Of course they went on a private jet. Jinli shook her head at the useless extravagance of it all. If they had been a couple in love, she would have appreciated the privacy, but instead, she begged for company. The attendees were all smiling at them and tittering as if they expected them to show affection.

            Daehyun bowed to them and she slid into the seat. He reached into his bag and took out headphones. She watched him plug in and tilt his head against the headrest. He closed his eyes and Jinli bit her lip. Useless. He was useless. She stared out the window instead, trying to keep her vision from blurring with an onslaught of unshed tears. He wasn’t worth it.

            It was a short two hour flight and it was the most uncomfortable two hours of her life. The attendants continued to ask them what they wanted and she knew they were exchanging weird looks from their lack of skinship.

            In an attempt to lighten the mood, Jinli touched Daehyun’s hand and he turned to her, forced to break from his reverie. “Yeah?”

            Jinli considered calling him ‘oppa’ but decided against it. That would probably alienate him quicker. “What do you want to do when we get there?”

            His eyes were blank as he looked at her stupidly. There was a flash of irritation but she held her ground. The two of them were married and if he didn’t want to acknowledge it, she would have to force him to. “I don’t know. Have you never been there? What do you think people do at a resort?”

            “I mean, some people scuba dive, others tan. Or others just stay in and waste their money. I don’t think we would be doing the last option, so I figured it would be nice to know what you had planned.” She kept her voice as light as possible. People were watching.

            Daehyun leaned in closer to her and held his arm out as if hugging her. “Don’t you ever get tired of all this faking?” he hissed at her. She made sure to look him in the eye when she replied.

            “Yeah but if you won’t do it, who will?”

            He jerked away angrily and smoothed his collar. “I think scuba diving sounds great, dear.” Even the endearment sounded fake from him. Jinli twitched her muscles upward in an imitation of a happy expression and placed her head on his arm. Daehyun tensed and she pinched him surreptitiously.

            There was an audible sigh and he held out his headphones to share with her. His newly wed wife blinked at him in surprise. Small gestures were fine, but this seemed almost too intimate. She took it from him and placed it in her ear only to jerk it away. He had switched the audio to heavy panting and . Jinli glared at him in disgust as she saw him switch back to a jazz track.

            Daehyun gave her a lopsided grin and shrugged a shoulder. “Didn’t think it suited your taste,” he told her. She inched away from him and vowed to herself that she was never going to let him mess with her again.

            He stared at her when she turned away and his lip curled in mild disgust. He found a sick pleasure in toying with her, in making her hate him. It was a cat mouse game except he has no inclination of trapping her. He didn’t want her and she better not want him, in any use of the word.

            There was something saddening, though, about the way she moved from him, as if he had hurt her. Daehyun’s eyes narrowed as he thought about the hurt he had gone through before. He remembered feeling abandoned, feeling lost, and having to fight fire with his own fire, only to find that his was long extinguished before he could use it as a weapon.

            It’s a different case here, he told himself firmly. He didn’t expect anything from her, and he owed her nothing. He knew that it was a low trick that he played on her, but he was tired of seeing Jinli always so docile. He liked it better when she was angry at him.

            He liked it when he irritates her because that’s better than hurting her. Hurting her and causing her pain would make him a bad person. Firing her up, well that’s a different story. It wasn’t his fault she couldn’t control her temper, is it? He just wanted her to show more emotion, to be more human. But instead, all he gets is the publicity princess, the girl so well honed by media that Daehyun can’t stand the sight of her smile because it was so goddamn plastic. He didn’t care enough to get a real smile out of her, but anger was real.

            His phone beeped and he looked down. There was a message from Jongup. He knew that Youngjae or someone else had set him up for this. Daehyun resisted the urge to delete the message, knowing that Youngjae himself would send one later so he opened it.

            Hyung, are you treating noona alright? I hope you enjoy your week and don’t think about work. We have it under control. Get to know your wife! Hwaiting ^-^ - Jongup

            He grit his teeth. Of course it had to be Jongup, Jongup who could soften his scolds, who could hide a lecture in between caring words. Now he couldn’t even ignore her without feeling bad. He shot back a thank you as a reply and decided that for the rest of the trip, he was going to ignore everything they sent. He didn’t need a moral compass when he wasn’t doing anything wrong.

            Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Jinli had fallen asleep. There was only thirty minutes left to the plane ride and her head was pasted against the window. He contemplated waking her up, but that would require talking to her. He replaced his earphones and decided to let himself have some deserved peace and quiet.

I'd really appreciate it if you guys could comment and tell me how the story's going please~