*Chapter 7

“Oh, if only the plane wasn’t delayed, we would have been here from 3 hours ago. This is tiring. Oh my, I’m really getting older.” So Yeon chirps as she walks down the arrival gate. Nara who walks calmly beside her just smile at the older and says, “Yes, you are. At least you got your husband to pick you up.” Bitter. That’s all she feels right now.

“You can go with me, Nara. My driver is already here.” Suho asks her.

“Oh, no, thank you. I’ll just take a cab, it’s okay.” Nara smiles, refuses him politely.

“Eiii, it’s late, come on. Take it as my gratitude, come on I don’t want to hear a no.” he says, then reaches her hand and pulls Nara to his car.

They go separately after bid goodbye to each other. So Yeon goes straight to her husband who already waits for her. Suho and Nara walks to the car and put their belonging in the baggage. The driver helps them to put everything in. Both of them looks tired, fourteen hours on the plane out their energy. When they arrive at Nara's, she asks him to go inside for a cup of tea, but Suho refuses politely. She knows he must be tired and then she bids good bye, she also doesn't forget to say thanks before the car goes out.

The door is unlocked. Jongin is home, she thought. She opens the door and then locked it when she already inside. Jongin is nowhere in the first floor. She pulls her luggage to the stairs and carries it step by step. It is really heavy. She didn't even have that much time but she still bought a lot. She struggles to bring her luggage to her room. Without knocking, she carefully opens the door. There he is, the figure that she actually misses, much. Jongin is inside, sitting on his chair in front of his laptop with his glasses on. He turns his head when he realizes someone is watching him. A smile spreads on his lip. The adorable smile that she loves so much. He rises from his chair and walks towards the petite figure standing in front of the door.

When she realizes, she was already on his embrace. When she wants to let go, he hugged her even tighter and whispered, "Please stay like this for a while, I miss you, so much."

Nara didn't hug him back. She just let him hug her but she doesn't hug him back. Jongin waits, but her hands don't move at all. He pulls away and cupped her face. He caresses her cheek with his thumb. "You still mad at me, aren't you?" She stays silent. "I'm really sorry," He gave a peck to her lip and pulled before he plants a deep kiss. Still, Nara doesn't kiss him back.

The man stops and stares at the woman that once he claimed as the love of his life. She turns her head away, doesn't want to meet his eyes, yet he still holds her shoulder. The weird feeling crawls inside him. It can't be, his mind told him. The sparks is fading away. The butterflies are no longer on his tummy. His heart still skipped a beat, but the feelings are different. No, it can't be.

Nara pulls away and puts her bag on the closet. "How are you?" She asks. The coldness is still there, Jongin can feel it.

"Fine." He replies shortly. "You didn't tell me to pick you up. It's late." She can tell that he holds himself from exploding.

"It's alright. Suho asked me to go with him, and I don't want to disturb you." She says while taking off her cardigan. The man watches her hands running through her hair and ties it up into a ponytail. "So how's your week with your secretary?" Shoot. She turns her body to face him, and folds her arms on her chest. "Were you having fun?" She walks away, taking a towel from her closet and goes inside the bathroom, leaving Jongin burnt by his anger.

Nara burst into tears as the cold water rains over her. She did, she missed him so much. She cries, when she remembers how she holds her urge to hug him back. She cries harder, when she remembers how she tries not to kiss him back. She didn't want to look weak in front of him. He did something wrong and he didn't talk or even say sorry about it. She lets everything out because she doesn't want to cry anymore. Once Suho said, cry as much as you want, but make sure you don't cry for the same reason again.

They slept in the same bed last night, but when Nara opened her eyes in the morning, she found her side was empty. She rubs her eyes and ditched the blanket that covered her. She walks to the window and opens the curtain. His car is gone. He never went to the office this early, she thought.

"Oppa! Sorry I took too long." The girl chirps as she got in the car. "I lost my wristwatch I didn't remember where I put it so I looked for it a bit t..." She gasps when the man suddenly silenced her with a kiss. The girl smiles. She hangs her arms around his neck and kisses him back.

"You're too chirpy." He says after pulled away from her. Her cheeks are blushing red.

Nara doesn't come to work that day. She feels a bit unwell, probably still tired after her long trip. She already called Suho and asked him for a day off. She goes downstairs to the kitchen, checking on the fridge. Nara took a box of milk. The food inside are just half left from the last time she filled it. It seems like Jongin prefer to eat outside.

She goes to the side to do the laundry. Her dirty clothes were already there, she just need to take her husband's which probably still on their room. Nara goes back to her room and takes the dirty clothes from the basket. Oh, Jongin changed perfume, she thought. The smell is unfamiliar to her. She tries to remember, she thinks the last perfume he bought wasn't smell like this. Nara takes the clothes and goes to their closet, trying to find the perfume. It is there, placed on the upper shelf of Jongin's clothes side. There's a card under the bottle with a hand write on it.

I think the smell suits you perfectly

Love, So.

She puts the card and the bottle back to the place before she took it. The closet closed with a soft creak from the friction of the hinge. She went down the stairs step by step, weakly, before she finally broke down. The laundry fell down as she fall on the tiled floor. Tears stream down on her face. Her heart is shattered into pieces. The quiet house becomes quieter. Soft sobs is the only thing which can be heard. It hurts so much. She starts to blame herself, for being an imperfect woman. She hits her stomach many times, harder and harder.

Jongin deserves better woman than me. I'm such a trash. I’m a waste. I just ruined his life, she thought.

She rises from the floor and walks across the room. She reaches the phone and put it on her ear. The dial tone can be heard. It didn't need a long time to hear a soft hello from the other end.

"Mom, I need you."

"Honey, you are strong, I know it well. Please, divorce is the very last option you can take. I'm sure you can go through this. Oh my God if only the distance doesn't separate us.."

"Mom this is so hard for me. I just got the fact that I won't be able to pregnant, and now this. I don't know anymore.."

"You haven't proved it yet. Please endure it baby. You have to treat him well. He is still your husband, okay? I say something like this not because I want to see you suffer, honey, no, never. You have to remember, you vowed. To be with him.In every condition. I will always be here for you. I will find time to visit you, okay? Don't cry baby.."

"Mom, don't tell Daddy yet, please. He will be angry."

"Yes, honey. I won't tell your Dad. I'll keep it for us. But you also have to promise me that you'll endure it. Serve your husband right. Get his heart back, darling."

"Yes, Mom. I will try. Thanks, Mom. I love you."

Nara did everything just like what her mom said. She acts like she doesn't know about the perfume. When Jongin comes home, she still prepared his favorite tea, she also cooked for his dinner. But he said he already ate because there was a meeting before, so Nara eats alone while Jongin sits in front of his Mac, doing his works he said. Jongin never let his wife eat alone. He changed and Nara seems aware of it.

Day by day, it isn’t getting any better. Nara was still trying to endure. She held back every sorrow. She tried to return to the Nara once she was before. She woke up earlier to prepare everything her husband need in the morning, she cooked him breakfast, and she also packed his lunch. Jongin become really busy with meetings, even sometimes he couldn’t go home. He stayed in the hotel where the meeting held. Jongin also got some overseas duties that he needed to attend. Staying at home became really rare for him. When he was home, there were no more cuddles in bed in the morning. She kissed him goodbye before he went off to the office. But the feeling wasn’t there anymore. The kiss feels so empty. The thumbs that always caressed her cheek whenever they kissed were no longer there. The hugs were no longer soothing. Their relationship is deteriorating.

Kim Jongin is on his way home after three days spent on his duties. Well, truth to be told, his duty was actually just two days. He spent the night of third day on Sora’s apartment as she requested, without his wife knowing. A lot of thought is currently running on his head as he drives along the way. A lot of things happened in such a short time. He knows he already fall into something he shouldn’t do. He is confused. The man doubts his four years relationship with his wife. He loves her, but all he knows right now, that love doesn’t stop him from doing something that someone who has married shouldn’t do. He fell in love with someone else.

He doesn’t know if he should say that it’s love. But he feels light whenever he’s with her. He feels like a newborn. He forgets about his every problems going on in his life, whenever she is around. He forgets how his life suddenly turned dark like all the lights in his life taken out from him, and how she came and brings a refreshing nuance to his life. On the contrary, his light suddenly pulled out whenever he’s home. The stress comes back to him right after he stepped out from the car. His home is no longer where his heart is. Home is no longer an escape from every problem. He doesn’t know what happened to him, but seeing Nara on his house somewhat disturbs him. So when he got home, he is just go straight to his room, pretending to do some of his works. They still share the same bed, but there is no touch between the two. He still kisses her sometimes, but the sparks on his stomach never come up anymore.

Sora isn’t a new person in his life. They have known each other since high school. She is a junior that happened to be in the same club as him, dance club. They worked together as couple for some of the school performances. The two spent a lot of time together, practicing their moves, synchronizing their chemistry, to bring a great performance for everyone. As time goes by, the two seemed to be more comfortable around each other. They would go toge