2nd August 2016

"Baek!" 

"Jazz?" he mumbled against his pillow. 

"Baek!"

Jasmine's husband groaned and slowly propped himself on his elbows. His tank top sleeve slightly falling off his shoulder and he scratched his head, his hair becoming messier and pointing at every direction. The room was still dark and he took a glance at the clock on his bed side table. He groaned and rubbed his eyes to check the time.  

It was 6.45 on a Saturday morning. 

He love his wife and everything but he will never understand why must she start shouting so early in the morning. 

As if on cue, his wife calls him again and he closed his eyes and groaned. Why on earth was she screaming like a banshee he will never understand. 

Okay. Maybe not a banshee but when you're half asleep everything seems amplified tenfold. 

He pushed the covers and shivered slightly when his legs were exposed to the cold atmosphere. He slipped into his bedroom slippers, dragging his feet to the door that was opened ajar. He yawned and stretched a little as he walked out of their bedroom. 

"Jazzy?" he croaked and he cleared his throat again and called his wife's name again. 

"In the study, jagiya!" she called out and again he winced at that. To think from all the shouting, he would be wide awake by now but not for Baekhyun. What more on a weekend. 

"Stop shouting." he mumbled sleepily and walked into the study. 

And boy, what he saw next made him fully awake.

The study was filled with papers and folders. He knew his wife's line of work is extensive being a biochemistry graduate and majored in genetics but to the extent of bringing her whole office back home... This is way too out of hand. 

The study or Baekhyun calls it as the 'Cube' was literally what the name suggests. He wondered how in the world did his wife bring in all these things on her own. They usually come home around the same time and he wondered how in the world did he miss this. 

Even Baekhyun who was in accounts and finance don't bring back that amount of papers back home. He could probably make a Namsan tower paper mache with the amount of paper. He was beginning to wonder why does her company not put it in computers. 

"Jagi?" he called out, poking his head through papers and well more papers. 

"Here!" 

"Err.." Baekhyun scanned around, peeking through papers and colourful folders and boxes. "Where?" 

In the far right hand corner, he sees a hand waving at him and he chuckled. "Here, Baek." she said. She was pretty chirpy at this ungodly hour and he smiled. At least she is doing something she is absolutely passionate about. 

He manuvered his way through boxes and papers, trying hard not to knock any of them down in the process as well. When he finally found his way through, he found his wife with her laptop and stack of papers by her feet. Jasmine looked up and gave a smile at her sleepy head of a husband. 

"Did I wake you up?" 

"Well..."

"I did, huh."

"Yeah. What are you doing up so early? It's a Saturday." 

"I... Kinda didn't sleep." she confessed.

"But we went to bed after watching Borne Ultimatum together." 

"You went to sleep but I had to stay up and do some work for my supervisor."

Baekhyun frowned at her. If he could, he would talk to her supervisor and not put so much pressure on her. Then again, they are working adults and there is no way he could do that and Jasmine would forbid it. 

"When is this due?" Baekhyun knows that Jasmine is a real hardworker and he knows that she does her work way, way in advance. Ever since she was in high school, she would be done with her work even though it is not due in three weeks. 

"Erm... two months from now." she said looking at the calender on the wall. 

His nearly choked on his own spit and his eyes were opened so wide that it could've popped out of his sockets. 

"What?"

"Darling, you need to stop overworking yourself." Baekhyun shaking his head. He is somewhat proud that his wife has the discipline and the tenacity to do work but he is worried that she would burn herself out and of course, the fear of cancer. 

"Darling," she said, stifling a yawn. "I am fine. I needed to get it done soon anyway." 

"But, it's 2 months and it's a Saturday." 

Jasmine sighed and started typing on her keyboard and pressed the 'Enter' key before she looked up at her husband again. Her husband was leaning against the wall and she pursed her lips. 

"I have a feeling that you completing your report 2 months in advance isn't the main reason that you woke me up?" 

"Not exactly. Darling, why don't you sit down for a while." 

Baekhyun hated when his wife goes serious on him and she uses that tone. He complied anyway and crouched down in that little confined space. 

"Remember last weekend when I told you about this genetics article that Suho and I were working on?" 

Baekhyun thought for a moment before nodding his head. He remembered that Suho and her were working on that since before their wedding and somewhere end of last year. He remembered the sleepless and cranky nights he had to deal with Suho and Jasmine in the living room as they tried to write a good article.

"It would be amazing if we could get a scholarship!"

"And a year in England! We might get to see the Queen." Suho said and Jasmine shook her head. "What? I would want to have tea with the Queen and model in front of the Buckingham palace!" 

"Yeah, what about it?" 

Jasmine took a deep breath and gave the laptop to her husband. "Look at the email." Baekhyun gave a look at his wife and took the laptop from her. 

Dear Miss Hwang,

On behalf of the Department of Genetics of Cambridge University, I would want to congratulate you on winning the best writing award for your article "Gene Therapy: The Way of the 21st Century." I am pleased to offer you a place in our Masters programme in Genetics. We are also pleased to offer you a full scholarship and internship in a leading pharmaceutical company in London. 

Baekhyun stared at it in disbelief and his eyes moved from the laptop screen to the woman who had her hair in a loose braid and her lips in a wide grin. 

He reread the whole thing one more time and looked at his wife in shock. 

"Am I dreaming?"

"No, darling." 

"I think I am dreaming. Someone pinch me." Jasmine pinched him on his arm and he yelped. "I was just kidding!" But his pout changed into a grin when he saw how lovely and radiant his wife was looking. 

"But wow, Cambridge University! That's in England!" 

"I know! It's so surreal!" 

Baekhyun gave his wife a light peck on the lips, ignoring his morning breath and what not and smiled at her. "I am so proud of you. Do your parents know yet? Should I call my parents too? We should throw a party and everything!" 

Jasmine laughed and kissed his cheeks. "Darling, that is really sweet of you but I have to start packing and everything." 

"But darling, you are going to leave next year." 

Jasmine shook her head, her smile faltered a little. "No, Baek. If I do accept the offer, I will be leaving on the 14th of September." 

He looked at the calendar and saw that it was the 2nd of August. 

"W-what? That's next month!" 

"Baek, I didn't know either but it will be an amazing opportunity for Suho and I." 

Baekhyun sighed and shook his head. "Such wrong timing for you to go! We just got married! Can't you defer?" 

"I can't, Baek. If I don't accept it, they will pass it to someone else." 

"Then, don't accept it."

Jasmine swore she heard wrongly but the hard look Baekhyun gave her knew he was far from joking. "What?" 

"You heard me, Jasmine Byun. Just tell them you can't accept this offer." 

"It's Cambridge!' 

"I am your husband!" 

"That is not even a valid excuse, Byun Baekhyun! Are you even listening to yourself?" 

"Yes and I don't think you should go off to the UK for God knows how long just to study. You are a married woman and you are leaving your husband behind!" 

Something in Jasmine snapped at how selfish he could be. "Oh, I am sorry. Do you want me to wait on you hand and foot? Do you want me to quit my job and fulfill my wifely duties to you?" 

"Yes! Because that is how a woman should act." Baekhyun shouted before he could stop himself and Jasmine stared at him in disbelief. 

The tension in their little study room thicken and when Baekhyun realized what he said, his eyes soften and a remorse expression replaced his flushed and aggressive nature. 

"Jazzy boo, I didn't-"

She grabbed the laptop away from him and she stared at him defiantly. "Save it. I do not want to hear anymore. I thought you would be overjoyed by this news but you know what? I guess not. I thought you as my husband would understand how important this scholarship is to me." 

"Baby, I-"

Jasmine got up and clutched her laptop tight to her chest and stared coldly at him. "Just shut up, Baek. I am done with this." She walked over him and out of the study and Baekhyun winced when the bedroom door slammed shut and the lock was turned. 

---

"Darling?" 

"Leave." 

Baekhyun rested his head on the wooden door of his bedroom and sighed. "I am sorry." 

"Don't you understand Korean? I said leave." 

"It was just a slip of the tongue, jagiya. I didn't mean to say it."

"Really?" she said, her voice taunted him. "I would have never thought you could be so selfish and so demeaning. Do you expect me to behave like those gisaengs* and wait hand and foot on you? Are you serious? Did I marry someone who is so selfish?" 

"I didn't mean-"

"Well, think before you say anything Baekhyun because that is how I interpret those words." 

Silence ensued and Baekhyun sighed. Jasmine was really mad at him and yes, he always had the knack of saying stupid things and this time, he really screwed up. 

"I am sorry, Jasmine. I... I didn't mean to say what I said. I was just..." Baekhyun closed his eyes. "I am just scared because you are going to be on your own for a whole year in a foreign land and I won't be there with you to take care of you if anything happens."

"I have Suho and I can take care of myself." 

"Jagi, you and I both know that you are not superwoman and you are accident prone." Baekhyun joke. Jasmine broke into a smile but she quickly covered up and still refused to open the door. 

"We just got married and I don't know how am I going to go through this one whole year without you." 

"Baek, I am sure I can come back for Christmas and there is Skype."

"But... I will be derpive of your presence."

Jasmine snorted. "You mean ."

"You said it not me, you dirty minded cow." he paused when he heard her giggle slightly. "I am sorry, darling. I shouldn't have said what I said. I hope you can forgive me." 

Baekhyun heard her sigh and he heard the lock click from the inside and he moved away from the door. She looked at her husband who was sitting cross legged and had a brown paper bag and mug of green tea in a tray laid next to him. It didn't take a genius that her husband went to the bakery to buy her favourite blueberry muffin. 

He gave her a puppy dog look and she broke into a smile, melting her heart at how childish her husband could be. 

She took the mug and brought it to her lips, contemplating in whether to forgive her silly husband. 

"You are going to clean and cook for the rest of the week." 

"What?"

"That's your punishment." Jasmine said poking his cheek. "You're going to cook and do the household chores for the whole week." 

"One week? That's not so bad." 

"Until I leave then." 

"ONE MONTH!!??? THAT'S SLAVERY!" 

"Don't you dare talk about slavery when you told me about wifely duties and what not." 

Baekhyun clamped his mouth shut and resigned from his failing argument. "Okay then. Only because I love you, my genius of a wife." 

"I love you too, my handsome silly husband." And gave a long lingering kiss. "So, what is this celebration you were talking about?" 

-----

A/N: *Gisaeng or Kisaeng is the korean term for female entertainers or es who basically entertain Lords or kings. If you watch Book of Gu, you might come across this term. :) 

Hello darling readers! I hope you enjoyed this chapter and Baekhyun's unreasonableness. University has been slightly bareable but you know, still hell. My health has been deteriorating and have been having fainting spells every now and then. It's quite annoying really to be all sick and weak all the time. =.=

Anyway, I am alright now (coming down with the flu but I am okay :D I will update this as soon as I can but till then, upvote, subscribe and leave comments! xx