything is going to fall apart." Then he sighed heavily again. 

"Wedding? Didn't your wife leave?" She felt strange that he was telling her about his wedding. Her, the ex girlfriend. 

He took another gulp of his milk. "We haven't signed the marriage registry so legally I'm not married." She cocked her head slightly as if to say that there wasn't any problem then. He sighed again. "That's the problem there. I needed to get married to get this promotion. Now that I'm not actually, my bosses would think I've lied and who knows, I may get fired." 

She couldn't fully understand how he was feeling but she was able to get his frustrations. "Let me know if there's anything I can do to help." She couldn't find other words to comfort him other than offering her support. He didn't look up or respond to her but he looked like he was deep in his thoughts. She attempted to leave again but was stopped when he shot up from his seat like a jack in the box.

"I don't know if it'll work but it's worth a shot." Then he frowned. "But I'll need your help and it may cause you some inconvenience." 

She shrugged nonchalantly. "Let's hear it. What do you need help with?"

"Come to Saturday's dinner with me… as my wife…"  

Posted on 11th January 2014